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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the investigation of gender inequalities in the labour market at the regional level in Greece throughout the years preceding and following the economic crisis.

Utilising microdata from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) database from 2005 up to the most recent available, the authors construct the Total Earnings Gap Index, a composite index at the individual level which incorporates gender differentials in aspects related to employment, work intensity and earnings. This approach is further complemented by the results of the econometric analysis (a probit model for the probability of being in employment and a Heckman selection model for the determinants of hourly pay and hours worked), which portray the impact of gender on a set of labour-related characteristics.

The findings of the analysis indicate a widespread reduction of the gender gap; however, this appears to be mainly the result of a sharper fall in employment among men, hence pointing towards a “race to the bottom” process which presents few – if any – signs of an increase of women’s economic independence. The emerging picture points towards a trend of regional convergence in gender gaps, while also highlighting that similar gender equality outcomes are, in certain cases, shaped by radically different dynamics.

This paper uses an innovative composite index which provides a multi-dimensional depiction of gender inequality in the Greek labour market. This index has been introduced by Eurostat and has been applied at the country level, with this paper being the first – to the authors’ knowledge – to apply it at the regional level. Additionally, by examining years before and throughout the crisis, the present analysis adopts a dynamic perspective, offering valuable insight into the seismic shifts that Greece’s labour market structure has undergone during this period.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of using non‐income indicators and the self‐organizing map (SOM) approach as an alternative analytical tool to map countries' welfare status.

Using data from 27 countries of the East Asia‐Pacific region, a welfare analysis based on non‐income indicators is implemented. The set of the selected indicators employed includes measures of social indicators as well as indicators related to the overall development framework. The empirical approach of the present paper can be described as a two‐stage procedure. In the first stage, the standard incremental SOM algorithm has been used and the two‐dimensional map produced in a hexagonal grid is presented together with the weight maps. In the second stage, the k‐means methodology has been used to cluster the prototypes produced by the SOM.

The classification produced by the two‐stage approach of the empirical analysis is compared with the baseline World Bank's income categories (based on Gross National Income per capita) offering an opportunity to assess the usefulness of non‐parametric approaches that are based on non‐income indicators vis‐à‐vis World Bank's approach in analysing welfare outcomes. The emerging picture of the empirical analysis supports the potential of the SOM as a useful and prolific analytical tool in mapping welfare outcomes.

This study proposes a methodology beyond the conventional ordinal rankings of the welfare of the countries based on non‐income indicators and the SOM.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

Recent empirical studies by Antonakakis, Chatziantoniou and Filis (2013), Brogaard and Detzel (2015) and Christou et al. (2017) present evidence, which supports the notion that a rise in economic policy uncertainty (EPU) will lead to a decline in stock prices. The purpose of this paper is to examine US categorical policy uncertainty on stock returns while controlling for implied volatility and downside risk. In addition to the domestic impacts of policy uncertainty, this paper also presents evidence that changes in US policy uncertainty promptly propagates to the global stock markets.

This study uses a GED-GARCH (1, 1) model to estimate changes of uncertainties in US monetary, fiscal and trade policies on stock returns for the sample period of January 1990–December 2018. Robustness test is conducted by using different set of data and modeling techniques.

This paper contributes to the literature in several aspects. First, testing of US aggregate data while controlling for downside risk and implied volatility, consistently, shows that responses of stock prices to US policy uncertainty changes, not only display a negative effect in the current period but also have at least a one-month time-lag. The evidence supports the uncertainty premium hypothesis. Second, extending the test to global data reveals that US policy uncertainty changes have a negative impact on markets in Europe, China and Japan. Third, testing the data in sectoral stock markets mainly displays statistically significant results with a negative sign. Fourth, the evidence consistently shows that changes in policy uncertainty present an inverse relation to the stock returns, regardless of whether uncertainty is moving upward or downward.

The current research is limited to the markets in the USA, eurozone, China and Japan. This study can be extended to additional countries, such as emerging markets.

This paper provides a model that uses categorical policy uncertainty approach to explain stock price changes. The parametric estimates provide insightful information in advising investors for making portfolio decision.

The estimated coefficients of changes in monetary policy uncertainty, fiscal policy uncertainty and trade policy uncertainty are informative in assisting policymakers to formulate effective financial policies.

This study extends the existing risk premium model in several directions. First, it separates the financial risk factors from the EPU innovations; second, instead of using EPU, this study investigates the effects from monetary policy, fiscal policy and trade policy uncertainties; third, in additional to an examination of the effects of US categorical policy uncertainties on its own markets, this study also investigates the spillover effects to global major markets; fourth, besides the aggregate stock markets, this study estimates the effects of US policy uncertainty innovations on the sectoral stock returns.

A major challenge the car industry currently faces worldwide is how to implement an effective reverse (also called closed loop) supply chain design while manufacturing environmental friendly cars from limited available resources. The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between reduce, reuse and disposal in the Japanese car market with base scenario analysis using the car consumption data and forecast.

