Sector In Most Countries Research Articles

Sustainable entrepreneurship practices of Indian SMEs: A strategic approach using fuzzy Delphi and best worst method

AbstractSmall and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) make up a sizable portion of the business sector in most countries. These businesses are also becoming more concerned about sustainability and how to strategically incorporate it into their operations. However, SMEs have shied away from sustainability investments due to a lack of a comprehensive viewpoint on the matter, an overemphasis on an economic perspective, and the resulting devaluation of environmental and social viewpoints. Though the importance of social and environmental practices for assessing sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) has increased, very little research has been done on SE, particularly those linked to the competitiveness of SMEs. The novelty lies in the identification of social and environmental practices for SE and analyzing it using the best worst method. The two main objectives are to calculate the relative weights of these practices and to identify the most crucial elements for judging SMEs' propensity for SE. The findings of this study have significant consequences not only for the businesses themselves but also for decision‐makers in charge of putting policies in place that make it easier to take actions that are consistent with SE.

The Dilemmas of the Creative Industries: Developing a Checklist of the Challenges Faced by Arts-Related Creative Enterprises

The creative industries are considered one of the most important economic sectors in most countries around the world. This is because micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises have become more important than giant institutions in terms of sustaining their resilience in the face of financial crises. However, despite the superiority of their products in terms of quality, the creative industries are considered very fragile given the special nature of the consumers of said products. This fact has created significant challenges for the sector. This study wishes to reflect on these challenges in order to find solutions to them and devise proposals that will pave the way to understanding the nature of the creative industries. The study will review the difficulties in question to develop a checklist that can improve the working mechanisms of small arts-related creative enterprises.

Oral health needs of the geriatric patients and the role of mobile dentistry

In today’s times, elderly individuals are keeping their natural teeth for longer owing to the rising popularity of fixed dental restorations and dental implants. It is seen that access to oral health care reduces and dental demands rise as people get older and more dependent on medical attention. For a high quality of life in terms of dental health, it is critical to have a functional dentition. A skilled oral health care provider is required for the geriatric population due to complex connections between dental health, some systemic illnesses, and medication side effects. For more than a century, there have been mobile dentistry services available as a way to help the underserved in society. Initially geared towards children, these services are now frequently used by adults and the elderly, particularly those in nursing homes, people with special needs, and those who have disabilities. When treating dependent elderly patients, it has been shown that home dental treatment is more economical than traditional dental care. Four distinct mobile dental service models by which a dental healthcare professional contacts a patient include the mobile dental vehicle model, portable equipment model, fixed equipment model, and the hybrid model. The services provided by the public sector in most countries employ a range of models, including the hybrid model, portable equipment, and fixed equipment, but the private sectors mostly use portable equipment to provide a mobile dental service. Dental care provided by university-based services ranges from routine to complicated procedures, whereas basic, routine care is mostly offered by the commercial sector. Mobile and portable dental models offer a practical substitute for typical dental clinic visits or when the fixed setup is not present. Mobile dental services also have shown utility for data gathering, strategy creation, and investigations on the potential effects of preventative and oral treatment provided by these services.

Factors driving aggregate service sector energy intensities in Asia and Eastern Europe: A LMDI analysis

The economywide energy intensities in the service sectors are declining in many countries worldwide. We identify the drivers of the declining trends by employing the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) on annual data from 16 countries in the Asia and Eastern Europe for the 2000–2014 period. We find that the change in fuel mix has little contribution to driving the economywide energy intensity of the service sector down during the study horizon. Instead, the change in energy intensity contributes to a decrease in economywide energy intensity of service sectors in most countries except the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Turkey. Moreover, since energy intensity is inseparable from economic development, changes in economic structure are an essential determinant of the economywide energy intensity of service sectors. This work also analyzes the sectoral attribution and energy feedstocks attribution of economywide energy intensity of the service sectors.

Problems and challenges facing agriculture in Iraq

The study dealt with a very important vital, strategic and economic topic, which is the study of the problems and challenges facing the agricultural sector in Iraq, which is one of the most important economic sectors in most countries' economies, not only Iraq. The challenges and economic crises facing this sector, and the importance of the research comes from studying the problems and obstacles facing the agricultural sector and trying to raise the contribution of this sector in the economic field. Its priorities negatively affect the achievement of sustainable development in Iraq. The study gave important results that are consistent with the economic and agricultural reality in Iraq through the following:1. The problem of (water resources) has occupied the top of the list of problems facing this sector. A number of external and internal factors have combined to exacerbate this problem.2. The negative impact of economic openness on the development of the agricultural sector.3. The small amount of investment allocations for the agricultural sector, as these allocations did not exceed (1.7%) of the general budget.4. The problem of desertification, salinity, mismanagement, low level of technology, environmental pollution, low level of productivity, and damage to agricultural pests, the problem of dumping, the low percentage of government support, and the insufficiency of local and local animal production are among the most prominent problems and obstacles that appeared in this study in the agricultural sector in Iraq.

