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1 – 10 of over 20000Helene Ahl, Karin Berglund, Katarina Pettersson and Malin Tillmar
Policy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women…
Abstract
Purpose
Policy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women entrepreneurs, their needs or how the existing policy is received by them. Using a theoretical framework developed by Korsgaard et al. (2015), the authors analyse how rural women entrepreneurs contribute to rural development and discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy. This paper aims to focus on the aforementioned objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors interviewed 32 women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden representing the variety of businesses in which rural Swedish women are engaged. The authors analysed their contributions to rural development by analysing their motives, strategies and outcomes using Korsgaard et al.’s framework of “entrepreneurship in the rural” and “rural entrepreneurship” as a heuristic, interpretative device.
Findings
Irrespective of industry, the respondents were deeply embedded in family and local social structures. Their contributions were substantial, multidimensional and indispensable for rural viability, but the policy tended to bypass most women-owned businesses. Support in terms of business training, counselling and financing are important, but programmes especially for women tend to miss the mark, and so does rural development policy. More important for rural women entrepreneurs in Sweden is the provision of good public services, including for example, schools and social care, that make rural life possible.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, the findings question the individualist and a-contextual focus of much entrepreneurship research, as well as the taken-for-granted work–family divide. How gender and how the public and the private are configured varies greatly between contexts and needs contextual assessment. Moreover, the results call for theorising place as an entrepreneurial actor.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, the authors advise future policymakers to gender mainstream entrepreneurship policy and to integrate entrepreneurship and rural development policy with family and welfare state policy.
Originality/value
The paper highlights how rural women respond to policy, and the results are contextualised, making it possible to compare them to other contexts. The authors widen the discussion on contributions beyond economic growth, and the authors show that policy for public and commercial services and infrastructure is indeed also policy for entrepreneurship.
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The aim is to assess how a policy of tertiary education for all affects the shape of the unconditional earnings distribution.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim is to assess how a policy of tertiary education for all affects the shape of the unconditional earnings distribution.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses the quantile-regression literature looking at the link between education and wage inequality, also proving new evidence based on unconditional quantile regressions.
Findings
The findings support the idea that a policy of tertiary education for all increases the overall level of wage inequality.
Research limitations/implications
The research has implications for public policy and administration. Among the limitations, the paper does not deal with distributional aspects related to other outcomes (e.g. health outcomes) of the policy of interest.
Practical implications
The analysis highlights a series of potential government interventions aimed at reducing the wage-inequality externalities of the policy of interest.
Social implications
A policy of tertiary education for all, by itself, is not useful to fight wage inequality.
Originality/value
This paper belongs to the small group of studies using unconditional quantile regressions to study the link between education and wage inequality. It is the first study specifically looking at the distributional effects of a policy of tertiary education for all.
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Samuel Aires Master Lazaro and Vanessa Fathia Baba
This study highlights the crucial significance of stakeholder participation in the creation of a comprehensive energy and electrical master plan for Mozambique. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study highlights the crucial significance of stakeholder participation in the creation of a comprehensive energy and electrical master plan for Mozambique. The purpose of this study is to deliver a practical insights that transcend theoretical concerns by digging into the subtleties of stakeholder relationships and strategic collaborations, paving the path for pragmatic and meaningful solutions that connect with real-life conditions. This debate lays the groundwork for educated decision-making, propelling Mozambique’s energy industry towards a more sustainable and prosperous future.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a combined approach of stakeholder analysis (SA) and social network analysis (SNA) to enhance our understanding of the stakeholder landscape in Mozambique’s energy sector. This methodological approach offers a unique vantage point to examine the individual stakeholders’ roles and the intricate web of connections, partnerships, collaborations and information-sharing activities. By integrating SA and SNA, this study aims to provide a more comprehensive and dynamic depiction of stakeholder interactions, contributing methodologically to the existing body of literature.
Findings
The findings also highlight the need to develop frameworks that promote private investment and joint endeavours with entities such as Cahora Bassa Dam/Mozambique Transmission Company. A consistent legal framework ensures uniform performance and a robust monitoring system for ongoing projects, improving accountability and progress tracking. Furthermore, the discussion includes enhancing the competence of the regulatory agency regulating the electricity industry. This includes tackling complex concerns with electricity pricing and other regulatory aspects relevant to private investment. A highly empowered regulatory agency is critical to creating an atmosphere conducive to long-term private sector involvement.
