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Understanding student’s intentions with regard to entrepreneurship as a possible career pathway is important for the development of the formal economy. Presented here are the results from a longitudinal study conducted between 2010 and 2014 involving a sample of 1,513 undergraduate students, of which 54 agreed to be interviewed. The research is qualitative and has combined the Opportunity Structure with the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand the reasons why students chose to start a business either just prior to or within one year of entering university, and their intentions upon graduating. The results show that many of these businesses sit within the informal economy, and may be categorized as low growth businesses with few skill requirements. Importantly, the research has discovered that these students are also highly strategic with regard to educational pathways, and many of these businesses are focused on delivering and/or sustaining a particular lifestyle while at university.

This book provides an opportunity to explore the societal effects of entrepreneurship and its result on competitiveness. Over the last decade society has changed as the consequence of demographic shifts and increased usage of information communications technology. This has influenced the type of entrepreneurship individuals and firms to engage in and the focus of their businesses. Despite the importance of society to the speed and rate of entrepreneurship, little research exists that specifically examines societal entrepreneurship and competitiveness. This book aims at narrowing this research gap by discussing the interface between society and entrepreneurship. The core theme emerging from the chapters in this book is that the context of entrepreneurship is dependent on societal perceptions.

The relevance of regional security has increased in the wake of decolonization and the end of the Cold War. In a globalized and intertwined world, security can no longer be conceived as having the state as its sole object or subject. Regional clusters of security have become a new paradigm in international relations, and a new wave of regionalist scholarship has arisen in response. However, although this body of work has devoted considerable attention to defining the elements that constitute each regional cluster, less attention has been given ascertaining how such clusters are formed. This exploratory chapter provides an extensive review of the relevant literature and draws two conclusions. First, it suggests that, as postulated by a large portion of the regional security literature, regions of security are a natural consequence of proximity, as threats travel more easily over short distances than over longer ones. Second, it extends that argument by arguing that security also clusters at the regional level when regions are targets of extra-regional threats (regions as objects), and when they gain ‘actorness’ and operate as agents of peace and security (regions as subjects).

Given the considerable interest currently in the field of early childhood on ways culture influences children’s development, in this chapter I present findings from an ethnographic study I conducted over a six-month period that looks at cultural influences on children’s development. The study looks at 20 Mexican-American children living in a low-income neighborhood in a South Texas community. The children and their families were studied in three specific settings: the children’s homes, the neighborhood surrounding the children’s homes, and the Head Start Center the children attended which was located in the neighborhood. The children ranged in age from 3 to 5 years. Research methodology involved participant observation, informal interviewing, formal interviewing, and document analysis. The theories of Bronfenbrenner and Ogbu provide the framework for considering the cultural perspective in looking at children’s development. Numerous possible themes of cultural aspects as uniquely influencing children’s development emerged from the study’s data collection. The theme I address in this chapter is the adults’ use of names when addressing children. The findings of the study are also compared to the criterion of cultural diversity in Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). Implications for future research and early childhood practice are also presented. Finally, I suggest a new metaphor for looking at culture and its influence on child development.