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This study was based on the perceptions of lecturers and black CTA students at Unisa, a South African distance education university regarding on factors that contribute to black students’ academic success and failure. The main purposes of the study were to help black CTA students to understand the reasons for success and failure better, and to improve lecturers’ teaching approach(es). The research shows that students and lecturers have divergent views on what factors contribute to academic success or failure and the relative importance of the various factors.

The South African medical fraternity is existing within an increasingly turbulent environment, characterised by government interference, budget cuts, restrictive legislation, as well as diseases which threaten the very basis on which this fraternity exits. The medical profession exists within the ambit of services marketing. Attempts to improve the service delivery should be studied within this framework. Medical doctors are in short supply and complaints regarding the services provided are increasing. The focus of the article is on current and potential patients of general medical practitioners in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The sample size was 500, which yielded 156 useable questionnaires. The response rate of 31.2 per cent was regarded as acceptable. The location of the practice of the medical practitioner and personal loyalty of the patient towards the medical practitioner, are of vital importance in determining whether the patient will return or not, and whether a positive perception will be developed.

Developments in the global and national economies as well as the labour market, have made it necessary that more attention be paid to entrepreneurship and the updating of curricula presented by tertiary institutions. For this purpose reliable and valid information is required. The primary objectives of this article are to report on the levels of students’ entrepreneurial traits, to establish whether these traits are interrelated, and to determine the extent of the impact that demographic variables have on these entrepreneurial traits. A convenience sampling method (n = 1,215) was used. The best developed entrepreneurial traits observed included: “Competing against self‐imposed standards”, “Self‐confidence” and “Dealing with Failure”. Statistically significant relationships were also identified between the entrepreneurial traits of students and the tertiary institution attended, and students’ gender, race and age.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether sentiment toward marketing differs between students attending universities in the USA and Germany.

The sample was drawn from students attending classes in professional programs at two universities in the USA and two universities in Germany. The resulting sample sizes were 312 from the Germany institutions and 392 from the US institutions. Sentiment toward marketing was measured using the Index of Consumer Sentiment toward Marketing.

The hypothesis that students attending universities in Germany possess lower sentiments toward marketing is supported. Only the first hypothesis addressing the individual aspects of marketing is supported; however, a significant (at the 0.05 level) difference was only observed for sentiment toward advertising. In that instance, students attending universities in Germany were shown to possess more negative sentiment toward advertising than students attending universities in the USA.

The lower sentiment toward advertising among students attending universities in Germany may be expected to present a challenge to marketers attempting to reach these individuals. Their lower sentiment toward advertising may lead German students to be less likely to accept messages conveyed via advertising than their counterparts in the USA.

Past research suggests that differences in sentiment toward marketing exist between consumers residing in nations at different stages of development and with differing types of market structures. Do differences exist, however, between different nations at similar levels of development?

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of different types of collegiate education by examining collegiate business students' sentiment toward marketing.

Students attending marketing classes at two universities (a Jesuit university and a state university) in the same region in the USA were sampled. The questionnaires included the Index of Consumer Sentiment toward Marketing (ICSM).

For overall sentiment toward marketing and for each of the aspects of marketing, significant (at the 0.05 level) differences are noted. In each instance, students attending the state university report more positive sentiment toward marketing than students attending the Jesuit university.

The sample is comprised of students attending only two universities located in the same region.

The findings suggest that students attending Jesuit universities may possess more negative sentiment toward marketing than students attending the state university. The increased emphasis on social justice and social responsibility at the Jesuit university may increase the standards with which their students evaluate marketers. Business students from Jesuit universities may be more likely to act socially responsibly than business students from state universities in their subsequent employment.

Jesuit colleges of business purport to produce students who are more socially responsible than students attending colleges of business at state universities, but these claims have not been examined empirically.

Leadership; Political Economy; Strategy; Entrepreneurship.

Masters in Business Administration (MBA); MPhil in Strategic Leadership.