Research limitations/implications
While the study emphasises the need to integrate multiple stakeholders, it may not detail specific issues or impediments that may develop during the engagement process. Additional research could look into potential tensions or barriers to effective collaboration. Furthermore, the study emphasises the necessity of addressing environmental impacts; it must thoroughly examine specific environmental concerns such as carbon emissions, deforestation or renewable energy possibilities. Future research could assess the suggested policies’ environmental impact more extensively. Additionally, while the conclusion briefly mentions economic prosperity, a more thorough consideration of the possible economic and social implications of various energy policies could provide a greater understanding of their practicality and potential benefits.
Practical implications
In terms of practical contributions, this study aspires to shed light on how stakeholder interactions can shape energy policy interventions that ensure reliable and affordable energy sources for economic development and societal well-being. By unveiling the complex network of relationships and partnerships, this study seeks to provide actionable insights for policymakers, industry players and other stakeholders involved in Mozambique’s energy sector. By taking this action, this research aims to pave the way for more effective and inclusive energy policies that align with circular economy principles, thus addressing a critical need in scholarly discourse and practical implementation.
Originality/value
The study underscores the critical role of energy stakeholders in shaping energy policies and projects, given their influential positions and impact on decision-making processes. While existing literature acknowledges this influence, a discernible research gap exists in comprehensively understanding how stakeholder interactions and collaborations in the energy sector affect policy interventions within a context such as Mozambique. This study seeks to bridge this gap by delving into the intricacies of stakeholder involvement and its implications for energy policy development in Mozambique.
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Zhiping Hou, Jun Wan, Zhenyu Wang and Changgui Li
In confronting the challenge of climate change and progressing towards dual carbon goals, China is actively implementing low-carbon city pilot policy. This paper aims to focus on…
Abstract
Purpose
In confronting the challenge of climate change and progressing towards dual carbon goals, China is actively implementing low-carbon city pilot policy. This paper aims to focus on the potential impact of this policy on enterprise green governance, aiming to promote the reduction and balance of carbon emissions.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the panel data of China's large-scale industrial enterprises from 2007 to 2013, this paper uses the Difference-in-differences (DID) method to study the impact and path mechanism of the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance. Heterogeneity analysis is used to compare the effects of low-carbon city pilot policy in different regions, different enterprises and different industries.
Findings
The low-carbon pilot can indeed effectively enhance corporate green governance, a conclusion that still holds after a series of robustness tests. The low-carbon city pilot policy mainly enhances enterprise green governance through two paths: an industrial structure upgrade and enterprise energy consumption, and it improves green governance by reducing enterprise energy consumption through industrial structure upgrade. The impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance shows significant differences across different regions, different enterprises and different industries.
Research limitations/implications
This paper examines the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance. However, due to availability of data, there are still some limitations to be further tackled. The parallel trend test in this paper shows that the pilot policy has a significant positive effect on the green governance of enterprises. However, due to serious lack of data in some years, the authors only selected the enterprise data of a shorter period as our experimental data, which leads the results to still have certain deficiencies. For the verification of the impact mechanism, the conclusions obtained in this paper are relatively limited. Although all the mechanism tests are passed, the reliability of the results still needs to be further tested through future data samples. In addition, as the pilot policy of low-carbon cities is still in progress, the policy can be tracked and analysed in the future as more data are disclosed, and further research can be carried out through dimensional expansion.
Practical implications
Low-carbon city pilot policy plays an important role in inducing the green governance of enterprises. Therefore, policy makers can continue to strengthen the construction of low-carbon city pilots by refining pilot experience, building typical cases, actively promoting pilot policy experience, expanding pilot scope and enhancing the implementation efficiency of pilot policy nationwide, which will contribute to the optimization and upgrading of the regional industrial structure at the urban level and will provide experience and reference for the synergistic implementation plan of pollution reduction and carbon reduction.
Social implications
The impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on enterprise green governance not only exists in two separate paths of urban industrial upgrading and enterprise energy consumption but also exists in a chain transmission path from macro to micro. The authors find that the effect value of each influence path is different, and there is an obvious leading influence path for the role of enterprise green governance. Therefore, in the process of implementing a low-carbon city pilot policy, policies should be designed specifically for different mechanisms. Moreover, complementing and coordinating several paths should be advocated to give full play to the green governance effect of enterprises brought by different paths and to further expand the scope of industries and enterprises where policies play a role.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, this paper connects macro mechanisms with micro mechanisms, discovering a macro-to-micro transmission mechanism in the process of low-carbon city pilot policy affecting enterprise green governance. That is, the low-carbon city pilot policy can facilitate industrial structure upgrading, resulting in reduced enterprise energy consumption, ultimately enhancing enterprise green governance.
