This study examines the relationship between the local business climate and the share of self-employed immigrants in Sweden on a municipal level. These results are then compared to the relationship between the local business climate and the share of self-employed natives. The study also compares the share of self-employed immigrants as well as natives that are still in business after one year. The variables that are used to assess the business climate have been used in previous research that has tested the impact of the business climate. The results show that regional differences in the business climate can explain differences in the share of self-employed immigrants to some extent. The results also show that while most variables are significant for both self-employed immigrants and self-employed natives, the business climate influences the share of self-employed natives more than the share of self-employed immigrants. This indicates that the functions in the local business climate can be more available to natives than to immigrants. The share of self-employed immigrants who are still in business after one year has an insignificant relationship with the local business climate, whereas the share of self-employed natives who are still in business after one year has a moderately significant relationship with the local business climate. Hence, the business climate influences regional differences in the share of self-employed who are still in business after one year more for natives than for immigrants.

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the ways in which women and men, who set up a business in the service industries, perceive their pathways into self-employment, and the interaction between their business and family life. This thesis addressed two problems identified in current literature. Firstly, the gendered tradition and the reductionist approach of the push-pull theory, which does not offer an adequate understanding of paths into self-employment where both push and pull forces are involved. Secondly, the low visibility of the interactions between business and family life, and also the tendency for some research to portray partnerships between spouses in a harmonious light. Given the dominance of phenomenon-driven research, this study was aimed at adding to the theoretical consolidation of the study of gender and entrepreneurship. In theoretical terms, this research relied mainly on a synthesis between feminist theorizing, Bourdieu’s theory of practice and insights from studies that focus on biographical experiences leading to self-employment. This study adopted a qualitative research strategy, and used qualitative interviews as a research method. A theoretical sample was constructed, based on two criteria: gender and the industry in which the self-employed person operated. The sample focused on the Lisbon Region, and targeted self-employed people who set up a business between 2005 and 2008. A total of forty-eight interviews were conducted, involving twenty-three women and twenty-five men. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed in their original language: Portuguese. Only those quotations which have been used in the thesis were translated into English. The interpretation of interviews was based on a thematic analysis. Different pathways into self-employment were found. These were grouped under two main perspectives: seeing self-employment as a primary way of working; or as an alternative plan. The lived experiences of the interviewees also gave strength in exploring the various situations that can trigger a leap into entrepreneurship. These were conceptualized as trigger experiences. Two main sorts of trigger experiences were identified: crises (disruptive or corrosive) and encounters. These were deeply embedded in the interviewees’ educational, occupational and family experiences, going back to their social background, and the ways in which these experiences interact with gender relations.Two main contexts of interaction between family and the business were studied: “copreneurships” and “non-copreneurships”. Ambivalent feelings towards the former were illustrated through the cooperation and tensions involving spouses, as well as by the strategies that they devised in order to cope with these tensions. In “non-copreneurships”, the multiple contributions of spouses to interviewees’ activities as self-employed people revealed the connections between the family and business in these types of situation. Gender relations, social background in self-employment, and spouses’ positions in the business were decisive for placing interviewees’ lived experiences into context in this respect.

