Soil Chemical Analysis

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

Abstract There is a growing acknowledgement that micro-credit programs have potential for equitable and sustainable development. However, my anthropological research on the micro-credit program of the Grameen Bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution. To ensure timely repayment in the loan centers bank workers and borrowing peers inflict an intense pressure on women clients. In the study community many borrowers maintain their regular payment schedules through a process of loan recycling that considerably increases the debt-liability on the individual households, increases tension and frustration among household members, produces new forms of dominance over women and increases violence in society.

Micro-credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development : who pays?; a case study of the Grameen Bank Program in rural Bangladesh

Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning

Does microfinance impede sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives among women borrowers? Evidence from rural Bangladesh

Formal and informal networks empower small firms to generate social capital by forging network ties, building on trust and sharing a vision among stakeholders. It enables them to obtain necessary resources, support, information and knowledge, which may be otherwise inaccessible to them. This study analyses the impact of social capital on firm performance through the constructs of network ties, trust and shared vision while drawing a comparison between firms associated with formal and informal networking. An empirical study was conducted via a structured questionnaire on a sample of 100 small firms in West Bengal with 50 firms having membership in industry/trade associations as the experimental group and another 50 firms having only informal connections as the control group. Findings of the multiple regression analysis reveal that the impact of social capital on firm performance is significantly greater in firms engaged in formal and informal networking in contrast to firms embedded only in the informal ne...

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0971355715586893

Impact of Social Capital on Small Firm Performance in West Bengal

This article empirically examines the role of network derived innovation support in translating effects of social capital dimensions on firm performance Comparison is drawn between small firms engaged in strategic (eg, professional associations) and social (eg, family, informal relationships) alliances The study uses multiple regression analysis on a representative sample of 100 small firms in West Bengal, India Analysis largely supports the hypothesis that social capital provides innovation support to small firms, which consequently translates into improved firm performance For firms embedded in strategic alliances, results were more pronounced, thus substantiating the advantage for small firms in India to join and activate social capital within strategic networks to overcome the constraints in generating and developing innovativeness Implications for small firms and professional associations are discussed

Innovation Support and Small-Firm Performance in India: A Social Capital Perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review general applications of the ISO14001 certification process and show how limitations such as ensuring minimum environmental performance standard, public access to performance information, and peer benchmarking may be overcome by voluntary commitment to attainable standards by association of specific industries.Design/methodology/approach – A replicable environmental performance (weighted) index was developed by the authors. Secondary data obtained from five (public and private) steel mills provided technical data under voluntary compliance standards. Primary data on non‐technical items of performance index were collected. The index was tested to demonstrate peer benchmarking process.Findings – ISO 14001 certification cannot serve as an end in itself for industries as peer companies under voluntary compliance may exceed environmental performance. Minimum acceptable environmental standards could be enforced through industry‐wide consensus. Public access to per...

Benchmarking environmental performance: five leading steel mills in India

Small businesses relative to the medium and large businesses tend to demonstrate culture (country) specific business practices. However, in spite of the recognized diversity of business practices, strong homogeneous tendencies and norms have been developing specially among the small businesses that operate in the global market place. These tendencies and norms offer unique opportunity for a comparative perspective. This paper is an attempt in this regard toward identifying the issues of constraints and challenges of the small business from a comparative perspective. A part of multi-country study, authors collected data in 2006 from 133 small businesses of India, and 112 small enterprises in Bangladesh. The findings provide a varying degree of supports for two illustrative hypotheses concerning issues, constraints and contingencies of small businesses in these two countries. The authors believe that the paper is likely to enhance empirical understanding of the small business from a comparative perspective.

/pdf/constraints-and-contingencies-of-the-small-business-a-3rjqk788es.pdf

Sharmistha Banerjee

Papers

Does microfinance impede sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives among women borrowers? Evidence from rural Bangladesh

Impact of Social Capital on Small Firm Performance in West Bengal

Innovation Support and Small-Firm Performance in India: A Social Capital Perspective

Benchmarking environmental performance: five leading steel mills in India

Constraints And Contingencies Of The Small Business: A Comparative Perspective