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Allan Discua Cruz, Jose Mario Reyes Hernandez and Carlos Roberto Arias Arévalo
This study aims to focus on understanding the tensions experienced by government officials in introducing electronic government (e-government) policies to support entrepreneurs in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on understanding the tensions experienced by government officials in introducing electronic government (e-government) policies to support entrepreneurs in a developing Latin American country.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on an in-depth qualitative approach based on collaborative and analytic auto-ethnography. The authors concentrate on tensions experienced by a government official and how they were addressed when introducing e-government policies to support entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Findings
The findings reveal that paradoxical tensions occur as changes are demanded, multiple concerns are expressed and decisions about resources have to be made. The findings reveal sources of tensions from government, business and external sources. Addressing such tensions revolves around a diverse form of paradoxes dealing with contradictions in terms of speed vs thoroughness and short- vs long-term implications.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ study provides several contributions. It advances understanding on the source and management of tensions experienced by government officials introducing e-government policies to support entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also delineates multiple paradoxes experienced by government officials as new policies and systems were introduced. Finally, it offers a conceptual model explaining how government officials deal with multiple tensions emerging from the introduction of e-government policies in a developing country.
Originality/value
The prior literature has suggested that e-government initiatives would be guided by a prescriptive and tension-free process, driven by the interest to enhance governmental efficiency. This study reveals that developing e-government initiatives for entrepreneurs and existing businesses during the Covid-19 crisis was not immune to contradictions between government officials and the public. A conceptual model, based on multiple sources of tensions (government-related, business-related and external sources) and their management, is proposed. Implications and opportunities for further research are presented.
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Simplice Asongu, Barbara Mensah and Judith C.M. Ngoungou
The study aims to complement extant literature by assessing linkages between financial development, external flows and CO2 emissions in 27 sub-Saharan African countries for the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to complement extant literature by assessing linkages between financial development, external flows and CO2 emissions in 27 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2002 to 2018.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions and external flows consist of remittances, foreign aid, trade openness and foreign investment.
Findings
The findings show minimum levels of external flows that should be reached in order for the interaction between external flows and financial development to promote environmental sustainability in terms of reducing CO2 emissions. The minimum thresholds are critical levels of external flows that should be reached before financial development promotes environmental sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
Policy implications – The disclosed external flow (i.e. FDI, foreign aid, trade and remittances) thresholds are actionable policy thresholds that the government can act upon in order to influence environmental sustainability by means of financial development. Theoretical implications – The findings below the external flow thresholds are consistent with the dependency theory in that external flows are harmful to socio-economic progress and environmental sustainability. When external flows are consolidated to the established critical masses or thresholds in the long run, the corresponding findings are in line with the extant neoclassical and endogenous growth theories, not least, because in the long run, external flows are associated with technological progress and adoption of stronger environmental legislation at the domestic level which are worthwhile in promoting environmental performance.
Practical implications
To reach the minimum trade and FDI levels that are worthwhile for the promotion of environmental sustainability, corporations should set targets on exports and imports as well as foreign investment levels that they have to attain in contributing to the national target of external flows needed to reduce CO2 emissions. Such trade and FDI targets should be set in industries of various economic sectors.
Originality/value
The study complements the extant literature by assessing how external flows interact with financial development to influence CO2 emissions.
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Emna Trabelsi and Asma Ben Khaled
The implementation of monetary policy by the central bank is an ongoing topic of discussion. This paper aims to explore monetary policy transmission shocks in times of uncertainty…
Abstract
Purpose
The implementation of monetary policy by the central bank is an ongoing topic of discussion. This paper aims to explore monetary policy transmission shocks in times of uncertainty using the new World uncertainty index (WUI). The authors investigate the impact of crises, wars and pandemic shocks on selected macroeconomic variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use unit root tests, structural vector autoregressive model and the Granger causality test according to Toda–Yamamoto with quarterly data over 1999–2022.
Findings
The results of this study show that in the short run, there is a unidirectional relationship between the money market rate and WUI, while the relationship between the latter and the money supply (M2) is bidirectional. The short-term effect runs from WUI to inflation. In the long run, the variance decomposition shows that global uncertainty explains around 12% of inflation pressures. The uncertainty caused by special events in the world creates positive shocks on inflation in Tunisia, which decreases the ability of the central bank to control inflation.
