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Zhao, Weiliang. "Security techniques for electronic commerce applications /." View thesis View thesis, 2003. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030505.155156/index.html.
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Thesis (M.Sc. (Hons.)) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003."A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science (Honours) - Computing and Information Technology at University of Western Sydney" Bibliography : leaves 109-114.
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Zhang, Jun Qi. "Oblivious transfer protocols for securing electronic commerce /." View thesis View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030417.113506/index.html.
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Zhang, Jun Qi. "Oblivious transfer protocols for securing electronic commerce." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 2002. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/289.
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Security is a major issue for electronic commerce. Crytography is the foundation of security and oblivious transfer (OT) protocols are one primitive of modern cryptography. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop new and more efficient OT protocols and explore their applications in electronic commerce. A new m out of n OT scheme is proposed, its implementation, security and efficiency are discussed, and it is compared with a previous OT scheme. The analysis shows that the previous OT protocol can be regarded as a special case of the new proposed OT scheme. The new OT scheme's applicability in blind signatures is explored. A new non-interactive m out of n OT scheme is proposed that includes a newly developed public keys generation algorithm based on the discrete log problem and an OT protocol based on the Diffie-Hellman problem. The security of this scheme is discussed. A new buying digital goods scheme is proposed using the new m out of n priced OT which is based on the priced OT protocol developed by Bill Aiello, Yuval Isahai, and Omer Reingold. Tools used in this scheme are discussed and its security is analyzed. A concrete homomorphic protocol is given
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Zhao, Weiliang. "Security techniques for electronic commerce applications." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 2003. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/127.
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Electronic commerce and the internet provide greater opportunities for companies and individual person to be involved in commercial activities; the involved parties may not know or trust each other or may even be mutually suspicious of each other. The issue of fairness becomes more critical and must be well addressed. The aim of this thesis is to investigate security solutions with fairness for on-line transactions. A fair trading protocol with credit payment is proposed. The proof of equivalence of discrete logarithm to discrete loglogarithm is employed as the main tool to construct the protocol. The scheme provides a unique link between payment and gambling outcome so that the winner can be ensured to get the payment. Since an optimal fair exchange method is used in gambling message exchange, the proposed system guarantees that no one can successfully cheat during a gambling process. Our system requires an off-line Trusted Third Party (TTP). If cheating occurs, the TTP can resolve the problem and make the gambling process fair. An efficient and secure poker scheme is proposed. It is based on multiple encryption and decryption of individual cards. The protocol satisfies all major security requirements of a real mental poker. It gets rid of the Card Salesman and guarantees minimal effect due to collusion. The protocol is secure and more efficient compared with other known protocols. The strategies of players can be kept confidential with the introduction of a Dealer. The protocol is suitable to be implemented in an on-line gambling card game. The implementation of the fair on-line gambling protocol has been demonstrated and all utility classes for the implementation have been defined.
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Kazanis, Phillip. "Methodologies and tools for etransforming small- to medium-size enterprises." Thesis, View thesis, 2004. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/543.
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The 21st century is an age of conducting business electronically. The benefits of dealing electronically with customers, suppliers, government and others is a fact that will continue the push towards further use of digital technology. This research work aims to address the following research question. How can a small to medium size enterprise (SME)etransform to be competitive in a globalised, rapidly changing, digital world? There are two components to this question; firstly the nature of competitiveness in a globalised environment, and secondly, the issue of how an orgaisation can etransform.The background material investigated at the initiation of this work can be broadly categorised into two types (1)theoretical possibilities; proposing 'potential' uses of internet technologies and (2)case studies reporting on existing ebusinesses. A detailed literature review of eBusiness was conducted to discover what made these organisations different from a traditional business. The next phase in this research work involved development of the eTransformation Roadmap, a tool that served two purposes. Firstly, to measure the current Information Technology sophistication of a business. Secondly, to show the steps that an organisation can take to become an eBusiness. The Roadmap was also used to analyse data collected from a survey of Western Sydney businesses. Overall, this research has provided a holistic view of how an organisation can transform itself to compete in a rapidly changing, digital world.
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Kazanis, Phillip, University of Western Sydney, of Science Technology and Environment College, and School of Computing and Information Technology. "Methodologies and tools for etransforming small- to medium-size enterprises." THESIS_CSTE_CIT_Kazanis_P.xml, 2004. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/543.
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The 21st century is an age of conducting business electronically. The benefits of dealing electronically with customers, suppliers, government and others is a fact that will continue the push towards further use of digital technology. This research work aims to address the following research question. How can a small to medium size enterprise (SME)etransform to be competitive in a globalised, rapidly changing, digital world? There are two components to this question; firstly the nature of competitiveness in a globalised environment, and secondly, the issue of how an orgaisation can etransform.The background material investigated at the initiation of this work can be broadly categorised into two types (1)theoretical possibilities; proposing 'potential' uses of internet technologies and (2)case studies reporting on existing ebusinesses. A detailed literature review of eBusiness was conducted to discover what made these organisations different from a traditional business. The next phase in this research work involved development of the eTransformation Roadmap, a tool that served two purposes. Firstly, to measure the current Information Technology sophistication of a business. Secondly, to show the steps that an organisation can take to become an eBusiness. The Roadmap was also used to analyse data collected from a survey of Western Sydney businesses. Overall, this research has provided a holistic view of how an organisation can transform itself to compete in a rapidly changing, digital world.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Kazanis, Phillip. "Methodologies and tools for etransforming small- to medium-size enterprises." View thesis, 2004. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20050804.095044/index.html.
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Zhao, Weiliang. "Trust in distributed information systems." View thesis, 2008. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/35454.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2008.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Computing and Mathematics, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.
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Hol, Ana. "An online system to guide etransforming SMEs." View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/41373.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Computing and Mathematics, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.
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Zhao, Weiliang. "Trust in distributed information systems." Thesis, View thesis, 2008. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/35454.
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Trust management is an important issue in the analysis and design of secure information systems. This is especially the case where centrally managed security is not possible. Trust issues arise not only in business functions, but also in technologies used to support these functions. There are a vast number of services and applications that must accommodate appropriate notions of trust. Trust and trust management have become a hot research area. The motivation of this dissertation is to build up a comprehensive trust management approach that covers the analysis/modelling of trust relationships and the development of trust management systems in a consistent manner. A formal model of trust relationship is proposed with a strict mathematical structure that can not only reflect many of the commonly used notions of trust, but also provide a solid basis for a unified taxonomy framework of trust where a range of useful properties of trust relationships can be expressed and compared. A classification of trust relationships is presented. A set of definitions, propositions, and operations are proposed for the properties about scope and diversity of trust relationships, direction and symmetry of trust relationships, and relations of trust relationships. A general methodology for analysis and modelling of trust relationships in distributed information system is presented. The general methodology includes a range of major concerns in the whole lifecycle of trust relationships, and provides practical guidelines for analysis and modelling of trust relationships in the real world. A unified framework for trust management is proposed. Trust request, trust evaluation, and trust consuming are handled in a comprehensive and consistent manner. A variety of trust mechanisms including reputation, credentials, local data, and environment parameters are covered under the same framework. A trust management architecture is devised for facilitating the development of trust management systems.
A trust management system for federated medical services is developed as an implementation example of the proposed trust management architecture. An online booking system is developed to show how a trust management system is employed by applications. A trust management architecture for web services is devised. It can be viewed as an extension of WS-Trust with the ability to integrate the message building blocks supported by web services protocol stack and other trust mechanisms. It provides high level architecture and guidelines for the development and deployment of a trust management layer in web services.
Trust management extension of CardSpace identity system is introduced. Major concerns are listed for the analysis and modelling of trust relationships, and development of trust management systems for digital identities.
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Furuhata, Masabumi. "E-market mechanism design for supply chain management." View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/45409.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Computing and Mathematics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Docteur de L'Université de Toulouse, Faculté d'Informatique, under a cotutelle agreement. Includes bibliographies.
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Hol, Ana. "An online system to guide etransforming SMEs." Thesis, View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/41373.
