CBERROGE December -2021

China's massively ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) began as 'One Belt, One Road (OBOR) in 2013, but was renamed BRI the following year to permit the inclusion of a second maritime road – the Arctic Sea Route. The 'belt' consists of six corridors: the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor; the New Eurasia Land Bridge Economic Corridor; the China-Central Asia - West Asia Economic Corridor; the China- Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor; the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor and, probably the most important, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The latter links with the southern maritime 'road' at the Pakistan port of Gwadar. The Covid-19 Pandemic appears to have started in China and severely impacted BRI. From early 2020 the atmosphere was not conducive to risky investment in foreign infrastructure projects, and quarantine rules and social distancing requirements severely hit trade. The author examined a range of sources, some of which predicted heavy damage to BRI and that many BRI projects would have to be abandoned. But, the author concludes, this may not necessarily be bad for BRI in the longer term. One of the criticisms of BRI has been that it may lure less prosperous countries into a 'debt trap', with China possibly reclaiming the installations if the debts were not repaid. The Royal Institute of International affairs at Chatham House and a survey of Central Banks were more optimistic, suggesting that while BRI would take a hit in the short term, it would recover. Others: notably the journal Foreign Policy, have been more optimistic. By curtailing unfeasible infrastructure projects and refocusing on trade rather than concrete, BRI could emerge stronger and less unpopular than the original version. The revived silk road will focus on a 'Health Silk Road', involving vaccines and other therapeutic products which China was exporting (particularly to Africa), 'Green Silk Road', involving more emphasis on renewable energy, and a 'Digital Silk Road'. By thwarting debt-trap allegations and focusing on these new areas, BRI may well bounce back better and stronger.

We are in the third decade of what is turning out to be a maritime century, in which interstate arguments are more likely to emerge across seascapes than landscapes, and the significance of the maritime domain is being realised. Indeed, in his book Asia's Cauldron, the renowned geopolitical commentator, Robert D. Kaplan, referred to the South China Sea as the "Mitteleuropa of the twenty-first century". The oceans cover more than 70% of the surface of the planet. They carry more than 80% of global trade and provide a primary source of protein for around 40% of land inhabiting humans. The oceans dictate our climate and weather. They hold the most significant volume of carbon and provide the two most critical elements of life, oxygen, and water. Its significance is obvious, but our appreciation of its criticality has lagged. The oceans are a vast, multi-dimensional area where borders and jurisdictional boundaries are invisible. Unmanaged, they provide a largely unencumbered manoeuvre space for criminals, terrorists (ideologically motivated and state-sponsored) and nations to exploit. Before maritime crime can be managed, maritime security can be defined and established; these interconnected and interrelated areas need to be understood and their intrinsic value understood.

Although there is a rich literature in OB & HRM focusing on the importance of psychological contracts, intellectual capital, job satisfaction & performance, the role of positive psychology & mindset in an organisational context has been addressed to a minimal extent. In times of crisis, organisations might go beyond survival mode and find ways to improve the psychological resources of employees as a positive mental attitude becomes an alternative perspective that leads to optimal performance outcomes. Through a critical literature review methodological approach, this paper studies the theoretical framework of employee well-being and performance during a crisis and explores the role of a positive working mindset. The study concludes that positivity in the workplace and employee well-being in crisis are critical factors for corporate leaders to enhance organisational citizenship behavior, which is crucial in productivity, affective commitment, job satisfaction, and efficiency.

This paper evaluates the role of municipalities in disaster management and its adequacy in handling disaster management problems and challenges. It is argued in this paper that despite the existence of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) within the three spheres of government, South Africa is still among countries that are at risk of a wide range of natural disasters such as floods, drought, fire, and manmade disasters such as misuse of technology, transitions in cultural practice and lack of awareness and information which causes damage or harm to the society at large. However, it is argued that disasters which are natural are not preventable, but disaster management strategies such as prevention, mitigation, preparedness, and response can be put in place withininstitutions to ensure that all citizens are able to respond to any possible disasters which may occur. The Methodology followed in this paper is qualitative in the sense that secondary sources are used to argue about the adequacy of Disaster Management Unit capacity in South African municipalities to handle disaster problems. The question that remains to be answered in this paper is: Does the Disaster Management Units as established within South African municipalities have the means to ensure planning and preparation for emergencies and protection against possible disasters which may occur in their setting. The argument in this paper is based on the assumption that disasters may happen at any time and consequently affect vulnerable rural people than those who reside within urban areas. This in essence means that South African municipalities are still faced with major challenges in addressing disaster related issues particularly in rural areas. It is also argued that municipalities struggle to put in place their disaster management plans which includes the assignment of primary and secondary responsibilities for priority disaster risks posing a threat in their municipalities. This paper, therefore, conclude that the existence of the Disaster Management Units in improving disaster management are inadequate in functions and it is recommended that possible awareness campaigns that can help rural people to respond in terms of emergencies that can lead to disasters be commenced.