Research limitations/implications
The results have implications over necessary and urgent actions to be implemented for a progressive economic recovery but point to a necessary transition to an inflation-targeting regime.
Originality/value
Examining monetary policy under uncertainty is a recent phenomenon. The authors purposely use a novel WUI by Ahir et al. (2022) that is unexploited in literature.
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Muhammad Azam Khan, Zulfiqar Khan and Sardar Fawad Saleem
This study aims to explore the impact of monetary policy on bank lending rate with the moderating effects of financial sector development for eight Asian developing economics.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of monetary policy on bank lending rate with the moderating effects of financial sector development for eight Asian developing economics.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses panel autoregressive distributed lag/pooled mean group estimation over the period ranging from 1980 to 2020.
Findings
The empirical results exhibit an inverse link between monetary policy measured by broad money supply on the bank lending rate, indicating that the increase in the money supply by the central bank lowers the demand for loans and thereby lowers the cost of loan. Moreover, financial sector development decreases the lending rate and thus lowers cost of loan. It is also noted that the interactive term of monetary policy by lending broad money supply and financial sector development showed a positive impact on the lending rate in selected Asian developing countries during the period under the study.
Practical implications
The outcomes have many relevant policy implications that stronger financial development sector contributes to the efficiency of monetary policy. Regulators and policymakers are therefore recommended to pursue greater financial sector development to lower the cost for fund searchers and to lower the cost of loans, money supply increase is suggested.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the extant literature on the factors affecting lending rate with the prime aims of monetary policy effectiveness. This study also included financial sector development with some other variables and an interactive term of monetary policy with financial development to have new insight impact of both on the lending rate in developing Asian economies.
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Trung Nguyen Dinh and Nam Pham Phuong
This paper aims to assess the overall social housing development, point out factors affecting it and propose some policy implications for social housing development.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the overall social housing development, point out factors affecting it and propose some policy implications for social housing development.
Design/methodology/approach
The research investigated investors, credit institutions and officials involved in social housing development. Bac Ninh province currently has 51 social housing projects that have been and are being implemented. The hypothetical regression model has seven latent variables and is tested by the criteria through the SPSS25.0 software.
Findings
There are 29 factors belonging to seven groups affecting housing development. Their impact rates range from 3.47% to 30.25%.
Research limitations/implications
The study has only identified the factors affecting social housing development but has not undertaken an in-depth assessment of its development status and forecast for the future. Therefore, this gap needs to be further studied. The proposed research method could also be applied when researching social housing developments in other countries around the world.
Practical implications
To develop social housing to meet the needs of the real estate market, it is necessary to improve the policies that have the strongest impact first. Then, it is necessary to improve the factors with a smaller impact.
Social implications
The study proposes policy implications for faster housing development for low-income people that improve their living standards.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper has studied for the first time social housing development and the factors affecting it. The paper also shows the level of their impact so that priority policies can be applied to each factor.
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Farideh Bahrami, Behrooz Shahmoradi, Javad Noori, Ekaterina Turkina and Hassan Bahrami
This study aims to systematically review the economic complexity literature to advance the knowledge on its contribution to building regional competitiveness.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to systematically review the economic complexity literature to advance the knowledge on its contribution to building regional competitiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, we did a systematic review of 111 relevant papers. In this regard, we did a thematic analysis on all the collected papers, which led to a two-level processed approach. In the first level, the contributions of the reviewed articles have been classified into three main streams. In the second level, the findings under each contribution category are analyzed and explained. This approach led to a thematic network demonstrating economic complexity and the dynamics of regional competitiveness and a set of managerial and policy implications. We followed a multiple processed approach for the systematic review of 95 papers that reveals considerable contributions in three categories, including measurement techniques, criticisms and exploratory studies.
Findings
Despite some critiques and the undertaken evolution in measurement techniques of complexity, economic complexity has become a well-known method mainly for regions' competitiveness dynamics. Our review demonstrates a nested network of economic complexity dynamics that drives policy advice concerning countries' status in their development path. The provided set of policies includes guidelines for underdeveloped and developing countries and general policy implications, applicable for all regional contexts for building competitiveness dynamics.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the literature on competitiveness from the window of economic complexity. The study allows a deep understanding of regions' productive structure role in their development and competitiveness. A set of policies for building regional competitiveness is provided concerning the study's findings. The literature gaps are identified, and future research ideas are provided for using economic complexity methodologically and logically to boost regional competitiveness.
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