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Throughout the centuries, business lives have been changing and modifying. Each era in history brought new needs, demands and requirements. During the Agricultural era land and tools played important roles, while during the Industrial era machines and factories played a dominant role in shaping the organisational and social structures. Today, we find ourselves in the Information era where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a crucial role and has become an integral business component. Survival of businesses nowadays depends strongly on how well they can use ICT to enhance their business processes. Successful electronic transformation is determined by how well companies can identify and implement the eTransformation requirements and with it adjust to the demands of the Information era. Previous research indicates that Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in particular are struggling to find the optimal way in which to track, guide and measure their eTransformation journey. In order to identify this, the following research question was proposed: “How can SMEs guide, track and measure the progress made along the eTransformation journey? The Researcher identified that to conduct this investigation the Cynefin framework would be the most suitable methodology. The framework provides techniques and methods to move the problem from one domain to the other until the solution is found. Furthermore, the methodology is based on the concept that each problem and the difficulty of solving it, can be classified into one of the Cynefin domains namely: Chaos, the extreme of the unknown, Complex, Knowable and Known, the solution. When conducting the literature review and studying the eTransformation of the
SMEs today the Researcher identified that the problem that requires the identification of “How SMEs can guide, track and measure the progress made along the eTransformation journey” is in the Cynefin domain of Chaos as at that time there is no known solutions to the problem. To find out the best way to move the problem from unknown closer to the solution, in this case from Chaos to Complex, the Researcher studied currently known data. The study helped identify issues and challenges of eTransformation and reasons why companies throughout the history wanted to undertake transformation and change. Moreover, the study helped the Researcher understand the situation SMEs were facing and has allowed the Researcher to identify new pattern formations. This brought the problem into the Complex domain where now patterns were emerging and desirable ones required stabilisation. Therefore, to understand the patterns better the Researcher studied models of Organisational Change and eTransformation. The studies identified that the eTransformation Road Map assesses eTransformation along the Dimension of IT Tools and Systems the most comprehensively. Furthermore, the study revealed that eTransformation is a staged process and that it is influenced not only by the ICT factors, but also by other non- ICT factors, therefore that it is multidimensional. To identify other dimensions the Researcher, through case studies, pinpointed Key Features of eTransformation as well as that Tasks and Processes are one of the other dimensions playing a role in eTransformation. While studying eTransformation models the Researcher also reviewed models used to measure the effectiveness of ICT within the organisations (Valuations Model) where it was identified that eTransformation cannot be measured in monetary values. Therefore, to identify possible measurement criteria, the Researcher continued to study Characteristics of eTransformation through case study narratives, which helped pattern stabilisation. Conducted narrative analysis identified that to pinpoint dimensions, which influence eTransformation, dimensions of the 7 S Model would need to be studied. The investigation was conducted through interviews. Data analysis of the interviews allowed the Researcher to identify four Dimensions crucial for eTransformation. Firstly, eTransforming SMEs are required to identify their Strategy – business goals and values, following by Structure – business departments and functions, then business Tasks and Processes – essential activities for business operations so that an SME can achieve their set goals and objectives, and finally IT Tools and Systems – business technology essential to complete set activities quickly and smoothly. Following the above finding the Researcher studied eTransforming SMEs with the aim of identifying characteristics of companies for each of the eTransformation dimensions across eTransformation stages. Following the identification of eTransformation Dimensions and their Characteristics, questions, abilities and recommendations for the model, eT Guide, that can be used to track, guide and measure eTransformation were tested and applied to 30 SMEs. The study resulted in the production of eT Reports which SMEs could now use to track, measure and guide their eTransformation journey. This led to the identification of the eT Guide requirements which brought this research closer to the solution and moved the problem from the Complex domain into Knowable where an expert, here the Researcher, had the solution to the problem. Next step for the Researcher was to move the problem from the Knowable domain into Known and design and develop an online eT Guide System that SMEs could use themselves.
As a result of this research, the problem has been moved from the Chaos domain into a solution of the Known domain which is accessible to the SMEs. The solution, eT Guide, can now be used by all eTransforming SMEs themselves. By answering a series of yes / no questions, SMEs can identify their current eTransformation stage, their abilities - what they can do with the resources they currently have and their recommendations - what they could do in order to improve in the form of an eT Report. Furthermore, the system allows organisations to regularly track and measure their progress through features of eT History and eT Position. In the years to come, it is expected that the eT Guide will help assist eTransforming businesses and provide them with the essentials that would help them sustain pressures of the Information era.
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Furuhata, Masabumi. "E-market mechanism design for supply chain management." Thesis, View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/45409.
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This thesis investigates the problem of market mechanism design for supply chain management and e-marketplace development. Instead of viewing a market as an isolated entity, we consider each market to be a part of a supply chain and study the effects of interactions between different markets in the supply chain. We focus on three important issues in relation to market mechanism design and investigate them using a variety of approaches, such as game-theoretic, strategic and experimental methods. Capacity allocation has been a research topic in management science and operations research for several years, dealing with imbalance between supply and demand in a market. In recent years, this topic, known as resource allocation, has become an active research area in computer science. The first issue we consider is how to design market mechanisms for capacity allocation. We deal with capacity allocation problems in a supply chain model rather than in a single market. Based on this model, we examine the game-theoretic properties of allocation mechanisms, such as efficiency, profit maximising, and truth-telling, with respect to quantity competition and price competition in a related market of the supply chain. We prove that a few typical allocation mechanisms that have been generally used in industry are sensitive to supply chain settings. For instance, proportional allocation is no longer a Pareto optimal allocation mechanism in our supply chain model in contrast to the results in the existing researches that deal with monopolistic downstream markets. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is that competition in our supply chain model makes retailers submit greater orders than the quantities that maximises the total retailer profit. The second reason is that proportional allocation does not strictly prioritise allocations to the best performing retailers. As a result, this allocation mechanism does not maximise the total retailer profit. In order to achieve Pareto optimality, we propose max-max allocation that strictly prioritises the greater orders. We prove that this allocation mechanism satisfies Pareto optimality in our competitive supply chain model. However, under this allocation mechanism, we show that retailers inflate orders. This phenomenon is known as bullwhip effect in supply chains which leads inaccurate transmission of order information. In order to prevent order inflation, we design a new allocation mechanism, capped-allocation, which assigns maximum allocation quantity prior to order submission. In addition to analyse how supply chain settings influence properties of allocation mechanisms, we undertake equilibrium analysis that shows how allocation mechanisms influence market behaviour in supply chains. We prove that order quantities are greater under proportional allocation than the ones under uniform allocation. Under price competition, proportional allocation leads higher market price than uniform allocation. A key reason is that strict imbalance of allocation leads higher market prices and proportional allocation tends to allocate heterogeneously. The second issue we investigate is design of market mechanisms for online markets. Typical market participants in online markets are loosely connected even though online market owners require their business partners such as sellers. In order to bind these market participants, we introduce an approach to the modelling of online markets as supply chains, in which a coordination mechanism is applied to the market between the online market owner and the sellers. We examine a set of coordination mechanisms based on fixed-fee contracts, revenue-sharing contracts, and profit-sharing contracts in relation to different marketing strategies, such as advertisement. We prove that the fixed-fee contract achieves coordination while the revenue-sharing contract does not achieve coordination if we do not consider the effect of advertisement.
These results are opposed to the existing researches in traditional intermediaries. A key reason is that online market owners do not deal with transactional costs, in contrast to the transactional intermediaries. Therefore, revenue-sharing may charge more than the coordinated case. We design a new online market contact based on the idea of profit-sharing and prove that it achieves coordination between online market owners and sellers with advertisement. This contract shares both revenue and cost between these parties. Finally, we explore the problem of market mechanism design using autonomous trading agents. We introduce a formal representation of market policies, such as accepting policies, charging policies, pricing policies and matching policies, based on double auction mechanisms. By utilising the Market Design Game platform for the Trading Agent Competition (TAC), we analyse how specific market policies influence market behaviour of specific types of autonomous trading agents using experimental methods. We design a range of market policies and test them with three types of trading agents: random, learning and human-like bidding agents. We find that market performance, such as the profit of market makers, allocation efficiency and transaction volume, improves with time. The experiments also show that the periodic clearing policy gives market makers greater profits than the continuous clearing for all three types of trading agents we use. However, for learning and human-like bidding agents, the continuous clearing policy is preferable to the periodic clearing policy because it can improve allocation efficiency and transaction volume. Based on this experimental approach, we design and implement our market mechanism. This mechanism has been tested and proved as a robust, efficient and effective market mechanism as a winner of the tenth Trading Agent Competition in Market Design.
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Zhao, Dengji. "Mechanism design for dynamic double auctions." Thesis, Toulouse 1, 2012. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/511519.
