The moderating effect of social environment on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial intentions of female students at Nigerian universities

The objective of this study was to examine the moderating effect of social environment on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate female students of Nigerian Universities. Female students were chosen because they are more susceptible to social pressures.One of the hypotheses was to test whether social environment moderates the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on entrepreneurial intentions. A quantitative research method (survey) was used to solicit responses from 120 final year undergraduate female students of three University Business Schools in the North, East and West regions of Nigeria.This method was used because Universities in Nigeria offer similar courses and the respondents, according to previous studies in other contexts, show a higher propensity to firm formation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression. The results indicated that entrepreneurial orientation (self-efficacy and education) had significant positive influence on entrepreneurial intention among female business students in Nigeria. It was also found that social environment (friends’ agreement) moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (education) and entrepreneurial intentions among the students.Again, the study contributed to the scant literature on entrepreneurial intentions among people in developing countries especially Nigeria. Therefore, the government should focus on ways to encourage entrepreneurship awareness among university students in Nigeria to enhance entrepreneurial intentions and self-employment. The study was limited to female students. Future studies could compare the entrepreneurial intentions of male and female students

Nonprofit Fundraising Study: Covering Charitable Receipts At Nonprofit Organizations in the United States and Canada in 2013

Findings from a survey of more than 500 nonprofit organizations examining changes in charitable receipt amounts and types of fundraising methods used

Cyber Security in the Nigerian Banking Sector: An Appraisal of Audit Committee Effectiveness

This study appraises the relationship that exists between cyber security and audit committee effectiveness using audit committee independence, audit committee technological expertise and audit committee financialexpertise characteristics as independent variables. The variable used to measure the dependent variable is cyber security compliance. 13 banks listed on the Nigerian stock exchange were selected. Empirical analysis was carried out using product moment correlation and ordinary least square regression analysis methods. The result showed that audit committee characteristics as measure by independence, financialexpertise and technological expertise all have non-significantnegative relationship to cyber security in the Nigerian banking sector. The implication is that, the audit committee as presently constituted in Nigeria would be unable to provide controls and oversight functions over cyber security in the banking sector which is the most sensitive sector in the economy. It was therefore recommended that the composition of the audit committee in Nigeria should be worked on to deliberately incorporate needed technological and financialexperts that can ask probing questions and offer their wealth of experience in safeguarding the shareholders wealth and lastly, the committee members should be seen to be independen

Attributes, environment factors and women entrepreneurial activity: A literature review

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of individual attributes and business environment factors on the entrepreneurial activity of women entrepreneurs. Individual attributes such as education, working experience, attitude towards risk-taking, affect women entrepreneurial activity.Economic constraints such as lack of credit due to lack of asset collaterals and socio-cultural barriers, lack of savings due to low household income, and lack of labour skills due to low educational level also affect women entrepreneurial activity.The effect of these factors on entrepreneurial activity is worth studying because entrepreneurship development is considered a vital link to an overall economic growth of a nation through its positive impact on economic development especially at the grassroots.However, limited studies have reviewed literatures on individual attributes and business environment factors on the entrepreneurial activity of women entrepreneurs.This is the focus of this study. Methodology: The paper is a descriptive study that reviews literature on individual attributes and environment factors on women entrepreneurial activity. Conclusion: The paper concludes that environment factors exert much more influence on women entrepreneurial activity than individual attributes.Research limitation: The paper is limited to a literature review that may need further research by using a framework to investigate the factors on entrepreneurial activity.Practical implication: It shows the need for the government to support entrepreneurs through adequate provision of micro finance.Originality: The study is a new way to look at crucial factors affecting entrepreneurial activity in a country.Paper type: This is a research paper

Effect of Radiative Heat Transfer on Cosmic-Ray Transport in a Rotating Cloudy Interstellar Medium

Radiative heat transfer on cosmic rays (cr) in a rotating cloudy interstellar medium is modelled by imposingnbsp a time dependent perturbation on the cosmic transport in the interstellar medium containing randomly distributed giant diffused molecular clouds the temperature involved are assumed to be large so that radiative heat transfer is significant. This renders the problem very nonlinear even on the assumptions of a differential approximation for the radiative flux in a adiabatic concentration and zero activated energy. When the perturbation is small, the transient flow is tackled by the laplace transform technique, giving solution, for steady state spectrum of cosmic ray in the galaxy temperature up and down stream concentration, also velocity analytical and numerical solutions were obtained for temperature. Velocity of the down and upstream concentration in cases where radiative heat transfer through the rotating medium are taken into account. The incorporation of radiative heat transfer is of particular relevance to cosmic ray transport whose temperature is usually very high which radiate a lot of heat through the media which surround them

A structured approach to integrating mental health services into primary care: development of the Mental Health Scale Up Nigeria intervention (mhSUN).

