Presented in fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Education Degree in the Department: Foundations of Education at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / The world is changing fast due to the increasing innovation in technology. New products and services are emerging faster than ever before. The task of identifying opportunities for creating new processes, services and products leading to the creation of wealth and jobs, will increasingly fall on the shoulders of a new generation of entrepreneurs. Learners need to be more oriented towards the entrepreneurial practices and create room for hands-on projects. In order for South Africans to have hope in the education that is on offer for today’s youth, there must be a strong emphasis on having learners understand the entrepreneurial process. The future of South Africa lies in the youth education of today. They must understand what makes a society and organization entrepreneurial. Learners need to be creative and innovative. They must be given the opportunity to identify areas in which innovation has particular advantages or weaknesses. In addition, they must be able to determine with a reasonable degree of certainty whether or not that innovation is viable before investing money in it. Quality in the education context can be described as good achievement, worthy and add value to one’s living. This will involve learners, parents, teachers, employers and industry as the major stakeholders in the education scenario. Entrepreneurship should be applied both practically and theoretically in education which will in return empower learners to bring forth natural talents and capacitates them to become creative and critical. Learners are mentored to become self-driven, life–long seekers of knowledge and to respond to challenges with the enthusiasm of great entrepreneurship. Education has encountered many problems in the past because of political agendas; for that reason, the focus must now change to offering basic education to primary schools, since nowadays children in this country head most of the families. They therefore need to attain strategies of entrepreneurship at an earlier stage in order to sustain their families. This paper aims at scrutinizing the link between the practical and theoretical part of teaching entrepreneurship among learners. The Department of Education in South Africa has identified educational opportunities, preparing young people for the world in response to intermediate and higher-level skills requirements. The government is very optimistic about meeting its targets for 2004 - 2009 and 2010 – 2014, which are geared towards minimizing inadequate education and skills development. India and China have managed to transform themselves from economic prey to corporate raiders of international repute and world-class competitors (Agelasto & Adamson, 1998: 433). The introduction of a new Outcomes Based Curriculum and the Revised National Curriculum in South Africa, amongst other things, have aimed at attaining critical outcomes, which included problem-solving skills, teamwork, communication by means of mathematics, language and the application of science and technology. Thus, to a large degree, this curriculum has been a response to the demands of globalization; hence there has been the shift to new curriculum which is Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS.) Generally, there is a need of a curriculum to become more vocationally orientated. Learners are expected to be more in touch with the world of work, as practiced in the Netherlands, Japan, China and India (Dore & Sako, 1989: ix). They are made aware of the brave new world they will be facing in the workplace (Lemmer,1999:37). Herrington (2008:1) indicated that, “the low business prevalence rates remain a major concern for South Africa”. The poor sustainability of start-ups in South Africa relative to other countries highlights the need for policy interventions aimed at supporting and mentoring entrepreneurs through the difficult process of the firm’s birth and skilled labourers.

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ABSTRACTThis research examines early-stage new technology ventures and the factors that contribute to their success. Innovation and technology are increasingly critical components in modern economy, and new technology ventures play a key role in creating and leading it. In recent years, the number of new ventures and the amounts of resources invested in them has grown rapidly, further emphasizing their already high importance. This study builds on upper echelons theory and human capital theory and applies them to the entrepreneurial ecosystem. By focusing on early-stage new technology ventures founded in Israel in recent years, and empirically testing the influence of factors such as entrepreneurial, senior management, industry experience and education background within the entrepreneurial team as well as the size of the entrepreneurial team on the early-stage survival and success of the ventures, this study found that previous experience is positively associated with a decrease in the risk of failure and with an increase in the funds raised by the new venture. This study also found that the size of the entrepreneurial team is positively associated with a reduction in the risk of failure. The second part of this research involved the examination of a sample of companies that had achieved outstanding early-stage success and, through a multiple case study, examined the same factors as the empirical model with a different method and from a different perspective. This study’s findings also demonstrate the potential of the data collected and approach taken in investigating technology start-ups, and, in the future, could also assist in setting up a base for a more automated and standardized investment decision process for start-ups. / Business Administration/Entrepreneurship

Different Black American entrepreneurs voice different reasons for starting a business. Often, they face obstacles to growing and scaling their successful ventures that can be traced to systemic inequalities. This mixed methodology research aims to explore the different reasons and motivations that Black people have for starting businesses. It also aims to understand the resources available to Black entrepreneurs that can be used for capital, counseling, and to access to markets. The research is important because entrepreneurship is touted as a pathway to self-sufficiency and wealth building and a way to ameliorate economic inequality between Blacks and non-blacks. But currently, little is known about differences within the population of Black business owners. / Business Administration/Entrepreneurship

