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This paper aims to examine the factors that are responsible for the poor credit recovery among micro‐finance institutions (MFIs) that disbursed a United Nations Development Programme's micro credit in Anambra State, Nigeria.

A total of 97 MFIs were surveyed out of a total of 129 MFIs in Anambra State in 2007. A ten‐item researcher developed questionnaire on a four‐point Likert scale was used to measure MFIs' staff assessment of factors that were responsible for poor credit recovery. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data, and conclusions and implications of the findings are presented.

From the findings of this study, it is evident that multidimensional factors contribute to low credit recovering by the MFIs. These factors can be summarised under borrowers' wrong attitude to credit repayment, MFIs' staff weak skill and corrupt tendency, and poor infrastructural provision by the government. Arguably, these factors have direct effect in encumbering genuine effort at alleviating poverty in Nigeria through the instrumentality of micro credit. This calls for a change in strategy especially on the part of the MFIs in reducing the incidence of low credit recovery.

The paper offers fresh insight that would offer better understanding of the informal sector of the financial system in Nigeria that has hitherto received limited research attention.

This paper is informative in terms of the imperativeness for public policy adjustment and firm‐level competencies required for better operation of the MFIs in Nigeria. This would translate into creating viable micro‐credit sector to support current plans to eradicate poverty and foster the development of the “bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid”.

Addresses issues related to micro credit in a highly challenged and isolated context.

With the increasing research attention given to the culture‐entrepreneurship research, the need to explore the apparently neglected cultures has continued to escalate. The Nnewi culture of Anambra State in Nigeria is a culture known for high incidence of productive entrepreneurship, but unfortunately has received limited research attention. Using this as a point of departure, this paper aims to examine the influence of cultural traits of the Nnewi people that propel entrepreneurial emergence and success.

A survey of 30 owner‐managers (chief executives) and 236 top management staff (cutting across gender, class, age and religious lines) of select Nnewi indigenously owned firms were surveyed.

Culture had a strong and positive impact on the entrepreneurial and managerial performance of the Nnewi people. The critical aspects of the Nnewi cultural traits that propel entrepreneurial zeal and managerial performance include prudence, individualism, innovativeness, trust, intimacy and openness in the workplace, submissive apprenticeship as well as perseverance. Furthermore, the results suggested that the “Afia Olu” and “Ikwu Aru” festivals celebrated yearly, are the basis for the industrious cultural attributes of Nnewi people.

The paper lends an “African voice” to the culture‐entrepreneurship literature by providing an empirical basis for sub Saharan African (SSA) cultures to look inwards for the purposes of identifying social values, ethos, beliefs, and practices that could propel entrepreneurship development in the same manner the Nnewi community has evolved. Overall, the paper provides an update on a decade old enterprising community – Nnewi, drawing inspiration from other native communities such as the Taos Pueblo in North America and the Kibbutz communities in Israel.

This study investigated the effects of reward system (RS) and job conditions (JC) on employee retention (ER). In particular, this study addressed the mediating effect of employee engagement (EE) on the relationship between RS, JC and ER.

This paper employed descriptive survey approach and the unit of analysis consisted of public hospital nursing staff. Data were collected using questionnaires with a sample of 370 nurse respondents. Structural equation modelling with Smart-Partial Least Squares (PLS) 3.3.8 was used in a statistical analysis.

The results revealed that RS and JC significantly related to ER. The study also showed the direct effect of RS and JC on EE. These findings indicate that (EE) has a partial mediating role in the relationship between RS, JC and ER.

The study offers important policy insights for public nursing stakeholders who seek to increase retention of skills among their nursing staff. The findings are also crucial because they may help the health sector improve their ER strategies, especially in dynamic and competitive business situations where organisations are challenged to retain personnel from a limited skilled workforce.

The findings of this study contribute to the literature on retention of nursing employees by enhancing the understanding of the influences of EE, RS and JC on ER among public hospitals.

This paper aims to explore cultural attitudes and beliefs about entrepreneurship in the southwestern region of Cameroon. This study also identifies the existence of subcultural variations with important implications for the development of entrepreneurial activities in Cameroon.

The paper uses the hybrid qualitative/quantitative Q methodology to survey and analyze a purposively diverse sample of individuals and thereby discover subcultural structures and patterns to the attitudes and beliefs that exist in Cameroonian culture.

This study discovers three distinct subcultures that differ significantly in their attitudes and beliefs about entrepreneurship. These subcultures can neither be predicted from commonly used national measures of cultures, such as those of Hofstede, nor are they directly attributable to regional effects.

The author calls into question the continuing use of national culture as a construct in explaining and predicting entrepreneurial activities, through discovery of subcultures at odds with national measures. Further research should be undertaken to assess the prevalence within Cameroonian society of the three widely different subcultures identified here.

This paper highlights the importance of incorporating subcultural variations in attitudes and beliefs (whether regional, tribal or other) in the development and implementation of public policies to affect national entrepreneurship.

The paper applies a novel methodology to qualitatively explore the subjective variations in the meaning and value of entrepreneurship in Cameroonian society, and to quantitatively develop a structure or typology to these variations.