Despite the financing gap in the sub-Saharan Africa power sector, private investors struggle to capitalize on the opportunity because of the high failure rate of power project development companies. Using the conceptual framework of the behavioral finance theory, this multiple case study was conducted to explore the strategies used by executives of 4 companies in sub-Saharan Africa who successfully developed power projects within the last 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of government and institutions' websites. Yin's 5-phased cycle for analyzing case studies provided the guidelines for data analysis. Three themes emerged from data analysis: market knowledge, stakeholder alignment, and commercial viability. Findings revealed strategies that current and aspiring power project development company executives may use as a guide to mitigate business failure risks. Implications of these findings for positive social change include the potential to increase the power generation capacity in sub-Saharan Africa and provide electricity to many of the 620 million Africans who currently lack access. Implications also include poverty alleviation and economic growth through creation of successful power project development companies.

Nigerian entrepreneurs face government barriers and lack the skills and awareness needed for successfully creating and scaling public value in resource-constrained environments. The concept of bricolage, which involves doing business by making do with resources at hand, has been addressed in the literature, but not as it occurs among Nigerian entrepreneurs. This study was conducted with the aim of narrowing this gap in knowledge by exploring how Nigerian entrepreneurs have successfully carried out their businesses. The research question addressed how Nigerian entrepreneurs overcame critical situations to successfully address the challenges of scaling and creating public value, and whether the theory of entrepreneurial bricolage can support their actions. A qualitative descriptive single case study with a purposeful sample of 22 interview respondents was employed. A total of 145 critical incidents were analyzed by fitting them into themes constructed a priori from the known behavioral patterns that emerged through the theoretical taxonomy of the concept of entrepreneurial bricolage. The results showed that Nigerian entrepreneurs made do with the resources at hand, improvised, and invoked stakeholder participation and persuasion to solve critical challenges of business continuity. The outcome of the research should help potential entrepreneurs determine strategies to scale their ideas or innovations to achieve positive social change. The results may be useful to any fledgling entrepreneur who needs encouragement when feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of doing business in Nigeria. Budding entrepreneurs can learn from the experiences of those who are deemed successful in their businesses, thereby avoiding challenges when they can and strategizing for those challenges that are unavoidable.

In Nigeria, most citizens between the ages of 20-60 believe that ethnicity is the leading cause of discrimination. The central problem addressed in this study was how ethnic diversity influenced managerial choices in Nigeria. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the role of ethnicity in managerial choices in a Nigerian federal traffic management agency to gain an understanding of how ethnicity influenced managers' recruitment, placement, and promotion of employees. Complexity theory and a consideration of African management practices constituted the conceptual framework. Participants were 11 managers who were recruited from a Nigerian government agency using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling. Data collection occurred through interviews, observation, and government document reviews. Through use of Yin's 5-step process for data analysis, data triangulation, and member checking, 10 themes emerged regarding managers' decisions: (a) federal character principle, (b) merit, (c) ethnicity, (d) influence of godfathers, (e) favoritism, (f) promotion, (g) productivity, (h) morale, (i) frustration, and (j) health challenges. A conclusion was that ethnicity played a role in managerial choices. However, the execution of the current Nigerian law to manage ethnic diversity allowed the alleged discriminatory actions of managers in government agencies. Recommendations included a change in the implementation strategy of the federal character principle to reduce incidences of discriminatory actions in government agencies. This study may contribute to positive social change by providing public service managers the knowledge to create an enlightened and fair public service, free of ethnically induced barriers that have underpinned Nigeria's underdevelopment.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main drivers of economic growth and employment. African SMEs are constrained by a lack of access to finance. In line with the pecking order theory, capital-constrained SMEs are expected to seek external finance. However, due to credit rationing, African SMEs have limited success raising finance. Factoring could enable African SMEs to gain access to finance, as underwriters mainly place the risk on the receivables as opposed to the firm itself. Despite its benefits, factoring has not taken root in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the obstacles and prospects to stimulating awareness, availability, acceptance, and utilization of factoring in Africa. Data on the lived experiences of 22 executives providing or promoting factoring in 16 African countries were collected through semistructured interviews; these data were analyzed using the Braun and Clarke thematic approach. Four themes emerged: supply-side conditions, demand-side conditions, business environment conditions, and facilitating institutions and industries. Results suggest high factoring prospects, legal and regulatory impediments, low awareness levels, reluctance of banks to avail factoring, high entry barriers for nonbank factors, a lack of credit insurance, and a lack of an open account trade culture. A framework was recommended, based on these findings, along with actions for factoring development in Africa. Implications for positive social change include increased awareness which may boost factoring availability, acceptance, and utilization. Improved financing options may yield improved African SME competitiveness, which in turn, may result in improved job opportunities, household incomes, quality of life, and more broadly, Africa's economic growth.

African immigrant business owners create jobs and often stimulate economic growth in distressed inner-city areas, yet they continue to experience barriers obtaining financial support in the United States when trying to gain entrance into the broader economy. The objective of this multiple case study was to explore strategies African immigrant business owners used to succeed in business beyond 5 years. The conceptual framework of this study included resource-based theory, human capital theory, and disadvantage theory. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 3 African immigrant business owners in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who had succeeded in business beyond 5 years. Thematic analysis from interviews, organizational documents, and Bureau of Labor Statistics data identified 8 emergent themes. Findings indicated that, for these 3 African immigrant business owners, education, managerial-related experience, motivation, and networking were key attributes related to small business success. Additionally, for this group, innovation, steady flow of resources, and adequate access to capital were predictive of successful businesses. This study may contribute to positive social change by providing guidance to African immigrant business owners about effective business strategies; this knowledge may help to improve the quality of life for African immigrants in the United States. Increasing the prosperity of the business community is incumbent upon the development and use of new knowledge.

