Search results for "VDP::Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Økonomi: 210::Samfunnsøkonomi: 212"
showing 10 items of 68 documents
Transformative Quality in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Conceptualisation, scale development and validation
2021
With the increasing post-massification of higher education institutions (HEIs), access-providing business schools (vs elite educational institutions) continue to rank at the bottom in terms of quality. This study defines and develops a measure of quality in the context of access-providing business schools in a developing country. Access-providing private business schools face competing challenges of balancing inclusiveness and access with excellence and quality. Pursuing inclusiveness and access alongside excellence and quality seems a utopian ideal. However, this study propounds transformative quality as key for addressing these conflicting issues, which have long impacted post-massificati…
Measuring microfinance performance
2015
MFIs are measured according to two dimensions. One is their outreach to poor people, that is, their ability to provide poor families access to financial services. This is the MFIs’ social mission. The other dimension is their financial sustainability, that is, their ability to pay their employees, lenders, and other suppliers, in short, their ability to produce a profit from their operations. We set out the main microfinance measures and confirm earlier findings that profitability is rather weak in microfinance, and that operational costs constitute a large part of the total costs. We argue that researchers should put more efforts into identifying the MFI’s cost drivers because social outre…
Not so different altogether: Putting Lean and sociotechnical design into practice in a process industry
2021
Purpose: The shop-floor organization under lean production (LP) has been hotly debated for about three decades. As this organization concept leaves considerable room for interpretation, the content of lean-inspired changes can vary widely. This paper pleads for a contingency view of how LP is implemented and how the outcomes of lean-inspired changes rely on users’ interpretations of the concept in particular production contexts.Design/methodology/approach: A case study was conducted in two large Norwegian chemical plants. Data from the observations and interviews were supplemented by interviews with top managers in 2017 and 2018. The first author also followed a management audit in one plan…
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Garment Industry : A Cross-case analysis of three Norwegian organizations’ approach to central challenges in i…
2017
Master's thesis Development management UT503 - University of Agder 2017 Working conditions for factory workers in the garment sector are often appalling, with extensive use of overtime, unsafe working environments, low presence of unions, union-hostility, weak (or no) contracts, and wages being held back, to name a few challenges. The idea and practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has received increased attention, as an approach to mitigating some of these challenges. With CSR, it is proposed that businesses ought to take on voluntary social and/or environmental responsibility because it is morally right. Some suggest that part of this responsibility should include ensuring dece…
Natural Resource Exploitation, Environment and Poverty; Linkages and Impact on Rural Households in Asutifi District in Ghana
2007
Master's Thesis in Development Management - Agder University College, 2007 The controversial negative relationship between the abundance of natural resources and economic growth and development has been at the centre of several development research discourses. It is often explained that, natural resources when exploited can be used to generate economic growth and development. However, this assertion is often rebuffed by other explanations that, natural resource abundance rather create more difficulties than benefits. The abundance of oil, coal, gold and even trees have been the route cause of problems such as riots, wars, corruption, inflation, environmental degradation and reduced economic…
Collective actions for empowerment and poverty reduction in rural Chiapas, Mexico
2007
Master's Thesis in Development Management - Agder University College, 2007 The present thesis is an investigation of rural community development in the Venustiano Carranza Province of Chiapas, Mexico. The objectives have been to analyze people’s experiences of collective work, and how this work, the social capital formation and access to capacity building courses might be leading to individual empowerment in the rural communities. The thesis begins with an introduction to the study area and an outline of the theories of alternative development and community approaches, and a presentation of the theories of empowerment, social capital and collective actions. It is argued that developing the …
The Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Well-being of Workers in the Informal Sector of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
2021
Master's thesis in Global Development and Planning (UT505) The economic restriction of COVID-19 in several countries has significantly impacted the global economy resulting in mass unemployment and job losses. Despite the fact that the crisis has an impact on every country, developing countries are the ones who are most affected. Furthermore, informal sectors are the hardest hit sector. In Nepal, where informal workers account for the highest working group, millions of jobs are estimated to be interrupted. Financial shortages and the lack of a welfare system in this crisis have made these people's lives miserable, making it impossible for them to manage their livelihood. This is affecting t…
The contribution of female entrepreneurs to socio-economic development : Study of the role of female Entrepreneurs in social and economic development…
2018
Master's thesis Global development and planning UT505 - University of Agder 2018 Entrepreneurship has a leading role in socio- economic development worldwide. It has usually been considered as a male dominated activity. However, many recent studies emphasize how significant the contribution of women to the entrepreneurship today. The role of women in development is becoming significant in world wide. This research is to examine the contribution of women entrepreneurs to the socio- economic development of Badalkumbura Division. This study recovers the main entrepreneurial activities that female entrepreneurs engage in, the characteristics of female entrepreneurs, the motivating factors for f…
Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Energy Consumption by Nigerian Households
2020
Master's thesis in Global Development and Planning (UT505) To actualize the SDGs by 2030, it is imperative to assess the successes of nations (especially developing ones) in achieving the set goals. One of such goals is guaranteeing access to dependable, friendly and inexpensive energy for all. Although energy is an essential need of every household, many households in Nigeria are deprived of contemporary energy access. This study aims at ascertaining the prevalence of energy deprivation, the determinants of energydeprivation, energy choices and intensity of energy consumption in Nigeria.