Despite the commonly held view that entrepreneurship education and training nurtures future entrepreneurs, little is known about the mechanism through which this intervention impacts on its intended outcomes. The purpose of this study was to test if selected psychological traits (need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, internal locus of control) mediated the predictive relationship between the perceived effects of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions. A crosssectional survey of a sample of 308 vocational education students in Zimbabwe was used for this purpose. The results show that the effects of entrepreneurship education variable had a positive and statistically significant relationship with need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, internal locus of control and entrepreneurial goal intentions. Moreover, need for achievement, risk-taking propensity and internal locus of control accounted for a statistically significant amount of variance in entrepreneurial intentions. However, of the three psychological traits, only need for achievement partially mediated the relationship between the effects of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial goal intentions. The outcome has implications on the design and focus of entrepreneurship education programmes.

No abstract

Although the prevailing gender-linked fissures in entrepreneurial activity are shrinking in African economies, a disturbing feature of the contemporary business start-up environment is that women persistently are less willing to engage in entrepreneurship compared to men. In addition, women focus more on low technology and service-oriented business activities, which yield relatively lower financial value than other economic sectors. Given the subtle but entrenched gender vulnerabilities and biases that constantly accompany student career decisions, the primary objective of this research was to establish whether gender influences students’ intention to participate in entrepreneurship. Guided by a quantitative approach and survey research design, the study used a self-administered questionnaire to gather data from 130 undergraduate students, randomly selected from an entrepreneurship education class at a South African university of technology. The study applied the Mann-Whitney technique, a non-parametric test, to ascertain the existence of any significant gender-grounded disparities in the mean scores for entrepreneurial intention and its antecedents. The results confirmed the existence of significant differences in entrepreneurial intention, perceived behavioural control and attitude towards entrepreneurship among students, with males scoring higher than females in these constructs. These findings emphasise the need for gender-sensitive approaches to devising and implementing entrepreneurship development and support measures among potential entrepreneurs.

The study uses the job demands‐resources (JD‐R) theory to examine the effects of work‐related stress, life‐work balance support, and emotional intelligence on the organizational continuance commitment of workers in under‐resourced organizations. Quantitative cross‐sectional survey data were collected from 212 workers at selected independently owned schools in western Zimbabwe. Correlation and multiple‐regression analyses techniques were used to analyze the data. Positive significant relationships were found between all three independent variables (work‐related stress, work‐life balance support and emotional intelligence) and organizational continuance commitment. Hayes’ PROCESS analyses results demonstrated that emotional intelligence significantly moderated the effect of work‐related stress on organizational continuance commitment, and that of work‐life balance support and organizational continuance commitment. The results highlight the importance of factors including work‐related stress, work‐life balance support, and emotional intelligence in efforts to help inadequately resourced entities retain employees.