Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Antecedents Of Entrepreneurial Activity And Poverty: Mediating Effect Of Entrepreneurial Activity, Bashir I. Bugaje, Azmawani Abd Rahman, Rusmawati Said, Jo A. Ho, Abubakar A. Adamu

Journal of Global Business Insights

Poverty rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have risen, with 47% of the region’s population living in poverty. In Nigeria, approximately 87 million are classified as extremely poor. Existing research on the relationship between entrepreneurship and poverty in this region is fragmented and inconsistent. Traditional economic measures of poverty have proven inadequate, prompting the need for a multidimensional approach. The paper examined the mediating effect of entrepreneurial activity on the relationship between the precursors of entrepreneurship and poverty. The study used a survey method and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data, which confirmed all hypotheses, revealing …

Understanding Romania's Poverty: A Historical Overview Of Economics And Politics And Their Implications On Poverty Today, Benjamin Bucur

Senior Honors Theses

Romania is a country with a high-income economy that is experiencing considerable growth following its economic reforms of earlier decades. With growth, tendencies for an unequal society are prevalent. Therefore, appropriate economic policies that are specifically targeted toward bottlenecks are essential. This thesis seeks to outline the major types of poverty in Romania while also offering actionable entrepreneurial and educational insights that practically combat poverty at its roots.

Helping Small Businesses In Belize, Laura Hollingsworth

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper will discuss my summer internship project with Peacework in Belize. The study abroad Special Projects in Belize with Peacework was supposed to be the summer of 2019. The trip was going to be two months long and while there we were going to get paired with a community leader or a local development organization to work on a community project in Dangriga, Belize. Because of COVID-19, the trip was cancelled for the summer of 2019 and then for the summer of 2020 it was moved to virtual. The Belize team was still paired with people from the community …

Invited Perspective - Engaging Aspirations To Nurture Communities, Kentaro Toyama

Subsistence Marketplaces

For subsistence communities, the question is whether aspirations can be applied to motivate behavior that is, on the one hand consistent with people’s aspirations, but which might otherwise be difficult to elicit. Could poorer households be encouraged to save, to spend more on their children’s education, or to act against unhealthy social norms? A couple of examples suggest this is not only possible, but highly successful in contexts where other appeals fail.

The Microfinance Experiment: An Evaluation Of Programs And Effectiveness In St. Louis, Maxwell Miller

Honors Scholar Theses

Widespread poverty remains a reality for many in both developed and developing countries. Policymakers, charitable organizations, and entrepreneurs have introduced diverse strategies to provide individuals and communities opportunities to rise from poverty. One such method is microfinance, a system developed by Muhammad Yunus in the early 1970s to provide small loans and financial services to borrowers too impoverished or otherwise lacking in credibility or collateral to be considered by traditional means of credit.

Since its inception, microfinance has spread among other countries to mixed success. While many researchers claim microfinance has proven to be an effective tool to combat poverty, …

The Power Of Investing To Alleviate Poverty, Zachary Sicher

Senior Honors Theses

Hundreds of millions of people across the world are affected by extreme poverty each day. At the same time, investing has generated more wealth than anything in the history of the world. Because of the great success of investing in generating wealth, there must be a way for investing to be used to assist in the alleviation of poverty. To examine this possibility, one must consider the root causes of poverty, the reasons for the success of investing, and how poverty is currently being alleviated, to effectively develop a way for investing to be used to help alleviate poverty.

Plastic Bags And Bamboo Stools, Grace R. Bithell

Marriott Student Review

This paper conducts a critical analyses of microfinance institutions. It gives an overview of the complexities of credit in developing countries and shows how microfinance fits into the equations. It discussed the successes and failures of microenterprises in trying to alleviate poverty. It also delves into best practices pertaining to lending to the poor and how microfinance is impacted by culture in developing nations.

Microfinance: Combating World Poverty One Small Business At A Time, Alison Basney

Senior Honors Theses

Poverty is a major problem that reaches millions of people around the world. Although many organizations and individuals work daily to combat this, much of the work done to reduce poverty lacks sustainability and serves only to remedy to the effects of poverty, rather than create a solution to the causes of poverty. Microfinance can be very basically defined as the provision of banking to the impoverished who would not otherwise have access to these services. This purpose of this thesis is to show that microfinance is the ideal solution to the poverty problem by using research and evidence from …

The Role Of Trust In Social Entrepreneurship: A Case Study Of Global Brigades, Laura Tack, Mark Simon, Ruihua Joy Jiang

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This article aims to begin filling this gap by utilizing a specific social entrepreneurship initiative to illustrate the role of trust in social entrepreneurship efforts.

Microcredit As A Means Of Funding Entrepreneurship In Asia, Sheena Ragoo

Senior Honors Theses

Microcredit can be a powerful tool to aid impoverished individuals in Asia. Despite the increased globalization and interconnectedness around the world, many parts of Asia suffer from the social and economic problems. However, entrepreneurship programs can help alleviate some of the social ailments. Unfortunately, many individuals in the Asian region do not have the financial means to start their own businesses. Individuals may be able to fund their businesses by means of small loans. Microcredit not only empowers poor individuals, it also gives them the opportunity to be self-employed and become self-sufficient. Women are the main beneficiaries of microcredit financial …

Micro-Loans: A Socially Responsible Corporate Investment, Olivia D. Marshall

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the socially responsible actions of corporations across America in the funding of micro-financing endeavors both of foreign and domestic intent as a means to alleviate poverty. Micro-loans are examined in light of the history of corporate social responsibility and the magnitude of impoverishment across the globe. The overarching purpose of this paper stands to prove that funding micro-loans is a sufficient means of acting socially responsible for corporations nationwide as a sustainable solution to poverty.

Social Structure, Reasonable Gain, And Entrepreneurship In Africa, Gerard George, Reddi Kotha, Priti Parikh, Tufool Alnuaimi, Abubakr S. Bahaj

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the context of desperate poverty, characterized by households at subsistence level that experience economic loss and social fracture, explanations for why individuals undertake entry into entrepreneurship are limited. We find that individuals rely on their social relationships to enable entrepreneurial activities that have the potential to create a reasonable income gain. In a sample of 1,049 households in rural Kenya, we test whether the disintegration of social structure attenuates entrepreneurial behavior. When coupled with factors such as income loss, gender of the household head, and access to communal resources, social structure plays a pivotal role in entrepreneurial action. We …

Institutional Entrepreneurship, Governance And Poverty: Insights From Emergency Medical Response Services In India, Gerard George, Rekha Rao-Nicholson, Christopher Corbishley, Rahul Bansal

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We present an in-depth case study of GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute, an Indian public–private partnership (PPP), which successfully brought emergency medical response to remote and urban settings. Drawing insights from the case, we investigate how the organization established itself through institutional entrepreneurship using a process conceptualized as opportunity framing, entrenchment, and propagation. The case and context highlight the need for innovation in organizational design and governance modes to create a new opportunity that connects state actors, private healthcare providers, and the public at large. We consider the role of open innovation and novel business models in creating these …

Evidence Of Opportunity And Necessity Driven Entrepreneurship In Nigeria, Abubakar S. Garba, Fariastuti Djafar, Shazali Abu Mansor

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

The objective of this paper is to examine the influence of poverty, unemployment and GDP on entrepreneurship. Time series data for 31 years was collected from various official sources for the analysis. Vector autoregressive (VAR) framework was adopted to systematically capture the rich dynamic of multiple time series. Other tests conducted were unit root test, Johansen and Juselius (1990) co-integration test, Granger causality and dynamic model analysis beyond the sample. It was found that poverty and GDP influence entrepreneurship negatively, while unemployment influences entrepreneurship positively. The paper reveals the presence of both opportunity and necessity driven entrepreneurs in the country. …

Slides: Sources Of Electrical Energy For Those Who Are Remote And Poor, Frank Barnes

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Dr. Frank Barnes, Distinguished Professor, Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado

24 slides

Slides: Appropriate Sustainable Energy Technologies: A Light To The World, Lakshman D. Guruswamy, Jason B. Aamodt, Blake Feamster

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Jason Aamodt, Attorney; Adjunct Professor, University of Tulsa

15 slides

Sustainability Of Mfis Through Governance Mechanisms: A Cross-Country Analysis Of Regulation On Outreach And Operational Self Sufficiency, Daniel Muwamba

Honors Thesis Program in the College of Management

Poverty is an age long problem that has been part of mankind ever since civilization and the fight against poverty is as old. There are many efforts to fight poverty of which microfinance is one. One theory to explain prevalence of poverty especially in the age of capitalism is that poor enterprising people cannot lift themselves out of poverty because they lack capital to develop their enterprises. Start up businesses and enterprises commonly start operations with credit support from financial institutions but there are prerequisites to attaining this credit and numerous poor individuals do not possess these prerequisites. Such individuals …

Special Edition Of Journal Of Business Ethics, Marilynn P. Fleckenstein Ph.D., Patrick Flanagan, Victoria Shoaf Ph.D., Patricia Werhane Ph.D.

Patrick Flanagan

DePaul University hosted the 14th Annual International Conference Promoting Business Ethics, at The Standard Club in Chicago, November 1–3, 2007. Academic and business leaders came together to explore the important ethical issues facing the business community in the twenty-first century. The articles in this special volume of The Journal of Business Ethics have been selected from the many presentations at this conference. Sponsored annually by the Vincentian Universities in the United States (DePaul University, in Chicago, Illinois; Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY; and St. John’s University in Queens, NY) this conference promotes the mission of St. Vincent DePaul, the …

Special Edition Of Journal Of Business Ethics, Patrick Flanagan, Marilynn P. Fleckenstein Ph.D., Victoria Shoaf Ph.D., Patricia Werhane Ph.D.

Patrick Flanagan

The articles in this special volume of Journal of Business Ethics have been selected from the many presentations at this conference and represent a cross section of the topics and issues covered at the Vincentian Business Ethics Conference at the Manhattan campus of St. John's University in the fall of 2009. Sponsored annually by the Vincentian universities in the United States (DePaul University, in Chicago, Illinois; Niagara University in Niagara Falls, NY; and St. John’s University in Queens, NY), this conference promotes the mission of St. Vincent DePaul, the seventeenth-century Roman Catholic saint who serves as the patron of these …