The Evolution of the creative industries : creative clusters, creative citizens and social network markets 創意產業的演化 : 創意集群 ,創意公民, 社會網絡市場 [published in Chinese]

The creative industries are important because they are clustered at the point of attraction for a billion or more young people around the world. They're the drivers of demographic, economic and political change. They start from the individual talent of the creative artist and the individual desire and aspiration of the audience. These are the raw materials for innovation, change and emergent culture, scaled up to form new industries and coordinated into global markets based on social networks.

ERP systems in the higher education sector : a descriptive study

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though this demand continues to grow, with HEIs now a main target market for ERP vendors, little has been published on the topic. This paper reports a sub-study of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP adoption and evaluation in HEIs in the Australasian region. It presents a descriptive case study conducted at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, with emphasis on challenges with ERP adoption. The case study provides rich contextual details about ERP system selection, customisation, integration and evaluation, and insights into the role of consultants in the HE sector. Through this analysis, the paper (a) provides evidence of the dearth of ERP literature pertaining to the HE sector; (b) yields insights into differentiating factors in the HE sector that warrants specific research attention, and (c) offers evidence of how key ERP decisions such as systems selection, customisation, integration, evaluation, and consultant engagement are influenced by the specificities of the HE sector.

Identifying critical success factors of ERP Systems at the higher education sector

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though the difficulties and high failure rate in implementing ERP systems at university environments have been cited in the literature, research on critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementations in this context is rare and fragmented. This paper is part of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP implementations and evaluations in HEIs in the Australasian region; it identifies, previously reported, critical success factors (CSFs) in relation to ERP system implementations and discusses the importance of these factors.

Fashion retailing and the bottom line : The effects of generational cohorts, gender, fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying on fashion expenditure

This study examines the influence of demographic ( eg. gender and generational cohort) and psychographic ( eg. fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying) drivers on frequency and levels of expenditure on fanship purchases, Using regression analysis, the results suggest that for weekly and monthly expenditure, gender and fashion fanship were significant influences, while for yearly expenditure, gender and impulse buying were significant. Attitudes towards fanship had no significant influence on expenditure. Females purchase more often and were significantly different from males on yearly expenditure, fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying. Generation Y is higher on purchase frequency, fashion fanship, attitudes and impulse buying compared with other cohorts under investigation.

Evolving interactions : agile design for networked media performance

Network Jamming systems provide real-time collaborative performance experiences for novice or inexperienced users. In this paper we will outline the interaction design considerations that have emerged during through evolutionary development cycles of the jam2jam Network Jamming software that employs generative techniques that require particular attention to the human computer relationship. In particular we describe the co-evolution of features and uses, explore the role of agile development methods in supporting this evolution, and show how the provision of a clear core capability can be matched with options for enhanced features support multi-levelled user experience and skill develop.

Seeing pedestrians at night : visual clutter does not mask biological motion

Although placing reflective markers on pedestrians’ major joints can make pedestrians more conspicuous to drivers at night, it has been suggested that this “biological motion” effect may be reduced when visual clutter is present. We tested whether extraneous points of light affected the ability of 12 younger and 12 older drivers to see pedestrians as they drove on a closed road at night. Pedestrians wore black clothing alone or with retroreflective markings in four different configurations. One pedestrian walked in place and was surrounded by clutter on half of the trials. Another was always surrounded by visual clutter but either walked in place or stood still. Clothing configuration, pedestrian motion, and driver age influenced conspicuity but clutter did not. The results confirm that even in the presence of visual clutter pedestrians wearing biological motion configurations are recognized more often and at greater distances than when they wear a reflective vest.

