Granadilla swimwear : finding opportunity in times of crisis

LEARNING OUTCOMES : The main learning outcomes that can develop from this case are as follows. These have been articulated for an approximately 90-min class discussion. Opportunity identification in times of crisis: at a macro-level, the case serves to illustrate the nature of identifying and exploiting opportunities in times of crisis. In particular, it shows how an agile small team and quickly respond to need and develop a sustainable and scalable business. Pivoting the business model: the case raises an interesting and important debate as regards what constitutes a “pivot”. While the classical interpretation would be a change in direction without a change in strategy, this case within the context of Covid-19 challenges this definition. Resource use and allocation: The case illustrates well how existing resources, networks and skills can be used in a very different business venture to alleviate immediate cash flow needs and potentially build another business venture. CASE OVERVIEW/SYNOPSIS : This case study explores how two Cape Town-based entrepreneurs, Josh Meltz and Adam Duxbury, responded to the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent lockdown in South Africa. The pair had built a successful swimwear brand – Granadilla Swimwear – and two other businesses: a function venue and a kombucha brand sold at a well-known food market. As the Covid-19 lockdown tool effect, the entrepreneurs saw not only declining revenue in their food and function venue business but were about to enter a six-month period of negative cash flow on their seasonal swimwear business. The entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to deliver food boxes of fresh fruit, vegetables, bread and other staples within the Cape Town metropolitan area. Their kombucha brand had a ready-made food processing and handling facility (including cold storage) and existing relationships with customers, suppliers and other vendors at the food market gave them ready access to a range of locally produced food products available immediately and on consignment. Meltz & Duxbury quickly launched an online shop and started marketing via Instagram. Within 48 h, they were delivering food boxes, with little risk and upfront capital investment. As the lockdown continued and other competitors entered the market, the team wondered at the longevity of the pivot and whether this was a business that would sustain itself or whether it was just a short-term fix for their immediate cash flow problems. COMPLEXITY ACADEMIC LEVEL : Undergraduate and postgraduateThis Case Study has been published as part of a special section of short cases in Emerging Markets Case Studies, entitled “Managing in a Crisis: Lessons from the Covid 19 crisis” in partnership with Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. Disclaimer. This case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to represent successful or unsuccessful managerial decision-making. The authors may have disguised names; financial and other recognizable information to protect confidentiality.https://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/eemcshj2021Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

SMMEs and the green economy: Muddy waters and murky future

The challenge of sustainability has been a long-standing debate within society in general and the business community in particular. Gar rett Hardin in his seminal article ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ eloquently highlighted the ten sion that exists between self-maximisation and profit growth and its commensurate impact on society – in particular the environment (Har din, 2009). He structured his argument around the typical English ‘commonage’1, arguing that as each individual in a community attempted to maximize his/her profit through additional livestock, this placed an increased burden on common land. It also prompted others to add to their herd, under the belief that the addition of a few animals makes little or no difference to the overall wellbeing of the commonage. Har din’s thesis was that, taken collectively, the sum of each person’s additional livestock places the commonly-held asset into environmental jeop ardy. Each individual seeks to maximize his/her own profit and assumes that the other will care for the common land. Despite the 50 years since Hardin’s article, he could have been writing about the world today. Sustainability is now sharply in focus for busi ness, government and the international de velopment community. While pressure to ad dress sustainable development continues to be placed on multi-national corporations (MNC), this burden is now shared with small medium and micro enterprises (SMME2 ), which are seen as essential social and economic contributors to local, regional and national economies. The concept of ‘sustainable entrepreneurship’ has emerged (Choi & Gray, 2008) as a multidimen sional construct to explain the efforts of SMMEs to address environmental challenges, econom ic development and social inclusion. Impetus for increasing the instance of sustainable and inclusive development has been provided by OECD countries (OECD, 2016) which, in 2015, adopted the United Nation’s Sustainable Devel opment Goals (SDG). Pathways to these goals include new investment models in the form of blended finance, social impact investing, and responsible business conduct. It is this final pathway that is the key focus of this report. SMMEs are an essential driver of economic growth, especially in emerging economies, con tributing up to 45% of total employment and 33% of gross domestic product. The contribu tions are significantly higher when informal SMMEs are included. The World Bank predicts that’s in the next 15 years, 600 million jobs will need to be created, the majority of these in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where four out of every five jobs created, is by a small medium enterprise. This report explores responsible and sustain able practices among SMME manufacturing businesses in South Africa’s Gauteng Province. In addition, this report seeks to illustrate the entrepreneur’s understanding of, and engage ment with, sustainable manufacturing practic es that could be seen as valuable inputs into addressing the SDGs

