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This thesis uses data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and a small scale survey on student entrepreneurship conducted by the School of Business and Economics at Swansea University, in assessing entrepreneurial intentions and transitions into self-employment. Analysis of entrepreneurial motivations has largely been confined to 'push' versus 'pull' factors. Very few studies, if any, have analysed individual-specific factors associated with entrepreneurial motivations. In addressing this issue, the analysis documents the extent to which there is heterogeneity amongst the self-employed on the basis of the motivations that they report for choosing self-employment. Multivariate regression analysis is employed using a method to control for self-selection into self-employment. Background characteristics such as gender, educational attainment, housing tenure and region of residence are found to be important factors influencing entrepreneurial motives. Relative to males, females are less likely to show entrepreneurial intent and subsequently participate in self-employment, however little is known about precisely why this is. Using decomposition analysis, the gap in entrepreneurial intent probabilities is examined across gender. Attitudes towards risk are found to be a major factor associated with the gap in average levels of entrepreneurial intentions between males and female students, accounting for very nearly half of the total gap. Within Wales there seems to exist a widespread perception that the younger population views entrepreneurship less positively than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK. The analysis examines whether differences in entrepreneurial intention probabilities between Welshdomiciled and non-Welsh domiciled students can be explained by a range of demographic factors, family characteristics and psychological traits. Family and other background influences are found to be important contributors to the non-Welsh and Welsh gap, while differences in risk attitudes appear to provide the largest single component of the intentions gap between the two groups. Entrepreneurs may differ from non-entrepreneurs in terms of a range of personal characteristics, family and social background and personal resources. Cognitive or behavioural factors may also be important in determining who becomes an entrepreneur. Data from the BHPS indicates that unrealistic optimism is significantly and positively associated with the probability of being both self-employed and an aspiring entrepreneur. Furthermore, unrealistic optimism is found to be persistent and a factor affecting duration in selfemployment.

The purposes of this study were to examine the occupational goals of women in banking, manufacturing, and education; to examine women's awareness of their own potential; to compare the attitudes of working women toward themselves; to compare the attitudes, self-concepts, and career achievement between females aged twenty-five to thirty-five and females aged forty to fifty; and to compare the attitudes, self-concepts, and career achievement of females in banking, manufacturing, and education.

This thesis examines the post childbirth employment behaviour of women in England and Wales who are self-employed during pregnancy. It presents a secondary analysis of nationally representative data for England and Wales via the 2001 Individual Sample of Anonymised Records and the Millennium Cohort Study (2001-2005).A multinomial regression analysis of Census data is used to assess self-employed labour supply for women of childbearing age. In addition to this a combination of descriptive statistics and logistic regressions are used to examine the post-childbirth employment trajectories and outcomes of women who worked as self-employed during pregnancy.The majority (eighty percent) of women who are self-employed during pregnancy go on leave from their job rather than finish work, and only seventeen percent of these women are absent from self-employment at nine months postpartum. A comparable percentage of employees make the same transitions back to work but the self-employed women return quicker, with twenty-five percent returning in less than one month. The factors associated with a continuation in employment can vary between the two types of work. Whilst educational qualifications are positively associated with continuing to work as an employee, this does not apply to those who are self-employed. Evidence suggests that maternity pay influences whether women continue in self-employment and the number of women who do not receive Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance is a cause for concern. The thesis also considers such women’s preferred working hours, time with children, working schedules and autonomy as indicators of the mothers’ work-family balance. The data suggests that in England and Wales (2001-02) the women who returned to self-employment within nine months of birth did not have an increased work-family balance when compared to their employee counterparts. On the basis of the findings, I discuss the possibility that self-employed women may benefit from financial assistance beyond what is currently offered.