Amidst economic growth in South Africa, there is increasing job losses. Although a decline in work opportunities is a worldwide trend, in South Africa it is aggravated by the imbalance between skilled and unskilled labour. Recent HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council) research indicated that further job losses (especially for unskilled labour) can be expected over the next five years. Job creation is important to South Africa. Entrepreneurial activity is seen as an essential source of economic growth and the development of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) can stimulate job creation. Self-employment is seen as the driving force of economic growth. In South Africa there has been a growth of 15% in self-employment since 1991. Unfortunately, failure is the rule. True entrepreneurship entails value creation for owners, stakeholders, customers, employees and the economy as whole. South Africa with its high unemployment urgently needs to assure that self-employment is truly entrepreneurial rather than only a job substitute to merely survive. It has been indicated that successful SMMEs were generally run by highly educated and experienced entrepreneurs the world over. If these highly educated employers were to be inspired to create more jobs, the constraints they experience, should be addressed. The development of human capital is the first step towards economic growth. Quality education and not just quantity of education is required. More co-operation between tertiary institutions, government, and the business world with regard to contents of programmes and opportunities for practical experience is required. First, however, the skills required for growth need to be identified and developed. Quality education can contribute to skills development and quality businesses that can increase exports that are of high quality and tailor-made to the needs of the consumer. Skills that need to be improved are leadership skills, technical, managerial, accounting, communication, marketing, and sales skills that are required for successful entrepreneurship in the global village. The main focus of the study is thus on the required skills that could differentiate between self¬employment and entrepreneurship. The role of especially communication skills is looked into with more depth. Although different roles are required at various stages of development in a business, at each stage communication is crucial. Prior to the start-up phase, networks with a high level of interaction should be developed, as networks link entrepreneurs to resources and provide information exchange opportunities. Once the venture has been initiated and begins to grow, the leader needs to become more concerned with communicating the vision or plan with providing subordinates with the power to accomplish tasks and participate in the process. The main success factors are discussed. A positive attitude was the first step towards success. Perseverance, hard work, trustworthiness, and responsibility were the main factors that contributed to success. True leaders who use transformational processes to achieve goals and persuade others to accept their vision for the organisation can achieve perseverance, hard work, trustworthiness, and responsibility. Open communication builds trust that leads to more open communication and more trust. Strong leadership instead of only narrow technical skills were required. For venturing and further growth, enhanced information and communication systems were required. In order to deal with change and turbulent environments, organisations must incorporate communication mechanisms for coordination. The network strategy of organization is appropriate for organisations that have to cope with high levels of uncertainty. In growth organizations, close collaboration of a manager with other people was necessary in resolving differences and in inspiring others towards a common goal. The main constraints to achieving desired goals were high taxation, market constraints, crime, access to finance, labour legislation, scarce skills, and inadequate opportunities for communication and networking. The perception among some self-employed graduates that labour market laws impact on their businesses, the high unemployment in the country and the fact that most self-employed graduates indicated that they did not wish to increase the staff complement of their companies (even those who had a high turnover), places a question mark on the appropriateness or appropriate communication of the requirements of the present regulations and legislation. Even if many of the legislative requirements were not applicable to most self-employed graduates, the perception was there that it impacted or will impact on their businesses if they increase their staff complement. Even a perception has its consequences. It is crucial to address the legislation and communicate clearly that which is required from very small firms as opposed to that which is required from medium and large firms in more simplified terms. It is crucial that government takes note of the constraints, as many self-employed graduates did not have the will to grow in fear of detrimental consequences for their businesses, may it be high taxation, crime or the impact of legislation. / Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Communication Management / MPhil / Unrestricted

This paper analyses the probability that first- and second-generation immigrants in Sweden enter the self-employment market, and the propensity of being self-employed in certain industry levels. Furthermore, whether the motives and characteristics for choosing self-employment differ between generations by including control variables. To solve this thesis question, a cross-sectional sampling from the European Social Survey database between the years 2010 to 2018 and the Linear Probability Model was used. The result in this study indicated that the propensity to become self-employed is not significant between the analysed generations. Concluding that first- and second-generation immigrants have an equal amount of activeness in self-employment and that all characteristics have an effect on their propensity to become self-employed. The generations being self-employed in the low-barrier industry is dependent on their educational level. It was found that females had the highest probability of being self-employed in comparison to males. However, a drawback of this study was the sample size which was significantly small and also the multiple variables that were insignificant.

Self-employment is a popular occupation line among immigrants living in Malmö. East African women are however observed to be particularly absent with this regard. This thesis aims to investigate how East African women perceive self-employment in a bid to understand why few of them are entrepreneurs in Malmö. To this effect, the thesis questions whether East African women experience any barriers with regards to getting self-employed in Malmö. The working of gender and ethnicity in shaping self-employment perceptions among these women is also questioned. Unstructured and semi-structured interviews are used to gather material from the field with Intersectionality Theory picked to make sense of these material. Gender, ethnicity and immigrant status are found to be enmeshed and working recursively in different societal levels to shape East African women perceptions and also bar them from getting self-employed in Malmö. It is concluded that there is need for responsible actors to acknowledge the qualitative difference of immigrants as entrepreneurial Intersectional experiences are dissimilar between immigrant groups. As such, this research recommends a comparative study between various immigrant groups in Malmö. Further, a study that demarcates the working of agency and structure when it comes to self-employment motivation among people in an Intersectionality is also recommended.Key Words: Self-employment, East African women, Malmö, Intersectionality

