Search results

Entrepreneurship is a prominent area of inquiry which is enriched by an ample literature base and challenged by definitional deficiencies. Over the years, multiple perspectives of entrepreneurship have emerged and a holistic approach to entrepreneurship has been proposed. This can facilitate the continued enlargement of the entrepreneurship field and allow for interdisciplinary research within the African region. This chapter contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship in developing economies by providing an extensive review of the various approaches that entrepreneurship has been conceptualised. Nine themes are explored: the great person, economic perspective, psychological perspective, sociological perspective, behavioural perspective, management, intrapreneurship, cognitive perspective and leadership perspective. This is followed by an examination of entrepreneurship as a process, as a new venture creation and as an art of opportunity recognition and exploitation. In the last section of this chapter, a clarion call is made for more African scholarship and research in the field of entrepreneurship.

This conceptual paper aims to explore the possibility of human beings reaching a virtual form of immortality.

The paper is an investigation of the path from an early example of human knowledge to the birth of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots. A critical analysis of different point of views, from philosophers to scientists, is presented.

From ancient rock art paintings to the moon landing, human knowledge has made a huge progress to the point of creating robots resembling human features. While these humanoid robots can successfully undertake risky tasks, they also generate ethical issues for the society they interact with.

The paper is conceptual, and it does attempt to provide one theory by which human beings can achieve the dream of immortality. It is part of a work in progress on the use of AI and the issues related to the creation/use of humanoid robots in society.

This paper provides an overview of some of the key issues and themes impacting our modern society. Its originality resides in the linking of human knowledge to collective knowledge and then of collective mind to the hyper-collective mind. The idea of humans reaching immortality is burdened by the imperative need to define ethical guidelines for the field of AI and its uses.

Confronting the unveiled sophisticated structural and physical characteristics of permanent magnets, notably the samarium–cobalt (Sm-Co) alloy, This work aims to introduce a simulation scheme that can link physics-based micromagnetics on the nanostructures and magnetostatic homogenization on the mesoscale polycrystalline structures.

The simulation scheme is arranged in a multiscale fashion. The magnetization behaviors on the nanostructures examined with various orientations are surrogated as the micromagnetic-informed hysterons. The hysteresis behavior of the mesoscale polycrystalline structures with micromagnetic-informed hysterons is then evaluated by computational magnetostatic homogenization.

The micromagnetic-informed hysterons can emulate the magnetization reversal of the parameterized Sm-Co nanostructures as the local hysteresis behavior on the mesostructures. The simulation results of the mesoscale polycrystal demonstrate that the demagnetization process starts from the grain with the largest orientation angle (a) and then propagates to the surrounding grains.

The presented scheme depicts the demand for integrating data-driven methods, as the parameters of the surrogate hysteron intrinsically depend on the nanostructure and its orientation. Further hysteron parameters that help the surrogate hysteron emulate the micromagnetic-simulated magnetization reversal should be examined.

This work provides a novel multiscale scheme for simulating the polycrystalline permanent magnets’ hysteresis while recapitulating the nanoscale mechanisms, such as the nucleation of domains, and domain wall migration and pinning. This scheme can be further extended to simulate the part-level hysteresis considering the mesoscale features.

To continue to stay relevant in the era of Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) alongside the unprecedented disruption of COVID-19, the importance of lifelong learning is indisputable though this concept has existed for decades. In this context, open and distance learning (ODL) institutions are urged to re-think and re-design their online learning support systems that inculcate self-regulated lifelong learning (SR3Ls) in their learners to be adaptable and resilient for the post-pandemic economy. The purpose of this paper is to develop a SR3Ls model, namely SR3Ls model by utilising the collective opinions of a panel of experts to determine the key domains and attributes.

A 2-round Delphi consensus study was conducted with 39 experts from five countries. The mean, standard deviation (SD), inter-quartile range (IQR) and the ratio of experts assigned score of 4 or greater were used as the basis of consensus assessment with criteria set at mean = 3.0, SD = 1.5, IQR = 1, ratio on score 4 or greater at = 75%. The questionnaire consisted of 5-point Likert-type scale rating the importance level of each attribute combined with open-ended questions.

This paper presented the findings of the first round of Delphi consensus study. For the first round, the experts were asked to evaluate 31 key attributes of SR3Ls model under five domains. The findings revealed that there were five key attributes to be eliminated from the list, while there were seven attributes identified as the key attributes with highest consensus. There were additional attributes suggested by the Delphi panel to be added in the second round of evaluation.

This international consensus-based SR3Ls model serves as an important benchmark for ODL institutions across the regions in developing meaningful and relevant online learning support systems for their learners to adopt SR3Ls attributes in order to meet the dynamic market demands.