Nigeria plays important roles in the overall socio-economic development of the entire African continent, including entrepreneurial activities. There is a less focus on the immersion of women and youths in playing participatory roles in digital entrepreneurship and digital technology innovation in order to boost the economic growth of the country. The primary objective of this study is to explore women and youths’ immersion, specifically in connection with digital entrepreneurship and digital technology innovation, for the purpose of fostering the growth of the economy. The methodology employed in this study is Critical Content Analysis (CCA) of cursory literature as an integral part of the qualitative method. The literature was sourced through different databases, such as library sources, journals, and the core collection of Web of Science (WOS), and the collections of studies used for analysis were between 2018 and 2023. The results demonstrated that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play significant roles in digital entrepreneurship activities in the country. In addition, there are various entrepreneurship programmes in the country, such as the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP), and there is awareness of the effectiveness and efficiency of digital entrepreneurship. In addition, the result further established that the use of digital technology is an important innovation for the success of digital entrepreneurship in the country. The study further indicated that five factors of women and youths’ immersion in entrepreneurship (perception and opportunities, business performance, digital adoption, skill acquisition, and enabling environment) can boost the growth of the economy in the country. In conclusion, the knowledge and skills of entrepreneurs are major drivers of wealth and job creations, with women and youths playing an active role in the overall entrepreneurship programmes. It is suggested that the stakeholders and actors in entrepreneurship should collaborate to foster the participation of women and youths in entrepreneurship programmes in the country.
Natural forests and abandoned agricultural lands are increasingly replaced by monospecific forest plantations that have poor capacity to support biodiversity and ecosystem services. Natural forests harbour plants belonging to different mycorrhiza types that differ in their microbiome and carbon and nutrient cycling properties. Here we describe the MycoPhylo field experiment that encompasses 116 woody plant species from three mycorrhiza types and 237 plots, with plant diversity and mycorrhiza type diversity ranging from one to four and one to three per plot, respectively. The MycoPhylo experiment enables us to test hypotheses about the plant species, species diversity, mycorrhiza type, and mycorrhiza type diversity effects and their phylogenetic context on soil microbial diversity and functioning and soil processes. Alongside with other experiments in the TreeDivNet consortium, MycoPhylo will contribute to our understanding of the tree diversity effects on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across biomes, especially from the mycorrhiza type and phylogenetic conservatism perspectives.
This study investigated the students’ perceptions of a self-paced fitness program that is integrated with SitFit, a fitness tracker that measures body inclination during sit-up exercises, and their acceptance of digital innovation in physical education. The data was gathered from a survey of 1001 Thai undergraduates. Results revealed that attitudes toward using the technology and the perceived ease of use were important predictors of behavioral intention to use the sit-up fitness tracker. consistent with previous TAM studies. Subsequently, SitFit was developed based on exercise principles and expert advice to enable users to exercise more effectively while reducing injury risk.
Universities play a key role in university-industry-government interactions and are important in innovation ecosystem studies. Universities are also expected to engage with industries and governments and contribute to economic development. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), governments have introduced relevant policies regarding the AI-enabled innovation ecosystem in universities. Previous studies have not focused on the provision of a dynamic capabilities perspective on such an ecosystem based on policy analysis. This research work takes China as a case and provides a framework of AI-enabled dynamic capabilities to guide how universities should manage this based on China’s AI policy analysis. Drawing on two main concepts, which are the innovation ecosystem and dynamic capabilities, we analyzed the importance of the AI-enabled innovation ecosystem in universities with governance regulations, shedding light on the theoretical framework that is simultaneously analytical and normative, practical, and policy-relevant. We conducted a text analysis of policy instruments to illustrate the specificities of the AI innovation ecosystem in China’s universities. This allowed us to address the complexity of emerging environments of innovation and draw meaningful conclusions. The results show the broad adoption of AI in a favorable context, where talents and governance are boosting the advance of such an ecosystem in China’s universities.
The study’s purpose is to evaluate the influence of some factors of the model of planned behavior (TPB) and the perceived academic support of the university on the attitude toward entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention of students. The results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) linear structural model analysis with primary data collected from 1162 students indicated that entrepreneurial intention is influenced by attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norm, perceived educational support, and perceived concept development support. In addition, this study also found the positive influence of perceived educational support, concept development support, and business development support on attitude towards entrepreneurship. Interestingly, the influence of perceived business development support on entrepreneurial intention was rejected, and personal innovativeness is demonstrated to promote an attitude toward entrepreneurship. Notably, this study also highlights the moderating role of personal innovativeness on the relationship between attitude toward entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention. Based on these findings, several implications were suggested to researchers, universities, and policymakers.
This paper proposes a floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond, where the interest of a government bond is paid to investors during the period of construction and the early period of operation. Unlike the usual government bond, which provides a fixed interest rate, the proposed floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond pays a floating interest, the rate of which depends on spillover tax revenues. Effective infrastructure projects have a positive effect on the economic growth of a region, known as the spillover effect. When user charges and the return from spillover tax revenues are below the fixed rate of the government bond, the interest rate will equal to the fixed rate of the government bond. In this case, investors in the infrastructure will receive interest on the government bond at the minimum rate. As the spillover effect of the infrastructure increases, the rate of return for infrastructure investment will become greater than the fixed rate of the government bond. The success of the floating-interest-rate infrastructure bond depends on the spillover effect and on transparency and accountability. Policy recommendations are provided in this paper on how to increase the spillover effect and improve transparency and accountability.
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