Government initiative and start-up firms’ eco-innovation : A case study through the ecological modernisation lens

Government programs to finance small firms or start-ups have attracted a little empirical attention. From an economical perspective, the effect of government grants is evaluated by a measure of innovation or firm productivity. Yet, this paper takes a different approach from economical view aiming to address the research question “How do start ups firms view the relationship between government grants and their co-efficient innovation effort?” Semi-structured interviews with grant recipients (start-up business owners revealed that the grants assist firms to leverage their resource limitations but at the same time the grants also act as a major roadblock for their product development success.

The Innovation Management Program (IMP) : a holistic approach to managing change in knowledge based firms

Innovation Management (IM) in most knowledge based firms is used on an adhoc basis where senior managers use this term to leverage competitive edge without understanding its true meaning and how its robust application in organisation impacts organisational performance. There have been attempts in the manufacturing industry to harness the innovative potential of the business and apprehend its use as a point of difference to improve financial and non financial outcomes. However further work is required to innovatively extrapolate the lessons learnt to introduce incremental and/or radical innovation to knowledge based firms. An international structural engineering firm has been proactive in exploring and implementing this idea and has forged an alliance with the Queensland University of Technology to start the Innovation Management Program (IMP). The aim was to develop a permanent and sustainable program with which innovation can be woven through the fabric of the organisation. There was an intention to reinforce the firms’ vision and reinvigorate ideas and create new options that help in its realisation. This paper outlines the need for innovation in knowledge based firms and how this consulting engineering firm reacted to this exigency. The development of the Innovation Management Program, its different themes (and associated projects) and how they integrate to form a holistic model is also discussed. The model is designed around the need of providing professional qualification improvement opportunities for staff, setting-up organised, structured & easily accessible knowledge repositories to capture tacit and explicit knowledge and implement efficient project management strategies with a view to enhance client satisfaction. A Delphi type workshop is used to confirm the themes and projects. Some of the individual projects and their expected outcomes are also discussed. A questionnaire and interviews were used to collect data to select appropriate candidates responsible for leading these projects. Following an in-depth analysis of preliminary research results, some recommendations on the selection process will also be presented.

Conceptualising a Chinese corporate governance framework : tensions between tradition, ideologies and modernity

Reflects on the challenges facing China's efforts to reform its corporate governance framework, and the extent to which the modernisation can be reconciled with the country's cultural traditions. Examines the development of China's legal and economic reforms since 1978, the debate which these have generated ad the shortcomings of the current corporate governance regime. Discusses how Confucian principles might be applied to issues of director's duties and corporate governance, and explains the benefits of such an approach.

Understanding nonsense : breathing life into shibboleths and killing critical thought in higher education

In this paper, I focus on the growing "nonsense industry" which is most apparent in the writing typical of business, government departments, and the financial press. This writing, like technical writing, is characterised by heavy reliance on grammatical metaphor. It endows shibboleths - for instance, "globalisation"; "efficiencies"; "competition"; "modernisation"; "consumer sentiment"; "reform"; and so on - with anthropomorphic qualities. These anthropomorphic artefacts of technocratised language are then presented as having immutable powers over people. Thus they become banal public excuses for negligent practices in both business and government.

Editors' introduction

In approaching this Special Issue on Foresight, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (FI&E) we considered that globalisation and rapid modernisation were increasingly creating the need for social reflexivity. We thought that in respect to the production and diffusion of innovations, both social and technical, that the landscape for new enterprise was characterised by widening change horizons and deeper ethical concerns. As a consequence of the greater demand for innovation to achieve economic prosperity, it was conceived that 'unforesightful' innovation may have irreparable affects on social and ecological systems and uncertain implications for our futures. Therefore, we considered a new intellectual alliance between FI&E was potentially a matter of human survival. New approaches to thinking about how and what we innovate, the choices we face for new enterprise creation and the influence of infrastructure for generating entrepreneurship, we considered, would need to emerge if we are to positively impact human and planetary sustainability in the 21st century. Hence this special issue was designed to bring together cross-disciplinary research aimed at exploring the synergies between foresight, innovation and entrepreneurship and the way in which these connections may be taking place in both the practical and theoretical sense.

Charity and Civil Society

Charity remains a leading brand in society, continuing to command public goodwill and response. It is underpinned by a long tradition and law – both raising questions for the wider public as well as ‘specialists’, about ‘modernisation’ and coherence.