China’s emerging second-tier cities attract more and more foreign companies that are looking for business opportunities. Although much has been written about companies’ internationalization strategies, including companies’ market entry decisions and market entry mode strategies, research on the relationship between a city’s degree of internationalization and foreign companies’ market entry decisions and market entry mode strategies in second-tier cities in China is still relatively scarce. Thus, the central research question of this study is: Why and how does a second-tier city’s degree of internationalization influence foreign companies’ market entry decisions and market entry mode strategies in second-tier China? This study is based on a qualitative research approach; an embedded multiple-case study is applied and interviews with two different target groups are conducted. The first target group consists of foreign companies having established business operations in China’s second-tier cities directly and have had no previous business operations in first-tier cites. The second group is made up of foreign companies that initially operated in first-tier China, and then moved to second-tier cities. The company sample compromises small- and medium-sized foreign companies with various industry backgrounds and market entry modes in Chengdu and Chongqing. Since 2015, Maxxelli has been publishing its China International City Index (CICI) on a yearly basis in which it measures and compares China’s cities’ degree of internationalization. Because Maxxelli revised this year’s CICI methodology comprehensively, this study also aims at feedback to improve the overall CICI. This study concludes that a second-tier city’s degree of internationalization is particularly important to foreign companies having first set up in Chinese first-tier cities. Companies having established themselves in second-tier cities directly, do not pay a lot of direct attention to a city’s degree of internationalization and tend to base their market entry decisions more on business opportunities they identify in a city. In addition, this study argues that in most cases a city’s degree of internationalization does not influence the type of market entry mode companies choose to enter second-tier China. / Chinas aufstrebende Metropolen rücken aufgrund ihrer Vielzahl an Geschäftsmöglichkeiten immer mehr in den Fokus ausländischer Unternehmen. Die bisherige Forschung über den Internationalisierungsgrad von Chinas aufstrebenden Metropolen und dessen Einfluss auf die Markteintrittsstrategie ausländischer Unternehmen ist sehr limitiert. Aufgrund dessen beschäftigt sich diese Arbeit mit der folgenden Forschungsfrage: „Warum und wie beeinflusst der Internationalisierungsgrad von aufstrebenden chinesischen Metropolen die Markteintrittsentscheidung und Markteintrittsform ausländischer Unternehmen?“. Die Studie basiert auf einem qualitativen Forschungsdesign. In einer ‚embedded multiple-case study‘ wurden Interviews mit klein- und mittelständischen Unternehmen aus unterschiedlichen Industrien geführt. Die interviewten Unternehmen hatten zum einen Geschäftsaktivitäten in traditionellen Metropolen, wie Shanghai und Peking, bevor sie Aktivitäten in den Städten Chengdu und Chongqing aufnahmen oder betraten zum anderen den chinesischen Markt erstmalig in Chengdu und Chongqing. Die Arbeit befasst sich ebenfalls mit dem von Maxxelli seit 2015 veröffentlichten ‚China International City Index‘.

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Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University / Entrepreneurship is a topic gaining attention within post-secondary education in the United States in a multitude of disciplines outside of the traditional business school. In the discipline of music, entrepreneurship education can be described as an approach to preparing professional musicians that considers the artistic and economic environment they will encounter upon graduation. The aim of entrepreneurship education is to help a student creatively apply her or his education, skills, passion, and vision toward creating a sustainable career in music. Entrepreneurship education may hold particular significance in the realm of music teacher preparation in post-secondary education for its potential to broaden employment opportunities for music educators and to help them create new and expanded value for individuals and communities within and beyond the pre-K-12 school settings for which music educators are traditionally prepared to work. Examples include preparation in studio teaching and community music leadership. Drawing on the historical and theoretical foundations of traditional entrepreneurship, and examining current models of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking in music education, I develop a conceptual framework for how entrepreneurship education might serve as a means of positively transforming music teacher preparation practices in post-secondary education to better meet the career needs and interests of music education majors and other music majors who aspire to teach music. Programs that are designed to create musical, social, and economic value for individuals and communities may challenge and expand current accepted definitions of "music educator" and might bring greater relevance to the aims, processes, and content involved in music teacher preparation programs. Particular attention is focused upon three entrepreneurial models of music education: the Sistema Fellows Program of El Sistema USA, Musical Futures in the United Kingdom, and the Music-in-Education concentration at New England Conservatory.

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