BACKGROUND: The treatment gap for mental illness in Nigeria, as in other sub-Saharan countries, is estimated to be around 85%. There is need to prioritise mental health care in low and middle income countries by providing a strong body of evidence for effective services, particularly with a view to increasing international and government confidence in investment in scaling up appropriate services. This paper lays out the processes by which a programme to integrate evidence-based mental health care into primary care services in Nigeria was designed, including a research framework to provide evidence from a robust evaluation. METHODS: This paper forms the first step in the overall process evaluation of the mhSUN intervention, where standard research practice indicates that the intervention, and its development, is clearly documented prior to subsequent evaluation. The report covers the period of programme development and evaluation design, and study site and design was chosen to allow generalisability and practical conclusions to be drawn for service development in Nigeria. In order to design an intervention that was informed by evidence and took into account local context and input of stakeholders, a structured process was followed, including: (1) Engagement of relevant stakeholders for information gathering and buy-in; (2) Literature review and gathering of pertinent evidence; (3) Situation analysis at a national and local level; (4) Model development (using Theory of Change); (5) Ongoing consultation, recognising the iterative nature of Theory of Change, and need for ongoing refinement of complex interventions. RESULTS: The different sections of the structured approach resulted in outputs that built the necessary components (literature review, situation analysis) for informing the Theory of Change. A Theory of Change map is presented, which includes transparent documentation of the assumptions and logic behind the activities to drive the desired change. In addition, it documents the indicators necessary to measure fidelity and draw conclusions as to hypothesised effects of different mechanisms of action in subsequent evaluation. CONCLUSION: In addition to the details of ensuring robust evaluation design, there are a number of considerations that are particular to the context that must be taken into account in programme development, including the relationships between ultimate beneficiaries, implementers, host government and institutions, donors, and programme evaluators. Structured methods from existing frameworks can be drawn upon to use and collate relevant information to maximise the local applicability of a generic evidence base. Theory of Change, with its documented assumptions can form the basis of subsequent evaluation and iterative programme refinement, contributing to a more scientifically valid means of developing mental health programmes for scale up

Women Entrepreneurs' Performance : Microfinance Factors With Mediating Effect of Opportunity and Moderating Effect of Attitude

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation- ship between micro-finance related factors (credit, savings, training and social capital) offered by micro-finance institutions and women entrepreneurs’ business performance with mediating influence of opportunity for entrepreneurial activity and the moderating influence of attitude towards micro-finance. However, the hypotheses were restated to reflect the component factors that resulted from the Exploratory Factor Analysis. For example, loan access represented credit, skill acquisition represented traininig , bonding represented social capital, opportunity for business improvement represented opportunity for entrepreneurial activity, ability to expand business and self-confidence in doing business represented attitude towards micro-finance, and women entrepreneurs’ sales performance represented women entrepreneurs’ business performance. A total of 280 women entrepreneurs participated in the survey through mail questionnaire; out of which 172 questionnaires were usable. However, after data cleaning, only data for 161 respondents were finally used for the data analysis. Descriptive statistics, multiple, linear and hierarchical regression analyses were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The study found that there were significant positive relationships between: loan access, skill acquisition and bonding; and women entrepreneurs’ sales performance which met Research Objective 1; skill acquisition and women entrepreneurs’ sales performance which met Research Objective 2; loan access and opportunity for business improvement of women entrepreneurs, skill acquisition and opportunity for business improvement of women entrepreneurs which met Research Objective 3; opportunity for business improvement and women entrepreneurs’ sales performance which met Research Objective 4; opportunity for business improvement of women entrepreneurs partially mediated the relationship between loan access, skill acquisition and bonding; and women entrepreneurs’ sales performance since only skill acquisition was significant which met Research Objective 5; ability to expand business partially moderated the relation- ship between loan access, skill acquisition, bonding and opportunity; and women entrepreneurs’ sales performance which met Research Objective 6. The study concludes that micro-finance factors are positively related to women entrepreneurs’ business performance as the models were, collectively, significant

A Review of Economic Instruments Employed for Biodiversity Conservation

Globally, the use of economic instruments for biodiversity conservation has gained a lot of support. This is because of the concern for the economic well being of people living in and near biodiversity-rich areas. Also, economic drivers are the main threats to biodiversity. This policy of using economic instruments is being used on a case-by-case basis worldwide. A review of their use from a global perspective is important to facilitate learning from issues resulting from their implementation. This article documents and reviews the specific economic instruments being used in different parts of the world for biodiversity conservation. An analysis of the economic instruments using a demand or supply classification suggests that more instruments are targeted at increasing supply of biological resources for human use. A review of literature and field documents was also employed to determine trends in the use of economic instruments for conservation. A major trend observed is the relatively low investments in economic instruments used for biodiversity conservation in developing countries, even though such countries tend to be rich in biodiversity

The Relevance of Credit Risk in the determination of Commercial Banks’ Profitability: Evidence From Ghana

Existing empirical literature on the relationship between credit risk and bank’s profitability is replete with mixed results. This research investigates the probable effect of credit risk on banks’ profitability by examining the nature of the relationship between two measures of credit risk (Loss provisioning rate and Actual provisioning charge rate) and two measures ofprofitability (Return on assets and Return on Equity). The investigation is conducted using data on the Ghanaian banking industry. Various modeling techniques are used to fit the data, including frequentist beta regression and Bayesian beta regression models. The results across all models suggest negative linear relationship between actual impairment charge rate and profitability, and a curvilinear relationship between impairment allowance rate and profitability. The curvilinear relationship is contrary to the positive linear relationship suggested by previous studies