Léo-Paul Dana

The role of regional economic communities in Africa: perspectives from stakeholders in urban Zambia

While regional integration is perceived as an important component of Africas development strategy, some economic development programs have underperformed, delayed, or failed altogether due, in part, to inadequacy of resources. Examined in this paper are community perspectives on the role of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in eradicating poverty in Zambia. The focus of the research was to review the relationship of SADC to various definitions of poverty and to severe poverty. Our findings suggest a variance between current SADC development initiatives in Southern Africa and what communities perceive as their needs.

A Study of Natural Resource Use by the Nehiyaw (Cree) First Nation

The traditional relationship - that Aboriginal peoples in Canada have had with their land and its resources - has changed significantly since the arrival of Europeans. During the 17th and 18th centuries, trade relations with the newcomers introduced to Aboriginal peoples: 1) capitalism; 2) the capitalist view toward land; 3) the exploitation of resources. The newly formed Canadian Government in the late 19th century with its Indian policy expedited the shift to a capitalist economy with the creation of Indian reserves. During the mid-20th century, First Nations began to view economic interests as a part of their own development agenda. Today, Aboriginal people have developed new systems of self-government and self-determination that have increased their participation within the economy at all levels. They have expanded their jurisdictions and have created modern economic opportunities that include the management of resources in areas such as agriculture, forestry, fishing, water and non-renewable resources as examples.

Linking types of ICT entrepreneurs to new firm survival

We focus on the information and communication technology sector to verify links between founder profiles and outcomes. Using logistic regressions, this paper aims to detect differences among a pre-identified four-group typology of entrepreneurs. We find that these profiles differ strongly in terms of survival and observe unexpected human capital effects on firm survival. Findings reveal negative effects of opportunity costs, negative or not significant results of industry and management experience, and no effects of entrepreneurship capital and preparation. We find that a critical firm size is required to enable entrepreneurial learning in organisations. In addition, we confirm that commonly observed effects do not automatically hold in specific contexts. We observe primarily positive moderating effects of factors, compensating a lack of assets attributed to successful new firm performance in the literature. Our results are relevant for entrepreneurship policy to pick winners and to identify risk takers.

Prohibition and the American Dream: an analysis of the entrepreneurial life and times of Al Capone.

The iconic figure of Al Capone is arguably the most prominent figure of organised crime. Both biographers and scholars have analysed his life and behaviour. Hollywood has immortalised his character in film. Today, the name Capone remains synonymous with the word gangster. Although Capone owned businesses of a legitimate nature, illicit ventures and the spectre of the gangster-entrepreneur define his practice of entrepreneurship. In an attempt to understand Capone as an entrepreneur, this paper explores his entrepreneurial behaviour within an analysis of his resource profile, his Italian-American culture and the social context of the USA in the early 20th century.