Does privatisation drive innovation? Business model innovation through stakeholder viewpoints: the case of Sydney Airport 10 years post-privatisation

Broad economic and social reform, rapid technological change and increasing global competition have meant that organisations must consider all aspects of their business model in order to successfully create and capture ongoing customer value. In this study it is proposed that business model innovation must always consider and incorporate the symbiotic and interdependent relationship that stakeholders have with an organisation. One particular aspect of economic reform, privatisation, has become an important driver of economic growth in many economies, particularly when linked with the rapid growth of air travel. Privatisation of an airport can generate a radical change in the overall business model for the airport owner and the various stakeholders involved in the operation of the airport. Sydney Airport has restructured its overarching business model to meet the demands of stakeholders. Using feedback from key stakeholders, this research examines the generally accepted view that airport privatisation leads to an improvement in airport performance. Chesbrough's Business Model Framework provides a lens to assist the analysis of Sydney Airport operations before and after privatisation, and provides valuable insights into the impact of privatisation on business model innovation. © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2014.

A multi-criteria decision approach to decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure

Thousands of the world's offshore oil and gas structures are approaching obsolescence and will require decommissioning within the next decade. Many nations have blanket regulations requiring obsolete structures to be removed, yet this option is unlikely to yield optimal environmental, societal and economic outcomes in all situations. We propose that nations adopt a flexible approach that allows decommissioning options to be selected from the full range of alternatives (including 'rigs-to-reefs' options) on a case-by-case basis. We outline a method of multi-criteria decision analysis (Multi-criteria Approval, MA) for evaluating and comparing alternative decommissioning options across key selection criteria, including environmental, financial, socioeconomic, and health and safety considerations. The MA approach structures the decision problem, forces explicit consideration of trade-offs and directly involves stakeholder groups in the decision process. We identify major decommissioning options and provide a generic list of selection criteria for inclusion in the MA decision process. To deal with knowledge gaps concerning environmental impacts of decommissioning, we suggest that expert opinion feed into the MA approach until sufficient data become available. We conducted a limited trial of the MA decision approach to demonstrate its application to a complex and controversial decommissioning scenario; Platform Grace in southern California. The approach indicated, for this example, that the option 'leave in place intact' would likely provide best environmental outcomes in the event of future decommissioning. In summary, the MA approach will allow the environmental, social, and economic impacts of decommissioning decisions to be assessed simultaneously in a transparent manner. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) research platform

HuNI (Humanities Networked Infrastructure) combines data from many Australian cultural websites into the biggest humanities and creative arts database ever assembled in Australia. HuNI data covers all disciplines and brings together information about the people, works, events, organisations and places that make up the country's rich cultural landscape.

Improving data forwarding in mobile social networks with infrastructure support: a space-crossing community approach

In this paper, we study two tightly coupled issues: space-crossing community detection and its influence on data forwarding in Mobile Social Networks (MSNs) by taking the hybrid underlying networks with infrastructure support into consideration. The hybrid underlying network is composed of large numbers of mobile users and a small portion of Access Points (APs). Because APs can facilitate the communication among long-distance nodes, the concept of physical proximity community can be extended to be one across the geographical space. In this work, we first investigate a space-crossing community detection method for MSNs. Based on the detection results, we design a novel data forwarding algorithm SAAS (Social Attraction and AP Spreading), and show how to exploit the space-crossing communities to improve the data forwarding efficiency. We evaluate our SAAS algorithm on real-life data from MIT Reality Mining and University of Illinois Movement (UIM). Results show that space-crossing community plays a positive role in data forwarding in MSNs in terms of delivery ratio and delay. Based on this new type of community, SAAS achieves a better performance than existing social community-based data forwarding algorithms in practice, including Bubble Rap and Nguyen's Routing algorithms. © 2014 IEEE.

Mechanisms underpinning use of new walking and cycling infrastructure in different contexts: mixed-method analysis

