The study is an investigation of the sustainability of agriculture in Nigeria using Rubber as case study. Edo and Abia states were sampled for the study with 300 questionnaires administered in 10 communities among rubber farmers. The study is an investigation of the socio-demographic distribution of the rubber farmers, perception of rubber farmers, and influence of government activities. Sources of information and the data were cumulated for Nigeria as a whole. The data were analyzed using statistical analysis. Findings indicated the distribution of rubber farmers on socio-demographic distribution, sources of funds, and the effects on agricultural sustainability in Nigeria. Farmers’ reaction to government activities and recommendations were stated alongside the challenges encountered by the farmers and were analyzed. concluded that provision of funds, basic infrastructural facilities, government increased participation, restructuring laws and policies relating to agriculture and provision of information on improved agricultural technology are needed for agricultural sustainability in Nigeria.

Entrepreneurs perceive and manage risk differently than investors (Palich & Bagby, 1995). As a result, entrepreneurs may underestimate the extent to which their ventures are perceived to be risky by a potential investor. Consequently, the entrepreneur is left with making assumptions that could be detrimental in obtaining the necessary capital to launch and grow the business. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a common set of perceived critical risk factors among a group of experienced investors that would cause them to reject a deal out of hand. The research methodology chosen for this study was the Delphi Technique, which consisted of three rounds of surveys with a group of 18 experienced Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. The process identified 82 critical risk factors across 7 categories. Over half of these factors were rated between ‘Important’ and ‘Critically Important’ at a consensus rate of greater then 70%. Each participant reported an average of 11 critical risk factors, yet they rated more than 40 as ‘Important’ or ‘Critically Important’, suggesting there are conscious and subconscious factors involved in the decision process. Subjective factors such as relationship were rated with higher importance than more objective measurable factors such as revenue or market share. Venture Capitalists, as a group, had higher rates of consensus than the Angel Investors and there were distinct differences between each group regarding which factors are most important. The study is significant because it rated subjective based factors along with objective factors showing that investors tend to place more importance on trust and relationship building in the early stages of the investment process. The study also provided a framework for understanding the complexity of investment decision-making for the benefit of investors, entrepreneurs, and those who educate and mentor entrepreneurs. Finally, the study is significant for helping entrepreneurs understand the differences in perspective between Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists.

En alltmer föränderlig värld ställer höga krav på entreprenörskap i form av nya och växande företag för att möta morgondagens utmaningar. För att få kunskap om vad som krävs av en affärsrådgivaren i en inkubator för att bli framgångsrik intervjuades nio affärsrådgivare i tre olika inkubatorer med syftet att kunna bidra till ökad förståelse hur rollen kan behöva utvecklas framöver. Även en VD för en inkubator intervjuades för att förstå den framtida strategiska inriktningen på rollen. Analysen av rollen genomfördes med hjälp av Mintzbergs ledarmodell. Studien visar att affärsrådgivaren har en informell ledarroll där den behöver skapa en tillitsfull relation med entreprenören för att kunna åstadkomma ett resultat, där studien resulterade i en modell för hur man skapar tillit. Ett tranformativt ledarskap med ett coachande förhållningssätt bidrar också till att öka tilliten mellan parterna. Affärsrådgivaren och entreprenören gör en kunskapsresa tillsammans som bidrar till utveckling av både entreprenör och affärsidé. Om affärsidén får genomslag på marknaden skapas nya innovationer. Framtida forskning skulle kunna undersöka hur kommersialiseringsprocessen i inkubatorn även skulle kunna nyttjas i andra delar av samhället. / An increasing changing world puts higher demands on entrepreneurship in the form of newly started and growing companies to meet tomorrow´s challenges. To get knowledge of what is required of a business adviser in an incubator in order to be successful nine business advisers from three different incubators were interviewed with the objective to increase the understanding of how the role could develop in the future. Also, one Managing Director of an incubator was interviewed to understand the future strategic direction of the role. An analysis of the role was conducted with the help of Mintzberg´s leadership model. The study shows that the business adviser has an informal leadership role in which he/she need to establish a trustful relationship with the entrepreneur to be able to achieve a result, where the study resulted in a model on how trust is formed. A transformative leadership with a coaching approach also contributes to establish a trustful relationship between the parties. The business adviser and the entrepreneur make a knowledge journey together that contributes to development of both the entrepreneur and the business idea. If the business idea comes true an innovation is created. Future research could investigate how the commercialisation process in an incubator could be utilised also in other parts of society.