Evaluating information systems

The book within which this chapter appears is published as a research reference book (not a coursework textbook) on Management Information Systems (MIS) for seniors or graduate students in Chinese universities. It is hoped that this chapter, along with the others, will be helpful to MIS scholars and PhD/Masters research students in China who seek understanding of several central Information Systems (IS) research topics and related issues. The subject of this chapter - ‘Evaluating Information Systems’ - is broad, and cannot be addressed in its entirety in any depth within a single book chapter. The chapter proceeds from the truism that organizations have limited resources and those resources need to be invested in a way that provides greatest benefit to the organization. IT expenditure represents a substantial portion of any organization’s investment budget and IT related innovations have broad organizational impacts. Evaluation of the impact of this major investment is essential to justify this expenditure both pre- and post-investment. Evaluation is also important to prioritize possible improvements. The chapter (and most of the literature reviewed herein) admittedly assumes a blackbox view of IS/IT1, emphasizing measures of its consequences (e.g. for organizational performance or the economy) or perceptions of its quality from a user perspective. This reflects the MIS emphasis – a ‘management’ emphasis rather than a software engineering emphasis2, where a software engineering emphasis might be on the technical characteristics and technical performance. Though a black-box approach limits diagnostic specificity of findings from a technical perspective, it offers many benefits. In addition to superior management information, these benefits may include economy of measurement and comparability of findings (e.g. see Part 4 on Benchmarking IS). The chapter does not purport to be a comprehensive treatment of the relevant literature. It does, however, reflect many of the more influential works, and a representative range of important writings in the area. The author has been somewhat opportunistic in Part 2, employing a single journal – The Journal of Strategic Information Systems – to derive a classification of literature in the broader domain. Nonetheless, the arguments for this approach are believed to be sound, and the value from this exercise real. The chapter drills down from the general to the specific. It commences with a highlevel overview of the general topic area. This is achieved in 2 parts: - Part 1 addressing existing research in the more comprehensive IS research outlets (e.g. MISQ, JAIS, ISR, JMIS, ICIS), and Part 2 addressing existing research in a key specialist outlet (i.e. Journal of Strategic Information Systems). Subsequently, in Part 3, the chapter narrows to focus on the sub-topic ‘Information Systems Success Measurement’; then drilling deeper to become even more focused in Part 4 on ‘Benchmarking Information Systems’. In other words, the chapter drills down from Parts 1&2 Value of IS, to Part 3 Measuring Information Systems Success, to Part 4 Benchmarking IS. While the commencing Parts (1&2) are by definition broadly relevant to the chapter topic, the subsequent, more focused Parts (3 and 4) admittedly reflect the author’s more specific interests. Thus, the three chapter foci – value of IS, measuring IS success, and benchmarking IS - are not mutually exclusive, but, rather, each subsequent focus is in most respects a sub-set of the former. Parts 1&2, ‘the Value of IS’, take a broad view, with much emphasis on ‘the business Value of IS’, or the relationship between information technology and organizational performance. Part 3, ‘Information System Success Measurement’, focuses more specifically on measures and constructs employed in empirical research into the drivers of IS success (ISS). (DeLone and McLean 1992) inventoried and rationalized disparate prior measures of ISS into 6 constructs – System Quality, Information Quality, Individual Impact, Organizational Impact, Satisfaction and Use (later suggesting a 7th construct – Service Quality (DeLone and McLean 2003)). These 6 constructs have been used extensively, individually or in some combination, as the dependent variable in research seeking to better understand the important antecedents or drivers of IS Success. Part 3 reviews this body of work. Part 4, ‘Benchmarking Information Systems’, drills deeper again, focusing more specifically on a measure of the IS that can be used as a ‘benchmark’3. This section consolidates and extends the work of the author and his colleagues4 to derive a robust, validated IS-Impact measurement model for benchmarking contemporary Information Systems (IS). Though IS-Impact, like ISS, has potential value in empirical, causal research, its design and validation has emphasized its role and value as a comparator; a measure that is simple, robust and generalizable and which yields results that are as far as possible comparable across time, across stakeholders, and across differing systems and systems contexts.

