The interplay of different types of capital on amplifying small business entrepreneurship performance in Cameroon: a case of Douala and Yaounde.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.There cannot be a firm without entrepreneurship, and for the exercise of effective entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial capital is indispensable. Drawing from the resource-based theory, this study assesses the interplay of social, human and financial capital on business performance in Cameroon, using a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). These three elements together make up the building blocks of entrepreneurial capital. The study uses a sample of 364 firms. Performance is examined in terms of growth in sales, profits and employment. The PCA isolates financial capital (FC), social capital (SC), and human capital (HC) as critical components influencing performance. HC is examined under Entrepreneur-Owner Human Capital (OHC) and LabourEmployee Human Capital (EHC). The SEM results indicate that OHC has the strongest significant effect on performance (weight 0.528), followed by FC (weight 0.420), EHC (weight 0.207) and SC (weight 0.120). Furthermore, the SEM indicated a positive and significant correlation between OHC and EHC (r = 0.61); between FC and EHC (r = 0.56); between FC and SC (r = 0.40); between OHC and SC (r = 0.34) and between SC and EHC (r = 0.32). Different elements of entrepreneurial capital complement each other in influencing performance. Investigating the constraints to business performance, five major obstacles were identified, namely: ‘financial and managerial skills’, ‘inadequate inputs’, ‘infrastructure’, ‘transaction costs and regulations’ and ‘credit access’. The study also looked at the influence of government support, regulations, and private financial institutions in hindering or amplifying business performance, using a multiple linear regression model (MLRM). The results show that ‘government regulations’ (= -0.197, p=0.004), has the strongest adverse impact on performance in terms of sales revenue. Furthermore, ‘awareness of source of funds’ was found to significantly amplify business performance in terms sales revenue (= 0.146; p=0.031) and in terms of profit (= 0.175; p=0.012). Government support was also significant to performance, in terms of labour employment (= 0.601; p=0.000); sales revenue (= 0.178; p=0.009), and profit (= 0.175; p=0.012). Government regulations have a consistently negative influence on performance, even when using different indicators

A Closer View of Smallholder Agriculture in Congo Basin Forests: Use of High Resolution Imagery to Quantify Spatial Relationships of Agriculture with Roads and Land Management after Recent Intensification of Commercial Logging Operations

In the Congo Basin, changes in forest policy promoted the development of commercial timber activities and defined different forest-use zones. Timber activities have extended the road presence in the Basin, while zoning has attempted to control where anthropogenic activities are occurring, including smallholder agriculture, an activity considered as one of the main causes of deforestation in the Basin. Therefore, the main concern of the lengthening of the road network is that it could support the development of agriculture. Relationships between roads and agriculture has been studies in other tropical regions, however little work has been conducted in the Basin under the current policies. This study aimed to evaluate the spatial relationships between agriculture, roads, and current land-zoning practices. To do so, twenty-six very-high resolution images, within seven case study sites within Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo were employed to map and characterize agriculture at its smallest size, roads and other anthropogenic activities. Results of multiple analyses indicated that, considering the dominance of small plots (64% <1-ha) agricultural clearings presented characteristics associated with smallholder agriculture. Distance relationships between agriculture and roads indicated that 60% of all clearing occurred near (<1-km) roads, but not all roads were in proximity to agriculture, in special, clearings were more likely to occur near maintained roads: 53% of all clearing were <1-km to a maintained road while only 8% were <1-km to unmaintained roads. Further, Gibbs spatial point pattern modeling methods indicated that that nearness to roads influenced the incidence of agriculture when the following conditions were present: 1) presence of active logging, 2) dominance of maintained roads, and 3) nearness to large towns. Forest-use zoning analysis indicated that most clearings occurred within agricultural friendly zones (non-permanent forest in Cameroon and community development series in Congo) but also clearings occurred within the permanent forest zones (production forest in Cameroon and Congo). In Cameroon, 99% of the clearings within the production forest (n=148) occurred < 3 km from a road, while in Congo, 64% of the clearings within production forest (n=443) occurred at the same distance range; however, analysis suggested that some of the clearings within the production forest could be associated to transient agriculture conducted by logging workers. Results updated the understanding of agriculture and roads in the Basin, while emphasize the need for further research and resources to integrate agricultural activities as part of the conservation efforts while guaranteeing food security and improving local peoples’ livelihoods.PHDNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137161/1/corderos_1.pd

