Entrepreneurship and Motivation in Small Business Sector of Kerala

This thesis Entitled entrepreneurship and motivation in small business sector of kerala -A study of rubber products manufacturing industry.Rubber-based industry in Kerala was established only in the first half of the 20th century.the number of licensed manufacturers in the State has increased substantially over the years, particularly in the post- independence period. 54 rubber manufacturing units in 1965-66, the number of licensed rubber-based industrial units has increased to 1300 units in 2001-02. In 2001-02 Kerala occupied the primary position in the number of rubber goods manufacturers in the country.As per the latest report of the Third All India Census of Small Scale Industries 2001-02, Kerala has the third largest number of registered small scale units in the country next after Tamil Nadu and Utter Pradesh.This study of entrepreneurship in the small-scale rubber goods manufacturing industry in Kerala compares a cross section of successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs with respect to socio-economic characteristics and motivational dynamics. Based on a sample survey of 120 entrepreneurs of Kottayam and Ernakulam districts successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs were selected using multiple criteria. The study provides guidelines for the development of entrepreneurship in Kerala.The results on the socio-economic survey support the hypothesis that the successful entrepreneurs will differ from unsuccessful entrepreneurs with respect to education, social contacts, initial investment, sales turnover, profits, capital employed, personal income, and number of employees.Successful entrepreneurs were found to be self~starters. Successful entrepreneurs adopted a lot more technological changes than unsuccessful entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs were more innovative — the percent of successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful entrepreneurs reporting innovations in business were 31.50 and 8.50 percent respectively.

Social Structural Determinants of Education among Tribes in Kerala

The study is focused on education of tribes particularly the problem of high dropout rate existing among the tribal students at school level. Scheduled Tribe is one of the marginalized communities experiencing high level of educational deprivation. The analysis of the study shows that the extent of deprivation existing among STs of Kerala is much higher compared to that of other communities. The present study covered tribes of three tribal predominant districts of Kerala such as Idukki, Palakkad and Wayanad. Out of the 35 tribal communities in the State, 17 of them are concentrated in these districts. Tribes concentrated in Idukki include Muthuvans, Malai Arayan, Uraly, Mannan and Hill Pulaya. The present study analyzed dropouts situation in tribal areas of Kerala by conducting Field Survey among dropout and non-dropout students at school level. High dropouts among STs persist due to many problems which are of structural in nature. Important problems faced by the tribal students that have been analyzed, this can be classified as economic, social, cultural and institutional. It is found that there exists high correlation between Income and expenditure of the family with the well-being of individuals. Significant economic factors are poverty and financial indebtedness of the family. Some of the common cultural factors of tribes are Nature of Habitation, Difference in Dialect and Medium of Instruction etc. Social factors analyzed in the study are illiteracy of parents, migration of family, family environment, motivation by parents, activities engaged in for helping the family and students’ lack of interest in studies. The analysis showed that all these factors except migration of the family, are affecting the education of tribal students. Apart from social, economic and cultural factors, there are a few institutional factors which will also influence the education of tribal students. Institutional factors analyzed in the study include students’ absenteeism, irregularity of teachers, attitude of non-tribal teachers and non-tribal students, infrastructure facilities and accessibility to school. The study found irregularity of students and accessibility to school as significant factors which determine the dropout of the students.

Producers’ motivation for collective action for kola production and marketing in Cameroon

Collective action has been used as a strategy to improve the benefits of smallholder producers of kola nuts in Cameroon. Despite demonstrated benefits, not all producers are involved in the collective action. The presented study used a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) namely the Collective Action Behaviour model (CAB model) to analyse kola producers’ motivation for collective action activities. Five hypotheses are formulated and tested using data obtained from 185 farmers who are involved in kola production and marketing in theWestern highlands of Cameroon. Results which were generated using Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach for Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) showed that farmers’ intrinsic motivators and ease of use influenced their behavioural intent to join a group marketing activities. The perceived usefulness that was mainly related to the economic benefits of group activities did not influence farmers’ behavioural intent. It is therefore concluded that extension messages and promotional activities targeting collective action need to emphasise the perceived ease of use of involvement and social benefits associated with group activities in order to increase farmers’ participation.

Labour Motivation : an axiomatic vector model. 'Motivación en el trabajo : un modelo de vectores axiomáticos'.

Este artículo pertenece a una sección de la revista dedicada a psicología social

Caring at a distance: Gift Theory, aid chains and social movements

This paper takes as its starting point recent work on caring for distant others which is one expression of renewed interest in moral geographies. It examines relationships in aid chains connecting donors/carers in the First World or North and recipients/cared for in the Third World or South. Assuming predominance of relationships between strangers and of universalism as a basis for moral motivation I draw upon Gift Theory in order to characterize two basic forms of gift relationship. The first is purely altruistic, the other fully reciprocal and obligatory within the framework of institutions, values and social forces within specific relationships of politics and power. This conception problematizes donor-recipient relationships in the context of two modernist models of aid chains-the Resource Transfer and the Beyond Aid Paradigms. In the first, donor domination means low levels of reciprocity despite rhetoric about partnership and participation. The second identifies potential for greater reciprocity on the basis of combination between social movements and non-governmental organizations at both national and trans-national levels, although at the risk of marginalizing competencies of states. Finally, I evaluate post-structural critiques which also problematize aid chain relationships. They do so both in terms of bases-such as universals and difference-upon which it might be constructed and the means-such as forms of positionality and mutuality-by which it might be achieved.