Barriers to the acceptance of road safety programmes among rural road users : developing a brief intervention

Motorised countries have more fatal road crashes in rural areas than in urban areas. In Australia, over two thirds of the population live in urban areas, yet approximately 55 percent of the road fatalities occur in rural areas (ABS, 2006; Tziotis, Mabbot, Edmonston, Sheehan & Dwyer, 2005). Road and environmental factors increase the challenges of rural driving, but do not fully account for the disparity. Rural drivers are less compliant with recommendations regarding the “fatal four” behaviours of speeding, drink driving, seatbelt non-use and fatigue, and the reasons for their lower apparent receptivity for road safety messages are not well understood. Countermeasures targeting driver behaviour that have been effective in reducing road crashes in urban areas have been less successful in rural areas (FORS, 1995). However, potential barriers to receptivity for road safety information among rural road users have not been systematically investigated. This thesis aims to develop a road safety countermeasure that addresses three areas that potentially affect receptivity to rural road safety information. The first is psychological barriers of road users’ attitudes, including risk evaluation, optimism bias, locus of control and readiness to change. A second area is the timing and method of intervention delivery, which includes the production of a brief intervention and the feasibility of delivering it at a “teachable moment”. The third area under investigation is the content of the brief intervention. This study describes the process of developing an intervention that includes content to address road safety attitudes and improve safety behaviours of rural road users regarding the “fatal four”. The research commences with a review of the literature on rural road crashes, brief interventions, intervention design and implementation, and potential psychological barriers to receptivity. This literature provides a rationale for the development of a brief intervention for rural road safety with a focus on driver attitudes and behaviour. The research is then divided into four studies. The primary aim of Study One and Study Two is to investigate the receptivity of rural drivers to road safety interventions, with a view to identifying barriers to the efficacy of these strategies.

Validation of the Australian Propensity for Angry Driving Scale (Aus-PADS)

The present study used a university sample to assess the test-retest reliability and validity of the Australian Propensity for Angry Driving Scale (Aus-PADS). The scale has stability over time, and convergent validity was established, as Aus-PADS scores correlated significantly with established anger and impulsivity measures. Discriminant validity was also established, as Aus-PADS scores did not correlate with Venturesomeness scores. The Aus-PADS has demonstrated criterion validity, as scores were correlated with behavioural measures, such as yelling at other drivers, gesturing at other drivers, and feeling angry but not doing anything. Aus-PADS scores reliably predicted the frequency of these behaviours over and above other study variables. No significant relationship between aggressive driving and crash involvement was observed. It was concluded that the Aus-PADS is a reliable and valid tool appropriate for use in Australian research, and that the potential relationship between aggressive driving and crash involvement warrants further investigation with a more representative (and diverse) driver sample.

Will they know enough? Pre-service primary teachers' knowledge base for teaching intergrated social sciences

A significant issue in primary teacher education is developing a knowledge base which prepares teachers to teach in a range of subject areas. In Australia, the problem in primary social science education is compounded by the integrated nature of the key learning area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). Recent debates on teaching integrated social sciences omit discussions on the knowledge base for teaching. In this paper, a case study approach is used to investigate primary pre-service teachers’ approaches to developing a knowledge base in designing a SOSE curriculum unit. Data from five teacher-educators who taught primary SOSE curriculum indicates that novice teachers’ subject content knowledge, as revealed through their curriculum planning, lacked a disciplinary basis. However, understanding of inquiry learning, which is fundamental to social science education, was much stronger. This paper identifies a gap in the scholarship on teaching integrated social science and illustrates the need to support and develop primary teachers’ disciplinary knowledge in teacher education.

Facial feature detection for in-car environment

Acoustically, vehicles are extremely noisy environments and as a consequence audio-only in-car voice recognition systems perform very poorly. Seeing that the visual modality is immune to acoustic noise, using the visual lip information from the driver is seen as a viable strategy in circumventing this problem. However, implementing such an approach requires a system being able to accurately locate and track the driver’s face and facial features in real-time. In this paper we present such an approach using the Viola-Jones algorithm. Using this system, we present our results which show that using the Viola-Jones approach is a suitable method of locating and tracking the driver’s lips despite the visual variability of illumination and head pose.