Purpose of the research: The purpose of the research was to determine whether the establishment of, and transformation to, virtual organisations due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions placed on the business sector, impacts drastically on the work-life balance of new virtual employees.

Design/methodology: A positivist, qualitative research that draws on a descriptive research design was used in order to provide a conceptual understanding of the impact on work-life balance that has been caused by a shift to virtual organisations as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Results/findings: The restrictions placed on the business sector as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic resulted in the establishment of, and transformation to, virtual organisations. This had a drastic impact on the work-life balance of new virtual employees. The findings indicated varying opinions and understandings on work-life balance for virtual employees concluded prior to the Pandemic.

Practical implications and Conclusions: The recognition of drastic impact on the work-life balance of new virtual employees should be recognised by businesses and taken into consideration when dealing with employees.

Limitations: The study was limited to only conceptual research. Further quantitative research will lead to additional, inclusive, knowledge

This article proposes a holistic mathematical model for the selection, supporting and evaluation of a transformation architect's or manager's profile. The model uses critical success factors, natural programming language environment and an adapted decision-making system to define the optimal BTPAP. The authors propose the use the BTPAP in various types of transformation projects, like for example, in the case of transformation of enterprise's human resources activities, financial systems transformation, logistics transformation projects, or even in audit operations. The BTPAP is a specific profile which is mainly based on the manager's original capabilities and affinities, which are in turn supported by the optimal educational curriculum, by worthful experiences in transformation projects and above all, such profile should be supported by a tuneable transformation framework. A transformation framework is a set of existing frameworks that are integrated to support all types of transformation activities, like the selection of the optimal BTPAP. This framework's originality is that it can be used in any stage of the transformation project for any type of problem and to audit the BTPAP's effectiveness. The main limitation is the enterprise's capacity to restructure and unbundle its legacy environments.

Risk management which occurs everywhere in the realm of finance allows organisations attempt to prepare for the unexpected by minimising risks and extra costs before they happen. This is done by implementing a risk management plan and considering the various potential risks or events before they occur. Descriptive statistics using a frequency distribution and percentage distribution were used to analyse the data gotten from five multinational companies in Saudi Arabia. Chi-square (X2) test was also used as the statistical tool to test for the hypothesis. The study shows that risk identification, risk evaluation and analysis, risk policy implementation and risk prevention are more efficient and influential factors to consider in contributing to the financial risk management practices of many multinational organisations. In pursuit of corporate sustainability, multinational companies are thus advised to put more attention on these factors in implementing risk management plans.

The study investigates the impact of India's institutional quality on FDI inflows using panel data of the top 15 investing nations over the period 2008–2018. The study employs the augmented gravity model employing static and dynamic conditions of the GMM to identify FDI inflow determinants in India. The empirical results confirm that institutional quality has a positive impact on FDI inflows in India. The improved institutional quality and macroeconomic factors have played a vital role in attracting FDI in India despite BIT terminations. The study suggests that India must further strategise enhancing human capital and propose liberal labour policies facilitating FDI inflows equally in the manufacturing sector, promoting exports.

The Sundarbans, considered as the tourism heartland of South Asia and compared to Amazon rainforest for its expanse and biodiversity of flora and fauna spanning over 36,000 square kilometers, is currently at risk of massive depletion. The disaster can be avoided through sustainable tourism that minimises negative social or environmental impacts and conserve fragile ecosystem consisting of flora and fauna and their habitats. This sustainable tourism can draw upon its basic tenets from the "Sustainable Development Goals" propagated by World Tourism Organization. For both Bangladesh and India, it is obligatory under the remit of sustainable tourism to shift policy focus from growth to equity, thus, paving the way for strong institutions capability of regulating the tourism industry and distributing assets to facilitate 'pro-poor growth' policies and actions. As the current sustainable tourism debate is patchy, disjointed and often flawed with false assumptions and arguments the discourse on sustainable tourism of the Sundarbans needs to be oriented towards a thoroughbred scientific level, a systemic perspective, and an interdisciplinary approach.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals foster the need for gender equality which opened up the windows for enhancing women career development. Women's career development is more complicated than men. The various internal and external barriers, such as family and related responsibilities, role in life, employment, the surrounding environment, traditions, and stereotypes, which facilitate and limit women's career choices and growth. The purpose of this research was to analyse the obstacles that women face in advancing their careers to senior management levels. Additionally, to gain an insight into the reasons why there are fewer women in management/leadership positions as well as finding out the factors that affect women's ability to advance to higher levels. Extensive analysis of extant literature was conducted whereby conclusions were drawn from the previous studies' findings.

