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The paper aims to test the direct and mediating effects of a set of environmental (family self‐employment background, social networks, legal system support, governmental support, and social norms) and individual (entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and risk propensity) factors on the propensity for self‐employment in the USA and Mexico.

A survey was administrated among students in three universities in the USA and in two universities in Mexico. Factor, reliability, t‐tests, and regression analyses were carried out. Mediation was assessed following Baron and Kenny.

Most direct and mediating effects were higher for the USA than for Mexico. Entrepreneurial self‐efficacy fully mediated several factor relationships in both countries. Results suggest a pattern of a strong formal institutions‐individual nexus in the USA, and a strong informal institutions‐individual nexus as well as a significant impact of the individual in Mexico.

The main weaknesses of this paper are the simple linear relationships used and the student sample. Nonetheless, the efforts carried out to develop this research and the set of factors considered point in the direction of the type of studies needed to further understanding of the phenomenon.

The paper suggests that effectiveness of self‐employment policy may improve by better matching knowledge about mental schemata, perceived resources, and perceived contexts by the target population with the incentive infrastructure supplied.

The value of this paper is that it studies, using an eclectic theoretical framework, a relatively large set of individual and environmental factors impacting the propensity for self‐employment in two different national contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative levels of multiple individual and environmental factors that influence self‐employment motivation in China, Mexico, and the USA and the effect of each factor on motivation for self‐employment in each country.

A survey was administered to 987 students at universities in the USA (n=535), Mexico (n=195), and China (n=257). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assure measurement model fit. Hypotheses were tested using ANOVA tests and regression analyses.

Results indicate that: the USA has the individual and environmental factors most favorable to self‐employment; Mexico has the highest level of motivation for self‐employment; independence and risk taking are the best predictors of motivation for self‐employment in all three countries; the predictive capability of independence, risk taking, and social networks appears similar for China and the USA; and the predictive capability of informal institutions, government support, and legal support appears similar for China and Mexico.

In spite of abundant research on factors involving motivation for self‐employment, little research has tested relationships among sizable sets of these factors in different countries. This paper examines the effects of multiple individual and environmental factors on self‐employment motivation in China, Mexico, and the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to propose Bourdieu's theory of practice (TOP) as a useful framework for conceptualizing agents' strategizing by considering players' strategizing as based on their habituses and capitals as well as their assessments of their relevant field(s).

The paper draws on Bourdieu's theory to better understand the strategizing of some of China's major players. The basic concepts of the model – strategy, field, habitus, and capital – are defined and developed for the major players studied.

This paper conceptualizes the strategizing as a dynamic set of players playing within and between multiple fields. It applies the fractality – in social space – of Bourdieu's TOP into specific agents or fields not only encompassing but going beyond isolated cognitive, cultural, and institutional considerations of one or more players to offer the possibility of taking into account structure and agency, variability and commonality and diverse degrees of granularity and heterogeneity.

Most strategy research considers strategizing from either a structuralist or a rational perspective. The paper adds comprehensiveness to strategy studies and improves strategy's identification by applying Bourdieu's TOP. In addition, the paper expands the level of attention previously given by Bourdieu's TOP to commonality and diversity as well as to multiple levels by visualizing Bourdieu's TOP in a fractal fashion.

The purpose of this paper is to examine several institutional and individual factors impacting business dynamics of domestic private companies in China.

Basing the discussion on detailed interviews with business owners, the paper discusses recent and future effects of financial and legal systems, social networks, family support, informal institutions, and business people's educational and work experiences on domestic, private companies.

The unfolding interplay between formal and informal institutions appears to be crucial for the future of the private sector and the development of free market institutions. Business people, who benefit from the changing orders bring about by economic reform, now want formal institutions to provide stability and security. The Chinese state has played, and will continue to play, a central role in most institutionalization processes. In addition to further shaping and stabilizing their institutional framework, Chinese private companies appear to face the following challenges: acquiring more soft management skills, resolving the potential agency problem of companies with mixed ownership managed by families, and solving the latent succession problem for some family businesses that originate from the “one child policy.”

