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The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the influence of women’s land ownership status on their inclusion in developing economies.

The study adopted a cross-sectional analysis. Data were taken from Global Findex data of World Bank and Indices of social development. Data were analysed using limited information maximum likelihood to establish the relationship between usage of basic financial services and women’s land ownership status variables. The study considers different demographic, social and economic factors as control variables. Socio-economic gender equality index and land ownership status of men are considered as instrumental variables in the estimations for controlling endogeneity problem.

The study proves that there is a significant influence of women’s land ownership status on their demand and usage of basic financial services. The results show that women who own land alone have a significant relationship for formal account ownership and formal savings but are deprived of formal and informal credit. The results find that women are more likely to avail of formal credit when they are backed by someone else in the family especially men. Irrespective of the wealth quintile to which women belong, they are deprived of credit if they do not own any land. The findings also show that women in higher wealth quintiles are more active in availing credit.

The study is limited to the extent of influence of women’s land ownership status on their demand for basic financial services.

The study recommends appropriate economic and financial policies to encourage women to own, possess and use their land for personal as well as entrepreneurial activities. The study also suggests for policies to encourage women for joint ownership of land for better credit availability.

Formal institutions must be more favourable for women in providing credit facilities because women play an essential role in economic development in developing economies.

This study is the first of its type in providing empirical evidence that women’s land ownership status influences their demand for basic financial services in developing countries.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic adversely affected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India. Amongst the challenges faced were the adjustments required in leadership skills to address pandemic-induced technological changes and the necessity for employee skill upgrading. This study examined the factors that influenced organisational performance in Indian SMEs, particularly in the context of the digital transformations that were brought about by the pandemic.

The study employed a cross-sectional design to investigate a set of hypotheses that were formulated to understand the relationships amongst digital leadership, digital training, empowerment and organisational performance. The data were collected during the pandemic from 487 employees who were working in various SMEs in India. Questionnaires were distributed through email and social media platforms, and electronic consent was obtained from each participant.

The study's findings indicated positive associations amongst digital leadership, digital training, empowerment and organisational performance. They also highlighted the mediating role of empowerment in these relationships. Furthermore, organisational resilience was found to positively moderate the relationship between empowerment and performance.

The study stands amongst the pioneers in exploring the role of digital leadership and digital training during the pandemic and their impact on employee empowerment amongst SMEs in a developing country.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of female labour force participation (FLFP) in the access and usage of formal financial services by women.

The study uses cross-country data from 107 countries. The study uses multivariate regression (OLS) to explain the impact of FLFP on the financial inclusion variables. The study also accounted for different groups of country-level control variables. Instrumental variables regression is also used in the study to consider for endogeneity issues.

The results show that FLFP has significant influence on all of the financial inclusion variables used in the study. The role of financial literacy is prominent in determining women's access to sophisticated financial services such as debit card and credit card. Improving financial infrastructure of an economy facilitates greater access to formal account by women

From policymakers’ perspective, women should be motivated to enter labour market for better financial inclusion.

More opportunities for women to enter formal employment encourages female participation in labour market and benefits women and the economy.

This paper is the first of its kind to study the influence of FLFP on indicators of financial inclusion of women. The study extended the scope of access to financial services by considering access to bank account, debit card and credit card. The study also analysed use of financial services through digital platforms by women.