Does Portfolio Quality Influence Financial Sustainability? A Case of Microfinance Institutions in Kenya

This article studies the relationship between portfolio quality and the financial sustainability of microfinance institutions in Kenya. The analysis is based on a panel dataset of 30 microfinance institutions in the period 2010 to 2018. The study is guided by institutional theory which is built on conformance and continuity. The study adopts an explanatory research design where a panel approach is used under positivist paradigm. The study finds that portfolio quality has a positive significant effect on the financial sustainability at 1% statistical significance level. Based on this finding, the study concludes that portfolio quality is an essential element of MFIs financial sustainability. The study recommends that MFIs managers should devise good collection policies to improve portfolio quality while lessening loan default rate. The portfolio quality may improve the overall profitability and enhance investor confidence in their strategic decision-making on refinancing. It is important to note in order to ensure financial inclusion; the stakeholders must be involved

A new frontier approach to model the eco-efficiency in European countries

This study aims to evaluate the resource and environment efficiency problem of European countries. We specify a new stochastic frontier model where Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is considered as the desirable output and Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions as the undesirable output. Capital, Labour, Fossil fuels and Renewable Energy consumption are regarded as inputs. GDP/GHG ratio is maximized given the values of the other four variables. The study is divided into two distinct periods: 2000-2004 and 2005-2011. This division is related to the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, and will allow us to evaluate the difference between the levels of efficiency before and after the establishment of environmental targets. Since stochastic frontier models are typically ill-posed, a new maximum entropy approach to assess technical efficiency, which combines information from the data envelopment analysis and the structure of composed error from the stochastic frontier approach without requiring distributional assumptions, is presented in this work

Money and sustainability: Transitioning to an ecological monetary system

A profound transformation of our monetary paradigm is urgently needed. To re-think, re-imagine, and re-design our monetary system is of critical priority if we want to have a chance at sustainability. The current dominant monetary-banking-financial system is inherently, and by design, a source and a force of unsustainability lying at the core of our economies and societies. It's a system actively contributing to ecological degradation, socio-political crises, and economic instability, uncertainty, and alienation. But there are alternatives and these must be given the spotlight. Not tweaks or reforms to the system, but radical shifts in how we deal, use, relate to, and feel regarding money. The societal challenge we must embrace is rapidly transitioning our monetary reality into a purposeful ecological monetary ecosystem aligned with the regeneration of our planet and all life in it. This Doctoral thesis contributes to the emergence and development of a new monetary paradigm with planet and people at its core. The research is intrinsically transdisciplinary and based on mixed-methods. Different methodologies were used, combining qualitative with quantitative methods and more passive research with more action-oriented transformative research, including field visits, interviews with practioners, and direct interaction with local and regional complementary currency experiments. By combining a transdisciplinary literature review with an action-research approach this thesis offers novel insights into the transition process to an ecological monetary ecosystem. A set of regenerative principles and priorities for monetary reform that would enable us to root money back into the real economy, coherent with the laws of physics and aligned with an ecology of life is offered. Moreover, a model for a multi-currency ecosystem is explored and presented at the end of this thesis. The implications of such a fundamental revolution in the core design of our increasingly monetized economies could potentially put us back on track and re-align our socio-economic and political system with our climate agreements, our SDG and our intentions for peace and prosperity.Uma profunda transformação do nosso paradigma monetário é urgentemente necessária. Re-pensar, re-imaginar, e re-desenhar o nosso sistema monetário é uma prioridade societal crítica se quisermos garantir a nossa sustentabilidade. O actual sistema monetário-bancário-financeiro dominante é inerentemente, e por design, uma fonte e uma força de insustentabilidade que se encontra no cerne das nossas economias e sociedades. É um sistema que contribui activamente para a degradação ecológica, crises sócio-políticas, e para a instabilidade, incerteza e alienação económica. Mas existem alternativas e estas têm de ser objecto de atenção especial. Não ajustamentos ou "reformas" ao sistema, mas mudanças radicais na forma como lidamos, utilizamos, nos relacionamos e sentimos em relação ao dinheiro. O desafio social que temos de abraçar é a rápida transição das nossas realidades monetárias para um ecossistema propositadamente alinhado com a regeneração do nosso planeta e de toda a vida. Esta tese de doutoramento contribui para a emergência e desenvolvimento de um novo paradigma monetário com o planeta e as pessoas no seu âmago. A investigação é intrinsecamente transdisciplinar e baseada numa abordagem de métodos mistos. Foram utilizadas diferentes metodologias, combinando métodos qualitativos com métodos quantitativos, e investigação mais passiva com investigação transformadora mais orientada para a acção, incluindo visitas de campo, entrevistas e interacção directa com experiências de moedas complementares locais e regionais. Ao combinar uma revisão transdisciplinar da literatura, com uma abordagem de investigaçãoacção, esta tese oferece novas ideias e concepções sobre o processo de transição para um ecossistema monetário ecológico. É oferecido um conjunto de princípios regenerativos e prioridades para a reforma monetária que nos permitiria enraizar o dinheiro de volta à economia real, coerente com as leis da física e alinhado com uma ecologia da vida. No final da tese é ainda explorado e apresentado um modelo para um ecosistema monetário com base na co-existência de múltiplos circuitos monetários. As implicações de uma tal revolução no nosso sistema monetário e no centro das nossas economias, cada vez mais monetizadas, poderão ser potenciadoras de uma transição para um novo caminho societal, alinhado com os nossos acordos climáticos, os nossos ODS e as nossas intenções de paz e prosperidade

