Concepts of intuitive interaction

Intuition is a type of cognitive processing that is often non-conscious and utilises stored experiential knowledge. Intuitive interaction involves the use of knowledge gained from other products and/or experiences. We have developed novel approaches and techniques for studying intuitive use of interfaces, and shown that intuitive interaction is based on past experience with similar artefacts. Based on our empirical work we have developed principles and tools for designers to assist them in making interfaces more intuitive. These principles are discussed in this paper.

Effects of switching time on output voltages of a multilevel inverter used in high frequency applications

Employing multilevel inverters is a proper solution to reduce harmonic content of output voltage and electromagnetic interference in high power electronic applications. In this paper, a new pulse width modulation method for multilevel inverters is proposed in which power devices’ on-off switching times have been considered. This method can be surveyed in order to analyse the effect of switching time on harmonic contents of output voltage in high frequency applications when a switching time is not negligible compared to a switching cycle. Fast Fourier transform calculation and analysis of output voltage waveforms and harmonic contents with regard to switching time variation are presented in this paper for a single phase (3, 5)-level inverters used in high voltage and high frequency converters. Mathematical analysis and MATLAB simulation results have been carried out to validate the proposed method.

Extending life-cycle costing (LCC) analysis for sustainability considerations in road infrastructure projects

Sustainable development is about making societal investments. These investments should be in synchronization with the natural environment, trends of social development, as well as organisational and local economies over a long time span. Traditionally in the eyes of clients, project development will need to produce the required profit margins, with some degrees of consideration for other impacts. This is being changed as all citizens of our society are becoming more aware of concepts and challenges such as the climate change, greenhouse footprints, and social dimensions of sustainability, and will in turn demand answers to these issues in built facilities. A large number of R&D projects have focused on the technical advancement and environmental assessment of products and built facilities. It is equally important address the cost/benefit issue, as developers in the world would not want to loose money by investing in built assets. For infrastructure projects, due to its significant cost of development and lengthy delivery time, presenting the full money story of going green is of vital importance. Traditional views of life-cycle costing tend to focus on the pure economics of a construction project. Sustainability concepts are not broadly integrated with the current LCCA in the construction sector. To rectify this problem, this paper reports on the progress to date of developing and extending contemporary LCCA models in the evaluation of road infrastructure sustainability. The suggested new model development is based on sustainability indicators identified through previous research, and incorporating industry verified cost elements of sustainability measures. The on-going project aims to design and a working model for sustainability life-cycle costing analysis for this type of infrastructure projects.

The Australian nonprofit sector legal almanac 2009, ACPNS Working Paper 49

There are a number of publications in Australian which summarises annual developments n the law for business or various industries, but little is available in accessible form for nonprofit staff, boards or volunteers. This publication seeks to fill that gap by bringing together in one place case reports and significant legislative initiatives.

Metaheuristic approaches to the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with a cost-related criterion

In the paper, the flow-shop scheduling problem with parallel machines at each stage (machine center) is studied. For each job its release and due date as well as a processing time for its each operation are given. The scheduling criterion consists of three parts: the total weighted earliness, the total weighted tardiness and the total weighted waiting time. The criterion takes into account the costs of storing semi-manufactured products in the course of production and ready-made products as well as penalties for not meeting the deadlines stated in the conditions of the contract with customer. To solve the problem, three constructive algorithms and three metaheuristics (based one Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing techniques) are developed and experimentally analyzed. All the proposed algorithms operate on the notion of so-called operation processing order, i.e. the order of operations on each machine. We show that the problem of schedule construction on the base of a given operation processing order can be reduced to the linear programming task. We also propose some approximation algorithm for schedule construction and show the conditions of its optimality.

Designing for naturally engaging experiences

This full day workshop explores how insights from artefacts, created during data collecting and analysis, are translated into prototypes. It is particularly concerned with getting closer to people's experience of shaping a design space. The workshop draws inspiration from data-products resulting from interactions in natural, unbuilt places with the intention of supporting both those with work integrating understandings of such experiences into design and those interested in the way material provokes ideas and inspiration for design.