The impact of mobile telephony services on performance outcomes of micro-businesses in developing economies: with evidence from micro-business communities in Afghanistan and Cameroon

This thesis reports on a study conducted to investigate the relationship between the integration of mobile telephony services into micro-business processes and perceived enhanced business performance in a developing economy context, with detailed evidence drawn from a sample of 210 micro-businesses in Afghanistan and Cameroon. The research conceptualises, operationalises, and empirically tests an eclectic research model which integrates theory from the literature on the adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), on information economics, on strategic management, on entrepreneurship, and on small business growth and business performance. The research data was collected through a questionnaire, and call data extracted from the mobile phone activity-logs of micro-business owner-managers. This data was supplemented by the use of carefully-chosen photographs. The collected data was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling Techniques (SEM) with the help of AMOS 17 and SPSS statistical packages. The study also used Latent Visual Data Analysis (LVDA) to corroborate the statistical outcomes of this analysis. The results of this study identified the ‘integration of mobile telephony services into micro-business operations’, the ‘entrepreneurial competence of micro-business owner-managers’ and the ‘micro-business environment’ as having a direct influence on perceived enhanced business performance because of their potential to enable substantial cost savings, provide greater integration of the internal and external environments of the business, increase operational flexibility and reduce information asymmetries. The results also identified that ‘micro-business environments’ in Afghanistan and Cameroon tend to have a negative relationship with enhanced business performance if not moderated by the use of mobile telephony services. Finally, given the importance of micro-businesses in stimulating economic growth in developing economies and their relatively high failure rates, and because of the fact that many micro-businesses perceive that the cost of mobile telephony services are ‘high-to-very high’, this research provides greater opportunity for a discussion of the kinds of intervention strategies that could be used to improve the business integration of mobile telephony services and could therefore enhanced business performance

Disentangling the drivers of ant community composition: integrating structural, spatial and inter-specific competition at multiple scales.

Plant community-based conservation strategies are used for conserving cryptic diversity such as invertebrates. This approach however assumes plant community composition correlates with patterns of other taxa across the landscape. Composition may instead be influenced by other drivers including competition or stochastic assembly processes resulting in spatial turnover. I evaluated plant community-based conservation strategies using ants as a model system. I first evaluated a regional plant community-based conservation strategy across Sydney. Ants were weakly associated with plant community composition. Overall spatial turnover of ants was low, however within-community patterns were stronger. I then compared the relative importance of plant community, habitat structure and spatial drivers of ant assemblage composition at fine scales within the NSW SW Slopes. Spatial turnover was the best predictor of ant assemblage composition, with some association also with habitat structure. However, plant community composition did not predict ant assemblages. I found competitive exclusion between two abundant dominant ant species, Iridomyrmex purpureus and I. chasei. To investigate the influences of competitive dominance, I sampled ant assemblages along territory boundaries, and measured competitive dominance within territories. I found very strong competitive interactions and rapidly shifting territory boundaries. Food resources were more consistently won by the more abundant I. chasei, with lower species richness and significantly different assemblage composition of affiliate ant species attending baits in their territories. I found that plant community surrogacy provided only weak representation of ant assemblages, and only at course scales between broadly different plant community classes. Spatial turnover in ant assemblages was strong and resulted in high spatial turnover patterns. Competition from dominant species may also structure assemblage patterns

