Investing in Women’s Entrepreneurship: Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth

Economic Vulnerabilities and Livelihoods: Impact of <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 in Fiji and Vanuatu

The study has made an effort to analyze the performance of Bangladesh economy in line with the decent work and inclusive economic growth target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the period of 2015 to 2019 and to identify the challenges of achieving decent work for all by 2030. Bangladesh has ranked 109 th among the 166 countries and moved seven notches up from 116 th of 2019 in the SDGs Index 2020. Analyzing the International Labour Organization (ILO) modeled estimated data on the decent work indicators like labour force participation rate, employment to population ratio, unemployment rate, youth unemployment, informal employment, child labour and employment in agriculture, industry and service sector, the study reveals that the high youth unemployment, informality in the job market, mismatch between demand and supply of skilled labour, less female participation in the labour force, insufficient investment, participation of child and forced labour in hazardous work, etc. are the major hindrance for ensuring decent work for all. Skill development programs, large scale investment, products diversification, good governance, elimination of child and forced labour from hazardous work, etc. may help to create more employment opportunities, decent work environment as well as inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Bangladesh. Keywords: Decent Work, Inclusive Economic Growth, SDGs, Bangladesh. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-16-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

მცირე ბიზნესში ციფრული და კოგნიტური ტექნოლოგიების გამოყენების აქტუალურობა გლობალური პანდემიის პირობებში

It is widely reported that entrepreneurial activity has a significant role to play in transition economies such as Central and Eastern Europe but little is known about the role that the family unit plays in facilitating small business emergence in the former command economies. This is surprising given that the link between family and small business development has been widely researched in market economies. In this study, attention is drawn to the role that family relations and resources play in small business emergence. The study focuses on Bulgaria, a country in the Balkans with much cultural diversity and which became a European Union member in 2007–8. Analysis is undertaken of research material drawn from a survey of 69 small firms. 42% of the surveyed firms are two generation businesses involving the entrepreneur and children or parents. 35% of the businesses are three generation businesses involving the lead entrepreneur, parents, children and siblings. The remaining 33% are firms that are run by couples and/or siblings. This suggests that the family household is the key channel for (and of) small business formation. In neglecting the role of family start-ups, this gives a false understanding to the role that households and families sometimes contribute to the economy. At the same time, it is also partly because of this dependency on family relations and resources that small businesses become rooted in the 'informal economy' — an economy that is based on family favours and which it is difficult to break out of.

The relevance of the research is determined by: the importance of developing entrepreneurial traits and qualities in students of domestic professional education, the effectiveness of which is proven by the dynamic development of the economies of leading European countries; the necessity to overcome post-Soviet approaches in shaping the content of professional education, seeking new methods to develop market thinking, preparing future specialists for entrepreneurial activity and fostering individual initiative; the need for modernizing contemporary Ukrainian professional (vocational-technical) education, creating conditions in professional education institutions for shaping a self-reliant, skilled worker capable of self-employment in a wartime labor market and ready for post-war reconstruction tasks in Ukraine. Purpose: to identify trends in preparing youth for entrepreneurial activity at different stages of the development of professional education in Ukraine. Methods: theoretical analysis of official, scientific, archival sources, and internet resources - to determine the state of research on the problem and identify trends in preparing youth for entrepreneurship at different stages of the development of professional education in Ukraine; the comparison method - to contrast historical models of professional education and identify their characteristics in preparing youth for entrepreneurial activity; analysis and synthesis methods - to study the evolution of forms and methods of developing entrepreneurial qualities in youth; generalization and forecasting - to implement the identified positive experience in preparing current professional education students for entrepreneurial activity in wartime and post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. Results: based on the theoretical analysis of the source base, the state of research on the problem in historical perspective was studied; based on comparing historical models of professional education development in Ukraine, trends in preparing youth for entrepreneurial activity at different stages were identified; based on studying the evolution of preparing youth for entrepreneurship, the transformation of forms and methods of developing entrepreneurial qualities in future specialists at different stages of professional education development in Ukraine was shown; based on the analysis of positive and negative past experiences, the main directions for improving professional training of youth for entrepreneurship in wartime and post-war reconstruction in Ukraine were outlined. Conclusions: the domestic source base contains numerous materials on preparing youth for entrepreneurship (archival materials from Ukrainian educational institutions operating at different historical times; laws of Ukraine and other official documents; scientific publications on the history and methodology of professional education, documents of contemporary internet resources on promoting entrepreneurial initiative, etc.), but requires more thorough historiographical research; main trends in preparing youth for entrepreneurial activity in educational institutions of Tsarist Russia (certain elements of developing business and entrepreneurial skills were traced in the system of professional education), the Ukrainian SSR (complete denial of the development of individual initiative and formation of entrepreneurial activity skills, absence of elements of developing entrepreneurial competence in the educational process and educational work of vocational-technical education institutions), and Independent Ukraine (deliberate formation of entrepreneurial competence gains strategic importance for the country's development) were identified; forms and methods of developing entrepreneurial qualities in future specialists in the Tsarist Russian model of professional education (educational programs focused on mastering economic concepts that formed the basis of future entrepreneurial activity; individual subjects aimed at developing entrepreneurial skills in graduates for future entrepreneurial activity), Soviet (issues of market economy, entrepreneurship, management were not reflected in the content of professional education; primary focus was on vocational training of workers for state enterprises) and Independent Ukraine (introduction of courses and programs on the basics of market economy and entrepreneurship; conducting practice-oriented events; maximizing approximation to the conditions of a real enterprise) were characterized; recommendations for improving the professional training of youth for entrepreneurship in wartime and post-war reconstruction in Ukraine (introduction of relevant courses; implementation of practical business projects; organization of business incubators in professional education institutions) were formulated.

