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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether microfinance activities aimed at the bottom of the pyramid consumers are sustainable.

The study follows a mixed methodology, manager’s views on sustainability of the programs were gauged by analyzing their responses in the areas of diversion of funds, operating cost, interest rates, and return rate of loans through semi-structured interviews. A survey was administered to 316 poor microfinance borrowers at the bottom of the pyramid in India in a cross-sectional field study format. The study used one sample t-test to test the sustainability of the microfinance activities.

All else being the same, microfinance activities aimed at the borrower’s communities are not sustainable. The major contributor to the lack of sustainability is the diversion of funds, results of both managers’ interviews and consumer survey provides strong evidence to support this. Though there are issues related to high interest rate, operating cost and low return on investment, it seems that the core issue behind all this is lack of full investment in the microfinance venture.

The study was limited to only two states in India. The mixed nature of the study meant that semi-structured interviews with a relatively small sample were the most appropriate method to address the research question. Future studies with larger, more representative sample sizes are encouraged to investigate how the findings can be generalized to larger populations. Also the information which determines the experiences and satisfaction of the consumers is collected only once. This study does not account for any changes over time in the populations or their interest.

The impact of micro finance in alleviating poverty is questioned by researchers and there is demand for further empirical evidence. Therefore, the findings of this study complement with existing work to present a comprehensive understanding of this topic by investigating the sustainability aspect of these programs from the dimension of both customers and lenders.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevant economic aspects that could affect the sustainability of the HE sector in the UAE.

Data are collected mainly through secondary sources and based on the relevant information. Two constructs, namely, market factors and educational governance are identified from the literature. An empirical model depicting the different factors that contribute to these two variables is outlined.

Educational governance and market factors are identified as the key pillars which contribute to the economic efficiency in the HE sector in the UAE. These constructs are affected by relevant factors. Some of the issues relating to educational governance could be controlled. Though factors contributing to market conditions could be deemed uncontrollable, HE institutions could come up with better strategies to deal with those issues.

The UAE HE sector could be a major contributor to the economy in the future, it is important to identify the main constructs and the associated forces which could impact the economic efficiency of the HE sector. The model proposed could be empirically tested in future studies.

This study is a novel attempt to examine sustainability in the HE sector in terms of economic efficiency, while previous studies have focused on the social and environmental aspect of the sustainability in the HE sector. Thus this study tries to address this lacuna in this domain by focusing on the economic efficiency aspect which is an important contributor to the sustainable development. The results may provide valuable insights for universities and regulators in developing appropriate strategies to improve the HE sector.

It has been eight years since the Eastern European nations decided to move away from a command economy and adopt free market economic policies. The transformation process has not been without problems, however their efforts and successes in many areas are commendable. Among the Eastern European nations, Hungary has been by far the most successful in transforming its economy and currently first in line for membership into the European Union and the enlarged North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The study assesses the attractiveness of Hungary for foreign investors, by using the country risk assessment model developed by Haner and Ewing (1985). Based on the discussion, this paper proposes recommendations for prospective investors.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach towards code validation of RISC microcontrollers, which helps to automate software debugging. A static machine code analysis which checks the appropriateness of instructions in a sequence to identify any logical mistakes and also to identify redundant codes appearing in a program for the target processor is presented.

Validation is done with the help of rules of inferences formulated for the target processor. The rules govern the occurrence of illegitimate/out of place instructions and code sequences for executing the computational and integrated peripheral functions. The stipulated rules are encoded in propositional logic formulae and their compliance is tested in all possible execution paths of the application programs. An incorrect sequence of machine code pattern is identified using slicing techniques on the control flow graph generated from machine code.

The results explain that the technique is independent of compiler/assembler and contributes to early detection of software bugs that are otherwise hard to detect. Program states are identified mainly with machine code pattern, which drastically reduces the state space creation contributing to an improved state‐of‐the‐art model checking.

Though the technique described is general, the implementation is highly architecture oriented, and hence the feasibility study is conducted only on PIC16F87X microcontrollers.

This validation tool can be integrated to the system development environment resulting in improved software quality and reduced debugging time.

It is a novel and original approach at machine code level applicable to a wide range of processors once appropriate rules are available.

Throughout centuries, Latin America has faced a paradox. On one hand, the abundance of resources has attracted immigrants who find a suitable place to undertake profitable business ventures in the region. On the other hand, the limited entrepreneurial resources of most countries of the region have motivated the migration of talented people, among them entrepreneurs, to non-Latin American countries. This chapter explores this paradox through the analysis of entrepreneurs' motivations to immigrate to, and migrate from Latin America, the influence of their profile on their business ventures, as well as the role played by both the home and the host countries' institutional conditions. The findings of this analysis underline the diversity of migrant entrepreneurs in terms of personal resources and survival versus opportunity-driven migration decisions. They also reveal the kind of mechanisms migrant entrepreneurs use to counteract their host country's institutional challenges.

Knowing what employees expect in the never normal environment post-COVID-19 can help organizations understand talent needs and preferences – including how and where they want to work, as well as what they need to feel productive – and then initiate action on those expectations. So, this paper aims to delineate the factors that makes an employee experience (EX) that align, empower and accelerate business impact.

This viewpoint paper draws on extant literature review – academic journals and mainstream business magazines – and establish a case for EX as an emerging concept in employer–employee relationship.

EX is the function of work, workplace culture, empowering technologies, flexible human resource policies/practices and importantly inclusive leadership. Positive EX determines employee engagement, which is likely to create a “positivity spiral” of culture, engagement and importantly organisational bottom-line.

EX is the new value proposition. This paper delineates five critical elements of EX and establish the case for continuing the research on EX as a critical line of inquiry in the human resource management (HRM) research tradition.