824 resultados para Small construction firms
Resumo:
To date, most theories of business models have theorized value capture assuming that appropriability regimes were exogenous and that the firm would face a unique, ideal-typical appropriability regime. This has led theory contributions to focus on governance structures to minimize transaction costs, to downplay the interdepencies between value capture and value creation, and to ignore revenue generation strategies. We propose a reconceptualization of business models value capture mechanisms that rely on assumptions of endogeneity and multiplicity of appropriability regimes. This new approach to business model construction highlights the interdependencies and trade-offs between value creation and value capture offered by different types and combinations of appropriability regimes. The theory is illustrated by the analysis of three cases of open source software business models
Resumo:
Reports on an ESRC-funded, in-depth qualitative research project into 50 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the cultural industries. Our evidence sheds light on the extent to which the teaching and learning strategies adopted by higher education, further education and other VET providers are effective in providing entrepreneurship education and training for this innovative, high skill sector. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs in this sector learn best by being able to experiment with ideas, by “doing” and networking with others and by working with more experienced mentors in their sector. The article concludes by suggesting a more “naturalistic” approach to teaching and learning entrepreneurship for micro and small businesses in the cultural industries sector.
Resumo:
The increasing prevalence of International New Ventures (INVs) during the past twenty years has been highlighted by numerous studies (Knight and Cavusgil, 1996, Moen, 2002). International New Ventures are firms, typically small to medium enterprises, that internationalise within six years of inception (Oviatt and McDougall, 1997). To date there has been no general consensus within the literature on a theoretical framework of internationalisation to explain the internationalisation process of INVs (Madsen and Servais, 1997). However, some researchers have suggested that the innovation diffusion model may provide a suitable theoretical framework (Chetty & Hamilton, 1996, Fan & Phan, 2007).The proposed model was based on the existing and well-established innovation diffusion theories drawn from consumer behaviour and internationalisation literature to explain the internationalisation process of INVs (Lim, Sharkey, and Kim, 1991, Reid, 1981, Robertson, 1971, Rogers, 1962, Wickramasekera and Oczkowski, 2006). The results of this analysis indicated that the synthesied model of export adoption was effective in explaining the internationalisation process of INVs within the Queensland Food and Beverage Industry. Significantly the results of the analysis also indicated that features of the original I-models developed in the consumer behaviour literature, that had limited examination within the internationalisation literature were confirmed. This includes the ability of firms, or specifically decision-makers, to skip stages based om previous experience.
Resumo:
Research undertaken in 2006 – 2007 investigated the perception of managerial benefits of tax compliance by small business taxpayers. Survey data from a sample of 300 small business taxpayers and responses to semi-structured interviews of owner managers were examined. The study found that a majority of small business taxpayers recognised that tax compliance activities led to better record keeping and to an improved knowledge of their financial affairs. However, there seemed to be a general reluctance by respondents to accept the idea that benefits could be derived as a result of complying with tax. The findings of this study are important as it is the first research that systematically investigated managerial benefits and their perception by small business taxpayers in Australia.
Resumo:
In recent years culture has become one of the most studied topics in project management research. Some studies have investigated the influence of culture at different levels – such as national culture, industry culture, organisational culture and professional culture. As a project-based industry, the construction industry needs to have more insight concerning cultural issues at the project level and their influence on the performance of construction projects. Few studies, however, have focused on culture at the project level. This paper uses a questionnaire survey to determine the perceptions of Chinese contractors about the impact of project culture on the performance of local construction projects. This is augmented by a series of in-depth interviews with senior executive managers in the industry. The findings indicate that specific project culture does contribute significantly towards project outcomes. In particular, goal orientation and flexibility, as two dimensions of project culture, have a negative statistical correlation with perceived satisfaction of the process, commercial success, future business opportunities, lessons learnt from the project, satisfaction with the relationships, and overall performance. This paper also indicates that the affordability of developing an appropriate project culture is a major concern for industry practitioners.
