This dissertation explores the intersection between formal music education—within both academic institutions and Black American church settings—and entrepreneurial success. Through a qualitative analysis of six musicians’ career trajectories and the development of the social entrepreneurial venture, Gayle Mail, this study examines how the skills and executive functions nurtured through music education can be effectively translated into entrepreneurial capabilities. The research employs an autoethnographic case study methodology to delve into the lived experiences of individuals who have transitioned from music-focused backgrounds to entrepreneurial endeavors. The study addresses several research questions, focusing on the contribution of formal music training to the development of executive functions, the role of music education in enhancing entrepreneurial skills, and the socio-economic implications of such transitions. Findings from the qualitative portraits and the Gayle Mail case study reveal that adaptability, resilience, creative problem-solving, and disciplined work ethic—skills honed through rigorous music education and performance—are directly transferable and beneficial in entrepreneurial ventures. Furthermore, the study highlights how the unique socio-cultural environment of Black American church music education contributes significantly to the development of these executive functions, supporting individuals in overcoming socio-economic challenges on their entrepreneurial journey. This dissertation contributes to the fields of music education, entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship by providing empirical evidence on thetransferability of music-education-developed skills to entrepreneurial success. It also offers practical insights for educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs on leveraging formal music education as a tool for enhancing entrepreneurial capabilities. The findings suggest avenues for future research, particularly in exploring the specific mechanisms through which music education impacts executive function development and identifying strategies to integrate these findings into music education and entrepreneurship education practices.

Yes

The past decades witnessed that neither the private sector nor the government could provide an adequate socio-economic safety net for the poorest of the poor in the Third World. The community-based self-help approaches were hence widely used as alternative means to help the poor and marginalised to cope with livelihood shocks. This study examined the extent to which indigenous iddirs (local neighbourhood associations) and the externally-funded self-help groups (SHGs) could transform social capital into entrepreneurship thereby enhancing sustainable livelihoods. The study was conducted in three Southern Nation and Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) rural districts, namely, Shebedeno, Wonago and Humbo. Mixed (quantitative and qualitative) methods were used to collect field data. Accordingly, closed and openended questionnaires and interview schedules were developed in English and then translated into Amharic (the national language). Instruments were field tested for validity and thereafter adjusted. A total of 220 (166 male and 54 female) people participated in the study. Data were entered into an Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) database, and analysed by using basic descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were transcribed and analysed using Microsoft Office tools. The findings indicate that the SHGs’ members were relatively better educated than the rest of the population and some of them used this opportunity to pursue employment in government and the private sector. With regard to poverty status, iddirs members were poorer than those of SHGs (15.5% of the iddirs members reported that they are destitute compared to others in the community, as opposed to 3.3% of SHGs members). The study reveals that the livelihoods of some members of iddirs and SHG (particularly the latter) improved as a result of their involvement in these institutions although, at this point, the impact is insignificant. With regard to socio-economic decision making, more SHG members were involved in participatory decision making. However, iddirs leaders were still the dominant decision makers. The SHG level of participatory decision making could be the result of capacity building efforts by the promoting organisation, particularly, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (EKHC). The study also shows that some of the iddirs and SHGs members were involved in informal rural entrepreneurial activities. However, their involvement did not indicate the utilisation of micro loan taken from the iddirs and SHGs for business purposes (97% of the iddirs and SHGs respondents utilised microcredit loans for consumption and other related purposes). On the other hand, the empirical evidence reveals that the amount of loan that iddirs and SHGs respondents received was very small. The general practice is giving small loans particularly to SHG members with repayments expected to begin as quickly and frequently as possible. Transforming social capital into entrepreneurship requires a cooperative approach, i.e. the involvement of development actors so as to enhance communities’ endeavour to achieve their livelihood objectives. Despite the wide prevalence of social capital in Ethiopia, this study indicates that its effective utilisation in community empowerment and sustainable livelihoods remains a challenge. Social capital is found to have a limited role in social entrepreneurship development and promotion not because it does not have potential, but because of the limited role of promoting organisations. The study shows lack of strong linkage between iddirs and promoting organisation (NGOs and Government). The study thus underlines the need for improving network and links with iddirs and SHGs and promoting organisations so as to create an enabling environment for sustainable livelihoods in the three rural districts under scrutiny. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

This dissertation presents a multilevel model of national-level factors and their impact on the organizational-level characteristics of social enterprises and their innovations. This study builds on the foundations of two theoretical frameworks: the national systems of innovation, which recognizes economic competitiveness to be a product of several interrelated institutions (e.g. financial, educational, cultural, historical) and where organizational-level innovation drives country level competitiveness; and the comparative social enterprise framework, which contends that national-level institutions (e.g., economic competitiveness, models of civil society) drive the size and shape of the social enterprise sector of a country. Data for this study were collected from multiple secondary global datasets representing 54 countries across seven world regions. Research questions and hypotheses are examined using ordinal and logistic hierarchical generalized linear modeling, two analytical techniques capable of explaining variation at one level (i.e., organizations) as a consequence of factors at another level of analysis (i.e., countries) for non-normally distributed dependent variables. Findings indicate that economic competitiveness, welfare spending, culture and quality of life significantly impact the odds of a business being a social enterprise. Fewer significant relationships were found social enterprise innovations. Conclusions and policy implications are discussed in light of data limitations and the current state of the field.

