On governance structures for cloud resources and assessing their effectiveness

This research suggests information technology (IT) governance structures to manage cloud computing resources. The interest in acquiring IT resources as a utility from the cloud is gaining momentum. Cloud computing resources present organizations with opportunities to manage their IT expenditure on an ongoing basis, and are providing organizations access to modern IT resources to innovate and manage their continuity. However, cloud computing resources are no silver bullet. Organizations would need to have appropriate governance structures and policies in place to manage the cloud resources. The subsequent decisions from these governance structures will ensure effective management of cloud resources. This management will facilitate a better fit of cloud resources into organizations existing processes to achieve business (process-level) and financial (firm-level) objectives. Using a triangulation approach, we suggest four possible governance structures for managing the cloud computing resources. These structures are a chief cloud officer, a cloud management committee, a cloud service facilitation centre, and a cloud relationship centre. We also propose that these governance structures would relate to organizations cloud-related business objectives directly and indirectly to cloud-related financial objectives. Perceptive field survey data from actual and prospective cloud service adopters confirmed that the suggested structures would contribute directly to cloud-related business objectives and indirectly to cloud-related financial objectives.

Migrating to a sustainable energy system : distributed generation and storage, fuel cells and hypercars

This paper examines a number of issues in sustainable energy generation and distribution, and explores avenues that are available for integration of our society’s energy supplies. In particular, the paper presents a way in which transport vehicle energy supplies could be integrated with distributed generation schemes to achieve synergistic and beneficial outcomes. The worldwide energy system contains fundamental problems that result directly from the use of unsustainable fuels and a lack of energy system integration. There is a need to adopt an integrated, sustainable energy system for our society. The adoption of distributed generation could result in beneficial restructuring of the energy trade, and a change in the role of energy providers. Inherent benefits in distributed generation schemes would directly combat barriers to installation of renewable generation facilities, which might prove distributed renewable energy sources to be more feasible. The presence of fuel cells, batteries, power electronic inverters and intelligent controls in vehicles of the future provides many opportunities for the integration of vehicle energy supplies into a distributed generation scheme. In such a system, vehicles could play a major role in power generation and storage.

Migrating to a sustainable energy system : distributed generation and storage, fuel cells and hypercars

This paper examines a number of issues in sustainable energy generation and distribution, and explores avenues that are available for integration of our society’s energy supplies. In particular, the paper presents a way in which transport vehicle energy supplies could be integrated with distributed generation schemes to achieve synergistic and beneficial outcomes. The worldwide energy system contains fundamental problems that result directly from the use of unsustainable fuels and a lack of energy system integration. There is a need to adopt an integrated, sustainable energy system for our society. The adoption of distributed generation could result in beneficial restructuring of the energy trade, and a change in the role of energy providers. Inherent benefits in distributed generation schemes would directly combat barriers to installation of renewable generation facilities, which might prove distributed renewable energy sources to be more feasible. The presence of fuel cells, batteries, power electronic inverters and intelligent controls in vehicles of the future provides many opportunities for the integration of vehicle energy supplies into a distributed generation scheme. In such a system, vehicles could play a major role in power generation and storage.

Decision making guidelines for sustainable construction of industrialised building systems

The construction industry has an obligation to respond to sustainability expectations of our society. Solutions that integrate innovative, intelligent and sustainability deliverables are vital for us to meet new and emerging challenges. Industrialised Building Systems (IBS), or known otherwise as prefabrication, employs a combination of ready-made components in the construction of buildings. They promote quality of production, enhance simplification of construction processes and minimise waste. The unique characteristics of this construction method respond well to sustainability. Despite the promises however, IBS has yet to be effectively implemented in Malaysia. There are often misconceptions among key stakeholders about IBS applications. The existing rating schemes fail to assess IBS against sustainability measures. To ensure the capture of full sustainability potential in buildings developed, the critical factors and action plans agreeable to all participants in the development processes need to be identified. Through questionnaire survey, eighteen critical factors relevant to IBS sustainability were identified and encapsulated into a conceptual framework to coordinate a systematic IBS decision making approach. Five categories were used to separate the critical factors into: ecological performance; economic value; social equity and culture; technical quality; and implementation and enforcement. This categorisation extends the "Triple Bottom Lines" to include social, economic, environmental and institutional dimensions. Semi-structured interviews help identify strategies of actions and solutions of potential problems through a SWOT analysis framework. These tools help the decision-makers maximise the opportunities by using available strengths, avoid weaknesses, and diagnose possible threats in the examined issues. The recommendations formed an integrated action plan to present information on what and how to improve sustainability through tackling each critical factor during IBS development. It can be used as part of the project briefing documents for IBS designers. For validation and finalisation the research deliverables, three case studies were conducted. The research fills a current gap by responding to IBS project scenarios in developing countries. It also provides a balanced view for designers to better understand sustainability potential and prioritize attentions to manage sustainability issues in IBS applications.