Attractiveness of venture ideas : a conjoint study

Principal Topic : According to Shane & Venkataraman (2000) entrepreneurship consists of the recognition and exploitation of venture ideas - or opportunities as they often called - to create future goods and services. This definition puts venture ideas is at the heart of entrepreneurship research. Substantial research has been done on venture ideas in order to enhance our understanding of this phenomenon (e.g. Choi & Shepherd, 2004; Shane, 2000; Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005). However, we are yet to learn what factors drive entrepreneurs' perceptions of the relative attractiveness of venture ideas, and how important different idea characteristics are for such assessments. Ruef (2002) recognized that there is an uneven distribution of venture ideas undertaken by entrepreneurs in the USA. A majority introduce either a new product/service or access a new market or market segment. A smaller percentage of entrepreneurs introduce a new method of production, organizing, or distribution. This implies that some forms of venture ideas are perceived by entrepreneurs as more important or valuable than others. However, Ruef does not provide any information regarding why some forms of venture ideas are more common than others among entrepreneurs. Therefore, this study empirically investigates what factors affect the attractiveness of venture ideas as well as their relative importance. Based on two key characteristics of venture ideas, namely venture idea newness and relatedness, our study investigates how different types and degrees of newness and relatedness of venture ideas affect their attractiveness as perceived by expert entrepreneurs. Methodology/Key : Propositions According to Schumpeter (1934) entrepreneurs introduce different types of venture ideas such as new products/services, new method of production, enter into new markets/customer and new method of promotion. Further, according to Schumpeter (1934) and Kirzner (1973) venture ideas introduced to the market range along a continuum of innovative to imitative ideas. The distinction between these two extremes of venture idea highlights an important property of venture idea, namely their newness. Entrepreneurs, in order to gain competitive advantage or above average returns introduce their venture ideas which may be either new to the world, new to the market that they seek to enter, substantially improved from current offerings and an imitative form of existing offerings. Expert entrepreneurs may be more attracted to venture ideas that exhibit high degree of newness because of the higher newness is coupled with increased market potential (Drucker, 1985) Moreover, certain individual characteristics also affect the attractiveness of venture idea. According to Shane (2000), individual's prior knowledge is closely associated with the recognition of venture ideas. Sarasvathy's (2001) Effectuation theory proposes a high degree of relatedness between venture ideas and the resource position of the individual. Thus, entrepreneurs may be more attracted to venture ideas that are closely aligned with the knowledge and/or resources they already possess. On the other hand, the potential financial gain (Shepherd & DeTienne, 2005) may be larger for ideas that are not close to the entrepreneurs' home turf. Therefore, potential financial gain is a stimulus that has to be considered separately. We aim to examine how entrepreneurs weigh considerations of different forms of newness and relatedness as well as potential financial gain in assessing the attractiveness of venture ideas. We use conjoint analysis to determine how expert entrepreneurs develop preferences for venture ideas which involved with different degrees of newness, relatedness and potential gain. This analytical method paves way to measure the trade-offs they make when choosing a particular venture idea. The conjoint analysis estimates respondents' preferences in terms of utilities (or part-worth) for each level of newness, relatedness and potential gain of venture ideas. A sample of 50 expert entrepreneurs who were awarded young entrepreneurship awards in Sri Lanka in 2007 is used for interviews. Each respondent is interviewed providing with 32 scenarios which explicate different combinations of possible profiles open them into consideration. Conjoint software (SPSS) is used to analyse data. Results and Implications : The data collection of this study is still underway. However, results of this study will provide information regarding the attractiveness of each level of newness, relatedness and potential gain of venture idea and their relative importance in a business model. Additionally, these results provide important implications for entrepreneurs, consultants and other stakeholders as regards the importance of different of attributes of venture idea coupled with different levels. Entrepreneurs, consultants and other stakeholders could make decisions accordingly.

