Search results

Buildings respond differently to microbial invasion depending on the design, type of construction materials and finishes used and extent of exposure to climatic factors. However, in the hot-humid tropical environment of Nigeria, much is not known about how buildings with different types of façade finishes or claddings are liable to microbial decay. The purpose of this research is to investigate the susceptibility of buildings with different types of façade finishes to microbial decay in Enugu metropolis, southeast Nigeria.

A survey involving physical observation of purposively selected 383 buildings and questionnaire administration to their owners was carried out in the study area. The data were subjected to descriptive and logistic regression analyses.

Most of the 383 buildings sampled were less than 41 year and 47% of them had painted façade finishes followed by 25.1% with cementitious finishes. Around 63.4% of the buildings had their façade finishes or claddings colonised by microbes. Older buildings of 15 years and above and those with cementitious materials and paints as their predominant façade finishes were more likely to experience microbial decay than newer ones and those having refractory bricks, ceramic tiles, aluminium composite materials and plastics/polymers as their predominant façade finishes or claddings.

The study identifies the categories of buildings that are likely to be more susceptible to microbial decay; and thus contributes to research on how to slow down the rate of biodeterioration of building façade finishes or claddings in the hot-humid tropical environments.

This is the first study on the susceptibility of buildings with different types of façade finishes or claddings to microbial decay in the hot-humid tropical environment of Enugu metropolis, southeast Nigeria. It also provides a clue on the age at which buildings become more vulnerable to microbial decay in the study area.

This research examines the association of physical development density, prevalence and types of microbes in colonized façade finishes of buildings in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria.

Survey and experimental research designs were adopted. A total of 383 buildings were investigated with samples collected from those with colonized façade finishes. The microbes were identified using the standard procedure for genomic sequencing with descriptive statistics, and the chi-square test used to analyse the data.

The results revealed a 64% prevalence of microbial colonization and a significant association between this and physical development density with 71.0% of the colonized buildings located in high-density neighbourhoods of the metropolis. The sequencing also showed 24 different microbes with Trichophyton tonsurans, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichoderma harzianum species being the most common in the colonized façade finishes.

The research informs building professionals and owners of the specific microbes involved in the colonization of façade finishes of buildings in high-density urban areas. It also provides a clue about the nature of damages and defects associated with microbial colonization of building façades and the type of biocide additives required for the production of microbial-resistant façade finishes in the hot-humid tropical environment of Nigeria and beyond.

The study has shown that there is a significant relationship between the intensity of urban land use and microbial colonization of façade finishes of buildings. It also identified some new or less known microbes responsible for the biodeterioration of façade finishes and the effects this has on the buildings and public health in the hot-humid tropics of Enugu, Southeast Nigeria.

One increasingly popular financing option for entrepreneurial ventures is to attract corporate venture capital (CVC) investments. Prior research tends to take a CVC-centric perspective assessing the benefits and contingencies for incumbent firms or corporate investors to engage with entrepreneurial ventures. Few studies have taken the opposite perspective of investigating factors that entrepreneurial ventures need to take into account when engaging with CVC investments. As such, this study aims to investigate pre- and post-IPO entrepreneurial venture performance that partners with CVC providers or corporate investors, as well as to assess organizational and environmental contingencies.

This study draws on a sample of 631 entrepreneurial ventures from the CSMAR database ranging from 2009 to 2019, along with CVC financing data from the CVSource database and financial data in entrepreneurial ventures’ annual reports from the Juchao Network. This study applies multiple linear regression modelling and fixed effect panel data analyses to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results show that CVC investment contributes to entrepreneurial ventures’ financial performance, both pre- and post-IPO. However, while research and development (R&D) intensity and geographic proximity strengthen the positive relationship between CVC investment and entrepreneurial ventures’ performance pre-IPO, R&D intensity has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between CVC investment and entrepreneurial ventures’ performance post-IPO.

First, in emerging economies, adopting a CVC financing strategy is an important strategic choice for entrepreneurial ventures that have a great demand for external capital, resources and technology support. Second, leveraging the relationship between external financing and internal R&D investment is essential for them to maintain their core competitiveness and sustainable growth. Moreover, entrepreneurial ventures should deal with the coopetitive relationship with incumbent companies and manage their dependency on other market participants in the external environment.

This study focuses on the performance implications for entrepreneurial ventures engaging with CVC investments pre- and post-IPO. First, this study broadens and expands prior research on the mechanism of the relationship between CVC and entrepreneurial ventures’ financial performance. Second, the research conducts a comparative study of the moderating effects of different timings. Third, this study applies learning theory to the field of CVC in emerging economies.

The authors advance a model theorizing how new ventures elicit citizenship behaviors to cultivate dynamic capabilities that help bolster survival in their nascent years of operations—a characteristically resource-scarce and turbulent context.

