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1 – 10 of 21Carla Canelas, Felix Meier zu Selhausen and Erik Stam
Female smallholder farmers in low-income countries face barriers to accessing capital and commodity markets. While agricultural cooperatives provide services that contribute to…
Abstract
Purpose
Female smallholder farmers in low-income countries face barriers to accessing capital and commodity markets. While agricultural cooperatives provide services that contribute to the income and productivity of small-scale producers, evidence of cooperatives' social and economic empowerment of female smallholders remains limited. We apply Sen's capability approach to female entrepreneurs' socioeconomic empowerment to examine whether women's participation in a coffee and microfinance cooperative from rural western Uganda benefits their social and economic position within their household. First, we study the relationship between women's cooperative participation and their household coffee sales and savings. Second, we investigate the link between women's cooperative participation and their intra-household decision-making and whether the inclusion of the husband in his wife's cooperative strengthens or lowers women's decision-making power.
Design/methodology/approach
We carry out a case study of a hybrid coffee and microfinance cooperative that promotes social innovation through the integration and empowerment of female smallholders in rural Uganda. Using a cross-sectional survey of 411 married female cooperative members from 26 randomly selected self-help groups of Bukonzo Joint Cooperative and 196 female non-members from the identical area, employing propensity score matching, this paper investigates the benefits of women's participation in a coffee and microfinance cooperative in the Rwenzori Mountains of western Uganda. We present and discuss the results of our case study within an extensive literature on the role of institutions in collective action for women's empowerment.
Findings
Our findings provide new empirical evidence on female smallholders' participation in mixed cooperatives. Our results indicate that women's participation in microfinance-producer cooperatives appears to be a conditional blessing: even though membership is linked to increased women's intra-household decision-making and raised household savings and income from coffee sales, a wife with a husband in the same cooperative self-help group is associated with diminished women's household decision-making power.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of this study is on female coffee smallholders in an agricultural cooperative in rural western Uganda. In particular, we focus on a case study of one major coffee cooperative. Our cross-sectional survey does not allow us to infer causal interpretations. Also, the survey does not include variables that allow us to measure other dimensions of women's empowerment beyond decision-making over household expenditures and women's financial performance related to savings and income from coffee cultivation.
Practical implications
Our empirical results indicate that female smallholders' cooperative membership is associated with higher incomes and coffee sales. However, husband co-participation in their wives' cooperative group diminishes wives' decision-making, which suggests that including husbands and other family members in the same cooperative group may not be perceived as an attractive route to empowerment for female smallholders. For these reasons, an intervention that encourages the cooperation of both spouses and that is sensitive to context-specific gender inequalities, may be more successful at stimulating social change toward household gender equality than interventions that focus on women's autonomous spheres only.
Originality/value
While the literature thus far has focused on microfinance's potential for women's empowerment, evidence on agricultural cooperatives' affecting women's social and economic position is limited. First, our findings provide novel empirical evidence on the empowering effects of women's participation in a self-help group-based coffee cooperative in rural Uganda. Second, our data allows us to explore the role of husbands' participation in their wives' cooperative and SGH. We embed our hypotheses and empirical results in a rich discussion of female entrepreneurship, microfinance and cooperative literature.
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Kevin Östergård, Suvi Kuha and Outi Kanste
The purpose of this study is to identify and synthesise the best evidence on health-care leaders’ and professionals’ experiences and perceptions of compassionate leadership.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify and synthesise the best evidence on health-care leaders’ and professionals’ experiences and perceptions of compassionate leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for mixed-methods systematic reviews using a convergent integrated approach. A systematic search was done in January 2023 in PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Medic and MedNar databases. The results were reported based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Ten studies were included in the review (five qualitative and five quantitative). The thematic analysis identified seven analytical themes as follows: treating professionals as individuals with an empathetic and understanding approach; building a culture for open and safe communication; being there for professionals; giving all-encompassing support; showing the way as a leader and as a strong professional; building circumstances for efficient work and better well-being; and growing into a compassionate leader.
Practical implications
Compassionate leadership can possibly address human resource-related challenges, such as health-care professionals’ burnout, turnover and the lack of patient safety. It should be taken into consideration by health-care leaders, their education and health-care organisations when developing their effectiveness.
Originality/value
This review synthesised the knowledge of compassionate leadership in health care and its benefits by providing seven core elements of health-care leaders’ and professionals’ experiences and perceptions of compassionate leadership.
