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The study examined the influence of environmental standards set by the SME agro-based processing firms and farmers' environmental empowerment on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; and the mediating role of empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices.

Data was collected from purchasing managers of the agro-based processing firms. The SPSS software, SMART PLS and CB-SEM software were used to obtain results on the influence of environmental standards set by the SME agro-based processing firms on adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; the influence of farmers' environmental empowerment on adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices and the mediating role of farmers' environmental empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices.

Findings indicated that SME agro-processing environmental standards have an influence on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Empowering farmers in environmental issues influenced their adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices. A partial mediation effect was observed on testing the mediating role of farmers' environmental empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly practices.

The study mainly focused on the upstream part of agricultural supply chains. The research has implications to decision-makers in government concerned with enhancing environmentally friendly practices among farmers in general.

The influence of SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices; the influence of farmers' environmental empowerment on farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly practices; and the mediating role of farmers' environmental empowerment on the relationship between SME agro-based processing firm environmental standards and farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly agricultural practices are aspects that have not been given significant attention.

Using firm-level data from small- to micro-sized agro-based enterprises located in developing Africa, the purpose of this paper is to employ a resource-based marketing model to explain financial and nonfinancial organizational performance outcomes. The moderating effect of firm size on the structural inter-linkages between customer retention orientation, eBrand promotion and the organizational performance outcomes is also explored.

Partial least squares path modeling approach was the analytical method for data analysis purposes.

The data support the assumption that marketing resources as well as the moderating influence of firm size play a strong role on the agro-based enterprise performance.

This study widens the context of inquiry on agro-based enterprise performance to include developing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The value of the paper rests in its intent to offer small- to micro-sized agro-based businesses in emerging markets more practical ways to enhance their performance.

This paper aims to study the growth determinants of small-sized agro-based firms in the Indian agro-industry.

The stratified random sampling method was used to collect information from sample agro-firms. A structured pretested questionnaire was designed to collect required data. Descriptive statistics and multivariate technique were used to analyze the data.

The major determinants of firm growth were firm size, managerial networking intensity, skill development of employees, product diversification and market integration. Employee skill development was found to be a significant predictor of firm growth in slow-growing firms, but held as a weak predictor of growth in fast-growing firms; whereas, use of information technology was a significant growth predictor in fast-growing firms and an insignificant growth predictor in slow-growing firms. To attain growth, small-sized agro-based firms should move from a traditional product-focus strategy to a flexible market-focus strategy.

This study engaged a small sample size and focused only on the determinants of firm growth in the agro-industry, and mapped number of firm growth predictors. The implication of this study encourages more specific investigations with large samples, i.e. how each determinant influences firm growth in the agro-industry.

The study outcome would help agro-enterprises in designing strategies and aligning their current strategy with the desired strategy for firm growth.

Policy makers especially engaged in self-employment and enterprise development can use the study outcome for policy planning.

In recent years, the electronic and computer industry in India has developed and reached to an unexpected height. The agro-industry, in contrast, is still struggling due to its inherent weakness and external threats. The need of the hour is to expedite firm-level competitiveness, managerial excellence and business strategy for growth and survival. Therefore, the present study based on survey data adds value to the firm growth strategies in the agro-industry.

With focus on Uganda, this study assessed the factors influencing agro-food micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) innovations. Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono and Jinja districts were the locations of the research.

Primary cross-sectional data was collected using structured questionnaire for a sample of 521 agro-food MSMEs in Uganda. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to examine the data in SPSS.

The findings indicate that MSME innovation levels were usually high, at roughly 80%. The presence of rules that encourage innovation and reward creative people would enhance innovation that is customer-focused. On the other hand, policies and principles that encourage innovation and the conduct of internal product and process improvement research would promote system-focused innovation.

Encouraging agro-food MSMEs to develop policies that support innovation would improve the overall level of innovation, while building the capacity of agro-food MSMEs to conduct product and process improvement research would increase the level of systems-focused research.

This study assessed the drivers of innovation in agri-food MSMEs in a developing country. The uniqueness of this study is in assessing the effects of innovation support services on customer-focused and systems-focused innovations.

This study investigates the effects of credit access and tax structures on the performance of Manufacturing SMEs in Malaysia.

This study uses the dynamic panel system generalized method of moments, controlling for firm-specific as well as macroeconomic effects

The paper finds that (1) debt funding is not conducive to SME performance; (2) access to non-bank credit sources and tax incentives support SME performance by lowering opportunity costs of riskier projects; (3) existing tax structures in Malaysia inhibit SME growth and encourage manipulation of accounts; and (4) investors in Malaysia prefer SMEs that are more conservative in their accounting and taxation practices.

Access to Malaysian SME data is restricted. Although robust methods are used, there is a chance that different conclusions may arise with a much larger sample.

The findings provide clear direction in the discussion and enactment of new policies that support SME growth especially in support of non-bank credit sources instead of revising tax policies. The paper also contributes by providing guidance to future SME studies that are inhibited by limited access to data.

