The role of the market sub-system and the socio-technical sub-system in innovation and firm performance : a dynamic capabilities approach

Organizational learning has been studied as a key factor in firm performance and internationalization. Moving beyond the past emphasis on market learning, we develop a more complete explanation of learning, its relationship to innovation, and their joint effect on early internationalization. We theorize that, driven by the founders’ international vision, early internationalizing firms employ a dual subsystem of dynamic capabilities: a market subsystem consisting of market-focused learning capability and marketing capability, and a socio-technical subsystem comprised of network learning capability and internally focused learning capability. We argue that innovation mediates the proposed relationship between the dynamic capability structure and early internationalization. We conduct case studies to develop the conceptual framework and test it in a field survey of early internationalizing firms from Australia and the United States. Our findings indicate a complex interplay of capabilities driving innovation and early internationalization. We provide theoretical and practical implications and offer insights for future research.

Higher Education and Sustainable Development : A Model for Curriculum Renewal

Responding to the global and unprecedented challenge of capacity building for twenty-first century life, this book is a practical guide for tertiary education institutions to quickly and effectively renew the curriculum towards education for sustainable development. The book begins by exploring why curriculum change has been so slow. It then describes a model for rapid curriculum renewal, highlighting the important roles of setting timeframes, formal and informal leadership, and key components and action strategies. The second part of the book provides detailed coverage of six core elements that have been trialled and peer reviewed by institutions around the world: - raising awareness among staff and students - mapping graduate attributes - auditing the curriculum - developing niche degrees, flagship courses and fully integrated programs - engaging and catalysing community and student markets - integrating curriculum with green campus operations. With input from more than seventy academics and grounded in engineering education experiences, this book will provide academic staff with tools and insights to rapidly align program offerings with the needs of present and future generations of students.

Exploring sustainability themes in engineering accreditation and curricula

Purpose This paper aims to present key findings from an inquiry into engineering accreditation and curricula renewal. The research attempted to ascertain conceptions of requisite sustainability themes among engineering academics and professionals. The paper also reflects on the potential role of professional engineering institutions (PEIs) in embedding sustainability through their programme accreditation guidelines and wider implications in terms of rapid curricula renewal. Design/methodology/approach This research comprised an International Engineering Academic Workshop held during the 2010 International Symposium on Engineering Education in Ireland, on “accreditation and sustainable engineering”. This built on the findings of a literature review that was distributed prior to the workshop. Data collection included individual questionnaires administered during the workshop, and notes scribed by workshop participants. Findings The literature review highlighted a wide range of perspectives across and within engineering disciplines, regarding what sustainability/sustainable development (SD) themes should be incorporated into engineering curricula, and regarding language and terminology. This was also reflected in the workshop discussions. Notwithstanding this diversity, clusters of sustainability themes and priority considerations were distilled from the literature review and workshop. These related to resources, technology, values, ethics, inter- and intra-generational equity, transdisciplinarity, and systems and complex thinking. Themes related to environmental and economic knowledge and skills received less attention by workshop participants than represented in the literature. Originality/value This paper provides an appreciation of the diversity of opinion regarding priority sustainability themes for engineering curricula, among a group of self-selected engineering academics who have a common interest in education for SD. It also provides some insights and caveats on how these themes might be rapidly integrated into engineering curricula.

Fostering rapid transitions to education for sustainable development through a whole-system approach to curriculum and organizational change

Despite decades of attempts to embed sustainability within higher education, literature clearly suggests that highly regulated disciplines such as engineering have been relatively slow to incorporate sustainability knowledge and skill areas, and are generally poorly prepared to do so. With current efforts, it is plausible that sustainability could take another two decades to be embedded within the curriculum. Within this context, this paper presents a whole system approach to implement systematic, intentional and timely curriculum renewal that is responsive to emerging challenges and opportunities, encompassing curriculum and organizational change. The paper begins by considering the evolution of curriculum renewal processes, documenting a number of whole system considerations that have been empirically distilled from literature, case studies, pilot trials, and a series of workshops with built environment educators from around the world over the last decade. The paper outlines a whole-of-institution curriculum renewal approach to embedding sustainability knowledge and skills within the DNA of the institutional offerings. The paper concludes with a discussion of research and practice implications for the field of education research, within and beyond higher education.

