Culture, gender and small business : Honiara, Solomon Islands : presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University

The common assumption in regards to indigenous Solomon Islanders owning business is that most of these businesses will fail because of cultural constraints. These appear in the form of the wantok system and cultural obligations that place an extreme financial burden on small business owners (SBOs) and restrict the potential of potential small businesses. This study has been carried out in the formal business sector in Honiara to ascertain the effects of cultural obligations on small business (SB) and to determine the role of women in business. The research findings lead to the conclusion that with education/ experience cultural obligations can be managed within small businesses, and that women, despite the gender restrictions rooted in traditional culture, can manage small businesses successfully. However, it is evident that the wantok system and the commercialisation of some aspects of culture, places a financial burden on Solomon Islanders. In order to promote the development of indigenous small businesses, the government, pending adequate research, will need to ensure that suitable financial loan assistance schemes, and advisory offices are introduced to allow for easy access to start up business resources. Furthermore, as the research has shown that if women are to be successful in business these schemes must target all groups of women and not favour one group, for example rural women. It is also evident from the research that more professional women are entering into small businesses, and that they can manage cultural obligations and still assist relatives both in the urban and rural sectors

PENGARUH KUALITAS PRODUK TERHADAP LOYALITAS PELANGGAN YANG DIMEDIASI OLEH KEPUASAN PELANGGAN (Studi Pada Pelanggan Kosmetik Make Over Malang)

This research aims to describe product quality, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, product quality influences customer loyalty, product quality influences customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction influences customer loyalty and product quality influences loyalty through satisfaction as mediation. The population used in this research was Make Over Malang cosmetics customers with a sample size of 140 respondents. The analytical method used in this research is path analysis. Based on the results of the research and discussions that have been carried out, it can be concluded that customer loyalty is included in the loyal criteria, product quality is included in the very good criteria and customer satisfaction is included in the satisfied criteria. Product quality has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty, product quality has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty and customer satisfaction is proven to be a mediating variable in the relationship between product quality and customer loyalty

Combined measurements of the properties of the Higgs boson using the ATLAS detector

The combined measurement of the mass, couplings and spin-CP properties of the recently discovered Higgs boson obtained with the ATLAS detector using up to $25$ fb$^{-1}$ of $7$ TeV and $8$ TeV $pp$ collision data is reviewed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

“Man? Where’s a man? Don’t let him go!”: Molina’s Trans/gender Web in Interpretation and Performance

Using perspectives typical of English and theatrical fields of study, this capstone project interprets Molina from Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman as a heterosexual transgender woman and then investigates why such an interpretation does not exist in performance adaptations. Although Molina has been called a transgender woman in recent criticism, there is a conflation of gender and sexuality that has been uninvestigated in this text. It has not been addressed how Molina constructs her identity or how this interpretation might be employed in performance, which this essay seeks to confront. The first half of the project focuses on a close reading of the text that interprets Molina’s subjective construction of gender and sexuality as a heterosexual transgender woman, finding that the presupposed assumption of Molina as a gay man is a result of critics privileging what other characters say about Molina rather than her subjective articulation. The second half of the essay analyzes elements of the performance that prevented performing Molina as a transgender woman in Hector Babenco’s 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman movie adaptation – such as the intentions for the movie, the writing of the screenplay, and the personal acting choices of William Hurt, who played Molina – through production research and a semiotic reading of the film. This project speaks to the broader context of how individual identity is constructed, how gender is performed, how societal attitudes oppress individual identity, and how transgender characters have been minimized in media

Uniqueness and Indeterminacy of Equilibria in a Model with Polluting Emissions

Is pollution a dirty word? To answer this question we develop an endogenous growth model à la Rebelo (1991) where dirtiness becomes a fundamental choice variable for the economy to grow. Conclusions to our analysis say that a positive sustainable economic growth is attainable only if polluting production activities are taken into account. Moreover, transitional dynamics points out that local stability and uniqueness of equilibria are also achieved.Environmental quality, Endogenous economic growth, Pollution-augmenting technology

Transitional Dynamics Towards Sustainability: Reconsidering the EKC Hypothesis

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is one of the most debated economic issues. Despite its fascinating appeal for any policy maker, neither theoretical nor certain empirical evidence has been found to clean up all doubt. The aim of this paper is to present an economy where environmental quality and polluting emissions do enter the maximisation problem, and provide a transitional dynamics analysis to pursue a new different version of the EKC, depending on the level of development finally achieved.Environmental Quality, Endogenous Economic Growth, Sustainable Development