The Authority of Influence : Women and Power in Burmese History

This book explores the relationship between gender and power in Burmese history from pre-colonial times to the present day and aims to identify the sources, nature and limitations of women’s power. The study takes as its starting point the apparent contradiction that, though Burmese women historically enjoyed relatively high social status and economic influence, for the most part they remained conspicuously absent from positions of authority in formal religious, social and political institutions. The book thus examines the concept of ‘family’ in Burmese political culture, and reveals how some women were able to gain political influence through their familial connections with powerful men, even while cultural models of ‘correct’ female behaviour prevented most women from attaining official positions of political authority. The study also considers how various influences – Buddhism, colonialism, nationalism, modernisation and militarism – shaped Burmese concepts of gender and power, with important implications for how women were able to exercise social, economic and political influence. The book explores how the effects of prolonged armed conflict, economic isolation and political oppression have constrained opportunities for women to attain power in contemporary Burma, and examines opportunities opened up by the pro-democracy movement and recent focus on women's issues and rights for women to exercise influence both inside Burma and in exile. Using an interdisciplinary approach that draws on feminist, anthropological and social science discourses, placing them within an historical framework, the author offers a broad understanding of how power is obtained and exercised in Burma in order to reassess historical representations of Burmese women and so provide a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of power relations in historical and contemporary Burma.

The changing role of copyright in China’s emergent media economy

This chapter introduces the changing role of copyright in China from a historical perspective. It begins by briefly tracing the history of copyright, from a censorship-related system associated with the emergence of the printing press in imperial China, through modernisation during the Republican period, abolition under communism and finally to the introduction of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) first copyright law in 1990 and the nation's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001.

Othering the Malay in Malaysia : a planned consequence of politics?

This paper examines the rise in the politicisation of Islam in Malaysia and links it to the othering of the Malaysian Malay. It is my argument that both were “conquering” tools of Malaysia’s “Father of Modernisation”, Mahathir Mohamad, devised to win the support of the Malay Muslim majority in Malaysia. The many awards bestowed on Mahathir obscure the fact that he was instrumental in the systematic erosion of the power and roles of state institutions, especially at the Federal government level. This includes the significant loss of the independence of the Malaysian judiciary. Whilst per capita income in Malaysia may well have increased eight times under his 22-year leadership, this paper asks why is it that the majority of the Malays remain the largest number among the poor and the more disenfranchised of ethnicities in the country? Why have Malay and Muslim women suffered such a rapid decreasing ability to access justice? This paper examines existing research on the social and political changes Malaysia has experienced with Islamisation and under Mahathir’s rule, as well as studies on Malayness, Malay nationalism and Muslim Malay identity formation. The paper elaborates the othering of a majority people, the Malays in Malaysia, and how this othering has brought forth a fast-growing political power in the name of a supremacist Islam, a puritanical Sunni and Malay Islam. Specific events in the rise and rule of Mahathir as Malaysia’s then Prime Minister are reviewed, such as the banning of The Malay Dilemma, and the split in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1987. Also examined is the varying emphasis between Muslim and race, and how during Mahathir’s rule, that strong misogynist and patriarchal attitudes took hold in Malay Muslim consciousness, a colonising consciousness that is othering the perceived cultural and genetic “impurities” within the Malay.

The last taboo: Patenting human beings

This article considers the efforts of the Australian Law Reform Commission to clarify the meaning of section 18(2) of the Australian Patents Act 1990 (Cth): ’Human beings and the biological processes for their generation are not patentable inventions.' It provides a critique of the proposals of the Commission with respect to patent law and stem cell research. The Commission has recommended that IP Australia should develop examination guidelines to explain how the criteria for patentability apply to inventions involving stem cell technologies. It has advised the Australian Government that the practice code of the United Kingdom Patent Office (UKPO) would be a good model for such guidelines, with its distinction between totipotent and pluripotent stem cells. Arguably, though, there is a need to codify this proposal in a legislative directive, and not merely in examination guidelines. The Commission has been reluctant to take account of the ethical considerations with respect to patent law and stem cell research. There could be greater scope for such considerations, by the use of expert advisory boards, opposition proceedings and the requirement of informed consent. The Commission has put forward a number of general and specific recommendations to enhance access to patented stem cell technologies. It recommends the development of a research exemption, and the modernisation of compulsory licensing and crown use provisions. It also explores the establishment of a stem cell bank and the promulgation of guidelines by funding agencies. Such proposals to promote greater public access to stem cell research are to be welcomed.