A Phenomenological Study on Entrepreneurial Identity of Female Entrepreneurs in South Africa

Objective: To understand the entrepreneurial identity, through the lived experience of female entrepreneurs who are familiar with the phenomenon. This objective was premised on understanding that entrepreneurial identity is a product of context which shapes the social-cultural norms and environment within which individuals, operate and construct their identity. This is captured in entrepreneurship scholarship where the discipline is still struggling to build a reliable definition of female entrepreneurship applicable to both developed and developing countries and its effect on their respective economies. Research Design & Methods: This study used a qualitative research design that followed a phenomenological approach with thirty five female entrepreneurs, utilising semi structured in depth individual meetings. Findings: Female entrepreneurs build, balance, and manage a wide range of entrepreneurial ventures of varying sizes across sectors while maintain both role and social identities. Female entrepreneurs also express strong views on earning returns and income to not only grow their business but support their employees, communities, themselves, and their families. Implications & Recommendations: This study generated five themes that should be researched quantitatively to determine further understanding of entrepreneurship and developing other entrepreneurs in developing countries. Contribution & Value Added: The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on entrepreneurship in entrepreneurial identity, by exploring the female entrepreneur as both a role and identity. It examines this through the perspective of role identity and learn how female entrepreneurs consider their role as an entrepreneur

Influence of strategic management practices on the entrepreneurial orientation of South African firms in the financial and business services sector

In this dissertation, strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship are combined in a single empirical research investigating the influence of business strategic management practices on organisational entrepreneurial orientation. Understanding this relationship has progressively become crucial in today’s hypercompetitive global environment where businesses, regardless of national location, size, age and industry, are facing incessant and dynamic change. Specifically, the influence of strategic management practices on corporate entrepreneurship in medium to large corporations in the financial and business services sector in South Africa is analysed by testing hypotheses that predict the relationship between strategic management dimensions of locus of planning, scanning intensity, planning flexibility, planning horizon, and strategy control attributes, and entrepreneurial orientation. By applying factor, cluster and multiple regression statistical analyses, the study made four key findings. First, the results confirm that selected dimensions of strategic management practices influence the entrepreneurial orientation of firms. This in turn effect the position a firm occupies along a conceptual conservative-entrepreneurial continuum. Second, the study indicates that firms with perceived higher entrepreneurial orientation exhibit better performance measures. This finding supports the thesis that entrepreneurial orientation is an integral component for business performance in attaining sustainable competitive advantage, achieving above-average earnings and wealth creation. Third, a methodology that combined strategic management and corporate entrepreneurship in a single research generated new knowledge confirming that entrepreneurial orientation is a key construct in both subdisciplines. Fourth, the results show that divergent organisational entrepreneurial orientation profiles help in classifying firms along the entrepreneurial continuum. Furthermore, the research made a provisional finding that there are four possible distinct and excusive clusters of business groups along the conservative-entrepreneurial continuum in determining corporate entrepreneurial orientation in organisation

Sacred powers and rituals of transformation: An ethnoarchaeological study of rainmaking rutuals and agricultural productivity during The evolution of The Mapungubwe State,AD 1000 to AD 1300

Student Number : 0009911A - PhD Thesis - School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies - Faculty of HumanitiesThe study of sacred leadership at Mapungubwe involves an analysis of how the emerging elite centralised rainmaking and other public rituals. These developments occurred in the Shashe-Limpopo basin between AD 1000 and AD 1300. Mapungubwe was the last in a sequence of capitals in the basin. The first was Schroda (AD 900-1000), followed by K2 (AD 1000- 1220) and then Mapungubwe (AD 1220-1300). This sequence corresponds to a series of cultural, socio-political and economic transformations that led to class distinction and sacred leadership, two distinctive features of the region’s early state system. The development of Mapungubwe was a local indigenous accomplishment that occurred in the prehistoric period but in the relatively recent past. This offers possibilities for using current indigenous knowledge to develop relevant ethnographic models. Over a period of four years, I explored Venda, Sotho-Tswana and Shona traditional agriculture strategies and belief systems through their oral histories, cosmologies and practices. I identified three systems of rainmaking practices. Practice A is associated with kin-based chiefdoms. Practise B exists among class-based polities with sacred leadership. Practice C represents the devolution of complexity after the disintegration of the Zimbabwe culture. These data provide models to clarify the roles of rainmaking and agriculture in the evolution of Mapungubwe

Alkali production in the mouth and its relationship with certain patient's characteristics

