Beyond Aid: Sustainable Community-Owned Cooperative Business

<p>This thesis seeks to answer the question as to how the Colville Cooperative Society has withstood social and economic change where many other rural businesses offering similar services, in similar rural communities have failed. Joint entrepreneurship is a demanding form of entrepreneurship. Democracy is manage and difficult to sustain. What role does the organisation's cooperative principles and community ownership play in its sustainability? The research seeks to expand the knowledge of community-owned cooperative business as a viable alternative for community economic development; expand the New Zealand research on cooperative models; provide insight for cooperative member's to reflect on past successes and challenges in order to improve practice; and share knowledge about what makes a community-owned business work. The study found that the sustainability of the Colville Cooperative was dependant on several key factors. First amongst these is that the enterprise provides what the community needs. This is the basis of support for the enterprise and can overcome structural disadvantages. Vision and leadership that cleaves to the cooperative's principles, aims and objectives was just as important. To bring to expression and sustain these there had also had to be adequate business skills, and business continuity. It is the thesis of this research that the sustainability of the cooperative rests partly in the core beliefs and organising skills of the people who started it, partly in the resilience of cooperative forms of enterprise, and partly in the willingness and capacity of the community to sustain it. It is argued this type of community owned cooperative, where assets and shares are effectively held in trust on behalf of the community, can create a common wealth which frees communities from unsustainable sources of income, and creates viable enterprises that are independent of changing government policy fashions.</p>

Beyond Aid: Sustainable Community-Owned Cooperative Business

<p>This thesis seeks to answer the question as to how the Colville Cooperative Society has withstood social and economic change where many other rural businesses offering similar services, in similar rural communities have failed. Joint entrepreneurship is a demanding form of entrepreneurship. Democracy is manage and difficult to sustain. What role does the organisation's cooperative principles and community ownership play in its sustainability? The research seeks to expand the knowledge of community-owned cooperative business as a viable alternative for community economic development; expand the New Zealand research on cooperative models; provide insight for cooperative member's to reflect on past successes and challenges in order to improve practice; and share knowledge about what makes a community-owned business work. The study found that the sustainability of the Colville Cooperative was dependant on several key factors. First amongst these is that the enterprise provides what the community needs. This is the basis of support for the enterprise and can overcome structural disadvantages. Vision and leadership that cleaves to the cooperative's principles, aims and objectives was just as important. To bring to expression and sustain these there had also had to be adequate business skills, and business continuity. It is the thesis of this research that the sustainability of the cooperative rests partly in the core beliefs and organising skills of the people who started it, partly in the resilience of cooperative forms of enterprise, and partly in the willingness and capacity of the community to sustain it. It is argued this type of community owned cooperative, where assets and shares are effectively held in trust on behalf of the community, can create a common wealth which frees communities from unsustainable sources of income, and creates viable enterprises that are independent of changing government policy fashions.</p>

The Role of Firm’s Location, Export-Related Resources and Capabilities in Relation to Coffee & Sesame Export Performance in Ethiopia

Exporting has been one of the fastest foreign expansion strategies in the last two decades. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of an exporter's location in the development of export-related resources and capabilities, which will have an impact on the degree of export performance. The relationship between export-related resources, capabilities, and export performance are examined in this study. A total of 300 questionnaires were sent out to coffee and sesame exporters. However, only 253 surveys were used for analysis. The SmartPLS 3 software was used to analyse the data using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. The study's findings suggest that access to location-specific resources and skills are critical antecedents for a company's ability to build export-related resources and capabilities in order to improve export performance. The geographic location of a company has a considerable and beneficial impact on human resource capability (β =0.67, p=0.001). Information capability was not significantly influenced by human resource capability ((β =0.082, P=0.259). Information capability ((β =0.656, p=0.001) is significantly influenced by organizational planning capability ((β =0.452, p=0.001). Satisfaction Export Performance ((β =0.431, p=0.01) has been significantly and positively influenced by information capability. New Product Development Capability influences strategic export performance significantly and positively ((β =0.330, p=0.001). Strategic export performance ((β =-0.035, P= 0.820) and satisfaction with export performance ((β =0.050, P= 0.625) were not affected by relationship capability. These data suggest that when it comes to exporting, rural businesses face significantly greater obstacles than those in metropolitan areas. The outcomes of this study will assist managers of remote-area businesses in developing equally appealing recruitment and reward practices in order to compete with businesses in urban areas. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study advise that export firm managers think carefully about the resources and capabilities required to improve their export performance.

Smart Logistics and Supply Chain with Machine Learning and IoT

Logistics is an important part of the Supply Chain. The management of logistics and supply chain is a complex process of planning and management of services, goods from the origin to the point of consumption. Logistics is defined as the process of managing movement of goods in and out of an organization. Supply Chain is defined as the process of managing movement and coordination of goods in between multiple organizations. Together Logistics and Supply Chain includes planning the transport, warehousing, inventory and sales an example of logistics could be the military stockpiling ammo whereas an example of Supply Chain management is making sure the right amount of goods reaches the destination, supplying more could lead to increased storage costs and supplying less could lead to inefficiencies. So, the main objective of Logistics is customer satisfaction and the main objective of Supply Chain is to have a competitive advantage by being more efficient. This project aims to have both customer satisfaction and efficiency and will achieved by implementing Internet of Things and Machine Learning to Logistics and Supply Chain. Large Corporations invest a lot of money to improve supply chains. This paper aims to help small businesses and rural businesses to improve their Supply Chain. This project aims at providing customer satisfaction and efficiency. Implementation using IoT and machine learning provides better efficiency. Keywords— Smart Logistics, Smart Supply Chain, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things, Machine Learning.

