Towards testing the eclectic paradigm on multinational contracting: an approach to reviewing and analysing secondary data

In response to the need to leverage private finance and the lack of competition in some parts of the Australian public sector major infrastructure market, especially in very large economic infrastructure procured using Pubic Private Partnerships, the Australian Federal government has demonstrated its desire to attract new sources of in-bound foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Australian construction market. This paper aims to report on progress towards an investigation into the determinants of multinational contractors’ willingness to bid for Australian public sector major infrastructure projects and which is designed to give an improved understanding of matters surrounding FDI into the Australian construction sector. This research deploys Dunning’s eclectic theory for the first time in terms of in-bound FDI by multinational contractors and as head contractors bidding for Australian major infrastructure public sector projects. Elsewhere, the authors have developed Dunning’s principal hypothesis associated with his eclectic framework in order to suit the context of this research and to address a weakness arising in Dunning’s principal hypothesis that is based on a nominal approach to the factors in the eclectic framework and which fail to speak to the relative explanatory power of these factors. In this paper, an approach to reviewing and analysing secondary data, as part of the first stage investigation in this research, is developed and some illustrations given, vis-à-vis the selected sector (roads, bridges and tunnels) in Australia (as the host location) and using one of the selected home countries (Spain). In conclusion, some tentative thoughts are offered in anticipation of the completion of the first stage investigation - in terms of the extent to which this first stage based on secondary data only might suggest the relative importance of the factors in the eclectic framework. It is noted that more robust conclusions are expected following the future planned stages of the research and these stages including primary data are briefly outlined. Finally, and beyond theoretical contributions expected from the overall approach taken to developing and testing Dunning’s framework, other expected contributions concerning research method and practical implications are mentioned.

The use of semantic priming as a paradigm for the detection of faking on self-report psychological tests

It is recognised that individuals do not always respond honestly when completing psychological tests. One of the foremost issues for research in this area is the inability to detect individuals attempting to fake. While a number of strategies have been identified in faking, a commonality of these strategies is the latent role of long term memory. Seven studies were conducted in order to examine whether it is possible to detect the activation of faking related cognitions using a lexical decision task. Study 1 found that engagement with experiential processing styles predicted the ability to fake successfully, confirming the role of associative processing styles in faking. After identifying appropriate stimuli for the lexical decision task (Studies 2A and 2B), Studies 3 to 5 examined whether a cognitive state of faking could be primed and subsequently identified, using a lexical decision task. Throughout the course of these studies, the experimental methodology was increasingly refined in an attempt to successfully identify the relevant priming mechanisms. The results were consistent and robust throughout the three priming studies: faking good on a personality test primed positive faking related words in the lexical decision tasks. Faking bad, however, did not result in reliable priming of negative faking related cognitions. To more completely address potential issues with the stimuli and the possible role of affective priming, two additional studies were conducted. Studies 6A and 6B revealed that negative faking related words were more arousing than positive faking related words, and that positive faking related words were more abstract than negative faking related words and neutral words. Study 7 examined whether the priming effects evident in the lexical decision tasks occurred as a result of an unintentional mood induction while faking the psychological tests. Results were equivocal in this regard. This program of research aligned the fields of psychological assessment and cognition to inform the preliminary development and validation of a new tool to detect faking. Consequently, an implicit technique to identify attempts to fake good on a psychological test has been identified, using long established and robust cognitive theories in a novel and innovative way. This approach represents a new paradigm for the detection of individuals responding strategically to psychological testing. With continuing development and validation, this technique may have immense utility in the field of psychological assessment.

