Determinants of women’s entrepreneurial performance: Evidence from Bangladesh

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been widely touted as a fundamental ingredient for enhancing firm growth. Consequently, this aimed at examining the impact of EO and its dimensional variables (innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness) on SME growth (employment, sales, and asset growth). Using information from 285 SMEs, the results obtained indicated that while EO had a significant positive association with SME growth (employment and sales growth), most SMEs show a moderate level of EO. Also, following the EO dimensions, the findings established the emergence of proactive innovation (a combination of proactiveness and innovativeness) which showed a significant positive association on sales growth. Risk-taking was the only factor that showed a significant influence on employment and asset growth. This study also showed that controlling for the effect of firm age on growth significantly reduced the error of predicting sales growth by 2.3%. This study culminates with recommendations on enhancing EO amongst SMEs in South Africa.

The objective of the article is to study the influence of political and economic factors on the situation on the world foreign exchange market, substantiate the importance of fundamental analysis in forecasting currency rates. The concept and mechanisms of functioning of the world currency market, its assets and specific features in comparison with other financial platforms are considered in the article. The need for special attention to fundamental analysis during the periods of global political and economic events is grounded. Based on the analysis of the dynamics of the leading world currency pairs in recent years, the period from October 2016 to April 2017 was chosen for an analysis because that period is full of significant events in the world political and economic arena, which are powerful levers of the traders’ behavior, and hence the direction of the dynamics of key currency pairs. These events are as follows:

• presidential elections in the USA;
• two increases of the Federal Reserve rate; and
• the policy of the European Central Bank, aimed at stimulating inflation.

It is substantiated that using the fundamental analysis makes it possible to assess the trend and scale of changes in the rates of the world currencies, and in combination with technical analysis is an integral tool for successful trading and forecasting the dynamics of currency pairs. The possibility of using the mechanisms of functioning of such fundamental analysis tool as artificial neural networks and the ways of their application in solving such problems has been considered.

In light of increasing relevance of strategic considerations in the nonprofit sector, this study investigates the entrepreneurial orientation of nonprofit CEOs and its linkage to strategic decision-making. The study provides initial insights into the types and effects of CEO entrepreneurial orientation, corresponding strategic choices, and differences in the implementation of strategies through managerial control in nonprofit organizations. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with the top managers of German nonprofit hospitals. The interviews were evaluated using qualitative content analysis. The findings are consistent with upper echelon theory, which considers management characteristics to be a determinant of strategic decision making, acting as a mediator between the external environment and strategic choices. The analysis includes two levels: (1) the entrepreneurial orientation of nonprofit CEOs at the individual level and (2) strategic choices on competitive strategies and their implementation at the organizational level. The findings show that the competitive environment evokes different types of entrepreneurial orientation that influence the approach of nonprofit CEOs to strategic decisions and implementation processes. Highly entrepreneurial CEOs prefer prospector strategies over defender or reactor strategies. CEOs with low levels of entrepreneurial orientation tend to use controls diagnostically, whereas CEOs exhibiting medium to high levels of entrepreneurial orientation use controls interactively. This study extends the existing literature by providing evidence of the types of managerial entrepreneurial orientation in nonprofit organizations and the resulting effects on strategic planning and implementation processes. This paper thus sheds light on a key determinant of strategic decision-making and implementation in nonprofit organizations.