Suchergebnisse

Purpose: This study examines the relationship between personality traits and creative behaviour, in an entrepreneurial environment. Moreover, an attempt was made to define the effect of gender on creative behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: Even though there are more women than men in Europe, female entrepreneurs represent only a third of the EU's self-employed. Additional factors, such as reconciling business and family, make entrepreneurship a less attractive option for them than for men. In order to achieve the objectives of this study research was conducted with the use of a structured questionnaire, during the months of February and March of 2017. The final sample size consists of 180 small and medium enterprises, from the region of North Greece. The instrument for content and construct validity was examined. Then, the hypotheses were examined using ANOVA, Correlation and Regression analysis. Findings: The results showed that 'Agreeableness', 'Openness to Experience', 'Conscientiousness', and 'Extraversion' are positively related with 'creative behaviour' of entrepreneurs. However, there is no strong evidence to predict the level of creativity by the personality traits. On the other hand, 'Neuroticism' is negatively correlated with creativity, but this relation is not significant. The results also indicate a statistically significant but not strong relation among the traits 'Agreeableness', 'Openness to Experience' and the performance of the enterprise. Research limitations/implications: There are some limitations in the study that can be addressed in the future; primarily, the study used subjective measures of firm performance instead of objective measures. Moreover, the sample size was small. A number of policy implications arise from this study. There needs to be a stronger recognition that the stereotypical role of women as sole careers is preventing future growth in female entrepreneurship. If the objective of future policy is to increase the number of women entrepreneurs, particularly in the current climate of global financial crisis and economic recession, it is imperative that we take account of the motivations of women who become entrepreneurs. Once the potential role of personality traits has been more clearly established, this can be used to inform policy making and decision making. Originality/value: To the best of our best knowledge, this is the first attempt at estimating the effects of gender and personality on creativity and entrepreneurship in Greece.

PurposeMicrofinance institutions (MFIs) are known for their contribution to the women empowerment and poverty alleviation but it is not clear about the role of gender on the performance of this industry. It is important to explore the representation of both the gender in three levels, namely, decision-making, day-to-day management and implementation of the micro-financial services. This study aims to examine the impact of female board members, female managers and female field officers on the financial and social performance of the MFIs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have used random effect panel data analysis. The study covers 104 MFIs operating in India. The time period of the analysis is from 2010 to 2014.FindingsThe study has shown that as the number of female directors within the board increase there is an increase in cost per borrower. This is an indication that more female clients are being targeted. The increase in number of female managers leads to an increase in the number of active borrowers. The increase in the number of female staff members leads to an increase of operational self-sufficiency and yield of the gross portfolio.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study has faced a lot of limitation due to the non-availability of the secondary data on the governance system of the microfinance industry. The study could not be undertaken for an extended period because of the unavailability of data for a long period.Practical implicationsThis study has highlighted the role of gender in case of performance of microfinance institutions. The gender diversity at the field level has shown to enhance the financial performance of the MFIs. So, the MFIs should try to bring gender diversity at the operation level.Social implicationsThis study has shown that an increase of woman directors at the board level increase female clients of MFIs. The increase of female managers also enhances number of female clients. So, the gender diversity at the managerial level and director level help MFIs to meet their social performance by reaching to more number of needy female clients.Originality/valueThe gender diversity at the three levels, namely, board level, managerial level and field operation level has not been analyzed in the Indian context. In India MFIs mainly target the female clients so in this context having gender diversity at the three levels of operation of the MFIs, which can improve both the financial and social performance of the MFIs.

Abstract
Using labor survey data for the year 1998, this paper attempts to estimate a gender-based earning model that is a function of age, experience, and education levels. According to the estimated model, keeping education at a fixed level, the wages of production (blue-collar) workers are a nonlinear function of age and experience. On the average, over a lifetime, female workers earn 78 to 81% of the wages of their male counterparts. The annual rate of return on three years of high school education is 4.15% for males and 2.45% for females.

We analyze the court-martial of Sabrina Harman, one of the alleged `seven rotten apples' associated with specific incidents of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, vis-a-vis the Parsonian distinction between `instrumental' and `expressive' pattern-variables. The Parsonian distinction between instrumental and expressive roles served a multitude of functions simultaneously, and especially given the masculine code of the military. We move beyond Parsons to introduce the new concepts of `expressive abuse', `expressive torture', and `instrumental misuse of expressive functions' to capture the overall thrust of the courts-martial as well as important aspects of the abuse at Abu Ghraib as revealed through testimony, government reports, interviews, and other sources of data. Both co-authors were participant-observers at the courts-martial of Sabrina Harman and Lynndie England, and draw upon the testimony and data from those trials in addition to the documents that are cited.

Actuarial risk assessment instruments have become integral to the functioning of the correctional systems in North America, the United Kingdom, and many other parts of the world. While research on the classification of female offenders has been ongoing since the 1980s, there is still more work to be done. Adding to the growing body of literature, the present study analyses agency records from a Community Supervision Department located in a Southwestern state in the United States. Findings reveal the Wisconsin Risk/Needs Assessment instrument has predictive validity for both male and female probationers. Further, successful completion rates for males and females are found to be similar.