Properties of lignin and poly(hydroxybutyrate) blends

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) allows the presentation of a thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the format of published or submitted papers, where such papers have been published, accepted or submitted during the period of candidature. This thesis is composed of Seven published/submitted papers and one poster presentation, of which five have been published and the other two are under review. This project is financially supported by the QUTPRA Grant. The twenty-first century started with the resurrection of lignocellulosic biomass as a potential substitute for petrochemicals. Petrochemicals, which enjoyed the sustainable economic growth during the past century, have begun to reach or have reached their peak. The world energy situation is complicated by political uncertainty and by the environmental impact associated with petrochemical import and usage. In particular, greenhouse gasses and toxic emissions produced by petrochemicals have been implicated as a significant cause of climate changes. Lignocellulosic biomass (e.g. sugarcane biomass and bagasse), which potentially enjoys a more abundant, widely distributed, and cost-effective resource base, can play an indispensible role in the paradigm transition from fossil-based to carbohydrate-based economy. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), PHB has attracted much commercial interest as a plastic and biodegradable material because some its physical properties are similar to those of polypropylene (PP), even though the two polymers have quite different chemical structures. PHB exhibits a high degree of crystallinity, has a high melting point of approximately 180°C, and most importantly, unlike PP, PHB is rapidly biodegradable. Two major factors which currently inhibit the widespread use of PHB are its high cost and poor mechanical properties. The production costs of PHB are significantly higher than for plastics produced from petrochemical resources (e.g. PP costs $US1 kg-1, whereas PHB costs $US8 kg-1), and its stiff and brittle nature makes processing difficult and impedes its ability to handle high impact. Lignin, together with cellulose and hemicellulose, are the three main components of every lignocellulosic biomass. It is a natural polymer occurring in the plant cell wall. Lignin, after cellulose, is the most abundant polymer in nature. It is extracted mainly as a by-product in the pulp and paper industry. Although, traditionally lignin is burnt in industry for energy, it has a lot of value-add properties. Lignin, which to date has not been exploited, is an amorphous polymer with hydrophobic behaviour. These make it a good candidate for blending with PHB and technically, blending can be a viable solution for price and reduction and enhance production properties. Theoretically, lignin and PHB affect the physiochemical properties of each other when they become miscible in a composite. A comprehensive study on structural, thermal, rheological and environmental properties of lignin/PHB blends together with neat lignin and PHB is the targeted scope of this thesis. An introduction to this research, including a description of the research problem, a literature review and an account of the research progress linking the research papers is presented in Chapter 1. In this research, lignin was obtained from bagasse through extraction with sodium hydroxide. A novel two-step pH precipitation procedure was used to recover soda lignin with the purity of 96.3 wt% from the black liquor (i.e. the spent sodium hydroxide solution). The precipitation process is presented in Chapter 2. A sequential solvent extraction process was used to fractionate the soda lignin into three fractions. These fractions, together with the soda lignin, were characterised to determine elemental composition, purity, carbohydrate content, molecular weight, and functional group content. The thermal properties of the lignins were also determined. The results are presented and discussed in Chapter 2. On the basis of the type and quantity of functional groups, attempts were made to identify potential applications for each of the individual lignins. As an addendum to the general section on the development of composite materials of lignin, which includes Chapters 1 and 2, studies on the kinetics of bagasse thermal degradation are presented in Appendix 1. The work showed that distinct stages of mass losses depend on residual sucrose. As the development of value-added products from lignin will improve the economics of cellulosic ethanol, a review on lignin applications, which included lignin/PHB composites, is presented in Appendix 2. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are dedicated to investigations of the properties of soda lignin/PHB composites. Chapter 3 reports on the thermal stability and miscibility of the blends. Although the addition of soda lignin shifts the onset of PHB decomposition to lower temperatures, the lignin/PHB blends are thermally more stable over a wider temperature range. The results from the thermal study also indicated that blends containing up to 40 wt% soda lignin were miscible. The Tg data for these blends fitted nicely to the Gordon-Taylor and Kwei models. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) evaluation showed that the miscibility of the blends was because of specific hydrogen bonding (and similar interactions) between reactive phenolic hydroxyl groups of lignin and the carbonyl group of PHB. The thermophysical and rheological properties of soda lignin/PHB blends are presented in Chapter 4. In this chapter, the kinetics of thermal degradation of the blends is studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). This preliminary investigation is limited to the processing temperature of blend manufacturing. Of significance in the study, is the drop in the apparent energy of activation, Ea from 112 kJmol-1 for pure PHB to half that value for blends. This means that the addition of lignin to PHB reduces the thermal stability of PHB, and that the comparative reduced weight loss observed in the TGA data is associated with the slower rate of lignin degradation in the composite. The Tg of PHB, as well as its melting temperature, melting enthalpy, crystallinity and melting point decrease with increase in lignin content. Results from the rheological investigation showed that at low lignin content (.30 wt%), lignin acts as a plasticiser for PHB, while at high lignin content it acts as a filler. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the environmental study of soda lignin/PHB blends. The biodegradability of lignin/PHB blends is compared to that of PHB using the standard soil burial test. To obtain acceptable biodegradation data, samples were buried for 12 months under controlled conditions. Gravimetric analysis, TGA, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), FT-IR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used in the study. The results clearly demonstrated that lignin retards the biodegradation of PHB, and that the miscible blends were more resistant to degradation compared to the immiscible blends. To obtain an understanding between the structure of lignin and the properties of the blends, a methanol-soluble lignin, which contains 3× less phenolic hydroxyl group that its parent soda lignin used in preparing blends for the work reported in Chapters 3 and 4, was blended with PHB and the properties of the blends investigated. The results are reported in Chapter 6. At up to 40 wt% methanolsoluble lignin, the experimental data fitted the Gordon-Taylor and Kwei models, similar to the results obtained soda lignin-based blends. However, the values obtained for the interactive parameters for the methanol-soluble lignin blends were slightly lower than the blends obtained with soda lignin indicating weaker association between methanol-soluble lignin and PHB. FT-IR data confirmed that hydrogen bonding is the main interactive force between the reactive functional groups of lignin and the carbonyl group of PHB. In summary, the structural differences existing between the two lignins did not manifest itself in the properties of their blends.