Characteristics of sustainable entrepreneurship : some early explorations from the CAUSEE study

Principal Topic: For forward thinking companies, the environment may represent the ''biggest opportunity for enterprise and invention the industrial world has ever seen'' (Cairncross 1990). Increasing awareness of environmental and sustainability issues through media including the promotion of Al Gore's ''An Inconvenient Truth'' has seen increased awareness of environmental and sustainability issues and increased demand for business processes that reduce detrimental environmental impacts of global development (Dean & McMullen 2007). The increased demand for more environmentally sensitive products and services represents an opportunity for the development of ventures that seek to satisfy this demand through entrepreneurial action. As a consequence, increasing recent market developments in renewable energy, carbon emissions, fuel cells, green building, and other sectors suggest an increasing importance of opportunities for environmental entrepreneurship (Dean and McMullen 2007) and increasingly important area of business activity (Schaper 2005). In the last decade in particular, big business has sought to develop a more ''sustainability/ green friendly'' orientation as a response to public pressure and increased government legislation and policy to improve environmental performance (Cohen and Winn 2007). Whilst much of the literature and media is littered with examples of sustainability practices of large firms, nascent and young sustainability firms have only recently begun generating strong research and policy interest (Shepherd, Kuskova and Patzelt 2009): not only for their potential to generate above average financial performance and returns owing to a greater popularity and demand towards sustainability products and services offerings, but also for their intent to lessen environmental impacts, and to provide a more accurate reflection of the ''true cost'' of market offerings taking into account carbon and environmental impacts. More specifically, researchers have suggested that although the previous focus has been on large firms and their impact on the environment, the estimated collective impact of entries and exits of nascent and young firms in development is substantial and could outweigh the combined environmental impact of large companies (Hillary, 2000). Therefore, it may be argued that greater attention should be paid to nascent and young firms and researching sustainability practices, for both their impact in reducing environmental impacts and potential higher financial performance. Whilst acknowledging this research only uses the first wave of a four year longitudinal study of nascent and young firms, it can still begin to provide initial analysis on which to continue further research. The aim of this paper therefore is to provide an overview of the emerging literature in sustainable entrepreneurship and to present some selected preliminary results from the first wave of the data collection, with comparison, where appropriate, of sustainable and firms that do not fulfil this criteria. ''One of the key challenges in evaluating sustainability entrepreneurship is the lack of agreement in how it is defined'' (Schaper, 2005: 10). Some evaluate sustainable entrepreneurs simply as one category of entrepreneurs with little difference between them and traditional entrepreneurs (Dees, 1998). Other research recognises values-based sustainable enterprises requiring a unique perspective (Parrish, 2005). Some see the environmental or sustainable entrepreneurship is a subset of social entrepreneurship (Cohen & Winn, 2007; Dean & McMullen, 2007) whilst others see it as a separate, distinct theory (Archer 2009). Following one of the first definitions of sustainability developed by the Brundtland Commission (1987) we define sustainable entrepreneurship as firms which ''seek to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future''. ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: In this exploratory paper we investigate sustainable entrepreneurship using Cohen et al.'s (2008) framework to identify strategies of nascent and young entrepreneurial firms. We use data from The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE). This study shares the general empirical approach with PSED studies in the US (Reynolds et al 1994; Reynolds & Curtin 2008). The overall study uses samples of 727 nascent (not yet operational) firms and another 674 young firms, the latter being in an operational stage but less than four years old. To generate the sub sample of sustainability firms, we used content analysis techniques on firm titles, descriptions and product descriptions provided by respondents. Two independent coders used a predefined codebook developed from our review of the sustainability entrepreneurship literature (Cohen et al. 2009) to evaluate the content based on terms such as ''sustainable'' ''eco-friendly'' ''renewable energy'' ''environment'' amongst others. The inter-rater reliability was checked and the Kappa's co-efficient was found to be within the acceptable range (0.746). 85 firms fulfilled the criteria given for inclusion in the sustainability cohort. ---------- Results and Implications: The results for this paper are based on Wave one of the CAUSEE survey which has been completed and the data is available for analysis. It is expected that the findings will assist in beginning to develop an understanding of nascent and young firms that are driven to contribute to a society which is sustainable, not just from an economic perspective (Cohen et al 2008), but from an environmental and social perspective as well. The CAUSEE study provides an opportunity to compare the characteristics of sustainability entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial firms without a stated environmental purpose, which constitutes the majority of the new firms created each year, using a large scale novel longitudinal dataset. The results have implications for Government in the design of better conditions for the creation of new business, firms who assist sustainability in developing better advice programs in line with a better understanding of their needs and requirements, individuals who may be considering becoming entrepreneurs in high potential arenas and existing entrepreneurs make better decisions.

