Impact of positivity and empathy on social entrepreneurial intention: The moderating role of perceived social support

Social entrepreneurship is a growing area of interest among practitioners. Social entrepreneurship meets and satisfies social needs and brings social change through innovative ideas. This study aims to investigate the impact of positivity and empathy of individuals on social entrepreneurial intention. This study considers the mediating role of social entrepreneurial self‐efficacy between the relationship of positivity, empathy, and social entrepreneurial intention. In addition, this study investigates perceived social support as a boundary condition between the relationship of social entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and social entrepreneurial intention. Findings show that positivity and empathy positively influence social entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, which subsequently positively influences social entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, results show that high perceived social support strengthens the relationship between social entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and social entrepreneurial intention. Discussions and implications based on the study findings are reported.     

Supporting farmer participation in formal seed systems: lessons from Tharaka,Kenya

This article examines contemporary challenges of formal seed sector participation for resource-poor farmers in Tharaka and engages in a wider discussion of national seed policy and formal seed sector development in Kenya. While many farmers reported utilising modern seed varieties developed by the formal seed sector, the majority of these were introduced through seed aid and maintained through seed saving, supporting seed system integration strategies. Building on these findings, the article discusses ways in which national seed policy in Kenya might be refined to better meet national and regional development goals focused on decreasing the incidence of hunger and poverty.     

Bedouin-Jewish Relations in the Negev 1943–1948

On the foundation of the first Jewish settlements in the Negev, at the start of the 1940s, the Bedouins welcomed the Jewish settlers. The local personal connections and mutual acquaintance between them created a feeling of closeness. The symbiosis of daily life and mutual help in the fields of personal needs, from medicine to transport, replaced their mutual fears.

However, two factors quickly changed this attitude. The first was a severe drought, which struck the Negev in the winter of 1947, and brought with it a difficult economic situation, followed by several robberies and disputes, and damage to property. The second factor was the incessant encouragement given by the leaders of the Palestinian National Movement to the Bedouins to join the struggle against the Jewish population, especially after the UN decision in November 1947, that is, after the partition of Palestine and the inclusion of the Negev within the borders of the Jewish state.

Most of the Bedouins joined the Palestinian National Struggle. Friends of yesterday became today's enemies. The years 1947–1949 were a period of anarchy, which continued well into the 1950s. In this period the State of Israel was established. Consequently, the Jewish population in the Negev was no longer the party responsible for the relationship with the Bedouins, as the Israeli government took its place. Also contact between neighbors was reduced after the Bedouins were evacuated toward the ‘fence’ region, in the Beer-Sheva Valley. The freedom the Bedouins enjoyed before the war did not exist anymore.     

Predicting the use of conflict resolution tactics among engaged Arab-Palestinian men in Israel

This article reports one of the first studies of woman abuse in the Arab world. A standardized measurement package was completed by 434 engaged Arab-Palestinian men living in Israel. The study sought to explain men's differential use of conflict tactics with their fiancées using variables representing three frameworks: (1) male dominance, (2) intergenerational learning, and (3) interpersonal skills deficit. Results revealed that a combination of factors from disparate frameworks best explained the variance. Men who used reasoning in conflicts were less likely to have originated from families where they were exposed to violence, more likely to have egalitarian expectations from marriage, and more likely to be characterized as androgynous. Men who were verbally and physically aggressive toward their fiancées, were more likely to have come from homes where they were exposed to violence, were less likely to empathize with their fiancées, and more likely to hold negative and traditional attitudes toward women.     

Relationships between socioeconomic status,locus of control,self-concept,and academic achievement of batswana adolescents

Relationships between socioeconomic status, locus of control, self-concept, and academic achievement were explored in secondary school pupils in the Mmabatho area of Bophuthalswana (Southern Africa). The analyses of data revealed the following: (a) both male and female Batswana adolescents were found significantly more externally oriented when compared against the normative data provided by Nowicki-Strickland (1973); (b) socioeconomic status was significantly positively associated with internality, self-concept, and academic achievement in English; (c) externality was significantly negatively related to self-concept and achievement in English; (d) self-concept was significantly positively correlated to measures of achievement in English and mathematics; and (e) mathematics achievement of male students was significantly higher than female ones.     