Sherry L. Baron, MDa In the mid-1990s, I was on a temporary assignment through the Pan American Health Organization to Mexico City. During my assignment, I oversaw a collaborative training program in occupational and environmental epidemiology between the Pan American Health Organization and the Mexican Secretary of Health. Through this training pro gram, one student, Dr. Zoila L?pez Sibaja, developed a pilot project to better character ize work-related injuries to children employed in the informal sector. The growth of the informal employment sector throughout the developing world has the potential to place workers and especially child labor at particularly high risk for work-related injuries. According to the International Labour Organization, in Latin America during the 1990s, the urban informal sector was the primary generator of new jobs.1 The informal sector is defined by the International Labour Organization as either self-employed workers and their unpaid family members, or workers (either paid or unpaid) in very small businesses (fewer than 5-10 workers), apprentices, contract labor, home workers, and paid domestic workers. The employment conditions of informal workers are based mostly on casual employment relations rather than contractual ar rangements with formal labor protections, such as protection under child labor laws. A small but important part of the informal employment sector is street children.1 Street children is a term used for child laborers who work and live in the street and may or may not maintain contact with their families. Although street children face many health risks ranging from violence to drug use, an important priority is protecting them from working conditions that may damage their health and well-being, especially work-related injuries.2 In Mexico, the Federal Labor Law clearly prohibits child labor under age 14; from age 14-16, children may work if they remain in school. However, in 1994 the Mexican Statistics Institute (INEGI) reported that 34.3% of children younger than age 15 were working.3 A joint survey by UNICEF and the government of Mexico City estimated that during the same time period there were over 11,000 street children in the central area of Mexico City, of whom about 1,000 both lived and worked in the streets.4 To address the general public health problem of injuries, in 1994, Mexico established the System of Epidemiological Surveillance of Externally Causes Injuries (SVELECE), with the primary objective to count, analyze, and then prevent injuries. According to SVELECE, 13% of the injuries that occurred in 1996 happened in the 5-17-year-old group, and, of the injuries occurring in that age group, 5% happened in the workplace.5 Since this data may undercount injuries in children employed in the informal sector, my student's pilot study was designed to estimate the proportion of childhood injuries resulting from work with a focus on informal sector workers.

