Entrepreneurial Capability and Entrepreneurial Success of Small and Medium Enterprises: A Review of Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

The incidence of business failure especially in the small and medium enterprises sector is on the increase. This calls for more empirical research to investigate entrepreneurial factors to address business failure. Since the person behind the successful performance is the entrepreneur himself, his capabilities express in terms of entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial competencies become the most important factors to investigate to ensure business successful in a constantly changing or dynamic business environment. This paper provides a review of conceptual and theoretical frameworks on entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial competencies for empirical research on entrepreneurial success factors. Keywords: Entrepreneurial success, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial competencies, small and medium enterprises

Chemical and functional properties of cassava starch, durum wheat semolina flour, and their blends

High-quality cassava starch (HQCS) produced from high-yielding low-cyanide improved cassava variety, TMS 30572, was mixed with durum wheat semolina (DWS) on a replacement basis to produce flour samples containing 0, 20, 30, 50, 70, and 100% cassava starch. They were analyzed for chemical composition (proximate, amylose, free sugars, starch, wet gluten, and cyanide) and functional properties (pasting, swelling power, solubility, water absorption, water binding, starch damage, diastatic and ?-amylase activity, dough mixing, and stability). Protein, carbohydrate, fat, and ash of flour samples ranged from 0.75–12.31%, 70.87–87.80%, 0.95–4.41%, and 0.12–0.83%, respectively. Cyanide levels in all the flour samples were less than 0.1 ppm. Amylose content varied between 19.49% for cassava and 28.19% for wheat, correlating significantly with protein (r = 0.95, P = 0.004) and ash contents (r = 0.92, P = 0.01) at 5%. DWS and HQCS had similar pasting temperatures (50.2–53°C), while other pasting properties increased with increasing levels of HQCS. Dough mixing stability of samples decreased with increasing levels of HQCS. All the flour samples had ?-amylase activity greater than 200. Both HQCS and DWS compare favorably well in swelling power (7.80–9.01%); but the solubility of wheat starch doubled that of cassava. Starch damage varied between 3.3 and 7.2 AACC for semolina and starch, with the latter having higher absorption rate (97%), and the former, higher absorption speed (67 sec). Results obtained showed positive insight into cassava–wheat blend characteristics. Data thus generated provide additional opportunities of exploiting cassava utilization and hence boost its value–addition potentials for product development

Chemistry Entrepreneurship for Small and Medium Enterprises Development: A Panacea for Job and Wealth Creation

Chemistry is everything and everywhere, as a result chemistry offers wide varieties of business opportunities for small and medium enterprises development than any other discipline. Professional chemists including students of chemistry, with little training on entrepreneurial skills could begin to commercialize their innovations to reap enormous financial benefits; become job creators and contribute positively to the national economic development most especially through the small and medium enterprises.  Chemistry entrepreneurship, a subset of academic entrepreneurship; it involves the process of converting innovations in Chemistry into marketable products for commercial gain. It enables Chemists to take their work beyond publications in academic journals by patenting and commercializing them for economic gains. This paper calls for curriculum re-engineering to fully integrate entrepreneurship into Chemistry curriculum at degree level as well as to encourage researchers to make commercialization a part of their research agenda from the stage of project conceptualization. Keywords: Chemistry, Chemistry entrepreneurship, Business opportunities, innovations, commercialization, small and medium enterprises

On Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Success: A Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

This paper presents both conceptual and theoretical framework on entrepreneurial self efficacy with a conclusion that entrepreneurial self efficacy is a good predictor of entrepreneurial intention (venture start up self efficacy) and a robust predictor of business performance (venture growth self efficacy). In this paper entrepreneurial self efficacy refers to subjective self belief of an entrepreneur expressed in terms of optimism to start an enterprise and overconfidence to run it successfully. In conclusion, the paper proposes a modification to the New General Self Efficacy (NGSE) scale to measure entrepreneurial success. Keywords: Self efficacy, optimism, overconfidence, New General Scale

Production and evaluation of Nigerian tiger-nut extract beverage.

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In-vivo Effect of Oral Administration of Bifidobacterium adolescentis CH2 of Avian Origin on Male Albino Rats

Before administering to humans and agricultural animals, probiotics must satisfy  requirements for safety. Bifidobacterium adolescentis CH2 isolated from chicken was orally administered to male albino rats at a daily dose of about 3.6 x 106 cfu for 4 weeks to investigate the safety of its oral dose effects. Oral ingestion impact was assessed by body weight, blood biochemical components analysis, liver and kidney histopatological evaluations. Results from parameters investigated indicate no  adverse effect of ingestion of B. adolescentis CH2 strain when the dosed group is compared with the control group. No mortality, abnormal weight, organ injury or damage was observed in the control and B. adolescentis CH2 administered group. There was no abnormal decrease or increase in creatinine, aspartate transaminase, urea and blood glucose in any group. Histopatological examination of liver and kidney showed no abnormality or damage to organ in all groups. B. adolescentis CH2 strain isolated from chicken had no adverse effect on albino rats with respect to parameters here studied.Keywords: Bifidobacterium adolescentis, probiotic, in-vivo safety, yoghurt

Antimicrobial effects of Jatropha curcas sap and leaf extracts on Bacillus subtilis

Extracts of fresh, dry leaves and sap ofJatropha curcas  were  screened for in vitro antibacterial and antifungal properties. Methanolic and aqueous extracts of each of fresh, dry leaves and sap were screened using 3 gram negative, 3 gram positive bacteria and a fungus, which are all clinical strains of human pathogenic microorganism. Cotrimoxazole was used as a standard reference drug while methanol was used as a negative control. The extracts exhibited various degrees of activity in both bioassays at concentrations of 10, 20, 40 and 80mg/ml, respectively. Mean diameters of zones of inhibition for the five extracts and drug ranged from 14.2mm to 32.2mm while the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) ranged from 0.004mg/ml to 1.00 mg/ml. This study showed that extracts of Jatropha curcas  have potential for use in antibacterial and antifungal preparations for a wide range of infection

Production of pectinase enzyme from cheap plant materials (corn pomace, rice bran and peanut chaff) using Aspergillus niger.

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Proximate composition and bread making performance of selected wheat varieties grown in Nigeria

The proximate composition and bread making performance of selected wheat varieties grown in Nigeria, including Atilla, Cettia, Reyna 28, Seri MSH and Norman have been reported in this study. Bread making was done using a straight dough method and the resulting loaves were evaluated in terms of their weight, volume and texture. The developed bread samples were subjected to sensory analyses using a 9 point Hedonic scale. Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance ANOVA and means separation by Duncan multiple range test. The proximate results ranged as follows: moisture (11.90-13.23%), protein (11.37-16.77%), fibre (1.07-3.50%), fat (0.77-1.41%) and starch (60.01- 73.67%). The flour samples had significantly higher (p < 0.05) protein, fat, fibre and starch contents compared with the commercial flour (CON). The bread making protocol revealed that Reyna 28 showed the highest water uptake (436mls) and a mixing time of 20 min, followed by Atilla, with 432mls but with a higher mixing time of 25 min signifying potential for optimal dough development. The mean sensory scores obtained showed no significant (p > 0.05) difference in the appearance, taste, texture and chewability of the local wheat bread samples but the control had significantly higher (p < 0.05) scores for these attributes. The present research work has shown that despite some significant variations in measured parameters, acceptable and standard bread loaves can be produced from improved wheat flour varieties grown in Nigeria.Keywords: Proximate composition, bread making performance, wheat varieties, brea