Relationships between personal control,moral reasoning,and socioeconomic status of Nigerian hausa adolescents

The Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) Scale devised by Rotter, the revised Kohlberg's Scale of Moral Judgment, and a socioeconomic background questionnaire were administered to 97 Nigerian Hausa secondary school adolescents. Data were analyzed to find sex differences in locus of control and moral reasoning, and relationships between locus of control, moral judgment level, and socioeconomic status. Significant sex differences were not revealed in either locus of control or moral reasoning. No significant relationships between locus of control, moral judgment, and socioeconomic background were found.     

Police legitimacy and support for vigilante violence in Pakistan

Bottoms and Tankebe recently analysed the multidimensional nature of police legitimacy and made an argument for its relevance to social order. Using survey data from three communities of varying socioeconomic conditions in Pakistan, this paper examines the links between the multiple dimensions of the Bottoms-Tankebe model of police legitimacy and support for vigilante violence. The findings show overall high levels of support for vigilantism. Regression analysis shows that experiences of police illegality consistently predict support for vigilantism across the three communities. Perceived quality of police decision-making predicts support for vigilantism in some conditions but not others. Contrary to expectations, quality of interpersonal treatment by police and police effectiveness do not explain support for vigilantism. We also found no evidence to show that feelings of obligation to obey the police mediate the influence of police legitimacy on vigilante support. The implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.     

Fatal Intoxications Due to Administration of Isosorbide Tablets Contaminated with Pyrimethamine

In January 2012, 664 cases of pyrimethamine toxicity and 151 deaths were reported among cardiac patients that had recently received free medicines from pharmacy of Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore, Pakistan. These patients, ages ranged from 58 to 75 years, were prescribed simvastatin, clopidogrel, aspirin soluble, isosorbide mononitrate, and amlodipine. On examination of medications being given to them, it was found that a particular batch of isosorbide mononitrate tablets was contaminated with 50 mg pyrimethamine. Cardiac patients were taking isosorbide contaminated with pyrimethamine twice daily (100 mg pyrimethamine/day), whereas therapeutic dose of pyrimethamine for malaria is 25 mg/week. Postmortem urine, cardiac blood, and femoral blood specimens of three deceased males were submitted to author's laboratory for analysis. Postmortem toxicological analysis revealed that pyrimethamine concentration fell within the range of 1–10 μg/mL by liquid chromatography. Clinical, autopsy, histopathological, and toxicological findings strongly suggested toxicity due to pyrimethamine accumulation that resulted in deaths of these cardiac patients.     

Revisiting Purchasing Power Parity for India using threshold cointegration and nonlinear unit root test

This study examines the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis in case of India for her five major trading partners over the period of 1991M₁–2009M₂. The study used the DF-GLS unit root test and threshold autoregressive (TAR) model as well as momentum-TAR (M-TAR) models for empirical analysis. However, we relied on TAR and MTAR models based cointegration tests to draw conclusions because of their superiority to traditional cointegration techniques as these models have limit cycles, amplitude dependent frequencies, and jump phenomena. These models are capable of producing asymmetric limit cycles and are suitable for time series data. Our empirical exercise reveals that PPP hypothesis does not exist for all major trading partners in case of India. This reveals that intermediate goods face high barriers to trade in this sampled countries. This supports the argument that Indian government has not been able to strike out the proper balance between flexibility and stability between real bilateral exchange rates and thus unable to maintaining confidence in the domestic currency that has been evident from the recent fall of rupee in relation to the US dollar.     

Bureaucratic Perceptions to the Politics–Bureaucracy Relations in Bangladesh: A Moral Dilemma in between Political Neutrality and Responsiveness

Irrespective of the systems of government, a major question is: what are the views and perceptions of the bureaucrats about politics–bureaucracy relations? Aiming to address this problem, in this article an attempt has been made to undertake an empirical study of bureaucracy in Bangladesh. The study reveals that as a post-colonial structure, government bureaucracy is an essential and integral part of the administration in Bangladesh but the bureaucracies are always in a dilemma regarding their relationship with the political leaderships. The relationship between politicians and bureaucrats is neither normatively dichotomous with political neutrality nor abundantly cohesive or responsive to the political leaderships according to the perceptions of bureaucracy. Moreover, bureaucracy in Bangladesh is suffering from a moral puzzle between political neutrality and political responsiveness even though the bureaucrats are still in a dominant position in some cases.