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This paper aims to look at Botswana women entrepreneurs involved in informal cross-border trade (ICBT). It addresses the following questions: What is the nature of the entrepreneurship activities that the women engage in, the funding sources and profitability of the businesses? How has the business helped to enhance women’s economic empowerment? What are the factors that influence participation of women in these businesses and their challenges?

The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods in studying the challenges faced by Botswana women entrepreneurs in ICBT. A sample of 319 women were identified for study using a combination of the systematic sampling method and snowball techniques. Questionnaires were administered on the sampled women by trained research assistants. In addition, key informant interviews and focus group discussion were conducted on selected women entrepreneurs and key personnel from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Customs and Immigration Offices at the border posts.

The study revealed that the majority of the women (67 per cent) were under 35 years of age, 69 per cent had very little education (senior secondary certificate and below), 41 per cent were unemployed and 44 per cent were single (never married). The women traded mainly in agricultural products and industrial goods. Raising income for the families (49 per cent) ranked highest as the push factor for the women entrepreneurs. The average monthly profit made by the women was P5916.77 ± 409.86 (US$657.42 ± 45.54). The major constraints faced by the women traders were delays at the borders, long hours of travel, time away from their homes and stiff completion with other traders. ICBT was shown to be highly profitable for the women entrepreneurs, with gross profit margin on imported goods at 59.5 per cent.

The study limitations included fear that the research assistants are agents of the income tax department disguised as researchers and that the collected information may be passed on to government authorities for the purpose of taxation. It was not possible to evaluate the impact of these feelings by the respondents on the responses. However, “anonymity” was the best strategy for getting information. They were assured in the consent form and orally that information provided was not going to be divulged to any other sources and that the questionnaire does not contain anybody’s personal information which could be used to track the person. Notwithstanding these limitations, the study design was appropriate for the purpose of the research. The instrument was adequate as can be seen from the high values of the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.90) and knowledgeable research assistants who collected the data under the supervision of the authors.

The women entrepreneurs were able to generate substantial incomes and profits that enabled them to improve the livelihood of the families and empowered them to themselves take major decisions in their families. The educational status of the women needs to be improved, as this will be necessary to improve their entrepreneurial skills.

Reduction in internal taxes on imported goods by the women can enhance the profitability of the businesses.

The study is highly original, especially as no such study has been undertaken in Botswana before. The methodology used is very adequate and specially articulated to achieve the objective of the study. The research assistants were well-trained for this assignment.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide is about changing the law to enable doctors, under certain circumstances, to intentionally kill patients. For proponents the issues have been determining what are “appropriate circumstances” for such activity and gathering up enough political support to win the day on numbers. The community and medical profession have been exposed to years of misinformation about euthanasia, and advocates have become so vocal that contrary positions are now barely heard. Nevertheless, there are enormous adverse implications for all healthcare professionals. Clinical management in the twenty-first century has moved well past scenarios painted to justify killing the patient. The inclusion of killing in the therapeutic armamentarium will cause an inexorable erosion of what is at present an absolute protection for the patient, the doctor, and other healthcare professionals.

This paper aims to outline the purpose, planning, development and delivery of the “1st Academic-Practitioner Research with Impact workshop: Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Big Data” held at Alliance Manchester Business School on 18th and 19th January 2016, at which four subsequent papers were initially developed.

The paper sets out a summary of the importance and significance of the four papers developed at the workshop and how the co-creative dialogue between managerial practitioners, presenting key problems and issues that they face, and carefully selected teams of academics was facilitated.

To develop richer and more impactful understanding of current problems challenging customer-focused managers, there is a need for more dialogue and engagement between academics and practitioners.

The paper serves as a guideline for developing future workshops that aim at strengthening the links between academia and the business world.

This paper highlights the value of academic–practitioner workshops for focusing academic research on areas of importance for practitioners to generate impact. The innovative format of the workshop and the resulting impactful papers should serve as a call and motivation for future academic–practitioner workshop development.

