An institutional view of local entrepreneurial climate

This paper proposes a conceptual framework on the role of formal and informal institutional factors at the sub-national level (e.g. city) in shaping the climate conducive for the growth and success of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Extant literature reveals that institutional analyses tend to focus on either formal or informal institutions, in narrow and fragmented ways. Likewise, previous studies focused their analysis on national or country-wide institutional frameworks, ignoring the institutional heterogeneity of regions and cities within a given country. This study attempts to develop an integrated institutional approach at the city-level and stretch the conceptual boundaries of formal and informal institutions as they shape the local entrepreneurial climate – the set of tangible and intangible institutional factors that are shaping the performance of entrepreneurial firms in a geographically and politically defined area such as a city.

Fast mining of non-derivable episode rules in complex sequences

Researchers have been endeavoring to discover concise sets of episode rules instead of complete sets in sequences. Existing approaches, however, are not able to process complex sequences and can not guarantee the accuracy of resulting sets due to the violation of anti-monotonicity of the frequency metric. In some real applications, episode rules need to be extracted from complex sequences in which multiple items may appear in a time slot. This paper investigates the discovery of concise episode rules in complex sequences. We define a concise representation called non-derivable episode rules and formularize the mining problem. Adopting a novel anti-monotonic frequency metric, we then develop a fast approach to discover non-derivable episode rules in complex sequences. Experimental results demonstrate that the utility of the proposed approach substantially reduces the number of rules and achieves fast processing.

Physiological responses of elite junior Australian Rules footballers during match-play

Australian Football (AF) is Australia's major football code. Despite research in other football codes, to date, no data has been published on the physiological responses of AF players during match play. Fifteen athletes (17.28 ± 0.76 yrs) participated in four pre-season matches, sanctioned by Australian Football League (AFL) Victoria, investigating Heart Rate (HR), Blood Lactate (BLa), Core Temperature (Tcore), and Hydration status. Match HR was measured continuously using HR monitors. BLa was measured via finger prick lancet at the end of each quarter of play. Tcore was measured by use of ingestible temperature sensor and measured wirelessly at the end of each quarter of play. Hydration status was measured using refractometry, measuring urine specific gravity, and body weight pre and post-match. Environmental conditions were measured continuously during matches. Results of HR responses showed a high exertion of players in the 85-95% maximum HR range. Elevated mean BLa levels, compared to rest, were observed in all players over the duration of the matches (p = 0.007). Mean Tcore rose 0.68 °C between start and end of matches. Mean USG increased between 0.008 g/ml (p = 0.001) with mean body weight decreasing 1.88 kg (p = 0.001). This study illustrates physiological responses in junior AF players playing in the heat as well as providing physiological data for consideration by AF coaching staff when developing specific training programs. Continued research should consider physiological measurements under varying environments, and at all playing levels of AF, to ascertain full physiological responses during AF matches.

Profile of position movement demands in elite junior Australian rules footballers

This study investigated the positional movement patterns in elite junior Australian Football (AF). Thirty players (17.1 ± 0.9 years) participating in this study were tracked over seven home games of the regular 2006 Victorian junior (Under 18) league season. Using lapsed-time video analysis, each position for an entire match was videotaped on three separate occasions over the course of the season. Data analysed included the number of individual efforts, duration and frequency of efforts; distance and percentage time for the classifications of standing, walking jogging, running and sprinting. Results showed that the midfield position travelled the greatest distance (4173 ± 238 m per quarter; p < 0.05; ES = .94) whilst the full forward/full back travelled the least (2605 ± 348 m per quarter, p < 0.05, ES = 1.21). For all positions, walking or jogging accounted for the greatest number of efforts (45-55%), conversely running and sprinting accounted for 5-13% of match efforts. The majority of efforts across all classifications were between 0-3.99 s. The data from this study provides further evidence that AF is an intermittent sport characterised by high intensity movements separated by low intensity movements at a ratio of one high intensity effort every 12-40 s. However, careful interpretation of the data is required when training junior AF players for specific positions, given the specific group studied.

Player movement patterns in an elite junior Australian Rules Football team : an exploratory study

This study explored the physical movement patterns associated with an elite Under 18 Australian Football (AF) team. Five field positions were selected with observations recording the number and relative per cent of "working" efforts (jogging, running, and sprinting), "resting" efforts (walking) and the total distances associated with "working" or "resting" efforts. Intra-observer reliability, using test- retest method, showed correlations were r = 0.98 or greater. The Wing position covered 11,877 m, the greatest total distance during an entire game, whilst the HBF and Centre positions both recorded 11,545 m and 11,537 m respectively and the Ruck position covered 9,203 m. The HBF recorded the greatest frequency of 'working' and 'resting' efforts (180 and 182 respectively), whilst the Wing (166 and 158), Centre (162 and 149) and Ruck (161 and 166) showed similarities in their results. The Wing position recorded the longest average distance per 'working' effort (58 m) whilst the Centre position recorded the longest average distance per 'resting' effort (17 m). Results also show the completion of less total efforts and smaller total distances, in Under 18 players, recorded compared to professional senior AF data. The results from this study suggest that further in-depth research is required into movement patterns and game activity demands in this AF playing group.

Fuzzy FMEA with a guided rules reduction system for prioritization of failures

Purpose – To propose a generic method to simplify the fuzzy logic-based failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) methodology by reducing the number of rules that needs to be provided by FMEA users for the fuzzy risk priority number (RPN) modeling process.