The past decades witnessed that neither the private sector nor the government could provide an adequate socio-economic safety net for the poorest of the poor in the Third World. The community-based self-help approaches were hence widely used as alternative means to help the poor and marginalised to cope with livelihood shocks. This study examined the extent to which indigenous iddirs (local neighbourhood associations) and the externally-funded self-help groups (SHGs) could transform social capital into entrepreneurship thereby enhancing sustainable livelihoods. The study was conducted in three Southern Nation and Nationalities and People’s Region (SNNPR) rural districts, namely, Shebedeno, Wonago and Humbo. Mixed (quantitative and qualitative) methods were used to collect field data. Accordingly, closed and openended questionnaires and interview schedules were developed in English and then translated into Amharic (the national language). Instruments were field tested for validity and thereafter adjusted. A total of 220 (166 male and 54 female) people participated in the study. Data were entered into an Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) database, and analysed by using basic descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were transcribed and analysed using Microsoft Office tools. The findings indicate that the SHGs’ members were relatively better educated than the rest of the population and some of them used this opportunity to pursue employment in government and the private sector. With regard to poverty status, iddirs members were poorer than those of SHGs (15.5% of the iddirs members reported that they are destitute compared to others in the community, as opposed to 3.3% of SHGs members). The study reveals that the livelihoods of some members of iddirs and SHG (particularly the latter) improved as a result of their involvement in these institutions although, at this point, the impact is insignificant. With regard to socio-economic decision making, more SHG members were involved in participatory decision making. However, iddirs leaders were still the dominant decision makers. The SHG level of participatory decision making could be the result of capacity building efforts by the promoting organisation, particularly, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (EKHC). The study also shows that some of the iddirs and SHGs members were involved in informal rural entrepreneurial activities. However, their involvement did not indicate the utilisation of micro loan taken from the iddirs and SHGs for business purposes (97% of the iddirs and SHGs respondents utilised microcredit loans for consumption and other related purposes). On the other hand, the empirical evidence reveals that the amount of loan that iddirs and SHGs respondents received was very small. The general practice is giving small loans particularly to SHG members with repayments expected to begin as quickly and frequently as possible. Transforming social capital into entrepreneurship requires a cooperative approach, i.e. the involvement of development actors so as to enhance communities’ endeavour to achieve their livelihood objectives. Despite the wide prevalence of social capital in Ethiopia, this study indicates that its effective utilisation in community empowerment and sustainable livelihoods remains a challenge. Social capital is found to have a limited role in social entrepreneurship development and promotion not because it does not have potential, but because of the limited role of promoting organisations. The study shows lack of strong linkage between iddirs and promoting organisation (NGOs and Government). The study thus underlines the need for improving network and links with iddirs and SHGs and promoting organisations so as to create an enabling environment for sustainable livelihoods in the three rural districts under scrutiny. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Changes are afoot in the nonprofit sector of the economy (James, 2003). Nonprofit leaders are adopting entrepreneurial business models to sustain or expand the scope of their mission work. This change is part of a counter-hegemonic shift toward a new economic paradigm in which blended business models create both social and financial value (Sabeti, 2009; Sahakian & Dunand, 2013). The current study explored how nonprofit leaders understand the shift toward a more enterprising and entrepreneurial nonprofit sector. Qualitative methods, along with a grounded theory framework were used to elicit leaders' perspectives on the emergence of social enterprise in nonprofits and the characteristics of successful nonprofit social enterprise. Findings include five themes of social enterprise understanding that offer structure for further research and professional discourse on the subject, including: 1) Social enterprise as a necessary and inevitable evolution of the nonprofit organization; 2) Social enterprise as a means of achieving a social mission; 3) Social enterprise as a true blending of business and social impact models; 4) Social enterprise as a business principle applied to a social mission context; and 5) Social enterprise as a market-driven approach to financial and social value creation. A secondary analysis points to the emergence of a social enterprise synergy effect in which the social and financial value generated by nonprofit social enterprises yield a third effect that is greater than the sum of the individual parts. The implications of these findings are limited to nonprofit social enterprises, but contribute to our understanding of this nascent field.

