Social entrepreneurship has been a topic of academic enquiry for nearly two decades. However, scholarly research has been challenging. It was observed that most of the surveyed empirical studies have been conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States. The concept has to some extent received attention in developing countries, such as Bangladesh and Venezuela. However, the contextual and empirical understanding of the phenomenon is still lacking in Africa, and South Africa is no exception. The phenomenon of social entrepreneurship has a long history. Since inception, no general consensus has been reached regarding its definition. For the purposes of this study social entrepreneurship is defined as the process through which individuals operate in the commercial sector with the aim of providing products and services that benefit the poor in society. From the onset, social entrepreneurship has consistently been commended as an effective alternative business process of providing much needed social goods and services to society. The activities of social entrepreneurs are significantly important in situations where government facilities have failed or are unable to deliver much needed resources and services such as employment, health care and education. The primary objective of this study was to identify social entrepreneurship intentions among university students in Gauteng province. A quantitative research approach was followed to collect data. A questionnaire was administered among undergraduate and post-graduate students from selected universities in Gauteng. Factor analysis was used to identify factors that influence social entrepreneurship intentions. Six factors which influence social entrepreneurship intentions were identified namely, social entrepreneurial intentions, attitude towards entrepreneurship, proactive personality, attitude towards entrepreneurship education/university environment, perceived behavioural control and risk taking propensity. Furthermore, correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship amongst social entrepreneurship intentions factors. The results were significant which indicated that there was a positive linear inter-factor association. Additionally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine whether significant differences exist with regards to the influence of gender, age and year of study on social entrepreneurship intentions factors. Significant differences were found with regard to age and gender on social entrepreneurship intentions. Based on the findings it is evident that social entrepreneurial intentions, attitude towards entrepreneurship, proactive personality, attitude towards entrepreneurship education/university environment, perceived behavioural control and risk taking propensity are factors that influence social entrepreneurship intentions among university students in Gauteng. Given the need to develop social entrepreneurship research in South Africa, it is recommended that future research further explore and identify social entrepreneurship intentions factors using a larger sample size, by including all provinces in South Africa. Future research could also focus on exploring the relationship between social entrepreneurship intentions, and other variables such as personality traits, culture and other demographic variables. / MCom (Entrepreneurship)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

Social entrepreneurship has been a topic of academic enquiry for nearly two decades. However, scholarly research has been challenging. It was observed that most of the surveyed empirical studies have been conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States. The concept has to some extent received attention in developing countries, such as Bangladesh and Venezuela. However, the contextual and empirical understanding of the phenomenon is still lacking in Africa, and South Africa is no exception. The phenomenon of social entrepreneurship has a long history. Since inception, no general consensus has been reached regarding its definition. For the purposes of this study social entrepreneurship is defined as the process through which individuals operate in the commercial sector with the aim of providing products and services that benefit the poor in society. From the onset, social entrepreneurship has consistently been commended as an effective alternative business process of providing much needed social goods and services to society. The activities of social entrepreneurs are significantly important in situations where government facilities have failed or are unable to deliver much needed resources and services such as employment, health care and education. The primary objective of this study was to identify social entrepreneurship intentions among university students in Gauteng province. A quantitative research approach was followed to collect data. A questionnaire was administered among undergraduate and post-graduate students from selected universities in Gauteng. Factor analysis was used to identify factors that influence social entrepreneurship intentions. Six factors which influence social entrepreneurship intentions were identified namely, social entrepreneurial intentions, attitude towards entrepreneurship, proactive personality, attitude towards entrepreneurship education/university environment, perceived behavioural control and risk taking propensity. Furthermore, correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship amongst social entrepreneurship intentions factors. The results were significant which indicated that there was a positive linear inter-factor association. Additionally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine whether significant differences exist with regards to the influence of gender, age and year of study on social entrepreneurship intentions factors. Significant differences were found with regard to age and gender on social entrepreneurship intentions. Based on the findings it is evident that social entrepreneurial intentions, attitude towards entrepreneurship, proactive personality, attitude towards entrepreneurship education/university environment, perceived behavioural control and risk taking propensity are factors that influence social entrepreneurship intentions among university students in Gauteng. Given the need to develop social entrepreneurship research in South Africa, it is recommended that future research further explore and identify social entrepreneurship intentions factors using a larger sample size, by including all provinces in South Africa. Future research could also focus on exploring the relationship between social entrepreneurship intentions, and other variables such as personality traits, culture and other demographic variables. / MCom (Entrepreneurship)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

