Governance in the Australian superannuation industry

In the Superannuation/Pension industry ordinary investors entrust their retirement savings to the trustees of the superannuation plan. Investors rely on the trustees to ensure ethical business and risk management practices are implemented to protect their retirement savings. Governance practices ensure the monitoring of ethical risk management (Drennan, 2004). The Australian superannuation industry presents a unique scenario. Legislation requires employers to contribute a minimum of 9% of the employees wage to retirement savings. However, there are no legislated governance standards, although there are standards of recommended governance practices. In this paper, we examine the level of voluntary adoption of governance practices by the trustees of Australian public sector and industry superannuation funds. We also assess whether superannuation governance practices are associated with performance and volatility/riskiness of returns. Survey results show that the majority of superannuation plans adopt recommended governance practices supporting the concept of ethical management of the member’s retirement savings. The examination of governance principles that impact returns and risk show that board size and regular review of conflicts are positively associated with return. Superannuation plans with higher volatility in returns meet more frequently.

Invention and business performance in the tissue-engineering industry

Tissue engineering is a young and interdisciplinary scientific discipline but it offers exciting opportunities to improve the quality of health care for hundreds of thousands of patients. Lured by its potential, several start-up companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and medical device enterprises alike are investing heavily in this sector. Invention is a key driver of competition in this sector. In this study, we aim to explain the variation in inventive output across the different firms in the sector. Our major premise is that firms that forge alliances will be able to tap into the expertise of their partners and thus improve their chances of inventive output. We further argue that alliances that enable technology acquisition or learning will enhance the inventive output of firms more than other kinds of alliances. We measure the inventive output of a company by the number of patents filed. On the basis of a preliminary analysis of seven companies, we find support for the hypotheses. We also argue that, to achieve commercial success, firms need to manage time to market (through alliances or otherwise), have a global outlook, nurture their financial resources, and attain critical mass through mergers.

Complaining in cyberspace : the motives and forms of hotel guests’ complaints online

Traditionally, consumers who have been dissatisfied with service have typically complained to the frontline personnel or to a manager in either a direct (face-to-face, over the phone) manner, indirect by writing, or done nothing but told friends and family of the incident. More recently, the Internet has provided various “new” ways to air a grievance, especially when little might have been done at the point of service failure. With the opportunity to now spread word-of-mouth globally, consumers have the potential to impact the standing of a brand or a firm's reputation. The hotel industry is particularly vulnerable, as an increasing number of bookings are undertaken via the Internet and the decision process is likely to be influenced by what other previous guests might post on many booking-linked sites. We conducted a qualitative study of a key travel site to ascertain the forms and motives of complaints made online about hotels and resorts. 200 web-based consumer complaints were analyzed using NVivo 8 software. Findings revealed that consumers report a wide range of service failures on the Internet. They tell a highly descriptive, persuasive, and credible story, often motivated by altruism or, at the other end of the continuum, by revenge. These stories have the power to influence potential guests to book or not book accommodation at the affected properties. Implications for managers of hotels and resorts are discussed.

Strategising knowledge-based urban development : knowledge city transformations of Brisbane, Australia

In the global knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive industries and knowledge workers are extensively seen as the primary factors to improve the welfare and competitiveness of cities. To attract and retain such industries and workers, cities produce knowledge-based urban development strategies, and therefore such strategising has become an important development mechanism for cities and their economies. The paper discusses the critical connections between knowledge city foundations and integrated knowledge-based urban development mechanisms in both the local and regional level. In particular, the paper investigates Brisbane’s knowledge-based urban development strategies that support gentrification, attraction, and retention of investment and talent. Furthermore, the paper develops a knowledge-based urban development assessment framework to provide a clearer understanding of the local and regional policy frameworks, and relevant applications of Brisbane’s knowledge-based urban development experience, in becoming a prosperous knowledge city. The paper, with its knowledge-based urban development assessment framework, scrutinises Brisbane’s four development domains in detail: economy; society; institutional; built and natural environments. As part of the discussion of the case study findings, the paper describes the global orientation of Brisbane within the frame of regional and local level knowledge-based urban development strategies performing well. Although several good practices from Brisbane have already been internationally acknowledged, the research reveals that Brisbane is still in the early stages of its knowledge-based urban development implementation. Consequently, the development of a monitoring system for all knowledge-based urban development at all levels is highly crucial in accurately measuring the success and failure of specific knowledge-based urban development policies, and Brisbane’s progress towards a knowledge city transformation.

