Small businesses as vehicles for job creation in North-West Nigeria

Small businesses are considered as engine of economic growth, contributing to employment generation, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation and food security in both developed and developing countries. Nigeria is facing many socio-economic problems and it is believed that by supporting small business development, as propellers of new ideas and more effective users of resources, often driven by individual creativity and innovation, Nigeria would be able to address some of its economic and social challenges, such as unemployment and economic diversification. Using secondary literature, this paper examines the role small businesses can play in the creation of jobs in North-West Nigeria to overcome issues of unemployment, which is the most devastating economic challenge facing the region. Most studies in this area have focused on Nigeria as a whole and only a few studies provide a regional focus, hence, this study will contribute to knowledge by filling this gap by concentrating on North-West Nigeria. It is hoped that with the present administration’s determination to improve the economy, small businesses would be used as vehicles for diversification of the economy away from crude oil to create jobs that would lead to a reduction in the country's high unemployment level

Social impact measurement in social housing: a theory-based investigation into the context, mechanisms and outcomes of implementation

Purpose: English social housing providers are increasingly turning to social impact measurement to assess their social value. This paper aims to understand the contextual factors causing this rise in the practice, specifically within this sector; the mechanisms that enable it to be effectively implemented within an individual organisation, and the outcomes of successful implementation for individual organisations and more widely across the sector and beyond. Findings: Social housing providers use social impact measurement both internally, to determine their organisational priorities, and externally, to demonstrate their value to local and national governments and cross-sector partners then to shape and influence resource allocation. The practice itself is shown to be an open and active programme, rather than a fixed calculative practice. Research limitations/implications: The intensive nature of the research means that only a limited number of cases were explored. Further research could test theories developed here against evidence collected from a wider range of cases, e.g., other types of providers, or non-adopters. Practical implications: The research makes a strong contribution to practice in the form of a re-conceptualisation of how social impact measurement can be shown to be effective, based on deeper understanding of causal mechanisms, how they interact, and the outcomes that result. This is of value to the sector as such information could help other organisations both to understand the value of social impact measurement and to provide practical guidance on how to implement it effectively. Originality/value: Existing literature is largely limited to technical guides. This paper links theory-based evaluation to practice, contributing to social housing practice

Modelos de Flexibilidad Curricular utilizados en los Programas de Administración de Empresas en Colombia

Se puede identificar que los currículos son reflejo de la organización académica por áreas disciplinarias en diferentes instituciones. Este permite a losestudiantes, profesores, administrativos, funcionarios y comunidad en general,definir plenamente los logros académicos y formativos que se esperan alcanzar.(Comité Institucional de Currículo. (s.f.), Internet). El presente trabajo de investigación pretende determinar los diferentes modelos y métodos de Flexibilidad Curricular con los que cuentan los programas de Administración de Empresas acreditados en alta calidad de determinadas universidades de Colombia. (MEN. (s.f.), Internet). Para desarrollar esta investigación se utilizó el método cuantitativo de análisis estadístico, bajo el modelo de un estudio descriptivo, utilizando para la recolección de datos la encuesta. Inicialmente se seleccionaron 27 universidades, de las cuales 15 en total participaron en el proceso. De manera posterior, se analizó la información dada por los directores de programa de las diferentes universidades acreditadas en alta calidad, a través de un ejercicio de Benchmarking educativo, buscando desarrollar actividades prácticas, orientadas a enriquecer una propuesta de política de Flexibilidad Curricular, para la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas de UNISANGIL

Teaching precision farming and entrepreneurship for European students: Sparkle online course

Within the framework of the European project named ‘SPARKLE’, an online course was created after studying educational needs on precision agriculture (PA), state of the art of technologies and a prospective study of the commercial sector. Five educational and research institutions, high-tech farms and enterprises specializing in technology transfer created the syllabus of the course and the platform contents. The course was designed to provide 30 h of student dedication, via online presentations, documents and videos for each topic. A free pilot course started in April 2020 and 385 students from Italy, Portugal, Greece & Spain enrolled. To trace performance and acquisition of competences, questionnaires were completed by students for each topic and a final overall test. Students’ opinions about the course were also registered using anonymous polls, and results evaluated, to be able to enhance the Sparkle course for subsequent editions. Students also took part in a business model competition, to solve real challenges proposed by farms, related to the use of these technologies

The Cyclostratigraphy Intercomparison Project (CIP): consistency, merits and pitfalls

Cyclostratigraphy is an important tool for understanding astronomical climate forcing and reading geological time in sedimentary sequences, provided that an imprint of insolation variations caused by Earth’s orbital eccentricity, obliquity and/or precession is preserved (Milankovitch forcing). Numerous stratigraphic and paleoclimate studies have applied cyclostratigraphy, but the robustness of the methodology and its dependence on the investigator have not been systematically evaluated. We developed the Cyclostratigraphy Intercomparison Project (CIP) to assess the robustness of cyclostratigraphic methods using an experimental design of three artificial cyclostratigraphic case studies with known input parameters. Each case study is designed to address specific challenges that are relevant to cyclostratigraphy. Case 1 represents an offshore research vessel environment, as only a drill-core photo and the approximate position of a late Miocene stage boundary are available for analysis. In Case 2, the Pleistocene proxy record displays clear nonlinear cyclical patterns and the interpretation is complicated by the presence of a hiatus. Case 3 represents a Late Devonian proxy record with a low signal-to-noise ratio with no specific theoretical astronomical solution available for this age. Each case was analyzed by a test group of 17-20 participants, with varying experience levels, methodological preferences and dedicated analysis time. During the CIP 2018 meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the ensuing analyses and discussion demonstrated that most participants did not arrive at a perfect solution, which may be partly explained by the limited amount of time spent on the exercises (∼4.5 hours per case). However, in all three cases, the median solution of all submitted analyses accurately approached the correct result and several participants obtained the exact correct answers. Interestingly, systematically better performances were obtained for cases that represented the data type and stratigraphic age that were closest to the individual participants’ experience. This experiment demonstrates that cyclostratigraphy is a powerful tool for deciphering time in sedimentary successions and, importantly, that it is a trainable skill. Finally, we emphasize the importance of an integrated stratigraphic approach and provide flexible guidelines on what good practices in cyclostratigraphy should include. Our case studies provide valuable insight into current common practices in cyclostratigraphy, their potential merits and pitfalls. Our work does not provide a quantitative measure of reliability and uncertainty of cyclostratigraphy, but rather constitutes a starting point for further discussions on how to move the maturing field of cyclostratigraphy forward