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Aims: An emerging group of people with type 1 diabetes are not waiting for commercial solutions, choosing to manage their condition with open‐source artificial pancreas systems (APS). Our aim was to explore their perspectives on the future of APS. Methods: Semi‐structured telephone interviews were conducted (in Australia, October 2018 to January 2019) with 23 adults with type 1 diabetes currently using open‐source APS. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. Results: Participants described five key features of open‐source APS they value: compatibility, user‐led design, customisability, ability to evolve faster and community‐driven. They attributed the success of the open‐source APS movement to benefits they derive from these features: choice, solutions that meet their needs, ownership, staying one step ahead and real‐time support. They expressed hope that future commercial products and healthcare would benefit from their learnings and from collaboration with the open‐source APS community. Conclusions: Participants believed that there will always be a place for the open‐source community. It will continue to build on and advance commercial products, respond to user needs, offering a higher degree of control and customisation than afforded by commercial products and generating optimism for the future. Participants desired that future commercial diabetes technologies would be inspired by the open‐source community and developed collaboratively with people with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The Australian Government has applied considerable focus to improving the unemployment rate of people with disability through initiatives to build their capacity and job readiness. Far less attention has been paid to addressing the needs of business, especially small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME). OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the Diversity Field Officer Service (DFOS) pilot, which aimed to address that gap through providing direct support to SME to build disability confidence and more inclusive organizations. METHODS: We used a mixed method approach (pre- and post-service surveys along with post-service semi-structured interviews) with representatives from 36 businesses. We used descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to summarise the survey data and interview material, respectively. RESULTS: Confidence in employing people with disability increased, as did the employment of, and intention to employ, people with disability. Many businesses were implementing, or planning to implement, measures to increase the employment of people with disability. DFOS capacity building exercises and activities (e.g., one-to-one conversations to understand the specific needs and challenges of their businesses) were all rated highly. Participants were generally supportive of an ongoing role for DFOS. CONCLUSION: The DFOS holds promise as a strategy to increase the employment of people with disability in SME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's welfare-to-work system has been subject to ongoing political contestation and policy reform since the 1990s. In this paper we take a big picture look at the Australian system over time, re-visiting our earlier analysis of the impact of marketisation on flexibility at the frontline over the first ten years of the Australian market in employment services. That analysis demonstrated that marketisation had failed to deliver the service flexibility intended through contracting-out, and had instead produced market herding around a common set of standardised frontline practices. In the interim, there have been two further major redesigns of the Australian system at considerable expense to taxpayers. Re-introducing greater flexibility and service tailoring into the market has been a key aim of these reforms. Calling on evidence from an original, longitudinal survey of frontline employment service staff run in 2008, 2012 and 2016, this paper considers how the Australian market has evolved over its second decade. We find remarkable consistency over time and, indeed, evidence of deepening organisational convergence. We conclude that, once in motion, isomorphic pressures towards standardisation quickly get locked into quasi-market regimes; at least when these pressures occur in low-trust contracting environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, the growing assisted reproductive technologies (ART) industry has recently received some public criticism. Much of this criticism centres on the concern that doctors are increasingly motivated by profit, rather than patient interests. These concerns appear to suggest that the growing business of ART generates conflicts of interest (COI) for clinicians. While media reports may be rhetorically compelling, claims that ART practice is distorted by COI must be supported by empirical evidence. This preliminary study sought to engage with people involved with the ART industry and map out their concerns related to COI in ART. A small convenience sample of eight professionals was interviewed. Here, we present the major themes uncovered, including a richer understanding of the 'interests' of various parties involved in Australian ART. We then propose a strategy for how this topic could be constructively explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What motivates corporate political action? Are corporations motivated by their own narrow economic self-interest; are they committed to pursuing larger class interests; or are corporations instruments for status groups to pursue their own agendas? Sociologists have been divided over this question for much of the last century. This paper introduces a novel case - that of Australia - and an extensive dataset of over 1,500 corporations and 7,500 directors. The paper attempts to understand the motives of