On 5 February 2016, South African entrepreneur Jannie Van Eeden faced a dilemma about whether to expand his current businesses or not. He had to choose between focusing exclusively on hospitality and tourism or dividing his time and resources between the tourism business and expanding his existing logistics business. Expansions to his logistics business would entail investing in a warehouse and supplying fresh produce to the lodges in the wider area of Lake Malawi where he was based. Van Eeden realised that he needed to take into account the political economy of Malawi in unpacking the contextual variables related to his decision. Various stakeholders’ roles are illustrated in the case, for example the government’s role in enabling entrepreneurial businesses as well as the investments made by foreign organisations and international donors.

Development of leaders who can take contextually intelligent decisions. Insights into conducting Political Economy analysis to enable doing business in Africa.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 7: Management Science.

The systems psychodynamic perspective was used to explore the functioning of a management team at one of the plants of a South African production company experiencing change. The focus was on the impact of social defenses on the leadership style being exercised. During a day long consultation session with the team a dynamic of control and dependency was observed. The transactional culture that can be regarded as “normal,” in this environment, actually became part of a defense strategy, resulting in dependency and a lack of authorization that limited the use of transformational leadership. A lack of clarity in terms of role and boundary definitions furthermore resulted in a struggle in terms of interrelatedness and a lack of interdependent functioning at a system's level.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency within academic community members (namely, students and professors/researchers).

A questionnaire was administered to nearly 300 students and professors/researchers in Portuguese higher education institutions, whereupon a mediation analysis was performed to understand the aforementioned relationship.

The results indicate a positive relationship between individual creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency and that entrepreneurial intention mediates the relationship between creativity and social innovation tendency.

Firstly, the results obtained to fit the specific characteristics of the sample used, suggesting that it would be risky to extrapolate to other contexts. Secondly, although the constructs used to measure variable creativity are based on the extant literature, these may be open to debate and possibly, therefore, alternative measures could have been used.

The findings of the paper have important practical implications within the university context, namely: that study programmes should be designed to address the entrepreneurial potential of their students, teaching and research staff; that social entrepreneurship, volunteering activities and the development of creativity skills should be stimulated; and, finally, that social innovation should be at the core of a university’s mission.

To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first time that the relationship between creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency has been empirically tested. To do this, a conceptual framework is proposed which suggests that individual creativity can be perceived by means of three interconnected constructs (the self, family and university creativity), which, in turn, predict entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency.

This research investigates the barriers hindering women from pursuing entrepreneurship as a career choice, particularly in the Indian context.

The study employs rigorous data analysis techniques, including Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis, on a sample of 590 MBA students, comprising both male and female participants.

The findings reveal that social and psychological factors significantly influence women’s decisions regarding entrepreneurship. Social factors such as social stigma and cultural norms, along with psychological factors like societal expectations, emerge as major barriers.

The findings have implications for policymakers, practitioners, and academics in designing interventions to address social and psychological barriers effectively. Recommendations include promoting cultural sensitivity and fostering confidence among women entrepreneurs.

This study contributes to the existing literature by quantifying the specific barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in India. It offers insights into advancing gender equity and inclusive economic development through targeted policies and programs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate university students in Ethiopia by making a comparative analysis among different groups of students.

A total of 156 students completed entrepreneurship intention questionnaire. The questionnaire has seven parts extracting information about personal attraction, subjective norm, self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial intention, need for achievement, locus of control, and instrumental readiness. The respondents were asked to state their agreement/disagreement on statements on a seven‐point Likert type scale.

The result identified that students who had undergone entrepreneurship education (business management student in this case) tend to have better entrepreneurial intention than those who had not taken entrepreneurship course (engineering students). Also, it was observed that male management students have higher personal attraction towards entrepreneurial career, subjective norms, self‐efficacy and achievement need than female management students, as well as male and female engineering students, while female management students have the lowest instrumental readiness than students in other groups. The study did not find significant difference in entrepreneurial intention of students who had exposure to entrepreneurial activity through family and those who had no such exposures.

The limitation of this research lies in the sample size and the study units (universities) from which samples have been taken. Future research is recommended to predict entrepreneurship intention of students by taking larger sample from more universities in the country.

The study strongly suggests the need to incorporate entrepreneurship education in the curriculum of technical disciplines in Ethiopian universities.

The research provides assessment of entrepreneurship intention of university students in the country/culture which was not explored in the past and hence it further enriches literature and helps to universalize intention theories.