Quo vadis geriatric rehabilitation?

The sustainability of healthcare of older people in Europe is at stake. Many experts currently focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. But there are other elements coming up that might even have a greater impact. Healthcare systems, geriatric care and geriatric rehabilitation in particular, will face disruptive changes due to both demographic demand and a shortage of human and financial resources. This decade will be transformed by a high proportion of the older health workforce transitioning to retirement. This expertise must be retained. The brain drain of health care workers migrating from Eastern parts to Western Europe is diminishing. Discussing and deciding upon the priorities of value-based health care for older people such as equity and access is required. The acute healthcare sector in most countries focuses on fee-for-service models instead of building systemic approaches to maximise independence and autonomy of older citizens. In this commentary, we build on recent book chapters and articles on geriatric rehabililtation. Our main questions for the anniversary edition of Age and Ageing is what it is that geriatric rehabilitation could, should and must contribute in the roaring 2020s?

Drivers of Growth and Catch-up in the Tourism Sector of Industrialized Economies

COVID-19 decimated global tourism. As governments and firms strategize the sector’s recovery, insights from the sector’s prepandemic period of high growth offer useful policy lessons. This study examines the drivers of the tourism sector’s growth and catch-up performance in 13 industrialized economies over the period 2000–2015, using data from the EU-KLEMS database. The findings have three notable policy implications. First, the tourism sector in most countries experienced significant growth. However, value-added growth was driven largely by labor employment expansion while labor productivity declined in most countries. Second, weak investment in non–information and communications technology (ICT) capital and declining total factor productivity are the principal impediments to labor productivity growth. Third, all countries embraced digital transformation but many lagged on innovation and labor quality. These findings are analyzed to identify policy strategies for the tourism sector’s postpandemic recovery.

Management of insecticides for use in disease vector control: Lessons from six countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Interventions to control the vectors of human diseases, notably malaria, leishmaniasis and dengue, have relied mainly on the action of chemical insecticides. However, concerns have been raised regarding the management of insecticides in vector-borne disease-endemic countries. Our study aimed to analyze how vector control insecticides are managed in selected countries to extract lessons learned. A qualitative analysis of the situation of vector control insecticides management was conducted in six countries. Multi-stakeholder meetings and key informer interviews were conducted on aspects covering the pesticide lifecycle. Findings were compared and synthesized to extract lessons learned. Centrally executed guidelines and standards on the management of insecticides offered direction and control in most malaria programs, but were largely lacking from decentralized dengue programs, where practices of procurement, application, safety, storage, and disposal were variable between districts. Decentralized programs were better at facilitating participation of stakeholders and local communities and securing financing from local budgets. However, little coordination existed between malaria, visceral leishmaniasis and dengue programs within countries. Entomological capacity was concentrated in malaria programs at central level, while dengue and visceral leishmaniasis programs were missing out on expertise. Monitoring systems for insecticide resistance in malaria vectors were rarely used for dengue or visceral leishmaniasis vectors. Strategies for insecticide resistance management, where present, did not extend across programs or sectors in most countries. Dengue programs in most countries continued to rely on space spraying which, considering the realities on the ground, call for revision of international guidelines. Vector control programs in the selected countries were confronted with critical shortcomings in the procurement, application, safety measures, storage, and disposal of vector control insecticides, with implications for the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of vector control. Further international support is needed to assist countries in situation analysis, action planning and development of national guidelines on vector control insecticide management.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to decarbonise the world: A transitional impact evaluation

Countries have submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020 following the Paris Agreement. We consider these targets by using the climate change policy version of the GTAP-E model of the world economy to analyse economic and environmental outcomes in the transition from domestic settings to broad international linkages for selected major emitting regions. We have obtained several insights. First, developing nations present relatively low emission abatement costs compared to developed countries. China and India are also major emitters with substantial possibilities to create carbon credits for selling to other regions. Second, any forms of international carbon markets are confirmed to have lower costs for a linked global system than domestic-solely schemes. Third, the participation of China and India in an international carbon market particularly drives down the carbon price (to US$1.62 per tonne of CO2-e) and economic costs of the system. Real GDP of countries in such a linkage will only decline by 0.1%, while the electricity sector in most countries only experiences 1% loss in their output levels. The US, European Union and Australia particularly benefit from the participation of China and India in the carbon linkage by significantly lowering costs on their economies. Finally, it is also found that not all international emission linkages benefit low abatement cost countries if they do not have suitable strategies to recycle their net carbon trading revenues.