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Thesis (M. Agricultural Management (Agricultural Extension)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study was aimed at analyzing the perception of students towards selfemployment in agribusiness. Primary data was collected at the University of Limpopo using questionnaires from five disciplines in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Science (SAES). The study population was final year undergraduate, stratified random sampling procedure was used to select seventy-one (71) respondents from the cluster of departments within SAES. Descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percentage and mean score on a Likert-type of scale and Chisquared test were used to address various objectives of the study. Results of the study indicated that most respondents were aged between 21-27 years old, a majority of them were doing a degree in animal production, most of the students were females, majority come from households with 4-6 family members, many come from rural areas, most of the students had no relatives owning a business, most of the respondents had no access to farming land, and about half of the respondents had no farming experience. Respondents had a positive perception towards self-employment in agribusiness with them agreeing on statements like farmers are notable people, entrepreneurship is effective in reducing unemployment, farming is sustainable and disagreeing with statements like farming is for poor people, profitability in farming is very low, that they prefer other degrading jobs than engaging in agriculture. The results also show that most of the students preferred starting facilitation and agency of agricultural insurance savings, followed by poultry enterprise and provision of extension consultancy services. The study also found that most of the motivator’s motivating respondents to pursue self-employment include that agricultural related enterprises are very lucrative, also that many South Africans have made a lot of fortunes from agriculture and that agriculture in South Africa has a lot of untapped potential. The barriers include that agriculture is a risky business enterprise in South Africa and that it is not easy to create self-employment in agribusiness. It was also found that perceived barriers and motivators were highly associated with the type of degree students were studying. The study recommended that the University of Limpopo curriculum must have a module dealing with agriculture venture creation related to the degree and be more practically based. The University of Limpopo also has to invite entrepreneur's guest lecture for their students and produce more research on how to promote youth participation in agriculture especially establishing agribusiness. Development of easily accessible ready-to-market and agricultural commodity distribution centers will inspire more young people to move into farming. First preference needs to be given to agriculture graduates when offering sponsorship, grants and agribusiness loans.

<p>This dissertation investigates the effects of ethnic resources generated by an immigrant group’s concentration in self-employment and a geographic area, and class resources—education in particular—on the self-employment outcomes of immigrant business, which has been a lasting interest from the early days of immigrant entrepreneurship research. To examine the effects of immigrants’ concentration and education, ordinary least squares regression and hierarchical linear regression for cross-classified random effects models are fit to each of the 26 minority and white immigrant groups in the 33 Canadian CMA’s (Census Metropolitan Areas). Using the 2006 Census, the dissertation examines (1) the effects of immigrants’ REC (Residential and Entrepreneurial Concentration) in CMA’s; (2) the interactions between REC and reactive ethnicity—an enhanced awareness of one’s ethnicity due to disadvantage in the host society; and (3) the effects of education on self-employment propensity and income. Unlike previous studies which examined one or a few immigrant or minority groups in one or a few locales, the dissertation provides empirical evidence on the effects of REC and education on self-employment outcomes, based on a wide range of immigrant groups in Canadian CMA’s. The findings indicate that positive effects of REC as well as education on self-employment outcomes exist, but are limited to increasing the self-employment propensity of some immigrant groups. The effects of REC and education on self-employment income, however, are found to be generally insignificant. The study also provides the first empirical evidence that the positive effects of some types of REC become more positive as the reactive ethnicity of an immigrant group increases, as reactive ethnicity theory predicts.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Tile research focuses on the role played by the school in preraring learners for self-employment. It seeks to establish the extent to which entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes are being promoted ai school thus equipping learners for ihe world of business once they leave school. The study is undertaken ag~i the background of very high mte of unemployment currently facing South Africa. A nmnber of factors, such as high population growth, globalisation and a variety of other socio-political circlUllStance have resulted in the shrinkage of job opportunities in the formal sector of the economy. The unemployment problem mostly affects the rural schoolleavers, among other groups, in the community. Small bu.'$ine.<Js development is generally seen as the most promising solution to the unemployment problem. Preparing learners for entrepreneurship is therefore the most serious challenge facing schools today. The school is required to deliver the kind of education that will make it possible for learners to start and develop their own businesses once they leave school. Hence the quest for education that is relevant to the needs and aspirations of society. A qualitative study undertaken with rural schoolleavers who own small businesses reveals that the school has not yet taken delibemte steps to tester entrepreneurship among learners thus preparing them for self-employment when they leave school. Again it bas been demonstrated that schools have great potential to inculcate entrepreneurial knowledge, attitudes and skills once they can start working in close co-operation with the community. A shift from traditional approaches to teaching and learning to the progressive (entrepreneurial) approaches can contribute greatly in producing learners who are ready fbr life as independent, creative and influencial business leaders of the future. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Comparative Education)