Although the prevailing gender-linked fissures in entrepreneurial activity are shrinking in African economies, a disturbing feature of the contemporary business start-up environment is that women persistently are less willing to engage in entrepreneurship compared to men. In addition, women focus more on low technology and service-oriented business activities, which yield relatively lower financial value than other economic sectors. Given the subtle but entrenched gender vulnerabilities and biases that constantly accompany student career decisions, the primary objective of this research was to establish whether gender influences students’ intention to participate in entrepreneurship. Guided by a quantitative approach and survey research design, the study used a self-administered questionnaire to gather data from 130 undergraduate students, randomly selected from an entrepreneurship education class at a South African university of technology. The study applied the Mann-Whitney technique, a non-parametric test, to ascertain the existence of any significant gender-grounded disparities in the mean scores for entrepreneurial intention and its antecedents. The results confirmed the existence of significant differences in entrepreneurial intention, perceived behavioural control and attitude towards entrepreneurship among students, with males scoring higher than females in these constructs. These findings emphasise the need for gender-sensitive approaches to devising and implementing entrepreneurship development and support measures among potential entrepreneurs.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to propose an instrument, the Small Enterprise Social Responsibility Inventory (SESRI) for measuring business social responsibility (BSR) in the

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic and sound framework for addressing and measuring business social responsibility (BSR) in small and micro enterprises with specific focus on the African context. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is theoretical but has practical applications. The approach was to use principles of BSR from the literature to create a framework for addressing BSR issues in smaller ventures that operate in the African environment. Developing the framework involved operationalizing the linguistic meaning of BSR into observable indicators for it to be measurable. This involved the breaking down of the concept of BSR into dimensions and eventually into measurable elements.Findings -The framework identifies customer-, employee-, and community-related issues as the key BSR activities of African small businesses. Environmentalism is not a major concern for most of these businesses because they are mostly retail and services in nature; hence their impact on the environment will be so low that they need not concern themselves with environmental issues.

Orientation: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among technological creativity, self-efficacy and entrepreneurship intentions of university students in an emerging economy context.Research purpose: This study explores how technological creativity is linked to self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions.Motivation of the study: African countries are pervaded by subdued imagination that breeds survivalist entrepreneurship, which is bereft of innovation. This reality calls for the input of technological creativity to innovative entrepreneurship. Although results from contemporary research acknowledge the explanatory effect of technological creativity on entrepreneurial intentions, they under-explore the mechanism of the relationship, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, hence this study.Research design, approach and method: Using a quantitative approach and cross-sectional survey design, a self-completion questionnaire was administered to 130 students who had undergone a compulsory entrepreneurship course at a South African university of technology. The study employed Pearson’s correlation test, regression analysis and the bootstrapping procedure to assess the mediation effects and test the different hypothesised relationships.Main findings: The findings revealed that self-efficacy fully mediated the influence of technological creativity on entrepreneurship intentions.Practical and managerial implications: The results of the study stress the importance of considering psychological aspects, such as technological creativity and self-efficacy, in the evaluation of ways that can be used to effectively foster the entrepreneurial intentions of students undergoing entrepreneurship education.Contribution or value-add: The results authenticated psychological frameworks as guiding tools to understanding the intentional component of planned entrepreneurship activity. The study added further knowledge by exploring a previously untested relation between technological creativity and self-efficacy to unravel the complexity of entrepreneurial intentions among tertiary students.

Orientation: Research on managerial political competencies has progressed well in other organisational setups; but not so much in entrepreneurial ventures, yet literature documents the pivotal role played by political competencies in the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Research Purpose: This study intended to find the impact of managerial political competencies on the performance of SMEs as measured by both innovation and return on investment (ROI) in SMEs in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.Motivation for the study: Regardless of the contribution done by SMEs in contemporary economies, and the fundamental role managerial political competencies play in sustaining these enterprises, no known study has been done among SMEs in South Africa.Research design, approach and method: The study employed an ex post facto correlational design that adopted a purely quantitative approach. The sample comprised of 211 owner/managers in Gauteng Province. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation were used for data analysis.Main findings: Owner/managers were found to be politically competent in the dimensions of social astuteness and networking abilities, but fared not so well on the apparent sincerity and interpersonal influence dimensions. It was also established that SMEs performed relatively better in terms of innovation compared to   ROI, although ROI had greater potential to respond to improvements in  the quality of managerial political competencies when compared to innovation . There was a statistically significant relationship between managerial political competencies and SME performance as measured by innovation and ROI.Practical/managerial implications: It is recommended that managerial political competencies be augmented internally through deliberate human resource development initiatives in order to leverage on them. It is also recommended that support structures and agencies that assist owner/managers in competency development be augmented at both provincial and government levels.Contribution/Value-add: The study attempts to fill the gap between research and practice regarding managerial political competencies in SMEs in South Africa.