• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.1-38
• /
• 2021

The paper examines the role of the informal sector on innovation activities of urban formal manufacturing enterprises in India. It provides empirical evidence on firm-level linkages between formal and informal sectors by using the World Bank Enterprise Survey, 2013-14 and the Innovation Follow-up survey, 2014. Primarily, the paper aims to examine the effect of informal sector competition on innovation in urban formal manufacturing enterprises in India. Secondly, the paper analyses the mediation effect of informal sector competition on innovations in the urban manufacturing enterprises. It determines the direct and indirect influence of business regulations and constraints on innovation outcomes through the mediation effect of informal sector competition by using the SEM "Structural Equation Modeling" guidelines. The econometric results show that informal sector competition has a negative effect on the introduction of product innovations while industry-level informal sector competition has a positive effect on product innovation through the local knowledge spillovers from the informal to the formal sector. However, the informal sector competition was found to have no significant effect on the probability of introducing process innovations. Further, the results show the inhibitive role of informal sector competition on innovation in urban formal manufacturing enterprises is more severe for firms with heavy regulatory burdens and is relatively weakened in firms with resource constraints. This suggests that the informal sector plays an important role in the NIS (National Innovation System) in India.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.397-407
• /
• 2022

The informal economy is a large part of the urban economy. The informal economy accounts for about half of Pakistan's GDP. This research examined nine different areas of Rawalpindi's Central Business District's business sector (CBD). A survey of 404 respondents from 16 CBD marketplaces enables a comprehensive examination of who works in the informal and formal economic sectors, how much they earn, their goals, perception of their job, and their degree of similarity to the rest of the working population. Furthermore, the statistics illustrate the pro-cyclical connections between the informal economic sector and the formal economy. The Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) technique is used for the analysis. The MLR results indicated the informal economic sector holds positive relation with earning members in a family, business expertise, average business sale, and negative relation with education level, satisfaction with government tax policies, household expense, and average investment in the business. From a resilience standpoint, governance is considered an intentional collective action to preserve a stable system condition. Hence, the current study recommends tax reforms and government institution reorganization to mobilize the informal sector and make effective institutional governance.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.21-39
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate service support programs for the work-family balance in the community. Service support programs in the community are at beginning stages of development, because it has taken about 10 years to put a self-governing system into practice in Korea. This study concentrates on service support programs developed by various service organizations in the city and does not include any rural districts. First, the developmental process of the work-family balance model and type of the service support program in the community were studied. Next, the situation of care service support was examined based on written articles. Finally, a few suggestions were made f3r work-family balance in the community. The developmental situation of work-flmily balance in Korea is in a stage which is shifting from the company-leading model to a family-company-community model. The most common type of service support program offered in the community until now has been the informal sector through relatives, neighbors or friends. However, service support programs, in the public sector by the government and in the voluntary sector by nonprofit organizations and corporations, has rapidly been growing and the number of services from each sector has also increased. Profit organizations in the private sector, such as medical and care service centers, are also now rapidly increasing. It appears that service support programs contributing to the work-family balance in the community come from a number of sectors, including public, voluntary, private and informal sectors, to suit consumer needs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.7 no.5
• /
• pp.73-80
• /
• 2020

Tax is the main revenue of Government, so fighting tax evasion and sustainable growth have been the primary macroeconomic goals being pursued by every developing country, Vietnam included. The existence and development of the shadow economic sector are synonymous with the national budget losing out. In Vietnam, foreign direct investment projects do not promote economic growth and is also a sector that gives way to tax evasion.The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment, the quality of the informal institution on the size of the shadow economy in Vietnam, during the period 1991-2015. By applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach and Toda and Yamamoto test, we found evidence to conclude that the quality of the informal institution harms the size of the shadow economy. The results of the causality test show that there is a unidirectional causality running from the shadow economy and the quality of the informal institution to foreign direct investment attraction in Vietnam. Political solutions need to be implemented carefully to counter the harmful effects of the shadow economy. Policymakers should adopt several economic policies to improve the 'human capital' and drive the shadow economy into the formal economy.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.74-81
• /
• 2019

Upcycling generally refers to the conversion of waste materials to something useful or valuable and is a useful concept that can be applied not only to the waste design industry but also to waste recycling and resource circulation. Our study highlights upcycling as the key concept for improving the value of waste by redefining the concept as "the recycling of waste materials and discarded products in ways that enhance their value." Four upcycling strategies are linked to material flow analyses conducted on waste electronic and electrical equipment, specifically waste refrigerators and waste computers, to examine the technologies available for implementation and suggest guidelines for the promotion of upcycling. The amount of waste refrigerators collected by the formal sector was 121,642 tons/y and the informal sector, 63,823 tons/y. The current recycling ratio of waste refrigerators was estimated as 88.53%. A total of 7,585 tons/y of waste computers were collected by the formal sector and 3,807 tons/y by the informal sector after discharge. Meanwhile, the current recycling ratio of waste computers was estimated as 77.43%. We found that it is possible to introduce 28 upcycling technologies in the case of refrigerators, and 15 technologies are available to promote upcycling in the case of computers. By refining the broad concept of upcycling and looking at the stages of material flow, our approach presents universally applicable directions for incorporating upcycling in resource recovery and recirculation plans.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.65-92
• /
• 2003