SME-related studies on credit access and tax structures have often relied on traditional metrics (e.g. total amount of bank loans; tax expenses) to measure its impact on entrepreneurial/SME performance. Although relevant to the past, financial policies have evolved to embrace Industrial Revolution 4.0. This paper is a shift from the traditional by investigating the impact of new and innovative sources of funding such as incubators and crowdfunding. Also, since one cannot exist without the other, examining the joint impact of credit access and tax structures provides a more holistic view on policy-making, something prior studies have not addressed.

A few decades ago, most research works on internationalisation were aligned to studies in developed economies. In recent times, business entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies have shown their potential to permeate international markets. The current capability of business entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies, which drives their ability to overcome the numerous barriers to internationalisation, particularly within clusters, requires a critical examination. As a result, the study situates the discussion on internationalisation within the theory of agglomeration in developing and emerging economies and argues that the gains enjoyed by business entrepreneurs from operating in close proximity in clusters are critical for overcoming the barriers of internationalisation. This research adopts a systematic review of secondary data to tease out the unique attributes of clusters in developing and emerging economies, which supports the internationalisation drive. The findings show that most emerging economy clusters are engaged in exports but there is minimal work on international entrepreneurs operating within clusters. The unique features that drive exporting clusters are the presence of multinational companies, public agencies and collaborative relationships. These unique features have the capacity to minimise the constraints to internationalisation and determine the export performance of businesses in the cluster.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) have gained popularity recently in the Islamic countries and countries with mixed religious practices. Due to its profit–loss sharing partnership contracts and integrated social and risk management practices, IFI can finance financially distressed firms, and firms with specialized sectors, better than the traditional development financial institutions (DFIs). Should they need large amount of financing, both existing financially unsuccessful industries and new development initiatives can be financed with Sukuk issuance. This chapter investigates the growth of these two industries – IFIs and DFIs, with respect to various indicators, compares the initiatives that establish the dominating character of IFIs over the DFIs, discusses the reasons behind such turnaround, and the future of DFIs. IFIs have been enjoying a superior growth in assets and deposits, asset quality, risk management, and profitability over the DFIs in Malaysia. Among many, the study identifies regulatory incentives to IFIs, inefficient management of DFIs, and most importantly, a paradigm shift through Islamic finance as primary reasons behind gradual disappearance of DFIs. The next generation of IFIs will emerge as the Islamic Development Financial Institutions and may takeover the role that is played by the DFIs most recently.

This paper evaluates the working capital management (WCM) efficiency of the Indian manufacturing industries through data envelopment analysis (DEA) and empirically investigates the influence of several exogenous variables on the WCM efficiency.

WCM efficiency was calculated using BCC input-oriented DEA model. Further, the panel data fixed effect model was used on a sample of 1391 Indian manufacturing firms spread across nine industries, covering the period from 2008 to 2019.

Firstly, the WCM efficiency of Indian manufacturing industries has been stable over the analysis period. Secondly, the capacity to generate internal resources, size, age, productivity, gross domestic product and interest rate significantly influence WCM efficiency.

First, the selected study period has observed various economic uncertainties including demonetization and recession, so the scenario might differ in normal conditions or country-wise. Second, the findings might not be generalizable to the developed economies, since the current study sample belongs to a developing economy, which further provides scope for comparative study.

An efficient model for managing the working capital comprising most vital determinants could enhance the firms' valuation and goodwill. Also, this study would be helpful for financial executives, manufacturers, policymakers, investors, researchers and other stakeholders.

This study estimates the industry-wise WCM efficiency of the Indian manufacturing sector and suggests measures to the concerned parties on areas to focus on and provide evidence on the estimated relationships of firm-level and macroeconomic determinants with WCM efficiency.

The “United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal” 9 seeks to “… foster innovation” in all sectors of an economy. Thus, this conceptual piece addresses the indirect effect of innovative behaviour (INB) between total quality management (TQM) and innovation performance (INP). It further explores the context-contingent effect of four external factors [government regulation (GOV), market dynamism (MKD), competitive intensity (CMP) and technological turbulence (TUR)] on the TQM–INB linkage.

By incorporating both theoretical and empirical works in the fields of strategic management, innovation and business performance, this conceptual piece constructs a conceptual model, using a systematic literature review, alongside suppositions that can be tested in further studies.

This conceptual piece puts forward that TQM will be favourably connected to INP, and this favourable association will be mediated by INB. Moreover, GOV, MKD, CMP and TUR will have a favourable context-contingent effect on the favourable direct connection between TQM and INB.

This conceptual piece affords suggestions for both practitioners and researchers alike in the areas of innovative and strategic decision-making in banking establishments for reinforcing INP by introducing TQM, INB, GOV, MKD, CMP and TUR as innovative-strategic tools. It also delivers suggestions for forthcoming academics to examine this conceptual piece, empirically, in diverse banking sites worldwide.

Practical lessons for managers, employees, customers and consultants within the banking sector for the superior advantage of all key stakeholders are deliberated.

This study provides a new model to demonstrate how TQM leads to INP by passing through INB of employees, and how TQM fosters INB under diverse degrees of GOV, MKD, CMP and TUR. It shows how internal factors (7 TQM dimensions) and external factors (GOV, MKD, CMP and TUR) interact to foster employee INB. It also underscores the theoretical authority of three theories utilised, both individually and in combination, by using them to explain new relationships.