CISR Journal of Sustainability and Society

Rural women entrepreneurs in emerging markets operate under severe asymmetric capital access and deeply entrenched socio-cultural constraints. Through in-depth narrative inquiry and phenomenological interviews with 64 rural women enterprise founders across northwestern Bangladesh, this study theorizes how social businesses bridge institutional voids. The empirical findings reveal that peer-to-peer cooperative mentoring and digital mobile payment adoption generate a resilient buffer against debt traps, elevating household reinvestment rates by 38.6%.

Pre-consumer textile waste ("jhoot") in Bangladesh accounts for over 500,000 tonnes of discarded material annually. This paper conducts a comprehensive material flow analysis (MFA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) across 18 textile manufacturing clusters to evaluate closed-loop mechanical recycling viability. Transitioning to localized circular industrial symbiosis reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 28.4% and creates sustainable green jobs.

Does voluntary ESG reporting signify authentic corporate environmental stewardship or symbolic impression management? Utilizing panel econometric estimations across 210 publicly listed firms on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) from 2018 to 2025, this paper investigates "greenwashing" decoupling mechanisms and identifies regulatory disclosure mandates that successfully restore stakeholder trust.