Do university rankings and accreditation really matter? Manufacturing 'legitimacy' in Singapore's higher education sector

In this paper, we examine the concept of ‘legitimacy’ in higher education in the context of the city-state of Singapore. We find that ‘legitimacy’ enhancing devices like rankings and accreditation are not necessary precursors for market success, reputation building or the provision of a quality education. This result is a direct challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy

BNew Developments in the Australian Labour Market in 2006

2006 generally represented a solid year in terms of macroeconomic performance and labour market indicators, even under the threat of increasing inflation and interest rates. However, some favourable aggregate labour market indicators disguised major disparities at disaggregated regional, sectoral or demographic levels. The major development in the labour market was the implementation and operation of the WorkChoices legislation which will shape the industrial relations landscape in Australia for many years to come. This article presents an analysis of the performance of the macroeconomy and labour market, and reviews the developments of the WorkChoices legislation.economic performance; industrial relations legislation; labour market; WorkChoices

Constraints, Compromises and Choice: Comparing Three Qualitative Research Studies

Although a number of texts explore social research strategies and methods, most are limited to a basic discussion of such methods and their associated advantages and disadvantages. Few if any, evaluate and compare methods in the context of actual research experiences. This paper endeavours to bridge that gap by reporting the experiences of three researchers working on three separate qualitative studies. All three studies were concerned with investigating the social milieu within organizations. While the research questions were different in each case, all the researchers shared a common goal - to develop explanations for complex social phenomena manifest both internally and externally to each organization. The research strategies, methods and data analyses employed are assessed through the personal evaluations of the researchers. Thus, a singular opportunity is offered for other researchers to benefit from the practical insights and lessons learned. The collective experiences of all three researchers suggest that the contextual conditions and constraints of each study force certain compromises, but which importantly, do not compromise qualitative research studies

Rule #1 : value co-creation starts with a firm level innovation culture

At the firm level, what facilitates co-creation of value? This paper reflects on the theoretical literature on value co-creation and makes the argument that a strong firm-level innovation culture is an essential prerequisite to co-creating value between firms and customers. This study reports the results of a benchmarking exercise of firm-level innovation practices in a representative sample of 215 manufacturing SMEs across 6 industrial sub-sectors in Singapore. Singapore is undergoing sweeping economic reforms aimed at reenergizing the manufacturing sector, improving productivity, fostering collaborations and innovation in creating value. The government’s efforts in Singapore to incentivize firms to collaborate with external stakeholders and co-create value is largely encumbered by firm-level characteristics (poor communication, limited empowerment, lack of collaboration, top-down approaches, limited appetite for risk and failure) and other attributes that do not facilitate innovation, collaboration, and co-creation of value. Our findings are a lesson in caution, and the limited efficacy of the role of incentives to improve collaboration and the creation of value, in the absence of a culture that facilitates innovation

Developing transgenics in the clonal raider ant, Cerapachys biroi.

Dissertação apresentada no âmbito do Mestrado em Ciências Jurídico-Forenses, à Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbr

Demystifying the 4Ps in Singapore SMEs : does the government hold the key to open innovation?

Open Innovation (OI) should be the saviour of Singapore’s Small to Medium Enterprises (SME). Relative to other South East Asian nations over the last decade, they have suffered from declining productivity levels that have prompted the Singaporean Government to intervene with a plethora of rectifying initiatives. The Singapore Government through its policy levers offers generous financial incentives in the hope to foster a culture of innovation amongst SMEs to boost productivity, create value and contribute to economic growth. However, this assumption is predicated on certain firm—level attributes being exhibited. Consequently, in this paper two key research questions for Singapore SMEs are studied reflecting on firm level attributes - people, platforms, power, processes (4Ps) - and understanding how SMEs respond to government policies within the OI ecosystem. To answer these questions, a benchmarking study of a representative sample of SMEs from the manufacturing sector in Singapore is carried out. Firm level practices relating to technology adoption, innovation culture and firms responses to government policies are extracted and analysed

Rompre avec les politiques néolibérales dans le domaine des relations industrielles

L’élection entre le milieu des années 1990 et la fin des années 2000 de partis travaillistes en Australie, Nouvelle-Zélande et Grande-Bretagne, après des vagues de réformes libérales qui ont marginalisé les syndicats et remodelé les structures de la négociation sociale en faveur du capital, a apporté la promesse d’une intervention accrue de l’État et d’une plus grande équité dans les relations industrielles. En Australie, le gouvernement conservateur de John Howard, en place depuis onze ans, subit en novembre 2007 une défaite cuisante. La campagne avait été marquée par un débat intense sur la réforme des relations professionnelles, les Work Choices, intervenue en 2005. Les Work Choices ont produit les mêmes effets en Grande-Bretagne et en Nouvelle-Zélande, où les électeurs avaient en 1996 et 1999 largement voté contre la législation néolibérale en matière de relations industrielles. Ce rééquilibrage voulu entre valeurs d’équité et valeurs d’efficacité n’a cependant pas empêché ces pays de conserver une part importante de l’héritage néolibéral. Ceci met en lumière les difficultés qu’il y a à revenir en arrière sur des dispositions législatives et à reconstruire des institutions qui ont été démantelées, et dans le même temps, pour ces nouveaux gouvernements, à faire montre de pratiques de gestion économique fiables.After waves of conservative reform which commonly saw trade unions marginalised and bargaining structures remodelled generally in favour of capital, the election of social democratic labour parties in Australia, New Zealand and Britain brought the promise of increased state intervention and the promotion of greater equity considerations in industrial relations. In Australia, the conservative Howard government of eleven years was decisively defeated in November 2007 by the Australian Labor Party after an election campaign dominated by an intense debate over the 2005 “Work Choices” industrial relations reforms. The fate of “Work Choices” followed similar electoral outcomes in Britain and New Zealand in which neo-liberal industrial relations legislation was largely dismissed by voters. Despite the renewed interest in re-balancing equity and efficiency objectives with the election of these new governments, in each of these countries however significant elements of the neo-liberal legacy have been retained. This highlights the difficulties involved in reversing legislation and rebuilding the institutions which have been dismantled and, at the same time, the need for the new governments to demonstrate sound economic management credential