Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

A Qualitative Study of the Growth Strategies of Mature Small Businesses

Some small businesses have slower growth as they age and have limited strategies to maximize profit, productivity, and job creation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the strategies small business managers use to capitalize on growth opportunities. Area small business managers and support program stakeholders could gain new knowledge to develop effective support for mature small businesses. Twenty managers participated in this case study. These managers were from small businesses operating in the state of Florida for more than 5 years with less than 500 employees. The data collection approach included purposeful sampling and semistructured interviews with open-ended questions. In addition, literature on small business growth of policies and procedures was reviewed. The general systems theory conceptual framework was the guide for this study. The thematic approach was used to have the data analyzed using word frequency, text search, and coding. The themes emerging from this study were growth decisions and internal environment, growth decisions and external environment, using alternative growth strategies, heterogeneous growth strategy processes, consulting, researching, and planning growth, accessing support for growth strategies, and overcoming challenges with success attributes. These findings could assist area professional practitioners learn more about the decision making process used by small business managers including the indicators used to measure growth and identify growth opportunities. The findings could also contribute to continued job creation and economic growth of the local community

Consideration for a sustainable hybrid electric power mini-grid : case study for Wanale village in Uganda

In this study, a hybrid mini-grid system is designed to supply electricity to a rural village in Uganda. Renewable energy resources are identified, an estimation of the projected village short-term electricity demand is simulated, and using HOMER software, a hybrid mini-grid system is designed, components sized, and the system optimized in terms of cost, and efficient and reliable operation to meet the village demand

Enterprising Youth: Sub-Saharan Africa’s Uncashed Dividend

Nearly one-third of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is between the age group of 10 and 24 years (Devlin, 2013). This is only expected to grow further. However, the region has the fewest number of wage-earners (Monga, 2013). Youth employment is even worse as only about a third of the jobs created in Africa between 2000 and 2008 employed people between the ages of 15 and 24 years (African Economic Outlook, 2013c). The shrinking role of the public sector and the inadequate size of the private sector are the major reasons for the high unemployment rate in Africa. Low level of skills, lack of information about the job market and cultural and social stigmas further contribute to youth unemployment in Africa. The demand-management policies to promote youth employment have been ineffective. Thus, in the absence of jobs and due to the inefficacy of active labor market policies, entrepreneurship is critical to the future of Africa. However, lack of entrepreneurial training, inaccessibility of finance and markets, inadequate infrastructure, and cultural and political constraints are some of the main barriers to youth entrepreneurship. In light of the growing relevance of self-employment and an increasing inclination of African youth towards pursuing it, addressing the barriers to entrepreneurship is critical to Africa’s growth agenda. As a result, youth entrepreneurship programs offer various interventions including training, financing, mentoring, support, market access and other services to resolve the constraints faced by youth. However, evaluations of these programs have shown that they produce a variety of effects, both positive and negative, that preclude any generalizations. Moreover, the impact studies of such programs are few in number and lack consistency in type, implementation, and the environment of the programs’ interventions. Nevertheless, there is considerable evidence that youth entrepreneurship programs have made a valuable contribution to youth employment. This paper focuses on a qualitative study of interviews with 11 specialists in the area of entrepreneurship to understand the best practices in the design and implementation of entrepreneurship programs

Good intentions in complex realities: Challenges for designing responsibly in digital agriculture in low-income countries

Human-centred design (HCD) approaches are adopted to develop digital agriculture interventions inclusively and responsibly. Whether these approaches indeed lead to responsible designs remains unclear, especially for low-income countries. Using a Rwandan case-study, we contribute to debates on inclusive, participatory and responsible design by developing a framework for operationalising HCD and responsible innovation in practice and studying the process of designing a digital agriculture intervention for banana disease management. The four dimensions (inclusion, anticipation, reflexivity, responsiveness) of responsible innovation and our own framework of digital rights served as analytical lenses. Findings show that power relations and digital capacity negatively affect user inclusivity in design. The context in which HCD is deployed hinders anticipation, reflexivity and responsiveness, resulting in design decisions that do not fully respect digital rights and thus in potentially irresponsible digital technologies. Broader, long-term consequences of digital technologies should be a central consideration in design processes, while responsible innovation theory needs to become cognizant of the complex realities in which digital innovations emerge

Data-driven & Theory-driven Science : Artificial Realities and Applications to Savings Groups

Paper I and Paper II is not published yet. They are excluded from the dissertation until they will be published.The scientific process is neither unique nor nomic. Two processes of scientific inquiry are theory-driven and data-driven science. This dissertation analyzes savings groups using theory-driven and data-driven methods. Simulated realities-based on data-driven theory-are used to understand the emerging dynamics of savings groups. Savings groups are grassroots, community-based organizations composed of 15 to 30 members. These organizations-usually supported by international development agencies-have weekly meetings during a cycle of operations that typically lasts a year. In the groups, savings are kept in two funds: a fund for loans and a social welfare fund that covers life-cycle events. The findings of Papers A to D in this dissertation provide new large-sample evidence about savings groups, their dynamics, and the factors affecting their financial performance. In practice, the results of Paper A to D shed light on the best policies to promote sustainable development with informal finance in a cost-effective way. A theory-driven approach indicates that the social fund in savings groups stimulates loan allocation among risk-sharing members, while implicitly covering idiosyncratic risks (Paper A). A data-driven approach based on Bayesian data-mining reveals that the macroeconomic environment and the facilitation model of development agencies have a strong influence on the profit-generating capacity of savings groups (Paper B). Machine-learning methods further show that business training is not the most frequent program implemented by development agencies, but it is in fact the most powerful intervention to encourage profits, particularly when a development agency stops working with a group and leaves a community (Paper C). Finally, the simulation of a village with artificial agents indicates that the businesses of savings groups can have higher profits due to the consolidation of social capital and the competitive advantage created through a process of homophily (Paper D). Metatheoretically, the theory-driven and data-driven approaches of this dissertation-and the complementarity between these approaches-contribute to the epistemology of data-intensive science. The dissertation concludes that the gelstaltic and quasi-teleological explanations of the data-driven approach help to the formulation of theories through inductive and abductive reasoning.publishedVersio