Application of Taguchi Approach to Forecast the Wages of Persian Silk Carpet Weavers

One of the remarkable phenomena in recent years is the growing trend of globalization. Iran is also seeking to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) to expand non-oil exports and presence in global markets, and is currently a member of the organization's oversight body. Handmade industries such as hand woven carpet are one of the important trades that can be studied for this purpose. Exports of handmade carpets have fluctuated over different time periods. Despite maintaining its international position as the rank of the largest exporter of handmade carpets, the export position of handmade carpets is decreasing as compared to other Iranian exports. Handmade carpet craftsmanship is a complementary activity of agricultural and rural businesses, but due to the considerable number of workers and the small share of carpet value added in the national economy, it does not have a suitable condition. Other influential parameters such as rivals (e.g., China, India, Pakistan, and Turkey), etc. have caused the economic conditions of this industry to be unstable. In this regard, one of the best and most appropriate ways to compete with other countries is to reduce production costs and, consequently, reduce product prices. This factor includes various variables, including weavers' wages. Unfortunately, there is no definite and elaborate program for determining the wages of handmade silk carpet weavers in Iran according to the standard. In fact, in some cities, the weavers' wages determine based on the texture conditions, texture parameters, economic conditions of the country, and other parameters by carpet wage boards that consist of several carpet experts. In this way, there is the possibility of mistakes and the loss of the rights of weavers or producers due to the entry of personal opinion and the failure to classify the effect of different parameters on the final point. The main purpose of this study is to collect various parameters affecting the wages of handmade carpet we

Use of Technology and Its Management Issues in Nepalese Industries and Businesses

This paper presents some of the facts regarding the use of technology in Nepalese industries and businesses. This is a research of paper. It uses a set of questionnaires to collect the responses regarding technology management issues. It also reviews and describes scholarly papers, professional research works, and research reports of different national and international organizations to answer the research questions and draw results. Results show that Nepal is rich in many types of traditional technologies. Most of rural businesses are dependent on traditional technology for their activities. The contribution of traditional technology is still important in Nepal’s social-economic sphere and it cannot altogether be neglected. The results also show that the uses of modern technologies are also increasing in Nepal. Regarding modern technologies, information technology (IT), sophisticated technology, biotechnology and tissue culture technology, solar power, computer technology, automation, e-banking, mobile banking, locker facilities, telephone and television, and e-business become popular in Nepalese industries and businesses. The results reveal that lack of political commitment, lack of interactions, the gap between policies and practices, lack of coordination, lack of need assessment, low quality of practical education, low investment in research & development (R&D), inadequate maintenance facilities, the rapid pace of technological change, and non-involvement in decision-making are the key issues related to the management of technology in our context. The focus on R&D is essential for the development of new technologies in Nepal.

Analysis of the Effect of Empowering Women on the Motivation of Creating and Developing Rural Businesses (Case Study: Kermanshah Province, Iran)

Empowering rural women is one of the policies and strategies used to develop rural businesses because rural businesses can create employment and reduce unemployment, resulting in increased high self-confidence and empowerment of the villagers. Regarding the importance of this issue, the present study aimed at investigating the effect of empowering women on the motivation of creating and developing rural businesses. This paper is an applied study in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytic in nature. The statistical population consists of 504 samples selected from 84 villages in 26 rural districts. The data collected using bibliographic and field study methods. Analyzing data, a compiled framework based on the previous studies was used, which was composed on 5 indexes of empowerment in 50 items and rural business in 14 items. The results showed that empowering women in making them motivated to create and develop rural businesses was effective as the result of multivariate regression indicated that the empowerment variables account for .378 of changes in rural businesses. The results of the KODAS technique used to assess the motivation of women to develop rural businesses show that rural women are in different business motivation situations, so that only women in Sarchaqa and Seyed Ayaz was more favorable than other villages.

A Mixed Methods Analysis of Workplace Health Promotion at Small, Rural Workplaces

Background: Benefits of comprehensive workplace health promotion (WHP) programs and organizational support are well documented. However, few workplaces offer WHP programs. This study used mixed-methods analysis to examine the benefits of WHP and organizational support at small, rural workplaces. Methods: Kentucky workplaces with fewer than 500 full time employees and located in rural counties were surveyed. Results: Most workplaces did not offer comprehensive WHP programs or elements of organizational support. Cost, time, workplace size, location and lack of expertise were all identified barriers to implementation of WHP programs and organizational support. Conclusion: Identification of barriers to WHP and organizational support is needed to develop and facilitate more effective WHP programs at small, rural businesses.