Sensemaking and sustainable practicing: Functional affordances of information systems in green transformations

This paper explores how a world-wide operating software solutions provider implemented environmentally sustainable business practices in response to emerging environmental concerns. Through an interpretive case study, we develop a theoretical framework that identifies four important functional affordances originating in information systems, which are required in environmental sustainability transformations as they create an actionable context in which (1) organizations can engage in a sensemaking process related to understanding emerging environmental requirements, and (2) individuals can implement environmentally sustainable work practices. Through our work, we provide several contributions, including a better understanding of IS-enabled organizational change and the types of functional affordances of information systems that are required in sustainability transformations. We describe implications relating to (1) how information systems can contribute to the creation of environmentally sustainable organizations, (2) the design of information systems to create required functional affordances, (3) the management of sustainability transformations, and (4) the further development of the concept of functional affordances in IS research.

Building project competence : developing dynamic capabilities with knowledge governance mechanisms

This research investigates the development of project competence, and particularly, three related dynamic capabilities (shifting, adapting, leveraging) that contribute to project competence development. In doing so, we make use of the emerging literature on knowledge governance and theorize how knowledge governance mechanisms can move the organization towards desired knowledge-based goals. A multiple-case study comprising 23 cases advances our understanding of the elements that trigger, enable, hamper, and drive shifting, leveraging and adapting. Finally, the paper offers a tentative framework of dynamic capability building promoting project competence development.

Knowledge governance in project-based organizations : theoretical and empirical approaches

This paper conceptualizes knowledge governance (KG) in project-based organizations (PBOs) and its methodological approaches for empirical investigation. Three key contributions towards a multi-faceted view of KG and an understanding of KG in PBOs are advanced. These contributions include a definition of KG in PBOs, a conceptual framework to investigate KG and a methodological framework for empirical inquiry into KG in PBO settings. Our definition highlights the contingent nature of KG processes in relation to their organizational context. The conceptual framework addresses macro- and micro-level elements of KG and their interaction. The methodological framework proposes five different research approaches, structured by differentiation and integration of various ontological and epistemological stances. Together these contributions provide a novel platform for understanding KG in PBOs and developing new insights into the design and execution of research on KG within PBOs.

Critical factors for sustainable reconstruction of post natural disasters

While scientists are still debating the level of climate change impact to new weather patterns, there have been some devastating natural disasters worldwide in the last decade. From cyclones to earthquakes and from Tsunamis to landslides, these disasters occur with formidable forces and crushing effects. As one of the most important arrangements to erase the negative influence of natural disasters and help with the recovery and redevelopment of the hit area, reconstruction is of utmost importance in light of sustainable objectives. However, current reconstruction practice confronts quite a lot of criticisms for focusing on providing short-term necessities. How to conduct the post disaster reconstruction in a long-term perspective and achieve sustainable development is thereby a highlight for industry practice and research. This paper introduced an on-going research project which is aimed at establishing an operational framework for improving sustainability performance of post disaster reconstruction by identifying critical sustainable factors and exploring their internal relationships. The research reported in this paper is part of the project. After a comprehensive literature review, 17 potential critical sustainability factors for post disaster reconstruction were identified. Preliminary examination and discussion of the factors was conducted.

Ownership, corporate governance and liquidity in Caribbean firms

This thesis provides the first evidence on how ownership structure and corporate governance relate to stock liquidity in the Caribbean. Based on panel data of 71 firms from three selected Caribbean markets − Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago − results show that firms with concentrated ownership are associated with lower liquidity. The identity of the largest shareholder also matters: family firms and firms with foreign holding companies are more liquid than government firms. Although the second largest shareholding does not appear to matter to liquidity, there is some evidence showing that firms with foreign holding companies as the second largest shareholder are less liquid. Caribbean firms suffer from poor corporate governance but this study is unable to establish a significant relationship between corporate governance and liquidity.