Providing high quality customer service that actually satisfies the needs of the customer and results in customer satisfaction is one of the biggest concerns of businesses today. Customer satisfaction determines the behavioural intentions of the customer hence the reason why companies are continuously reaching out to the customer with the aim of building strong relationships that will result in customer loyalty. Managers of companies therefore should be conscious of the role played by quality customer service in building these strong relationships. By gaining such insights into customer perceptions and expectations managers will be in a position to offer products and services that meet customer demands. This study was been based on the customer’s perspectives and their experiences with telecom providers in Kampala, Uganda. A quantitative approach and a questionnaire as data collection tool were used in the conduction of this study. The findings suggest that service quality plays a key role in customer satisfaction. In addition to this the findings also suggest that customer satisfaction plays a key role in determining customer loyalty and customer switching depending on the situation. The findings in this study are similar to those findings of studies done in other countries.

Increasing shares of European women are making large investments in their human capital. Whether and to what extent these investments are in conflict with reproductive behaviour are issues that have repercussions for fertility levels. Using two Eurobarometer survey data (2006 and 2011) on individuals clustered in the 27 EU countries, I investigate the relationship between women's education and lifetime fertility intentions. Results suggest that a positive association between women's level of education and lifetime fertility intentions exists at both the individual and country levels, as well as in a micro-macro integrated framework. The main explanation for these findings - which remains to be proven by future research - is that, in institutional contexts allowing highly educated women to have large families, women of reproductive ages are more prone to make investments in both human capital and family size, because these choices are not seen as incompatible alternatives. (author's abstract)

Knowledge levels of issues related to fertility, reproduction, and assisted reproductive technology (ART) are low among the general population. There have also been increasing trends for women to delay childbearing and for many individuals to turn to various forms of ART to aid reproduction. Many commentators assume the provision of information targeting fertility related issues and ART will be influential in altering women’s intentions related to delay childbearing, but there is a lack of both empirical and theoretical evidence to support this assumption. Further, suggestions for how to provide education related to fertility and ART have not yet been examined. The present study examined the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for predicting women’s intentions to delay childbearing and whether the provision of detailed, accurate, and accessible information regarding reproduction, factors influencing fertility, and the limitations of fertility treatments would alter individual attitudes and levels of perceived control surrounding delayed childbearing. Participants received one of two informational interventions (i.e., fertility-related or alcohol-related information) then completed a questionnaire measuring the constructs of the theory of planned behavior. It was predicted that the theory of planned behavior would provide an adequate framework for examining women’s intentions to delay childbearing in that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control would all emerge as significant predictors of these intentions (hypothesis 1). It was also predicted that the provision of detailed, accurate and accessible information regarding reproduction, factors influencing fertility, and the limitations of fertility treatment would alter young women’s intentions to delay childbearing (hypothesis 2). Multiple regression analyses provided support for Hypothesis 1 and substantiated that TPB provides an adequate framework for examining women’s intentions to delay childbearing. Hypothesis 2 was partially supported such that the intervention groups significantly differed with respect to their delayed childbearing intentions. However, most of the women in this sample did not evidence intentions to delay childbearing into critical fertile periods. Future research is warranted to examine the theory of planned behavior’s ability to predict delayed childbearing over time, across cohorts, and amongst men, as well as the impact of improved reproductive technologies and media reports of fertility on intentions to delay childbearing.

Social inclusion of children with disabilities is considered to be an important aspect of inclusive education. Previous research mostly approached this issue by either examining the attitudes of typically developing children towards disabilities or the friendship quality and status of children with disabilities. By adopting a qualitative research design, the present study is an attempt to draw from these two lines of research to develop a conceptual framework for understanding pre-adolescent children’s friendship intentions towards their peers with physical impairment. The research is also a response to the paucity of local studies in this area. The data are analysed in three domains: Conception of friendship, Attitudes towards people with physical impairment and Factors influencing friendship. Four theoretical constructs, Physical Attribute, Social Attribute, Empathetic Attribute and Cognitive Attribute, are finally developed to explain the relationship between friendship conception and attitude of acceptance. Based on the theoretical constructs, the peer experience of two children with physical impairment, one being a success story and one less satisfactory, is described to illustrate the limiting and facilitating factors for their social inclusion. Recommendations for local inclusive education and suggestions for future research are provided at the end of this project.

