Brave spirits on new paths : toward a globally relevant paradigm of Indigenous entrepreneurship research

This is the first study in a series aimed at strengthening research in the emerging field of Indigenous entrepreneurship. A literature survey revealed two dominant themes: the need to reconcile tradition with innovation and the need to understand how Indigenous world-views and values impact upon enterprise. Four relevant theoretical contexts guided an empirical investigation employing depth interviews with 40 selected opinion leaders representing two cultures: Indigenous Australian and American Indian. Data evaluation culminated in the formal articulation of a paradigm for Indigenous entrepreneurship research. Discussion focused on utility of the paradigm and future research directions.

Performance differences between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial firms : extending the strategy-structure-performance paradigm

This paper extends the strategy-structure-performance paradigm to examine the performance differences between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial electrical distribution firms. The results indicate that both entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial electrical distributors with an optimal strategy-structure alignment tend to have a higher organizational performance than those entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial electrical distributors without such an alignment. The results are examined and conclusions are offered. Finally, the implications for future research are set out, as are the limitations of the present study.

Investing in intelligence : an inquiry into educational paradigm change

In this philosophical and practical-critical inquiry, I address two significant and closely related problems - whether and how those involved in the enterprise of education conceptualise a need for educational change, and the observed resistance of school cultures to change efforts. I address the apparent lack of a clear, coherent and viable theory of learning, agency and change, capable of making explicit the need, substantive nature and means of educational change. Based on a meta-analysis of numerous theories and perspectives on human knowing, learning, intelligence, agency and change, I synthesise a 'Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change', characterised by fifteen Constructs. I argue that this more viable Paradigm is capable of informing both design and critique of systemic curriculum and assessment policies, school organisation and planning models, professional learning and pedagogical practice, and student learning and action. The Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change contrasts with the assumptions reflected in the prevailing culture of institutionalised education, and I argue that dominant views of knowledge and human agency are both theoretically and practically non-viable and unsustainable. I argue that the prevailing culture and experience of schooling contributes to the formation of assumptions, identities, dispositions and orientations to the world characterised by alienation. The Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change also contrasts with the assumptions reflected in some educational reform efforts recently promoted at system level in Queensland, Australia. I use the Dynamic Paradigm as the reference point for a formal critique of two influential reform programs, Authentic Pedagogy and the New Basics Project, identifying significant limitations in both the conceptualisation of educational ends and means, and the implementation of these reform agendas. Within the Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change, knowledge and learning serve the individual's need for more adaptive or viable functioning in the world. I argue that students' attainment of knowledge of major ways in which others in our culture organise experience (interpret the world) is a legitimate goal of schooling. However, it is more viable to think of the primary function of schooling as providing for the young inspiration, opportunities and support for purposeful doing, and for assisting them in understanding the processes of 'action scheme' change to make such doing more viable. Through the practical-critical components of the inquiry, undertaken in the context of the ferment of pedagogical and curricular discussion and exploration in Queensland between 1999 and 2003, I develop the Key Abilities Model and associated guidelines and resources relating to forms of pedagogy, curriculum organisation and assessment consistent with the Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change. I argue the importance of showing teachers why and how their existing visions and conceptions of learning and teaching may be inadequate, and of emphasising teachers' conceptions of learning, knowing, agency and teaching, and their identities, dispositions and orientations to the world, as things that might need to change, in order to realise the intent of educational change focused on transformational student outcomes serving both the individual and collective good. A recommendation is made for implementation and research of a school-based trial of the Key Abilities Model, informed by and reflecting the Dynamic Paradigm of Learning and Change, as an important investment in the development and expression of ‘authentic' human intelligence.

Reinforcement sensitivity theory : a paradigm for understanding the motivational processes underlying alcohol use

Provides an examination of the processes which motivate individuals to drink alcohol. It was found that heavier drinkers are highly sensitive to reward yet more likely to experience negative affect, both generally, and in response to alcohol-related cues. Based on these findings a model focusing on the links between personality, mood and craving for alcohol was developed.