Venture creation and resource processes : using Bricolage sustainability ventures

Principal Topic: Resource decisions are critical to the venture creation process, which has important subsequent impacts on venture creation and performance (Boeker, 1989). Most entrepreneurs however, suffer substantial resource constraints in venture creation and during venture growth (Shepherd et al., 2000). Little is known about how high potential, sustainability ventures (the ventures of interest in this research), despite resource constraints, achieve continued venture persistence and venture success. One promising theory that explicitly links to resource constraints is a concept developed by Levi Strauss (1967) termed bricolage. Bricolage aligns with notions of resourcefulness: using what's on hand, through making do, and recombining resources for new or novel purposes (Baker & Nelson 2005). To the best of our knowledge, previous studies have not systematically investigated internal and external constraints, their combinations, and subsequent bricolage patterns. The majority of bricolage literature focuses on external environmental constraints (e.g. Wieck 1989; Baker & Nelson 2005), thereby paying less attention to in evaluating internal constraints (e.g. skills and capabilities) or constraint combinations. In this paper we focus on ventures that typically face resource-poor environments. High potential, nascent and young sustainability ventures are often created and developed with resource constraints and in some cases, have greater resource requirements owing to higher levels of technical sophistication of their products (Rothaermel & Deeds 2006). These ventures usually have high aspirations and potential for growth who ''seeks to meet the needs and aspirations without compromising the ability to meet those of the future'' (Brundtland Commission 1983). High potential ventures are increasingly attributed with a central role in the development of innovation, and employment in developed economies (Acs 2008). Further, increasing awareness of environmental and sustainability issues has fostered demand for business processes that reduce detrimental environmental impacts of global development (Dean & McMullen 2007) and more environmentally sensitive products and services: representing an opportunity for the development of ventures that seek to satisfy this demand through entrepreneurial action. These ventures may choose to ''make do'' with existing resources in developing resource combinations that produce the least impact on the environment. The continuous conflict between the greater requirements for resources and limited resource availability in high potential sustainable ventures, with the added complexity of balancing this with an uncompromising focus on using ''what's on hand'' to lessen environment impacts may make bricolage behaviours critical for these ventures. Research into bricolage behaviour is however, the exception rather than the rule (Cunha 2005). More research is therefore needed to further develop and extend this emerging concept, especially in the context of sustainability ventures who are committed to personal and social goals of resourcefulness. To date, however, bricolage has not been studied specifically among high potential sustainable ventures. This research seeks to develop an in depth understanding of the impact of internal and external constraints and their combinations on the mechanisms employed in bricolage behaviours in differing dynamic environments. The following research question was developed to investigate this: How do internal, external resource constraints (or their combinations) impact bricolage resource decisions in high potential sustainability ventures? ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: 6 case studies will be developed utilizing survey data from the Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) large-scale longitudinal study of new venture start-ups in Australia. Prior to commencing case studies, 6 scoping interviews were conducted with key stakeholders including industry members, established businesses and government to ensure practical relevance in case development. The venture is considered the unit of analysis with the key informant being the entrepreneur and other management team members where appropriate. Triangulation techniques are used in this research including semi-structured interviews, survey data, onsite visits and secondary documentation website analysis, resumes, and business plans. These 6 sustainability ventures have been selected based on different environmental dynamism conditions including a traditionally mature market (building industry) and a more dynamic, evolving industry (renewable energy/solar ventures). In evaluating multidisciplinary literature, we expect the following external constraints are critical including: technology constraints (seen through lock-in of incumbents existing technology), institutional regulation and standards, access to markets, knowledge and training to nascent and young venture bricolage processes. The case studies will investigate internal constraints including resource fungability, resource combination capabilities, translating complex science/engineering knowledge into salient, valuable market propositions, i.e. appropriate market outcomes, and leveraging relationships may further influence bricolage decisions. ---------- Results and Implications: Intended ventures have been identified within the CAUSEE sample and have agreed to participate and secondary data collection for triangulation purposes has already commenced. Data collection of the case studies commenced 27th of May 2009. Analysis is expected to be completed finalised by 25th September 2009. This paper will report on the pattern of resource constraints and its impact on bricolage behaviours: its subsequent impact on resource deployment within venture creation and venture growth. As such, this research extends the theory of bricolage through the systematic analysis of constraints on resource management processes in sustainability ventures. For practice, this research may assist in providing a better understanding of the resource requirements and processes needed for continued venture persistence and growth in sustainability ventures. In these times of economic uncertainty, a better understanding of the influence on constraints and bricolage: the interplay of behaviours, processes and outcomes may enable greater venture continuance and success.