China is one of the fastest growing economy in the world. In 2019, statistics shows that - China's economy grew by 6.3 %. In addition, it has now become a major development partner for countries throughout the continent, and its trade, investment, diplomatic, and political relationships with sub-Saharan African countries continue to strengthen. In 2015, foreign direct investments into Africa totalled $66.4 billion for a total of 705 projects, with infrastructure-related commercial activities like energy, building, and ICT & internet infrastructure accounting for 13% of all projects into Africa, and 44% of capital invested. This paper aimed to assess the role of China in Africa's infrastructure development and the impact these projects have on the African continent, in order to determine their worth for informed decisions to the governments involved. For this purpose, literature was reviewed and found that, while Chinese projects largely provide job prospects and access to utilities such as electricity, water and etc, working conditions in these projects are very unfavourable with poorly administered policies. The paper proposes proper monitoring and evaluation by relevant government agencies at the sites of constructions.

The aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of open distance learning in South Africa. Most developing countries in the world are facing challenges of expanding access to higher education. These challenges are even more acute in places of limited resources and capacity to provide quality higher education for an ever-increasing population. For many countries in Africa, distance education seems to be the only option to play a role in widening participation to higher education problems. While recognising the necessity of distance education in widening access, it must also provide academically credible and quality education content that is effective and efficient. Given the emergence of Covid-19 most universities in South Africa are moving towards the distance education, which author(s) argue that effectiveness of this model is challenged. This paper is purely conceptual and adopts a desktop methodology and to underpin the argument the paper will further rely heavily on the perusal of the available literature to support the argument carried out. Thus, to realise the aim of this article, the author(s) benefited from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of secondary data covering open distance learning. The article revealed that open distance learning is challenged by covid-19 and that it is not effective. Thus, assessments are done solemnly online which affect the effectiveness of distance education. The article recommends that all provisions and regulations guiding open distance learning needs to be revisited and amended as to make the education more effective even in difficult times.

Nowadays, employees who are eager to improve their careers, especially those who train engineers, are not only satisfied with the possibilities of development within the organisation, but also satisfied with the opportunities that appear in the job market. For this reason, they work with their employers to develop their skills and enable them to be employed. Therefore, the purpose of our research is to test hypotheses about the relationship between career orientation (more or less nomadic), employability and career skills (mobilised in career management) and soft skills, which seem to be the cornerstones of employability today. In fact, a questionnaire survey of 200 engineers who graduated from the Tunisian School of Engineering showed that learning and employment skills would produce and develop soft skills, which justify the nomadic career intentions.

Research creates both knowledge and technology which are put into practical use through the process of innovation. The success in achieving applied scientific technologies can be measured in the form of technological solutions, patents, inventions, published research papers, etc. The purpose of the research was to formulate an economic framework and develop technological solutions for Zimbabwe with respect to knowledge generation, innovation, and enterprise development. This was compounded by an exploration for opportunities in cybersecurity and machine learning for use in the knowledge generation and dissemination business. Cybersecurity is an amalgamation of technologies, processes and operations purposed to preserve and protect computer information systems from cyber-attacks or unauthorised access. Machine Learning (ML) entails the automatic data analysis of large data sets and production of models for the general relationships found among data.

The Pragmatism paradigm was used as the research philosophy in this research as it epitomises the congruity between knowledge and action. The qualitative aspect was primarily used in the knowledge generation component which was based on an integral research architecture which combines descriptive, narrative, theoretical, and experimental survey methods, through focused group discussions as the major research design. The quantitative dimension used an experiment as a research design to explore prototype models for cybersecurity and machine learning. Priority projects for strategic investment were identified for commercialisation and these were on post-harvest technologies; small scale mining/mineral value addition/bio mining; clean water alternatives; tiles technologies from mining waste; ICT innovations in Machine Learning and Cybersecurity; and defence technologies. A Bayesian Network model for Cybersecurity was developed to guide implementation of future cybersecurity systems in Africa. The research used the KDDCup 1999 intrusion detection benchmark dataset in order to build an efficient network intrusion detection system. The sample comprised primary data with 42 variables in a set of 494,020 instances that was analysed using mainly the SNORT open-source software and other Bayesian Network supportive platforms. A Bayesian Network model was developed which took into consideration the most efficient ML algorithms.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate how the concept of sustainability might operate in a circular economy, with the goal of contributing to economic growth in London, UK.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey questionnaire research design was used, as well as a deductive research approach, to obtain information about the topic by utilising the most recent and relevant literature. This research is based on both primary and secondary sources. Primary data is gathered through questionnaires to address the research question and objectives. 30 companies from various fields were contacted face to face, via email, and via LinkedIn over a 20-day period.