Over the last two decades the average floor area of new houses in Australia has increased significantly. This has coincided with greater expectations of thermal comfort in homes. In certain locations, the result has been an escalation of the use of large mechanical air conditioning systems in houses. Since it is predicted that climate change will lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, the future maintenance of thermal comfort in houses in an affordable manner is likely to be challenging. This will have implications not only for the health and comfort of the occupants but also for peak energy loads. A compounding factor is the likelihood of increased energy prices caused, in part, by financial mechanisms aimed at minimising greenhouse gas emissions. There will be sections of the community, such as the elderly and the less well off, that will be particularly vulnerable to these combined factors.

This paper explores design strategies that could be incorporated in new and existing houses to improve thermal comfort for residents during heatwaves. It is shown that during such periods, behaviour change, thermal comfort requirements and extra energy consumption have a strong influence on devising solutions for this challenge. The results of a pilot study are given that indicate opportunities for creating cool refuges in the existing dwelling stock.

Background Whether termed intellectual capital, knowledge management, or something else, the practice of managing an institution's knowledge base has received increasing attention in recent years. After some of the highly publicized downsizings of the late eighties and early nineties, a number of organizations discovered that an enormous amount of institutional memory and unique knowledge was walking out the door with exiting employees. Further, the nineties have seen tremendous growth in firms with few assets besides what is between the ears of some of their key people. Both trends have focused managers on knowledge as an asset of the firm, to be developed and managed in the same manner as more traditional assets.

Students' career choices and programmes of study are perceived to influence student understanding of many courses. Yet, research attention is limited on entrepreneurship education that is a panacea for unemployment. Thus, this paper aims to assess the influence of students' career interests on students' comprehension of the entrepreneurship curriculum from a developing economy perspective.

The study adopts a mixed-method approach and explanatory sequential design is used to collect the data from 575 student studying entrepreneurship course in Ghana.

The results show that there is no statistically significant relationship between students' career interests and students' comprehension levels in concepts taught in the entrepreneurship curriculum but a statistically significant relationship between students' programme of study and students' comprehension levels in concepts taught in the entrepreneurship curriculum in Ghanaian universities.

The findings imply that the entrepreneurship course should be taught practically. This can be accomplished by creating a virtual enterprise modelled after a successful enterprise. This will help students understand the concepts being taught. Second, students who study different programmes should be taught using different methods. Lastly, students who study non-business-related programmes should be taught using methods that emphasise the basic ideas to aid students' understanding.

This study has made significant contribution by successful adopting the Piaget's cognitive constructivism to the learning of entrepreneurship from a developing country perspective and establish that no statistical relationship exist between students' career interests and students' comprehension levels in entrepreneurship education.

I address the question, Is theory useful when collaborating with teachers to improve student engagement?

We based our work on four principles of motivation drawn from the research literature: students are more likely to engage in learning if teachers support their perceptions of competence, autonomy, belongingness, and make learning meaningful. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, we suggested that teachers use certain instructional strategies, like open-ended questions, related to supporting student engagement. These strategies were both more complex than the standard practices and more challenging to implement, given the current U.S. emphasis on standardized testing. In two longitudinal studies, we provided rationales for engagement principles and instructional strategies related to student engagement and encouraged teachers to use new practices. Mixed methodology included online observation measures and video of classroom instruction, retrospective interviews with teachers, and student interviews and experience sampling self-reports.

Short case studies of teachers change illustrate the examples of implementation. In both studies, about half the teachers made significant instructional changes, which were related both to teacher perceptions of student engagement and to student self-reports.

Insights gained from the studies may offer researchers practical information about how to work with teachers to improve engagement in the classroom. They include whether teachers can understand abstract motivation terminology, consider students’ “basic needs” when planning instruction, and implement strategies so that they are likely to support student engagement. Other learnings include the strong impact of teacher culture on change efforts and the need to consider teachers’ “basic needs” if we are to support them in instructional change. Long-term collaboration and establishing mutual trust may be the best way for both researchers and teachers to develop common understandings for supporting student motivation in the classroom.

The chapter presents a critical analysis of the functions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), identifying how athletes who appeal to CAS for resolution of doping disputes face the problems of ‘stacked decks’ and ‘repeat parties’. A detailed critique of CAS's claim that it supports athletes' human rights, in the document titled ‘Sport and Human Rights: Overview from a CAS Perspective’, reveals the shaky ground on which the CAS authors based their argument. Detailed analyses of several recent doping cases reveal chronic problems of inconsistent and subjective awards, and, in the case of Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, issues of racist discrimination.