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A mechanism is a specification for the determination of economic decisions based on the information that is known by the individuals within the economy. Mechanism design is the discipline of designing mechanisms that lead to socially desirable outcomes in a context in which individuals are self-interested. Traditionally, mechanism design has focused on static settings in which the individuals (participants) are known to the mechanism prior to any decision being made. However, many real environments are dynamic, such as in a stock exchange where participants are arriving and departing at different times, and existing solutions for static settings are inappropriate. Although mechanism design for dynamic settings has gained the attention of many researchers over the past decade, most of them have focused on one-sided dynamic market models; that is, either the supply or the demand of the market is dynamic, but not both. Online double auctions, in which the dynamics are two-sided, represent the dominant type of exchange market, but only limited studies have been conducted for online double auctions, due to the complexity of the dynamics. In order to address this gap, this thesis attacks the design problem in two types of online double auction: one type is decision-independent, where each trader’s private information (that is, type) is observed independently and therefore cannot be changed by the decisions of the auction, and the other is decision-dependent, where each trader’s private information depends on other traders and also varies in response to the decisions of the auction. For the first type, this thesis studies a model in which each trader participates (or is active) in the market for only one period of time and the trader’s valuation does not change during this period. First, it provides a computationally efficient optimal (offline) solution that is truthful, efficient and individually rational. This optimal solution is one kind of Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism, but it is computationally more efficient than the classical VCG mechanism. Apart from serving the online double auction design, this VCG mechanism also provides a dedicated solution for real trading environments such as futures exchanges. Next, it proposes a reduction framework within which to build an online/dynamic double auction by reducing it to an online one-sided auction. This reduction framework is notable because (1) well-studied online one-sided auctions can be easily reused, and (2) the key properties of the reduced online double auction match those of the online one-sided auction, which is very difficult even for static double auctions. In addition, this thesis shows that in this model it is impossible to design a deterministic online double auction that is truthful, individually rational and competitive for efficiency, although it shows that this is possible under certain assumptions. The second type is approached by means of two steps. First, the double auction design problem is studied in an environment in which traders’ valuations vary with respect to the number of units they trade, but without consideration for the dynamic nature of arrivals and departures. This environment can be mapped to the tremendously growing online shopping model, which leverages group buying, and in this thesis it is modelled as a multi-unit double auction. The thesis provides new insights (impossibilities and possibilities) into the design of multi-unit double auctions under group buying. In particular, it demonstrates that there are no budget-balanced, individually rational and truthful allocations that can guarantee a reasonable transaction size. In the second step, a more complex dynamic environment is envisaged, in which traders dynamically arrive and depart and their valuations change over time. This environment can be mapped to real stock exchanges. Since the models of traders in this kind of environment have been well studied in economics, this thesis addresses the auction design problem directly, based on these well-studied models. However, because traders’ types are dependent on each other as well as on the decisions of the auction, a good auction also needs to learn traders’ behaviours in order to make appropriate decisions in different environments. To that end, an auction design framework based on trader behaviours is developed. This framework demonstrates how auctions can be designed to analyse market dynamics (or trader behaviours) and then use trader behaviours to guide market decisions such that desirable resource allocations are achievable by, for example, attracting more good traders to return to the market in the future.
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Gengatharen, Denise Evangaline. "Assessing the success and evaluating the benefits of government-sponsored regional internet-trading platforms for small and medium enterprises a Western Australian perspective /." Connect to thesis, 2006. http://portal.ecu.edu.au/adt-public/adt-ECU2006.0017.html.
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Stockdale, Rosemary. "Identification and realisation of the benefits of participating in an electronic marketplace : An interpretive evaluation approach." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2003. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1333.
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Electronic marketplaces have proliferated as use of the Internet has become widespread in business. A rapid growth in the number of marketplaces, followed by a period of stringent consolidation, as market makers develop a greater understanding of effective business models, has resulted in a climate of uncertainty and confusion. As with many aspects of e-commerce the drive towards participation is fuelled less by strategy planning than by a fear of lagging behind competitors or losing first mover advantage. In this climate of uncertainty organisations often bypass effective evaluation of the benefits that can be realised from participation in e-marketplaces, thereby exacerbating the process facing them and hampering effective decision-making. Evaluation is perceived as a fraught subject within the Information System field, and particularly within the business community which adheres to tried and trusted, albeit often inappropriate, methods such as financial or technical evaluation. The difficulties involved in effective evaluation of systems are well documented; these will increase as systems become more pervasive throughout organisations and those of their trading partners. Calls for a more holistic approach to evaluation are increasing, based on a developing appreciation of interpretive methods of research within the Information Systems discipline. However, the understanding that the social, political and cultural factors affecting and organisation have an impact on the uses and advantages of systems is by no means universal, and empirical evidence of this view is only slowly emerging. This research examines the benefits that can be realised from participation in an electronic marketplace by taking an interpretive approach to the evaluation. It examines the nature of electronic marketplaces to provide clarity to a confused and dynamic environment. The study then focuses on the development of evaluation studies within the IS discipline to identify how an effective evaluation method for assessing the benefits of e-marketplace participation can be achieved. An empirical examination of an organisation’s participation in an electronic marketplace is used to identify the benefits that are realisable and the issues that impact on them. The case study is conducted through an interpretive lens, using a content, context, process (CCP) approach based on existing IS literature. This enables a crucial understanding of the internal and external environments influencing the organisation and its realisation of potential benefits. To allow for the range of interpretations and reflections required to fully address the complexity of the issues involved in such a case study, a variety of research influences such as dialect hermeneutics, critical realism and case study theory are drawn into the research model. The case study organisation’s motivation for participating in an e-marketplace was primarily cost savings. Over the two years of the study, several more potential benefits were identified, such as supply chain efficiencies, greater market awareness and a widening of the supplier base. However, the organisation’s commitments to its local and regional communities, its need to retain status and some consideration of existing relationships needed to be balanced against the gains that might be realised. In some cases the organisation chose to forgo a potential benefit in favour of socially or politically motivated actions. Cultural factors also influenced their actions, particularly as they moved towards extending participation in the marketplace to gain from a global sourcing strategy. The contribution of this research lies in two areas. Firstly, it was existing evaluation literature to development a framework for the evaluation of benefits in the complex area of electronic marketplaces, thereby extending and informing the call for more inclusive and interpretive evaluation studies. Secondly, the research contributes empirical evidence to support the recognition of benefits to be gained from electronic marketplaces and shows how the realisation of the economic benefits is impacted by the social, political and cultural factors that influence an organisation.
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Shahwan, Yousef Said. "The Australian market perception of goodwill and identifiable intangibles /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030925.150453/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2002.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, June, 2002. Text missing p. 64. Bibliography : leaves 208-221.
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Shand, Coral Jean. "Primary school teachers integrate electronic storybook software into their teaching/learning practices through addressing issues of pedagogy, organisation and management /." View thesis, 2002. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031001.112139/index.html.
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Sims, Ian Michael. "An examination of institutional factors in the implementation of public sector e-commerce : the Western Australian government electronic marketplace." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2010. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1832.
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This thesis presents a case study regarding the adoption and use of an eMarketplace in the public sector. It has been has been used to examine the factors which affected the implementation of a major information systems initiative within the Western Australian public sector, the Government Electronic Marketplace (GEM).
Procurement, Purchasing and Supply Management is a complex topic as it interlinks with most areas of business. In order to understand supply management’s impact and implications, a multi-disciplinary approach is essential. The thesis addresses this context by addressing theoretical aspects of Economics, Public Sector Management, Procurement, Management Information Systems and Accounting, developing a model which provides insight into the complex interaction which occurs between these disciplines.
A theoretical dual lens under which to examine institutional/organisational process is embedded within this multidisciplinary meta-theoretical model. The theoretical positioning of this thesis emphasises the complementarity of structuration theory (Giddens, 1979, 1984) and institutional theory. The former is concerned with the process of change in structures through time (Schultze & Orlikowski, 2004) whereas institutional theory examines the implications of the structures. While institutional theory provides insight in to the way institutions are at a particular point, incorporation of aspects of structuration theory provides greater insight for a study which addresses change over time.
The case study examines a number of units of analysis which have a primary role in this framework as either an “institutional constituent” (source of institutional structures) or “subject organisation”. Central agencies which influenced the system are considered primarily as “institutional constituents”, government departments that used the system and suppliers to government are considered as “subject organisations”.
Levels of conformity and non-conformity with information systems decisions are not easy to predict.This case demonstrates that initial acquiescence to a decision can give way to non-conformity when legitimating external forces are not present.
The resulting analysis (using the dual lens) provides insight into causation in addition to outcomes. The study makes a contribution to organisational research in several related areas. It is a study of the use of systems to deliver a public sector agenda that involves a government agency acting as a technology champion. It is also a study of conformity and nonconformity in an institutional environment and the reasons why and how institutional response changes over time. It also establishes an integrated model for the investigation of enacted technology over time which is particularly suited for public sector organisations.
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Johnson, Olufemi Jagunmolu. "Adoption and use of E-commerce in the mainstream retail grocery sector in the Western Cape, South Africa." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2826.
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Thesis (MTech (Information Technology)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018.In the last two decades, the concept of e-commerce has been embraced and widely adopted by many enterprises across the world. Many enterprises continue to reap the benefits of ecommerce across industries and sectors. Despite the benefits, which have been widely reported, South African retail enterprises have only adopted the concept sporadically. The lack of, or slow pace of, adoption and participation in the e-commerce space by South African retail enterprises is a problem for both the enterprises themselves and individuals (consumers): retail enterprises are challenged with competitiveness at global space, and individuals are constrained and limited in their attempts to partake in transactions with retailers. This research was therefore undertaken to examine and understand the factors, from both technical and non-technical perspectives, that influence the adoption and use of e-commerce within the South African environment. Two organisations were used as cases in the study. In that human opinions and views were required, the qualitative methods and the interpretive approach were employed in the research. Actor Network Theory (ANT) was applied in the analysis of the qualitative data. Based on the findings and interpretation of the findings, a framework was developed. The framework is intended to guide how e-commerce can be adopted and used in the mainstream retail grocery sector in South Africa. The research can be of use and benefit to both business and in the academic domain, from either a practical, methodological and theoretical perspective. Practically, small and large retail enterprises in South African or other African countries with similar business cultures and settings can come to a better understanding of the e-commerce influencing factors. Methodologically, the use of ANT was vital, in the way it was used to examine the various networks, actors, relationship and interaction that happens in the process of adopting and or use of e-commerce. Theoretically, this study contributes to existing literature. Also, the study can be used as case study material in the field of information systems by institutions of higher learning.