Die neue UN-Resolution „Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development“ – die neue UN-Ziele verankern klare Vorgaben für nachhaltige Entwicklung und verstehen sich als konzeptionelle, normative Antwort auf das global fließende Muster der wirtschaftlichen Transformation, kurz: die Globalisierung. Der neue KommentarDer Kommentar von Huck reagiert hierauf mit einer umfassenden Auslegung für die praktische Arbeit. Er deckt den gesamten Regelungsbereich der einzelnen Sustainable Development Goals, kurz SDGs ab. Ausführlich werden die insgesamt 169 Zielvorgaben erläutert und eingeordnet. Dabei werden immer auch Fragen zur Verbindlichkeit für wen, zum konkreten Anwendungsbereich und zu Rechtsschutzmöglichkeiten geklärt.The UN Resolution Transforming our world: “the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” set in forth at 1 January 2016 enshrines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including 169 targets and seems a conceptual, normative answer to the global fluid pattern of economic transformation, shortly: the globalisation. Against this background, the SDGs are embarking to the multileveled legal order, following different horizontal and vertical ways. The significance of the SDGs for the application of the law in the context of regulations of the international level within the UN and autonomous International Organisations appears to be clearly visible. On the vertical level regional cooperation such as the EU, ASEAN, CARICOM, are integrating the SDGs in different legal agreements and similar currently happens on the national level and not to forget the transnational level as well. This new Commentary covers the whole field of SDG law.

SDG 8’s goal is to promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth; full and productive employment; and decent work for all. This chapter examines the experiences of East Asian developing countries in achieving rapid and inclusive economic growth by focusing on the role of international tradeand foreign direct investmentnexus created through global value chains (GVCs)by multinational corporations (MNCs). GVCs enabled participating companies and countries to improve productivity, contributing to economic growth. The factors attributable to the participation in GVCs include high competitiveness of local companies and open business environment created by the Asian government. Moreover, construction and maintaining well-functioning soft (e.g., education and legal systems) and hard (e.g., transportation and communication systems) infrastructure by the government and international donors contributed to the creation of business-friendly environment. Faced with growing protectionism and the threats of growing US-China rivalry, infectious diseases, climate change, etc., maintaining an open and transparent rules-based business environment is crucially important to further achieving sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth. In the light of absence of effective global economic order, exemplified by ineffectiveness of the World Trade Organizationin trade liberalization as well as dispute settlement, regional economic frameworks such as the CPTPP and RCEP in the Asia and Pacific region would be proven to be effective to achieve the goal.

This study empirically analyzed whether entrepreneurship experience activities implemented as various irregular activities such as entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship club activities, which are taught as regular coursework and awarded credits in universities, actually have a real effect on college students’ entrepreneurship efficacy, entrepreneurial competency, and entrepreneurial will. The results of the study showed that, first, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial experience activities had a positive effect on both entrepreneurship efficacy and entrepreneurial competency. Second, both entrepreneurship efficacy and entrepreneurial competency had a positive effect on entrepreneurial will. Third, among entrepreneurship support programs, entrepreneurship activity support was found to have an effect on entrepreneurial will. Fourth, among entrepreneurship support programs, entrepreneurship efficacy had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship competency support and entrepreneurial will, and entrepreneurial competency had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship support programs and entrepreneurial will. Based on the results of this study, in order to increase college students' entrepreneurial will, it is necessary to improve the quality of entrepreneurship support programs and seek various methods, and to provide sufficient support for innovation in entrepreneurship education and various direct entrepreneurial activities that can increase entrepreneurial efficacy and entrepreneurial competency.

This article documents the rise to prominence of the informal economic sector in academic developmental discourse. After a brief survey of the South African context, the article contrasts the new way of viewing the informal sector with the old. It shows how this shift in attitudes, ranging from grudging respect to outright advocacy, has generated new conceptual tools with which to theorise economic informality. A keen appreciation of the imperatives entailed by the different perspectives of the main protagonists is vital to any reconciliation of the divergent policy prescriptions being advanced for the informal sector.Bureaucrats and human rights activists view informality through very different lenses. The World Bank’s exit/exclusion philosophy recognises that economies at different stages of development will require customised approaches in coming to terms with economic informality. However, the common denominator of the theoretical views articulated in the article is a recognition that the informal sector cannot be dismissed out of hand, and that it has grown to the extent that it warrants serious attention and respect. Measures taken by the government to compensate for losses incurred due to informality could prove ultimately to be counter-productive. The informal economic sector has become a force to be reckoned with.

