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Depression and anxiety are common mental health issues among young adults, particularly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Research indicates a notable increase in global prevalence rates, especially in this demographic. Despite their prevalence, factors like stigma, cost and limited accessibility often prevent individuals from seeking professional help. Therefore, there is a pressing need for innovative and accessible interventions to address these challenges. help. Therefore, there is a pressing need for innovative and accessible interventions to address these challenges. This study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of newly developed “AKBAY” self-help intervention workbook among university students in managing the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Using a pilot study with a single-group design. A total of 33 university students voluntarily participated in the study. The primary outcomes, depressive symptoms and anxiety were measured using the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, respectively, at both pre-intervention and post-intervention (eight weeks following the preintervention assessment).

Results from Wilcoxon signed rank revealed significant reductions in both depression and anxiety symptoms following the intervention. Qualitative feedback from participants highlighted the perceived benefits of the intervention, including increased self-awareness, improved coping strategies and personal growth. All participants expressed intent to recommend the intervention to others.

However, further research using larger sample sizes, randomized controlled trials and long-term follow-up assessments is warranted to validate these findings and enhance intervention effectiveness.

These findings highlight the potential feasibility and acceptability of self-help interventions in reducing and preventing the worsening of symptoms of depression and anxiety among Filipino young adults.

The “AKBAY” intervention presents a feasible and accessible approach to reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety of Filipino young adults as well as the program’s potential usefulness. The findings of this study can serve as a foundation for a randomized controlled trial of the AKBAY self-help intervention.

There has been a substantial increase in the implementation of programmes that aim to enhance the livelihoods of rural people by organizing them into groups, emphasizing women towards achieving women empowerment, which is one of the key goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study aims to assess the impact of participation in self-help groups (SHGs) under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) on the political empowerment of rural tribal women in India.

This study is based on primary data collected using a multistage random sampling method. Field research is conducted in the state of Jharkhand, primarily focusing on women belonging to the scheduled tribe category. The propensity score matching technique derives the results using the psmatch2 command in STATA.

The results show a significant positive change in women's access to voting rights, awareness of various government schemes and entitlements, political awareness and participation, campaigning during elections and leadership positions after participation in SHGs under NRLM.

The existing literature indicates that research on the empowerment of tribal women through participation in SHGs is scant. This study makes a novel contribution by examining the effectiveness of participation in SHGs under NRLM on the political empowerment of tribal women in rural India. This study will provide significant insights to the government, policymakers, practitioners and researchers working on SHGs and tribal women’s empowerment.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2023-0489

The present study examines the relational, structural and cognitive dimensions of social capital developed within members of self-help groups (SHGs) in India.

The study has used multistage random sampling to collect 1,285 samples covering 4 districts such as Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Koraput and Rayagada in Odisha. Structure equation modeling (SEM) is used in hypothesis formulation and data analysis.

The result highlighted that relational, structural and cognitive social capital are significant to social capital formation among the participants of SHGs. However, structural social capital has the highest impact compared with others in building social capital.

Policy professionals, development agencies and government departments must use social capital as a catalyzing agent for the successful implementation of welfare schemes in rural areas.

The paper adds valuable contributions in advancing the theory of social capital. Additionally, marginalized households fail to uplift their socioeconomic conditions in developing nations due to a lack of social capital; hence, its measurement is critical.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2023-0804.

This study aims to assess the impact of participation in self-help group (SHG) on the psychological empowerment of rural tribal women.

Primary data was collected using multistage random sampling from the rural women of Jharkhand, India. The propensity score matching method was adopted using the psmatch2 command in STATA.

The results show a significant positive change in women’s self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy, autonomy, knowledge and skills, reduction in agony and quality of life after participation in SHG. This reveals that participation in SHG has a significant positive impact on the psychological empowerment of rural tribal women.

Despite the numerous studies on rural women’s empowerment, there is little evidence of literature focusing on the impact of participation in SHG on psychological empowerment, specifically in the tribal context. This study primarily focuses on women belonging to the scheduled tribe category of Jharkhand, one of the poorest states of India.