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Tafane, Zamikhaya. "Readiness assessment of selected tourism institutions for electronic business system applications in the Western Cape tourism industry." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/50076.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The tourism sector in the province is regarded as one of the major economic sectors that have been found to have significant growth prospects. Indeed it’s revitalising and captivating to see the provincial tourism industry organizing itself to adapt to the new challenges of the knowledge economy, while also retorting to the new demands emerging from the needs and the expectations of the customers. The Western Cape tourism industry is currently preparing itself for the knowledge intensive marketing of its products and services and is also faced with challenges arising from the need to exploit electronic business systems for the benefits of the entire industry and its role players. In a nutshell, this requires the Western Cape tourism industry to understand the operation of global economic systems and strive towards locating itself strategically within them, and also develop strategic alliances with developing countries in order to reshape the system of global governance to achieve more equitable outcomes. Simultaneously, it requires that it equip the provincial economy as a whole, its sectors and enterprises to meet the challenges facing it in becoming sustainable competitive environment. This is an exploratory study of which the research problem is whether the selected tourism institutions are ready to implement electronic business systems. The proposed research study findings indicate the readiness level of the selected institutions in implementing electronic business systems. The research methodology instruments of the study were twofold. Both a modified questionnaire designed by Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to evaluate companies’ readiness in electronic business systems application was used, as well as a structured interview to acquire qualitative data was also used. The paper is not only a result of my personal interest in electronic business field, most importantly, it is of necessity to understand the concepts and principles of ‘electronic business’ and ‘Destination Marketing Organisation’ as they apply to the Western Cape tourism industry.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die toerismesektor in die provinsie word beskou as een van die vernaamste ekonomiese sektore wat beduidende groeivooruitsigte toon. Dit is inderdaad opwindend en fassinerend om te sien hoe die provinsiale toerismebedryf homself organiseer om by die nuwe uitdagings van die kennisekonomie aan te pas, terwyl daar ook voldoen word aan die nuwe eise wat uit die behoeftes en die verwagtinge van die klante voortspruit. Die Wes-Kaapse toerismebedryf berei homself tans voor vir die kennis-intensiewe bemarking van sy produkte en dienste en kom ook te staan voor uitdagings wat spruit uit die behoefte om elektroniese besigheidstelsels tot voordeel van die hele bedryf en sy rolspelers te ontgin. Kortom vereis dit van die Wes-Kaapse toerismebedryf om die bedrywighede van wereldwye ekonomiese stelsels te verstaan en daarna te streef om homself strategies daarin te plaas, en ook om strategiese alliansies met ontwikkelende lande te vorm ten einde die stelsel van wereldwye bestuur te hervorm om billiker uitkomste te lewer. Terselfdertyd moet die provinsiale ekonomie as geheel, sy sektore en ondernemings toegerus word om te voldoen aan die uitdagings waarvoor dit te staan kom terwyl dit ’n volhoubare mededingende omgewing word. Hierdie is ’n verkennende studie waarvan die navorsingvraagstuk is, of die geselekteerde instellings gereed is vir die implementering van elektroniese besigheidstelsels. Die bevindings van die beoogde navorsingsondersoek sal die gereedheidsvlak aandui van die geselekteerde instellings om elektroniese besigheidstelsels te benut. Die navorsingsmetodologie het tweeledig van instrumente gebruik gemaak. Een daarvan was ‘n spesiaal aangepaste vraelys wat deur BDC ontwerp is om maatskappye se gereedheid vir die toepassing van elektroniese besigheidstelsels te evalueer, en die ander ‘n gestruktureerde onderhoud. Die studie is nie bloot ’n gevolg van my persoonlike belangstelling in die veld van elektroniese besigheid nie, maar die belangrikste is om die konsepte en beginsels van ‘elektroniese besigheid’ en ‘Destination Marketing Organisation’ te begryp soos dit op die Wes-Kaapse toerismebedryf betrekking het.
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Standing, Susan. "Creating business value through e-marketplace trading." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/584.
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Electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) have been researched over many years from the study of electronic data interchange (EDI) systems to the current internet based trading platforms. Early e-marketplaces connected a buyer and supplier using proprietary systems that established a market hierarchy. The buyer was responsible for the system, established the terms of trade and the electronically enabled supplier could connect to the system. These systems were costly to build, which limited their use, and only organisations with an integrated system could use them. The web based e-marketplaces opened up the possibility of connecting many buyers and suppliers and enabling electronic transactions. The e-marketplace offers opportunities for establishing trade relationships with many organisations across the world. Business to business (B2B) e-commerce is a significant part of the Australian economy and there are opportunities to take advantage of e-marketplace trading. One of the advantages of electronic trading is the ability of the technology to deliver transaction benefits; these can have a significant impact on organisations regardless of organisational size. However, despite the potential of the e-marketplace to deliver organisational benefits there have been limited studies which consider the strategic implementation of e-marketplace trading.
Organisational strategy and the implementation of strategic initiatives involve interactions between organisational structures and agents. The analytical dualism this represents complicates uncovering the fundamental causes of e-marketplace participation. Not only does the adoption of e-marketplace trading impact on the buyer and supplier organisations, it introduces the e-marketplace vendor organisation and the e-marketplace technology into the participation decision. The complexity of the interactions across organisational structures and between organisational agents and technology adoption can produce a diversity of outcomes.
The philosophical underpinning of critical realism for the study is supported by the lack of understanding as to why, and in what circumstances, organisations successfully participate in e-marketplace trading. The critical realist philosophy provides the opportunity to understand the interrelationships between context, organisational structures and agents and identify the causal mechanisms involved in producing various outcomes. It allows for the development of middle level theory as existing theories are examined to explain the perceived phenomena.
Large organisations operating in Western Australia are used as case studies to uncover the causal relationships between context, structures and agents that can produce successful, strategic implementation of e-marketplace participation. Existing literature in relation to e-marketplaces and IT adoption is used to develop the research questions and formulate the interview questions. The structured case methodology is used to analyse each case and relate the findings to possible explanatory theories. Context, mechanism and outcome patterns, identified in each case, are presented.
Building on economic market, institutional and network theories the research identifies organising vision theory and community discourse as explanations for organisational legitimation that can circumscribe the use of e-marketplace trading. Six types of community group that influence organisational adoption of e-marketplace technology are identified. The research suggests that the influence of these groups within the organisation, the fit with organisational culture and strategic objectives can prevent or instigate change. Further, the decision making process supported by the group (or group member) is more influential in the strategic adoption of the e-marketplace than the ability of the technology to deliver efficiency or transaction processing gains. This implies that technology adoption studies should include contextual and environmental issues and practitioners should examine how much their decision making is influenced by organisational and environmental features.
The thesis contributes to the discussion on organising vision theory, e-marketplace trading and business value creation. It demonstrates the application of the structured case study methodology to research that is underpinned by critical realism.
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Garg, Vivek. "The Capital Asset Pricing Model : a test on the Stock Exchange of Singapore." Thesis, View thesis, 1999. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/459.
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Of the many analytical methods collectively referred to as Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is the most familiar to today’s generation of students of finance. The popularity of the CAPM arises from its success in expressing a powerful theoretical insight in a simple, usable form. The primary use of the CAPM is to determine minimum required rates of return from investment in risky assets. The variable in the CAPM is called ‘beta’, a statistical measure of risk which has become familiar to all finance professionals. Over the past decade, beta has become the most widely recognised and applied measure of risk in the investment community. The model has been extensively tested in the developed capital markets, mainly in the United States of America. But the model has not been extensively tested in other developed and developing countries, often due to the size of the capital market and the lack of the data in these countries. This study attempts to fill this vacuum and tries to update the earlier tests done on the Stock Exchange of Singapore. On addition, a review of the validity of the CAPM over time, as proxied by the stationarity of the beta, is performed. Also, tests regarding heteroskedasticity and its implications have been undertaken.
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Drummond, Jon R. "Interactive electroacoustics." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/35367.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Title from title screen. Includes bibliographies. Thesis minus video and audio files also available online at: http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/35367.
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Hau, Le Nguyen. "Relationships between organization characteristics and needs for management training in developing countries." Thesis, View thesis, 1998. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/375.
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Management training has been considered as an important issue attracting the interest of several individuals and organizations in both developed and developing countries. Moreover, empirical evidence shows that there are differences in many aspects of management training that may result from different features of organizations and countries concerned. However, there has been little research on the relationships between organizational characteristics and the need for management training, especially in developing countries. An understanding of these relationships will not only help organizations in developing their human resources but also help training suppliers in their marketing strategies. This research attempts to take a first step towards integrating theories and empirical findings into a conceptual framework that describes the above-mentioned relationship in developing countries. In particular, the research identifies and tests the impact of particular organizational indicators on the needs for training of task-related and people-related skills for both upper and lower managers. The results confirm that types of industry, technological characteristics, ownership, organizational structure, size and business environment, etc., are among variables explaining the training needs of various kinds in a company. The results would also provide regression models as tools in assessing training needs for management skills at various companies. However, it is the perceived needs rather than the real needs that is the concern of trainers, because perceptions lead to action, i.e., their business opportunities. Lastly, the direction for further studies is proposed, including the impact of macro variables, featured for developed and developing countries, and of variables that interfere with the process of transferring from real needs to perceived needs
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Shand, Coral Jean. "Primary school teachers integrate electronic storybook software into their teaching/learning practices through addressing issues of pedagogy, organisation and management." Thesis, View thesis, 2002. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/577.
