The opportunity not taken: The occupational identity of entrepreneurs in contexts of poverty

Mosia

2020

IJHE

This quantitative study analyzed and predicted gender differences of agriculture graduates’ attitudes towards and challenges in entrepreneurship in Botswana. The study adopted a descriptive and correlational survey research design. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used for data collection through a survey of randomly sampled 149 final year agriculture graduate students (n=149). Inferential statistical tools of Independent t-test and Regression analysis were used for data analysis. The findings of the study determined three important attitudinal factors as: entrepreneurship results in economic growth of a country, employability and income generation and, entrepreneurship improves individual and social growth. Three important constraints in entrepreneurship were lack of land, lack of proper infrastructure and, lack of capital. These top attitudinal factors as well as constraints were the same for the male and female graduates despite of their ranking and importance. A gender difference in students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship was established while no gender difference in the challenges in entrepreneurship was found. Out of fifteen constraints in entrepreneurship under study, only three constraints namely, lack of land, high competition in market and lack of capital, were determined as significant predictors of the graduates’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship. It is recommended that these three factors be made priorities while making policies for entrepreneurship development in the country. Further study is recommended to explore the perceptions of graduates on the possible ways to improve on these three predicting constraints and explore latent constraints predicting graduates’ attitude towards entrepreneurship. Those findings may provide better ideas in planning policies for entrepreneurial development among agriculture graduates in Botswana.

Section: Gender Difference In Constraints In Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 91%

Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Constraints: Do the Constraints Predict University Agriculture Graduates’ Attitudes towards Entrepreneurship?

Mosia

2020

IJHE

“…In other words, far from being devoid of institutions, postcolonial African contexts have been characterized by an overwhelming institutional complexity. This is a complexity that MOS scholarship has only begun exploring, including for instance the important nascent work on traditional governance structures (such as chieftainships), communal orientation, and norms of collectivism (such as Ubuntu ) that distinguish management and organizing in many African contexts (e.g., Amoako & Lyon, 2014; Khavul, Bruton, & Wood, 2009; Khayesi & George, 2011; Slade Shantz, Kistruck, & Zietsma, 2018; Zoogah, Peng, & Woldu, 2015). Against this backdrop, the notion of “institutional voids” has arguably been an obstacle, as scholars are in some ways compelled to use this accepted term even though they are in fact explicating a more important and interesting institutional complexity than merely the absence of institutions expected from a straightforward Northern perspective (Bothello et al, 2019; Kistruck, Webb, Sutter, & Bailey, 2015; Luiz & Stewart, 2014; Mair et al, 2012).…”

Section: Northern Mainstream Biases: Erasing and Imposingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neither Colony Nor Enclave: Calling for dialogical contextualism in management and organization studies

Hamann

Luiz

Ramaboa

et al. 2020

Organization Theory

We express our unease with one-sided invitations into the Northern mainstream, as well as with Southern critics’ retreat into indigenous enclaves of organizational scholarship. We use this dichotomy to theorize the role of context in organizational theorizing by linking scholarly conversations on context, analogical reasoning, and problematizing assumptions. This creates the opportunity to more carefully consider how not just our theoretical backgrounds but also our contextual life-worlds provide the assumptions and analogies we bring into our theorizing. We use this platform to consider in more detail systematic biases in both the Northern mainstream (erasing and imposing biases) and the Southern critique (scapegoating and valorizing biases). These biases have in common that they essentialize context. To address this risk and to facilitate contextual reflexivity, we propose a form of dialogical scholarly engagement to generate complementary spaces to fruitfully question our contextually embedded assumptions.

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

“…When formal institutions are limited in their ability to provide these basic systems, transactional and operational costs are amplified, thereby inhibiting the creation and effective functioning of markets (North, 1990). While the concept of formal institutional voids has served as the basis for a significant stream of research concerning entrepreneurship, scholars have placed less effort in understanding how informal institutions support or constrain enterprise pursuits (exceptions include Khoury & Prasad, 2016; Light & Dana, 2013; Mair et al, 2012; Slade Shantz, Kistruck, & Zietsma, 2018) and the roles that informal institutions can play alongside formal institutions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Formal and Informal Institutional Voids on Entrepreneurship

Webb

Khoury

Hitt

2019

212

250

Building new space for institutional theory, we propose how the severity of formal and informal institutional voids shapes the productivity of entrepreneurial activities within society. Our theory makes the key assumptions that voids can exist in both formal and informal institutions and that they are capable of hindering entrepreneurial behavior that is favorable to development progress. We extend new theoretical domains by conceptualizing informal institutional voids and proposing how both formal and informal institutional voids and their interaction influence two qualitative outcomes within localities: (1) the unique forms of entrepreneurial activity, and (2) the objectives underlying this entrepreneurial activity.