Research and application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry : a review and direction for future research

With an increasing level of collaboration amongst researchers, software developers and industry practitioners in the past three decades, building information modelling (BIM) is now recognized as an emerging technological and procedural shift within the architect, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. BIM is not only considered as a way to make a profound impact on the professions of AEC, but is also regarded as an approach to assist the industry to develop new ways of thinking and practice. Despite the widespread development and recognition of BIM, a succinct and systematic review of the existing BIM research and achievement is scarce. It is also necessary to take stock on existing applications and have a fresh look at where BIM should be heading and how it can benefit from the advances being made. This paper first presents a review of BIM research and achievement in AEC industry. A number of suggestions are then made for future research in BIM. This paper maintains that the value of BIM during design and construction phases is well documented over the last decade, and new research needs to expand the level of development and analysis from design/build stage to postconstruction and facility asset management. New research in BIM could also move beyond the traditional building type to managing the broader range of facilities and built assets and providing preventative maintenance schedules for sustainable and intelligent buildings

Impacts and opportunities : resident's view on sustainable development of tourism in regional Queensland, Australia

Tourism development is a priority for rural and regional areas of Australia. The challenge is how to develop the tourism industry in a sustainable manner. As part of a larger project investigating community perceptions of opportunities, strategies and challenges in regional sustainable development, this article explores participant's views and opinions of tourism development. Through purposive sampling, 28 local community leaders and residents in the Darling Downs region in Queensland, Australia, participated in four semi-structured focus groups. This paper focuses on two of these focus groups, where tourism was a critical issue. Participants were generally positive about the tourism industry and its impacts on their community, although they expressed several triple bottom line concerns about economic, environmental and scoial issues. Four key themes emerged: appropriate land use management, limited resources and ageing/insufficient infrastructure, preservaation of community heritage and lifestyle, and regional conflict. Residents supported sustainable tourism development and wanted to be more actively involved in decision-making, demanding greater transparency - and true engagement - from local government.

Modelling issues on the railway resource management process using multi-agent system

Many infrastructure and necessity systems such as electricity and telecommunication in Europe and the Northern America were used to be operated as monopolies, if not state-owned. However, they have now been disintegrated into a group of smaller companies managed by different stakeholders. Railways are no exceptions. Since the early 1980s, there have been reforms in the shape of restructuring of the national railways in different parts of the world. Continuous refinements are still conducted to allow better utilisation of railway resources and quality of service. There has been a growing interest for the industry to understand the impacts of these reforms on the operation efficiency and constraints. A number of post-evaluations have been conducted by analysing the performance of the stakeholders on their profits (Crompton and Jupe 2003), quality of train service (Shaw 2001) and engineering operations (Watson 2001). Results from these studies are valuable for future improvement in the system, followed by a new cycle of post-evaluations. However, direct implementation of these changes is often costly and the consequences take a long period of time (e.g. years) to surface. With the advance of fast computing technologies, computer simulation is a cost-effective means to evaluate a hypothetical change in a system prior to actual implementation. For example, simulation suites have been developed to study a variety of traffic control strategies according to sophisticated models of train dynamics, traction and power systems (Goodman, Siu and Ho 1998, Ho and Yeung 2001). Unfortunately, under the restructured railway environment, it is by no means easy to model the complex behaviour of the stakeholders and the interactions between them. Multi-agent system (MAS) is a recently developed modelling technique which may be useful in assisting the railway industry to conduct simulations on the restructured railway system. In MAS, a real-world entity is modelled as a software agent that is autonomous, reactive to changes, able to initiate proactive actions and social communicative acts. It has been applied in the areas of supply-chain management processes (García-Flores, Wang and Goltz 2000, Jennings et al. 2000a, b) and e-commerce activities (Au, Ngai and Parameswaran 2003, Liu and You 2003), in which the objectives and behaviour of the buyers and sellers are captured by software agents. It is therefore beneficial to investigate the suitability or feasibility of applying agent modelling in railways and the extent to which it might help in developing better resource management strategies. This paper sets out to examine the benefits of using MAS to model the resource management process in railways. Section 2 first describes the business environment after the railway 2 Modelling issues on the railway resource management process using MAS reforms. Then the problems emerge from the restructuring process are identified in section 3. Section 4 describes the realisation of a MAS for railway resource management under the restructured scheme and the feasible studies expected from the model.

Motivation toward financial incentive goals on construction projects

Construction industry observers tout the use of financial incentives as promoters of motivation and commitment on projects. Yet, little empirical evidence exists concerning their effectiveness. What are the drivers of motivation on construction projects? The reasons that construction project participants are motivated to pursue voluntary incentive goals are examined through four Australian case studies. The results demonstrate the critical role played by project relationships and equitable contract conditions in promoting the effectiveness of financial incentives. In the context of a construction project, this study finds financial incentives to be less important to motivation and performance than relationship enhancement initiatives. This finding is unexpected and has implications for the design of project procurement strategies. These results suggest if project clients ignore the importance of relationship quality between participants, the impact of any financial incentive will be compromised.

Sustainable relationship : an Australian case study

Successful construction project managers often stress the importance of team working, relationship management, project environment and senior management commitment as being key determinants of project success. However, it is generally accepted that the construction industry has stronger preference for displaying distrust rather than emancipating the full benefits of cooperation. In the research domain, the impact of culture and organisation on project performance is becoming an increasingly important topic for the establishment of a sound relational approach to projects. Relational procurement strategies emphasise the importance of sustainable relationships. However, the efficacy of relational contracting is, so far, unproven. This study examines the organisational factors that facilitates sustainable relationship between project organisations and hence, lead to long-term business success. Initial findings captured from a survey undertaken with construction contracting organisations in Australia, where the perceptions of professional personnel and supply chain relationships are reported in this paper. A four-level project performance effectiveness model developed in this research is also presented.