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The combination of literature and technology provides a powerful scenario for learning and it is made a reality through the use of electronic storybook software. This study concentrates on the everyday decisions made by teachers concerning why, how and in what way learning occurs in their classroom. Three case studies show how primary teachers engaged in action research to introduce electronic storybooks into their classrooms, monitoring changes in pedagogy, organisation and management. It is confirmed that teachers can integrate electronic storybooks into their classroom practices to create enjoyable and productive learning experiences. A range of pedagogical approaches was used and the introduction of electronic storybooks had a positive effect on student motivation, enthusiasm and achievement of learning goals, and resulted in changes in the physical composition of the classroom and the way learning was structured. The teachers received confirmation of their own ability to integrate technology into teaching and learning. The results of this study have direct implications for teaching practices and reinforce the need for teachers to develop confidence and competence as technology users
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Hollander, Martin B. L. "The relationship between the annualised volatility and correlation of G7 ten-year bond returns." Thesis, Campbelltown, N.S.W. : University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Faculty of Business, 1999. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/23.
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The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between the annualised volatility and correlation of G7 ten-year bond returns for the period July 1992 to June 1998 and the effects that such a relationship has on portfolio diversification. The stock market crash of 1987 and the growing importance of global equity markets has encouraged a plethora of research into the volatility and correlations between international equity markets. Despite this, very little attention has been paid to the transmission of currency-based bond returns across national boundaries. The findings in this thesis are important because evidence is provided that suggests the benefits of international bond diversification are limited. The evidence provided clearly indicates that because correlations amongst G7 currency-hedged bond returns are high, the relationship between bond volatility and correlation of returns has limited benefits for portfolio managers and traders. As a result, diversification may not significantly reduce portfolio risk. Even during periods of ongoing annualised volatility decreases, the correlation between most markets remains high. Unlike the volatility trends presented in this thesis, there appears to be no trend or consistency amongst the correlation of returns between G7 markets.
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Nguyen, Huyen T. "Project finance risk pricing decision : Australian evidence." Thesis, View thesis, 2002. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/352.
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This thesis presents empirical research into the project risk pricing decision undertaken by Australian project leaders for domestic project finance. It addresses questions about the relative importance of various project finance risks on the project risk pricing decision; the impact of risk interactions; and the degree of self-insight possessed by Australian project leaders when making this decision. Five project financing risk most frequently cited in the literature, namely: operating, environmental, market, political/regulation, and sponsors, were selected. Sixteen hypothetical risk pricing cases were structured, which were completed by twenty-five project leaders working in Sydney. The collected data was analysed, and the results show that the five project financing risks had strong impact on the project risk pricing decision. Among them, market risk is the most influential factor, followed by operating, sponsors, and political/regulation risks, while environmental risk was the factor with least effect. Very little support, however, was provided for the hypothesis that risk interactions impact the project risk pricing decision. Among the ten two-level risk interactions tested, only the interaction between sponsors and political/regulation was found to be significant. In relations to the degree of self-insight, various comparisons between subjective and objective weights demonstrated that the project leaders, in general, were quite insightful about their project finance risk pricing decisions
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Meyer, Paula. "Will the show go on? : a marketing concept analysis of the management effectiveness of agricultural show societies in Australia." Thesis, View thesis, 2008. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/35888.
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Agricultural shows are community-based festivals that represent a majority of festivals staged in rural destinations within Australia. Recent anecdotal evidence indicates their survival is being threatened. Declines in the overall number of shows and visitor attendance have been widely reported, yet an analysis of the reason for these declines has not been investigated. Agricultural shows are managed by volunteers within not-for-profit show societies who are finding it difficult to survive in an increasingly competitive and challenging external environment. Little is understood about these show societies, their volunteer managers and the management effectiveness. This study has addressed these gaps by investigating show society management effectiveness by means of a marketing concept paradigm. A case study method employing qualitative in-depth interviews with key show society members and other stakeholders was conducted on one agricultural show. Findings reveal that this show society is managed by volunteers whose primary involvement motivation is based upon self-interest in one or more components of the show. The majority of these individuals do not have management skills and expertise required to manage a festival and whilst it is important to note their volunteering contribution, it is this lack of skills and knowledge that has prevented a systematic approach to management. There is no attempt at consumer research, strategic planning, organisational planning or volunteer recruitment. The show programs do not change to reflect the current needs of the community, rather what is affordable, who can organise it and what has always been done. As a result, the case study show society is not employing a marketing concept orientation but a product concept orientation. This study concludes that without this focus, the show society will be ill equipped to meet changing customer demands and stay abreast of competitors. To assist agricultural shows to manage future challenges and adopt a marketing concept, a theoretical model has been proposed that incorporates existing frameworks and this study’s findings.
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Kumar, Vijay. "Organisation culture : definition, values, change and participation in two shires." Thesis, View thesis, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/571.
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Despite the large number of studies of organisation culture, there are still gaps in the current literature, in particular concerning the way in which culture is defined, how values are disseminated and reinforced, and how employees contribute to culture change. This thesis examines these gaps via research carried out in two local councils in New South Wales, namely Wollondilly and Wingecarribee Shire Councils, specifically focusing on their tourism departments. The research reports on the following: how organisation culture is defined and shaped in an organisation; the values of an organisation and how they are disseminated and reinforced on a day-to-day basis; and, the contribution employees make to culture change. Moreover, the thesis will examine the organisational members own definition of culture as a way of examining some of the definitions in the literature. The data for this study comprises interviews, questionnaires, surveys, personal observation and secondary sources. The study demonstrates council staff’s views on culture, and how culture is defined by, and embedded in, an organisation. Through examining the organisation members’ own views of culture, values and their participation, the thesis aims to contribute to the literature on organisation culture by more closely aligning definitions from the literature with empirical data from case studies of organisations
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Shahwan, Yousef Said. "The Australian market perception of goodwill and identifiable intangibles." Thesis, View thesis, 2002. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/782.
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Accounting for goodwill and identifiable intangibles is one of the most controversial issues in financial reporting. It has been on the agenda of the Australian Accounting Standards Board, the US, UK, and the International Accounting Standards Boards, and the Full High Court of Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also placed accounting for intangibles in its Media Releases directed at specific companies. Evidence suggests that the materiality of goodwill and identifiable intangible assets in corporate statements of financial position for a large number of companies is the reason for the considerable attention given to goodwill and identifiable intangibles. The present study has two objectives. First, it analyses the Australian market perception of goodwill and identifiable intangibles as assets in the determination of the market valuation of companies. Second, it investigates whether the market perceives goodwill and identifiable intangibles as wasting resources when valuing Australian firms. In order to achieve these objectives, the analysis initially develops and estimates a model (the asset-based model) that uses financial position statement items to explain the market value of companies' equity. This model examines the association between reported goodwill and identifiable intangible asset values and companies' market values. Given Ohlson's (1993) argument that companies' market value might be better explained by a model that includes a stock concept of value and a flow concept of earnings, a second model (the asset and income-based model) that incorporates an income variable into the initial model, is then developed and estimated. This model examines the association between the goodwill and identifiable intangible amortisation expense and companies' market values. Evidence suggests that there is a statistically significant negative association between equity market values and write-offs of goodwill, confirming the market perception of write-offs of goodwill as a wasting resource when valuing companies. Evidence also suggests that there is a statistically significant negative association between equity market values and write-offs of identifiable intangibles, at least for the total sample of the present study, providing limited evidence of the market perception of identifiable intangibles as wasting resources when valuing companies. However, the negative and inconsistently significant association between equity market values and write-offs of identifiable intangibles on an annual basis suggests that the relationship may be more complex than traditionally analysed
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Tolar, Martin. "Satisficing versus optimising behaviour in the non-durable consumption expenditure decision making process." Thesis, [Campbelltown, N.S.W. : The Author], 1995. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/108.
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The new classical school's dominance of mainstream economic thought in recent years has brought with it the associated adoption of rational economic agents ( in the Muthian sense) by mainstream economists. This thesis challenges this underlying assumption of human behaviour in the context of the non-durable consumption expenditure decision making process. In doing so, our attention will be placed upon the weak or more general form of the hypothesis, which has come to be known as optimisation. We employ a behavioural methodology in an attempt to ascertain if individuals adhere to the optimising or satisficing model of human behaviour. In doing so time will be spent examining the bounded rationality hypothesis. We also employ a behavioural methodology in producing a non-durable consumption function that is econometrically comparable with an optimising model of non-durable consumption expenditure (namely the permanent income rational expectations hypothesis). The micro results produced in this thesis suggest that the respondents surveyed from non-durable consumption expenditure decisions that are sub-optimal in nature. The formation of these sub-tropical expenditure decisions appear to be a consequence of the cognitive constraints faced by our respondents, which in turn provides empirical support for the bounded rationality hypothesis. On a macro level, our behavioural consumption function generates results that are comparable with those produced by the optimising model employed in this thesis. Our results also question the rational expectations permanent income hypothesis (as it is usually applied), despite making adjustments to the model which remove the underlying assumption of known, constant real interest use
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O'Mara, Charles Edward. "An examination of the linkages between organisational performance measures and strategic objectives." Thesis, Campbelltown, N.S.W. : [The Author], 1996. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/48.
