AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

TUESDAY
Session: 3.4.1 - Panel
Track: 1 - Institutions, Governance, and CSR
Poverty Alleviation at the Local Level: What Works Best
Presented On: July 3, 2012 - 14:30-15:45
Chair: John Raymond Dilyard, St. Francis College
Panelists:
John Raymond Dilyard, St. Francis College
Susan Mudambi, Temple University
Bindu Vyas, King's College
Masud Chand, Wichita State University
Sow Hup Chan, University of Macau
Chung-Leung Luk, City University of Hong Kong
Wendy W. N. Wan, Sun Yat-Sen University
Poverty alleviation has long been a purported outcome of foreign direct investment yet it has a rather
disappointing record in that regard. Thanks in large part to the work of Muhammad Yunus and the success of
the Grameen Bank, small scale lending or microfinance, has been seen as the key to poverty alleviation, job
creation and economic development in developing countries. Often they are aligned with government programs
and/or non-governmental organization (NGO) partnerships. International business scholars are starting to
examine these small-scale local financing activities to find out what really might be best for poverty alleviation.
This panel will provide a cross-section of studies covering this topic from a variety of perspectives. (For more
information, please contact: John Raymond Dilyard, St. Francis College, USA: jdilyard@gmail.com)
Session: 3.4.2 - Panel
Track: 7 - Emerging Economies
Entrepreneurship in Islamic Societies
Presented On: July 3, 2012 - 14:30-15:45
Chair: Mehdi Farashahi, Concordia University
Panelists:
Mehdi Farashahi, Concordia University
Abbas Ali, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Soumaya Ben Letaifa, Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Abdulrahman Chikhouni , Concordia University
Claude Marcotte, Concordia University
Recent uprisings in Islamic societies have created radical social changes and institutional upheavals in these
countries. Fallen governments and the instability of political and economic systems in many Islamic societies
have developed a new type of social entrepreneurship based on religious values in these countries. This is
reflected in the recent elections in most Islamic societies, that brought parties with Islamic background in
power. Fighting against corruption and seeking for justice and equality, as major Islamic values, have indeed
become some of the main driving forces behind these social entrepreneurships. In the coming years we might
experience the dominance of Islamic social norms and regulations in these countries with significant effects on
economic and business activities. They can transform the missions, characters and strategic choices of business
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
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