Objectives To assess the relationships among alkali production, diet, oral health behaviors, and oral hygiene. Methods Data from 52 subjects including demographics, diet, and oral hygiene scores were analyzed against the level of arginine and urea enzymes in plaque and saliva samples. An oral habit survey was completed that included: use of tobacco (TB), alcohol (AH), sugary drinks (SD), and diet. Alkali production through arginine deiminase (ADS) and urease activities were measured in smooth-surface supragingival dental plaque and un stimulated saliva samples from all subjects. ADS and urease activities were measured by quantification of the ammonia generated from the incubation of plaque or saliva samples. Spearman correlations were used to compute all associations. Results Participants in the lowest SES (Socio-economic status) group had the habit of consuming sugary drinks the most and had the highest rate of tobacco use. Males consumed significantly more alcohol than females. No significant relationship was found between age or gender and alkali production. Higher rates of sugary drink consumption and tobacco use were significantly related to lower alkali production. Conclusion The study showed a relationship between alkali production and oral hygiene, diet, and certain oral health behaviors. Poor oral hygiene was significantly associated with age, lower SES, tobacco use, and alcohol, and sugary drinks consumption. Clinical relevance Certain oral health behaviors have an impact on oral hygiene and on alkali production; it is important to address these factors with patients as a strategy for caries control

Echinoderms have bilateral tendencies

Echinoderms take many forms of symmetry. Pentameral symmetry is the major form and the other forms are derived from it. However, the ancestors of echinoderms, which originated from Cambrian period, were believed to be bilaterians. Echinoderm larvae are bilateral during their early development. During embryonic development of starfish and sea urchins, the position and the developmental sequence of each arm are fixed, implying an auxological anterior/posterior axis. Starfish also possess the Hox gene cluster, which controls symmetrical development. Overall, echinoderms are thought to have a bilateral developmental mechanism and process. In this article, we focused on adult starfish behaviors to corroborate its bilateral tendency. We weighed their central disk and each arm to measure the position of the center of gravity. We then studied their turning-over behavior, crawling behavior and fleeing behavior statistically to obtain the center of frequency of each behavior. By joining the center of gravity and each center of frequency, we obtained three behavioral symmetric planes. These behavioral bilateral tendencies might be related to the A/P axis during the embryonic development of the starfish. It is very likely that the adult starfish is, to some extent, bilaterian because it displays some bilateral propensity and has a definite behavioral symmetric plane. The remainder of bilateral symmetry may have benefited echinoderms during their evolution from the Cambrian period to the present

Culturing Echinoderm Larvae Through Metamorphosis

Echinoderms are favored study organisms not only in cell and developmental biology, but also physiology, larval biology, benthic ecology, population biology and paleontology, among other fields. However, many echinoderm embryology labs are not well-equipped to continue to rear the post-embryonic stages that result. This is unfortunate, as such labs are thus unable to address many intriguing biological phenomena, related to their own cell and developmental biology studies, that emerge during larval and juvenile stages. To facilitate broader studies of post-embryonic echinoderms, we provide here our collective experience rearing these organisms, with suggestions to try and pitfalls to avoid. Furthermore, we present information on rearing larvae from small laboratory to large aquaculture scales. Finally, we review taxon-specific approaches to larval rearing through metamorphosis in each of the four most commonly-studied echinoderm classes—asteroids, echinoids, holothuroids and ophiuroids.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1091/thumbnail.jp

Incongruent patterns of genetic connectivity among four ophiuroid species with differing coral host specificity on North Atlantic seamounts

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Ecology 31 (2010): 121-143, doi:10.1111/j.1439-0485.2010.00395.x.Seamounts are considered to play a defining role in the evolution and diversity of marine fauna, acting as “stepping-stones” for dispersal, regional centers of genetic isolation and speciation, and refugia for deep-sea populations. This study focused on the patterns of dispersal and genetic connectivity of four seamount ophiuroid species (Asteroschema clavigera, Ophiocreas oedipus, Ophioplinthaca abyssalis and Ophioplinthaca chelys) displaying differing levels of associative (epifaunal) specificity to cold-water coral hosts inhabiting the New England and Corner Rise Seamount chains, and Muir Seamount in the Northwestern Atlantic. Analyses of mt16S and mtCOI revealed evidence for recent population expansion and high gene flow for all four species. However, species-specific genetic differentiation was significant based on seamount region and depth. Significant differences were found among regional seamount groups for A. clavigera, within seamount regions and seamounts for O. chelys, among 250 m depth intervals for A. clavigera, among 100 m depth intervals for O. oedipus, and there were indications of isolation by distance for A. clavigera and O. oedipus. In addition, A. clavigera and O. oedipus, broadcast spawners with high fidelity to specific coral hosts, displayed predominantly westward historical migration, while the ophioplinthacids, with lower host-specificity, displayed predominantly eastward migration. No congruent patterns of historical migration were evident among species and seamounts, yet these patterns can be correlated with species-specific host specificity, specific depth strata, and dispersal strategies. Conservation efforts to protect seamount ecosystems should promote multi-species approaches to genetic connectivity, and consider the impact of the “dependence” of biodiversity on host fauna in these vulnerable marine ecosystems.We are grateful for the support provided by the Office of Ocean Exploration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NA05OAR4601054) the National Science Foundation (OCE- 0624627; OCE-0451983; OCE-0647612), the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute (Fellowship support to TMS), the Ocean Life Institute and Academic Programs Office of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Census of Marine Life field program CenSeam (a global census of marine life on seamounts) (Grant #12301)