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Anna Trubetskaya, Olivia McDermott, Pierre Durand and Daryl John Powell
This project aims to optimise a secondary agricultural company’s reporting and data lifecycle by providing self-help business intelligence at an optimal price point for all…
Abstract
Purpose
This project aims to optimise a secondary agricultural company’s reporting and data lifecycle by providing self-help business intelligence at an optimal price point for all business users.
Design/methodology/approach
A design for Lean Six Sigma approach utilising the define, measure analyse, design and verify methodology was utilised to design a new reporting and data product lifecycle.
Findings
The study found that this approach allowed a very structured delivery of a complex program. The various tools used assisted greatly in delivering results while balancing the needs of the team.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates how improving data analysis and enhanced intelligence reporting in agribusinesses enable better decision making and thus improves efficiencies so that the agribusiness can leverage the learnings.
Social implications
Improving data analysis increases efficiency and reduces agrifood food wastage thus improving sustainability and environmental impacts.
Originality/value
This paper proposes creating a standardised approach to deploying Six Sigma methodology to correct both the data provisioning lifecycle and the subsequent business intelligence reporting lifecycle. It is the first study to look at process optimisation across the agricultural industry’s entire data and business intelligence lifecycle.
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Erica R. Fissel and Jin R. Lee
The purpose of this paper is to understand the self-protective behaviors of young adult cyberstalking victims and the factors that impact adoption of such behaviors.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the self-protective behaviors of young adult cyberstalking victims and the factors that impact adoption of such behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a sample of 880 young adults (18–25 years of age) who had experienced cyberstalking victimization within the previous 12 months. Data were collected through an online self-report survey hosted on Qualtrics from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers.
Findings
Results revealed that three-quarters of cyberstalking victims engaged in at least one form of self-protective behavior. The most commonly adopted self-protective behavior was blocking unwanted communications only (29%), while 40% of cyberstalking victims noted engaging in multiple forms of self-protective behaviors. While results varied across models, findings revealed that incident characteristics and respondent characteristics impacted the likelihood of engaging in self-protective behaviors after a cyberstalking victimization experience.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature examining the self-protective behaviors adopted by cyberstalking victims, which can shed light on other forms of cyber abuse and help explain victims’ low reporting rates to official sources (e.g. law enforcement).
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Krystal Laryea and Christof Brandtner
Sociologists have long thought of the integration of people in communities – social integration – and hierarchical social systems – systemic integration – as contradictory goals…
Abstract
Sociologists have long thought of the integration of people in communities – social integration – and hierarchical social systems – systemic integration – as contradictory goals. What strategies allow organizations to reconcile social and systemic integration? We examine this question through 40 in-depth, longitudinal interviews with leaders of nonprofit organizations that engage in the dual pursuit of social and systemic integration. Two processes reveal how the internal structure of organizations often mirrors the ways in which organizations are embedded in their local environments. When organizations engage in loose demographic coupling, relegating those who “match” the community to the work of social integration, they produce internal inequalities and justify them by claiming community building as sacred work. When engaging in community anchoring, organizations challenge internal and external inequalities simultaneously, but this process comes with costs. Our findings contribute to a constructivist understanding of community, the mechanisms by which organizations produce inequalities, and a place-based conception of organizations as embedded in community.
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Samuel Ssekajja Mayanja, Reuben David Kizito, Henry Mutebi and Regis Kamadduka Zombeire
The study empirically explores the influence of re-organization on entrepreneurial intentions and family business generational transfers among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Abstract
Purpose
The study empirically explores the influence of re-organization on entrepreneurial intentions and family business generational transfers among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
Using multi-group analysis and partial least square structural equation models, data from 252 family-owned businesses were analyzed.
Findings
The results reveal that re-organization partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and family business generational transfers among SMEs.
Research limitations/implications
The study used a cross-sectional survey approach and focused on Kampala business district. If required and funding permits, a longitudinal study in this field may be conducted.
Practical implications
Family business owners ought to involve their family members in the management of the business from an early age, including them in the decision-making process, and use social exchange to strike a balance between their personal goals and the objectives of the business. In order to protect the business's goals, the business founder should mentor the next generation through quality family social interactions.
Originality/value
Integrating entrepreneurial intentions and re-organization is likely to improve the survival rate of family business generational transfers among SMEs in Uganda using social exchange theory.
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