This study explored and described the life course of poor female household heads. The data was gathered by in-depth interviews with thirteen poor female heads of households. Most of poor female household heads grew up in poor families. nev could not be educated properly due to their families' poverty and boy preference, and they moved to urban areas to become informal sector laborers. After the marriages, their living conditions became worse, because many of them got married to so lazy men who had alcoholic problems that were not willing to provide their families. The poor female heads of households were under difficulties owing to low income and unstable labor Condition. The economic hardship disturbed the interaction with kins and friends. Although they got in touch with these people, they had uncomfortable feelings because they did not have enough resources which made these relationships reciprocal. Therefore, social welfare policy were essential to support the poor female heads of households.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.209-215
• /
• 2022

This study aims to analyze the livelihood resources and income diversification of informal recyclers in the Mekong River Delta (MRD). The multiple linear regression model was applied to determine income diversification and total household income with the sustainable livelihood analysis framework developed by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (2000), including human resources, physical resources, natural resources, financial resources, and social resources. The results indicated that up to 25% of itinerant waste buyers worked on average more than 7.3 hours/day, which was higher than the urban near-poor level regulated by the Vietnam government. The results of the regression model revealed that total households' income was affected by the factors of health status, gender, urban location type 1, the amount of potential savings, and informal credit participation, while the factors of health status, urban location, the amount of potential savings, and informal credit participation have the effect of diversifying farm household income. Thus, if the informal waste recycling sector is supported and regulated by proper government management, it will not only help poor households diversify their income, but it will also help poor households diversify their income, particularly women's income, which is vulnerable and lower than male income in the MRD.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.213-260
• /
• 2013

This study pays attention to the restricted use and the possibility of standard position of contingent workers in Brazil. The labor market of Brazil has been developed by formal and informal labor sector, and informal sector includes various precarious workers as well as contingent workers. According to Brazilian Statistics Department, not contingent workers but informal labor focused in this paper have been slowly decreased since year 2000. In this context, this study investigated on the reasons of decreasing contingent employment in Brazil. The results demonstrate that decreased informal employment and instead increased standard workers could not be interpreted by recent the Braizil's economic boom. Along with literature review, the author conducted the case study regarding employment of contingent workers at six large foreign companies in Sao Paulo. The results of this show that the use of contingent employment was prohibited in regular daily works by the labor law and thus firms employed contingent workers in only temporary positions. Further, firms often promise standard positions for contingent workers when temporary employment contract was terminated since there is little or no exist of the differences of wage between standard and contingent worker in terms of 'same work same wage' and 'minimum wage'. In here, labor unions play a key role in employment change from contingent position to standard job. Consequently, decreasing of contingent workers and stepping stone to regular jobs seems to be triggered by both legal regulation on contingent employment and strong unions. This institutional perspective may extend the theoretical view on the use of contingent workers, and the author discuss that Brazil's case could provide practical implications to Korean labor policy.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.49-63
• /
• 2019

The export regulation of semiconductor core materials, which began with the recent revision of the export management regulations of Japan, raises the need for a new cooperation network. A hierarchical management network that was effective in the fast-follower system requires organic cooperation between the public sector and industry through a multilateral network that emphasizes horizontal co-operation among innovation actors. This study focused on the relational capital that exists among members of a business association such as an association that has been relatively marginalized from previous studies. In addition, this study aimed to analyze the effect of network activity characteristics such as industry-university linkage and informal exchange on technological innovation. Through this, I would like to draw implications for enhancing the effectiveness of the government's R & D support and innovation performance of R & D companies. Based on the results of the SMEs R & D survey, this study found that relational capital, informal exchange had a positive effect on technological innovation performance. However, if the relational capital exceeds a certain level, it is analyzed that there is a negative effect due to group think and lock-in effect. This means that informal exchange channels should be expanded for innovation and enhancement, and relational capital should be managed in consideration of the negative effects that may occur when certain levels are exceeded.

• World Technopolis Review
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.107-117
• /
• 2012

As reflected in the title, the main objective of the paper is to explore an appropriate approach to promote technological innovation for developing countries. Aiming to this goal, the paper studies three main innovation system approaches, whose implantation is being attempted in developing countries: first, national innovation systems (NIS), which was developed in OECD countries; second, the system of innovation for development (SID), which is a concept that tries to adapt NIS to developing countries; and third, inclusive innovation which is a pro-poor innovation system. Based on the strengths and the weaknesses of each concept and their potential adaptation in developing countries, the paper proposes an integrated approach of innovation system for developing countries. Compared to developed countries, the concept of innovation system in developing countries should be more complex because it involves not only the formal sector such as enterprises, universities, research institutes, government, and financial system but it also involves NGOs, informal companies, grassroots inventors, local and indigenous knowledge, etc. The last part of the paper discusses the ideas that innovation stakeholders in developing countries can use to promote their proper innovation system.