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The cybernetic approach differs significantly from the conventional reductionist methods of natural and biological sciences. Norbert Wiener established the theory of cybernetics as a science of control and communication process in living beings (human and animals) and machines. Dutta Majumder in his Norbert Wiener Award winning paper extended the approach to include integrated complex human machine systems and functions with general systems theory as a unitary science laying the mathematical foundation for unifying observing systems, observed systems and the act of observing as indicated in von Foerster’s concept of second‐order cybernetics. Both from the point of view of ontology and that of epistemology the cybernetic approach now enables computer technology to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and expert system (ES) for knowledge based instrumentation for diagnostics and therapy planning. Presents the results of a project for development of a knowledge based framework for combining different modalities of medical image processing such as CT, MR(T₁), MR(T₂), SPECT, PET, USG etc. whichever is relevant for particular pathological investigation for diagnostics and therapeutic planning. Experiments were conducted with (a) Alzheimer’s patient data and (b) detection and grading of malignancy with oncological data for the cancer screening system.

This paper empirically investigates whether trade openness (TO) in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries affects how banks might employ loan loss provisions (LLPs) to smooth out their earnings and how adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) can mitigate it.

The analysis includes 78 commercial banks from five BRICS nations and spans 2014 through 2020. To test these hypotheses, the authors utilized a fixed-effect and two-step system panel generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimator.

TO positively affects income smoothing (earnings management) across BRICS commercial banks. The effect is clearer in banks that make financial reports under the IFRS. Path analysis reveals that the effect of TO is driven by nonperforming loans (NPLs). Additionally, the IFRS restricts earnings management in the BRICS banking sector when a better institutional environment is present. The authors found that accounting rules (IFRS) and enforcement (better institutional settings) interact to enhance earnings’ quality.

The relationship between TO and bank earnings management practices is important for understanding the complex interplay between trade and finance and ensuring financial stability, investor confidence and regulatory compliance. This study recommends better regulations and governance mechanisms for financial reports in emerging nations like BRICS. Additionally, macro-prudential regulators and banking supervisors should work closely to ensure transparent TO decisions with improved discipline, institutional quality and regulatory support to enhance bank stability.

The study finds evidence of bank income smoothing in the BRICS and introduces TO as a determinant. It also identifies the evolving role of IFRS in the presence of higher institutional quality and TO, thereby expanding the financial reporting literature.

In this chapter, I reflect on my experiences doing ethnographic inquiry to argue that a critical ethnographic onto-epistemology must be central for culturally responsive evaluators who work from ethnographic and social justice orientations. An onto-epistemology can be understood as the “hybridized ways of knowing and being” used to “navigate…our lived experiences” (Boveda & Bhattacharya, 2019, p. 8). A critical ethnographic onto-epistemology illuminates potential strategies for culturally responsive evaluators to more authentically, critically, and reflexively engage with the communities and actors implicated in their evaluations. This reflexivity considers different theories of culture shaping the design, implementation, analysis, and outcomes of ethnographically oriented evaluation. I chart how theories of culture in culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) have evolved from a view of cultural difference to focus on a group's behaviors, values, and shared customs. As the concept of culture is central to CRE (Hood et al., 2015), I argue that it must align itself with contemporary anthropological literature that theorizes culture as a fluid set of unevenly dispersed resources that actors construct, use, and connect as they make meaning of and organize themselves within larger societal arrangements and institutions (Levinson et al., 2015). I ground this argument in reflections around three components of my critical ethnographic onto-epistemology: criticality, politicality, and internal and relational forms of transparency. Culturally responsive evaluators may benefit from exploring how a critical ethnographic onto-epistemology can shape theories of culture in CRE, moving toward more critical theories and epistemologies that counter the residues of coloniality which shape both ethnography and evaluation.

The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

The study aims to understand how various channels of financial sector development affect the income inequality across Indian states and whether the inequality widening or narrowing hypothesis of financial development may be confirmed at a sub-national level.

Using state-wise annual data for the period from 1999-2000 to 2011-2012, a panel data analysis using generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator is conducted for a sample of 15 major Indian states.

The results confirm the inequality widening hypothesis of financial sector development in India. While each channel affects different section of the population in a different way, their overall effect on the income inequality remains unfavourable.

This paper is the first ever study to provide a comparative empirical evidence for the effect of each channel of financial development on the income inequality in India. The results provide significant insights to the policymakers, practitioners and academia in the financial sector with respect to the efficiency of each channel of financial development in bridging the gap between the poor and rich.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and earnings quality in banks in the context of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as an emerging economic bloc. The study further explores the role of institutional quality in moderating the impact of EPU on bank earnings quality.

The study has used earnings management (EM) as a proxy for earnings quality, measured using discretionary loan loss provisions. The higher the EM, the lower the quality of earnings. The study has collected data from 74 banks spanning the years 2014 to 2020 and used fixed effects (FE) and generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimators to test the hypotheses.

The study has found a positive impact of EPU on EM, suggesting that banks in the BRIC region react to EPU by increasing earnings opacity. However, the study found that better institutional quality can reduce the EM in the presence of EPU.

The study has made an early attempt to establish the relationship between bank EM and EPU in a cross-country setting. In addition, the study shows that the level of institutional quality in emerging markets moderates the impact of EPU on bank EM, which remains unexplored in prior research.

This chapter describes the possibilities for fusing ethnography and evaluation to transform educational inquiry and educational entities (programs, systems, and policies). The central question explored is, how do we best pursue work connecting evaluation and ethnography to fulfill our commitments to diversity, justice, and cultural responsiveness in educational spaces, to make tangible transformative change? With 40 years of literature on ethnography-evaluation connections as a foundation, this chapter describes three coalescing themes: transformative, intersectional, and comparative. These themes are proposed as valuable for guiding contemporary educational inquiry that serves social justice. The transformative theme denotes educational inquiry in which the researcher or evaluator ethically collects data, makes defensible interpretations, and facilitates social change in collaboration with others. Doing transformative work that meaningfully fuses ethnography and evaluation rests on essential factors like time, values engagement, collaboration, and self-work. The intersectional theme describes intersectionality as an evolving analytical framework that promotes social problem-solving and learning via investigating the significance of intersecting social identities in (a) how people's lives are shaped, (b) their access to power across circumstances, and (c) their everyday experiences of subordination and discrimination. Finally, the comparative theme refers to sensibilities and practices gleaned from the interdisciplinary and transnational field of comparative education, including developing comparative cultural understanding and analyzing complex systems in one's inquiry projects. Across themes, this chapter emphasizes positionality, responsibility, and theory-bridging to make sense of the uses of ethnographic concepts and practices in transformative evaluation work in educational spaces.

While environmental sustainability may have been intensified by different occurrences such as global warming, increased carbon emission, loss of biodiversity and natural resource depletion, there are concerns that rising population combined with the quality of institutions have serious implications on the attainment of environmental sustainability. While this may seem factual, tackling environmental problems by adopting population reduction policies might not necessarily guarantee a sustainable environment without addressing the quality of institutions. This chapter examines the effect of population growth on environmental sustainability as well as the interactive effect of population growth and institutional quality on environmental sustainability in West Africa region, using data from 2006 to 2019. Adopting the System Generalized Method of Moment method, findings indicate that population growth has a positive but insignificant effect on environmental sustainability. Population growth when interacted with institutional quality had negative and significant effect on environmental sustainability. The result demonstrates that environmental problems cannot be effectively addressed through population policy alone, hence the additional need for strong and institutional quality to ensure environmental sustainability in the region.