Although the paper focuses on institutional and individual factors that pertain to the Chinese private business environment and business owners, the findings of this study deepen the understanding of the development of private firms conducting business in transitional economies.

The case-study building of this work is the Medieval Inn of Gralheira (“Pousada Medieval da Gralheira”) located in Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Portugal. This building is an example of the structures of that time, located in Trás-os-Montes, Portugal. A large amount of the built heritage suffers from advanced degradation, making the recovery, increasing the complexity of the rehabilitation and restoration intervention and implying a highly specialized interdisciplinary component. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to carry out a study of the building in order to perform an analysis of its wood floor and assess its structural behaviour and conservation status. This work also presents some examples of intervention methods and rehabilitation techniques used to solve problems in the masonry structure and wood structures.

In this work, a numerical model of a wood pavement of a medieval building is presented, which was developed and calibrated with values obtained in an experimental campaign of wood specimens extracted from the floor structure and the deformation measured in situ. This model aims to analyse and predict the behaviour of the structure in terms of serviceability limit states. Rehabilitation and reinforcing techniques are described, for specific damages, complemented with a critical comparative analysis to define the most appropriate rehabilitation measures for each situation.

In this work, for the numerical model of the medieval building under consideration, the support of the beams in the walls between 50 per cent embedded and simply supported (hinge supports) was used. Since the beams have some restriction imposed by the wall, they have a delivery about 20 cm in the wall. The consideration of the delivery between beam and columns as simply supported (hinge supports) is a reasonable approximation. There is a difference between the values of deformation obtained in the numerical model and in situ due to the support conditions and also due to the consideration of the pavement loads as a distributed load, which does not correspond entirely to reality, since the pavement confers rigidity to the floor, behaving like a diaphragm. The presented intervention techniques are not applicable in all structures because each building has different characteristics, in terms of materials and construction. The pathologies occur due to many sources and each case is unique, and must be carefully studied before taking decisions about the rehabilitation methods to use.

This work presents a numerical model of wood pavement of a medieval building developed according to some experimental values obtained in an experimental campaign using wood specimens extracted from original beams and based on in situ measurements. This study is part of master thesis of Michael Andrade, an original research work.

Banana is an important tropical fruit with high demand in the market. The ripe fruits are less resistant to transport making logistics difficult. Moreover, as a climacteric fruit, it has a short post-harvest shelf life. Edible coatings/films, including active substances, have been used as an alternative for preserving fruits and vegetables during post-harvest period. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incorporating clove essential oil on the properties of cassava starch films and their effect on the post-harvest quality of different banana varieties.

Cassava starch films incorporating clove essential oil were developed and the films were characterized with respect to moisture, thickness, solubility, water vapor permeability (WVP), biodegradability, color and in vitro antifungal activity. Cultivars such as Prata-Anã, Grand Nine, BRS Tropical and BRS Conquista were coated with cassava starch, cassava starch film with clove essential oil (CSEO) and polyvinyl polychloride (PVC). The quality of fruits was monitored during eight storage days using mass loss, total soluble solids content (TSS) and titratable acidity (TTA).

Incorporation of clove essential oil significantly increased film thickness, reduced moisture content, solubility and WVP (p < 0.05) and did not affect the biodegradability and color of the films. The essential oil incorporated films showed antifungal activity against the fungi Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Colletotrichum musae, but not against the yeast Saccharomyces bourladii. CSEO and PVC coating were more efficient in reducing the mass loss, SS content and TTA of the coated fruits in all varieties studied. Both CSEO and PVC coatings improve the quality attributes such as TSS and TTA and reduced mass loss, of the banana varieties such as Prata-Anã, Grand Nine, BRS Tropical and BRS Conquista during storage.

The active film with essential oil showed antifungal activity and essential oil can be incorporated into other food systems. This study approaches a new possibility of film coating with essential oil for a banana that showed minimum weight loss and satisfactory quality and increased shelf life. This film coating demonstrates biodegradable characteristics that could be eco-friendly and sustainable to consumers.