Williams and Williams (2012, 2017) find multiple entrepreneurial motivations are experienced by entrepreneurs in deprived areas at different points in time. Drawing on this prior work this study aims to explore how and why the shifted motivations evolve, as well as, what factors cause this change in deprived areas. The work draws upon temporal motivational theory (TMT) that considers the influence of individuals' needs in determining their time-sensitive motivation.

Six semi-structured interviews with actual entrepreneurs are used to collect qualitative data from deprived areas of Nottingham, which is one of the most deprived cities in the UK. The study employs Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to consider each entrepreneurial endeavour as a unique journey to investigate the shifting of motivations.

A polarization is found in terms of how entrepreneurial motivations evolve in deprived areas. In considering the first task-specific entrepreneurial motivation, time plays a role either in accumulating job dissatisfaction and increasing confidence led by accumulated experience, or in creating random chances that enable individuals to realize that they are able to use existing skills and experiences to start a business. Regarding the second task-specific entrepreneurial motivation when the business becomes more established, it is usually stimulated by increased confidence based on perceived progress. The use of self-help methods and downward comparison found in this study should be noted as they help to re-consider individuals' needs in deprived areas.

This study produces a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of the time effect on shifted motivation at different entrepreneurial phases in a deprived context, which contributes to enrich theoretical knowledge and raise policymakers' awareness of entrepreneurial motivations from these marginalized groups.

This paper aims to analyze the nature, magnitude and determinants of access to food among rural households in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study is based on the World Bank’s Rural Impact Survey, which has documented the shocks of COVID-19 among 2,787 rural households across six states in India. The chi-square test and binary logistics regression have been used to analyze the data.

About 49.7 % of rural households have reported the incidence of food inaccessibility and shortage, and the majority of them reported a reduction in food intake during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the magnitude of food accessibility varied across the states and the sociodemographic characteristics of the households. Furthermore, regression analysis indicates that family size, social category and occupation as sociodemographic variables and membership in self-help groups, wage employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Cash transfer under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana as institutional support factors have a significant effect on access to food among rural households.

The findings of the study have far-reaching policy implications for developing an effective food distribution system in crisis situations like the COVID-19 outbreak. The study also provides directions for extending the research on determinants of access to food during crisis.

The study is based on a large survey data from the rural households in India and provides empirical evidence on access to food faced by rural communities during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The study aims to understand why women-owned microenterprises (WOMEs) in India experience a lower growth rate, where growth can be represented in increments in the venture’s size or scope. There is no conclusive understanding of the factors that affect the sustained growth of WOMEs in India.

What personal, social and economic factors support or hinder the choice, growth and sustainability of women-owned ventures? What role do institutional factors (government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), self-help groups and microfinance institutions) play toward the sustainability of WOMEs? The answers to these questions were obtained through a qualitative design by interviewing 30 micro women entrepreneurs from Tamil Nadu, a Southern state of India and one of the largest hubs for WOMEs and their responses were content analyzed using NVivo 12 software.

The findings capture and apply the fundamentals of two key theoretical perspectives, resource-based view (RBV) and self-determination theory (SDT), in identifying the links between the individual, social and economic factors and their combined effect on the sustained growth of women-owned micro businesses. The findings add value in identifying the ingrained cultural norms and traditions and several internal and external factors that support or challenge the growth of WOMEs. This study highlights that the interventions by the government need to be strengthened for the growth and sustainability of WOMEs.

The study’s findings provide suggestions to policymakers, banks, funding agencies, financial institutions and NGOs to design applicable policies and schemes toward the sustained growth of WOMEs.

This study contributes toward a better understanding of the trends in the context of WOMEs from an Indian context. This topic has received little attention in the academic literature. Second, the study’s conceptual contribution is an application of SDT and RBV to understand and categorize the enablers and deterrents in the path of growth of WOMEs, which is a novel pursuit.

This paper aims to contribute to research on hybrid organisations operating within the information and communication technology for development paradigm to foster socio-economic inclusion through the capacity building of marginalised individual youth to enable their entry and participation in the formal labour market.

Using a qualitative research design, the authors investigated impact sourcing service providers and their beneficiaries to unpack how hybrid organisations fulfil their social mission and to provide a nuanced understanding of their needed capabilities. Data triangulation through document analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted for the empirical findings’ robustness and in-depth analysis.