The system dynamics (SD) modeling analyzes the closed loop supply chain design for the Japanese car industry. Relationships between reduce, reuse, recycle and disposal are explored with base scenario analysis using the car consumption data and forecast. The SD model is subjected to extreme conditions test for structural validity. Dynamic analysis of different market scenarios for the Japanese car industry's reverse supply chain is conducted.

Japanese ELV regulation will trigger the growth of used car export rate to emerging countries. Without additional tax on used car export, manufacturers in Japan tend to export used cars. Imposing tax on used car export will place some control on such export and improve economic opportunities for remanufacturers, recyclers, government, manufacturers and consumers in Japan.

The used car export option in Japanese reverse supply chain may cause the emerging countries (importing used cars) not able to sustain this activity. The Japanese government and manufacturers should take initiative to create or support the reverse logistics facilities in export countries. Issues pertaining to how product components can be recycled, reused, or remanufactured should be factored in the product design phase to reduce the cost of products and raw materials.

The dynamic model of the Japanese car market provides an experimental simulation tool, which can be used to forecast the relationship between reduce, reuse, recycle, disposal and how various logistics elements will be impacted by government regulations on a long‐term basis.

Entrepreneurship education is observed as expanding in both academic and informal settings. Drawing on the Business Schools paradigm, relevant courses deliver contiguous knowledge and competencies applicable to new business creation based on cognitive and experiential instruction. Germane studies explore the entrepreneurial intention of trainees as a consequence of the pursued instruction. This chapter follows a more student-centric perspective which supposes the underlying cognitive schemes of trainees and their evolution as primordial structures that are affected through learning. This focus turns the approach into pure constructivism where the Piagetian concepts of assimilation and accommodation underpin learning. Based on a coherent constructivist online environment, that is the TeleCC platform in Greece, evidence for reflection, critical thinking and meta-learning incidents is investigated amongst the trainees’ dialogues and comments. The appearance of these processes verifies the dynamics of constructivist learning and Piaget’s equilibration process. There has been minimal attention in research so far into genuine constructivist signatures relevant to entrepreneurial learning; a gap that motivated the research of this chapter. The features of the learning environment and the facilitating role for the educator are crucial presuppositions for deep constructivist learning processes to occur. Else, instructional interventions favour the customary guidance and knowledge or experience transfer. It is maintained that the constructivist approach is an underdeveloped yet innovative perspective for educational research in entrepreneurship that needs good examples and contextualisation of relevant concepts and processes. Its contribution will be especially important and inclusive for the lifelong learning domain where adult learners participate in with repositories of personal life experiences and crystallised and resistant conceptualisations for the phenomena under consideration.

This paper addresses the significance of training students in entrepreneurship to enable sustained national and international competitiveness in the knowledge-based global marketplace. Entrepreneurial education is varied, ranging from basic to in-depth courses, including customer-focused programs, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. This program is nationally-renowned with strong academic roots. A full site was launched at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in January 2015 and was the first I-Corps program in the state of Florida.

This paper addresses the importance of entrepreneurship education, reviews the available national training programs in entrepreneurship, presents the design methodology of the NSF I-Corps program, and analyzes the results of the teams who have participated in the NSF I-Corps program.

The results are categorized into innovative areas and show the percentage of teams who participated in the I-Corps program in each area. It also identifies the percentage of teams who engaged in actual startup activities following I-Corps participation.

Educators, students, and trainers can use the findings to benchmark the outcomes of training programs in entrepreneurship. Students and innovators interested in participating in I-Corps can use this paper to obtain insights and a broader understanding of what was done in terms of results and implications.

This paper contributes a unique analysis of the I-Corps program approach and its outcomes since its launch in 2015 and can be used as a reference for any training program in entrepreneurship.

This chapter examines changes in US monetary policy uncertainty (ΔMPU) and fiscal policy uncertainty (ΔFPU) on stock returns while controlling for downside risk, lagged dividend yield, and time series patterns. Testing G7 markets consistently shows that both ΔMPU and ΔFPU have significant negative impacts on stock returns. Evidence shows that any downside risk, ΔMPU or ΔFPU in US market will soon be transmitted to G6 industrial markets and the impacts are extended to two months. These risk and uncertainty premiums should be priced in the stocks of the major industrial markets.

This study finds evidence that a stock return is inversely correlated with downside risk, confirming a pattern of risk-aversion behavior. Evidence from testing a stock return's response to a change in economic policy uncertainty indicates a significantly negative effect in the Chinese stock market; this conclusion holds true for testing the impacts of changes in fiscal and monetary policy uncertainties. However, the data produce a mixed effect for the change in fiscal policy uncertainty. The evidence produced from examining the geopolitical effect on the stock market strongly supports the presence of an adverse effect on stock market performance.