Findings: According to the research findings, corporations are becoming increasingly aware of the circular economy and its implications for sustainability. The findings also revealed that businesses are eager to transition to a circular economy and believe there is a link between the two concepts.

Practical implications: The study provides a critical perspective on the current state of the circular economy and the importance of sustainability in the circular economy. The research goes beyond the scholarly community's efforts to improve knowledge of the circular economy and the relationship between sustainability and the circular economy.

Originality/value: This study contributes significantly to the scarcity of academic evidence on the relationship between the two concepts, and it is an important step toward a better understanding of how businesses can use circular economies to advance toward a more sustainable society.

The small business sector has been identified as an important component of the global economy, especially in developing economies where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and poverty. For South Africa, many have argued the fight against unemployment and positive necessitate the creation and sustainability of small businesses regardless of the owner's ethnicity. However, the COVID-19 Pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought untold devastation to the sector, forcing many out of operation, crippling business operations and financial viability. We argue in this paper that immigrant-owned businesses are the most affected since they often lack or have limited access to government assistance and support, which has been the worldwide panacea for resolving the issue.

Aim: This study seeks to understand the impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and the lockdown restrictions on immigrants owned businesses in South Africa.

Methodology: Primary data was collected using an electronic questionnaire administered to 260 foreign business owners in South Africa. Only 100 responded over a period of about four months. The data was cleaned and analysed using IBM SPSS version 27 by conducting descriptive and inferential statistical tests. The open-ended question at the end of the questionnaire was thematically analysed, focusing on identifying the respondents' perspectives on how they think the government could best assist them.

Result: Approximately 89% of the businesses reported that the Pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability and liquidity, while none of them reported that they benefitted from any of the South African government business support packages during the Pandemic. The majority of them reported that they did not apply because the qualifying conditions already excluded them despite some of them being part of the declared essential services during the Pandemic.

Conclusion: Discrimination against immigrant-owned businesses based on their national origin is detrimental to the economy and akin to vaccine nationalism, which the South African government has been a leading critic of on the world stage. Immigrant owned businesses constitute a significant portion of the small business sector, thus a sizeable component of the country's economy. Leaving them to suffer the impacts of the Pandemic is simply a neglect of a section of the economy, and that comes with its attendant problems like job security of the local employees in those businesses and their impact on the supply and demand side of their respective markets.

Purpose: The study expands on the phenomenon of long-run reversal in the financial markets using the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) data. This study aimed to determine whether the monetary policy changes implemented by the South African Reserve Bank influence long-run reversals in the JSE.

Context: Long-run reversals have been a phenomenon that has occurred in various global financial markets in the United States (US), Europe, Asia, and South Africa. Long-run reversals occur when firms with poor past performance rebound and produce superior returns compared to firms with good historical past performance. South Africa has a monetary policy of inflation targeting. It tends to increase interest rates whenever the change in the consumer price index falls above the upper limit of the range of three to six per cent.

Methods: The regressions of the Fama-French three factors model and Fama-Macbeth model were used to estimate the relationship between the excess return of different portfolio returns and Fama-French three factors. Furthermore, we split our sample under expansive and restrictive monetary conditions. We ran the regression of the Fama-Macbeth model again to see whether the monetary conditions will influence the long-run reversal.

Results: The sample results over the near 15-year sample period show that firms with poor past performance failed to outperform those with past solid performance. In addition, monetary policy changes did lead to long-run reversals among poor performing firms. The gap is closed under restrictive monetary conditions.

Practical value: It is recommended that one could do a detailed examination of the relationship between firm characteristics and long-run reversals under various monetary conditions. Monetary conditions are worth watching for when constituting a portfolio because they create arbitrage opportunities for astute investors.

The paper seeks to evaluate the land expropriation model and its effect on food security. Since the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa two years ago about land expropriation without compensation, the concern about how that will be implemented topped high in both political and academic debates. South Africa's land issue has been topical for many decades and with little progress achieved in resolving the identified problem. This paper is conceptual in approach, and it uses literature to argue that land expropriation without compensation will threaten food security in South Africa. The paper concludes that land expropriation without compensation that will not consider threat to food security will not achieve intended justice for the people it intends to serve in the country.

