Intenational business professional with expertise in small and medium-sized enterprise promotion and development, with a completed Master in Cognitive Neuroscience. High-skilled, multilingual and self-starter, with academic, research and working experiences in Honduras, Taiwan, Germany and Spain.
Always happy to share interests in Neuroscience, Cognition, Executive Functions, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Decision-Making, etc.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Eduardo Sánchez, Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger, and Prof. Dr. Noor Un Nabi
Address: Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain
Always happy to share interests in Neuroscience, Cognition, Executive Functions, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Decision-Making, etc.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Eduardo Sánchez, Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger, and Prof. Dr. Noor Un Nabi
Address: Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain
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Videos by Lesly Castro
This presentation was part of the XVII Conferences for Young Researchers in Neuroscience organized by the University of Santiago de Compostela, which took place at the University of Vigo, Spain on the 22nd of July, 2022.
Theses by Lesly Castro
Design, Methods and Data Analysis: This research follows a quantitative, descriptive, between subjects experimental design. The method included two parts. First, collecting data through a self administered structured online questionnaire, and second, conducting a virtual remote experiment using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) to measure decision making. Three data analyses were made. First, a descriptive data analysis to fulfill the three first specific objectives. Second, a K means cluster analysis to fulfill the grouping part of the fourth objective. Third, two inferential statistical analyses, i.e., a two sample or independent sample t test, and a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) were made to determine or not significant statistical differences in decision making performance between groups.
Findings: First, the Galician female entrepreneur profile does not coincide with what is expected of a “typical” entrepreneurial profile. Second, the individual cultural values of Galician women entrepreneurs reflect a strong preference for controlling uncertainty, promoting saving and planning, as well as solidarity and collaboration between members of a group. Further, their values reject inequality and the division of gender roles, while decision making is preferred through dialogue and consensus. Third, through a learning process, Galician women entrepreneurs improved their overall decision making pattern and performance, both leading to increased positive long term outcomes and gains. Fourth, the decision making strategy applied by Galician women entrepreneurs was a long term outcome strategy. Fifth, no statistically significant differences were found in the decision making performance of Galician women entrepreneurs by age, personality, or individual cultural values.
Originality and Value: This novel research within the cognitive neuroscience and neuroentrepreneurship domains, and with a female gender approach provides new insights to the study of the decision making cognitive function in a group of Galician entrepreneurs. With this research useful practical implications are mentioned for both, the female entrepreneurial sector and to cognitive neuroscientists who wish to continue and expand the knowledge and understanding of decision making in this context.
Research Limitations: Small sample size and short time prevented to obtain broader results and more solid conclusions, therefore, none of the findings of this study should be generalized.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The research design follows a deductive or quantitative approach and employs a mono data collection technique, through the use of a structure self-administered questionnaire. The study is also cross-sectional and of an exploratory and descriptive nature.
Findings: The degree of internationalization of Honduran agro-industrial SMEs is high: M= 0.6817. In addition, from five firm-level factors (i.e. firm size, firm age, ownership structure, firm engagement in innovation activities and firm involvement in networking relationships), and four managerial-level factors (i.e. age of the manager, his/her foreign language ability, educational level and international experience), only the “international experience” managerial factor resulted to have a positive effect on the degree of internationalization of Honduran agro-industrial SMEs.
Originality/Value: This research provides new insights on how international the Honduran agro-industrial SME sector is, and which factors affect its internationalization. Furthermore, recommendations for enterprises, key sector stakeholders, policy makers, and researchers are provided.
Research Limitations: This thesis analyzed a particular group of SMEs in Honduras. In addition, the sample size of 49 agro-industrial SMEs is small, thus, addressing the main limitations of the study. Therefore, readers should be cautious when making generalizations from the main findings, discussion and conclusions provided in this master thesis.
Research Projects by Lesly Castro
Presentations by Lesly Castro