BACKGROUND: Few studies have evaluated the effects of infrastructural improvements to promote walking and cycling. Even fewer have explored how the context and mechanisms of such interventions may interact to produce their outcomes. METHODS: This mixed-method analysis forms part of the UK iConnect study, which aims to evaluate new walking and cycling routes at three sites - Cardiff, Kenilworth and Southampton. Applying a complementary follow-up approach, we first identified differences in awareness and patterns of use of the infrastructure in survey data from a cohort of adult residents at baseline in spring 2010 (n = 3516) and again one (n = 1849) and two (n = 1510) years later following completion of the infrastructural projects (Analysis 1). We subsequently analysed data from 17 semi-structured interviews with key informants to understand how the new schemes might influence walking and cycling (Analysis 2a). In parallel, we analysed cohort survey data on environmental perceptions (Analysis 2b). We integrated these two datasets to interpret differences across the sites consistent with a theoretical framework that hypothesised that the schemes would improve connectivity and the social environment. RESULTS: After two years, 52% of Cardiff respondents reported using the infrastructure compared with 37% in Kenilworth and 22% in Southampton. Patterns of use did not vary substantially between sites. 17% reported using the new infrastructure for transport, compared with 39% for recreation. Environmental perceptions at baseline were generally unfavourable, with the greatest improvements in Cardiff. Qualitative data revealed that all schemes had a recreational focus to varying extents, that the visibility of schemes to local people might be an important mechanism driving use and that the scale and design of the schemes and the contrast they presented with existing infrastructure may have influenced their use. CONCLUSIONS: The dominance of recreational uses may have reflected the specific local goals of some of the projects and the discontinuity of the new infrastructure from a satisfactory network of feeder routes. Greater use in Cardiff may have been driven by the mechanisms of greater visibility and superior design features within the context of an existing environment that was conducive neither to walking or cycling nor to car travel.

Aggregating cultural heritage data for research use: The humanities networked infrastructure (HuNI)

This paper looks at the Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI), a service which aggregates data from thirty Australian data sources and makes them available for use by researchers across the humanities and creative arts. We discuss the methods used by HuNI to aggregate data, as well as the conceptual framework which has shaped the design of HuNI’s Data Model around six core entity types. Two of the key functions available to users of HuNI – building collections and creating links – are discussed, together with their design rationale.

The relevance of Asian development bank: existing in the shadow of the Asian infrastructure investment bank

This paper analyses the potential impact of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on the Japan-USA-led Asian Development Bank (ADB). Given the financial strengths and the technical know-how of the newly formed AIIB there is a question about thefuture role and indeed relevance of the ADB. The questions canvassed in this article refer to ADB’s ability to change and adapt to the new situation, where it is no longer the dominant multi-lateral development bank (MDB) in the Asia-Pacific region. Against this background the discussion turns to issues concerning the geo-political sphere of influence of the ADB andAIIB and analyses the ADB – AIIB geo-political equilibrium in the Asia-Pacific region. Subsequently this paper discusses factors that may impact on ADB’s future relevance.

Performance of project alliancing in Australasia: a digest of infrastructure development from 2008 to 2013

Project and program alliances have been an accepted form of project procurement for public infrastructure engineering projects in Australia and New Zealand (Australasia). Alliancing often provides best value and superior value for money when compared to traditional approaches such as Design and Construct, however considerable debate continues about its success and applicability. This paper reports on three studies of completed construction project alliance performance in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Consolidated findings are presented on 61 project alliances, data is analysed and emerging trends discussed. Recent government policy changes in Australia at Federal and State level have led to a decline in the number of project alliances, however, while the volume of alliance activity is declining it still represents billions of dollars of infrastructure construction work being undertaken. Results also revealed that communication and trust between the executive leadership and operational management teams was a major factor contributing to the functioning of the alliance. Furthermore, the research identifies several key factors that were necessary preconditions for successful alliances.

The underpricing of infrastructure IPOs: Evidence from China

This study investigates the underpricing of 135 infrastructure IPOs in China from 1996 to 2012. It follows infrastructure IPO studies in Australia and India which report average underpricing returns to subscribers of 3.5% and 25.4%, respectively. The average underpricing return for Chinese infrastructure IPOs is substantially higher at 86.3%, but interestingly substantially lower than the underpricing of Chinese IPOs generally. The issue size, government ownership and the pre-IPO earnings per share are helpful in explaining the underpricing of Chinese infrastructure IPOs while the underwriter reputation does not appear to have much explanatory power. In addition, we find the underpricing of infrastructure IPOs in China is also affected by its local GDP levels.

As luck would have it: serendipity and solace in digital research infrastructure

 This essay explores the ways in which new developments in digital research infrastructure change our expectations of archival research and offer opportunities for a newly energized feminist approach to the archive. A specific platform, the Humanities Networked Infrastructure, is explored as an example of how digital technologies enable the coproduction of the archive and at the same time extend the possibilities for serendipitous discovery.

Congestion control mechanism for sensor-cloud Infrastructure

 This thesis has developed a sensor-Cloud system that integrates WBANs with Cloud computing to enable real-time sensor data collection, storage, processing, sharing and management. As the main contribution of this study, a congestion detection and control protocol is proposed to ensure acceptable data flows are maintained during the network lifetime.