Social and environmental report assurance: some interview evidence

The steady growth of social and environmental reporting (SER) is being accompanied by an increase in social and environmental reporting assurance (SERA). The existing literature on SERA suggests that it is necessary to build credibility and trust among corporate stakeholders. Prior work has also found evidence of managerial and professional capture of SERA. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from interviews with corporate social responsibility representatives from 20 UK listed companies on whether they consider SERA to be necessary. We believe this to be the first research into SERA that uses an interview method. Our interviews revealed mixed feelings. Half of the respondents believed that external SERA would enhance credibility and trust which confirmed the prior literature. However, the other half believed that external SERA was not necessary, believing that internal assurance was sufficient. This was because they saw SERA as predominantly a managerial tool, useful for checking the efficiency of internal management control systems, rather than as a mechanism for enhancing corporate accountability to stakeholders and building credibility and trust. The potential for SERA to be a mechanism whereby greater dialogue is created between companies and their stakeholders on social and environmental issues is not being harnessed. This paper thus demonstrates a fundamental difference between the external prior normative literature and the managerial motivation in the SERA area.

Achievement motivation and memory: achievement goals differentially influence immediate and delayed remember–know recognition memory

Little research has been conducted on achievement motivation and memory and, more specifically, on achievement goals and memory. In the present research, the authors conducted two experiments designed to examine the influence of mastery-approach and performance-approach goals on immediate and delayed remember–know recognition memory. The experiments revealed differential effects for achievement goals over time: Performance-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on an immediate recognition test, whereas mastery-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on a delayed recognition test. Achievement goals had no influence on overall recognition memory and no consistent influence on know responding across experiments. These findings indicate that it is important to consider quality, not just quantity, in both motivation and memory, when studying relations between these constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract)

The role of context in forming young learners' attitudes and motivation to learning French

Despite the wealth of valuable information that has been generated by motivation studies to date, there are certain limitations in the common approaches. Quantitative and psychometric approaches to motivation research that have dominated in recent decades provided epiphenomenal descriptions of learner motivation within different contexts. However, these approaches assume homogeneity within a given group and often mask the variation between learners within the same, and different, contexts. Although these studies have provided empirical data to form and validate theoretical constructs, they have failed to recognise learners as individual ‘people’ that interact with their context. Learning context has become increasingly explicit in motivation studies, (see Coleman et al. 2007 and Housen et al. 2011), however it is generally considered as a background variable which is pre-existing and external to the individual. Stemming from the recent ‘social turn’ (Block 2003) in SLA research from a more cognitive-linguistic perspective to a more context-specific view of language learning, there has been an upsurge in demand for a greater focus on the ‘person in context’ in motivation research (Ushioda 2011). This paper reports on the findings of a longitudinal study of young English learners of French as they transition from primary to secondary school. Over 12 months, the study employed a mixed-method approach in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how the learners’ context influenced attitudes to language learning. The questionnaire results show that whilst the learners displayed some consistent and stable motivational traits over the 12 months, there were significant differences for learners within different contexts in terms of their attitudes to the language classroom and their levels of self-confidence. A subsequent examination of the qualitative focus group data provided an insight into how and why these attitudes were formed and emphasised the dynamic and complex interplay between learners and their context.

Rerum cognoscere causas: part I - How do the ideas of system dynamics relate to traditional social theories and the voluntarism/determinism debate?

This is the first half of a two-part paper which deals with the social theoretic assumptions underlying system dynamics. The motivation is that clarification in this area can help mainstream social scientists to understand how our field relates to their literature, methods and concerns. Part I has two main sections. The aim of the first is to answer the question: How do the ideas of system dynamics relate to traditional social theories? The theoretic assumptions of the field are seldom explicit but rather are implicit in its practice. The range of system dynamics practice is therefore considered and related to a framework - widely used in both operational research (OR) and systems science - that organises the assumptions behind traditional social theoretic paradigms. Distinct and surprisingly varied groupings of practice are identified, making it difficult to place system dynamics in any one paradigm with any certainty. The difficulties of establishing a social theoretic home for system dynamics are exemplified in the second main section. This is done by considering the question: Is system dynamics deterministic? An analysis shows that attempts to relate system dynamics to strict notions of voluntarism or determinism quickly indicate that the field does not fit with either pole of this dichotomous, and strictly paradigmatic, view. Part I therefore concludes that definitively placing system dynamics with respect to traditional social theories is highly problematic. The scene is therefore set for Part II of the paper, which proposes an innovative and potentially fruitful resolution to this problem.