Cultural determinants of stress in the construction industry

The need to better understand and deal with workplace stress has major implications for the construction industry, especially on a project level, because of its potential to directly impact on site productivity and safety, and ultimately, the achievement of project objectives. While there has been some understanding of the effect of workplace stress within the construction industry, the majority of these studies have explored individual determinants of workplace stress among construction professionals such as architects, engineers, quantity surveyors etc. To date, very little research has focused on workplace stress as encountered by construction site operatives. This is an important research deficiency as construction site operatives typically make up a significant percentage of on-site workforce and contribute most directly to project success. To address this imbalance in research, this paper proposes a theoretical framework to better understand site operatives’ experience of stress from a cultural perspective on three levels: individual, project and organizational which has been largely neglected in previous studies.

Innovation in construction : a case study of the Australian context

The dominant economic paradigm currently guiding industry policy making in Australia and much of the rest of the world is the neoclassical approach. Although neoclassical theories acknowledge that growth is driven by innovation, such innovation is exogenous to their standard models and hence often not explored. Instead the focus is on the allocation of scarce resources, where innovation is perceived as an external shock to the system. Indeed, analysis of innovation is largely undertaken by other disciplines, such as evolutionary economics and institutional economics. As more has become known about innovation processes, linear models, based on research and development or market demand, have been replaced by more complex interactive models which emphasise the existence of feedback loops between the actors and activities involved in the commercialisation of ideas (Manley 2003). Currently dominant among these approaches is the national or sectoral innovation system model (Breschi and Malerba 2000; Nelson 1993), which is based on the notion of increasingly open innovation systems (Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke, and West 2008). This chapter reports on the ‘BRITE Survey’ funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation which investigated the open sectoral innovation system operating in the Australian construction industry. The BRITE Survey was undertaken in 2004 and it is the largest construction innovation survey ever conducted in Australia. The results reported here give an indication of how construction innovation processes operate, as an example that should be of interest to international audiences interested in construction economics. The questionnaire was based on a broad range of indicators recommended in the OECD’s Community Innovation Survey guidelines (OECD/Eurostat 2005). Although the ABS has recently begun to undertake regular innovation surveys that include the construction industry (2006), they employ a very narrow definition of the industry and only collect very basic data compared to that provided by the BRITE Survey, which is presented in this chapter. The term ‘innovation’ is defined here as a new or significantly improved technology or organisational practice, based broadly on OECD definitions (OECD/Eurostat 2005). Innovation may be technological or organisational in nature and it may be new to the world, or just new to the industry or the business concerned. The definition thus includes the simple adoption of existing technological and organisational advancements. The survey collected information about respondents’ perceptions of innovation determinants in the industry, comprising various aspects of business strategy and business environment. It builds on a pilot innovation survey undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) for the Australian Construction Industry Forum on behalf of the Australian Commonwealth Department of Industry Tourism and Resources, in 2001 (PWC 2002). The survey responds to an identified need within the Australian construction industry to have accurate and timely innovation data upon which to base effective management strategies and public policies (Focus Group 2004).

How does small business impact on utilization of industry-led supply chain innovation capacity

This research uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to examine how organizational size - made up of four dimensions - control, resources, trust and complexity - impacts on utilization of industry-led supply chain innovation capacity in a traditional agribusiness industry, the Australian beef industry. It confirms small business rather than larger business accords greater importance to exploiting supply chain dynamic capabilities, particularly in relation to utilizing industry –led supply chain innovation capacity. For small business in Australian beef supply chains, being agile and able to adapt and align their business practices with supply chain partners is integral to ensuring these businesses remain relevant and competitive in this market. In theoretical terms this is supported by authors in the dynamic capabilities literature as they argue these types of capabilities enable organizations to innovate faster (or better), often leading to the creation of newer sources of competitive advantage.

Post-occupancy analysis of a Zero Energy Hojme (ZEH)

Zero energy buildings (ZEB) and zero energy homes (ZEH) are a current hot topic globally for policy makers (what are the benefits and costs), designers (how do we design them), the construction industry (can we build them), marketing (will consumers buy them) and researchers (do they work and what are the implications). This paper presents initial findings from actual measured data from a 9 star (as built), off-ground detached family home constructed in south-east Queensland in 2008. The integrated systems approach to the design of the house is analysed in each of its three main goals: maximising the thermal performance of the building envelope, minimising energy demand whilst maintaining energy service levels, and implementing a multi-pronged low carbon approach to energy supply. The performance outcomes of each of these stages are evaluated against definitions of Net Zero Carbon / Net Zero Emissions (Site and Source) and Net Zero Energy (onsite generation v primary energy imports). The paper will conclude with a summary of the multiple benefits of combining very high efficiency building envelopes with diverse energy management strategies: a robustness, resilience, affordability and autonomy not generally seen in housing.

Spatial science news from QUT : industry report : JULY 2010

Real-World Survey practical at Coombabah with GPS surveying; BEE student prizes Evening; Engaging Students in real-world learning at SERF.