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The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship between growth intentions and entrepreneurial alertness of individual microentrepreneurs (abbreviated as MEIs). The specific objectives are to test the multidimensionality of the construct entrepreneurial alertness and to verify whether there is a relationship between growth intentions and all other dimensions of alertness. The research method employed was a survey, which was carried out with 134 MEIs, and hypothesis testing on the multidimensionality of the construct alertness, which had empirical support, and on the relationship between growth intentions and entrepreneurial alertness, which was only partially supported by the empirical analysis. This research presents an original contribution to studies on the growth of microenterprises, a growing entrepreneurial category in Brazil. In addition, the present study presents a theoretical contribution to studies on the growth of small-sized businesses, as well as on entrepreneurial opportunities, emphasizing the existing relationship between growth intention and one dimension of entrepreneurial alertness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women start entrepreneurial business predominantly in the sectors of trade and services (RICHARDSEN; BURKE, 2000; SANNER, 2000; SOLTÉSZ, 2000), being generally small business (BAYGAN, 2000; BOCHNIARZ, 2000; RICHARDSEN; BURKE, 2000; SANNER, 2000; ZAPALSKA, 1997) and most of these businesses do not begin with more than 10 employees (MORRIS et al., 2006). Women encounter difficulties to start in business, such as: long working hours, family pressures, conflicts with partners and little access to funding and networks (LITUCHY; REAVLEY, 2004; MATHEW, 2010; WINN, 2005). However, there is little knowledge about aspects associated with the creation of enterprises. Thus, the goal of this research was to understand the reasons and the difficulties encountered by women for the creation of enterprises. In addition, the research searches the relationship between reasons, difficulties and the amount of initial capital, the age of the women, the marital status and the year of business creation. The research was done in Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte. The sample was constituted by 96 women entrepreneurs. The instrument for collecting data was a structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done by means of descriptive statistics, including weighted average, linear correlation and analysis of simple frequencies. Furthermore, we used cluster analysis to identify groups of similar attributes using the Statistica Software 8.0. To investigate the relationship between the difficulties encountered and the initial capital used the linear correlation coefficient the Pearson and for the identification of association with the other variables the test of Fisher was used. Related to the reasons to open the company the research showed three most important: "They wanted to earn a lot of money", "They were not satisfied with the previous work" and "They wanted to earn money". The most important difficulties for the creation of the business were: the lack of experience in the business field and lack of time to participate in networks, difficulty in obtaining start-up capital and lack of family support. The start-up capital was not related to reasons and difficulties to create the businesses. In the same way, the age of entrepreneurs and the year of business creation are not related to the variables reasons and difficulties to starting in business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Physalis peruviana L. is an exotic fruit that belongs to the Solanaceae family with recent production in Brazil. This is presented as an alternative production with nutritional potential and economic value. The cape gooseberry plant has a high added value that can be used from its root to the fruit itself. The roots and leaves are rich in medicinal properties that are used in pharmacology. The fruit is sweet and have good content of vitamins A, C, iron, phosphorus and fiber, often used in making jellies, jams, juices and ice creams. To improve the plant canopy, but also contribute to the quality and appearance of the fruit produced some cultural practices such as staking, training systems, pruning and thinning are used. The aim of this review is to provide technical and scientific data about the culture of physalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]