Mobility and safety are conflicting goals for transport policy makers when making decisions about graduated driver licensing

Policy decisions are frequently influenced by more than research results alone. This review examines one road safety countermeasure, graduated driver licensing, in three jurisdictions and identifies how the conflict between mobility and safety goals can influence policy decisions relating to this countermeasure. Evaluations from around the world of graduated driver licensing have demonstrated clear reductions in crashes for young drivers. However, the introduction of this countermeasure may be affected, both positively and negatively, by the conflict some policy makers experience between ensuring individuals remain both mobile and safe as drivers. This review highlights how this conflict in policy decision making can serve to either facilitate or hinder the introduction of graduated driver licensing systems. However, policy makers whose focus on mobility is too strong when compared with safety may be mistaken, with evidence suggesting that after a graduated driver licensing system is introduced young drivers adapt their behaviour to the new system and remain mobile. As a result, policy makers should consciously acknowledge the conflict between mobility and safety and consider an appropriate balance in order to introduce these systems. Improvements to the licensing system can then be made in an incremental manner as the balance between these two priorities change. Policy makers can achieve an appropriate balance by using empirical evidence as a basis for their decisions.

The development and evaluation of an innovative nursing practice model to improve undergraduate nursing students' competence in paediatric physical assessment

Introduction The purpose of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate the impact of an educational intervention, comprising an innovative model of clinical decisionmaking and educational delivery strategy for facilitating nursing students‘ learning and development of competence in paediatric physical assessment practices. Background of the study Nursing students have an undergraduate education that aims to produce graduates of a generalist nature who demonstrate entry level competence for providing nursing care in a variety of health settings. Consistent with population morbidity and health care roles, paediatric nursing concepts typically form a comparatively small part of undergraduate curricula and students‘ exposure to paediatric physical assessment concepts and principles are brief. However, the nursing shortage has changed traditional nursing employment patterns and new graduates form the majority of the recruitment pool for paediatric nursing speciality staff. Paediatric nursing is a popular career choice for graduates and anecdotal evidence suggests that nursing students who select a clinical placement in their final year intend to seek employment in paediatrics upon graduation. Although concepts of paediatric nursing are included within undergraduate curriculum, students‘ ability to develop the required habits of mind to practice in what is still regarded as a speciality area of practice is somewhat limited. One of the areas of practice where this particularly impacts is in paediatric nursing physical assessment. Physical assessment is a fundamental component of nursing practice and competence in this area of practice is central to nursing students‘ development of clinical capability for practice as a registered nurse. Timely recognition of physiologic deterioration of patients is a key outcome of nurses‘ competent use of physical assessment strategies, regardless of the practice context. In paediatric nursing contexts children‘s physical assessment practices must specifically accommodate the child‘s different physiological composition, function and pattern of clinical deterioration (Hockenberry & Barrera, 2007). Thus, to effectively manage physical assessment of patients within the paediatric practice setting nursing students need to integrate paediatric nursing theory into their practice. This requires significant information processing and it is in this process where students are frequently challenged. The provision of rules or models can guide practice and assist novice-level nurses to develop their capabilities (Benner, 1984; Benner, Hooper-Kyriakidis & Stannard, 1999). Nursing practice models are cognitive tools that represent simplified patterns of expert analysis employing concepts that suit the limited reasoning of the inexperienced, and can represent the =rules‘ referred to by Benner (1984). Without a practice model of physical assessment students are likely to be uncertain about how to proceed with data collection, the interpretation of paediatric clinical findings and the appraisal of findings. These circumstances can result in ad hoc and unreliable nursing physical assessment that forms a poor basis for nursing decisions. The educational intervention developed as part of this study sought to resolve this problem and support nursing students‘ development of competence in paediatric physical assessment. Methods This study utilised the Context Input Process Product (CIPP) Model by Stufflebeam (2004) as the theoretical framework that underpinned the research design and evaluation methodology. Each of the four elements in the CIPP model were utilised to guide discrete stages of this study. The Context element informed design of the clinical decision-making process, the Paediatric Nursing Physical Assessment model. The Input element was utilised in appraising relevant literature, identifying an appropriate instructional methodology to facilitate learning and educational intervention delivery to undergraduate nursing students, and development of program content (the CD-ROM kit). Study One employed the Process element and used expert panel approaches to review and refine instructional methods, identifying potential barriers to obtaining an effective evaluation outcome. The Product element guided design and implementation of Study Two, which was conducted in two phases. Phase One employed a quasiexperimental between-subjects methodology to evaluate the impact of the educational intervention on nursing students‘ clinical performance and selfappraisal of practices in paediatric physical assessment. Phase Two employed a thematic analysis and explored the experiences and perspectives of a sample subgroup of nursing students who used the PNPA CD-ROM kit as preparation for paediatric clinical placement. Results Results from the Process review in Study One indicated that the prototype CDROM kit containing the PNPA model met the predetermined benchmarks for face validity and the impact evaluation instrumentation had adequate content validity in comparison with predetermined benchmarks. In the first phase of Study Two the educational intervention did not result in statistically significant differences in measures of student performance or self-appraisal of practice. However, in Phase Two qualitative commentary from students, and from the expert panel who reviewed the prototype CD-ROM kit (Study One, Phase One), strongly endorsed the quality of the intervention and its potential for supporting learning. This raises questions regarding transfer of learning and it is likely that, within this study, several factors have influenced students‘ transfer of learning from the educational intervention to the clinical practice environment, where outcomes were measured. Conclusion In summary, the educational intervention employed in this study provides insights into the potential e-learning approaches offer for delivering authentic learning experiences to undergraduate nursing students. Findings in this study raise important questions regarding possible pedagogical influences on learning outcomes, issues within the transfer of theory to practice and factors that may have influenced findings within the context of this study. This study makes a unique contribution to nursing education, specifically with respect to progressing an understanding of the challenges faced in employing instructive methods to impact upon nursing students‘ development of competence. The important contribution transfer of learning processes make to students‘ transition into the professional practice context and to their development of competence within the context of speciality practice is also highlighted. This study contributes to a greater awareness of the complexity of translating theoretical learning at undergraduate level into clinical practice, particularly within speciality contexts.

