Breaking Glass: Towards a Gendered Analysis of Entrepreneurial Leadership

Despite recent expansion in the literature on entrepreneurial leadership, this has not been matched with the development of appropriate theoretical frameworks, theory building, and conceptual analyses, including the analysis of gender. In this paper, we provide the foundation for a more robust and extensive gendered study of entrepreneurial leadership, through a review of the entrepreneurial leadership literature and of the current debates on gender and leadership. On the basis of this, we propose a research agenda for the gendered analysis of the rapidly expanding interface between leadership and entrepreneurship, comprising three themes around which the future development of entrepreneurial leadership can be organized.

Development and testing of an intermediate temperature glass sealant for use in mixed ionic and electronic conducting membrane reactors

High temperature ceramic membranes have interesting possibilities for application in areas of new and developing technologies such as hydrocarbon combustion with carbon dioxide capture and electrochemical promotion of catalysis (EPOC). However, membrane module sealing remains a significant technical challenge. In this work a borosilicate glass sealant (50SiO₂·25B₂O₃·25Na₂O, mol%) was developed to fit the requirements of sealing an air separation membrane system at intermediate temperatures (300-600 °C). The seal was assessed by testing the leak rates under a range of conditions. The parameters tested included the effect of flowrate on the leak rate, the heating and cooling rates of the reactor and the range of temperatures under which the system could operate. Tests for durability and reliability were also performed. It was found that the most favourable reactor configuration employed a reactor with the ceramic pellet placed underneath the inner chamber alumina tube (inverted configuration), using a quartz wool support to keep the membrane in place prior to sealing. Using this configuration the new glass-based seal was found to be a more suitable sealant than traditional alternatives; it produced lower leak rates at all desirable flowrates, with the potential for rapid heating and cooling and multiple cycling, allowing for prolonged usage. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.