Hemant Kassean

Entrepreneurship education: a need for reflection, real-world experience and action

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of common undergraduate entrepreneurship classroom activities on students’ motivational processes related to entrepreneurial careers. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 700 undergraduate students from a variety of majors at a large midwestern university in the USA were invited to take a web-based survey. They were asked to indicate which experiential activities they would participate/were participating in as part of their program. Findings – The findings show that students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) is a driving force in classroom activities enhancing students’ intentions. However, the authors also found that the type of classroom activities that are common in entrepreneurship education negatively impact students’ ESE. Research limitations/implications – The generalizability is limited to the US region and the link from intention to behavior goes untested, but results strongly supported the adoption of social cognitive career theo...

Teaching and Assessing in Clinical Practice

A structured teaching programme was designed for second year student nurses who were on a 1-week placement at the ENT hospital of Mauritius. As part of the programme, this article discusses how a teaching session on tracheostomy suctioning and humidification was implemented. The teaching session incorporated both the pedagogical and andragogical techniques in order to make the learning experience meaningful for the students. The learning outcomes were evaluated in terms of, knowledge, skill and attitude and were found to have been mostly met. However, more practice was required on the part of the students in order to become more proficient. Formal training and assessing in clinical practice can contribute significantly towards improving the quality of care and satisfying the needs of patients.

Why do both marriages and strategic alliances have over 50% failure rate? : A study of relationship quality of strategic alliances in China, Japan and Mauritius

This research explores the importance of quality variables for achieving high quality in strategic alliance relationship, reasons for strategic alliance failures and provides insights into their underlying causes. Data for analysis is generated from 112 managers from different industries in three countries. Frequency, factor, and regression analysis, reliability tests are used for data analysis. Multiple item scales based on five qualities model (5Qs) were developed and adapted. The results suggest that there is an important interaction between most independent variables and alliance motivations, length and type of alliance. Quality of atmosphere followed by quality of interaction was identified as the most important variables to achieve high total quality of strategic alliance relationship (TQSAR). The proposed 5Qs model consists of some generic and integrated dimensions. Each quality dimension is represented by a number of statements/items, intended to represent a specific quality factor as thoroughly and reliably as possible.

Consumer Buyer Behaviour: The Role of Internet Banking in Mauritius

The present paper reports on key findings from a study of the Mauritian banking sector of the influence of internet banking. It also explores the expectations of users of internet banking services offered by local banks in Mauritius and issues influencing the adoption of internet banking. Two semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with two top executives, and a survey-questionnaire using a representative sample of 300 participants from round the island. This exercise was carried out on Saturday mornings over a period of 7 weeks. Saturday mornings were chosen as it is the day of high utilization of ATMs in all urban and rural areas, and when most offices are closed in Mauritius. Of all the questionnaires, collected, 240 were usable and were compiled and grouped in categories. The key findings were: confidentiality and security when transacting online, convenience and accessibility for doing banking on a round – the – clock, ease of navigation of banks’ website to complete the transactions, factors that constitute barriers to its adoption, the high cost of internet communications and computer equipment, the accessibility and downtime of the internet which act as hurdles for Internet Banking acceptance and limitations of the study is discussed.

Managing Change Enhancing Nurses’ Competency for Nutritional Care of Elderly Patients

Innovations in high-tech medicine are significantly improving the chances of survival of many patients. However, the importance of basic nutritional needs should not be overlooked. The frail and el...Innovations in high-tech medicine are significantly improving the chances of survival of many patients. However, the importance of basic nutritional needs should not be overlooked. The frail and elderly are a vulnerable group and often rely on nurses’ support to meet their nutritional requirements. This paper addresses the topic of developing and implementing a teaching programnme for nurses in Ward A2 at the Dr. A.G. Jeetoo Hospital to enhance nurses’ knowledge and skills in nutritional care for elderly patients. A survey carried out in November 2003 in A2 suggests that the elderly patients’ nutritional needs are not being met adequately and this represents the major group of patients admitted to our hospitals and is expanding rapidly. Using appropriate management tools and techniques and proper planning, this programme was successfully implemented in Ward A2 and has improved the morale of staff and patients alike. The challenge now is to keep this momentum going and extend this innovation to other important aspects of care of the elderly in order to make it more holistic and bring a significant improvement in their quality of life.

An Insight into the Networking Approaches of Women Entrepreneurs in Mauritius

Studies on gender and entrepreneurship often attempt to compare personal characteristics, business practices and behaviour of male and female entrepreneurs. One key element in entrepreneurship that has started to gain attention is networking. Networking can be of strategic importance to entrepreneurs since starting a business requires resources such as capital, labour and information and advice. Networks thus contribute to the access of the needed support and facilities to entrepreneurs and potential ones in starting and operating their businesses effectively. Furthermore, networks are related to business performance as the contacts from these networks form the social capital of entrepreneurs. Research in many countries has shown that although women are involved in networking, they nonetheless lack suitable and effective social networks compared to men. Since it is generally accepted that there is a relationship between networks and the survival and success of businesses, especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the main objectives of the present study is to investigate the network composition of female entrepreneurs in Mauritius and also to identify the benefits derived from networking. The study will also identify causes, if any, that hinders the networking practices of women entrepreneurs. Ten women entrepreneurs from diverse sectors formed part of a focus group, the chosen method of data collection for this study. The findings reveal that female entrepreneurs tend to favour family and friends in their contact lists. Their networks comprise more women than men. The reasons and benefits derived from their networks include receiving business support and emotional support. The main hindrance preventing women to network effectively is due to family responsibilities. The findings from this study provides useful insights for support institutions, policy makers and entrepreneurs – especially women entrepreneurs – in identifying ways and means about how to enrich social networks to ensure success and survival of businesses.

Utilization of Emergency Medical Services in Mauritius

The SAMU, ‘Service d’ Aide Medicale Urgente’, was set up in Mauritius in December 1997 in collaboration with University of Bordeaux II, with the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life and the Mauritian Institute of Health in a bid to offer pre-hospital emergency treatment to people in distress. Recorded data concerning the public use of the service were analyzed: 1,967 run sheets were investigated and trends were identi-fied. The study showed that a large proportion of the service is being used by the aged, and the commonest reasons for calling SAMU were road traffic accidents, cardiac problems and bronchial asthmas. The rate of use of the service is almost the same for every day of the week, although it is more in demand between 0900 hours to 1500 hours. The emergency teams of Jeetoo and Victoria hospitals are more solicited than the others, and the Flacq hospital team was utilized in only 10 per cent of the total number of interventions. As expected, the demand on the service is increasing, resulting in a need for additional staff and other resources. Future studies could examine response times and patients’ satisfaction with the service.