Australian businesses in China : the political dimension

This paper develops a model about the political factors Australian businesses should consider when entering China, and then empirically examines the issues by interviewing representatives .fi\u27om 40 companies who have operations in China. The political dimension in this paper comprises the political system, political barriers and risk, relationships with government, Australian government assistance, and Chinese government assistance. We then looked at whether these components of politics influenced entry modes, as stated by our interviewees. We found that political barriers effected entry mode choice, while the remainder of components of politics influenced business implementation and operation.<br /

Scheduling periodic jobs using imprecise results

One approach to avoid timing faults in hard, real-time systems is to make available intermediate, imprecise results produced by real-time processes. When a result of the desired quality cannot be produced in time, an imprecise result of acceptable quality produced before the deadline can be used. The problem of scheduling periodic jobs to meet deadlines on a system that provides the necessary programming language primitives and run-time support for processes to return imprecise results is discussed. Since the scheduler may choose to terminate a task before it is completed, causing it to produce an acceptable but imprecise result, the amount of processor time assigned to any task in a valid schedule can be less than the amount of time required to complete the task. A meaningful formulation of the scheduling problem must take into account the overall quality of the results. Depending on the different types of undesirable effects caused by errors, jobs are classified as type N or type C. For type N jobs, the effects of errors in results produced in different periods are not cumulative. A reasonable performance measure is the average error over all jobs. Three heuristic algorithms that lead to feasible schedules with small average errors are described. For type C jobs, the undesirable effects of errors produced in different periods are cumulative. Schedulability criteria of type C jobs are discussed

Doing business in China : how Australian companies make their decisions when entering the Chinese market

This report describes and analyses the experiences of Australian businesses which have established operations or conduct business in China, both successfully and unsuccessfully. The information was collected over the period from August to November in 2007. It involved interviews with 43 respondents from 40 different Australian businesses across both manufacturing and service industries. The project was motivated by the increasing significance of China to Australia&rsquo;s economy (such as the demand for Australian iron and coal exports and the transfer of much of Australia&rsquo;s manufacturing operations there) and its extraordinary growth and development over the past 10 years. Using the contemporary modes of international expansion as a framework, the research considered companies which had entered China through Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprises (WOFEs), Joint Ventures, exporting and other forms such as licensing and agents. Most of the participants had located their operations in China in the eastern region, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guanzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin

Australian businesses in China : examining motivations and influences on entry modes for service providers

Purpose : The purpose of this paper is to examine the explanatory power of internationalisation theory for service firms internationalising into China.Design/Methodology/Approach : Interviews were conducted with Australian based 23 service businesses that had entered China. Internationalisation theory was examined in this research. A number of constructs were investigated, which included the type of service (hard or soft), internationalisation motivation/pathways, previous international experience and whether companies plan or not. A number of propositions were tested in relation to these constructs.Findings : The research found that soft services were more likely to choose full control modes, and hard services choose lower control modes. The most common motivation for entering China was to seek markets there, and these resulted in lower involvement modes. There was no relationship found between having international experience and entry mode, and it was found that businesses with low levels of planning still engaged high control modes. Internationalisation theory was partially supported in the research and was found to correctly predict the progression of equity in Chinese businesses owned by Australian companies.Research Limitations/Implications : The limitation of the research was the small sample size, and future research should consider the constructs over a larger sample.Practical Implications : The implications for other Australian service businesses is they should consider the type of service they have (hard or soft), and then make appropriate entry mode choices.Originality/Value : There is limited research on the internationalisation of service businesses, and no other research has examined Australian service providers going to China.<br /

An international strategy taxonomy for entry into China

Taxonomies explaining internationalisation strategy are effective in relating connected variables to the decision-making process and entry mode strategies of organisations. The taxonomy developed in this paper from research into 40 Australian companies which had successfully and unsuccessfully internationalised into China identified resource transferability and international experience as connected variables that can categorise the factors of entry choice. High levels of resource transferability lead to joint ventures or wholly-owned foreign enterprises. Low levels led to exporting/importing or project/client based/licensing. High levels of international experience led to wholly-owned foreign enterprises or joint ventures. Low levels led to project/client based/licensing or exporting/importing.<br /

Perceptions of Using Smart Speaker Technology for Improving the Health and Wellness of Older Adults Living in a Low-Income Community

