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A debate on whether new ventures should be supported with public funding is taking place. Adopting a position on this discussion requires rigorous assessments of implemented programs. However, the few existing efforts have mostly focused on regional cases in developed countries. To fill this gap, this paper aims to measure the effects of a regional acceleration program in a developing country (Medellin, Colombia).

The economic notion of capabilities is used to frame the analysis of firm characteristics and productivity, which are hypothesized to be heterogeneous within the program. To test these relationships, propensity score matching is used in a sample of 60 treatment and 16,994 control firms.

This paper finds that treated firms had higher revenue than propensity score-matched controls on average, confirming a positive impact on growth measures. However, such financial growth is mostly observed in service firms rather than other economic sectors.

Further evaluations, with a longer period and using more outcome variables, are suggested in the context of similar publicly funded programs in developing countries.

These findings tip the balance in favor of the literature suggesting supportive programs for high-growth firms as opposed to everyday entrepreneurship. This is an insight, especially under the context of an emerging economy, which has scarce funding to support entrepreneurship.

The aim of this paper is to examine the construction of female beauty ideals in Tokalon advertisements in 1930s Sweden.

This paper uses the theoretical perspective of social semiotics and the methodology of multimodal critical discourse analysis to analyze a corpus of 91 Tokalon advertisements collected from the Swedish Historical Newspaper Archive.

The analysis indicates that women were encouraged to engage in beauty work practices to preserve the idealized white, youthful face. Working on and “perfecting” the female face was framed as a way for women to exercise their autonomy and emancipation. However, a closer analysis of the advertisements reveals that women’s empowerment was often measured in terms of securing male attention or finding a husband. Women who failed to enhance their appearance were positioned as at risk of being unloved and/or unmarried, while those who engaged in beauty work practices were rewarded with romantic success. Interestingly, however, the promotion of beauty practices was not rooted with traditional notions of the “male gaze”, but rather reflected an “autoerotic gaze” that emphasizes self-governance by modern women.

This paper demonstrates the significance of analyzing Swedish cosmetic advertisements from this period to understand their role in shaping constructions of femininity. It also highlights the important influence of American advertising styles and culture in Swedish advertising practices and how they helped shape beauty norms in Sweden.

This study aims to identify the reasons for unmet health-care needs and related barriers among the Roma population with chronic diseases in Jordan.

A descriptive survey with a cross-sectional design was conducted, involving a sample of 347 Jordanian Roma participants. Data collection was performed using a structured questionnaire based on the Canadian Community Health Survey.

The analysis revealed that within the three categories of reasons for unmet health-care needs (accessibility, availability and acceptability), “Transportation issues” under the accessibility category constitute the most reported reasons: (mean = 90.4%, SD = 22.6%), followed by “Cost” (mean = 89.0%, SD = 26.2%) and “Care not available in the area” (mean = 85.8%, SD = 23.6%). Predictors of unmet health-care needs were being married, having health insurance and self-perception of mental health (OR = 0.215, p = 0.044), (OR = 0.391, p = 0.008) and (OR = 0.302, p = 0.002) respectively.

Unmet health-care needs are highly prevalent among Jordanian Roma, rendering them a vulnerable group susceptible to other diseases. To address this pressing issue, concerted and comprehensive efforts should be made to improve the utilization and accessibility of health-care services within this community. Furthermore, efforts should be made to elevate their social standing and status. facilitate their integration into the broader community.