How environmental and organizational complexity affects opportunity recognition and exploitation in development projects

Principal Topic: Project structures are often created by entrepreneurs and large corporate organizations to develop new products. Since new product development projects (NPDP) are more often situated within a larger organization, intrapreneurship or corporate entrepreneurship plays an important role in bringing these projects to fruition. Since NPDP often involves the development of a new product using immature technology, we describe development of an immature technology. The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35 aircraft is being developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and eight allied nations. In 2001 Lockheed Martin won a $19 billion contract to develop an affordable, stealthy and supersonic all-weather strike fighter designed to replace a wide range of aging fighter aircraft. In this research we define a complex project as one that demonstrates a number of sources of uncertainty to a degree, or level of severity, that makes it extremely difficult to predict project outcomes, to control or manage project (Remington & Zolin, Forthcoming). Project complexity has been conceptualized by Remington and Pollock (2007) in terms of four major sources of complexity; temporal, directional, structural and technological complexity (See Figure 1). Temporal complexity exists when projects experience significant environmental change outside the direct influence or control of the project. The Global Economic Crisis of 2008 - 2009 is a good example of the type of environmental change that can make a project complex as, for example in the JSF project, where project managers attempt to respond to changes in interest rates, international currency exchange rates and commodity prices etc. Directional complexity exists in a project where stakeholders' goals are unclear or undefined, where progress is hindered by unknown political agendas, or where stakeholders disagree or misunderstand project goals. In the JSF project all the services and all non countries have to agree to the specifications of the three variants of the aircraft; Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL), Short Take Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) and the Carrier Variant (CV). Because the Navy requires a plane that can take off and land on an aircraft carrier, that required a special variant of the aircraft design, adding complexity to the project. Technical complexity occurs in a project using technology that is immature or where design characteristics are unknown or untried. Developing a plane that can take off on a very short runway and land vertically created may highly interdependent technological challenges to correctly locate, direct and balance the lift fans, modulate the airflow and provide equivalent amount of thrust from the downward vectored rear exhaust to lift the aircraft and at the same time control engine temperatures. These technological challenges make costing and scheduling equally challenging. Structural complexity in a project comes from the sheer numbers of elements such as the number of people, teams or organizations involved, ambiguity regarding the elements, and the massive degree of interconnectedness between them. While Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, they are assisted in major aspects of the JSF development by Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney and GE/Rolls-Royce Fighter Engineer Team and innumerable subcontractors. In addition to identifying opportunities to achieve project goals, complex projects also need to identify and exploit opportunities to increase agility in response to changing stakeholder demands or to reduce project risks. Complexity Leadership Theory contends that in complex environments adaptive and enabling leadership are needed (Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, 2007). Adaptive leadership facilitates creativity, learning and adaptability, while enabling leadership handles the conflicts that inevitably arise between adaptive leadership and traditional administrative leadership (Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2007). Hence, adaptive leadership involves the recognition and opportunities to adapt, while and enabling leadership involves the exploitation of these opportunities. Our research questions revolve around the type or source of