Denna studies ändamål är att undersöka hur entreprenörer upplever mötet med finansiärer och om upplevelserna skiljer sig mellan kvinnor och män. För att undersöka detta har elva stycken djupintervjuer gjorts med entreprenörer. Sex av dessa entreprenörer är kvinnor och fem stycken är män. Frågorna är semistrukturerade för att ge entreprenörerna utrymme att på ett naturligt sätt kunna beskriva sina upplevelser. I resultatet visas det hur entreprenörerna beskriver situationer med finansiärer, hur de upplever sig behandlade och hur de känner inför dessa möten. Slutsatsen av studien är att det finns skillnader på hur manliga och kvinnliga entreprenörer blir bemötta av finansiärer. Kvinnorna får utstå situationer som männen aldrig får, exempelvis sexism. De behöver tänka på sitt utseende i högre grad och de använder sig av olika strategier för att hantera den ojämlika situationen. Vi kan även se att kvinnorna upplever situationen som jobbigare än vad män gör. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how entrepreneurs experience the meeting with financiers and whether experiences differ between women and men. To investigate this, eleven in-depth interviews have been conducted with entrepreneurs. Six of these entrepreneurs are women and five are men. The questions are semi structured to give the entrepreneurs space to be able to describe their experiences in a natural way. The result shows how entrepreneurs describe situations with financiers, how they are treated and how they feel about these meetings. The conclusion of the study is that there are differences in how male and female entrepreneurs are being treated by financiers. Women are exposed to situations that men never are, for example sexism. They need to think about their appearance to a greater extent and they use different strategies to cope with the uneven situation. We can also see that women experience the situation as more difficult than men experiance it.

Denna uppsats är en kvalitativ studie av de två största professionella bloggarna i Sverige, blondinbella.se och kissies.se. Studiens syfte är att ta reda på vilka markörer för klass och genus som kan hittas på bloggarna och utifrån dessa vilken bild av att vara ung tjej det är som förmedlas till bloggarnas läsare. Debatten om de två aktuella bloggarna pågår i media och speciellt är det författarna bakom bloggarna som uppmärksammas, Isabella Löwengrip och Alexandra Nilsson. Med hjälp av teorier kring kön och klass analyserar jag bloggarnas innehåll och försöker utkristallisera vilka teman som är dominerande på dessa bloggar. Resultatdelen är uppdelad utifrån dessa teman som handlar om shopping, kroppsuppfattning och valmöjligheter. Ett utmärkande drag i bloggarna är betoningen på jaget, den individuella upplevelsen av allt som händer och hur alla omnämnda händelser relaterar till bloggerskorna själva. Det som till en början framstod som två ungefär lika modebloggar, har visat sig rymma fler olikheter och fler dolda sociala mekanismer än vad man först kunnat ana. Hur bloggerskorna förhåller sig till sin vardag, sin omgivning och till kritik och ideal, formas till stor del av deras klasstillhörighet. En annan slutsats är att den kommersiella sidan av bloggarna i stora delar utformar vad det skrivs om, vilket påverkar helhetsupplevelsen som förmedlas. / This is a qualitative study of the two biggest blogs in Sweden, blondinbella.se and kissies.se. The purpose of this study is to find out which characteristics can be found that represent social class and gender, and from that perspective, what image of being a young girl is forwarded to the readers of these blogs. The media debate on the two blogs is ongoing and of special interest are the two writers of these blogs, Isabella Löwengrip and Alexandra Nilsson. With the help of social class and gender theories I analyze the content of the two blogs and try to distinguish which themes are dominant. The result part is divided from those themes that consider shopping, bodily self-esteem and choices. A predominating characteristic on the blogs is the emphasis on the self, the individual experience, and how all that is happening is related to the bloggers themselves. What in the beginning appeared to be two similar fashionblogs, has turned out to be embedding more diversity and hidden social mechanisms than was first apparent. How the bloggers relate to their everyday life, their settings and to critique and ideals, is in big parts shaped by their social class. Another conclusion is that the commercial side of the blogs in large aspects shapes what is written and this affects the subjective total experience of the blogs

Previous studies have underscored the economic importance of the role of the entrepreneur, and empirical studies testing the nature of the entrepreneur are notably lacking. This study directly addresses this issue by examining newly gathered field data which captures the decision making and risk behaviors for a group of high-technology entrepreneurs. Two decision making tasks were used to elicit risk aversion measures and to test for any 'joy of winning' or judgmental errors, possibly in the form of over optimistic behavior. These elicitations were made with the use of multiple price formats and winner's curse experiments. 62 responses were collected from subjects at the 2004 national Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) conference in Atlanta, March 2004. From these 62 responses a subject pool of 33 entrepreneurs and 29 non-entrepreneurs were identified. Statistical methods were employed to assign risk aversion measures and identify any 'joy of winning' or judgmental errors for the entrepreneur (treatment) group compared with the non-entrepreneur (control) group. Findings show that entrepreneurs exhibit less risk aversion, but show no statistically meaningful difference in judgmental errors compared to their non-entrepreneur counterparts. However, there is evidence to support the claim that both entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs exhibit a 'joy of winning', and that the size of the effect is larger for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship accounted by women has become important all over the world, especially in developing countries where it plays not only an economic role but a social role as well, changing communities and consequently, the whole society. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main motivation and barriers faced by women in developing countries, especially concerning the case study, namely Brazil and Egypt. In order to accomplish that, a deep literature review has been done and ten cases were analysed from a qualitative perspective. The main results found were that most of women in those countries are pushed into entrepreneurship rather than pulled and the main barriers are more aligned to the social context, lack of education, gender inequality issues rather than barriers related to business expertise. We do believe that the main contribution might relies on the fact that it brings different perspectives within female entrepreneurship from two different countries.

