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Women cross-border traders face impediments in their entrepreneurial work from time-to-time. To overcome these impediments, females need to take on self-concept (self-esteem, self-confidence, social roles) mediated by self-organization (adaptability, interaction, team working) in order to thrive in cross-border trading (CBT), using evidence from Uganda. So, in this paper the authors explain the behavior of a female who succeeds in CBT with interest of scaling it up to empower more female entrepreneurs.

This study is a correlational and cross-sectional type. A questionnaire survey of 288 females was used. The data collected were analyzed through SPSS.

The results reveal that self-concept, mediated by self-organization, controlled by tenure in business and the age of a female in CBT significantly influences CBT behavior among females in Uganda.

This study focused on females who are involved in CBT in Uganda. Therefore, it is likely that the results may not be generalized to other settings. The results show that for females to succeed in CBT, self-concept and self-organization affect CBT behavior once they are controlled by tenure in business and the age of a female in CBT at more than 30 years of age and longer than 5 years.

This study provides initial evidence that self-concept, mediated by self-organization, controlled by tenure in business and age of a CBT directly affects CBT behavior, using evidence from an African developing country – Uganda.

Informal learning networks are critical to response to calls for practitioners to reskill and upskill in off-site construction projects. With the transition to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social media-enabled online knowledge communities play an increasingly important role in acquiring and disseminating off-site construction knowledge. Proximity has been identified as a key factor in facilitating interactive learning, yet which type of proximity is effective in promoting online and offline knowledge exchange remains unclear. This study takes a relational view to explore the proximity-related antecedents of online and offline learning networks in off-site construction projects, while also examining the subtle differences in the networks' structural patterns.

Five types of proximity (physical, organizational, social, cognitive and personal) between projects members are conceptualized in the theoretical model. Drawing on social foci theory and homophily theory, the research hypotheses are proposed. To test these hypotheses, empirical case studies were conducted on two off-site construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Valid relational data provided by 99 and 145 project members were collected using semi-structured interviews and sociometric questionnaires. Subsequently, multivariate exponential random graph models were developed.

The results show a discrepancy arise in the structural patterns between online and offline learning networks. Offline learning is found to be more strongly influenced by proximity factors than online learning. Specifically, physical, organizational and social proximity are found to be significant predictors of offline knowledge exchange. Cognitive proximity has a negative relationship with offline knowledge exchange but is positively related to online knowledge exchange. Regarding personal proximity, the study found that the homophily effect of hierarchical status merely emerges in offline learning networks. Online knowledge communities amplify the receiver effect of tenure. Furthermore, there appears to be a complementary relationship between online and offline learning networks.

Proximity offers a novel relational perspective for understanding the formation of knowledge exchange connections. This study enriches the literature on informal learning within project teams by revealing how different types of proximity shape learning networks across different channels in off-site construction projects.