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To be successful, in the competitive, global business environment, firms must have a sound understanding of all their operations and the factors which impact upon them, combined with a performance management system which allows them to assess their progress towards achieving the organisation's objective. The thesis examines 3 propositions : that managers are unaware of the need to link performance measures to strategic goals and that, as a consequence, performance measures do not change to reflect a change in strategic direction; that the link between the performance measurement system and organizational goals is weak because the organization's structure inhibits a coordinated approach towards achieving strategic objectives through the use of performance measures; and, that the dynamic environment in which firms operate serves to disassociate strategic objectives from the performance management system, and the lack of managerial attention to the link between the two will result, over time, in a set of performance measures which provide insufficient, late or wrong information. The research indicated that awareness of the need to link performance measures with strategy rose with managerial responsibility; that the wider the scope of the performance measurement system, the better it would be at accommodating and monitoring changes in strategic direction; that, where the performance management system covered a broad range of activities it could be better used by managers to coordinate and integrate those activities; that managers' perceptions of the reliability, validity and timeliness of the information provided by their performance management system were positively related to the level of ownership of the system; and, in a dynamic business environment, the more comprehensive the information provided by the performance management system, the less likely the organisation would respond inappropriately to external factors. Additional research needs to be done on ways to make performance management systems more reactive to management's needs
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Drummond, Jon R. "Interactive electroacoustics." Thesis, View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/35367.
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Creating and performing electroacoustic music utilising interactive systems is now a well-established paradigm. Sensing technology can map gestures to sound generating processes, capturing the nuances of a gesture and sculpting the sound accordingly. Interactive installations enable audiences to become part of the process of realising a creative work. Yet many of the models and frameworks for interactive systems, specifically music focused systems, are strongly oriented around a MIDI event based framework, with little or no provision to accommodate the potentials of more dynamic approaches to creative practice. This research seeks to address the lack of appropriate models currently available and come to a more contemporary understanding of interactive music making. My approach follows two trajectories. Firstly, I undertake a comprehensive review of interactive creative works, encompassing the live electronic music of the 1950s and 1960s, interactive installation, digital musical instruments and computer networked ensembles. Secondly, I explore and draw together proposed definitions, models and classifications of interactive systems, clarifying concepts such as mapping, processing, gesture and response. The concepts are tested in a folio of creative works that form the creative research. VIDEO AND AUDIO FILES CAN BE ACCESSED AT UWS LIBRARY
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Martinus, Ian. "Can B2G portals be used effectively to stimulate business in SMEs?: A case analysis of the 2Cities Business To Government portal." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1611.
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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have many options when purchasing goods or services. These include personal contacts and networks, familiar centralised supply sources and other ad hoc means. One purchasing possibility is to buy from and sell to other businesses within a similar geographic area. The benefits of buying and selling locally may not occur to SMEs. They seek, like other consumers, to get value for money, fast and efficient service, and a reasonable level of quality. Many factors can impinge upon an SME's decision to purchase locally. It can be assumed that, given a reasonable local option, SMEs wish to buy from and sell to other local businesses. It can also be reasonably expected that if government purchasers were willing to purchase within their geographic area, SMEs would be interested in supplying local government as well. This study investigates SMEs in the Wanneroo and Joondalup Regions of Western Australia and considers the factors that may influence their decision to use the 2Cities Business-to-Government (B2G) portal. The study is concerned with gaining an insight into particular phenomena from a participants' perspective (SME) with the researcher as the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. The study requires the researcher to get close to the natural setting of the study and interact with the small business owners. This study triangulated results from three major sources. One source of data was contemporary Wanneroo and Joondalup secondary data gathered from research reports relating to local SME matters. This was combined with the semi-structured interviews of forty SMEs and two focus groups. Participant SMEs were invited to discuss factors affecting their decision to use or not use the 2Cities B2G portal. SMEs have a clear perception of what impedes and assists them in running their business and this comes through strongly. The problem facing the 2Cities portal management board is the extent to which it can influence the SME decision to buy and sell within the local area using the portal. The results form the basis of an improved model for B2G participation.
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Michail, Nancy. "Importance of improved communication between stakeholders in information systems implementation projects." Thesis, View thesis, 2006. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/31558.
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Oral communication processes in organisations are complex. Verbal interactions, social contexts including cross-functional organisational culture, and emerging information systems projects, present staff with bewildering issues to deal with through communication processes. To explore communication in this rich setting, the research reported in this thesis applied a social perspective to the functions of oral communication processes, drawing on ideas from two appropriate systems for model development, to construct a generic interpretive methodological model for participatory soft systems methodology in action research. The model aims to examine organisational social contexts through the eyes of front line staff, and attempts to construct new perspectives through actively participating and communicating with stakeholders on various levels. The situated inquiry is concerned with communication practices and behaviours in the context of implementing information systems modules in public sector, higher education institutions.The research closely examines the established communication processes and behaviours between stakeholders of the information systems enveloped within the organisation’s culture to ascertain certain issues, reasons and solutions to overcome current problems suffered by the ‘human element’ as a whole when attempting to implement a quality information systems module to meet both direct, and indirect stakeholders expectations. Using Grounded Theory, an innovative methodological framework emerged as a result of conducting the research within the selected situated inquiry. The Progressive Learning Process model was implemented to further enhance stakeholder’s communicative behaviours and practices. This multifaceted model is comprised of interlinked, and overlapping phases; those are: (a) co-operative inquiry methods, to determine social context and culture, which included purposeful recruitment of participants, and used an assortment of methods; (b) reflections and discourse analysis, which included various processes, and counselling approach to constructing new realities and jump starting change through collaboration and open dialogue; (c) purposeful action, which included putting ideas and theory into practice to create further ideas and theory. Applying the selected methodology to the situated inquiry appears to preserve complexities of communication in organisational setting, and enhance individuals capabilities that are required when managing expectations of Senior Management.
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Rajaretnam, Thillagavathy. "The regulation of information privacy protection in electronic commerce (e-commerce) in Australia." Thesis, 2013. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/530034.
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This thesis is concerned with the impact of information technology on e-commerce users’ right to privacy. It argues that privacy is a human right which cannot be traded off against commercial interests. In this context, the thesis examines whether the current Australian federal statutory privacy protection framework adequately protects the privacy of Australian e-commerce users. The thesis examines the legal theories that justify privacy as a human right and impose obligations on the State to protect these rights. It compares the Australian approach with the most influential international developments in the European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which may be regarded as establishing international norms of conduct for information privacy. The EU and OECD principles are used as comparators in assessing whether the Australian federal regulatory framework gives adequate recognition to privacy as a human right. The thesis concludes that the Australian federal legislation fails to give adequate protection to the privacy rights of e-commerce users and the approach used in the EU should be used as a model for change.
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Shah, Nabeel M. "Trading strategies for autonomous agents in financial markets." Thesis, 2013. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/529404.
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Electronic trading is relatively new to the long history of financial markets. The typical traditional way of trading in a financial market was that traders gathered in the market floor and exchanged their financial assets in a manner of open outcry. In the past twenty years or so, financial markets have been reshaped dramatically due to the use of electronic trading. Innovations in computing and Internet eliminate the need for direct person-to-person contact via trading floors and make possible global electronic order routing, broad dissemination of trade information, and e effective market operations. Electronic trading systems for financial trading allow to match buy and sell orders automatically without human intervention. Such a system lowers trading costs, bypasses human intermediaries, such as dealers, and also offers faster trade execution. The automation of market operations makes possible for traders to trade automatically. The advances of agent technology have resulted in the emergence of agent-based systems that automate business activities. Ambitious attempts have been made by academia and a number of companies to create automated programs, known as trading agents, which are capable of autonomously trading on behalf of human traders in financial markets. It has been widely recognised that the automation of traders' decision making creates more challenges than machinizing market making. The most crucial decision-making for either a human trader or an autonomous trading agent is when, how much and what to buy or sell an asset in a financial market, known as trading strategies. This thesis aimed to shade a light on the research of autonomous trading agents by introducing an approach of trading strategy de- sign and analysis. To mimic the way of decision-making by human traders, we investigated a number of financial technical indicators, including Simple Moving Average, Exponential Moving Average, Moving Average Convergence and Divergence, Relative Strength Index and Stochastic Oscillator, that have been widely used by human traders for market analysis and used them as the major signals for design of bidding and investment strategies. By utilising our Jackaroo Trading Agent Platform (JTAP), we first analysed the statistic properties of each technical indicator using the real data of stock exchange taking from the Australian Stock Exchange and then implemented a range of trading strategies based on the technical indicators we have investigated. The trading strategies we designed can be divided into two categories: bidding strategies and investment strategies. A bid- ding strategy deals with when, how many and how much to buy or sell a financial product, whereas, an investment strategy decides how much fund is allocated to each financial product. A simple bidding strategy can be easily designed based on either trend based indicators or momentum based indicators, and an investment strategy can be implemented based on the enforcement learning with returns as re- wards. However, our experiments showed that a trading strategy can perform much better if we combine a number of technical indicators and market returns. This is because such a combined signal can be more stable under volatile market conditions and more responsive to market returns. Each trading strategy we implemented has been fully tested against the real market data and simulated market data.
