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The purpose of this paper is to look at Grameen Bank (GB) Sixteen Decisions campaigns and its implications to feminism; and to examine the degree to which women borrowers of the Grameen Bank are empowered to participate in familial decision‐making around dowry and teenage marriage and to develop their public spaces in the community. Moreover, the paper critically looks at the GB women borrowers' development through the Sixteen Decisions.

The study uses multiple research methods. It reviews and analyzes GB Sixteen Decision texts and feminist literature, uses survey method to collect data from Grameen Bank micro borrowers in 2011 and uses secondary data.

The survey finds information on the GB members and GB family members elected in the Union Parishad Elections in 1997 and in 2003, a testimony that GB women borrowers' local counsel participation trend is increasing. This study still finds the gender equality issues exist in the GB Sixteen Decisions texts and the Sixteen Decisions campaign strategies for women borrowers' empowerment.

This critical analysis of GB Sixteen Decisions is very important to empower GB women borrowers because the GB Sixteen Decisions texts and the Sixteen Decisions campaigns could be made more effective in addressing women's issues like dowry‐less marriage, teenage marriage and gender equality rights in the family and community space if Grameen Bank could revise the Sixteen Decisions texts and support borrowers in their anti‐dowry and anti‐teen age marriage campaign in Bangladesh.

The philosophy of Grameen (rural) banking system was invented by a maverick economist (Dr Yunus) in a tiny village of Bangladesh in 1976, with the aim to eliminate poverty and improve the socio‐economic condition of the rural poor. The bank provides loans to poor people who are unable to provide collateral and indoctrinated in Grameen social values, known as the “sixteen decisions”. Grameen borrowers also vow to observe the bank’s “four basic principles”, and they are the owners (92 per cent) of the bank. Grameen bank began its operations by giving a small amount of money ($30) to 40 people. Today, it employs 14,000 staff and has disbursed more than $1 billion dollars of loan among two million rural people in Bangladesh of which 95 per cent are women, and the rate of its loan repayment is 98 per cent. The Grameen is functioning not only in Bangladesh but also in 50 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and in the USA. Moving onto the implementation of Grameen‐type micro‐credit systems in Europe, or elsewhere, the differences in socio‐culture, economics and politics (between Bangladesh and the region concerned) should be considered. Thus, this paper is an attempt to investigate the prospects of the implementation of Grameen/micro‐credit banking system in European socio‐economic and cultural contexts.

Demonstrates that farmers, in their tractor‐buying decisions, have similar behaviour to professional buyers in manufacturing industries. Uses evidence collated from a survey concerned with identifying farmers' perceptions of the social and economic factors affecting their decisions. Draws attention to the patterns of interpersonal communication accompanying farmers' purchases and the complexity of opinion leader influences.

This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation into the capital budgeting practices of UK multinationals for foreign direct investment, with particular reference to the use of a conceptual framework of risk and return. Drawing upon Robock's (1965) criticisms of the lack of a conceptual framework for businessmen within which to make international financing and capital budgeting decisions, we assess briefly the developments in the theoretical framework of risk and return since Robock's address. We then review the existing empirical literature (mainly from America) and combine this with our own research involving 59 UK multinationals, to conclude that the developments in the theoretical framework of risk and return have not been translated into practice. We offer suggestions as to why this is the case.

Combatting corruption is an important social and commercial issue in most human societies. Many researchers have revealed how an effective anti-corruption practice can possibly minimise corruption in an organisation. However, studies focusing on organisations which are relatively successful in managing corruption at the employee level are relatively rare. On this note, this study aims to focus on Grameen Bank in particular, a Nobel-Prize-winning microfinance institute that was able to minimise its level of corruption among its employees in a country where corruption is the norm.