Resumo:
Within the Australian wet tropics bioregion, only 900 000 hectares of once continuous rainforest habitat between Townsville and Cooktown now remains. While on the Atherton Tableland, only 4% of the rainforest that once occurred there remains today with remnant vegetation now forming a matrix of rainforest dispersed within agricultural land (sugarcane, banana, orchard crops, townships and pastoral land). Some biologists have suggested that remnants often support both faunal and floral communities that differ significantly from remaining continuous forest. Australian tropical forests possess a relatively high diversity of native small mammal species particularly rodents, which unlike larger mammalian and avian frugivores elsewhere, have been shown to be resilient to the effects of fragmentation, patch isolation and reduction in patch size. While small mammals often become the dominant mammalian frugivores, in terms of their relative abundance, the relationship that exists between habitat diversity and structure, and the impacts of small mammal foraging within fragmented habitat patches in Australia, is still poorly understood. The relationship between foraging behaviour and demography of two small mammal species, Rattus fuscipes and Melomys cervinipes, and food resources in fragmented rainforest sites, were investigated in the current study. Population densities of both species were strongly related with overall density of seed resources in all rainforest fragments. The distribution of both mammal species however, was found to be independent of the distribution of seed resources. Seed utilisation trials indicated that M.cervinipes and R.fuscipes had less impact on seed resources (extent of seed harvesting) than did other rainforest frugivores. Experimental feeding trials demonstrated that in 85% of fruit species tested, rodent feeding increased seed germination by a factor of 3.5 suggesting that in Australian tropical rainforest remnants, small mammals may play a significant role in enhancing germination of large seeded fruits. This study has emphasised the role of small mammals in tropical rainforest systems in north eastern Australia, in particular, the role that they play within isolated forest fragments where larger frugivorous species may be absent.
Resumo:
Patients with severe back deformities can greatly benefit from customized medical seating. Customized medical seating is made by taking measurements of each individual patient and making the seat as per these measurements. The current measuring systems employed by the industry are limited to use in clinics which are generally located only in major population centres. Patients living in remote areas are severely affected by this as the clinics could be far away and inaccessible for these patients. To provide service of customized medical seating requires a new measurement system which is portable so that the system could be transported to the patients in remote areas. The requirements for a new measurement system are analysed to suite the needs of Equipment Technology Services of the Cerebral Palsy League of Queensland. Design for a new measurement system was conceptualised by reviewing systems and technologies in various scientific disciplines. Design for a new system was finalised by optimizing each individual component. The final approach was validated by measuring difficult models and repeating the process to check for process variances. This system has now been adopted for clinical evaluation by ETS Suggestions have been made for further improvements in this new measurement approach.
Resumo:
In recent years, increasing numbers of Chinese migrants have come to Australia to study or to live. In doing so, they have entered a new cultural space. They are faced with many challenges, not only to do with study experience, workplace experience and life-style practices, but also to do with language, communication, culture and identity. Such new challenges can feel dangerous, unstable and uncomfortable as they require moves out of the safety zone of primary cultural experience. This qualitative research study investigates the perceptions and narratives of three Taiwanese-Australian migrants in terms of their experience of this process of acculturation and social identity construction as migrant tertiary students in the new Australian context and of their subsequent experience professionally. Their accounts of where they see themselves to have 'landed' in terms of their acculturation process and identity construction might provide relevant insights to the experience of hybridity which is intercultural Australia.
Resumo:
Small long wavelength lights (≤ 1’ arc) change colour appearance with positive defocus, appearing yellow or white. I investigated influences of longitudinal chromatic aberration and monochromatic aberrations on colour appearance of small narrow band lights. Seven cyclopleged participants viewed a small light (1’ arc diameter, λmax range 510 - 628 nm) centred within a 4.6’ black annulus and surrounded by a uniform white field under photopic light levels. An optical trombone varied focus. Participants were required to vary the focus by moving the optical trombone in either positive or negative direction and report when they noticed a change in appearance of the defocused narrow band light. Longitudinal chromatic aberration was controlled using a Powell achromatizing lens and its doublet and triplet components that neutralized, doubled and reversed the eye’s chromatic aberration, respectively. Changes in colour appearance for a 628 nm light occurred without any lens at +0.5 ± 0.2D defocus and with the doublet at +0.6 ± 0.2 D. The achromatizing lens did not affect appearance and the phenomenon was evident with the triplet for negative defocus (-0.5 ± 0.3 D). Adaptive optics correction of astigmatism and higher order monochromatic aberration did not affect magnitude significantly. Colour changes occurred despite a range of participant L/M cone ratios. Direction of change in colour appearance was reversed for short compared to long wavelengths. We conclude that longitudinal chromatic aberrations, but not monochromatic aberrations, are involved in changing appearance of small lights with defocus. Additional neuronal mechanisms that may contribute to the colour changes are considered.
Resumo:
Small element spacing in compact arrays results in strong mutual coupling between the array elements. A decoupling network consisting of reactive cross-coupling elements can alleviate problems associated with the coupling. Closed-form design equations for the decoupling networks of symmetrical arrays with two or three elements are presented.
Resumo:
An alternative approach to port decoupling and matching of arrays with tightly coupled elements is proposed. The method is based on the inherent decoupling effect obtained by feeding the orthogonal eigenmodes of the array. For this purpose, a modal feed network is connected to the array. The decoupled external ports of the feed network may then be matched independently by using conventional matching circuits. Such a system may be used in digital beam forming applications with good signal-to-noise performance. The theory is applicable to arrays with an arbitrary number of elements, but implementation is only practical for smaller arrays. The principle is illustrated by means of two examples.