Definition, implementation and management of m.commerce apps and services

This report aims to analyse the Definition, Implementation and Management of Vodafone Portugal’s Apps and Services, so that possible ways of improvement can be suggested. To do so, Vodafone’s strategy regarding the development/ implementation of specific Apps and Services, as well as the strategy of its competitors are going to be analysed. This analysis is going to be complemented with insights from some key-persons of Vodafone’s Consumer Business Unit team in Portugal. Findings suggest that Vodafone is ahead of its competitors when it comes to developing the most innovative Apps and Services, but there is always room for improvements, especially when it comes to communication.

An overview of previous studies in stakeholder management and its implications for construction industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of previous studies in the field of stakeholder management, and propose implications for the construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach – Three major databases are searched: ABI, EI CompendexWeb, and ISI web of knowledge. Papers are searched on topic by using the keywords of “stakeholder management”, “management of stakeholders” and “management of stakeholder”. A brief review of the abstracts and conclusions of these papers is conducted to filter out the irrelevant and/or duplicate papers. After filtering, 159 articles with content relevant to stakeholder management are selected for analysis.

Findings – An overview of previous studies reveals that research interest in stakeholder management has turned to the descriptive approach. Through a critical review of stakeholder management process, three main problems of previous studies are identified: very few methods and tools are available to identify all stakeholders and their interests; limited studies involve the change management about the stakeholders' influence and relationship; and few studies are capable of reflecting the influence of the entire relationship network in practice.

Research limitations/implications – Two implications for the construction industry are suggested: establish a practical framework for managing stakeholders; and apply social network theory (SNT) in developing a stakeholder relationship model.

Originality/value – The overview and implications lead to new knowledge and an improved understanding of the management of multiple stakeholders in construction projects. The perspective of SNT avoids the deficiency of Freeman's dyadic ties model, and the project managers can make decisions in response to the stakeholder behaviours according to the entire relationship.

Research on school and community-based curriculum practice in aboriginal, multicultural and migrant education

This research studies some key problems in relation to curriculum reform in multicultural and migrant education: social concepts of multicultural education, divergent curriculum theories informing practice, the facilitation process in regard to project self-study and action research and the development of cultural perspectives in general curriculum pedagogy.

Management and engineering education in the 1950s and 1960s

The career destiny of many graduate engineers is in industry. Quite how well prepared they were for that career became a matter of political importance in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the issue of Britain's relatively poor economic performance grew in salience. This article looks at this preparation with particular reference to management training. It examines the attitudes of those parties most interested in engineering education ‐ the government, industry, the engineering institutions and the educators themselves. All of these saw management training as being part of the formation of at least a portion of professional engineers at some stage in their career. But there was no general agreement between them about what this should consist of or when it should be provided. At the same time broader changes in engineering education were taking place which cut across and to some extent militated against attempts to enhance the role of management training. The result, it is argued, is that by the end of the 1960s little progress had been achieved.

A Comprehensive national plan for new initiatives in home economics research, extension, and higher education.

"January 1981."

Management and business issues for B2B eCommerce implementation

Until recently little research had been undertaken into the process of eCommerce implementation, especially in relation to the implementation of business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Given the complexity of this process we have, in this paper, endeavoured to contribute to what we perceive as a gap in the body of theory surrounding the implementation process in the extant business-to-business literature. We describe the findings of a series of multiple case studies comprising ten major Australian eCommerce initiators. In addition to confirming our earlier finding of the importance of nontechnical factors for the success of the implementation process we also present, through our case studies, the various management and business issues associated with the success or otherwise of B2B eCommerce implementation.

Knowledge Management and Decision Support for Sustainable Land Management

Much research has focused on desertification and land degradation assessments without putting sufficient emphasis on prevention and mitigation, although the concept of sustainable land management (SLM) is increasingly being acknowledged. A variety of SLM measures have already been applied at the local level, but they are rarely adequately recognised, evaluated, shared or used for decision support. WOCAT (World Overview of Technologies and Approaches) has developed an internationally recognised, standardised methodology to document and evaluate SLM technologies and approaches, including spatial distribution, allowing the sharing of SLM knowledge worldwide. The recent methodological integration into a participatory process allows now analysing and using this knowledge for decision support at the local and national level. The use of the WOCAT tools stimulates evaluation (self-evaluation as well as learning from comparing experiences) within SLM initiatives where all too often there is not only insufficient monitoring but also a lack of critical analysis. The comprehensive questionnaires and database system facilitate to document, evaluate and disseminate local experiences of SLM technologies and their implementation approaches. This evaluation process - in a team of experts and together with land users - greatly enhances understanding of the reasons behind successful (or failed) local practices. It has now been integrated into a new methodology for appraising and selecting SLM options. The methodology combines a local collective learning and decision approach with the use of the evaluated global best practices from WOCAT in a concise three step process: i) identifying land degradation and locally applied solutions in a stakeholder learning workshop; ii) assessing local solutions with the standardised WOCAT tool; iii) jointly selecting promising strategies for implementation with the help of a decision support tool. The methodology has been implemented in various countries and study sites around the world mainly within the FAO LADA (Land Degradation Assessment Project) and the EU-funded DESIRE project. Investments in SLM must be carefully assessed and planned on the basis of properly documented experiences and evaluated impacts and benefits: concerted efforts are needed and sufficient resources must be mobilised to tap the wealth of knowledge and learn from SLM successes.

Contested notions of civics and citizenship education as national education in the Australian curriculum

Civics and Citizenship (CC) education is a contested concept and a learning area that creates curriculum and implementation challenges for schools in many nations. The current development of the first national curriculum to be implemented in Australia, the Australian Curriculum, provides a national opportunity for educators to rethink curriculum priorities and to decide on new emphases for learning in schools, in response to policy that emphasizes the importance of CC for all young Australians. In this paper, we discuss the contested notion of citizenship education as ‘national education’ in Australia, the development of this learning area and some challenges schools will encounter implementing CC in the Australian Curriculum.