Drawing on and integrating research on citizenship behaviors with dynamic capabilities, the authors develop a theory that new ventures that are better able to evoke a combination of affiliative and challenging citizenship behaviors from their wider entrepreneurial team (i.e. internal, and external stakeholders) are more adept at mitigating the liabilities of smallness and newness. As these behaviors are spontaneous and not explicitly remunerated, new ventures become stronger at utilizing their limited resource base for remaining lean and agile. Further, key boundary conditions are theorized that the sociocultural norms the venture is embedded within serve to heighten/attenuate the degree to which entrepreneurs can effectively cultivate dynamic capabilities from their team's “extra mile” behaviors.

The propositions extend a rich body of research on citizenship behaviors into the new venture domain. As all new ventures face the challenge of overcoming liabilities of newness, models that help understand why some are more adept at overcoming this and why others fail, hold substantive practical utility.

This research is the first to unpack how citizenship behaviors manifest among an extended range of stakeholders traditionally overlooked in new venture teams research and the mechanism for how this links to venture survival.

The role of public–private partnerships (PPP) as a strategic initiative to improve and accelerate service delivery in the form of newly built and revitalised water infrastructure assets in developing countries cannot be over-emphasised. Hence, the purpose of this study is to assess and highlight the importance of critical success factors for water infrastructure projects delivered under public–private partnerships.

A survey design was used and a questionnaire was administered to stakeholders who have participated in delivering water infrastructure assets in South Africa. Out of 150 administered questionnaires, only 91 were returned and usable for analyses, representing a 61 per cent response rate. The data gathered were then analysed using descriptive and factor analysis.

The study revealed that thorough planning for project viability, high levels of transparency and accountability and a legal framework stipulating policy continuity are the CSFs for delivering water infrastructure projects under the PPP initiative. The findings emerging from factor analysis owing to a close variance revealed the importance of the following grouped factors, namely, public cooperation, project viability and policy and legislation enhancement.

From the results, it is clear that the public sector, as the facilitator of infrastructure development, should create an environment that is conducive for private capital through political will and commitment and the enhancement of policy and legislation where there is no or minimal private participation.

Adequate infrastructure investment from private capital promises to flourish economically and improve the living conditions of the public in the cities and the country at large. To further guarantee the reality of PPPs at a local level, the host government must adequately engage and enlighten the public.

The purpose of this paper is to create a better understanding of how entrepreneurial education research has evolved with regard to pedagogy over the past decades.

The authors employed systematic review methodology to enable an in-depth analysis of the literature in a process that was both replicable and transparent. Guided by the research purpose, the systematic review of 395 articles published between January 1980 and December 2018 was influenced by a configurative approach aimed at interpreting and understanding the phenomenon under study.

The analysis suggests that the scholarly discourse on pedagogy in entrepreneurial education research has developed over time from teacher-guided instructional models to more constructivist perspectives. A shift in the literature was also observed, where scholarly discussions moved from addressing the issue of teachability to a greater emphasis on learnability. Contemporary discussions centre on the theoretical and philosophical foundations of experience-based teaching and learning.

The study illustrates how entrepreneurial education has evolved into a distinct research theme, characterized by a practice-oriented research agenda that emphasizes the need to connect teaching to “real-world” environments. The practice-oriented agenda has led to continued societal interest in promoting entrepreneurial education, while at the same time creating low academic legitimacy.

This paper aims to explore the core elements and essential characteristics of entrepreneurship pedagogy in American higher education institutions, outlining a model from multiple participants’ perspectives and offering a blueprint for teaching entrepreneurship in higher education settings.

Structured interviews were conducted with 26 participants involved in entrepreneurship education in American higher education institutions, including teaching managers, teachers and students. The interview data were transformed into documentary materials and analyzed through grounded theory.

The characteristics of the core elements of entrepreneurship education pedagogy in American higher education institutions include unified and distinctive teaching content, diverse and practical teaching methods, disciplinary and interdisciplinary curriculum system, professional and inclusive teaching team, procedural and systematic teaching evaluation. More profoundly, entrepreneurship pedagogy in American universities can be conceptualized as a flywheel model, propelled by the significant autonomy of teachers. Teacher autonomy empowers dynamic interactions among teaching content, teaching method, curriculum development and teaching evaluation, facilitating ongoing innovation in American entrepreneurship pedagogy like a rapidly forward-rolling wheel.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the pedagogy of American entrepreneurship education as a mature discipline, which may assist educators in teaching entrepreneurship at the college level. Moreover, a flywheel model of entrepreneurship pedagogy is offered, emphasizing teacher autonomy as a vital but often overlooked role in the development of entrepreneurship education.

During the current global epidemic, e-learning and mobile learning have been rapidly developed in the field of entrepreneurship education. The effect of these learning methods remains to be confirmed. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of mobile business simulation games in entrepreneurship education.

From May 2020 to July 2020, the authors adopted a quasi-experimental design to explore the effect of mobile business simulation games in entrepreneurship education. The authors set up an experimental group to participate in mobile business simulation games, with a total of 105 students, and set up a control group of 100 students. At the beginning and end of the experiment, data on entrepreneurial attitude, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intention and other related variables were collected. Paired sample T-test and regression analysis were used to analyze the results.

