Search

Switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy is key to international energy transition efforts and the move toward net zero. For many nations, this requires decommissioning of hundreds of oil and gas infrastructure in the marine environment. Current international, regional and national legislation largely dictates that structures must be completely removed at end-of-life although, increasingly, alternative decommissioning options are being promoted and implemented. Yet, a paucity of real-world case studies describing the impacts of decommissioning on the environment make decision-making with respect to which option(s) might be optimal for meeting international and regional strategic environmental targets challenging. To address this gap, we draw together international expertise and judgment from marine environmental scientists on marine artificial structures as an alternative source of evidence that explores how different decommissioning options might ameliorate pressures that drive environmental status toward (or away) from environmental objectives. Synthesis reveals that for 37 United Nations and Oslo-Paris Commissions (OSPAR) global and regional environmental targets, experts consider repurposing or abandoning individual structures, or abandoning multiple structures across a region, as the options that would most strongly contribute toward targets. This collective view suggests complete removal may not be best for the environment or society. However, different decommissioning options act in different ways and make variable contributions toward environmental targets, such that policy makers and managers would likely need to prioritise some targets over others considering political, social, economic, and ecological contexts. Current policy may not result in optimal outcomes for the environment or society.

The voltage of ZnO/SubPc hybrid devices was enhanced to 1.18 eV by optimising the ZnO thin film processing conditions

Significant sums of money are invested in developing technological innovations that have low levels and rates of adoption. Several approaches have been put forward in an effort to improve rates of adoption. This paper presents the results of study that examined the innovation fit of key technological innovations in the beef industry. Findings indicate that be assessing the innovation fit throughout the R&D process researchers and end users can collaborate to improve the innovation fit and the rate of adoption. The paper also put forward a model that demonstrates the linkages between R&D, adoption and innovation fit.

Fatigue and overwork are problems experienced by numerous employees in many industry sectors. Focusing on improving work-life balance can frame the ‘problem’ of long work hours to resolve working time duration issues. Flexible work options through re-organising working time arrangements is key to developing an organisational response for delivering work-life balance and usually involves changing the internal structure of work time. This study examines the effect of compressed long weekly working hours and the consequent ‘long break’ on work-life balance. Using Spillover theory and Border theory, this research considers organisational and personal determinants of overwork and fatigue. It concludes compressed long work hours with a long break provide better work-life balance. Further, a long break allows gaining ‘personal time’ and overcoming fatigue.

This article describes the development and validation of a multi-dimensional scale for measuring managers’ perceptions of the range of factors that routinely guide their decision-making processes. An instrument for identifying managerial ethical profiles (MEP) is developed by measuring the perceived role of different ethical principles in the decision-making of managers. Evidence as to the validity of the multidimensionality of the ethical scale is provided, based on the comparative assessment of different models for managerial ethical decision-making. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported a eight-factor model including two factors for each of the main four schools of moral philosophy. Future research needs and the value of this measure to business ethics are discussed.

Annual reports are an important component of New Zealand schools’ public accountability. Through the annual report the governance body informs stakeholders about school aims, objectives, achievements, use of resources, and financial performance. We examine the perceived usefulness of the annual report in the discharge of public accountability. We find that 15% of the recipients (mainly parents/caregivers) do not read the annual report because they trust in the school to do the right thing or rely on others to monitor school activities. We find that the annual report is used for a variety of purposes including to determine if the school has conducted its activities effectively and achieved stated objectives and goals; to examine student achievements; to assess financial accountability and performance; and to make decisions about the school as a suitable environment for their child/children. We find that other forms of communication such as school newsletters, parent-teacher interviews, children and other parents are more important sources of information about the school than the annual report.

Achieving and sustaining competitive advantage is a major challenge for firms in today’s dynamic global marketplace. The notion of sustained competitive advantage has been investigated through a number of paradigms, from the resource based view of the firm to dynamic capabilities. This paper reports preliminary findings from research which investigates the characteristics of innovative firms that have demonstrated competitive advantage over time, targeting factors that contribute to the firm’s performance. Key factors to sustaining competitive advantage include working with demanding customers, team based organizational cultures, engaging in challenging projects to make new to the world products, and using projects to generate the necessity for learning by doing, learning by using and learning by interacting in new product and process development.

The importance of having effective managers in an organisation who possess both management and leadership abilities is rarely questioned. However, should we be taking this a step further and looking to the challenge of leadership within an industry sector? The rail industry in Australia faces a challenging future: an aging workforce, geographical spread, privatisation and corporatisation, plus particular issues of industry image and culture. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study into the current approaches to leadership and management development in the Australian rail industry. It discusses critical issues facing the sector and outlines some theoretical approaches to addressing these issues.

The practice in relation to face values reflects the large power distance and collectivism prevalent in Chinese societies. Members of such societies emphasize saving and enhancing of face of individuals who occupy higher organizational hierarchy. Despite the large number of studies on face from diverse disciplines, there is limited empirical evidence on how face values influence managerial behavior in manager-subordinate relationships in Chinaâs civil services. The current study examines the extent to which face values of Chinese managers moderate the relationship between trust in subordinate and their willingness to share information with subordinates and encourage their initiatives in Chinaâs civil service. The findings indicate that managersâ values, which emphasize superior face-saving and face-enhancing, moderate the relationship between managersâ empowerment behaviors and their trust in subordinateâs loyalty.

Drawing upon symbolic self-completion theory and immigrant entrepreneurship literature, we develop a four factor scale to measure the motivations of Chinese network marketers in conducting network marketing business. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the underlying factorial structure of the scale to measure network marketersâ motivation of conducting network marketing business. The data were collected from 227 Chinese immigrant network marketers in Australia. The results suggest that the scale contains four factors: extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, the motivation of establishing oneâs own business with low cost (risk) and motivation of self-satisfaction. This finding suggests that successful network marketers are motivated intrinsically, which is contradictory to Kuntzeâs (2001) result which suggests that network marketers are motivated extrinsically

This study examines attitudes towards plagiarism in Australian and Chinese (PRC) students and the extent to which they have, or someone they have known has, experienced it. A combination of questionnaire and scenario response was used and the results statistically analysed. The results indicate that Chinese students were more tolerant towards plagiarism than the Australian students and more likely to take part in it, or know someone who had. Although results were in most cases statistically significant, they were not sufficiently strong to indicate unqualified support for a cultural imperative in relation to plagiarism. Results indicate a greater need for plagiarism education for students and that this may need reinforcement throughout the education process.

This paper argues for adopting a practice lens to organisational research as a complementary balance to contemporary managerial views of work and workers. It utilises Schatzkian theories of practice and illustrates these concepts using two case studies from two separate ARC Discovery projects.

This paper provides and overview of a multiple country examination of consumers willingness to pay for social product features. Using latent class finite mixture modeling we show that segments of socially conscious consumers exist but they possess characteristics at odds with traditional thinking.

This paper presents results of a case study that explores the response of Australian printing firms to social concerns about the impact of industrial activity on the natural environment. The study draws upon both qualitative and quantitative approaches to characterize the response and identify drivers of change. The paper positions the research outcomes within the framework of ecological modernization theory, providing new insights into this theory concerning its applicability to SMEs in a specific industry sector.

With the increased application of recent technologies such as the Internet, CRM and advanced software capabilities, it has been suggested that the time has come for a debate on a new paradigm for knowledge management. As a contribution to this debate, this paper will examine a case study of an outpatients clinic in an Australian public hospital with the objective of gaining a better understanding of the issues related to knowledge transaction in communities of practice. A tentative knowledge dynamics model is proposed to stimulate discussion and future research.