(anglicky): Migration includes a lot of aspects and a lot of scientific disciplines focus on this. One of these aspects is integration, which we can perceive in this case as integration of immigrants into host country society. Approaches and methods of integration can be different depending on ambiguity of this term. This dissertation is focused on specific example of effort to integrate women immigrants with help of traditional food, which came from the ground of civil association InBáze, o.s. The association developed a project named Ethnocatering which helps to immigrants to become successful on job market via their own experience from gastronomy and it`s supporting itself by social entrepreneurship. Women from different countries of the world then have an opportunity to prepare specialties typical for countries they come from and introduce those to the local society. This essay is focused on immigrants from countries such as South Caucasus - Georgia and Armenia and also on traditional food typical for these countries. Kľúčové slová (anglicky): traditional food, different ethnic background cuisine, social entrepreneurship, immigration, integration

The aim of this study is to investigate pupils’ experiences of social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning in upper secondary school, from a relational Special Needs Educational perspective. How pupils’ in difficulties are affected, and benefit from social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning is of particular interest as well as how these approaches can be related to inclusive education. A qualitative method is applied through observations, dialogues and interviews with pupils’ at two different suburban upper secondary schools. The main results show that social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning in most cases contribute to an inclusive education. However, all the pupils’ in the study expressed the most important factor for their learning to be the teacher. The empathy and concern shown by the teacher in social entrepreneurship was beneficial for meaningful inclusive education. If the processes of social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning are the causes of the so called focal point, in which genuin communication take part, or if it is the teacher who is of decisive importance, or both, is difficult to discern from the results of this study. Analysis of the results hints that pupils’ in particularly difficult circumstances have problems to pass even if the education is given through social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning. To help these students the school as an educational system would most likely have to undergo significant changes in order to avoid seeing pupils’ as being stuck in special educational needs but rather as individuals in need of genuin communication and interpersonal relations. / Studien syftar till att undersöka elevers erfarenheter av socialt entreprenörskap och entreprenöriellt lärande i gymnasieskolan, ur ett relationellt specialpedagogiskt perspektiv. Specifikt undersöks hur elever i svårigheter påverkas och hur socialt entreprenörskap och entreprenöriellt lärande kan relateras till inkludering. I studien tillämpas kvalitativ metod genom observationer, samtal och intervjuer av elever på två olika gymnasieskolor, en förortsskola och en förstadsskola. Resultatet visar att socialt entreprenörskap och entreprenöriellt lärande bidrar till inkludering i de flesta fall. Emellertid uttryckte samtliga elever att det viktigaste för deras lärande var läraren. Samtliga elever ansåg att det empatiska förhållningssätt och omtanke läraren i socialt entreprenörskap hade gynnade lärandet. Om det är processerna i socialt entreprenörskap och entreprenöriellt lärande som bidrar till att underlätta förutsättningarna för att utbildningens sk brännpunkt, i vilken genuin mellanmänsklig kommunikation kan uppstå, eller om det är läraren som är avgörande för att detta ska ske eller både och är utifrån den studie som gjorts svårt att avgöra. Analys av resultatet antyder dock att elever i synnerligen svåra omständigheter även har svårt att klara undervisningen då socialt entreprenörskap och entreprenöriellt förhållningssätt tillämpas. För att hjälpa dessa elever skulle skolan som system troligen bl a behöva förändras till en organisation som istället för att se elever i behov av särskilt stöd se elever i behov av genuin kommunikation och mellanmänskliga relationer.

This master's thesis deals with the potential for a car-sharing service in Prague. The service allows renting cars for a specified number of hours. Car-sharing is a commonly offered service in cities of the developed world. The theoretical section of the thesis introduces car-sharing and the current level of its adoption. Next, two conceptual bases for the development of the business plan are presented. The first is the macroeconomic theory of natural capitalism. At the theory's core is the recognition of the importance of natural capital. An improvement in protection of natural capital can be achieved by raising the consumption of services, instead of material products. In the case of car-sharing, the consumer only pays for the actual use of car, not for the ownership. The second concept is social entrepreneurship, which is an inspiring alternative to managing a business entity. Its goal is not only financial gain, but also positive social impact. The impact in case of car-sharing is in lowering the number of vehicles on the road and improvement of quality of life in cities. The business plan includes two financial alternatives. The thesis concludes that running a car-sharing organization in Prague is conceivable, but requires support from the municipality. Car-sharing cannot be expected to generate quick profit, but rather the profit model builds slowly. The final part of the thesis presents balanced scorecard developed for the first year of operation with the goal of achieving the optimistic alternative modeled in the business plan. The key to success in the first year is gaining and retaining customers.

The aim of the final thesis was implementation of strategic analysis of dental orthodontia laboratory. The final thesis should help to laboratory during the process of transformation to social entrepreneurship. Strategic analysis pursues macroeconomic and microeconomic environment that influence enterprise in profitable and nonprofit surroundings. In case that laboratory will execute all statutory claims, transformation could be done in january 2011. Results of the analysis proved very good strategic position of laboratory between competition. High quality of the products was the main reason. I determined two strategic aims for laboratory as social entrepreneurship. The one of them deal with the employing of the handicapped or disadvantaged people in the labour market. The second one focus on the sustenance of the contemporary high quality. I divided these aims to the six tactical goals.