This study was conducted to find out when Entrepreneurship can be introduced in the school curriculum. A case study design premised in the qualitative approach was employed, which used semi-structured focus group interviews as data collection instruments. The areas of study were purposively selected government primary and secondary schools in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe. Data were analyzed thematically and discussed according to research objectives. Findings revealed that Entrepreneurship per se is not taught in government primary and secondary schools. Based on these findings, the recommendations were that Entrepreneurship should be introduced in the school curriculum at primary level to allow learners to lay a solid foundation for creativity, nurturing and innovation of business ideas for use later in life.

The outbreak of the corona virus disease (COVID-19) in China around December 2019 led to the premature closure of schools globally. This was done to ensure reduced transmission of the disease. Due to the indefinite level two lockdown in Zimbabwe, schools remain closed. This has led to online home schooling, where schools send work to parents who conduct and monitor the lessons on their behalf. This study sought to find out the experiences and readiness of parents in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe, who were expected to conduct lessons online. The study which is situated in the interpretive paradigm and qualitative approach collected data from ten purposively selected parents as key informants. Qualitative data was collected using emailed open-ended questionnaires in compliance with COVID-19 regulations. Results revealed that parents found it difficult to conduct online lessons due to costly data, lack of expert knowledge and teaching pedagogy, unclear instructions from teachers, unavailable or shared gadgets at home and poor internet connectivity. Schools were also said to be piling up work, disregarding parents’ other responsibilities. Conclusions drawn were that most of the parents were not ready for online home schooling although they perceived the exercise to be beneficial. Recommendations were that schools should conduct training sessions for staff and parents, have formal feedback sessions and exercise flexibility for execution and submission of work and continue online lessons post COVID-19. Further research could be conducted to find out learners’ perceptions of online home schooling.

<p>The study examined whether the COVID-19 pandemic had created digital opportunities for Small to Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe or it had actually exposed their lack of digital acumen. The interpretivist paradigm, a qualitative descriptive approach and a case study design were adopted for this study. The research used semi-structured questionnaires to solicit data from 30 purposively selected small to medium entrepreneurs. Data were thematically analysed to discern meaning. The study revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had led participants to embrace technology, as evidenced by their acquisition of technological gadgets. Furthermore, ownership of technological gadgets had facilitated working from home, in the comfort of their homes; reaching clients irrespective of boundaries; having easy access to information on business transactions; the ability to do business even during the pandemic; ordering and ease of payment of suppliers; convenience and flexibility in doing business and discovering business platforms they were not aware of. The study concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic was the initiator for the digital inclusion of SMEs in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, after the realisation that for their businesses to remain operational in this uncertain and disruptive environment, they had to embrace technology. The study recommended that workshops to train and equip SME owners with digital skills be conducted so that in the event of other pandemics, their businesses would remain afloat.</p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0651/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Pioneering is meant to create a competitive advantage for businesses and yet imitations are accelerating globally, leaving businesses not knowing whether to pioneer or imitate. The purpose of this study was to make an analysis of the benefits and costs of pioneering and imitation, with the aim of possibly helping businesses to decide on which route to take, after considering their strengths and weaknesses. This was a desk research study which analyzed literature on business imitation and pioneering. It focused on imitation driven by technology; be it in products or services with a bias towards legal innovative imitation. The analysis was primarily dominated by literature obtained from developed countries because of the rich pool of research output on both concepts. Based on the findings, the paper concludes that most businesses are innovative imitations and technology has facilitated most of these imitations. Recommendations are that businesses should adopt innovative imitation, but do so legally and ethically. There is also need for more research studies on business imitation in order to come up with strategies that will accommodate global players.

There has been a sharp increase in company closures in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe, leaving people with no option but to turn to street vending to earn a living. The ever swelling number of street vendors on shop pavements and roadsides are subjecting formal shop owners to unfair competition as street vendors do not pay rentals and utility bills. That has caused rivalry for trading space between formal shop owners and street vendors. As a conceptual perspective, this study employed a non-empirical approach to evolve alternative ways of possible co-existence between street vendors and formal shop owners. The study concluded that street vending is a reality that cannot be ignored and, thus, recommended that co-existence of formal shop owners and street vendors should be harmonised so as to mitigate against the rivalry of trading space.

The purpose of this study was to find out whether the selection of practical subjects in schools was still a gendered phenomenon. The motivators were findings of an investigation on business imitations in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, which revealed that men and women still participated in gender based entrepreneurial activities. A qualitative approach, which utilised the case study design was adopted for this study. Self-administered open-ended questionnaires were used as data collection instruments. The sample comprised 5 Heads of Departments, 15 practical subject educators and 75 students from 2 purposively selected co-educational schools in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. Data were analysed according to research questions. Findings showed that there were attempts to break the gender barriers as some girls were now studying subjects that were previously male dominated and some boys had enrolled for subjects that were in the past the preserve of girls. The study concluded that there was a gradual paradigm shift in the mind-sets of school authorities, learners and some parents. Recommendations were that school authorities should continue to intensify campaigns on de-constructing the learners’ gender stereo typed mind-sets and engage various stakeholders in the change process to enable learners to comfortably fit in a globally competitive environment.

This study sought to find out the role of intrapreneurship on the growth of iron and steel manufacturing companies in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. A post-positivist paradigm, a mixed method approach and a cross sectional design were adopted for the investigation. Three hundred and fifteen (315) middle management and supervisory staff drawn from twenty-two (22) iron and steel manufacturing companies in Bulawayo participated. Multiple stratified random sampling and heterogeneous purposive sampling were used to choose two hundred (200) respondents for the quantitative study and eight participants for the qualitative study respectively. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were the data collecting instruments for quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and qualitative data was thematically analysed. Findings revealed that innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking were the key dimensions of intrapreneurship. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses showed the prominent measures of company growth in the iron and steel manufacturing companies as financial, employee numbers, productivity, and product range. Statistically intrapreneurship was found to be correlated to the growth of the iron and steel manufacturing companies. The study drew the following conclusions. Firstly, intrapreneurship is not a preferred strategy for driving growth in the iron and steel manufacturing companies in Bulawayo. Secondly, financial and product range were identified as the key measures of company growth. Thirdly, company support for intrapreneurship and individual’s intrapreneurial disposition were statistically linked to company growth. The study recommended that companies should motivate and support employees’ innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking through ideas, actions and work. Measurement of company growth should be expanded to include qualitative measures.

Orientation: The focus of this study was dissemination of university research output to small and medium enterprises.Research purpose: This study sought to determine the true beneficiaries of research output.Motivation of the study: Situations occur where research was conducted, but the purported beneficiaries did not receive feedback.Research design, approach and method: A case survey approach involving 80 lecturers from the Faculty of Commerce of one public university in Zimbabwe was utilised. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to elicit responses from academic researchers. Analysis of quantitative data was done through frequencies, percentages, cross tabulations and Pearson chi-square tests. Qualitative data were analysed thematically.Main findings: The findings revealed that only 36.92% had conducted studies on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), while the remaining 63.08% had conducted other studies not related to SMEs. Out of the 36.92% of the respondents who had conducted studies on SMEs, 41.67% had not disseminated their results to the targeted beneficiaries. The study concluded that dissemination of research output for practical use seemed not to be a priority for some academic researchers. Non-distribution of results by academics indicated underlying challenges.Practical/managerial implications: The study recommended that researchers should be reminded of the importance of conveying their findings for practical use and responsible authorities should encourage the dissemination of research output through the provision of incentives and support systems.Contribution/value-add: The study identified a dearth of research on who benefits if research studies are conducted on SMEs but the results are not disseminated to them and thus attempted to address this gap.