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Post reform India has generated high economic growth, yet progress in income poverty and many other key development outcomes has been modest. This chapter primarily examines how inclusive economic growth has been in India between 2005–2006 and 2015–2016 in reducing multidimensional poverty captured by the global multidimensional poverty index (MPI). The authors employ a constellation of elasticity and semi-elasticity measures to examine vertical, horizontal as well as dimensional inclusiveness of economic growth. Nationally, the authors estimate that a 1% annual economic growth in India during their study period is associated with an annual reduction in MPI of 1.34%. The association of the national growth to state poverty reduction (horizontal inclusiveness) is, however, not uniform. Some states have been successful in reducing poverty faster than the national average despite slower economic growth between 2005–2005 and 2015–2016; whereas, other states have been less successful to do so despite faster economic growth during the same period. The authors’ analyses and findings show how these tools may be used in practical applications to measure inclusive growth and inform policy.

Most poverty research has explored monetary poverty. This chapter presents and analyzes the global multidimensional poverty index (MPI) estimations for China. Using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find China’s global MPI was 0.035 in 2010 and decreased significantly to 0.017 in 2014. The dimensional composition of MPI suggests that nutrition, education, safe drinking water, and cooking fuel contribute most to overall non-monetary poverty in China. Such analysis is also applied to subgroups, including geographic areas (rural/urban, east/central/west, provinces), as well as social characteristics such as gender of the household heads, age, education level, marital status, household size, migration status, ethnicity, and religion. We find the level and composition of poverty differs significantly across certain subgroups. We also find high levels of mismatch between monetary and multidimensional poverty at the household level, which highlights the importance of using both complementary measures to track progress in eradicating poverty.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how to use nodes in a cluster efficiently by studying the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NASPB) on Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron dual CPU Linux clusters.

The performance results of the NASPB are presented both with one MPI process per node (1 ppn) and with two MPI processes per node (2 ppn). These benchmark results were analyzed by considering the impact of cache effects, code scalability, memory bandwidth within nodes, and the impact of MPI and the MPI communication network. Memory bandwidth was benchmarked using MPI versions of the Streams benchmarks. The impact of MPI and the MPI communication network are evaluated by benchmarking the performance of MPI sends and receives, MPI broadcast, and the MPI all‐to‐all routines.

The performance results from running the NASPB and from the memory bandwidth benchmarks show that better performance can sometimes be achieved using 1 ppn. Performance results show that the AMD Opteron/Myrinet cluster is able to achieve significantly better utilization of the second processor than the Intel Xeon/Myrinet cluster.

Most Linux clusters are purchased with two processors per node. One would like to run all applications on a cluster with two processors per node using 2 ppn instead of 1 ppn in order to utilize the second processor on each node. However, our results show that this is not always the best choice. Users should always assess their program performance with both 1 ppn and 2 ppn before running production calculations. This issue becomes even more important with the emergence of multi‐core processors.

To the authors' best knowledge, this is the only detailed comparison of AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon dual processor node parallel performance on large Myrinet clusters. The paper should be of value to everybody considering running on or purchasing AMD or Intel‐based Linux cluster.

The purpose of this paper is to adapt the market performance indicator (MPI), used by the European Commission to evaluate market conditions, over time, to show that the MPI explains actual switching behavior better than stated intent and satisfaction. While research on service provider switching has focused on the outcomes of service transactions and the benefits of switching, there is little research on how consumers view market conditions as being favorable or not for switching.

The authors used a mixed methodology of focus groups and longitudinal survey research of cell phone consumers to evaluate the effect of the MPI on satisfaction, perceptions of value, switching intentions and behavior.

The MPI was found to influence perceptions of satisfaction and value, and was found to contribute strongly to actual switching behavior. The results also showed that an improvement in the MPI or market conditions lead to a much greater relationship between it and actual switching behavior, suggesting that there may well be important threshold level, upon which greater switching behavior occurs.

The MPI provides marketers and policy-makers with benchmarks to compare the consumer welfare of different markets in different countries. Switching studies with MPI figures can be more easily generalized to different contexts.

Sustainable development calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and planet. The approach that considers sustainable development as the fight against poverty, through the promotion of a sustainable and equitable economy, as the attempt to reduce polluting emissions to promote environmental protection and as the satisfaction of social goals to increase the well-being of populations is adopted. Sustainability development is therefore a complex and subjective concept, considering the three dimensions that define the phenomenon: economic, environmental and social.

The authors have chosen subjective variables, which provide information on the perception of the ‘sustainable development’ in the European countries. Data come from the database of ‘Eurofound’, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The authors applied a formative measurement model, according to which indicators are considered as the cause of the phenomenon analysed, unlike with the reflective model. To conduct the quantitative analysis, the authors have adopted a non-compensatory approach: Mazziotta and Pareto index which summarising a set of individual indicators that are assumed to be not fully substitutable. The authors place at the centre of the analysis, variables deriving from the perceptive state of the different European populations, offering new hints to measure sustainable development on the basis of subjective assumptions.

The current paper's goal is to examine the productivity of the closed banking sector evidenced from Ethiopia. In addition, the inclusion of intangibles on productivity was examined in the current paper.

First, the standard Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) was employed for 13 commercial banks for both stages. Second, by excluding the state-owned commercial bank, the analysis employed a bootstrapped MPI for the robust and comprehensive conclusion. Furthermore, from 2010 to 2019, the fixed effect Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression with balanced panel data was used.

The standard MPI in both stages shows that the productivity of Ethiopian commercial banks is declining. The technological shock was the main reason for the loss. The catch-up in both stages scored above unity, mainly due to the pure efficiency change. Besides, when combined with tangible resources, the inclusion of resource-based view (RBV) proxy variables reduces technological shock regress and ultimately improves productivity change. The bootstrapped MPI also reveals that technological shock is the primary source of the productivity decline. However, efficiency change also contributes to the productivity decline based on this estimation.

