Purpose – This paper attempts to identify the problem areas and developmental issues attached to women's entrepreneurship related to small medium enterprises (SMEs) particularly in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. It also attempts to devise certain stratagems for ensuring women's entrepreneurial growth and SMEs' advancement in the region. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase attempted to identify the problem areas in terms of nature, needs, desire, motivations and problems of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia by an extensive review of the existing literature. The second phase incorporated a ground survey and focused interviews with groups of female entrepreneurs for assessing the factors related to entrepreneurship. The data pertaining to these issues were collected using 90 personally administered “schedules” in eight areas in Addis Ababa on the basis of stratified sampling. Basic level statistical analysis was performed using SPSS statistical package. Findings – The focused interview identified problems in the areas of securing finances for establishing and running SMEs, lack of entrepreneurial and management competence and exposure, problems in finding the markets and distribution networks; limited opportunities for promotion and participation; limited amount of government and institutional support; absence of technological know-how and integration mechanism; and rampant corruption in an undisguised or disguised form, as major bottlenecks. Originality/value – The paper is one of the important studies taken in the context of women entrepreneurship in Ethiopia. No such studies have been undertaken in the past that assess the women entrepreneur in the context of overall SME development. Only a few exist but give more importance to microfinance and micro-enterprises. So the paper is original in context as well as in research terms. Proper attention to the issues raised and recommendations made could give a significant boost to entrepreneurial activities in the region.

Purpose: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovative approach to learning that employs a multitude of strategies critical for success in the twenty-first century. It exposes students to the real world, opens an extended inquiry process, and boosts their communication skills and interdisciplinary learning. However, the extant literature on PBL places more emphasis on learning through internal rather than external projects. Industrial collaboration projects build partnerships and provide opportunities to work on real problems, often seeking multidisciplinary approaches. This study explores and suggests the benefits that students derived from their participation in an external research and consultancy project at a University in Oman. Design/methodology/approach: The study follows a qualitative analysis approach founded on an exploratory research design. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten research assistants, two research coordinators, and two project leaders involved in the project. The data from the interview were subjected to the thematic inductive qualitative analysis using Atlas.ti 8 software. Findings: The results of the study revealed that students derived some direct academic benefits, mainly in the area of conducting research. The major learning happened mostly in non-academic areas, for they learned many things necessary for success in real-life work situations. The students benefited largely on behavioural skills and abilities such as communication, self-confidence, English language skills, planning, thinking, and time management skills. Altogether, project-based learning offered them a different skillset beyond what they usually acquire in the conventional teaching and learning environment. Practical implications: The outcomes of this research support the development of curriculum design and instructional pedagogy in higher education in a specific context, concluding that PBL has much to do with the practical aspects of learning and employability. The finding suggests that by engaging in PBL, students can develop certain skills that cannot be acquired in a conventional teaching environment. PBL enables self-learning and prepares students to deal with different situations and challenges on the ground while inculcating professionalism to act in real-life situations. This study advocates the introduction of some PBL based courses in the curriculum to nurture a balanced set of skills and abilities among business students. Social implications: The research outcomes support Oman’s Vision 2040 and one of its strategies for capacity building that aims to adopt innovative methods for individual/collective development of students, as well as for their life-long learning. Originality/value: Project-based learning described in this study provides a pedagogical way to connect university education to a real-life situation. These results offer promising prospects for infusing outdoor multidisciplinary projects in the course curriculum. This work bears significant value for educators in designing curriculum and facilitating projects, particularly in environments where students exhibit weaknesses or inhibitions to receive the knowledge, appropriately, from the conventional mode of teaching.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of corruption in India, Fiji and Ethiopia and survey citizen perception of how e-governance could fight corruption. The main objective is to investigate and explore the potential of e-governance applications in three countries representing three different regions of Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted over 918 citizens in India, Ethiopia and Fiji using convenience random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used. The main emphasis of the survey was on citizen perception about corruption and poor service. It further asked respondents on how e-governance can cut corruption. Findings – Benefits of e-governance in developing countries are the same as those in developed countries but there are many potential benefits that remain unreaped by developing countries as a consequence of their unlimited use of e-governance. Based on these assertions, the researchers tried to evaluate and assess the potential of e-governance initiatives in India, Ethiopia and Fiji. By exploring the role of e-governance for reducing corruption that has afflicted the entire public sector in these countries, the main finding is that e-governance is positively related to government, “citizen relationship and corruption reduction”. Research limitations/implications – This study is highly empirical and does not provide case studies to further extend on the findings. Practical implications – The implications of the research are that information communication technology (ICT) needs to be effectively integrated in the development agenda of government plans in Ethiopia and Fiji. Government agencies in Ethiopia and Fiji do not seem to be much motivated to build sound government-citizen partnerships. Citizens can see little of the internal workings of government. However, for India, where there are many e-governance projects underway, and which is normally considered to be awakening to the challenges of e-governance and which has to date many success stories relating to e-governance, it is surprising to see that citizens find various existent formats of corruption and non-transparent service delivery activities. It is quite evident that bureaucracy is more or less opaque and very little attention has been paid to improving transparency, including through the use of e-governance processes. Time, cost and red-tape procedures are major constraints in public service delivery. Originality/value – The paper explores a problem that is of practical importance using principal-agent theory, which is very applicable to the public sector context.

Purpose: Supply and demand characteristics, influenced by the pre- and post-oil economy of Oman, have caused unemployment challenges to Omani graduates. The purpose of this paper is to explore the most common graduate attributes as they apply to graduates’ employability in Oman.Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the principles of “hypotheticodeductive logic” and inferential analysis using a combination of focus group and survey approach. Using an online mode of data collection targeting the past three cohorts of graduates from a prominent University in Oman, the study analyses and presents several insights into graduate attributes and employability issues.Findings: The research finds that the domain of educational institutions in Oman is mainly restricted to the basic generic skills in developing the graduate attributes. Students’ perspectives on employers’ selection criteria reveal that computing skills, the ability to work in teams, English language proficiency, prior training, and the graduate’s personality are the five most significant employability skills in Oman. Currently, there is little interaction among higher educational institutions, alumni, and industry in Oman for boosting the employability of graduates.Practical implications: The study is highly relevant from the policy perspective in Oman. All the stakeholders in Oman need to come together to define employability skills prudently by expanding the domain beyond generic skills.Originality/value: The study is important in the context of Oman due to a shortage of studies that look at the graduate attributes from the lens of employability besides addressing concerns about unemployment.