This paper illuminates how hybrids strived to build beneficiaries' capabilities through empirically grounded approaches of “standardised” and “individualised” skills development, which were strongly connected to the perceived capabilities among the beneficiaries. Organisations that practiced the “individualised” approach imparted technical knowledge and, depending on individual needs, relevant social skills. Critically, the empirical findings call into question the effectiveness of the scalability model, as the results showed that the creation of standardised, low-skilled and low-paid jobs contradicts the idealised self-help status that employment advocates. In addition, the findings underline the central role of constant experimentation, resilience and organisational learning in revamping capabilities of hybrid organisations. Remarkably, compared to organisations committed to the “standardised” technical competency path, the results underscored the difficulties that organisations taking an “individualised" approach face in developing organisational capabilities for their financial sustainability. Further, organisations engaged in standardised” skills development were found to readapt their business model to the economic value and kept the wording of dual mission as a narrative.

The paper makes a conceptual and empirical contribution bringing together two separately developed literature strands – the organisational capability approach and – the individual capability approach, to enhance a more profound understanding of how both capabilities are connected to each other in the dual-mission orientation of hybrids embedded in resource-poor environments, global value chains, Global South, hybrid organisations, organisational and individual capability building.

The aim of this study is to examine the availability, utilization and effectiveness of various information sources in enhancing the knowledge and practices of Lakadong turmeric farmers.

This study focuses on 125 Lakadong turmeric farmers in Myntkung and Biar villages, Meghalaya, India. A purposive sampling technique was used to select participants, ensuring the representation of various ages, experiences and agricultural practices. A mixed-methods approach was used, including structured interviews and focus group discussions, to gather information on the farmers.

The study found that most of the Lakadong turmeric farmers (35.2%) needed information on farming techniques and practices and 93.6% of farmers approached their friends, relatives or fellow farmers to access any information. For most farmers, 77 (62%) relied on word-of-mouth to get information. After using the information effectively and efficiently, most farmers (46.4%) agreed that there was an increase in Lakadong turmeric yields, improved crop quality and reduced pest infestation.

The study highlights informational gaps in the agricultural sector, empowering farmers to explore alternative sources. It suggests that understanding farmers’ unique needs can improve agricultural extension agencies’ programs and resources. Policymakers should invest in digital literacy programs and regional information resources. The study also suggests integrating information literacy training into agricultural operations, fostering collaboration among farmers, institutions and information providers. The geographical indication tag on Lakadong turmeric can also empowers local communities by fostering economic opportunities through the promotion and protection of this prized spice.

Existing research tends to focus more broadly on agricultural information dissemination or other crops, leaving a notable gap in the literature regarding the unique informational needs and access challenges faced by Lakadong turmeric farmers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the supervening loss of inter-organisational trust in long-term commercial contracts. The underlying research question is whether contract law – the legal institution regulating economic exchanges – should intervene and enable a party to a long-term commercial contract to extricate itself from a situation where a relationship of trust has broken down irretrievably.

This paper uses doctrinal methodology and theoretical conceptualisation to answer the underlying research question. The legal instrument chosen for analysis purposes is the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. This paper also draws on extant literature on inter-organisational trust (including conceptual and empirical studies) to support the arguments and propositions. Furthermore, this study proceeds to assess the substantive justifiability of the proposed remedial measure using four normative values: legal certainty and predictability, protection of the performance interest, economic efficiency and the preservation of the relation.

The central argument put forward in this paper is the reformulation of draft Article 6.3.1 proposed by the UNIDROIT Working Group on Long-Term Contracts, which confers a novel right to terminate for a compelling reason. This paper presents a multidimensional model of inter-organisational trust that would serve as the conceptual framework for the proposed reformulation of the provision and establishes a coherent juridical basis for the legal solution that would accord with the Principles of International Commercial Contracts’ general remedial scheme. As for the normative assessment, this paper demonstrates that the proposed remedial measure would significantly promote efficient outcomes and positively serve the norms of legal certainty, protection of the performance interest and the preservation of the relation.

This paper addresses the lacuna in current legal scholarship in relation to the adverse socio-economic effects following trust violation and deterioration in inter-organisational relationships. Additionally, the propositions and findings should contribute to the workings of the UNIDROIT in adopting new rules and principles that would serve the special requirements of cross-border trade.