complexity and its relationship to opportunity recognition and exploitation. For example, is it only external environmental complexity that creates the need for the entrepreneurial behaviours, such as opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation? Do the internal dimensions of project complexity, such as technological and structural complexity, also create the need for opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation? The Kropp, Zolin and Lindsay model (2009) describes a relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), opportunity recognition (OR), and opportunity exploitation (OX) in complex projects, with environmental and organizational contextual variables as moderators. We extend their model by defining the affects of external complexity and internal complexity on OR and OX. ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: When the environment complex EO is more likely to result in OR because project members will be actively looking for solutions to problems created by environmental change. But in projects that are technologically or structurally complex project leaders and members may try to make the minimum changes possible to reduce the risk of creating new problems due to delays or schedule changes. In projects with environmental or technological complexity project leaders who encourage the innovativeness dimension of EO will increase OR in complex projects. But projects with technical or structural complexity innovativeness will not necessarily result in the recognition and exploitation of opportunities due to the over-riding importance of maintaining stability in the highly intricate and interconnected project structure. We propose that in projects with environmental complexity creating the need for change and innovation project leaders, who are willing to accept and manage risk, are more likely to identify opportunities to increase project effectiveness and efficiency. In contrast in projects with internal complexity a much higher willingness to accept risk will be necessary to trigger opportunity recognition. In structurally complex projects we predict it will be less likely to find a relationship between risk taking and OP. When the environment is complex, and a project has autonomy, they will be motivated to execute opportunities to improve the project's performance. In contrast, when the project has high internal complexity, they will be more cautious in execution. When a project experiences high competitive aggressiveness and their environment is complex, project leaders will be motivated to execute opportunities to improve the project's performance. In contrast, when the project has high internal complexity, they will be more cautious in execution. This paper reports the first stage of a three year study into the behaviours of managers, leaders and team members of complex projects. We conduct a qualitative study involving a Group Discussion with experienced project leaders. The objective is to determine how leaders of large and potentially complex projects perceive that external and internal complexity will influence the affects of EO on OR. ---------- Results and Implications: These results will help identify and distinguish the impact of external and internal complexity on entrepreneurial behaviours in NPDP. Project managers will be better able to quickly decide how and when to respond to changes in the environment and internal project events.

Investigating users’ intuitive interaction with complex artefacts

This paper examines the role of intuition in the way that people operate unfamiliar devices. Intuition is a type of cognitive processing that is often non-conscious and utilises stored experiential knowledge. Intuitive interaction involves the use of knowledge gained from other products and/or experiences. Two initial experimental studies revealed that prior exposure to products employing similar features helped participants to complete set tasks more quickly and intuitively, and that familiar features were intuitively used more often than unfamiliar ones. A third experiment confirmed that performance is affected by a person's level of familiarity with similar technologies, and also revealed that appearance (shape, size and labelling of features) seems to be the variable that most affects time spent on a task and intuitive uses during that time. Age also seems to have an effect. These results and their implications are discussed.