Geographies of the University

This open access volume raises awareness of the histories, geographies, and practices of universities and analyzes their role as key actors in today’s global knowledge economy. Universities are centers of research, teaching, and expertise with significant economic, social, and cultural impacts at different geographical scales. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries offer original analyses and discussions along five main themes: historical perspectives on the university as a site of knowledge production, cultural encounter, and political interest; institutional perspectives on university governance and the creation of innovative environments; relationships between universities and the city; the impact of universities on national and regional economies and cultures; and the processes of internationalization through student mobility, the creation of education hubs, and global regionalism in higher education

Birth registration and educational access in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case for an explanatory spatial research design

In 2019, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated the global number of children under the age of 5 without birth registrations at 166 million, with the largest share being present in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the author witnessed firsthand while working in Cameroon, the lack of birth registration documentation (i.e. birth certificates) precluded students from progressing from primary to secondary education. Struck by this example of social exclusion, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which birth registration acted as a barrier to educational access in primary and secondary education systems elsewhere across Sub-Saharan Africa. An interdisciplinary conceptual framework revealed a gap in academic literature with only a few studies having explored the relationship between birth registration and access to education in a regional context. This study filled such gap by advancing an innovative explanatory spatial mixed methods research design to analyze secondary data from UNICEF and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This unique design consisted of an initial quantitative multiple regression analysis followed by a spatial autocorrelation analysis, using geographic information systems (GIS), to explain the geography of the initial results. Results from this pragmatic research approach, outlined in a journal-article dissertation format, were intended to be made useful for researchers and policymakers alike. Noteworthy for the former audience, the quantitative strand found that while birth registration was not a significant predictor of access to education at any level of schooling, there were significant effects of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and rurality on educational access (Article #1). For the latter readers, choropleth maps of birth registration revealed some areas of neighboring countries with similar levels of low registration despite the absence of statistical clustering. However, access to education demonstrated statistically significant cluster patterns (p\u3c0.05) at the primary and lower-secondary levels, offering organizations like UNICEF and UNESCO noteworthy findings that could better inform policy interventions (Article #2). Finally, the author integrated both data strands using a multivariate cluster analysis in the ArcGIS platform, providing a compelling argument for the use of spatial mixed methods in educational policy research (Article #3)

An investigation into newly diagnosed HIV infection among Africans living in London

In the UK substantial numbers of new HIV diagnoses are within migrant African communities. A continuing feature of HIV in this population is the late presentation to HIV services. This dissertation sets out to explore HIV testing among Africans in the UK, the factors associated with late presentation to HIV services, and the extent of HIV acquisition within the UK in African communities. The main focus of the thesis is the ‘study of newly diagnosed HIV among Africans in London’ (the SONHIA study), which combined qualitative and quantitative methods in a multi-centre study. The thesis begins with the work undertaken in preparation for SONHIA. It presents a literature review to provide epidemiological, cultural and historical background. Next is an analysis of the 2nd National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles to explore the factors associated with HIV testing among black Africans in Britain. Finally, the findings from in-depth interviews with key informants to identify the issues affecting utilisation of HIV services for Africans in Britain are presented. The SONHIA study consisted of survey of 269 Africans newly diagnosed with HIV. All respondents self-completed a questionnaire linked to clinical records, and 26 in-depth interviews with a purposively selected sub-sample were performed. The findings show that Africans are accessing services but clinicians are failing to use these opportunities for preventive and diagnostic purposes with regards to HIV infection. HIV presentation patterns appear governed by factors linked to the characteristics of, and response to, the HIV epidemic operating within people’s sociocultural networks. UK acquisition of HIV in this population appears substantially higher than acknowledged by national surveillance data, with a quarter to a third of HIV possibly acquired in the UK. The qualitative findings provide contextual understanding of the factors contributing to late presentation. They highlight the central role of HIV-related stigma and discrimination in influencing HIV testing behaviours. Failings within the health care system offer insight as how clinicians can better address HIV in the future. The key findings are summarized and contextualised with the literature and the current socio-political climate. The study’s limitations are addressed, and the thesis concludes with the public health and policy implications of the study