In every country income non-disclosure is an action, persecuted by the law and subject to a punishment depending on its gravity, scale and nature. Sanctioning of it takes a diversified form remaining in close relationship with a multitude of local factors, including in particular the policy of the government imposing tax obligations or mentality of a society. It is a common practice that a non-compliant taxpayer understating its income declared to tax authorities is likely to expect a fine or in certain cases even imprisonment. Moreover, tax authorities are applying varied procedures to detect income non-disclosure. In the recent 18 years tax institutions have undergone many reforms in Poland. The drivers behind them have different roots. First, the Polish accession to the European Union made it necessary to adapt the national law to the Community standards. Second, the rapidly increasing scale of tax non-compliance has prompted the governments to intensify efforts to develop new strategies counteracting tax evasion or to adopt for this purpose measures – the so called "good practices "that already proved its effectiveness in other countries.

The paper explores the methods implemented by the Polish tax authorities in order to disclose and sanction the undeclared income. It places certain institutions in the historical context and provides for some international comparisons. It not only investigates into the solutions in force while making and attempt to evaluate sources and implications of certain legal instruments but also demonstrates some effects of their application, pointing at the same time at the scale of the phenomenon of income non-disclosure in Poland.

Most African countries have been bedeviled by the problem of deficits in their current account balances (World Bank, 2020). In a bid to overcome these challenges, they often resort to contracting external debts from institutions and countries that require them to repay these loans in the currencies of the creditors. Thus, the rate of exchange between the creditors and debtors should be of concern. Several studies have been carried out to examine the relationship between current account balances, external debts, and the exchange rates. Some studies found a unidirectional relationship among these variables. In some other studies, the relationship knitting these variables is bi-directional. In most of these studies, the methods of analysis ranges from the ordinary least squares, panel data analysis and the vector error correction model. This study fills the gap in the literature by examining the relationship across these variables making use of the generalised methods of moments (GMM). The GMM estimation technique will correct for unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity and measurement errors which were observed in the data. The study found that a 9.45% increase in external debts leads to a percentage increase in current account balances in the selected African countries. Also, there is a positive and significant relationship between the exchange rates and the current account balances in the group.

Purpose of the research: The purpose of the study is to determine how a state-owned enterprise in South Africa deploys equal pay for work of equal value. The research setting and environment where the investigation takes place are located in a state-owned enterprise (SOE) called ZYD.

Research methodology: An inductive research approach is used with qualitative research for primary data and for secondary numeric data. The research includes a population sample of eight participants who are involved in the primary research data collection. In addition, a company finance report is analysed for the secondary data collection. Equally, some qualitative primary research data are analysed quantitatively in order to make sense of the data (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012:165).

Results/findings: The study confirms that implementing equal pay has a financial implication attached to it, insignificant as it is. Uncoordinated confirmations for promoting equal pay exist. Lack of a comprehensive approach to equal pay encompasses the majority concerns.

The study shows how important it is for the organisation to have all essential pillars in place and in sync with one another, which lagged in this case. With the essential pillars in place and in sync, a robust pay equity system/model, which is supported by policy, will be leveraged, and initiated as a business imperative, promoting open communication and empowerment about equal pay (Bradshaw, et al., 2017:3). Vignettes have been constructed and highlighted in order to bring alive the participants' voices within the researcher's interpretations of meaning.

Practical implications and Conclusions: South African researchers and researchers across the globe have shown little interest to explore the racial pay discrimination situation; they have constantly researched gender-based pay inequity instead. This should be reason enough to have future research studies focusing on pay equity irrespective of race, gender, or disability.

Big data and data analytics are currently the buzzwords in both academia and industry to become data driven. Big data has been the trending topic in the accounting industry also. Big data and data analytics will have an important impact on accounting and accountants. Big data will improve the quality of accounting information and the accounting profession will continue to provide real-time and dynamic information to assist in decision-making. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of big data and big data analytics in accounting. Data analytics is one of the most recent developments in the accounting context. This study is qualitative in nature and adopted a literature review methodology to gain a better understanding of the study area. This literature review seeks to provide a description and evaluation of the impact of big data analytics on accounting. This research found that big data presents great opportunities for decision making in accounting and risks analysis, which indicated that companies could improve their performance, measure performance, manage risks and allow effective real-time decision-making with data analytics. This research revealed that accountants can create more value in a world of big data analytics and encourages accountants to get started with big data to find answers to risks in business operations as well as understand financial performance. It shows that relying on big data analytics will open new possibilities for accountants. This study contributes to the research literature in the area of big data analytics on accounting. The limitations of this study are that it utilises few recent peer reviewed articles in the general accounting practice, therefore not exhaustive in describing how big data and big data analytics impacts accounting.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa acronym created by the IMF-Group of Seven (G7) to represent the bloc of developing economies that have a significant influence on the global economy by their economic potential. Most of the foreign direct investment (FDI) are considering the stock markets of BRICS as the most attractive destination for their portfolio. This study aims to identify the relationship between macroeconomic variables and stock market index values of BRICS and generate accurate predictions for index values by performing linear regression and artificial neural network hybrid models. Financial economic theory explains this interaction in the light of two approaches traditional approach or flow-oriented approach (Dornbusch and Fischer, 1980) and the stock-oriented model or the portfolio balance approach (Branson et al., 1977). According to the traditional approach, the causality runs from exchange rates to the stock market while stock markets lead the exchange market in a stock-oriented model. Monthly data from January 2003 to December 2019 is used for the empirical study. The results indicate that a strong correlation exists between the stock market and macroeconomic variables in BRICS over time. The hybrid model is observed very accurately for index value prediction where the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) value is 0.714% for the whole data set covering all BRICS countries' data during the study period. Additionally, MAPE values for each of the BRICS countries are respectively obtained as 0.083%, 2.316%, 0.116%, 0.962% and 0.092%. Empirical findings of our study suggest a similar bias in stock market movement. According to the results, it can be said that macroeconomic stabilisation should be the priority of monetary policy to prevent the high volatility of stock markets. It should be also noted that the use of linear regression and artificial neural network hybrid models serves as an efficient tool for investors in stock market index value prediction.