The authors found that mobile business simulation games can improve entrepreneurial attitudes and self-efficacy, but cannot change entrepreneurial intentions. The paired sample T-test in the experimental group showed that the entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of the participants were significantly improved, but the entrepreneurial intention did not change significantly. The above three variables did not change significantly in the control group. The research results also show that flow experience is very important in mobile business simulation games, which can improve entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The authors’ findings confirm the positive effects of mobile business simulation games in entrepreneurship education, which can improve entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. But the disadvantage of mobile business simulation games is that they cannot increase entrepreneurial intention. In addition, the flow experience needs to be valued in mobile business simulation games. The research in this paper has implications for how mobile learning can be used in entrepreneurship education during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, research is of great value on how mobile business simulation games can be improved.

Considering the differences between rural and urban spaces, through the theoretical framework developed, the purpose of this paper is to uncover and rationalize the differences between rural and urban new ventures in terms of the environment surrounding the new venture, their general characteristics (e.g. sector, size) and export/economic performance.

The theoretical framework is empirically assessed resorting to exploratory statistical analysis based on data collected from a questionnaire survey responded by 408 new ventures headquartered in Portuguese business incubators and science parks. The data collected were treated with the Software Package for the Social Sciences.

The results evidence that rural and urban new ventures differ in terms of generic characteristics, namely sector, size and collaborators’ human capital. Additionally, they differ concerning export and economic performance as well in relation to the perception of the municipality support.

Albeit the present study is mainly exploratory, it constitutes a stepping stone for future research into the differences between rural and urban new ventures regarding their export and economic performance determinants.

The present study innovatively contributes to uncover the role of rural and urban context in entrepreneurship and adds to the scanty empirical literature in the area.

Drawing on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention literature, this paper develops and tests a model that aims to explain the relationship between students' perception of learning from entrepreneurship education programs (EEP), the theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurial intention across Latin American countries.

This study uses data from the Global University Entrepreneurship Spirit Student’s Survey (GUESSS) project 2018 for 11 Latin American countries. Structural equation modeling is used to validate the theoretical model; this offers advantages over traditional multivariate techniques in evaluating measurement errors, estimation of latent variables and specification of models.

The main results suggest that a positive perception of learning from EEP is related to the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, attitude toward entrepreneurial behavior and perceived behavior control positively influences entrepreneurial intention across Latin American undergraduate students. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of EEP in terms of the antecedents of the intention and, in addition, provide evidence to the theory of planned behavior from a large sample in an emerging region.

The theory of planned behavior is one of the most important theoretical frameworks to explain entrepreneurial intention. However, in Latin American countries, quality research is hindered by the lack of data and valid measures. Therefore, the paper adds value by looking at the perception of learning from EEP and its relationship with the antecedents of intention. Likewise, it validates the dimensions of the theory of planned behavior and its relationship to entrepreneurial intention, considering a broad sample of university students in Latin America.

Con base en la literatura sobre educación en emprendimiento e intención emprendedora, este estudio desarrolla y prueba un modelo que busca explicar la relación entre la percepción de los estudiantes sobre el aprendizaje de los programas de educación en emprendimiento, la Teoría del Comportamiento Planificado y la intención emprendedora en los países de América Latina.

Este estudio utiliza datos del proyecto Global University Entrepreneurship Spirit Student Survey (GUESSS) 2018 para 11 países de América Latina. Se valida el modelo teórico mediante modelos de ecuaciones estructurales; esta técnica ofrece ventajas sobre otras de análisis multivariante tradicionales relacionadas con la evaluación de errores de medición, estimación de variables latentes y especificación del modelo.

Los principales resultados sugieren que una percepción positiva del aprendizaje de los programas de educación en emprendimiento se relaciona con los antecedentes de la intención emprendedora. Además, la actitud hacia el comportamiento emprendedor y el control del comportamiento percibido influyen positivamente en la intención de emprender de los estudiantes universitarios latinoamericanos. Estos hallazgos contribuyen a una mejor comprensión del rol de la educación en emprendimiento en términos de los antecedentes de la intención y proporcionan evidencia de la Teoría del Comportamiento Planificado de una gran muestra en una región emergente.

la Teoría del Comportamiento Planificado es uno de los marcos teóricos más importantes para explicar la intención emprendedora. Sin embargo, en los países de América Latina, la investigación de calidad se ve obstaculizada por la falta de datos y medidas válidas. Por lo tanto, el trabajo agrega valor al observar la percepción del aprendizaje de los programas de educación en emprendimiento y su relación con los antecedentes de la intención. Asimismo, validando las dimensiones de la Teoría del Comportamiento Planificado y su relación con la intención emprendedora, considerando una amplia muestra de estudiantes universitarios latinoamericanos.