The speed paradox : the misalignment between driver attitudes and speeding behaviour

This paper reports on a study investigating preferred driving speeds and frequency of speeding of 320 Queensland drivers. Despite growing community concern about speeding and extensive research linking it to road trauma, speeding remains a pervasive, and arguably, socially acceptable behaviour. This presents an apparent paradox regarding the mismatch between beliefs and behaviours, and highlights the necessity to better understand the factors contributing to speeding. Utilising self-reported behaviour and attitudinal measures, results of this study support the notion of a speed paradox. Two thirds of participants agreed that exceeding the limit is not worth the risks nor is it okay to exceed the posted limit. Despite this, more than half (58.4%) of the participants reported a preference to exceed the 100km/hour speed limit, with one third preferring to do so by 10 to 20 km/hour. Further, mean preferred driving speeds on both urban and open roads suggest a perceived enforcement tolerance of 10%, suggesting that posted limits have limited direct influence on speed choice. Factors that significantly predicted the frequency of speeding included: exposure to role models who speed; favourable attitudes to speeding; experiences of punishment avoidance; and the perceived certainty of punishment for speeding. These findings have important policy implications, particularly relating to the use of enforcement tolerances.

In-vehicle avatars to elicit social response and change driving behaviour

Social and psychological theories have provided a plethora of evidence showing that the physical difficulty to express appropriate social interactions between drivers expresses itself in aggression, selfish driving and anti-social behaviour. Therefore there is a need to improve interactions between drivers and allow clearer collective decision making between them. Personal characteristics and the driving situations play strong roles in driver’s aggression. Our approach is centered around the driving situation as opposed to focusing on personality characteristics. It examines aggression and manipulates contextual variables such as driver’s eye contact exchanges. This paper presents a new unobtrusive in-vehicle system that aims at communicating drivers’ intentions, elicit social responses and increasing mutual awareness. It uses eye gaze as a social cue to affect collective decision making with the view to contribute to safe driving. The authors used a driving simulator to design a case control experiment in which eye gaze movements are conveyed with an avatar. Participants were asked to drive through different types of intersections. An avatar representing the head of the other driver was displayed and driver behaviour was analysed. Significant eye gaze pattern difference where observed when an avatar was displayed. Drivers cautiously refer to the avatar when information is required on the intention of others (e.g. when they do not have the right of way). The majority of participants reported the perception of “being looked at”. The number of glances and time spent gazing at the avatar did not indicate an unsafe distraction by standards of in-vehicle device ergonomic design. Avatars were visually consulted primarily in less demanding driving situations, which underlines their non-distractive nature.