Project governance : ethical decision making in project procurement in the Malaysian public sectors

Managing public sector projects in Malaysia is a unique challenge. This is because of the ethical issues involved during the project procurement process. These ethical issues need attention because they will have an impact on the quality, cost and time of the project itself. The ethical issues here include conflict of interest, bid shopping, collusive tendering, bid cutting, corruption and the payment game. In 2006, 17.3% of 417 Malaysian government contract projects were considered sick due to contractors' performances that failed to conduct the project according to the project plan. Some of the sick projects from these statistics are due to the ethical issues involved. These construction projects have low quality due to the selection of the contractors, done unethically due to personal relationships instead of professional qualifications. That is why it is important to govern the project procurement processes to ensure the accountability and transparency of the decision making process to ensure that these ethical issues can be avoided. Extensive research has been conducted on the ethical issues in the tendering process or the award phase of project management. There is a lack of studies looking at the role of clients, including the government client, in relation to unethical practice in project procurement in the public sector. It is important to understand that ethical issues not only involve the contractors and suppliers but also the clients. Even though there are codes of ethics in the public sectors, ethical issues still arise. Therefore, this research develops a project governance framework (PGEDM) for ethical decision making in the Malaysian public sectors. This framework combines the ethical decision making process together with the project governance principals in guiding the public sectors with ethical decision making in project procurement. A triangulation of questionnaire survey and Delphi study was employed in this research to collect required qualitative and quantitative data. A questionnaire survey was conducted among the public officials (the practitioners) who are currently working in the procurement area in the Malaysian public sectors, in identifying the ethical behaviours and factors influencing further ethical behaviour to occur. A Delphi study was also conducted with the assistance of a panel of experts consisting of practitioners that have expertise in the area of project governance and project procurement as well as academician, which further considered the relationship and the influence of the criteria and indicators of ethical decision making (EDM) and project governance (project criteria, organisational culture, contract award criteria, individual criteria, client's requirements, government procedures and professional ethics). Through the identification and integration of the factors and EDM criteria as well as the project governance criteria and EDM steps for ethical issues, a PGEDM framework was developed to promote, and drive consistent decision outcome in project procurement in the public sector. The framework contributes significantly to ethical decision making in the project procurement process. These findings not only give benefit to the people involved in project procurement but also to the public officials in guiding them to be more accountable in handling ethical issues in the future and to have a more transparent decision making process.

Rating for sustainable subdivision neighbourhood design (RSSND) : case of Bangkok metropolitan region (BMR), Thailand an eco-efficiency modelling approach

Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) is the centre for various major activities in Thailand including political, industry, agriculture, and commerce. Consequently, the BMR is the highest and most densely populated area in Thailand. Thus, the demand for houses in the BMR is also the largest, especially in subdivision developments. For these reasons, the subdivision development in the BMR has increased substantially in the past 20 years and generated large numbers of subdivision developments (AREA, 2009; Kridakorn Na Ayutthaya & Tochaiwat, 2010). However, this dramatic growth of subdivision development has caused several problems including unsustainable development, especially for subdivision neighbourhoods, in the BMR. There have been rating tools that encourage the sustainability of neighbourhood design in subdivision development, but they still have practical problems. Such rating tools do not cover the scale of the development entirely; and they concentrate more on the social and environmental conservation aspects, which have not been totally accepted by the developers (Boonprakub, 2011; Tongcumpou & Harvey, 1994). These factors strongly confirm the need for an appropriate rating tool for sustainable subdivision neighbourhood design in the BMR. To improve level of acceptance from all stakeholders in subdivision developments industry, the new rating tool should be developed based on an approach that unites the social, environmental, and economic approaches, such as eco-efficiency principle. Eco-efficiency is the sustainability indicator introduced by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) since 1992. The eco-efficiency is defined as the ratio of the product or service value according to its environmental impact (Lehni & Pepper, 2000; Sorvari et al., 2009). Eco-efficiency indicator is concerned to the business, while simultaneously, is concerned with to social and the environment impact. This study aims to develop a new rating tool named "Rating for sustainable subdivision neighbourhood design (RSSND)". The RSSND methodology is developed by a combination of literature reviews, field surveys, the eco-efficiency model development, trial-and-error technique, and the tool validation process. All required data has been collected by the field surveys from July to November 2010. The ecoefficiency model is a combination of three different mathematical models; the neighbourhood property price (NPP) model, the neighbourhood development cost (NDC) model, and the neighbourhood occupancy cost (NOC) model which are attributable to the neighbourhood subdivision design. The NPP model is formulated by hedonic price model approach, while the NDC model and NOC model are formulated by the multiple regression analysis approach. The trial-and-error technique is adopted for simplifying the complex mathematic eco-efficiency model to a user-friendly rating tool format. Credibility of the RSSND has been validated by using both rated and non-rated of eight subdivisions. It is expected to meet the requirements of all stakeholders which support the social activities of the residents, maintain the environmental condition of the development and surrounding areas, and meet the economic requirements of the developers.