There is a growing interest in the usage of smart speakers in various settings with older adults for improved quality of life and health. Residents who live within a low-income housing development may benefit from the use of smart speaker technology for creating a more engaging and healthier lifestyle. Because technology acceptance is critical; this study aims to examine smart speaker acceptance among low-income senior housing residents. A cross-sectional survey (n=46) was conducted to assess smart speaker acceptance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease, and privacy concerns. Individuals were recruited through varying methodologies, including group information sessions, sign-up sheets, word of mouth, contact cards, and fliers. Descriptive analysis indicated study participants were 51% male; 63% Black/African American, and 87% completed a high school degree/GED or less. The technology survey results indicated that 66% were smartphone users, 51% had laptops, 87% heard “of an Echo Dot or Alexa,” and 89% reported that a reminder of medical appointments would be helpful. Also, 96% agreed it would be helpful to use the smart speaker if they had fallen, to alert someone. Technology can be helpful to older adults living in low-income environments. Most study participants reported that a smart speaker would be helpful in the case of a fall and that it would be helpful to use as a medication reminder system. This research can be used as guidelines for designing smart speaker-based health interventions for older adults and is an important step towards understanding the perception of smart speaker technology.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1094/thumbnail.jp

Persistent hepatitis C virus infection in vitro: coevolution of virus and host.

The virological and cellular consequences of persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection have been elusive due to the absence of the requisite experimental systems. Here, we report the establishment and the characteristics of persistent in vitro infection of human hepatoma-derived cells by a recently described HCV genotype 2a infectious molecular clone. Persistent in vitro infection was characterized by the selection of viral variants that displayed accelerated expansion kinetics, higher peak titers, and increased buoyant densities. Sequencing analysis revealed the selection of a single adaptive mutation in the HCV E2 envelope protein that was largely responsible for the variant phenotype. In parallel, as the virus became more aggressive, cells that were resistant to infection emerged, displaying escape mechanisms operative at the level of viral entry, HCV RNA replication, or both. Collectively, these results reveal the existence of coevolutionary events during persistent HCV infection that favor survival of both virus and host

Intellectual property, business in China: taking a stand

Over the last 40 years, China has developed laws for the protection of intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, these laws have not been uniformly enforced, making such protection problematic for Australian and other foreign organisations wishing to do business in China. This article first scrutinises the current Chinese laws covering intellectual property protection. It then examines the outcomes of a qualitative study that addressed intellectual property protection issues faced by selected Australian organisations conducting business with Chinese counterparts located in China. Forty Australian business managers/owners from Australian companies having business relationships with Chinese firms were interviewed for this study. The findings show that protection issues are only relevant to certain types of businesses that have intellectual property to protect. Nevertheless, a number of the managers/owners interviewed believed that infringement threats were real and inevitable in China, and some had even experienced cases of copying. The study found that, despite such concerns, there was little evidence of organisations taking proactive and positive steps to adequately protect their intellectual property. In order to address this, the authors of this article have developed a protection strategy that incorporates the use of the law, together with firms’ organisational designs, so that foreign firms can protect their rights when interacting with the Chinese market

Effects of temperature on tissue-diet isotopic spacing of nitrogen and carbon in otolith organic matter

Reconstruction of the trophic position of a fish can be performed by analysing stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes in otolith protein. However, ambient temperature may affect the tissue–diet isotopic spacing of stable isotopes from diet to predator tissue and bias estimates of trophic position. To test this, otolith protein, heart and muscle tissue from a rearing experiment with juvenile cod held at different temperatures (4, 7, 10 and 14°C) were analysed. There was no significant effect of temperature on otolith δ15N, whereas muscle and heart exhibited a slight decrease in δ15N values with increasing temperature corresponding to maximum of 0.6‰ over the 10°C range. By contrast, the otolith protein δ13C values at 4 and 7°C were significantly higher than for 10 and 14°C, suggesting an approximate 1‰ increased tissue–diet enrichment at the lower temperatures. Temperature had no significant effect on muscle and heart δ13C values. Considering the annual mean variation in ocean temperatures, our results indicate that the trophic signals recorded in the otoliths will reflect changes in diet isotope values with little bias from the ambient temperature experienced by the fish.publishedVersio