The relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and the recurring entrepreneurial intention and action of existing entrepreneurs

BACKGROUND : Many scholars focus their research efforts on the entrepreneurial intention of students and non-entrepreneurs, yet most of these scholars found empirical evidence that intention does not necessarily lead these individuals to start businesses (entrepreneurial action). Possible explanations for this could be that: (1) previous studies focused on the wrong samples; (2) they measured entrepreneurial intention as a single construct; and (3) there is a missing link between intention and action. AIM: To address these gaps, we determine the relationship between recurring entrepreneurial intention attitudes and action as well as entrepreneurial intention behaviours and action of 154 existing entrepreneurs in South Africa. By focusing on a sample of existing entrepreneurs who have already started a business, we shed light on the set of entrepreneurial competencies as a missing link between intention and action. This article is of academic importance as it focuses on the recurring process that entrepreneurs follow instead of the initial intention that is often overemphasised in literature. As far as could be determined, no other studies have investigated the relationships between entrepreneurial competencies, recurring entrepreneurial intention attitudes, recurring entrepreneurial intention behaviours and recurring entrepreneurial action. SETTING: The research was conducted on 154 existing entrepreneurs in South Africa. METHODS: A self-administered survey was used and the findings indicate that entrepreneurial competencies have a positive relationship with recurring entrepreneurial action, recurring entrepreneurial intention behaviours and recurring entrepreneurial intention attitudes. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between entrepreneurial action and recurring entrepreneurial intention behaviours. This is an unexpected finding as a positive relationship was expected for a sample that had prior entrepreneurial experience and already engaged in prior behaviours. However, this study contributes to the entrepreneurial intention–action literature by suggesting that existing entrepreneurs with recurring intention should also be measured in these relationships, in comparison to other research that mainly focused on the intentions of students and non-entrepreneurs. CONCLUSION: The practical contribution of this article is in the identification of specific entrepreneurial competencies, such as creative problem-solving, opportunity recognition and value creation that existing entrepreneurs relied on the most when engaging in entrepreneurial action. Potential, nascent, existing and serial entrepreneurs could focus on these competencies if they wish to engage in entrepreneurial action as well as recurring entrepreneurship.https://sajesbm.co.zapm2020Business Managemen

Evaluation and selection of taro [Colocasia esculentra (L.) Schott] accessions under dryland conditions in South Africa

Published online: 08 Oct 2018Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is an important underutilised staple food crop in South Africa, with a lot of potential to address food insecurity among poor rural households. Development of high yielding stable taro cultivars is one of the most important goals of plant breeders. Twenty-nine taro accessions collected from major taro producing regions of the country were evaluated for growth performance, yield potential and stability under dryland conditions at two sites (Umbumbulu and Roodeplaat) in 2013, 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons. The experiment was laid in a randomised complete block design replicated three times. Growth and yield traits were measured. Analysis of variance and correlation analysis was done on all measured traits. The genotype by environment interaction was analysed using additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI). As a result, significant variation was observed for most of the traits except number of leaves and leaf width as well as number of suckers, while all the traits showed significant variation for location by year interaction. Number of corms showed significant variation for location by year by genotype interaction among all the traits evaluated. Genotype effect was highly significant (p < .01) on plant height, corm length, number of corms and significant (p < .05) on yield. The significant difference between genotypes for these traits proves that there was a genetic variability and there is a scope for selection. The correlation study also reveals that majority of the characters were positively correlated with each other. Total yield was positively and highly significantly (p < .01) correlated with all the measured traits. AMMI was effective in identifying stable genotypes. The top ranking cultivars per environment may be considered for cultivation under the specific environment, the stable cultivars may be considered for cultivation across all the taro growing regions

Neutron strain investigations of laser bent samples

Bending of metal plates with high energy laser beams presents a flexible materials forming technique where bending results from the establishment of a steep temperature gradient through the material thickness. This inevitably leads to non uniform thermal expansion contraction and subsequently residual stresses. Non destructive residual strain mapping with neutron diffraction through the 8mm thickness of a series WA 300 grade structural steel plate samples, focused on the region straddling the centerline of the heating bead location, shows the presence of large residual stress fields. Directly below the laser track the longitudinal strains are tensile and dominant, normal strains compressive and transverse strains slightly tensile. The magnitudes of the strains decrease outside the width of the laser beam footprint. The first laser pass induces throughthickness strains close to yield, whereafter their magnitudes decrease with increased number of laser beam passes. A comprehensive mapping of the longitudinal stresses as function of the number of laser passes is give