The production of Hate, albeit a historical, long-existing, and relentless process, has been reinvigorated by the simultaneously globalizing and localizing power of cyberspace. Techno-capitalism, often perceived as the actuating force of neoliberal globalization, has emanated novel formations of social interaction, community formation, the dissemination of ideology, and political mobilization. Far-right ideology is being globalized throughout popular social cyberspaces like YouTube by thought leaders or ideological entrepreneurs, while users then localize within alternative social cyberspaces like Gab, wherein their beliefs are reaffirmed, identities are consolidated, and communities are formed. This process is integral to the materialization of far-right extremism, manifested as political action in real, physical space, and thus, illuminates new expressions of real virtuality, various politics of scale, and contemporary consequences of neoliberal globalization.

Titel: Försäljning av sitt livsverk - En kvalitativ studie av entreprenörers upplevelser  Ämne: Självständigt uppsatsarbete inom företagsekonomi inriktning revisor och bank, 30 hp Författare: Andreas Petersson och Felix Ottosson  Handledare: Kjell Johansson, Jur. Dr i Redovisningsrätt och Universitetslektor i Företagsekonomi  Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra till förståelse för vad en bolagsförsäljning kan innebära i form av för- och nackdelar för bolaget och entreprenören själv efter försäljningen samt vad som krävs för att affären ska bli lyckad.  Problemformulering: Vad innebär en försäljning av ett bolag ur en entreprenörs perspektiv?  Metod: I denna studie har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med abduktiv forskningsansats använts. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har utförts med nio respondenter, vilka alla har sålt en majoritetsandel i sitt aktiebolag. Intervjufrågorna har dels operationaliserats med hjälp av en teoretisk referensram som grund och dels bestått av icke-teoriberoende frågor.  Slutsats: Studien finner att entreprenörer gynnas av att anlita M&A-rådgivare under försäljningsprocessen och att de bör överväga fler faktorer än enbart pengar vid försäljningen. Dessutom dras slutsatsen att en försäljning innebär en emotionell berg-och-dalbana, men att det operationellt inte behöver innebära så stora förändringar eller utmaningar. Av studien framgår även att säljaren gynnas av att vara väl förberedd inför processen och att målbolaget kan räkna med ökad rapportering och kontroll. / Title: Selling One's Life's Work - A Qualitative Study of Entrepreneurs' Experiences  Field of studies: Independent thesis in Business Administration, specializing in Auditing and Banking, 30 credits  Authors: Andreas Petersson and Felix Ottosson Supervisor: Kjell Johansson, Doctor in Accounting law and Assistant professor in Business administration  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of what a company sale can entail in terms of advantages and disadvantages for both the company and the entrepreneur after the sale, as well as what is required for the deal to be successful. Research Question: What does a company sale mean from an entrepreneur's perspective?  Method: In this study a qualitative research method with an abductive research approach has been applied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine respondents, all of whom have sold a majority stake in their limited liability company. The interview questions were operationalized using a theoretical framework and included both theory-driven and non-theory- driven questions.  Conclusion: The study finds that entrepreneurs benefit from hiring M&A advisors during the sales process and should consider factors beyond financial when making the sale. Furthermore, the conclusion is drawn that selling a company is an emotional rollercoaster but operationally does not necessarily entail significant changes or challenges. The study also reveals that sellers benefit from being well-prepared for the process and that the acquired company can expect increased reporting and control.

Entrepreneurs who need funding often turn to the venture capital industry. In Sweden, women entrepreneurs represent a third of the total number of entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, women-owned businesses only raise one percent of the total venture capital in Sweden. Previous research has attempted to explain why male entrepreneurs raise more venture capital than women entrepreneurs, however, more research is needed to understand the circumstances for success. This leads to the study’s aim which is to create an understanding of what makes women entrepreneurs successful when raising venture capital, and how they do it, and the research questions, which are How do drivers enable women entrepreneurs to raise venture capital? How do women entrepreneurs overcome the different challenges that they meet when raising venture capital? To reach the study’s aim and answer the research questions a qualitative method was used. Semi-structured interviews with ten respondents, who were women entrepreneurs who had raised venture capital, were conducted. This study contributes new perspectives to the already existing field of entrepreneurship and venture capital, by providing a new framework showing how women entrepreneurs overcome challenges and use drivers for raising venture capital successfully. The results show how the respondents use their entrepreneurial, risk-prone, and highly self-confident personality in their relationship with investors and other entrepreneurs, to successfully raise venture capital. The findings in this study suggest that governmental agencies should provide more network possibilities with venture capitalist firms and investors for women entrepreneurs.