Does emotion modulate the blink reflex in human conditioning? Startle potentiation during pleasant and unpleasant cues in the picture-picture paradigm

Emotional processes modulate the size of the eyeblink startle reflex in a picture-viewing paradigm, but it is unclear whether emotional processes are responsible for blink modulation in human conditioning. Experiment 1 involved an aversive differential conditioning phase followed by an extinction phase in which acoustic startle probes were presented during CS+, CS-, and intertrial intervals. Valence ratings and affective priming showed the CS+ was unpleasant postacquisition. Blink startle magnitude was larger during CS+ than during CS-. Experiment 2 used the same design in two groups trained with pleasant or unpleasant pictorial USs. Ratings and affective priming indicated that the CS+ had become pleasant or unpleasant in the respective group. Regardless of CS valence, blink startle was larger during CS+ than CS- in both groups. Thus, startle was not modulated by CS valence.

The knock-on from the knock-off : recent shifts within Australian mass market fashion design practice

Australia’s mass market fashion labels have traditionally benefitted from their peripheral location to the world’s fashion centres. Operating a season behind, Australian mass market designers and buyers were well-placed to watch trends play out overseas before testing them in the Australian marketplace. For this reason, often a designer’s role was to source and oversee the manufacture of ‘knock-offs’, or close copies of Northern hemisphere mass market garments. Both Weller (2007) and Walsh (2009) have commented on this practice. The knock-on effect from this continues to be a cautious, derivative fashion sensibility within Australian mass market fashion design, where any new trend or product is first tested and proved overseas months earlier. However, there is evidence that this is changing. The rapid online dissemination of global fashion trends, coupled with the Australian consumer’s willingness to shop online, has meant that the ‘knock-off’ is less viable. For this reason, a number of mass market companies are moving away from the practice of direct sourcing and are developing product in-house under a Northern hemisphere model. This shift is also witnessed in the trend for mass market companies to develop collections in partnership with independent Australian designers. This paper explores the current and potential effects of these shifts within Australian mass market design practice, and discusses how they may impact on designers, consumers and on the wider culture of Australian fashion.

Urban food futures : ICTs and opportunities

Food is a vital foundation of all human life. It is essential to a myriad of political, socio-cultural, economic and environmental practices throughout history. However, those practices of food production, consumption, and distribution have the potential to now go through immensely transformative shifts as network technologies become increasingly embedded in every domain of contemporary life. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are one of the key foundations of global functionality and sustenance today and undoubtedly will continue to present new challenges and opportunities for the future. As such, this Symposium will bring together leading scholars across disciplines to address challenges and opportunities at the intersection of food and ICTs in everyday urban environment. In particular, the discussion will revolve around the question: What are the key roles that network technologies play in re-shaping the food systems at micro- to macroscopic level? The symposium will contribute a unique perspective on urban food futures through the lens of network society paradigm where ICTs enable innovations in production, organisation, and communication within society. Some of the topics addressed will include encouraging transparency in food commodity chains; value of cultural understanding and communication in global food sustainability; and technologies to social inclusion; all of which evoke and examine the question surrounding networked individuals as changes catalysts for urban food futures. The event will provide an avenue for new discussions and speculations on key issues surrounding urban food futures in the network era, with a particular focus on bottom-up micro actions that challenge the existing food systems towards a broader sociocultural, political, technological, and environmental transformations. One central area of concern is that current systems of food production, distribution, and consumption do not ensure food security for the future, but rather seriously threaten it. With the recent unprecedented scale of urban growth and rise of middle-class, the problem continues to intensify. This situation requires extensive distribution networks to feed urban residents, and therefore poses significant infrastructural challenges to both the public and private sectors. The symposium will also address the transferability of citizen empowerment that network technologies enable as demonstrated in various significant global political transformations from the bottom-up, such as the recent Egyptian Youth Revolution. Another key theme of the discussion will be the role of ICTs (and the practices that they mediate) in fostering transparency in commodity chains. The symposium will ask what differences these technologies can make on the practices of food consumption and production. After discussions, we will initiate an international network of food-thinkers and actors that will function as a platform for knowledge sharing and collaborations. The participants will be invited to engage in planning for the on-going future development of the network.