An approach for adaptive and integrated environmental planning to deal with uncertainty in a Great Barrier Reef Catchment

This paper presents the Mossman Mill District Practices Framework. It was developed in the Wet Tropics region within the Great Barrier Reef in north-eastern Australia to describe the environmental benefits of agricultural management practices for the sugar cane industry. The framework translates complex, unclear and overlapping environmental plans, policy and legal arrangements into a simple framework of management practices that landholders can use to improve their management actions. Practices range from those that are old or outdated through to aspirational practices that have the potential to achieve desired resource condition targets. The framework has been applied by stakeholders at multiple scales to better coordinate and integrate a range of policy arrangements to improve natural resource management. It has been used to structure monitoring and evaluation in order to underpin a more adaptive approach to planning at mill district and property scale. Potentially, the framework and approach can be applied across fields of planning where adaptive management is needed. It has the potential to overcome many of the criticisms of property-scale and regional Natural Resource Management.

The use of headings and marginal notes in interpreting Queensland legislation : appearances can be deceptive

This article considers the rules relating to the use of marginal notes and headings in interpreting Queensland legislation, both in its original form and in reprinted legislation. It also examines the application of the principles of construction as to the use of section headings in the interpretation of provisions of the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld). Finally, it suggests that amendments should be made to the Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld) in order to clarify the position as to the status of marginal notes and headings in statutory interpretation.

Applying threshold learning theory to teach sustainable business practice in post-graduate engineering education

This paper presents the results of a qualitative action-research inquiry into how a highly diverse cohort of post-graduate students could develop significant capacity in sustainable development within a single unit (course), in this case a compulsory component of four built environment masters programs. The method comprised applying threshold learning theory within the technical discipline of sustainable development, to transform student understanding of sustainable business practice in the built environment. This involved identifying a number of key threshold concepts, which once learned would provide a pathway to having a transformational learning experience. Curriculum was then revised, to focus on stepping through these targeted concepts using a scaffolded, problem-based-learning approach. Challenges included a large class size of 120 students, a majority of international students, and a wide span of disciplinary backgrounds across the spectrum of built environment professionals. Five ‘key’ threshold learning concepts were identified and the renewed curriculum was piloted in Semester 2 of 2011. The paper presents details of the study and findings from a mixed-method evaluation approach through the semester. The outcomes of this study will be used to inform further review of the course in 2012, including further consideration of the threshold concepts. In future, it is anticipated that this case study will inform a framework for rapidly embedding sustainability within curriculum.

A model of workplace safety incorporating worker interactions and simple interventions

Although there was substantial research into the occupational health and safety sector over the past forty years, this generally focused on statistical analyses of data related to costs and/or fatalities and injuries. There is a lack of mathematical modelling of the interactions between workers and the resulting safety dynamics of the workplace. There is also little work investigating the potential impact of different safety intervention programs prior to their implementation. In this article, we present a fundamental, differential equation-based model of workplace safety that treats worker safety habits similarly to an infectious disease in an epidemic model. Analytical results for the model, derived via phase plane and stability analysis, are discussed. The model is coupled with a model of a generic safety strategy aimed at minimising unsafe work habits, to produce an optimal control problem. The optimal control model is solved using the forward-backward sweep numerical scheme implemented in Matlab.

Dilemmatic spaces : high-stakes testing and the possibilities of collaborative knowledge work to generate learning innovations

This paper examines collaborative researcher-practitioner knowledge work around assessment data in culturally diverse, low- socioeconomic school communities in Queensland, Australia. Specifically, the paper draws on interview accounts about the work of a bridging knowledge flows between a local university and a cluster of schools. We draw on Bernstein’s (2000) concept of recontextualisation to explore the processes of knowledge mediation in dialogues around student assessment data to design instructional innovations. We argue that critical policy studies need to explore the complex ways in which neoliberal education policies are enacted in local sites. Moreover, we suggest that an analysis of collaborative knowledge work designed to improve student learning outcomes in low-socioeconomic school communities necessitates attention to the principles regulating knowledge flows across boundaries. In addition, it necessitates attention to the ways in which mediators navigate dilemmatic spaces, anxieties and affects/feelings in order to generate innovative learning designs in the current global context of high-stakes national testing and accountability regimes.

Swine flu, doctors and pandemics : Is there a duty to treat during a pandemic?

The swine influenza (H1N1) outbreak in 2009 highlighted the ethical and legal pressures facing general practitioners and health workers in emergency departments in determining the nature and limits of their obligations to their patients and the public. Health workers require guidance on the multiple, overlapping, and at times conflicting legal and ethical duties owed to patients and prospective patients, employers and fellow health workers, and their families. Existing sources of advice on these issues in Australia, by way of statements of medical ethics and other sources of advice, are shown to be in need of further amplification if health workers are to be provided with the certainty and guidance required. Given the complexity of the issues, Australia would therefore benefit from more extensive consultation with the variety of stakeholders involved in these questions if pandemic plans are to smoothly deal with future crises in an ethically and legally sound manner.