corporate political action by examining patterns of corporate political donations. Using statistical modelling, supported by qualitative evidence, the paper argues that, in the Australian case, corporate political action is largely motivated by the narrow economic self-interest of individual corporations. Firms' interests are, consistent with regulatory environment theory, defined by the nature of government regulation in their industry: those in highly regulated industries (such as banking) and those dependent on government support (such as defence) tend to adopt a strategy of hedging their political support, and make bipartisan donations (to both major parties). In contrast, firms facing hostile regulation (such as timber or mining), and those without strong dependence on state support (such as small companies) tend to adopt a strategy of conservative partisanship, and make conservative-only donations. This paper argues that regulatory environment theory needs to be modified to incorporate greater emphasis on the subjective political judgements of corporations facing hostile regulation: a corporation's adoption of conservative partisanship or hedging is not just a product of the objective regulation they face, but also whether corporate leaders judge such regulation as politically inevitable or something that can be resisted. Such a judgement is highly subjective, introducing a dynamic and unpredictable dimension to corporate political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian providers of aged care are facing a rapidly ageing population and growth in demand for services. Beyond a sheer increase in consumers and major regulatory changes from Federal Government, many customers are becoming progressively discontented with a medically dominated model of care provision. This period of turbulence presents an opportunity for new entrants and forward-thinking organisations to disrupt the market by designing a more compelling value offering. Under this line of inquiry, the researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis study of over 37 Australian aged care organisations, clustering providers into six business model typologies. The study revealed that providers of aged care are becoming increasingly aware of emerging customer needs, and, in addressing these needs, are seeking to establish innovative models of care provision. This paper therefore presents a future model of care, along with implications for practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social enterprise is a growing force in the Australian economy, with great potential for local job-creation and stimulating new entrepreneurship across the service, manufacturing and retail industries. However, the sector also has a ‘dark side’ – whereby its social welfare agendas are sidelined in favour of profit-driven motives, the outsourcing of government services and perpetuation of inequalities between those that manage and those that benefit from the enterprises. In this light, it is perhaps not surprising that social enterprise literature has emerged predominantly from the field of business management, resulting in an over-representation of perspectives that privilege the economic, and technocratic, aspects of social entrepreneurship. This is particularly problematic in the context of the arts, which often challenge, transform and exceed conventional understandings of social value. This paper explores the potential role of art- and fashion-based social enterprises in contributing to sustainable community development while also activating positions of critique and political engagement from inside the mechanisms of contemporary capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When the Australian Trade Practices Act 1965 came into force on 1 September 1967 it was vehemently opposed by business as it threatened to reveal the extent of their anti-competitive arrangements. Yet by the time the Act was replaced by stronger legislation in 1974, most firms had accepted that collusion and price fixing were undesirable and that they had to compete. Using newspapers, parliamentary debates, archival records, and the Secret Register of trade agreements introduced by the 1965 Act, this paper examines the transformation of attitudes to competition in the Australian business community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of a pilot Education for Sustainability (EfS) program implemented in 2011 for international students in a multi-campus distributed learning environment at an Australian university. It outlines the context of the pilot EfS program and reports survey findings of the environmental attitudes and sustainability worldviews of international students. The pilot EfS program entailed in-class presentations to students in a variety of Business and IT programs at diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Students were introduced to sustainability concepts and the role of graduate skills in their future professional practice. Students were also encouraged to adopt personal sustainability behaviours and assisted to connect their individual courses/programs to sustainability outcomes. Surveys consisting of open-ended questions and the Revised NEP (New Environmental Paradigm) questionnaire were conducted in a range of settings in order to develop an understanding of the sustainability attitudes and knowledge of international students. These were conducted in participating and non-participating EfS classes and also in classes with and without sustainability topics in the curriculum. The findings report the impact of these sustainability interventions on students’ environmental views and attitudes. Finally, these findings are contextualised in suggested routes for scaffolding the learning journey of international students towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Trade Practices Act 1965 was widely criticised as being weak and unproductive. It