Recent transformations within modern economies have often been discussed under the concept of “restructuring”. However this term, despite its widespread use in sociology, has little explanatory power. What is needed instead is a consideration of how restructuring has taken place. Three major theoretical positions which attempt to provide this understanding are Marxist monopoly captialism, post-fordism and post-industrialism. Each of these paradigms provides a different understanding of the nature and operation of contemporary capitalist formations. My purpose in this thesis is to determine which of these different viewpoints is most applicable to the Canadian situation. I will do so through an examination of changes in the self-employed sector of the Canadian economy since 1960. The self-employed sector, besides being of intrinsic interest because of its recent attention by politicians and the popular media, is an important testing ground for the relative validity of the above theories in the Canadian context. Each framework is consistent with a set of well-defined and contrasting predictions about what should happen to the overall size of the self-employed sector, as well as expectations about the direction of ascriptive inequality, both within the sector and in the larger society. Using time series regression procedures, declines and increases in the size of the entrepreneurial sector over the last thirty or so years are documented. In addition, the importance of increases in the sector is examined by modelling the effect of unemployment on self-employment. Predictions about ascriptive inequalities are tested through an investigation of earnings functions within the self-employed and employed populations. The results of these analyses suggest that a post-fordist understanding of the contemporary Canadian economy is most appropriate. Self-employment has clearly increased since 1960, and ascriptive inequalities, particularly by gender, have persisted throughout much ofthe latter half of this period. The implication of this is that in order to understand the larger processes shaping our economy, as well as the nature of work beyond self-employment, we are most likely to find answers in discussions about post-fordism. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Bibliography: pages 219-229. / This thesis covers the constraints, both theoretical and practical, on the growth and evolution of the Zimbabwean informal sector, in particular of informal clothing and footwear production. The aim of the study was to provide a foundation for decision-making in the intersectoral allocation of resources. To this end, a survey was conducted of over one hundred and twenty formal and informal clothing producers in Bulawayo. The questionnaire was administered and completed by the author during the course of an interview, the questions requiring specific, as opposed to open-ended, answers. The production data obtained were analysed using the Kmenta formulation of the Constant Elasticity of Substitution (C.E.S.) production function, with a view to obtaining the production parameters. The data from formal and informal sector interviewees were analysed separately and in aggregate and tested for constancy of variance, significance of parameters and explanatory power. Whilst a number of conclusions are drawn in the course of the thesis, the central finding is that allocation of scarce resources to the informal sector should be based on the standard procedures used by venture capital seeking an outlet in a normal market economy, and in particular on the ability of the entrepreneur, since this appears to be an increasingly crucial variable as firm sizes fell.

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ABSTRACT Job satisfaction and life satisfaction have been two of the most researched social constructs for many decades. This study looks into the relationship that exists between job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and work–family conflict among salaried and self-employed male and female employees. It adds to existing literature by using Social Role Theory as a basis for explaining the variation in these relationships among males and females, and also makes the argument that gender is a propelling force in explaining the perceived conflict and its effect on life and job satisfaction. It also adds to existing literature by evaluating the above phenomenon among employed and self-employed males and females thereby bridging a significant gap in the literature on work-family conflict. The study makes use of data from the International Social Survey Program. Analyzing this data has led to a better understanding of the role of gender as a significant factor related to variations in work–family conflict. Also this paper reveals to us that the effect of work-family conflict is considerably lesser for self-employed individuals when compared to their salaried counterparts for both men and women. Other Key findings include the changing role of women in the society and the effect of children in a working household on work-family conflict, job and life satisfaction. INDEX WORDS: Job Satisfaction, Life Satisfaction, Work–Family Conflict, Employed and Self-Employed Males and Females

by Chun-wai Chan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / List of Tables --- p.v / List of Figures --- p.vi / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Data Source --- p.4 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Methodology --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Empirical Analysis --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.34 / Appendix --- p.36 / References --- p.62

This study investigates gender differences in South African self-employment, focusing particularly on earnings differences. The study identifies a large earnings gap in favour of men in self-employment, and it explores how the determinants of female and male returns to self-employment differ. Using a combination of descriptive and econometric methods and data from the Labour Force Surveys for 2001-2007, I find that female self-employment is more likely than male selfemployment to exhibit characteristics that are associated with low returns. The female self-employed tend to work part-time, be home-based, have own account enterprises and work in unskilled occupations in the informal sector. The data also suggest the presence of gender discrimination among the self-employed which may be the result of consumer discrimination and discrimination in access to credit or product markets. Focusing on the non-agricultural informal sector, I construct a more detailed gendered profile of the self-employed using a household survey from October 2005, namely the Survey of Employers and the Self-Employed. This survey captures a wealth of information on the self-employed and their businesses which is not available in the Labour Force Survey data. The analysis reveals that, in comparison to men, women are more likely to enter self-employment out of necessity, spend less starting a business, have poorer access to transport and report lower overheads. In light of the key constraints identified particularly by women in self-employment, the analysis suggests that assistance with marketing, better access to raw materials/supplies, provision of an alternative location, and better access to credit markets would help improve the profitability of their businesses. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.