Narrow Results

It is possible that when looked at from the outside, the Gulf Arab countries give an impression that they are not very supportive to female entrepreneurs. This perception may be pertinent to a certain degree; however, Emirati female entrepreneurs (EFE) in the United Arab Emirates demonstrate that enhancing co-operation and support is possible through increasing interaction and networking with men. Analysis is undertaken of the observations and actions of conveniently selected 17 EFEs. The scoping of the respondents reveal that EFEs who engage with indirect male ties require a 'male contact facilitator' from their family or relatives to do so. These men are facilitated by the entrepreneur to adopt the role of a 'male network partner (MNP) and provide support in overcoming challenges and achieving business objectives. The paper sets new standards of support for Emirati women in business ventures as it attempts to describe Emirati female entrepreneurship in a different language and proposes that co-operation, interaction and networking with men help EFEs access and use key resources, alleviate or remove key challenges and achieve business objectives.

Recognizing the limits of our knowledge and being dissatisfied with incomplete understanding is a major driver of scientific progress. Humanity’s experience over the last 300 years is ample demonstration of this. If we look carefully enough at the data, it is clear that we are progressing not only in terms of scientific discovery but in applications of science that are highly beneficial to our quality of life, such as medicine, agriculture, finance, transport and energy. Economic growth, in terms both of financial gain and improvement in real living standards, depends on creative thinkers who can mine and exploit such new knowledge, both as entrepreneurs and as policymakers. Public policymakers may err in the way new technology is applied, however, because they are not well-equipped to take into account the psychology of human reactions to innovation and change. Entrepreneurs with their own resources can exploit market forces to check whether an innovation is able to address the real needs and desires of the population, and if not, to change the application so that it does respond to true demand. The human thirst for knowledge seems only to accelerate rather than be satisfied by advances in knowledge and technology, so the opportunity for applying new science to human problems has a bright future. I n Brunei, for example, one area could be the development of solar farms and other forms of renewable energy, for which we examine the pros and cons in this paper.

Problem and background: This chapter is written based on a study that has taken place over the last four years and it revolves around the difficulty in creating a framework to come around all aspects about the wish to be sustainable and understand the nature of the UN sustainable goals and these problems as well.

Question: The chapter’s problem statement is as follows: How can we, through an action research process, influence the very complex processes in being sustainable and create stories about that, which shows that our process is sustainable in all 17 goals?

Methods: In these two case studies, we are positioned in the paradigm of hermeneutical phenomenology. We have constructed our methodology based on a plethora of qualitative methods, fieldnotes and several workshops based on the methods of Appreciative Inquiry and future workshop.

Findings: Through our case studies, we have worked together with several co-researchers in workshops and conferences, and based on our interpretations, we have identified aspects which we perceive as important aspects towards building a storytelling model for sustainable processes.

Conclusion: The difficulties in collaboration stem from several aspects, these being relations between the members of different groups’ perceptions and organizational difficulties. For the co-researchers to be able to affect the collaboration they must applicate new insights, as to spread their understandings with their colleagues. Through the externalization of their new insights, the co-researchers might be able to provoke the new practices of the collaboration. We have found that we were able to influence our co-researchers’ collaboration through our disturbances created by active engagement with the co-researchers.