The Covid-19 epidemic has generated an unprecedented health crisis, with numerous terrible outcomes, and has impacted every element of social and corporate activity around the world, putting around half of the world's economic activity under stress, as well as supply chains. This study examined the implication of Covid-19 pandemic on the sustainability of small and micro entrepreneur business in the informal sector in Nigeria with specific focus on Ose market in Onitsha, Anambra State. The study specifically analyzed the effect of covid 19 on informal SME, extent of risk and vulnerability and how small and micro businesses were sustained within the period of pandemic. Multi-stage, purposive and random sampling techniques were used in selecting 150 small and micro entrepreneurs business in the informal sector in Onitsha from which data used for the study were collected. Primary data was collected using questionnaire instruments. The study reveals that, Covid-19 exerted significant effect on small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the informal sector and that small and medium scale businesses are vulnerable and prone to risk. The study therefore, recommends among other things that government should provide safety net to small and medium scale business in form of zero interest loan and other forms of government assistance in order to cushion the effect of covid-19.

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the problems experienced and problem‐solving techniques of very small businesses during growth. Evidence shows that if managers can understand the potential for growth and the barriers in their own business path, they will be able to address the problems and achieve success. The purpose of the paper is therefore to provide guidelines to assist very small Black business entrepreneurs with overcoming growth problems, so to become sustainable.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research approach with a combination of content analysis and grounded theory was used in the paper. The sample was restricted to very small Black business entrepreneurs in the formal sector, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Snowball sampling was used where the first participant identified supplied the names of other possible participants and so forth till the sample size of ten very small Black business entrepreneurs was obtained. One of the very small businesses had two owners, and another had three owners (total of 13 participants). The researcher collected the data through five rounds of mostly unstructured, non‐directive and in‐depth individual interviews on the Black entrepreneurs' premises (65 personal interviews in total). Observations and on‐site experiences were also noted. Utilising the constant comparative method, the problems could be divided into four main themes: solvable, partially solved, solved and ongoing problems and then further divided into seven management functions. The synchronic reliability method was used and the triangulation method was used to ensure validity. Coding of data also ensured both reliability and validity.FindingsProblems are mostly solved through experimental learning with human resource and financial problems as top priority training areas to assist growth. Many problems are computer related and some are personal such as stress management. Workshops or mentorship are indicated as possible ways of solving problems.Practical implicationsGeneral guidelines in five functional areas and in general were provided as to how problems could be solved to assist with growing these very small businesses. These guidelines are based on the experiences of the very small entrepreneur and to a lesser extent to what literature suggests. Suggestions were practically executable taking into consideration the time, money and staff constraints of very small business entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThe paper suggests guidelines and solutions for solving very small business growth problems.

Orientation: Within an emerging market context, the informal sector’s role was deemed critical towards achieving ideals of a developmental state. Given this perceived importance, there was a need to continually study informal sector entrepreneurial activity and its ramifications on firm performance.Research Purpose: This study aimed to understand the link between informal sector entrepreneurial activities and firm performance using a sample of firms operating in Durban, South Africa.Motivation of the study: Exploring those entrepreneurial activities that either enhanced or impeded the informal sector was deemed critical in the effectual and efficient operation of the sector. In driving the firm performance agenda ascertaining the role of factors such as (1) entrepreneurial culture, (2) entrepreneurial education and skills, (3) government and incubation support and finally, (4) access to finance can enhance the informal sector through the provision of evidence-based interventions.Research approach/design/method: A quantitative survey research approach was used to collect data from 152 informal sector businesses operating in the city of Durban in South Africa. A convenience sampling technique was used to access the respondents. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme version 23 using correlation and regression tests.Main findings: The findings revealed the adoption of an entrepreneurship culture, including access to entrepreneurship education and skills to predict a firm’s financial and non-financial performance significantly. Furthermore, it was found that government and incubation support predicted a firm’s financial performance. However, it was also established that government and incubation support had no unique contribution to non-financial performance.Practical/managerial implications: Suggestions were made based on the findings that entrepreneurial activities have a bearing on informal sector business performance. These findings became a helpful intervention towards enhancing the performance of informal businesses.Contribution/value-add: This study contributed to understanding entrepreneurial activities that either enhanced or impeded informal businesses’ performance.