The Indian retail sector has become a battleground for numerous organised retail players. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) as of 2018, India's retail sector was worth $ 950 billion and was expected to reach $ 1.1 Trillion by 2020, with organised retail sector and ecommerce gradually making headway. In India the traditional retailers, popularly known as the Kirana (the mom-pop stores) continue to dominate the Indian retail market representing nearly 90% of India's retail sector. Top Organised Retail Giants like Amazon, Reliance, Walmart, Future Group, and others are actively trying to enter the space occupied by the kiranas to dominate the Indian Retail market using the latest technology, modern shop floor designs, well trained standardised sales teams, wider product ranges, along with several other strategies. Amidst this dominance of large retail chains, brands and smaller retailers need to rethink, re-imagine, and restructure their business models for their survival to optimise sale(s) by connecting brands to shoppers through powerful retail thinking. In other words, recharge brand juices and regain brand power.

It is important to rethink where do we create our sale(s)? Who are stealing sale (s) from and who is driving our sale(s)? Brands and smaller retailers will have to re-imagine, what is creating our sale (s) and how we create our sale

(s). To address these questions, brands and smaller retailers need to restructure, particularly, how do we make communications work for our sales? and how organisational enhancement may be done to empower the brands and small retailers to think sales.

The starting point is the place where we play, and it defines our strategy. It is as simple as that. Levis being sold in a store at Times Square, Broadway and again being selling the same attire at a Wal-Mart store. Redefining shelf: A synonym for the meeting place between products and the shoppers. For Dell, Shelf is the Internet; For Coffee it is the high street. Also, one needs to understand who else is there in the shelf. We are actually drowning in choice. The challenge is how brands and smaller retailers can steal choice. Consumer habits are changing with the drop of a hat. We do not live-in societies; we live in gigantic shopping malls with loyalties constantly changing. Brands and retailers need to give every customer their best shot. Everybody has a brand, few have products. The truth is that behind every great brand there is an even greater product. What works is the product. Product development has traditionally ignored retail issues. However, for survival it is time for a change. It is easy to get a brand out there but there is no guarantee that any of them will be noticed. Consumer's attention is becoming a scarce economic resource. Actions are essential to excite shoppers and keep them involved. Creating new ways of communication with the shoppers is also a challenge. They need to be relieved of same endless irrelevant nonsense. Finally brands and smaller retailers need to work out new operational strategies to overcome this challenge.

The purpose of this Case Study is to discuss the motivation of IT employees working in the United States and India. As per the research as Information Technology (IT) companies throughout the United States struggle with downsizing and reorganisation, similar companies throughout India are growing and flourishing. In addition, India is the leading sourcing destination around the world, accounting for approximately 55% market share of the United States' $185-190 billion global services sourcing business in 2017-18. Consequently, the satisfaction and motivation of IT employees in these firms is increasingly important to the area of study of motivation of employees. The purpose of this Case study is to discuss the motivational factors in the workplace which can be used to enhance the internal motivation of employees in both USA and India.

Purpose: Culture in international business configuration is the conduct of human beings in the society and the importance that individuals connect to those behaviours. Employees' understanding of business culture and the cultural right may increase the perception of workers' conduct in the enterprise. Organisations such as Ethiopian Airlines can also be better off by seeing their member of staff experience regarding their potential accomplishment. The overall goal of the study is to evaluate the international business cultural challenge as well as Ethiopian Airlines' views on business culture.