This paper uses standard economic theory to explain the perceptions and behaviours of the employees of Grameen Bank who live and work in a highly corrupt socio-cultural environment. This paper used questionnaires to ascertain the perceptions of Grameen Bank employees’ notions regarding corruption-combating behaviours. Interviews were also conducted among Grameen’s board members, managers and officers to further explore the nature and effectiveness of this organisation’s anti-corruption mechanisms.

Corruption can never be entirely eradicated; however, it can be diminished and opportunities for corruption can be minimised. This paper found, through an analysis of employees’ perceptions relating to governance and corruption in the Grameen Bank, that corruption exists, but there are systems in place to prevent it and to assist with staff morality. This research also uncovered a number of best practices in Grameen Bank’s governance to minimise corrupt behaviours, which include, but are not limited to, strong monitoring, decentralisation of authority, review of decision-making process, high internal audit intensity, impersonal punishment, anti-corruption cultures and transparency.

This study suggests that it is possible for organisations to resist corruption, especially microfinance institutions, even when they operate in a highly corrupt socio-cultural environment.

Papua New Guinea is a country with relatively low levels of social and economic development, particularly for women. Severe social problems, including unemployment, lawlessness and domestic violence combine with a particular set of geographic, historical, cultural and economic conditions to make life difficult for the country's rural poor, and especially for women. Self‐help through the provision of small‐scale credit for income‐generating activities is a relatively new concept in Papua New Guinea, although some forms of rural credit have existed since the 1960s. The need and demand for such credit are very high.

The purpose of this paper is to design an inference engine to measure the level of readiness of each bank before starting the corporate sustainability auditing process. Based on the output of the designed inference engine, the audition team can decide about the audition resources and the auditing process.

In this paper, the hybrid rough and grey set theory are used to design and create a rule model system to measure the sustainability level of banks. First, 16 rule models are extracted using rough set theory (RST), and the cross-validation of each model is done. Then, the grey clustering is used to combine the same condition attributes and improve the validity of the final model. A total of 16 new rule models are extracted based on the decreased condition attributes, and the best model is selected based on the cross-validation results.

By comparing the accuracy of rough-gray’s rule models and as a result of decreasing the condition attributes, a proper increase in the accuracy of all models is obtained. Finally, the Naive/Genetic/object-related reducts model with 95.6% accuracy is selected as an inference engine to measure new banks’ readiness level.

Sustainability measurement of banks based on RST is a new approach in the field of corporate sustainability. Furthermore, using the grey clustering for combining the condition attributes is a novel solution for improving the accuracy of the rule models.

Examines alternative ways to foster microenterprises in developing countries. Microenterprises, in contrast to maquiladoras (assembly or processing plants), contribute to just relationships in the workplace and to human development. In today’s global economy, US corporations have established a number of maquiladoras in Latin America and the Caribbean that have benefitted them as foreign owners but have had some deleterious effects on the workers and economies of the countries. US financial institutions and non‐profit organizations are providing micro‐financing, training and organization to promote microenterprises in developing countries. These enterprises, though small, contribute to self‐sufficient development at the grassroots level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two interventions toward women’s empowerment in Bangladesh – formal employment and microfinance, and to highlight two case studies supporting these interventions.

This interpretive-evaluative inquiry of the state of employment and microfinance as important interventions in women’s empowerment in Bangladesh is based on both primary and secondary sources. Theoretical insights and empirical evidence from previous research along with data from various sources inform the arguments.

Bangladeshi women are making steady progress toward empowerment through a gradual increase in female participation in the workforce, especially in the ready-made garment manufacturing sector. The expanding microfinance arena has also been providing a growing number of women the opportunity to undertake productive small-scale business ventures that also provide informal employment to unemployed women in rural areas. However, social and cultural constraints and overt conservatism has been a daunting challenge for enterprising women and those in formal employment continue to suffer from discrimination, harassment and unfavorable working conditions.

The paper will be of value to both researchers and policy makers in Bangladesh as it seeks to relate two specific interventions toward women’s empowerment from a broad conceptual perspective and interpretive analysis.