Deforestation in Portugal: causes, consequences and possible solutions

Deforestation is not a new problem although world-wide population awareness is increasing. This issue has terrible environmental, social and economic consequences due to the over-exploitation of the natural resources and to alternative land uses which are more profitable in the short term. The combat and mitigation of deforestation is one of the biggest challenges for the 21st Century in order to achieve the Millennium Goals and a global sustainable development at all levels of human activities. Therefore this paper will address these concerns focusing on the causes and consequences of deforestation as well as on the actions carried out by the decision makers in order to provide solutions for this increasingly alarming problem. This paper will also approach the concepts of sustainability as well as economy and management of the natural resources aiming at providing an insight of the past deforestation in Portugal, the present situation and a sustainable perspective regarding the future

"Civil Economy and Civilized Economics: Essentials for Sustainable Development"

This essay will consider the relevance of the social sciences - especially economics - to the foundations of sustainable development. Looming environmental crises have served as a prime motivating force for reevaluating fundamental principles. In particular, the concept of sustainability, carrying with it clear requirements for values, goals and ethics, has begun to reshape economics. The broadest conception of sustainability is found if we understand sustainable development to mean Socially And Environmentally Just And Sustainable development - "SAEJAS development". Throughout the paper we will see examples of rules, or norms, that serve to organize human behavior without requiring that everything be rethought all the time. Among these may be found some ethical rules that lay the foundation for responding to the current situation in which humanity finds itself. What notice should the social sciences take of such rules? How would the social sciences - especially economics - have to change in order to be able to pay appropriate attention to ethical norms? "Participatory science," involving citizens as well as specialists, is proposed as an outline for the kind of science that is needed under contemporary circumstances. The approach described under this rubric will be contrasted with the methods and assumptions of mainstream economics. The essay will give some attention to how economic ideas - for better or for worse - affect and shape culture and society. The theory of sustainable development is proposed as offering strong, practical elements of a needed alternative economic paradigm. The conclusion will remind us that theory alone has little effect, and will point to an area where theory and practice can work together to civilize modern economies.civil society, sustainable development, development, SAEJAS, ethics, social capital, environment, new economics,

01-01 "Civil Economy and Civilized Economics: Essentials for Sustainable Development."

This essay will consider the relevance of the social sciences - especially economics - to the foundations of sustainable development. Looming environmental crises have served as a prime motivating force for reevaluating fundamental principles. In particular, the concept of sustainability, carrying with it clear requirements for values, goals and ethics, has begun to reshape economics. The broadest conception of sustainability is found if we understand sustainable development to mean Socially And Environmentally Just And Sustainable development - "SAEJAS development". Throughout the paper we will see examples of rules, or norms, that serve to organize human behavior without requiring that everything be rethought all the time. Among these may be found some ethical rules that lay the foundation for responding to the current situation in which humanity finds itself. What notice should the social sciences take of such rules? How would the social sciences - especially economics - have to change in order to be able to pay appropriate attention to ethical norms? "Participatory science," involving citizens as well as specialists, is proposed as an outline for the kind of science that is needed under contemporary circumstances. The approach described under this rubric will be contrasted with the methods and assumptions of mainstream economics. The essay will give some attention to how economic ideas - for better or for worse - affect and shape culture and society. The theory of sustainable development is proposed as offering strong, practical elements of a needed alternative economic paradigm. The conclusion will remind us that theory alone has little effect, and will point to an area where theory and practice can work together to civilize modern economies.