A Sustainable Community for Older People : Case Studies of Green Retirement Villages in Australia

In Australia, the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over reached 13.5% in 2010 and is expected to increase steadily to around 20% by the year 2056 [Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2010], creating what has been regarded as a looming crisis in how to house and care for older people. As a viable accommodation option, the retirement village is widely accepted as a means of promoting and enhancing independence, choice and quality of life for older people. Recent research by Barker (2010) indicates that the current and potential residents of retirement villages are generally very conscious of resource consumption and would like their residences and community to be more sustainable. The aim of this study was to understand the perception of older people toward sustainability ideas and identify the sustainable practices involved in retirement villages to improve the wellbeing of residents. Multiple research methods, including content analysis, questionnaire survey, interviews and case studies were conducted for the research purpose. The results indicate that most retirement village residents understand and recognize the importance of sustainability in their lifestyle. However, their sustainability requirements need to be supported and enhanced by the provision of affordable sustainability features. Additionally, many retirement village developers and operators realize the importance of providing a sustainable retirement community for their residents, and that a sustainable retirement village (that is environmental-friendly, affordable, and improves social engagement) can be achieved through the consideration of project planning, design, construction, and operations throughout the project life cycle. The clear shift from healthcare to lifestyle-focused services in the recent development of retirement villages together with the increasing number of aged people moving into retirement villages (Simpson and Cheney, 2007) has raised awareness of the need for the retirement village industry to provide a sustainable community for older people to improve their life quality after retirement. This is the first critical study of sustainable development in the retirement village industry and its potential in addressing the housing needs of older people, providing a contribution towards improving the life quality of older people and with direct and immediate significance to the community as a whole.

Stakeholder engagement and asset management : a case study of the Gold Coast airport, Queensland

One of the fastest growing industries – aviation – faces serious and compounding challenges in maintaining healthy relationships with community stakeholders. One area in aviation creating community conflict is noise pollution. However, current understandings of the factors that affect noise annoyance of the community are poorly conceptualized. More importantly, the way community needs and expectations could be incorporated in airport governance has been inadequately framed to address the issue of aircraft noise. This paper proposes the util-ity of adopting an integrated strategic asset management (ISAM) framework [1] to explore the dynamic nature of relationships between and airport and its surrounding area. The case of the Gold Coast Airport (OOL) operator and community stakeholders is used. This paper begins with an overview of the ISAM framework in the context of airport governance and sustainable development – as a way to find a balance between economic opportunities and societal concerns through stakeholder engagement. Next, an exploratory case study is adopted as a method to explore the noise-related complaints, complainants, and possible causes. Fol-lowing this, the paper reviews three approaches to community stakeholder engagement in Australia, Japan, and UK and discusses their implications in the con-text of OOL. The paper concludes with a contention that airport governance is likely to be much more effective with the adoption of ISAM framework than without it.

Research trends of post disaster reconstruction : the past and the future

Natural disasters can have adverse effect on human lives. To raise the awareness of research and better combat future events, it is important to identify recent research trends in the area of post disaster reconstruction (PDR). The authors used a three-round literature review strategy to study journal papers published in the last decade that are related to PDR with specific conditions using the Scopus search engine. A wide range of PDR related papers from a general perspective was examined in the first two rounds while the final round established 88 papers as target publications through visual examination of the abstracts, keywords and as necessary, main texts. These papers were analysed in terms of research origins, active researchers, research organisations, most cited papers, regional concerns, major themes and deliverables, for clues of the past trends and future directions. The need for appropriate PDR research is increasingly recognised. The publication number multiplied 5 times from 2002 to 2012. For PDR research with a construction perspective, the increase is sixfold. Developing countries such as those in Asia attract almost 50% researchers' attention for regional concerns while the US is the single most concentrated (24%) country. Africa is hardly represented. Researchers in developed countries lead in worldwide PDR research. This contrasts to the need for expertise in developing countries. Past works focused on waste management, stakeholder analysis, resourcing, infrastructure issue, resilience and vulnerability, reconstruction approach, sustainable reconstruction and governance issues. Future research should respond to resourcing, integrated development, sustainability and resilience building to cover the gaps. By means of a holistic summary and structured analysis of key patterns, the authors hope to provide a streamlined access to existing research findings and make predictions of future trends. They also hope to encourage a more holistic approach to PDR research and international collaborations.

Achieving world leadership in sustainable buildings - a Brisbane case study

In Australia, the building and construction industry is taking significant steps towards the enhancement of environmental performance of the built environment. A large number of world class sustainable buildings have been constructed in recent years, offering researchers and practitioners alike a good opportunity to identify the best practices and real life experiences in delivering high performance buildings. A case study of ONE ONE ONE Eagle Street, a 6 Star Green Star office building in Brisbane, was conducted to investigate the best practice in achieving this “world leader” green office building. The study identified a number of key factors relating to project delivery system, contractor selection method, client’s early commitment, design integration, communication as major contributors to the successful delivery of this project. Additionally, key environmentally sustainable features and their cost implications were explored through in-depth interviews with the main contractor. The findings of this study will shed lights on the successful delivery of sustainable buildings and provide practical implications for different stakeholders.