Design/methodology/approach: The descriptive study design appears to be adequate given that the study is concerned with international business cultural issues and perspectives in Ethiopian Airlines. The questionnaire-based study was conducted with a sample size of 32 participants from the airline's member of staff, supervisors, and senior management teams. As a result, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed in the course of the investigation. The purpose of this study was to gain a knowledge of the experiences of international entrepreneurs.

Findings: It was discovered that organisations can benefit from employees' previous experiences with cultural issues and international human resource management in order to develop and implement effective communication strategies. Employees' public relations skills, as well as their sensitivity to common culture, were discovered to be beneficial in improving employees' positive understanding of the Ethiopian Airlines culture.

Conclusion: As a result, the study concluded that an employee's cognitive and cultural fit in a foreign culture is a cornerstone for the success of the organisation. As a result, human resources management and senior management are actively participating in the amendment and enhancement of their business culture in order to maintain high performance. Finally, possible suggestions and directions for further research have been suggested at the conclusion of this paper.

In the last few months Covid-19 has risen many issues regarding the policies applied in managing, motivating employees in order to be creative and nurture innovative ideas. Leaders and managers came across a great challenge and should find ways to promote the new reality to their employees to keep them interested in the activities they had to accomplish in the most successful way possible. Covid-19 forced everyone to go through a great transformation, adopt new habits, be engaged in the digital world in order to meet the needs of the new normal. In this research wewill examine whether the practices used by managers to maintain creativity and innovation met their goal, while anxiety and insecurity overwhelmed all the parts involved. We will also try to explore the role technology played in promoting original ideas during that period as well as the barriers that had to be overcome and whether culture played any or no role at all in showing flexibility towards the new practices. In order to reach a conclusion, research will be conducted with the use of questionnaires and cross-examination of data collected by similar studies. This research will contain analysis of the data collected and a conclusion drawn defining and clarifying the questions set, examined from the employees' perspective.

At the core of human resource management (HRM) is the "way inter-relationship among the stakeholders in an organisation is managed", "objective criteria are applied to goal-setting processes" and how HRM contributes to the creation of tangible value in the form of knowledge-based outputs. Hence, the process of knowledge management of storing and sharing with regard to its processes, techniques and operations is linked to HRM practices of effective management of this inter-relationship. The research will enquire into how human resource development focusses on building the entrepreneurial resilience, a key ability of entrepreneurs to overcome challenges and adapt to uncertainties, the era of Covid-19 certainly has created many as such.

The efforts of organisational leadership, which needs to appropriate these inter-relationships to a social context such as India or Bangladesh, always can be aided by a host of social network theories. Within remit of this discourse, the research would like to pursue the questions such as how the role of gender in economic development process has been increasingly recognised as crucial, both in terms of potential for success and in the nature of the impact of particular development strategies and programs, and the possible HR interventions that can be conceived in this regard. The direction of the current research emerges from the interpretation of the variants such as knowledge workers, knowledge management templates and tools, expected gender roles of social actors, resource allocation, etc. The research proceeds to enquire how these variants are explained by these social network theories, their limitation and if some of these need to be repurposed in the view of emerging challenges posed by knowledge workers and their belonged industries.

In accordance with growing awareness towards a global sustainable better future and the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), the concept of Green Human Resource Management Practices became the wheel for driving organisational sustainability and growth. In this respect, scholars have attempted to investigate and analyse the dimensions and pillars of Green Human Resource Management Practices. This paper introduces an overview on the Green Human Resource Management Practices including green job analysis, green recruitment, and selection as well as green training and development. This research analyses the selected practices through addressing the extant literature as well as presenting an analysis of the previous studies. Conclusion is addressed to analyse the findings from the viewpoint of the researchers.

Entrepreneurship is an area and a skill needed in the education for the XXI century. After the emergence of the philosophy of "idleness" and the culture of "self-employment" as essential parts of theories of professional and human achievement, capable of countering the hardships related to the end of the wage society era, wanting to learn and do business in the pursuit of professional self-determination and economic freedom is imperative for the survival of workers and companies. In fact, while new technologies applied to agricultural production, for example, reveal that the world currently bears the capacity to produce abundant food for 12 billion people, what happens in reality is that over three billion of the more than seven billion people on the planet, now live-in appalling levels of sub nutrition.