Motivação para o cumprimento de normas de conduta social

O pressuposto que a motivação influi no comportamento e a internalização é um fator de percepção de normas sugeriu esse tema: Motivação como fator de efetivação na percepção e cumprimento das normas de conduta social. Assim foi feito um trabalho de campo sobre características pessoais em estudantes do 2º grau e sua percepção quanto as normas de ética pública. Variáveis de personalidade e atitude foram inseridas através de 4 escalas. Foi elaborado e testado um questionário de ética pública tendo sua fidedignidade comprovada. O tratamento estatístico das Escalas x Questionário foi feito através da Regressão Múltipla. Os resultados mostraram que 2 das variáveis medidas (personalidade e atitude) obtiveram correlação significativa em relação as normas de ética pública.

Growth process in business and social entrepreneurship: the case of Brazil

The purpose of the dissertation is to investigate in depth the difference between the challenges social and business entrepreneurs face in the growth phase of their business in the particular environment of Brazil. This objective has been achieved through a two-steps methodology. The first step is a set of in-depth interviews carried out with industry experts such as professors, venture capitalists, consultants, fund managers or people involved in the support of growing startups (i.e. accelerators). These interviews allowed, first, to build a general perspective on the environment entrepreneurs operate into and to identify a list of challenges entrepreneurs face in the growth process of their business. This list was completed with the additional challenges identified in the previous literature. The second step of the methodology was to test the relevance of these challenges in the mind and experience of social and traditional entrepreneurs. A questionnaire was then submitted to 145 social and 286 traditional entrepreneurs. The results were statistically analyzed to test the relative relevance of these challenges for one group of entrepreneurs with respect to the other. The outcome of the analysis was significant. The most relevant challenges identified were, for both groups, taxation, bureaucracy, finding the right employees, creating effective teams, measuring firm performance and social value creation and obtaining funds. On the other side motivation, innovation, competition and lack of market space for growth represented the least relevant issues in the minds of entrepreneurs. This rank however did not differ significantly from social to traditional entrepreneurs. This testifies that in Brazil social and traditional entrepreneurs face the same set of challenges despite the widespread belief of the opposite.

O marketing e a atuação social das empresas: uma relação possível

The present work is about a study of multiple cases with exploratory and descriptiveperspective and qualitative emphasis. Its field of study is constituted by three local companieswith description of social performance, with emphasis in the personal interview with thecontrollers. Its main objective consists of understanding as it has occurred the marketingrelation with the enterprise social performance in the context of these companies located inthe State of the Rio Grande do Norte who carry out social investments. For this, it hassearched to analyze the types and characteristics of the developed social actions, to evaluatethe motivations and objectives of the accomplishment of social actions, to verify theimportance and influence of the social performance in the dynamics of the companies, toverify the level of specific knowledge and information in the areas of marketing and socialperformance in the companies and to evaluate the process of communication (promotion andspreading) of the social performance carried out by the companies. It has been verified thatthe company A directly associates it its social and ambient activities with differentiationbenefits, competitiveness, creation of value, loyalty, relationships, image, prestige,positioning of the company, sale and financial return, beyond benefits in the internal level asbigger motivation of its employees and retention of talents, not existing rejection to theinterlacement of the concepts related to the marketing and the social one. Already in companyB rejection in relating its practical social to the marketing, being observed after posteriorquestionings, that the relation of direct and indirect form exists and those divulgations of theseactions are carried out, contradicting the arguments of the controllers of that the actions wouldnot be carried out to generate media. In company C, it been verified rejection andcontradiction with relation to the concepts related to the marketing, alleging itself that theimage of the harnessed company to its social performance is not used in proper benefit,evidencing itself that this company divulges its action and is marketable benefited, even so isnot this the main objective of its social programs. It has concluded that the association ofthese two concepts is positive and favorable to the development of the businesses and thesocial actions of the companies, legitimizing them and benefiting the involved company,groups in the actions and the society that profits socially from the private social involvement in the social matters

A influência do discurso do professor na motivação e na interação social em sala de aula

Estudos têm mostrado a importância das interações sociais desencadeadas em sala de aula como fundamentais para a aprendizagem dos alunos. Contudo, o professor deve ser capaz de motivar os estudantes para se envolverem mais ativamente com as atividades de ensino propostas. Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma investigação sobre as interações sociais desenvolvidas no contexto de uma sala de aula do Ensino Médio, que explicou os princípios da conservação da energia mecânica com uma aula experimental de demonstração. O principal objetivo era entender como o discurso do professor pode contribuir para o bom nível de motivação do aluno durante uma aula. As entrevistas com professor e alunos e todo o processo de interação durante as atividades foram gravados, transcritos e analisados . Os resultados ressaltam a importância da abordagem discursiva dos professores para manter o processo de motivação entre os alunos.

Youth and social cohesion in Ibero-America: a model in the making. Summary

Includes bibliography