Globalisation and Health : Challenges for Health Law and Bioethics

This timely collection explores ethical and legal dilemmas in healthcare arising from globalization. Conflicts between public interests and individual rights, the challenge of regulating professionals and access to health services, and the effects of a global market all feature prominently in contemporary debates in this area. As a result of globalization, issues in health law and bioethics can no longer be understood solely within political boundaries that define traditional notions of individuals and communities. Rather, solutions for emerging problems require a global conception of rights and obligations, including the re-evaluation of ethical frameworks and legal regimes that currently govern exchanges in healthcare. Leading scholars in bioethics, law, medicine and philosophy from various jurisdictions engage these themes in this volume, and demonstrate the need for transnational solutions in a global age of healthcare.

Written in code : diversity and the new genetics

Modern genetic research holds out the promise of a bold new future in which humanity has identified and conquered the genetic roots of many diseases. Genetic science also promises to shed light on who we are, what it is that makes us tick, what it is that makes us the way we are — in short, what it is that makes us human. Yet while genetics are a potential saviour (saving us from disease), it also appears as a threat that at the extremes appears to be the stuff of our worst nightmares, such as the prospect, probably more imagined than real, of rows of cloned individuals. The new genetics hold out the promise that through genetics we will be able to determine what we are, a promise that is simultaneously appealing and terrifying. This chapter discusses the cloning of people and parts, the law’s response to cloning, genetics and diversity, a framework for law reform.

Review : "Genetic Privacy: A challenge to Medico-Legal Norms" by Laurie, G

The discovery by Watson and Crick of the structure of DNA is one of the great scientific discoveries. In the period since that discovery new areas of genetic research have opened up which hold out the hope of developing treatments or cures for many illnesses and diseases. Yet with these discoveries have also come an array of ethical and legal dilemmas about the use of genetic information and concerns about the potential for those with genetic diseases or conditions to be stigmatised and discriminated against. The discussion about the developments in genetic science has become increasingly, a debate about the use of genetic information within our society. Graeme Laurie’s book, Genetic Privacy: A Challenge to Medico-Legal Norms, guides the reader through the complexities of these debates by considering what we mean by privacy and asking whether our existing concepts are adequate to meet the challenges posed by the new genetics.

Physical activity parenting measurement and research : challenges, explanations, and solutions

Physical activity (PA) parenting research has proliferated over the past decade, with findings verifying the influential role that parents play in children's emerging PA behaviors. This knowledge, however, has not translated into effective family-based PA interventions. During a preconference workshop to the 2012 International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity annual meeting, a PA parenting workgroup met to: (1) Discuss challenges in PA parenting research that may limit its translation, (2) identify explanations or reasons for such challenges, and; (3) recommend strategies for future research. Challenges discussed by the workgroup included a proliferation of disconnected and inconsistently measured constructs, a limited understanding of the dimensions of PA parenting, and a narrow conceptualization of hypothesized moderators of the relationship between PA parenting and child PA. Potential reasons for such challenges emphasized by the group included a disinclination to employ theory when developing measures and examining predictors and outcomes of PA parenting as well as a lack of agreed-upon measurement standards. Suggested solutions focused on the need to link PA parenting research with general parenting research, define and adopt rigorous standards of measurement, and identify new methods to assess PA parenting. As an initial step toward implementing these recommendations, the workgroup developed a conceptual model that: (1) Integrates parenting dimensions from the general parenting literature into the conceptualization of PA parenting, (2) draws on behavioral and developmental theory, and; (3) emphasizes areas which have been neglected to date including precursors to PA parenting and effect modifiers.

Liability in negligence and the failure to disclose multiple risks in surgery : I would have been willing to run the risk

It has been 21 years since the decision in Rogers v Whitaker and the legal principles concerning informed consent and liability for negligence are still strongly grounded in this landmark High Court decision. This paper considers more recent developments in the law concerning the failure to disclose inherent risks in medical procedures, focusing on the decision in Wallace v Kam [2013] HCA 19. In this case, the appellant underwent a surgical procedure that carried a number of risks. The surgery itself was not performed in a sub-standard way, but the surgeon failed to disclose two risks to the patient, a failure that constituted a breach of the surgeon’s duty of care in negligence. One of the undisclosed risks was considered to be less serious than the other, and this lesser risk eventuated causing injury to the appellant. The more serious risk did not eventuate, but the appellant argued that if the more serious risk had been disclosed, he would have avoided his injuries completely because he would have refused to undergo the procedure. Liability was disputed by the surgeon, with particular reference to causation principles. The High Court of Australia held that the appellant should not be compensated for harm that resulted from a risk he would have been willing to run. We examine the policy reasons underpinning the law of negligence in this specific context and consider some of the issues raised by this unusual case. We question whether some of the judicial reasoning adopted in this case, represents a significant shift in traditional causation principles.