was a significantly watered-down version of the original Bill overseen by Garfield Barwick. Although the final form of the Act was perceived as ineffective at the time, it is now viewed as an important step towards a national competition policy and a precursor to the opening up of the Australian economy. This paper outlines the economic, political and social background to the introduction of the legislation. We specify some of the factors that explain why its creation caused controversy and its importance in initiating change in Australians' attitudes towards collusive behaviour and economic protectionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an understatement to say that, in Australia and elsewhere around the world, it has become fashionable to market products and services as 'green'. However, there are legal limits about what claims can be made and a lack of community tolerance of greenwashing. In addition, regulators have been active in investigating some green claims. The purpose of this paper is to explore green marketing strategies in the context of the Australian regulatory environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juridification refers to the tendency for organisations and individuals subject to regulation to be overwhelmed by detailed rules, standards and instructions. Many researchers have argued that such over-prescriptiveness can in fact undermine the likelihood that a business or individual will comply. Though proceeding from different theoretical perspectives, writers such as Braithwaite, Teubner and Patterson all argue that juridification can be minimised by improving regulatory strategies and techniques. Instead of being rule bound and relying on detailed prescriptions, authorities should become more flexible and outcome-oriented. This paper uses the case-study of a Chief Engineer in an Australian public hospital to contest the view that juridification can be reduced simply by improving regulatory techniques. Drawing on Habermas, it argues that juridification is the product of deep-seated crisis tendencies in late modern capitalist democracies. Fiscal and legitimacy problems are causing governments and regulatory authorities to pressure the engineer to try to satisfy contradictory demands. Simultaneously he must be a cost-conscious entrepreneurial risk-manager while not losing sight of his role as a risk-averse maintainer of professional standards. The plethora of rules and regulatory standards which surround the engineer reflect government desire to distance itself in the event that economic pressures cause him to incur risks that the public and media deem unacceptable. Ultimately, therefore, the engineer's juridification problems have a political dimension. To the extent that they help obscure this, theories that suggest juridification can be solved by improving regulatory techniques have an ideological function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the issue of business-to-business e-commerce implementation and the factors affecting it, considering the appropriateness of the various theories which underpin research into systems implementation (primarily diffusion of innovation and traditional change management theory). Describes the results of a case study of BHP Steel, the largest steel producer and one of the largest companies in Australia, which is a leader in e-commerce implementation. The results suggest that, over time, the driving force for e-commerce changed significantly. From an initial push to improve current business processes by adopting EDI to achieve savings and improve efficiency, the company came to be driven by a desire for greater supplier involvement and customer service in later implementations. Discusses the ways in which BHP Steel's e-commerce innovations have changed and suggests that, in addition to considering the characteristics of the innovation process, other more contextual aspects of implementation (such as the social system in which the innovation evolves and the timing of the innovation's introduction) be considered in an inter-organizational context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on a processual analysis of the responses of the Australian audit office to the dilemmas of efficiency auditing 1978-84. Audit reports, which have been highly critical of executive decisions and operating methods have alienated governments and made them determined to limit the activities of their outspoken auditors. Increasingly, governments see it as their right to transact business with the private sector without answering to the auditor-general or even to parliament. They protest that their negotiations for the construction and management of roads, hospitals and tunnels give them access to commercially sensitive information, which should not find its way into the public domain. The secrecy of the executive in its dealings with the private sector has not received a sympathetic hearing from auditors-general in Australia. By examining the responses of the state auditor under stress during the introduction of efficiency auditing by the Commonwealth Auditor-General between 1978-1984, the aim of this article is to expose some of the methods used by the executive to limit state audit and to maintain the executive's hegemony in state audit which has been carefully and strategically crafted over many a years.

The article discusses the results of the survey on the application of business process reengineering (BPR) Australian-based companies. Sixty percent of the respondents have undertaken BPR. At the end of 1995, BPR activity is at highest point in the country. The fundamental reasons behind the decision of the companies to apply BPR include competitive pressures and intense need to cut costs. For the success of BPR in terms of goal attainment, the respondents consider several strategies. It include customer service, cost reduction, quality achievement and time reduction.