Who needs it? An exploratory investigation into the reaction of small and medium enterprises to mobile data technologies

The technological environment in which contemporary small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operate can only be described as dynamic. The seemingly exponential nature of technological change, characterised by perceived increases in the benefits associated with various technologies, shortening product life cycles and changing standards, provides for the small and medium-sized enterprise a complex and challenging operational context. The development of infrastructures capable of supporting the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)and associated 'wireless' applications represents the latest generation of technological innovation with potential appeal to SMEs and end-users alike. The primary aim of this research was to understand the mobile data technology needs of SMEs in a regional setting. The research was especially concerned with perceived needs across three market segments; non-adopters of new technology, partial-adopters of new technology and full-adopters of new technology. Working with an industry partner, focus groups were conducted with each of these segments with the discussions focused on the use of the latest WP products and services. Some of the results are presented in this paper.

Developing a life-cycle costing analysis model for sustainability enhancement in road infrastructure project

With increasing pressure to provide environmentally responsible infrastructure products and services, stakeholders are putting significant foci on the early identification of financial viability and outcome of infrastructure projects. Traditionally, there has been an imbalance between sustainable measures and project budget. On one hand, the industry tends to employ the first-cost mentality and approach to developing infrastructure projects. On the other, environmental experts and technology innovators often push for the ultimately green products and systems without much of a concern for cost. This situation is being quickly changed as the industry is under pressure to continue to return profit, while better adapting to current and emerging global issues of sustainability. For the infrastructure sector to contribute to sustainable development, it will need to increase value and efficiency. Thus, there is a great need for tools that will enable decision makers evaluate competing initiatives and identify the most sustainable approaches to procuring infrastructure projects. In order to ensure that these objectives are achieved, the concept of life-cycle costing analysis (LCCA) will play significant roles in the economics of an infrastructure project. Recently, a few research initiatives have applied the LCCA models for road infrastructure that focused on the traditional economics of a project. There is little coverage of life-cycle costing as a method to evaluate the criteria and assess the economic implications of pursuing sustainability in road infrastructure projects. To rectify this problem, this paper reviews the theoretical basis of previous LCCA models before discussing their inability to determinate the sustainability indicators in road infrastructure project. It then introduces an on-going research aimed at developing a new model to integrate the various new cost elements based on the sustainability indicators with the traditional and proven LCCA approach. It is expected that the research will generate a working model for sustainability based life-cycle cost analysis.

Developing a conceptual model for measuring the satisfaction levels of Malaysian contractors

The evaluation of satisfaction levels related to performance is an important aspect in increasing market share, improving profitability and enlarging opportunities for repeat business and can lead to the determination of areas to be improved, improving harmonious working relationships and conflict avoidance. In the construction industry, this can also result in improved project quality, enhanced reputation and increased competitiveness. Many conceptual models have been developed to measure satisfaction levels - typically to gauge client satisfaction, customer satisfaction and home buyer satisfaction - but limited empirical research has been carried out, especially in investigating the satisfaction of construction contractors. In addressing this, this paper provides a unique conceptual model or framework for contractor satisfaction based on attributes identified by interviews with practitioners in Malaysia. In addition to progressing research in this topic and being of potential benefit to Malaysian contractors, it is anticipated that the framework will also be useful for other parties - clients, designers, subcontractors and suppliers - in enhancing the quality of products and/or services generally.

Foreign wine consumption in Australia : the influence of consumer perceptions to foreign cultures on wine choice

Research has shown that while some people favor foreign- sourced products, others prefer to purchase goods made in their own country. From the perspective of the Australian wine market, consumption of wine has been consistently increasing in recent years. While sales of Australian made wine is booming, sales of imported sources is also increasing in terms of dollar value. This paper examines the effect of consumer ethnocentrism and animosity on willingness to buy foreign wine products, in an effort to better understand the factors involved in the consumer decision making process when purchasing wine products.