Cognitive shifts related to interactive information retrieval

Purpose – Interactive information retrieval (IR) involves many human cognitive shifts at different information behaviour levels. Cognitive science defines a cognitive shift or shift in cognitive focus as triggered by the brain's response and change due to some external force. This paper aims to provide an explication of the concept of “cognitive shift” and then report results from a study replicating Spink's study of cognitive shifts during interactive IR. This work aims to generate promising insights into aspects of cognitive shifts during interactive IR and a new IR evaluation measure – information problem shift. Design/methodology/approach – The study participants (n=9) conducted an online search on an in-depth personal medical information problem. Data analysed included the pre- and post-search questionnaires completed by each study participant. Implications for web services and further research are discussed. Findings – Key findings replicated the results in Spink's study, including: all study participants reported some level of cognitive shift in their information problem, information seeking and personal knowledge due to their search interaction; and different study participants reported different levels of cognitive shift. Some study participants reported major cognitive shifts in various user-based variables such as information problem or information-seeking stage. Unlike Spink's study, no participant experienced a negative shift in their information problem stage or level of information problem understanding. Originality/value – This study builds on the previous study by Spink using a different dataset. The paper provides valuable insights for further research into cognitive shifts during interactive IR.

Shikumidukuri vs. one best (no) way! Project and Programme Management for Enterprise Innovation (P2M) : towards a new paradigm?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Japanese answer to the 90’s depression by (i). presenting a case study of the framework developed to address the new business challenges and value creation in complex, ambiguous and uncertain environment, i.e., Development of Project and Programme Management for Enterprise Innovation (P2M) and Project Management Association Japan (PMAJ) in Japan; and (ii). Exposing what in our view are the underlying theoretical bases supporting this framework and from this drawing some theoretical lessons learnt which could be helpful to the development of sound PM standards and PM competence model. This theoretical approach is assumed to be useful to transpose the Japanese experience to other analogical contexts and situations.

Bayesian hierarchical models in statistical quality control methods to improve healthcare in hospitals