An effectuation approach to sustainable entrepreneurship

PURPOSE : This paper aims to explain the occurrence of sustainable entrepreneurship in the underresearched sub-Saharan Africa context and to improve the understanding of how effectuation manifests in this context. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : This study uses a qualitative research approach based on multiple case studies. Responses were sourced from owners, employees, suppliers, the community and customers of sustainable entrepreneurial firms. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews, document reviews and observations. The Gioia analytical approach was used. FINDINGS : Overall, the authors find the concept of effectuation to be well-suited to capturing the processes through which individuals with limited means seek to engage in sustainable entrepreneurship. The authors also identify three pervasive practices that are key to understanding effectuation in the developing country context: complementation of indigenous knowledge with modern science, compassion and pluriactivity. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS : This study underscores the importance of co-creation, diversification of revenue sources and the role of emotional awareness and interpersonal skills in entrepreneurial endeavors. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : This study, therefore, contributes new knowledge about the mechanisms through which entrepreneurs faced with resource constraints use control as opposed to prediction strategies to exploit sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities. In so doing, this study contributes to entrepreneurship theory by proposing the integration of cognitive and affective dimensions in realizing sustainable entrepreneurship goals.https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/2053-4604hj2024Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)SDG-08:Decent work and economic growt

Distance Dependence of Electron Transfer Kinetics for Azurin Protein Adsorbed to Monolayer Protected Nanoparticle Film Assemblies

The distance dependence and kinetics of the heterogeneous electron transfer (ET) reaction for the redox protein azurin adsorbed to an electrode modified with a gold nanoparticle film are investigated using cyclic voltammetry. The nanoparticle films are comprised of nonaqueous nanoparticles, known as monolayer-protected clusters (MPCs), which are covalently networked with dithiol linkers. The MPC film assembly serves as an alternative adsorption platform to the traditional alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayer (SAM) modified electrodes that are commonly employed to study the ET kinetics of immobilized redox proteins, a strategy known as protein monolayer electrochemistry. Voltammetric analysis of the ET kinetics for azurin adsorbed to SAMs of increasing chain length results in quasi-reversible voltammetry with significant peak splitting. We observed rate constants (k°ET) of 12−20 s−1 for the protein at SAMs of shorter alkanethiolates that decays exponentially (β = 0.9/CH2 or 0.8/Å) at SAMs of longer alkanethiolates (9−11 methylene units) or an estimated distance of 1.23 nm and is representative of classical electronic tunneling behavior over increasing distance. Azurin adsorbed to the MPC film platforms of increasing thickness results in reversible voltammetry with very little voltammetric peaks splitting and nearly negligible decay of the ET rate over significant distances up to 20 nm. The apparent lack of distance dependence for heterogeneous ET reactions at MPC film assemblies is attributed to a two-step mechanism involving extremely fast electronic hopping through the MPC film architecture. These results suggest that MPC platforms may be used in protein monolayer electrochemistry to create adsorption platforms of higher architecture that can accommodate greater than monolayer protein coverage and increase the Faradaic signal, a finding with significant implications for amperometric biosensor design and development

Polytetrahedral Clusters

By studying the structures of clusters bound by a model potential that favours polytetrahedral order, we find a previously unknown series of `magic numbers' (i.e. sizes of special stability) whose polytetrahedral structures are characterized by disclination networks that are analogous to hydrocarbons.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Entropic effects on the Size Evolution of Cluster Structure

We show that the vibrational entropy can play a crucial role in determining the equilibrium structure of clusters by constructing structural phase diagrams showing how the structure depends upon both size and temperature. These phase diagrams are obtained for example rare gas and metal clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Structural Transitions and Global Minima of Sodium Chloride Clusters

In recent experiments on sodium chloride clusters structural transitions between nanocrystals with different cuboidal shapes were detected. Here we determine reaction pathways between the low energy isomers of one of these clusters, (NaCl)35Cl-. The key process in these structural transitions is a highly cooperative rearrangement in which two parts of the nanocrystal slip past one another on a {110} plane in a direction. In this way the nanocrystals can plastically deform, in contrast to the brittle behaviour of bulk sodium chloride crystals at the same temperatures; the nanocrystals have mechanical properties which are a unique feature of their finite size. We also report and compare the global potential energy minima for (NaCl)NCl- using two empirical potentials, and comment on the effect of polarization.Comment: extended version, 13 pages, 8 figures, revte

Roles of PI3Kγ and PI3Kδ in mantle cell lymphoma proliferation and migration contributing to efficacy of the PI3Kγ/δ inhibitor duvelisib.

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that is incurable with existing therapies, and therefore presents a significant unmet clinical need. The ability of this disease to overcome therapy, including those that target the B cell receptor pathway which has a pathogenic role in MCL, highlights the need to develop new treatment strategies. Herein, we demonstrate that a distinguishing feature of lymph node resident MCL cells is the expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase γ (PI3Kγ), a PI3K isoform that is not highly expressed in other B cells or B-cell malignancies. By exploring the role of PI3K in MCL using different PI3K isoform inhibitors, we provide evidence that duvelisib, a dual PI3Kδ/γ inhibitor, has a greater effect than PI3Kδ- and PI3Kγ-selective inhibitors in blocking the proliferation of primary MCL cells and MCL cell lines, and in inhibiting tumour growth in a mouse xenograft model. In addition, we demonstrated that PI3Kδ/γ signalling is critical for migration of primary MCL cells and cell lines. Our data indicates that aberrant expression of PI3Kγ is a critical feature of MCL pathogenesis. Thus, we suggest that the dual PI3Kδ/γ duvelisib would be effective for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma

Neuroscience, Ethics, and National Security: The State of the Art

Military involvement and research in neuroscience generates unique ethical, legal, and social issues that require careful elucidation and consideration in order to align the potentially conflicting needs of national defense, public interest, and scientific progress