Informal economies have been growing, in particular, in the developing world. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s employed population earn their livelihoods in the informal economies. The informal economy entrepreneurs provide essential products and services, enhance supply chains, generate employment, and contribute substantially to the economic and social life of communities worldwide. However, the views of informal entrepreneurs have often been marginalized and the issues affecting them are frequently left unobserved in academic or professional debates. Little is known about the informal tourism economy’s characteristics in the existing literatures and so far, no study has estimated the size of the informal tourism economy. Yet, the informal tourism entrepreneurs enter into tourism markets with important skills, qualities, and attributes - in the forms of economic, social, cultural, and dream capitals - which could be utilized more successfully to enable them to contribute to broader economic development initiatives. This PhD-thesis, based on in-depth empirical research, investigates how informal tourism entrepreneurs co-construct their informal tourism sector through their practices. Using an interdisciplinary approach (e.g. mainly sociological and anthropological perspective but also an economic one), this PhD-thesis sees the informal sector as a social system in which people continuously shape and reshape their livelihoods, individually and collectively. More specifically, this PhD-thesis investigates how evolving conditions in the tourism field and beyond simultaneously affect the capital deployment and habitus adaptations of informal tourism entrepreneurs and uses the macroeconomic indicators to estimate the size of the informal tourism economy and its relations to the general economy. Accordingly, this PhD-thesis consists of three chapters that depart from an anthropological/sociological perspective, but also includes one chapter that departs from a fundamentally economic perspective. In seeking answers to the research questions, this PhD uses Bourdieu’s theory of practice and creates understanding by Contrasting the networks of social relations in the field, where informal tourism entrepreneurs take positions or struggle over capital, stakes, and access, Comparing the different forms of capital owned by informal tourism entrepreneurs, and by Compiling insights from analyses of informal tourism entrepreneurs’ habitus. The methodologies adopted in these three chapters are narrative inquiry, discursive thematic analysis and ethnographic field research. In addition, the PhD-thesis consists of a fourth economic chapter and aims to incorporate an economic perspective within a social constructivist approach. Here the attention is paid to macroeconomic indicators and the chapter aims to estimate the size of the informal tourism economy and to advance understanding by evaluating the dynamic interplay between the informal tourism economy and the labour market. The four chapters together thus seek to offer a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the practice and size of the informal tourism economy. Thailand is chosen as a context since it is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, yet with the highest ratio of revenue arising out of the informal economic sector. The primary data has been collected at four different tourist destinations, namely Chiang Mai, which is the second largest city of country, and the top three most popular tourist islands - Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao - located in the south of Thailand. This PhD-thesis contributes to academics and practitioners in several ways. First, this PhD-thesis offers interventions and hands-on actions to policy makers and destination governors rather than thinking the whole phenomenon holistically and/or analysing it as a set of significations and discourses. Second, it demythologizes the common sense view that informal entrepreneurs are marginalized, traditional, underdeveloped and backward entities, and shows empirically that informal tourism entrepreneurs have important and relevant capitals (e.g. skills, qualities, attributes, and networks), and contribute substantially to the socio-economic world of destinations in achieving their broader sustainable development goals. Third, this PhD-thesis addresses the evolution of informal tourism entrepreneurship from their role of poverty alleviation and survival strategy for unemployment in developing countries to their existence as trusted and socio-economically essential entities of the social system. It calls for inclusive frameworks and hybrid solutions in which informal entrepreneurs are recognised for their benefits to society in academic and professional debates. To this end, this PhD-thesis offers a more complete understanding of the practice of the informal tourism entrepreneurs and the informal tourism economy and its entrepreneurs’ contribution to national economies.

The impact of retailer regret in two-stage supply chains: Various structures and buyer power