Guidelines for co-creating climate adaptation plans for fisheries and aquaculture

Climate change is having a significant impact on the biology and ecology of fish stocks and aquaculture species and will affect the productivity within seafood supply chains in the future. The challenges are further amplified when actors within the fisheries and aquaculture sectors have very different ideas and assumptions about climate change and what risks and opportunities they entail. In order to address the challenges of climate change, several countries have developed national adaptation plans. However, fisheries and aquaculture are rarely included in these plans, resulting in a general lack of documented adaptation strategies within these sectors in most countries. This paper introduces guidelines for the development of climate adaptation plans (CAPs) within fisheries and aquaculture, applying a co-creation approach that requires the participation of scientists, industry representatives, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders. The objective is to provide a stepwise approach to facilitate and enable stakeholders to plan strategies toward climate adaptation. The guidelines are based on practical experience and include a three-step process: (1) assessment of risks and opportunities; (2) identification of adaptation measures, and (3) operationalization of CAPs. The three-step process is also part of a larger cycle, including implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, again generating iterative feedback loops over time. Lessons learned are discussed, and we highlight the advantages and challenges of developing CAPs. While the guidelines are designed for and tested within fisheries and aquaculture systems, the CAP approach is also employable for other natural resource-based systems.

КОРОНАВІРУСНА КРИЗА ЯК ЧИННИК ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ МІЖНАРОДНИХ ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ВІДНОСИН

The article examines the impact of coronavirus infection on the dynamics of international relations. Demographic implications. As a result of these factors, the total population is decreasing. The purchasing power is also decreasing. In addition, many countries use different approaches to determining the number of deaths from COVID, so this information needs to be clarified. Social implications. As a result of quarantine, society is atomized. However, there is an active development of digital technologies, most types of business are moving to the network. On the other hand, quarantine restrictions can lead to an increase in the number of unrest and an increase in the protest movement. Internal economic implications. Due to the pandemic, incomes of the population have decreased, and some citizens have lost their jobs. This negatively affected the retail, aviation and restaurant business. The pandemic has had this impact on the service sector in most countries. including in Ukraine and the USA. The main problems of the development of international economic relations are determined. Among the main consequences of the coronavirus crisis are demographic, social, domestic and foreign economic consequences. The largest external economic impacts include reduced tourism, increased uncertainty and increased protectionism. The decline in tourism is affecting the tourism industry, carriers, hospitality and catering. Increased uncertainty aggravates the enterprise management system, reduces the efficiency and predictability of the business. The tightening of protectionism leads to a deterioration in the conditions of international trade, leads to the emergence of a large number of obstacles in its path. Measures are proposed to activate international economic relations. It is proposed to increase confidence in trade and global markets. A strong, common, transparent information base is critical to inform effective national policies and international cooperation to support the onward movement of trade. An important priority is to ensure the openness and functioning of key supply chains of basic goods to overcome the crisis, including medical goods, food. It is proposed to carry out activities to enhance Internet commerce.

Innovations in teacher education at the time of COVID19: an Australian perspective

ABSTRACT The university sector was hit hard by COVID-19 in early 2020 with global calls for universities to lockdown. The teacher education sector in most countries, including Australia, had not anticipated the shift to off-campus teaching of such a massive scale and the sector was not well prepared for the challenge. This paper reports how the Australian education sector responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and details how one Australian university implemented a number of innovations changing the mode of teaching and move to a fully online environment for all initial teacher education programmes. The innovations included the conversion of all face to face course work units into online units, including synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. The initial impact of the innovations on pre-service teachers was captured through systematic measures of engagement with the online content. Using these measures, we interviewed four academics who were identified as supporting high levels of interaction. We were keen to understand what contributed to fostering high levels of interaction of pre-service teachers. Key lessons learnt from the analysis are discussed with a hope that these practices might benefit others looking for ways to provide high-quality teacher education programmes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Electronic Government: الحكومة الإلكترونية