Future research could examine the more extensive productivity analysis by considering the primary sources of data collections for resource-based variables.

According to the study's results, banking regulatory authorities and bank management, including the shareholders, should continue to invest in cutting-edge technology to improve the productivity of the banking sector.

This is the first comprehensive study of productivity for Ethiopian commercial banks based on the standard MPI, bootstrapped MPI, and OLS by incorporating all resources into the analysis.

Despite unanimity in the literature that eco-innovation (EI) leads to sustainable development, evidence remains limited on measuring EI efficiency with the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). In conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, decision-making units (DMUs) are inclined to assign more favorable weights, even zero, to the inputs and outputs to maximize their own efficiency. This paper aims to overcome this shortcoming by developing a common set of weights (CSW).

Using goal programming, this study develops a CSW model to evaluate the EI efficiency of the organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries and track their changes with MPI during 2010–2018.

Achieving a complete ranking of DMUs, findings show the higher discrimination power of the proposed CSW compared with the original DEA models. Furthermore, results reveal that Iceland, Latvia and Luxembourg are the only OECD countries that have incessantly improved their EI productivity (MPI > 1) from 2010 to 2018. On the other hand, Japan is the OECD country that has experienced the highest yearly EI efficiency during 2010–2018. This paper also found that Iceland has the highest MPI over 2010–2018.

More investment in environmental research and development (R&D) projects instead of generic R&D enables OECD members to realize more opportunities for sustainable development through minimizing energy use and environmental pollution in any form of waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to developing a novel common weights model for DEA-MPI to measure and evaluate the EI of OECD countries, this paper develops a CSW model by including the undesirable outputs for EI analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the quality of the credit process is sensitive to reaching a particular threshold level of non-performing loans (NPLs) and, more importantly, whether higher NPLs ratios could make the monitoring activity ineffective.

The empirical design is composed of two steps: in the first step, the authors introduce a monitoring performance indicator (MPI) of the credit process by combining the non-parametric technique Data Envelopment Analysis with some financial ratios adopted as input and output variables. As second step, the authors apply a threshold panel regression model to a sample of 298 Italian banks, over the time period 2006–2014, and the authors investigate whether the quality of the credit process is sensitive to reaching a particular threshold level of NPLs.

This paper finds that, first, when the NPLs ratio remains below the threshold value estimated endogenously, an increase in the quality of monitoring has a positive impact on the NPLs ratio. Second, if the NPLs ratio exceeds the estimated threshold, the relationship between the NPLs ratio and quality of monitoring assumes a positive value and is statistically significant.

Due to the lack of data, the investigation of NPLs in the Italian industry across loan types combined with the monitoring effort by banks management was not possible. The authors plan to investigate this topic in future studies.

The identification of the threshold has a double operational valence. The first regards the Supervisory Authority, the threshold approach could be used as an early warning in order to introduce active control strategies based on the additional information requested or by on-site inspections. The second implication is highlighted in relation to the individual banks, the monitoring of credit control quality, if objective and comparable, could facilitate the emergence of best practices among banks.

A high NPLs ratio requires greater loan provisions, which reduces capital resources available for lending, and dents bank profitability. Moreover, structural weaknesses on banks’ balance sheets still persist particularly in relation to the inadequate internal governance structures. This means that bank management must able to recognise in advance early warning signals by providing prudent measurement together with an in-depth valuation of loans portfolio.

The originality of the paper is twofold: the authors introduce a new proxy of credit monitoring, called MPI; the authors provide an empirical proof of the Diamond’s (1991) economic intuition: for riskier borrowers, the monitoring activity is an inappropriate instrument depending on the bad reputational quality of borrowers.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the case study of the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) Border Compliance Social Marketing programme. This programme aims to change the behaviour of international visitors to New Zealand. This is to protect New Zealand’s important horticultural and agricultural industries and environment from harmful pests and diseases. The programme encourages travellers to leave potential biosecurity risk items at home, or at least declare them to border staff or dispose of in special amnesty bins at New Zealand’s airports on arrival. It also influences local communities to advocate to friends and family overseas on MPI’s behalf.

Aimed at visitors with the highest identified risk, the programme uses a range of interventions in the pre-travel, in-journey and upon-arrival stages of travel. It is underpinned by social marketing theory and models, qualitative and ethnographic research and an understanding of the passenger journey.

The programme has delivered a significant reduction in the number of passengers being caught with prohibited items and has influenced behaviours in packing bags before travel and declaring items for inspection on arrival in New Zealand.

The programme contributes to the New Zealand biosecurity system, which protects the country’s key horticultural and agricultural industries. For example, the horticultural industry contributes $5.6bn annually to the New Zealand economy. It also protects native flora and fauna, which is a large attraction to overseas visitors, and contributes to the $12.9bn tourism industry.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the maintenance performance indicators (MPIs) which are significant for maintenance decision making in the apparel industry through an accurate maintenance performance measurement.

A quantitative research approach was followed. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data which were evaluated based on Mean Weighted Rating and Relative Importance Index.

In total, 15 significant MPIs were determined which can directly affect maintenance decision making. A systematic approach was finally developed by allocating weightages for each critical MPI.

These results can be used to assist the decision-making process and as a performance measurement platform for maintenance management of the apparel industry.

The significance of maintenance has not been recognized and the value created through such massive efforts has remained hidden. Therefore, the need of adopting a performance-based approach for maintenance management in apparel industry exists. This research was aimed to provide a systematic approach to make decisions on maintenance management in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka.