Female Entrepreneurship and the Metanarrative of Economic Growth: A Critical Review of Underlying Assumptions

This critical review of the literature on female entrepreneurship problematizes the metanarrative of economic growth and the mechanisms through which it both operates and is maintained. Central to this is the axiomatic ‘underperformance hypothesis’, which states that ‘all else being equal, female entrepreneurs tend to be less successful than their male counterparts in terms of conventional economic performance measures’ (Du Rietz and Henrekson (2000, p. 1). As an axiom, the truth of the ‘underperformance hypothesis’ is taken for granted, and thus it invisibly serves as a starting point, delimiter and interpretive lens for analysis in this field. While it remains invisible, the hypothesis will continue to reproduce the differences between male and female entrepreneurs, and thus the subordination of women to men in the realm of entrepreneurship. The review illustrates how, by associating females with underperformance, the persistent influence of the metanarrative of economic growth has been masked and the image of the female entrepreneur as problematic and inferior to her male counterpart has been reinforced. The authors argue that a postmodern feminist epistemology will destabilize both the metanarrative of economic growth, and the axiomatic ‘underperformance hypothesis’ it supports, thus opening up space for a heterogeneous understanding of (female) entrepreneurship. By questioning accepted knowledge about female entrepreneurs, the review sets the platform for the exploration of new research questions and a broad agenda for future research. Such an agenda is crucial in order to move future research beyond the pervasive influence of the metanarrative of economic growth and its attendant underperformance hypothesis.     

Gastroenteritis: A Grass Root Approach

A Pilot Project was conducted in a "Katchi-Abadi’ (squatter-settlement)of Karachi, Pakistan, using minimum resources and funds. Itwas attempted to reduce the morbidity and mortality due to gastro-enteritisby health education, regarding the role of sanitation and breast-feedingin the prevention of gastroenteritis and propagating the useof ORS for its management. Only four resource personnel wereused to propagate information to one hundred households. A baselinesurvey indicated that the incidence of diarrhoea was highestin children between 6 months to 1 year old (42.9%). Gastroenteritisaccounted for 25% of all deaths in children up to 5 years. A"post-intervention" survey carried out after imparting healtheducation revealed a significant difference in the incidenceof gastroenteritis between the intervention and "control" groups.Other variables considered including literacy and family sizedid not influence the incidence of diarrhoea. Similar resultswere seen when a significant difference of p < .05 was foundbetween the "intervention" and "control" groups regarding theproper management of acute diarrhoea i.e. proper use of ORS.Thus our pilot project succeeded in altering the awareness andpractices of the community regarding both prevention and managementof Acute Gastroenteritis.     

An experiment in primary health care in Karachi,Pakistan

The Health Education and Literacy Project (HELP) set up a primary health care (PHC) project in the urban slum of Naleem Colony in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1992. The project integrated preventive health, literacy, sanitation, and income generation. Its focus was the community health worker (CHW). Its motto was self-sustainability. A rotating fund allowed the community to contribute towards maintaining the CHW. A community grass-roots organization had administrative control of the project. Researchers had conducted a baseline survey and one year later a knowledge, attitude, and practices survey of 150 households that had received health education and of 150 other households that did not receive health education. The two groups were located in geographically distinct areas. At follow-up, the intervention group consistently was more likely to have good hygienic health practices than the control group (garbage covered, garbage disposal in the garbage drum, washing hands before feeding, and wash hands and child after defecation; p 0.05). Mothers in the intervention group were significantly more likely to know about the vaccinations children needed than those in the control group (for all vaccinations, 76% vs. 21%; p 0.0001). They were also more likely to know how to make oral rehydration solution (ORS) at home than their counterparts (65% vs. 15%). Among intervention mothers, 27% of their children had had diarrhea and 92% of the mothers had used ORS during an episode of diarrhea. The knowledge of correct dietary sources of protein among the intervention group improved significantly between baseline and follow-up (23% vs. 55%; p 0.05), while it did not for the controls (23% vs. 30%; p 0.05). These findings suggest that the project was on the right track towards overall community development by providing health education, sanitation, literacy, and income generation services to the people of the squatter settlement.     

Place and tactical innovation in social movements: the emergence of Egypt’s anti-harassment groups

This study examines the first two years of a tactical innovation that emerged in 2012 in Egypt, which involved activist groups organizing patrol-type "intervention teams" to combat sexual violence against women in public spaces. Findings reveal that the new tactic took different forms in the two places in which it was deployed, even though the same actors employed it. I argue that the place in which a new tactic emerges shapes the form it takes. When coming up with a new collective action tactic, activists elaborate visions about how to carry out their actions based on their collective identities and taste in tactics. But as they start experimenting with the new tactic on the ground, they learn about the places' material affordances, symbolic valence, and power relations, as well as the constraints and opportunities that they represent. The material properties of places shape activists' possibilities of movement, patterns of communication, field of vision, and capacity to escape repression or reach safe spaces. The configuration of actors in a place shapes the nature of their interactions with others on the ground, possible alliances, and sources of conflict. The symbolic meanings of places shape the resonance of a group’s actions and the degree of resistance that actors face. Place in part determines the ability of activists to develop a tactic in the form that best fits their preferences.     

Some new augmented fractional Box–Behnken designs

The augmented Box–Behnken designs are used in the situations in which Box–Behnken designs (BBDs) could not estimate the response surface model due to the presence of third-order terms in the response surface models. These designs are too large for experimental use. Usually experimenters prefer small response surface designs in order to save time, cost, and resources; therefore, using combinations of fractional BBD points, factorial design points, axial design points, and complementary design points, we augment these designs and develop new third-order response surface designs known as augmented fractional BBDs (AFBBDs). These AFBBDs have less design points and are more efficient than augmented BBDs.     

Capital Mobilization of Skilled Migrants: A Relational Perspective

A central issue for understanding skilled migration in the management literature is human capital. This emphasis ignores other important forms of capital mobilization that skilled migrants from developing countries deploy in dealing with the barriers to their international career mobility. There is therefore a need to develop a holistic understanding of capital mobilization of skilled migrants. In order to develop a more holistic picture, we deploy a relational and multilevel perspective to explore how skilled migrants from developing countries mobilize capital in their efforts to undertake an international career. Career is a central construct in this study. Drawing on a qualitative study of skilled Lebanese in Paris, the paper offers two main contributions to the research on human resource management, in particular to the literatures on skilled migration and self‐initiated expatriation. First it extends our understanding of the strategies that skilled migrants use to relocate from a developing country to an industrialized country. Beyond the traditional human capital perspective, it offers insights about migrants' capital mobilization experiences of undertaking international mobility. Second, using Bourdieu's theory of capital, it offers a relational explanation of their capital mobilization in a way to encompass micro‐individual, meso‐organizational and macro‐contextual influences that affect their career choices.     

多语化与文化的多样性--在接受南京大学名誉博士学位仪式上的演讲

世界化并不仅仅局限于商贸往来或信息交流方式的全球化。今天的世界,每两个星期就会有一种语言从世界上消失,随之,与之相关的传统、创造、思想、历史和文化也都不复存在。但并不应该将这种现象视为必然,不应该认定世界化必然会导致语言与文化多样性的消亡,不应该屈从于惟一一种语言的霸权。如果所有的国家都说同一种语言,按照同样的方式思维和行动的话,那么国际范围内极有形成一种极权制度的危险。总之,语言的多样化是促进一种真正的和平文化的途径。