Consider the size of the government sector constitutes a large proportion of the total economic sectors in most countries of the world، as long as dealing with the sector is not confined to a category only، but prevails to all citizens، residents، institutions and others، as long as this deal is multiple in quality and methods and how to model different electronic procedures as an optimal way for the government to enable them to take care of the interests of the public، individuals and institutions electronically using advanced technology without the need for service applicants to move between government departments. Because the government sector as a signification proportion of the total economic sectors in most countries of the world، and because the public sector is not limited to a specific category without the other but prevail all citizens and residents، institution and other، and from here emerged the role of electronic government as an ideal way for the government to enable them to take care of the interests of the public individuals and institution electronically without the need for the applicant of governance، is good governance of the state to take an active conduct at the state level as a whole.

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ СОСТАВА КРИТЕРИЕВ ОЦЕНКИ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ МИКРОФИНАНСОВОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ НА ОСНОВЕ АНАЛИЗА ПОКАЗАТЕЛЕЙ В МОДЕЛЯХ КАЧЕСТВА ЖИЗНИ

At present, microfinance lending has become an integral part of the financial sector in most countries of the world. Microfinancial organizations have many achievements in this area, because they provide a greater number of potential clients with documenting services than banks. Microfinance as a form of bank crediting was originally formed for solving an important social problem - improving quality of life for the population of poor countries. Today the working experience of microfinancial organizations in Russia shows that the purpose of these organizations primarily is obtaining commercial profit by providing microfinancial services for the people, as well as for small and medium businesses. There appear problems of interrelations between a greater part of population and microfinancial organizations. In terms of the state, the system of microfinancing can be regarded and project into society as a social and economic program. To evaluate the results of activity and efficiency results of microfinancial organizations there have been chosen criteria corresponding to those of life quality of the people. There have been considered methods of modernization of present models of analysis of life quality in order to evaluate the efficiency of microfinancial system in terms of the state interests. More than ten assessment models of life quality (ILI index, R. Veenhoven’s indicator of happy life expectance, Dutch labour cost index, Rogerson model, Maslow hierarchy model, Murdie model, Raphael model, etc.) have been determined, their weak and strong points have been stated in terms of their potential transforming possibilities. It has been stated that from some of these models it is possible to choose certain factors and to transform into indicators of assessment of efficiency of functioning the microcredit system.

Food safety from consumer perspective: health safety


 Food industry along with agriculture constitute a major economy sector in most countries, because in addition to water intake and oxygen availability, food is another basic determinant for functioning of the human organism. For the proper functioning of human body, it is imperative that the customer chooses food so that the daily diet includes all the necessary nutrients in a reasonable proportion. At present, however, it is becoming more and more common that foodstuffs do not meet strict standards, are not properly stored, the packaging is damaged, or hygiene standards are not being adhered to, and therefore, in addition to health benefiting substances, they also contain harmful ones. According to the World Health Organization, the death of up to 2 million people a year around the world is caused by foods harmful to human health. The main objective of this report was to assess how consumers perceive the health safety of food in Slovakia and to find out whether some types of food are considered as potentially harmful to health. Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire survey conducted from October to December 2017 on a sample of 478 respondents. Respondents answered to 12 factual, and 9 classification questions, which were consequently analyzed using the Friedman test, Nemenyi test and Chi-Square test of Independence. Survey results showed that the majority of respondents had concerns about the health harming effects of food only occasionally and they trust the hygienic level of the restaurant facilities (60.5%), fast food (53%) and frozen food (49.2%) with few reservations. As the most hazardous foods are considered poultry meat, eggs and mayonnaise. If the consumer's health is endangered by food, the guilty party should be punished by ban (61.9%) or by suspension (19.5%).

A Qualitative Analysis of the Agricultural Policy Dynamics and the Nigerian Economy : 1960-2015

Historically, the agricultural sector constitutes one of the most important sectors of most countries including the highly industrialised ones like the USA, Japan, and England. In Nigeria, agriculture has been the engine of growth of its economy. However, this role has not been optimally exploited by successive administrations to develop strategic growth path for Nigeria as has been achieved by the aforementioned industrialised countries and some emerging ones like China and Brazil. Nigeria has a rich agricultural resource endowment and an avalanche of laudable agricultural policies that could turn her into an industrialised economy and reduce the incidence of poverty. The last in the series of laudable agricultural policies meant to entrench Nigeria’s economic growth within the agricultural framework was the transformation agenda. The agricultural transformation agenda of the last administration (2011-2015) was intended to re-enact once again agriculture as the main driver of Nigeria’s economic growth as in the 1960s and 1970s. Earlier attempts underperformed due principally to the ineffective implementation or complete abandonment of such policies. The result has been a fall in foreign exchange earnings, low GDP level and lack of sectoral linkages. This study made several recommendations including the need for a consistent increase in government budgetary allocation to the sector so as to redress this enigma and bring back the old post-independence glory of the sector.