Adoption of VIDEOoverIP by deaf people in the workplace

This study explored deaf employees' adoption of videocommunication-via-the Internet, allowing sign language use between deaf people, and between deaf and hearing people via Video Relay Interpreting service. Major findings included a paradigm shift from text to video communication; and, a divergence from typical adoption theory, with government intervention required to prime the adoption of videocommunication by deaf people in Australia.

Brave spirits on new paths : toward a globally relevant paradigm of indigenous entrepreneurship research

This is the first study in a series aimed at strengthening research in the emerging field of Indigenous entrepreneurship. A literature survey revealed two dominant themes: the need to reconcile tradition with innovation and the need to understand how Indigenous world-views and values impact upon enterprise. Four relevant theoretical contexts guided an empirical investigation employing depth interviews with 40 selected opinion leaders representing two cultures: Indigenous Australian and American Indian. Data evaluation culminated in the formal articulation of a paradigm for Indigenous entrepreneurship research. Discussion focused on utility of the paradigm and future research directions.

How to write an unsuccessful entrepreneurial business plan : content analysis of the normative literature reveals a flawed paradigm

The study's aim was to investigate whether an Entrepreneurial Business Planning (EBP) paradigm could be discovered as a body of core, common maxims within the normative EBP literature (works of the 'how-to-write-a-successful-new-venture-business-plan' genre). It employed content analysis techniques adapted mainly from the methodological prescriptions of Krippendorf (1980) and Carney (1972). The textual investigation produced a comprehensive, quantitative data base capable of sufficient interpretative richness to discover that an established Entrepreneurial Business Planning paradigm does exist. Its major elements embrace two key assumptions, four strong mandates and four weaker mandates.

The discovery is significant for two main reasons. First, it provides a formally-researched, explicitly-articulated EBP paradigm. This can replace the anecdotal, unarticulated assumption (implicit in most of the normative EBP literature) that an EBP paradigm 'probably exists'. Second, the research redresses some of the imbalance between entrepreneurship teaching- where Entrepreneurial Business Planning is at the core of international curricula - and entrepreneurship research which has virtually ignored EBP as a topic worthy of serious scrutiny. A firm basis for critical, scholarly exploration of the neglected EBP field is now established. This takes the theory and practice of EBP into a new era beginning with recognition that the discovered EBP paradigm is badly flawed and likely, if blindly applied, to lead to the writing of unsuccessful business plans.

Kristeva reframed : interpreting key thinkers for the arts

For Kristeva, in a world immersed in readymade images, art or aesthetic experience is a practice that constitutes both a subject (a sense of self) and an object that is able to transform meaning and consciousness.Kristeva Reframed examines key ideas in Kristeva's work to show how they are most relevant to artists, and how they can be applied in interpreting artworks. With examples from the paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso, the work of contemporary feminist painters, the photography of Bill Henson and the film and animation work of Van Sowerine, Estelle Barrett demonstrates how Kristeva can illuminate the relationships between artist and art object, between artists, artworks and audiences, and between art and knowledge. Through these relationships she explores what Kristeva's work reveals about the role and function of art in society and offers a smooth passage through Kristeva's ideas and her relevance to visual culture.

Rehabilitation : beyond the risk paradigm

Providing a succinct summary and critique of the scientific approach to offender rehabilitation, this volume for students of criminology, sociology and clinical psychology gives a comprehensive evaluation of both the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model and the Good Lives Model." "Rehabilitation is a value-laden process involving a delicate balance of the needs and desires of clinicians, clients, the State and the public. Written by two internationally renowned academics in rehabilitation research, this book argues that intervention with offenders is not simply a matter of implementing the best therapeutic technology and leaving political and social debate to politicians and policy-makers.

Interpreting electrochemical noise resistance as a statistical linear polarisation resistance

A theoretical analysis on the electrochemical noise resistance is carried out based on basic electrochemical corrosion theory. It is proven that the noise resistance is equivalent to the polarisation resistance and is in fact a special form of linear polarisation resistance, namely statistical linear polarisation resistance.