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Kapurubandara, Mahesha. "A framework to etransform SMEs in a developing country : Sri Lanka." Thesis, 2008. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/512102.
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This thesis investigated eTransformation methodologies for SMEs in developing countries, to specifically answer: How can SMEs in a developing country overcome the barriers to adoption of ICT and e-commerce and successfully e-transform their organisations?
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Khan, Mohammad Tarekul H. "Experimental studies on market design and e-trading." Thesis, 2012. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/509774.
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In this project, we introduce an experimental approach to the design, analysis and implementation of electronic markets based on double auction. A double auction is a market mechanism allowing multiple buyers and sellers to buy and sell goods, commodities and services in a single market. We introduce a formal model of double auction, which specifies market policies such as matching policies, accepting policies, clearing policies, pricing policies and charging policies. Based on this model, we designed and implemented a set of market policies and tested them with different experimental settings. The most important market policies for a double auction market, accepting policies and matching policies, determine the market share and profit in most market situations. For matching policies, we first studied the properties of the equilibrium matching policy, which has been used in many double auction markets. Based on our analysis, we designed and implemented a new matching algorithm, named maximal matching, which can maximize market liquidity, including the number of transactions and buy/sell-volumes. We prove that, given the number of matches, our maximal matching algorithm also maximizes the auctioneer profit. For accepting policies, we formally define a number of typical accepting policies, such as always accepting, quote-beating accepting and equilibrium-beating accepting, and analyze their properties. We then introduce a new accepting policy, named dynamic accepting policy, which is able to filter out extra-marginal shouts by specifying a price range for the maximum ask bound and minimum bid bound. In addition, we briefly discuss clearing policies, pricing policies and charging policies. Beside the formal discussion of market policies, we introduce a set of criteria for an experimental study on market design. By utilizing the Market Design Game platform JCAT for the Trading Agent Competition (TAC), we analyze our market model and identify how specific market policies influence overall market behaviour. Within the JCAT platform, we implemented our formally designed market model with the several market policies and performed a series of experiments, producing a range of experimental results. In particular, we found that matching policies and accepting policies significantly affect overall market performance. We also found that periodic clearing policy can increase the efficiency of the market more than continuous clearing policy. For charging policy, we explore a market share-based dynamic charging policy, and show that it can improve and stabilize market share as well as observably increasing profit share. We conclude that sudden and disproportionate fee charging activities have a long-term effect on trader migration, resulting in a quick loss of market share and market confidence. The results of our experiments provide a better understanding of the dependencies amongst market policies, and show that an experimental approach can greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of market design and e-trading study.
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Johns, Raechel N. "The impact of self-service technologies on interfirm relationships." Thesis, 2011. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/507125.
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Technology has impacted the way businesses operate in a business-to-business (B2B) context and has influenced services by altering the way services are delivered (Bitner, Ostrom and Meuter, 2002). The increased use of self-service technologies (SSTs) could have a great impact on business-to-business relationships yet there is a shortage of research in the area (Johns and Perrott, 2008). Electronic banking, encouraged by banks as a way to reduce service delivery costs and improve service quality for customers, is one technology that has streamlined business transactions (Sathye, 1999; Hughes and Hughes, 2004). Banking has attempted to move what used to be a physical transaction to one that is virtual and this is having implications for relationships between banks and their customers. Despite this there is little understanding of the impact of self-service technologies on relationships in a business context; do they enhance or hinder these relationships? This thesis reviews the results and implications of an exploratory study conducted with a sample of Australian business bank customers and interviews with six Australian financial institutions. Findings indicate that two customer segments exist – a Transaction-Oriented segment and a Relationship-Oriented segment. Unlike existing literature that states bank customers prefer relationships (Eriksson and Marquardt, 2001), the findings indicate that this is only the case for one segment of business customers. This has implications for trust of the bank; however it does not appear to negatively impact on commitment to the relationship unless a better option becomes available. More broadly, the findings suggest that Relationship Marketing theory is applicable to relationship-oriented customers; however in the new business context of self-service delivery, traditional theory on relationships does not apply for transaction-oriented customers. Service-Dominant Logic is more applicable in a self-service business-to-business context due to its focus on value co-creation and customised offerings for customers.
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Smith, Nucharee N. "TAFTA : a Thai perspective." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:45750.
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The thesis examines the Thailand Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) and whether it has brought about a successful and more liberal trading relationship between the parties. The evidence suggests that while TAFTA has succeeded in opening the market for goods between the two countries, it has been far less successful in opening up the services market. In this context TAFTA must be seen as an intermediary step in the liberalisation of markets, and as an important step leading to multilateral free trade groupings such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Membership of these groups may thrust Thailand towards greater trade liberalisation especially in the services market and greater protection of intellectual property rights if it is to continue to be a significant player in the region.
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Stead, Michelle. "Learning to listen : the construction of listening in electroacoustic music discourse." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:42493.
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The short history of electroacoustic music is a history that, in many ways, shares in and benefits from the Eurocentric and androcentric grand narratives of centuries of Western music. Yet, paradoxically, it operates on the margins of music because it directly challenges common sense approaches to music that privilege melody and harmonic progression while also treating these as ubiquitous and universally applicable. Traditional aural training (in an institutional setting), I argue, disciplines listeners in ways that alter their receptive capacity for electroacoustic music. Electroacoustic music values different kinds of sonic objects and, according to its discourse, requires music-specific training, thus further perpetuating its marginalisation and hindering its accessibility. Music-specific training methods are prolific and, due to the diffuse and emergent nature of the field, there are no widely agreed upon methods of training. Listening is, therefore, constructed within the discourse as being fundamentally problematic. This thesis examines the construction of listening in electroacoustic music discourse. It asks questions surrounding the impact of discourse on the ways in which we learn to listen to music, and considers how it is that discourse itself might teach us how to listen. The dissertation, part-historiography, part-ethnography and part-discourse analysis, draws on the analytical processes offered by French theorist Michel Foucault (specifically his conceptions of discourse, discipline and power) in order to interrogate the discursive field of electroacoustic music with particular interest in the ways in which ideas of listening are affected, represented, constructed and produced. With attention to the gendered nature of the field of electroacoustic music, and through the productive capacities of power, I conclude by imagining how non-normative listening subjects can self-fashion through an aesthetics of listening.
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Alnowahi, Abdulbari A. "An evaluation of the performance of Saudi banks." Thesis, 2012. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/525389.
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This study investigates the efficiency and productivity of Saudi banking sector consisting of 10 banks (3 large, 4 medium, 3 small) during the period, 2001-2010. It begins with the estimation of technical efficiency based on input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. For a comprehensive analysis, the technical efficiency is decomposed into the product of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency. This is followed by measuring cost efficiency which is the product of technical and allocative efficiencies. Finally, the Malmquist Productivity Indices (MPI) are computed to examine total factor productivity (TFP) change over the sample period. TFP change is decomposed into the product of technical efficiency change (catch-up) and technological change. The results reveal a technical efficiency score of 85% for Saudi banking sector. The best performance is shown by small banks followed by medium and large banks respectively. The average cost efficiency for the entire Saudi banking sector is 83.5%. The main source of cost inefficiencies is the technical inefficiency. The TFP change showed an increase of 2.1%, coming mainly from the progress of technological change (TC).
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Dissanayake, Aradhana. "Controlled synthesis of nanographites and characterization of their electronic and magnetic properties." Thesis, 2012. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/524745.
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Nanographites with π conjugated open edges are a class of sp2 bonded nanocarbon system which is situated between aromatic molecules and bulk graphite. Their properties strongly depend on the topology of the sp2 carbon network. In particular, the non-bonding edge localized states near the Fermi level crucially affect the electronic π states which govern the electronic and structural properties of the material. One fascinating feature is the edge magnetism that originates from the spin alignment of edge localized spins in contrast to the diamagnetic nature of bulk graphite; thus it is not surprising that unusual properties of nanographites strongly depend on the preparation conditions that alter the surface-to-bulk-volume ratio and the topology of the carbon lattice. High energy ball milling (HEBM) technique is an effective method of producing nanographites by structural disintegration of bulk graphite. This process not only reduces the crystallite sizes into nanoscale, but also crucially modifies the peripheral regions changing the sub-surface electronic structure en route to nanosize. Since the HEBM produces a large amount of nanographites with a wide range of properties, this technique can be easily scaled up to industrial production of nanographites by tuning the milling variables. This work details the development of a series of nanographites with controlled crystallite sizes and controlled defect concentrations by HEBM in order to improve the understanding of the impact of milling on the topology of sp2 carbon network. Nanographites were prepared by milling of macrocrystalline graphite in a stainless steel grinding container with zirconium oxide interior and zirconium oxide grinding balls in order to minimize the likelihood of ferromagnetic contaminations that could affect the properties of the nanographites. Milling was done in an argon atmosphere to avoid the oxidation and related modifications at the active edges/defects of the carbon lattice. Milling conditions such as; the milling duration (1, 3, 10 and 30 hrs), the grinding ball diameter (10 and 20 mm) and, the milling speed (200 and 400 rpm) were varied to produce, by design, various nanographite materials with progressively decreasing out-of-plane crystallite sizes, Lc, and in-plane crystallite sizes, La. The average out-of-plane crystallite sizes reduce from 51 to a minimum of 4 nm and in-plane crystallite size reduces from 60 to a minimum of 7 nm upon milling. The subsequent changes in structural, electronic and magnetic properties of the graphite en route to nanosize were studied. After the preliminary studies, the properties of ball milled graphites prepared at 400 rpm with 10 mm grinding balls were further characterized as they represent a series of nanographites with a wide range of morphologies, defect concentrations and crystallite sizes.