The cost and utilisation patterns of a pilot sign language interpreter service for primary health care services in South Africa

BackgroundThe World Health Organisation estimates disabling hearing loss to be around 5.3%, while a study of hearing impairment and auditory pathology in Limpopo, South Africa found a prevalence of nearly 9%. Although Sign Language Interpreters (SLIs) improve the communication challenges in health care, they are unaffordable for many signing Deaf people and people with disabling hearing loss. On the other hand, there are no legal provisions in place to ensure the provision of SLIs in the health sector in most countries including South Africa. To advocate for funding of such initiatives, reliable cost estimates are essential and such data is scarce. To bridge this gap, this study estimated the costs of providing such a service within a South African District health service based on estimates obtained from a pilot-project that initiated the first South African Sign Language Interpreter (SASLI) service in health-care.MethodsThe ingredients method was used to calculate the unit cost per SASLI-assisted visit from a provider perspective. The unit costs per SASLI-assisted visit were then used in estimating the costs of scaling up this service to the District Health Services. The average annual SASLI utilisation rate per person was calculated on Stata v.12 using the projects’ registry from 2008–2013. Sensitivity analyses were carried out to determine the effect of changing the discount rate and personnel costs.ResultsAverage Sign Language Interpreter services’ utilisation rates increased from 1.66 to 3.58 per person per year, with a median of 2 visits, from 2008–2013. The cost per visit was US$189.38 in 2013 whilst the estimated costs of scaling up this service ranged from US$14.2million to US$76.5million in the Cape Metropole District. These cost estimates represented 2.3%-12.2% of the budget for the Western Cape District Health Services for 2013.ConclusionsIn the presence of Sign Language Interpreters, Deaf Sign language users utilise health care service to a similar extent as the hearing population. However, this service requires significant capital investment by government to enable access to healthcare for the Deaf.

How do learning environments vary by school sector and socioeconomic composition? Evidence from Australian students

We examine how students’ perspectives of their learning environments vary between private and public schools in Australia. Previous research has shown that educational outcomes do not vary by school sector in most countries after controlling for student social background. Little is known, however, about the ways in which different students’ educational experiences vary across sectors. Australia is a good case study for examining this question, because it has one of the largest private school sectors in the world. We used a large and nationally representative dataset to compare sector differences across five measures of learning environments while accounting for the average socioeconomic composition of the school. Very few differences large enough to be considered educationally substantive were found between sectors. On two measures, however, student perspectives varied substantially within sectors and across school socioeconomic contexts. Overall, classroom disciplinary climate varied the most across school sectors and socioeconomic contexts, and teacher scaffolding and structuring strategies varied the least.

Assessing Interbank Contagion Risk Using Consolidated Data

This study uses the maximum entropy method to estimate bilateral interbank exposure in order to simulate the contagion effect in the UK interbank market using consolidated data. Almost all existing studies use unconsolidated data, which could significantly distort the real contagion effect as the banking sectors of most countries are highly concentrated with most large banks owning a significant number of subsidiaries. The results show that exposure is much more severe using consolidated data, implying that some money center banks or systematically important banks were underestimated by the contagion model before the 2008 financial crisis.

Towards sustainability in the extensive and intensive livestock sectors.

An increase in both human population and economic growth has been accompanied by rising per capita demand for animal products. The livestock industry is under pressure to meet this demand, but its current patterns of production are not environmentally sustainable, causing negative health impacts on humans and raising welfare concerns for animals. With little regulation of the intensive livestock sector in most countries, animal products are available at cheaper prices on consumer markets, undercutting more sustainable production systems, such as those used by pastoralists and organic farmers. Other beneficial aspects of sustainable intensification and sustainable pastoralism should also be taken into account. However, it is unclear whether moving towards sustainable animal husbandry (both intensive and extensive) will meet the projected demand from nine billion people in 2030, unless attention is also paid to fairer and more responsible consumption. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to transform the livestock sector, using principles of sustainable consumption and production, environmental stewardship, inclusive prosperity, and healthy lifestyles. It also highlights several areas where additional research and modelling are required.