The dismantling of wage and employment society and the consequential dismantling of people's survival plans are some of the reasons for the forced emergence of a culture of entrepreneurship in the current global context. Destabilisation of stable workers, given by intense exploitation and the permanent threat of loss of jobs because of performance issues, pressure for results or lack of opportunity to make results. Precarious jobs due to flexible work, temporary work, the fixed-term contract, outsourcing, etc. The constant increase of the unemployed, i.e., contingents of people that are not integrated and no longer integratable into the world of production. This reality presents us with alarming statistics: one billion, seven hundred thousand unemployed in the world, with unemployment rates ranging from 20% to 37% in Europe and 27% to 39% in Africa. Today we can no longer think in terms of "training for the job". We must think in terms of building "employability" and entrepreneurship. The main purpose of this presentation is to present the Heptagon of successful entrepreneurial mindset-a model of entrepreneurial mindset.

The last three decades' global financial, societal, and geopolitical crisis can be analysed by using an adapted holistic societal transformation framework. This framework is able to deliver recurrent patterns of organised global financial misdeed models and related crimes. The use of, an ethical approach, governance, enterprise architecture models and control services-based processes, are crucial to support such a complex crimes detection-based framework. The proposed framework uses measurable Critical Success Factors (CSF) and Critical Success Areas (CSA) which characterise the evaluation of risk factors related to Global Financial Predators Activities (GFPA). This article presents the concept of a framework, that can be used for proactive detection and tracking of financial problems and misdeeds, which are organised and done by GFPAs. Such GFPAs are in general ranked as the most ethical organisations, because of such ranking organisations are chosen by GFPA related circles. In this article the author presents an artificial intelligence based decision-making concept that is the framework's kernel. This generic decision-making concept uses a mathematical model, which manages various types of algorithms. A Transformation Project (or simply a Project), depends on, the capacities of the decision-making system, the profile of the Organisational/Societal Transformation Manager (or simply the Manager) and his team who should be supported by

a holistic cross-functional framework. Project's complexity as well as the usage of underlying Decision-Making System (DMS) and enterprise architecture can be evaluated by a tuneable CSF based mathematical model. This framework's and related research works' originalities are that it can be used in any stage of the transformation project for any type of GFPA misdeed. The main limitation is the ongoing ethical and regulatory bodies that governed by corrupt organisations.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to establish the role of knowledge management in the relationship between disaster management and the firm performance of Small Businesses in Uganda.

Methodology/ Design/Approach: A systematic literature review method was adopted for this study in order to provide a systematic and critical analysis of the role of knowledge management in the relationship between disaster management and firm performance of Small businesses in Uganda. A total of 50 papers were reviewed, these were published between Janaury 2000 and June 2020.

Findings: The study established that there is a relationship between knowledge management and business performance and revealed that knowledge sharing had a higher factor load. The study farther established that the level

of awareness about the disaster or risk and use of risk management techniques have a significant impact on the firm performance of small businesses. The study revealed that there is certain improvement in firm performance of companies that is strongly linked to knowledge management.

Practical implications: This paper contributes to managerial understanding of the need of small businesses to be proactive while preparing and managing disasters in order to avoid hard adverse effects of disasters when they strike.

Limitations: The study being completely a review of literature, it reflects the past opinions of researchers and does not capture the current status of affairs on the topic, however data will be collected in the future to establish the current opinions.

Conclusion: Whereas we are not certain of the long-term implications of COVID-19 on small businesses performance, but it is likely to increase poverty across the globe which puts a risk on the consumption levels of products produced by small businesses, moreover in Uganda Agriculture being the worst hit due to the restrictions caused by COVID-19 especially transportation

Dynamic examinations on sustainable power sources and their connections to the round economy show that it is so imperative to make a plan of action that upholds these connections. For instance, the significance of the round economy has changed the production network in the business lately and has animated new buyer needs and market supply over the previous decade. Truth be told, renewables are connected to the roundabout economy and its capacity to advance positive externalities on the lookout. The advancement of this association became significant when ideas like environments, reusing prosperity, blue economy and feasible improvement in the economy were examined. These connections are likewise identified with esteem creation in the economy and market execution. Notwithstanding this modern test, sustainable power sources are one of the vectors of the round economy and incorporate positive externalities for the economy, like environment engaging quality, prosperity, and industry markers. This report means to show the connection between sustainable power sources and the round economy and the mechanical effect on the economy. To dissect the plan of action of sustainable power sources and its pertinence to the roundabout economy in Portugal, the archive presents a subjective strategy dependent on the investigation of the Porter Diamond model and SWOT. The outcomes show that, based on the new European natural and energy strategy (2021-2027), there is a will to foster a plan of action for the ecological administrations area of oil industry players. The end likewise showed that the plan of action of ecological administrations identified with oil and energy in Portugal is connected to inventive environments, a systems administration stage, green creation, and public-private organizations. It is likewise expected to decidedly affect the sustainable power esteem chain in the modern worth chain. The examination will add to European nations that follow this plan of action for serious and agreeable areas.