Innovation in Queensland firms: implications for the smart State

The challenges in the business environment are forcing Australian firms to be innovative in all their efforts to serve customers. Reflecting this need there have been several innovation policy statements both at Federal and State government level aimed at encouraging innovation in Australian industry. In particular, the innovation policy statement launched by the Queensland government in the year 2000 primarily intends building a Sman State through innovation. During the last few decades the Australian government policy on innovation has emphasized support for industry R&D. However industry stakeholders demand a more firm-focused policy of innovation. Government efforts in this direction have been hindered by a lack of a consistent body of knowledge on innovation at the firm level. In particular the Australian literature focusing on firm level antecedents of innovation is limited and fragmented. This study examines the role of learning capabilities in innovation and competitive advantage. Based on a survey of manufacturing firms in Queensland the study finds that both technological and non·technological innovations lead to competitive advantage. The findings contribute to the theory competitive advantage and firm level antecedents of innovation. Implications for firm level innovation strategies and behaviour are discussed. In addition, the findings have important implications for Queensland government's current initiatives to build a Smart State through innovation

Examining the critical interplay of knowledge acquisition and integration capabilities in project oriented service firms

While past knowledge-based approaches to service innovation have emphasized the role of knowledge integration in the delivery of customer-focused solutions, these approaches do not adequately address the complexities inherent in knowledge acquisition and integration in project-oriented firms. Adopting a dynamic capability framework and building on knowledge-based approaches to innovation, the current study examines how the interplay of learning capabilities and knowledge integration capability impacts service innovation and sustained competitive advantage. This two-stage multi-sample study finds that entrepreneurial project-oriented service firms in their quest for competitive advantage through greater innovation invest in knowledge acquisition and integration capabilities. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and directions for future research provided

A Concession Model to Promote Rural Bus Services In Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a public transport system that dates back to the 1860s. Buses entered the service in 1907 and have become the most widely used mode of transport. The penetration level of buses is 1 bus per 1000 population. The per capita bus travel is approximately 12 km per day. These services cover urban, inter-urban as well as rural services. Rural services however have always been loss making. This is due to the fact that such areas have lower household incomes and are therefore unable to generate high volumes of travel and are also unable to pay higher fares for resulting lower vehicle occupancies. Since over 70% of Sri Lanka’s population resides in rural areas, successive governments have provided subsidise for such bus services. However many such rural routes have remained loss-making in spite of receiving grants for decades. This has resulted in the Government being unable to expand the rural bus services as it has not been possible to develop the revenues on such routes to ensure profitability and to move on to other routes. As a result, the reliability of such services has diminished and rural communities do not have appeared to have developed on account of the provision of subsidised bus services. This paper is an evaluation of a new model for subsidising rural bus routes under the ‘Gami Saeriya’ program which was initiated in 2004. These concession contracts rely on the intervention of a Community Based Monitoring Committee where the subsidy payments are paid by the regulator only on the certification of the compliance by the bus operator to selected operational targets. There are presently around 500 such services operated by both the public and private sector. Of a total of 18 such awards made in 2004/5, 13 services have now completed their contract period successfully. The paper analyses the results of an evaluation of these services in terms of the increase in ridership, the reliability of services, the resulting benefits to the community and the level of financial viability they have reached to continue without subsidy. The paper is based on the analysis of feedback through participatory group surveys of passengers, members of Community Based Monitoring Committees and officials of the Transport Commission. The paper concludes by identifying key criterion which determines the success of these agreements and makes recommendations how such agreements could be developed further to meet specific rural community development objectives.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

A Concession Model to Promote Rural Bus Services In Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a public transport system that dates back to the 1860s. Buses entered the service in 1907 and have become the most widely used mode of transport. The penetration level of buses is 1 bus per 1000 population. The per capita bus travel is approximately 12 km per day. These services cover urban, inter-urban as well as rural services. Rural services however have always been loss making. This is due to the fact that such areas have lower household incomes and are therefore unable to generate high volumes of travel and are also unable to pay higher fares for resulting lower vehicle occupancies. Since over 70% of Sri Lanka’s population resides in rural areas, successive governments have provided subsidise for such bus services. However many such rural routes have remained loss-making in spite of receiving grants for decades. This has resulted in the Government being unable to expand the rural bus services as it has not been possible to develop the revenues on such routes to ensure profitability and to move on to other routes. As a result, the reliability of such services has diminished and rural communities do not have appeared to have developed on account of the provision of subsidised bus services. This paper is an evaluation of a new model for subsidising rural bus routes under the ‘Gami Saeriya’ program which was initiated in 2004. These concession contracts rely on the intervention of a Community Based Monitoring Committee where the subsidy payments are paid by the regulator only on the certification of the compliance by the bus operator to selected operational targets. There are presently around 500 such services operated by both the public and private sector. Of a total of 18 such awards made in 2004/5, 13 services have now completed their contract period successfully. The paper analyses the results of an evaluation of these services in terms of the increase in ridership, the reliability of services, the resulting benefits to the community and the level of financial viability they have reached to continue without subsidy. The paper is based on the analysis of feedback through participatory group surveys of passengers, members of Community Based Monitoring Committees and officials of the Transport Commission. The paper concludes by identifying key criterion which determines the success of these agreements and makes recommendations how such agreements could be developed further to meet specific rural community development objectives.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Conceptualizing accelerated internationalization in the born global firm: A dynamic capabilities perspective