Learning with Mobiles. A Developing Country Perspective on Mobile Technologies use in Learning for Livelihood Support

Paper VI is excluded from the dissertation until it will be published.This doctoral thesis focuses on understanding the role of mobile technologies as tools to enhance learning for livelihood support. To date, the body of knowledge on the use of mobile technologies for development is growing, as mobiles avail a chance for many developing countries’ communities to improve their economic and social well-being. The current integration of mobile technologies for development has to a large extent focused on information dissemination, with less emphasis on how mobiles offer learning spaces to propel development. Yet, mobile technologies offer possibilities for access to learning for communities in resource constrained settings. Dedicated studies in pedagogical integration of mobile technologies in teaching and learning mainly focus on formal and informal learning classroom-related activities, neglecting the substantial majority like smallholder farmers who constitute the biggest percentage in many rural areas.publishedVersio

Perceptions of the rules of business behaviour in the competitive banking environment in Uganda

Business rules shape the behaviour of a business and guide the behaviour of employees when conducting business. Therefore, business rules explain what is allowed and not allowed. It is argued that all organisations have business rules and engage in some form of relationship whether through competition or cooperation with other companies. In today’s business environment, organisations are embedded in relationships with other actors in order to gain access to resources that are needed. Therefore, each organisation’s business rules define their strategies and actions. The type of business rule behaviour which is applied by organisations encourages them to grow by taking market share from rivals or creating new markets. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the rules of business behaviour on perceptions of the competitive banking environment in Uganda and its potential impact on certain outcomes. In this study, a quantitative research approach was adopted, as the study sought to investigate the relationships between variables. This study collected data through the use of a structured self-administered survey questionnaire which was distributed to 233 branches of banks in Uganda, totaling 700 bank employees. The survey yielded 529 usable questionnaires which were analyzed, using several statistical analysis techniques. A hypothetical model and measuring instrument of perceptions of the rules of business behaviour in the competitive banking environment within Uganda was developed. Six null-hypotheses were subjected to statistical analysis. The influence of three independent variables, namely, confrontational business behaviour, co-operational business behaviour and typologies of competition on the intermediate variable, perceptions of the competitive banking environment in Uganda were tested. The impact of these variables on three independent outcome variables, namely, organisational performance and customer loyalty and retention were also tested The empirical findings revealed that the rules of business behaviour have a significant relationship with perceptions of the competitive banking environment in Uganda. These results showed that confrontational behaviour as a rule of business behaviour can be classified as being direct or indirect. The study further revealed that banks should consider competitors as co-partners and not only as aggressors, indicating that co-operational business behaviour is statistically significantly related to perceptions of the competitive business environment in Uganda. The three typologies of competition, namely, defy attack, defense and debase attack are also positively related to perceptions of the competitive business environment in Uganda. The empirical results of the study also indicated that perceptions of the competitive banking environment have a positive relationship with outcomes such as organisational performance, customer retention and customer loyalty. This study contributed to the literature and body of knowledge regarding the impact of rules of business behaviour in the competitive banking environment in Uganda. This study could also assist banks, employees and customers alike to understand the different rules of business behaviour that exist and what strategies banks can employ to improve their position in the market. This study could also be replicated by other banks in other developing countries so as to ensure successful competition and the cooperation of banks as they engage in their activities in the banking industry

Value chain competitiveness analysis: entrepreneurial behavioural practices determining business success in Uganda's commercial sugar and forestry industries

Global value chain (GVC) participation has been placed on a high level policy agenda by Development Partners as a prescription template for agri-business growth and competitiveness of developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Despite, the GVC participation popularity in application, there is an intense debate questioning why some countries are advancing in the global marketplace, while others are failing to do so. Actors' (entrepreneur's) behavior has been highlighted by the value chain fraternity researchers as an area of interest to investigate this phenomenon. The purpose of this research was to contribute to the understanding of the link between the entrepreneur behavior and better enhanced competitiveness in GVC, and as such offer some key insights into the emerging GVC theory. Case Study Approach was the major research strategy complemented by the Survey. Polar types of Ugandan commercial sugarcane and forestry farmers were selected, namely high and low performing entrepreneurs. Principal unit of analysis was the entire value chain, analyzed at three levels: Micro (Farm Enterprises), Meso (Farmer/Miller) and Macro (National Policies & Regulatory Environment). Principal component analysis was run for purposes of grouping items. Empirical data was analyzed using within case analysis, and cross-case pattern analysis. Theoretically and policy practice this study has brought into insight new research frontiers: (1) The finding of internality behavior demonstrates that entrepreneur's traits, characteristics and actions are basically behaviors that can be learnt, nurtured, and developed into a business culture, competencies and capabilities for enterprise growth, productivity and competitiveness. Therefore, policy program designs should focus on igniting these behaviors which are already embedded in the minds of the entrepreneurs, and then supporting the strengthening of such behavioral changes for entrepreneurs to effectively participate in GVC in developing economies. (2) Institutional quality defined by the set of rules of the game with the associated governance power matters with respect to equitable wealth distribution and ultimately competitiveness. Findings of this study are being used to inform both the drafting of the National Sugar Bill 'Draft Uganda Sugar Act 2015' and improvement of the regulatory environment of Uganda's Forestry Industry Sector