Digital sustainability and entrepreneurship: How digital innovations are helping tackle climate change and sustainable development

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Sustainability of marketing systems: systeming interpretation of hybrid car manufacturer and consumer communications

The purpose of this qualitative macromarketing investigation is to explore the issue of the sustainability of marketing systems. Drawing on complex systems thinking, an alternative logic of marketing systems and a methodological basis for interpreting communicated meanings are developed. The alternative logic of marketing systems recognises the unity of a difference between a marketing system and its environment. This insight has become a cornerstone for synthesising the systeming methodology. Systeming comprises the philosophy, the model, and the method of interpreting communication-as-self-observation of marketing system agents. Data, communication by hybrid car manufacturers and consumers, were collected from netnographic sources such as corporate websites, reports posted online, weblogs, and consumer forums. The interpretation of these data was accomplished using systeming procedures, e.g. communication analysis, distinction identification, re-entry description, and logical level tracking. The systeming analysis of the hybrid car marketer and consumer communications illustrates that meaning-creation in the system is underpinned by purposeful human behaviour in reducing complexity of marketplace experience into a meaningful pattern, sustainability. Both manufacturers and consumers claim to become sustainable in reference to being unsustainable by creating self-referential differences, operating in different interaction contexts, and expanding meaning paradoxes. The interpretation shows that interactive meaning-creation in the system is inherently contradictory. Manufacturers expand (give a logical form to) contradictions through introducing hierarchical meaning structures, temporality, new functions, and communicative transvection. Consumers deal with the contradictions through enriching co-creation experiences and learning the proper continuation of specific hybrid car driving practices. The significant insight gained from this investigation is that the hybrid car marketing system is not a passive entity; it is the locus of purposefully expanding meanings. Two modes of sustainability with regard to the hybrid car marketing system can be distinguished: the content of communication that denotes enacted meanings of sustainability and the form of communication that indicates how sustainable these sustainability enactments are. The content/form distinction implies that the sustainability of the hybrid car marketing system is a matter of interactive meaning-creation between system agents. The sustainable development process, in at least a mobility domain, is driven by purposeful social interaction rather than static product attributes. This investigation is innovative because it a) offers a conceptualisation of a marketing system as a meaning flow; b) synthesises and compiles a methodology and method for interpreting communication in a marketing system; c) reveals systemic insights into the hybrid car marketing system; d) characterises the sustainability dimension of the hybrid car marketing system; e) explains a conceptual ground for reconciling the marketing system and society; f) provides a general macromarketing perspective to scrutinise recent conceptual developments in the marketing discipline; g) unifies marketing systems thinking with recent advancements in the marketing discipline, such as the service-dominant logic, and consumer culture theory; and, also, h) provides recommendations for a number of micro-managerial situations from a holistic perspective

Small business transition towards degrowth

This work focuses on the relationship between small firms and degrowth. It aims to contribute to the understanding of what production by small firms should entail for a degrowth society and economy to be possible. It is proposed that for small firms to transition towards degrowth and consequently become part thereof, small firms should become degrowth businesses. This work proposes a framework of degrowth business informed by empirical insights derived from seven cases of small firms in England. The study claims that while small firms may indeed be suitable for degrowth, this entails transformation of their business on multiple levels, including worldviews of individuals involved. Moreover, it is claimed that in transition towards degrowth, small firms are likely to face barriers. It is concluded that to transition towards degrowth, transformation of small firms into degrowth businesses is not sufficient. For degrowth society and economy to be possible, these efforts must be supplemented by a larger societal transformation involving multiple agents and structures. This work’s contribution is theoretical in terms of advancing understanding of degrowth business and production by firms for degrowth, and practical since the framework developed aims to be useful for firms, policy-makers and in education.Internal funding (University of Derby): fees-only bursar