Quality oriented management systems and methods have become the dominant business and governance paradigm. From this perspective, satisfying customers’ expectations by supplying reliable, good quality products and services is the key factor for an organization and even government. During recent decades, Statistical Quality Control (SQC) methods have been developed as the technical core of quality management and continuous improvement philosophy and now are being applied widely to improve the quality of products and services in industrial and business sectors. Recently SQC tools, in particular quality control charts, have been used in healthcare surveillance. In some cases, these tools have been modified and developed to better suit the health sector characteristics and needs. It seems that some of the work in the healthcare area has evolved independently of the development of industrial statistical process control methods. Therefore analysing and comparing paradigms and the characteristics of quality control charts and techniques across the different sectors presents some opportunities for transferring knowledge and future development in each sectors. Meanwhile considering capabilities of Bayesian approach particularly Bayesian hierarchical models and computational techniques in which all uncertainty are expressed as a structure of probability, facilitates decision making and cost-effectiveness analyses. Therefore, this research investigates the use of quality improvement cycle in a health vii setting using clinical data from a hospital. The need of clinical data for monitoring purposes is investigated in two aspects. A framework and appropriate tools from the industrial context are proposed and applied to evaluate and improve data quality in available datasets and data flow; then a data capturing algorithm using Bayesian decision making methods is developed to determine economical sample size for statistical analyses within the quality improvement cycle. Following ensuring clinical data quality, some characteristics of control charts in the health context including the necessity of monitoring attribute data and correlated quality characteristics are considered. To this end, multivariate control charts from an industrial context are adapted to monitor radiation delivered to patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiogram and various risk-adjusted control charts are constructed and investigated in monitoring binary outcomes of clinical interventions as well as postintervention survival time. Meanwhile, adoption of a Bayesian approach is proposed as a new framework in estimation of change point following control chart’s signal. This estimate aims to facilitate root causes efforts in quality improvement cycle since it cuts the search for the potential causes of detected changes to a tighter time-frame prior to the signal. This approach enables us to obtain highly informative estimates for change point parameters since probability distribution based results are obtained. Using Bayesian hierarchical models and Markov chain Monte Carlo computational methods, Bayesian estimators of the time and the magnitude of various change scenarios including step change, linear trend and multiple change in a Poisson process are developed and investigated. The benefits of change point investigation is revisited and promoted in monitoring hospital outcomes where the developed Bayesian estimator reports the true time of the shifts, compared to priori known causes, detected by control charts in monitoring rate of excess usage of blood products and major adverse events during and after cardiac surgery in a local hospital. The development of the Bayesian change point estimators are then followed in a healthcare surveillances for processes in which pre-intervention characteristics of patients are viii affecting the outcomes. In this setting, at first, the Bayesian estimator is extended to capture the patient mix, covariates, through risk models underlying risk-adjusted control charts. Variations of the estimator are developed to estimate the true time of step changes and linear trends in odds ratio of intensive care unit outcomes in a local hospital. Secondly, the Bayesian estimator is extended to identify the time of a shift in mean survival time after a clinical intervention which is being monitored by riskadjusted survival time control charts. In this context, the survival time after a clinical intervention is also affected by patient mix and the survival function is constructed using survival prediction model. The simulation study undertaken in each research component and obtained results highly recommend the developed Bayesian estimators as a strong alternative in change point estimation within quality improvement cycle in healthcare surveillances as well as industrial and business contexts. The superiority of the proposed Bayesian framework and estimators are enhanced when probability quantification, flexibility and generalizability of the developed model are also considered. The empirical results and simulations indicate that the Bayesian estimators are a strong alternative in change point estimation within quality improvement cycle in healthcare surveillances. The superiority of the proposed Bayesian framework and estimators are enhanced when probability quantification, flexibility and generalizability of the developed model are also considered. The advantages of the Bayesian approach seen in general context of quality control may also be extended in the industrial and business domains where quality monitoring was initially developed.

The role of alternative message strategies in advertising performance : challenges to the B2B marketing paradigm

In this study the impact of message strategy on advertising performance will be in examined in a business-to-business (B2B) context. From a theoretical standpoint, the study will explore differences in message type between symbolic and literal approaches in B2B advertisements. While there has been much discussion on the effect of symbolism, (eg. metaphors, abstract images and figurative language), an empirically-tested scale that measures the degree of symbolism has not been developed. This research project focuses on development of a methodological scale to accurately test the difference in the direction of message appeals. Thus, insights in the role of message strategy in the B2B adoption process are anticipated with contributions in future consumer and business advertising research.

Axial length changes with shifts of gaze direction in myopes and emmetropes

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to investigate the changes in axial length occurring with shifts in gaze direction. Methods. Axial length measurements were obtained from the left eye of 30 young adults (10 emmetropes, 10 low myopes, and 10 moderate myopes) through a rotating prism with 15° deviation, along the foveal axis, using a noncontact optical biometer in each of the nine different cardinal directions of gaze over 5 minutes. The subject's fellow eye fixated on an external distance (6 m) target to control accommodation, also with 15° deviation. Axial length measurements were also performed in 15° and 25° downward gaze with the biometer inclined on a tilting table, allowing gaze shifts to be achieved with either full head turn but no eye turn, or full eye turn with no head turn. Results. There was a significant influence of gaze angle and time on axial length (both P < 0.001), with the greatest axial elongation (+18 ± 8 μm) occurring with inferonasal gaze (P < 0.001) and a slight decrease in axial length in superior gaze (−12 ± 17 μm) compared with primary gaze (P < 0.001). In downward gaze, a significant axial elongation occurred when eye turn was used (P < 0.001), but not when head turn was used to shift gaze (P > 0.05). Conclusions. The angle of gaze has a small but significant short-term effect on axial length, with greatest elongation occurring in inferonasal gaze. The elongation of the eye appears to be due to the influence of the extraocular muscles, in particular the oblique muscles.