Existing approaches at explaining accelerated internationalization of born global firms are incomplete as they do not capture the learning that is undertaken by these firms and their founders prior to the firm's legal establishment. Building on the extant literature and drawing on the dynamic capabilities view of competitive strategy, this paper presents a conceptual model of born global firm internationalization. We conjecture that a set of dynamic capabilities that are built and nurtured by internationally-oriented entrepreneurial founders enable these firms to develop cutting-edge knowledge intensive products, paving the way for their accelerated market entry. We develop propositions and offer concluding remarks

Effect of Growth Rate on Wood Specific Gravity of Three Alternative Timber Species in Sri Lanka; Swietenia macrophylla, Khaya senegalensis and Paulownia fortunei

With increasing private sector investments in commercial forestry, it is apparent that plantationforestry in Sri Lanka is moving in the direction of managing fast growing timber species for shorterrotations. However, there’s a perceptionthat accelerated growth rates induced by improved forestmanagement practices can result in inferior wood quality. This study tested this perceptionby studyingthe effect of growth rate on the specific gravity, as a proxy for wood quality, of three alternative timberspecies grown in Sri Lanka; Swietenia macrophylla, Khaya senegalensis and Paulownia fortunei.Specific gravity remained more or less uniform from pith to bark regardless of the fluctuation of ringwidth in K. senegalensis while S. macrophylla exhibited a slight increase in specific gravity from pith tobark. This increasing trend was more prominent in P. fortunei. Results revealed growth rates representedby ring width showed poor correlations with specific gravity in both S. macrophylla, and K.senegalensis. Although P. fortunei showed a statistically significant positive correlation, regressionanalysis indicated a poor relationship between growth rate and specific gravity. Hence it is unlikely thatwood specific gravity of the studied species to be influenced by accelerated growth rates

Effect of Growth Rate on Wood Specific Gravity of Three Alternative Timber Species in Sri Lanka; Swietenia macrophylla, Khaya senegalensis and Paulownia fortunei

With increasing private sector investments in commercial forestry, it is apparent that plantationforestry in Sri Lanka is moving in the direction of managing fast growing timber species for shorterrotations. However, there’s a perceptionthat accelerated growth rates induced by improved forestmanagement practices can result in inferior wood quality. This study tested this perceptionby studyingthe effect of growth rate on the specific gravity, as a proxy for wood quality, of three alternative timberspecies grown in Sri Lanka; Swietenia macrophylla, Khaya senegalensis and Paulownia fortunei.Specific gravity remained more or less uniform from pith to bark regardless of the fluctuation of ringwidth in K. senegalensis while S. macrophylla exhibited a slight increase in specific gravity from pith tobark. This increasing trend was more prominent in P. fortunei. Results revealed growth rates representedby ring width showed poor correlations with specific gravity in both S. macrophylla, and K.senegalensis. Although P. fortunei showed a statistically significant positive correlation, regressionanalysis indicated a poor relationship between growth rate and specific gravity. Hence it is unlikely thatwood specific gravity of the studied species to be influenced by accelerated growth rates

Innovation in environmental technologies in China: the case of Feida’s power plant pollution control equipment

Innovation is important for developing a strong brand. This chapter introduces a leading provider of environmental solutions for power plants in China. Feida is a company located in the Zhejiang province in China that develops products and technology to remove small particles from the exhausts of coal-fired power plants. The chapter describes the company’s evolution towards a leading company in environmental technology in China and analyzes the role of R&D and innovation in its brand development. The chapter further assesses how the nature of the company’s innovation is connected to the production and functional/user side of the innovation system and institutional environment in which it operates. Feida’s strategy is to expand internationally to foreign markets but it is facing significant challenges in that process

Evaluation of sustainable practices within project management methods

The purpose of this research study is to investigate some of the sustainable practices within projects with a focus on social projects. The different research methodologies applied through this research consisted both primary and secondary research, including literature review and through case study. The stakeholder’s behavioural needs towards acting and implementing sustainable practices led to the adoption of sustainable practices within projects which are managed across profit and non-profit organisations. Nevertheless, lack of sustainable behaviour was outlined, and henceforth the integration of sustainable development within social projects is crucially important as such projects were identified as the drivers toward educating the society in order to help to produce generations of people who would be more sustainably aware. Currently, sustainable development is very often taken into account when it comes to managing projects. Nevertheless, if the adoption of sustainable practices is well established in some sectors such as construction, literature tends to demonstrate a lack of information regarding other sectors, especially within social projects. This research aims to investigate the adoption of sustainable practices within social projects and therefore to satisfy a literature gap