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Zhang, Xiaoxi. "China's outward FDI and bank performance." Thesis, 2013. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/529471.
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Since the 1980s, globalization has led to a rapid increase in the growth of foreign direct investment (FDI). throughout the world. Along with FDI inflow, China’s outward direct investment increased gradually after 1978. By the end of 2010, nearly 13,000 domestic investing entities had established about 13,500 overseas enterprises across different industries, spread across 177 countries globally. Strong growth in outward FDI has led to extensive research investigating outward FDI issues, for developed economies, these studies typically employed cross-section, time-series or panel data analysis. Despite this considerable research investigating the experience of developed countries outward FDI - China’s outward investment has attracted little attention from scholars in mainstream research publications. This lacuna in researching outward FDI from one of the most important participants in global outward FDI, accounting for 17% Global outward FDI in 2011 creates a vacuum in understanding recent Global trends in outward FDI. In particular, existing theory does not fully explain this investment pattern from China. One motivation therefore behind this thesis is to investigate the factors driving China’s investment from both an economic and strategic background. Coincidently, this thesis investigates the existence of potential links between China’s outward FDI growth and China’s banks performance. International expansion of China’s banking sector increased along with China’s overseas investment since Chinese enterprises investment abroad requires funding support from banks which is one of the most important motivations for China’s banks “go abroad” strategy. This thesis is structured into two parts: Part I provides an analysis of China’s outward FDI while Part II provides an in-depth empirical study of the performance of China’s banking sector relative to the period of growth in outward FDI discussed in Part I. The thesis is structured as follows: Chapter 2 provides a detailed discussion of China’s FDI policy framework over a period of rapid growth in China’s outward FDI. Chapter 3 provides an empirical analysis of China’s outward FDI across countries including literature review of FDI. Part II of the thesis includes an analysis of the consequences of China’s financial outward FDI for China’s bank performance (Chapters 4-6) and a final chapter (Chapter 7) provides a summary and conclusions.
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Soboleva, Alena. "Marketing with Twitter : investigating factors that impact on the effectiveness of tweets." Thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:47360.
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The increasing use of Twitter by businesses has created the challenge of how organisations can use Twitter most effectively for marketing. Using data across several years of Twitter activity by both leading global brands and a non-profit organisation (NPO), this thesis presents measures that can be used by practitioners and researchers to assess the effectiveness of marketing communications on Twitter. It discusses the factors that predict consumer and stakeholder engagement with organisational tweets, and different Twitter strategies that have been successfully (and less successfully) used by leading global brands and a large non-profit organisation. The thesis consists of four separate but inter-related papers that have variously been published or accepted for publication. Each paper analyses different aspects of organisational Twitter activity, including an analysis of tweet features that impact on the frequency of retweeting of brands’ tweets and examination of reciprocity within the network of an NPO and its corporate partners. The thesis contributes to the literature by assessing what has been done on Twitter, what works and what does not, and by showing what it is possible to achieve on the platform in terms of effective communications. Firstly, the research evaluates Twitter activity both in commercial organisations and within the network of an NPO and its supporters by analysing their Twitter accounts’ activity, follower engagement and tweet structure. The research also compares and contrasts Twitter activity over a two-year period by both commercial brands and an NPO and therefore provides insights into the evolution of Twitter use. Secondly, the research develops and tests a theoretical model that predicts electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on Twitter by assessing the effect of different tweet features on retweet count. The research also provides an approach to estimate minimum and maximum threshold levels for some tweet features that can be used repeatedly in tweets (e.g., hashtags and photos) and which can thus have a non-linear effect on retweeting. In addition, the research evaluates how consumer involvement with the product category, as represented by different industries, impacts on consumer responses and engagement with brand communications and subsequent eWOM on Twitter. This is important as the findings suggest that different industries need to use different communication strategies, depending on the brand context, in order to be successful on Twitter. Thirdly, the thesis discusses what it is possible to achieve on Twitter, in particular by reviewing how the medium can be used for reciprocal promotion within a network of organisations using co-branding and co-created tweets, even among those who compete. Finally, the thesis discusses implications for organisations using Twitter for marketing communications, and for further research into the use of Twitter for marketing.
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Daniel, Adam. "Affective intensities and evolving horror forms : from found footage to virtual reality." Thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:45507.
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This thesis examines the evolving forms of cinematic horror, from the sub-genre of ‘found footage,’ to post-cinematic new media forms such as Youtube horror, both narrative and non-narrative, and cinematic virtual reality horror. By examining how these new forms alter the dynamics of spectatorship, the thesis asks how cinema’s affective capacities have shifted in relation to these modifications in the form of cinematic horror. Departing from psychoanalytic, representational and hermeneutic models, it explores the ways that horror as a genre strategically withholds its semantic content in order to produce terror and dread. I argue that somatic experience fills these gaps, and that the embodied experience of the viewer/participant is intensified through the way each of these modes utilises its unique aesthetic and technological capacities. Phenomenological approaches provide a framework here to interrogate the distinction between film-as-object and viewer-as-subject, and to reframe how, in viewing these cinematic horror artefacts, we do not simply decode or interpret these works, but interface with them through embodied experience. This thesis contends that horror’s specific affect emerges from this embodied experience of the image. Theoretical insights from emerging models of embodied simulation add further depth to this analysis. Drawing on Deleuzian readings of horror cinema, the thesis extends these models through an exploration of the concept of the perception-image in relation to found footage horror cinema, and the time-image in relation to the ‘postcinematic’ short horror films of Youtube.
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Nachiappan, Rekha. "Efficient data reliability management of cloud storage systems for big data applications." Thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:57792.
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Cloud service providers are consistently striving to provide efficient and reliable service, to their client's Big Data storage need. Replication is a simple and flexible method to ensure reliability and availability of data. However, it is not an efficient solution for Big Data since it always scales in terabytes and petabytes. Hence erasure coding is gaining traction despite its shortcomings. Deploying erasure coding in cloud storage confronts several challenges like encoding/decoding complexity, load balancing, exponential resource consumption due to data repair and read latency. This thesis has addressed many challenges among them. Even though data durability and availability should not be compromised for any reason, client's requirements on read performance (access latency) may vary with the nature of data and its access pattern behaviour. Access latency is one of the important metrics and latency acceptance range can be recorded in the client's SLA. Several proactive recovery methods, for erasure codes are proposed in this research, to reduce resource consumption due to recovery. Also, a novel cache based solution is proposed to mitigate the access latency issue of erasure coding.
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Alsinglawi, Belal. "Predictive analytics framework for electronic health records with machine learning advancements : optimising hospital resources utilisation with predictive and epidemiological models." Thesis, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:67523.
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The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the feasibility and robustness of predictive machine-learning models in the context of improving hospital resources’ utilisation with data- driven approaches and predicting hospitalisation with hospital quality assessment metrics such as length of stay. The length of stay predictions includes the validity of the proposed methodological predictive framework on each hospital’s electronic health records data source. In this thesis, we relied on electronic health records (EHRs) to drive a data-driven predictive inpatient length of stay (LOS) research framework that suits the most demanding hospital facilities for hospital resources’ utilisation context. The thesis focused on the viability of the methodological predictive length of stay approaches on dynamic and demanding healthcare facilities and hospital settings such as the intensive care units and the emergency departments. While the hospital length of stay predictions are (internal) healthcare inpatients outcomes assessment at the time of admission to discharge, the thesis also considered (external) factors outside hospital control, such as forecasting future hospitalisations from the spread of infectious communicable disease during pandemics. The internal and external splits are the thesis’ main contributions. Therefore, the thesis evaluated the public health measures during events of uncertainty (e.g. pandemics) and measured the effect of non-pharmaceutical intervention during outbreaks on future hospitalised cases. This approach is the first contribution in the literature to examine the epidemiological curves’ effect using simulation models to project the future hospitalisations on their strong potential to impact hospital beds’ availability and stress hospital workflow and workers, to the best of our knowledge. The main research commonalities between chapters are the usefulness of ensembles learning models in the context of LOS for hospital resources utilisation. The ensembles learning models anticipate better predictive performance by combining several base models to produce an optimal predictive model. These predictive models explored the internal LOS for various chronic and acute conditions using data-driven approaches to determine the most accurate and powerful predicted outcomes. This eventually helps to achieve desired outcomes for hospital professionals who are working in hospital settings.