The world, including Sweden, is suffering from a shortage of nurses. The nurse shortage is caused by many factors, including an aging population causing a rise in demand, considerably fewer applicants for high school nursing programs, and a large wave of retirement as the baby boomers are leaving the work force. However, research has found that no single thing is more responsible for the nurse shortage than the inability to keep able nurses in the nurse force as they voluntarily terminate their employment. Research has also found that young nurses and newly graduated nurses are more likely to terminate their employment than nurses who have been working for a long time. One of the explanations for this problem is the special problems nurses face during the transition from student to practicing nurses. This thesis aims to help the health care institutions of Sweden, and the world, by further explaining the problems nurses face in the transition from nursing student to practicing nurse. This is done by examining the expectations nurses have on the profession before they start studying, and before they graduate, and examine how the nurses perceive that their expectations have been confirmed or disconfirmed. Further we examine how the nurses perceive that their confirmed or disconfirmed expectations affect their job satisfaction and in extension, their will to terminate their employment and leave the profession. In order to examine the subject, we conducted a qualitative study. Semistructured interviews were held with eight nurses in order to assess how their expectations had affected their current view on their job and what disappointments and positive surprises would infer. The data we gathered from the interviews were analyzed thematically. The main themes we derived from the data were: Emotions – Driver in Early Expectations, Expectations and Experiences in the Transition Period, Confirmation of Early Expectations, Expectations Role in Job Satisfaction, and Expectations as a Factor in Turnover Intentions. We could conclude that there were certain areas where nurses’ positive expectations were confirmed, e.g. meaningfulness of the job. There were also areas where nurses experienced a reality worse than what they expected, such as stress, work environment, responsibility, feedback, and emotional challenges. From subthemes of these general themes we crafted a conceptual model to illustrate how both early and later expectations affect the job satisfaction, opinions on the profession, and turnover intentions of the nurses.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Student Number : 0317880W - MA dissertation - School of Psychology - Faculty of Humanities / A large portion of literature on organisational development is devoted to how organisations have changed and the subsequent effect that these changes have had on the human beings within them. Organisations are constantly trying to change and develop themselves so that they are better equipped to face challenges that exist within the greater macro environment. These changes affect all facets of the organisation and often have a life altering impact on the employees involved. One such impact that this fluctuating corporate environment has had on employees is that they are required to develop themselves to safeguard against unexpected changes that may jeopardise their job security. Employees are constantly trying to improve themselves and their marketability so that they may progress in their careers. The major shift from previous decades is that employees are currently more committed to their careers than to their organisation (Cavanaugh & Noe, 1999). Moving up the organisational hierarchy is one way to achieve career development (Garavan, Collahan, 1996) and may be regarded as reward for the self-development that one has worked so hard for. If employees do not see an opportunity to further themselves and their careers, a possible response would be to leave the organisation and look for other avenues to achieve this development. The present study aimed to explore this by determining how a personality construct effects ones perceptions of intraorganisational mobility and the reactions that these perceptions generate. A large South African banking institution was used to sample employees for the study and being a service firm, all indications are that it is an extremely underresearched organisational form (Malos, Campion, 2000). The key strategic focus of the group is said to include among others, to focus on customer service, to improve transparency and to meet transformation goals in line with the financial sector charter. This is in response to numerous restructuring and change efforts that have taken place within the last two years. The organisation serves as an illustration of corporate life within South Africa. The company is continually trying to change and develop to meet the challenges of the greater macro environment. In doing so, the employees are required to respond proactively to the changes that take place and develop themselves accordingly. In light of this, the organisation provided a useful backdrop from which to analyse the relationship between locus of control, perceptions of intra-organisational mobility, satisfaction with promotion opportunities and future career planning.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to measure entrepreneurial intentions of students in their last year of study in Further Education and Training institutions (FETs) in South Africa. The study explored the impact of the following aspects on EI: personal backgrounds (gender, study discipline, and entrepreneurial family backgrounds); geographical location; and the self-assessed supportiveness of the contextual environment. Lastly, the strength of association between antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions and EI itself were also explored. Design: A questionnaire was administered to 360 final-year students undertaking technical and entrepreneurship-related studies at FETs in four different provinces in South Africa. Regression, Stepwise regression, ANOVA, t-test, and correlation matrix analyses were conducted to test the proposed relationships. Findings: FET students generally exhibit high levels of entrepreneurial intentions. Gender, study discipline and geographic location have no direct influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial family background, however, exerts a significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, conviction has the strongest association with entrepreneurial intentions compared with the other antecedents that were tested, that is, general attitudes, image of entrepreneurship and FET supportiveness. Research limitations: The use of cross-sectional non-experimental design does not allow for conclusions to be drawn regarding causality. Only five FETs participated in the study; therefore, the generalisability of the findings to all FETs nationally is limited. Practical implications: The study indicates high levels of entrepreneurial intentions in circumstances where literature has found the opposite findings. It therefore becomes critical to find integrated teaching methods that take into account the South African environment in order to harness the high entrepreneurial intentions of students.