Design/methodology/approach – The fuzzy RPN approach typically requires a large number of rules, and it is a tedious task to obtain a full set of rules. The larger the number of rules provided by the users, the better the prediction accuracy of the fuzzy RPN model. As the number of rules required increases, ease of use of the model decreases since the users have to provide a lot of information/rules for the modeling process. A guided rules reduction system (GRRS) is thus proposed to regulate the number of rules required during the fuzzy RPN modeling process. The effectiveness of the proposed GRRS is investigated using three real-world case studies in a semiconductor manufacturing process.

Findings – In this paper, we argued that not all the rules are actually required in the fuzzy RPN model. Eliminating some of the rules does not necessarily lead to a significant change in the model output. However, some of the rules are vitally important and cannot be ignored. The proposed GRRS is able to provide guidelines to the users which rules are required and which can be eliminated. By employing the GRRS, the users do not need to provide all the rules, but only the important ones when constructing the fuzzy RPN model. The results obtained from the case studies demonstrate that the proposed GRRS is able to reduce the number of rules required and, at the same time, to maintain the ability of the Fuzzy RPN model to produce predictions that are in agreement with experts' knowledge in risk evaluation, ranking, and prioritization tasks.

Research limitations/implications – The proposed GRRS is limited to FMEA systems that utilize the fuzzy RPN model.

Practical implications – The proposed GRRS is able to simplify the fuzzy logic-based FMEA methodology and make it possible to be implemented in real environments.

Originality/value – The value of the current paper is on the proposal of a GRRS for rule reduction to enhance the practical use of the fuzzy RPN model in real environments.

Warlpiri warriors : Australian Rules Football in Central Australia

Yuendumu, located in the Tanami desert of the Northern Territory, is home to the largest Warlpiri community in Australia. We examine the role of Australian Rules football in this remote Indigenous community. Football is seen to operate on many layers of Warlpiri culture, from the traditional game of ‘purlja’, the introduction of modern football in the 1950s, the growth of sports weekends, community football and the Alice Springs competition to the journey of Liam Jurrah, the first Warlpiri man to make the journey from being a desert footballer to emerging as an Australian Football League star. The importance of football in Yuendumu is revealed as a vehicle for social cohesion, group identity, pride and joy, and as an expression of manhood, enabling its young men to see themselves as modern-day Warlpiri warriors.

Patient and business rules extraction and formalisation using SVN and SBVR for automated healthcare

This paper describes advances in automated health service selection and composition in the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) domain. We apply a Service Value Network (SVN) approach to automatically match medical practice recommendations to health services based on sensor readings in a home care context. Medical practice recommendations are extracted from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines. Service networks are derived from Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) listings. Service provider rules are further formalised using Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), which allows business participants to identify and define machine-readable rules. We demonstrate our work by applying an SVN composition process to patient profiles in the context of Type 2 Diabetes Management.

The development of the institutional investor : the case of Australian life insurers 1945-85

This paper considers the post-war development of asset management practices among Australian life insurers, which have historically been among the largest institutional investors in Australia. A complex process of adaptation and organisational restructuring allowed life insurers to transform from basic investors of policy-holders’ funds to large multifaceted institutional investors in just three decades. Three stages in the development of investment practices are identified. These phases trace the process of expanding existing knowledge bases; diversification; and the acquisition of new skills; consolidation and the integration of these skills into institutional structures; thus completing one cycle of organisational learning and setting the stage for the next.

Leading the evaluation of institutional online learning environments for quality enhancement in times of change

This paper reports on findings from a nationally funded project which aims to design and implement a quality management framework for online learning environments (OLEs). Evaluation is a key component of any quality management system and it is this aspect of the framework that is the focus of this paper. In developing the framework initial focus groups were conducted at the five participating institutions. These revealed that, although regarded as important, there did not appear to be a shared understanding of the nature and purpose of evaluation. A second series of focus groups revealed there were multiple perspectives arising from those with a vested interest in online learning. These perspectives will be outlined. Overall, how evaluation was undertaken was highly variable within and across the five institutions reflecting where they were at in relation to the development of their OLE.

Institutional environment, innovation capacity and firm performance in Russia

Purpose – Following the demise of the Soviet Union in 1992, Russia undertook major institutional and market-oriented reforms to enhance the competitive advantage of domestic enterprises. Although Russia has experienced rapid growth over the last two decades, the extent to which institutions in Russia impact on firm innovation and performance remains poorly understood due to a lack of research on the subject. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on the competitiveness of Russian firms by focussing specifically on the extent to which the state of the regulatory quality, rule of law, and corruption affect the innovation capacity and performance of firms in Russia.

Design/methodology/approach – The study uses structural equation modelling and data from a large-scale firm level survey (n=787) of firms in Russia undertaken by the World Bank in 2009. It investigates the direct and indirect perceptions of respondents of the effects the current institutional environment has on the innovation capacity and performance of their respective organisations.

Findings – The results show that regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption have strong direct and negative impacts on both the innovation capacity and performance of firms, and that innovation capacity strongly mediates the effects of institutions on firm performance. The results suggest that the current state of the regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption in Russia inhibit firm innovation and their resulting performance.

Research limitations/implications – The findings should be interpreted with caution to the extent that the study is limited to only three elements of the formal institutional environment and does not take into consideration the role of informal institutions. These two limitations present avenues for future research.

Originality/value – The study is one of the first to provide empirical evidence based on a large-scale survey of the extent to which formal institutions inhibit innovation and firm performance in Russia, and provides valuable guidance to business policy-makers in Russia on possible avenues for enhancing the overall competitiveness of Russian firms.