Sexual activity among unmarried adolescents is a major public health problem in Nigeria, because unmarried pregnant girls are more likely to have multiple sex partners and are less likely to use contraceptives, putting them at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STD), unplanned pregnancy, abortion, social isolation, and poverty. Teen pregnancy and STD rates are on the rise in Nigeria, yet few data exist on the experience of the adolescents themselves. This phenomenological study was designed to explore the in-depth experiences of 10 pregnant, unmarried adolescent girls aged 16-19, including the factors contributing to their sexual activity. An ecological model served as the conceptual framework to permit individual experiences to be understood in their social and ecological context. Semistructured interviews and Hycner's method of analysis were used to collect and analyze the data. Results showed that the decision to initiate sexual activity among these girls was influenced by many factors, including: the need for financial support and a socially condoned system of "sugar daddies" who support girls in return for sex; peer pressure to have a sex partner; a romantic knowledge of sexual behavior based primarily on the mass media; and inadequate sex education. As a result of their pregnancy, the girls experienced negative reactions from their families and community, and serious psychological and financial concerns about their prospects for future marriage and their child's identity. A comprehensive community-based reproductive health program is called for, with reliable sex education, cooperation from the mass media, and support from family and community members. The social change implication of this study is to potentially lead to a decrease in unplanned pregnancy, STDs, social isolation, and poverty among adolescent girls in Nigeria.

This Thesis is an exploration of white fathers in three post-apartheid novels: Mark Behr's The Smell of Apples, Nadine Gordimer's The House Gun, and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace. By examining the link between private white hegemonic masculinity and the apartheid government, the Thesis analyzes the transitional process as these men try to adopt less authoritative identities.

\"Are there any national literatures in black Africa yet? The simple answer is no. [...] If one examines the development of the African language literature that do exists, one is struck by certain recurring tendencies. Many of the books produced, particularly the early works, are of a predominantly moralistic nature. Sometimes they are retelling of folk stories or Bible stories, sometimes imitations of European religious literature, sometimes both.\\\" (Lindfors 1997: 121; 123) Certain anomalies are obvious in the above extract. Swahili written literature with its long-standing tradition, dating far back to the 17th century, has relativly gathered its own aesthetic criteria, values and sensibility, hence \\\'own\\\' integrity and world view. I dare say that Lindfors will be suprised to learn today, how fast the Swahili novel has developed since when he had left it when he read Andrzejewski et al (1985) and Gérard (1981), who (by the way), themselves did not then see the their works as presenting a complete picture of African literatures in African languages. This essay aims at showing the predicament of the Swahili novelist at the crossroads and how, in a contemporary situation, s/he works out his or her strategies towards resolving the impasses.

In the rural areas of Madagascar only 29% of the population has access to clean water and 10% has access to improved sanitation. It has been estimated that environmental risk factors, such as inadequate access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation, are responsible for 94% of the diarrheal disease burden. This study was focused on testing a point-of-use technology called the Tulip filter, which is a siphon ceramic candle filter impregnated with silver. The purpose is to assess its feasibility for implementation in rural regions of Madagascar through a laboratory study performed at the University of South Florida. The study tested the Tulip filters for turbidity, total coliform, and E. coli removal for various types of water. Each filter processed synthetic water classified as control (tap water, <1 >NTU), low turbidity (5-7 NTU), medium turbidity (25-35 NTU), or high turbidity (60-80 NTU). Approximately once every 100 L the filters processed pond water to test coliform removal. Furthermore, the pthesis size distribution was measured to analyze the effectiveness of filter to remove various pthesis sizes. Two of the seven Tulip filters tested had some quality control issues with the glue connecting the ceramic candle to the plastic cap and failed at 350 L. Of the functioning filters, the turbidity removal ranged from 93% to 98% with none of the 779 samples taken from 4 filters above the WHO recommended 5 NTU for drinking water. The log removal of total coliforms was about 3.90 to 4.16 and achieved an average of 1 CFU/100mL of E. coli in the filtered water. WHO guidelines consider water with 1-10 CFU/100 mL a "low risk" and all but one of the working filters had E. coli and total coliform concentrations within, or below, this range for all samples (n=20 for each filter). The filters also showed an average of 96% removal of pthesiss of all size ranging from 0.5 to 10 µm. This study finds that the Tulip filter is an appropriate of point-of-use technology that enables rural areas access to "low risk" water, at a low cost and with minimal maintenance. This study also reinforces the importance of adding silver or another biocide to ceramic filters because pthesiss of sizes up to 10 µm are able to pass through the filter. This is particularly a problem because pathogens can range from 0.01 µm to 100 µm.

Abstract (from thesis text) From Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, is the study of the politics of reaction and reform in a post-colonial nation-state of Burkina Faso. Since its independence from France on 5 August 1960 to 15 October 1987, Burkina Faso, the "land of the upright" people, has experience five changes in government. All of the coups that took place in this twenty-seven year period were reactionary and reforming. However, the most memorable reforms arrived after the coup of 4 August 1983 which gave rise to a youthful president in a thirty-three year old Captain Thomas Sankara. As the leaders before him, Sankara reacted against a post-colonial government that he and supporters saw as inadequate. Unlike the previous coups in the Upper Volta, this work argues that the 4 August 1983 coup brought class consciousness to the forefront. It aimed to establish its identity by changing the country's name from the colonial name of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso. The revolutionaries appeared to be g6enuine in meeting their words with action by working to create self-sufficient citizens, curb environmental depredation, combat corruption in government and provide women more opportunities. Though the Revolution in Burkina Faso (1983-1987) did not end the country's ambitions for a multi-party democracy, it did elevate the status of women, literacy, mortality and pride for the homeland.