Economics - Theses
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ItemHow do organisations align human resource management with information technology: an exploratory study of four Australian firms( 2003)While there is significant evidence to suggest that the alignment of Human Resources (HR) and Information Technology (IT) has a positive impact on firm performance, there is little discussion on how to achieve alignment. Literature in both the HR and IT disciplines provides confirmation of the need to identify and address the people management issues in order to realise the expected returns from IT investments. This research will contribute to these discussions with insights into how an organisation with alignment between IT and HR might appear, who should be responsible for the alignment, and how enabling and inhibiting factors impact the alignment process. The Reich & Benbasat (2000) model of social alignment distinguishes between intellectual planning intentions and executives' understanding of the implications and actions required to implement those intentions. The latter, defined as social alignment provided a useful lens through which to examine the alignment between HR and IT. The social alignment framework, originally designed to investigate executives' understanding of the alignment between IT and business strategies, has been adapted and extended to provide a useful tool to analyse the relationship between IT and HR. Four Australian firms were examined using case study methodology in order to gather and analyse the richness of the data in a field with little prior research. Findings support the view that shared domain knowledge and history of IT and HR implementation success impact on the communication and planning activities that ultimately determine levels of social alignment. Executives interviewed understood that alignment between HR and IT was important to achieving the firm’s strategic goals. Examples were identified and discussed where lack of attention to the IT/HR relationship resulted in outcomes that fell short of expectations. Shared domain knowledge of the business and the IT and HR function, was likely to have a significant impact on the communication and planning connections between the HR manager and the CIO. Similarly, past experiences of working together either in general business projects or in function specific projects such as the HRIS affected the willingness of the HR manager and CIO to collaborate. Management of the alignment process by line or project executives was likely to limit people management considerations to short term implementation issues without reference to longer term strategic directions. As a result of this research the social alignment model has been adapted to provide a valuable tool for the assessment of the alignment process between HR and IT in firms. Two additional factors have been added: responsibility and accountability, and power and influence as contributing factors that are important for management to understand so that they might develop and enhance strategic communication and connections between HR and IT.
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ItemEmployee participation and industrial democracy in Australian government employment: 1983-1988( 1990-05)The subject of employee participation in the public sector has been neglected in the academic literature of Australia. The present research aims to redress this deficiency. Its explicit focus is employee participation in Australian Government Employment (AGE) in the first six years of the Hawke Labor Government, that is, the period 1983-1988. The choice of this period is an important one. The election of the Hawke Government marks a turning point in Australian public administration: this was a government committed to the thoroughgoing reform of the public sector and employee participation was integrated into its reform agenda, albeit in the guise of industrial democracy. In the first part of the thesis the discussion clarifies the meaning and relationship between the concepts of employee participation and industrial democracy. This is followed by a review of the overseas literature on employee participation in public employment. In the second part, the development of employee participation in AGE is dealt with at a general level. This account spans the period 1901-1988, however, the account of the sub-period 1983-1988 is more detailed. In the third and fourth parts, the exposition becomes more specific. Detailed case studies of Australia Post and the Australian Taxation Office, which provide an account of the development of employee participation ranging from the national to the workplace level of each organization, are presented. In the final part, the discussion is drawn together and the lessons of the recent experience of employee participation in AGE are spelt out.
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ItemManagement practices that enhance innovation intensity and performance in biotechnology firms( 2006)Globalization and the exponential growth of information on genetics and DNA have led to major changes in the management practices and strategies in biotechnology organizations and in governments throughout the world. These changes include: • The growing recognition by organizations of the strategic importance of innovation management as "the engine of growth" and the key to long-term sustainability; • Increasing awareness by biotechnology organizations of the need to form strategic alliances in order to capitalise on market opportunities such as treatment of AIDS, Hepatitis C, and the growth of aged-related illnesses in industrialised countries; • The need to attract venture capital and large scale investment to fund the complex and lengthy clinical trial phases associated with the development of new drugs and treatments; and • The recognition by organisations of the growing importance of managing knowledge and intellectual capital as valuable strategic assets in a global marketplace which is highly competitive for skilled and experienced knowledge workers. Although there are many biotechnology organizations where the above management strategies have been successfully implemented, there is still considerable misunderstanding of the innovation process. There is also a widespread failure by the private and public sectors to recognize that the innovation process needs to be managed ‘from idea to market’. Some managers apply traditional short-term strategies to address the long-term challenges posed by the development of new drugs and treatments in the biotechnology industry. This is commonly referred to as "short-termism". The problem of short-termism becomes compounded because biotechnology is an emergent and disruptive technology undergoing rapid change and convergence with other technologies such as information technology. Anecdotal evidence and the limited number of empirical studies on management practices in the biotechnology industry suggest a lack of awareness and perception of innovation management and the requirements for developing innovation intensity as a prerequisite to effective innovation performance at the organizational level. The purpose of this research is to identify those management practices and strategies which enhance the innovation intensity and performance in biotechnology organizations. This was achieved by investigating the relationships between management practices and strategies with innovation intensity and performance. A model was developed as part of this research using a framework of constructs based on extensive research of the literature. This model was tested to identify the constructs and variables (comprising those constructs) which had a significant and positive relationship with innovation intensity and performance in biotechnology firms. Therefore, the model used in this research has been developed based on well grounded analytical techniques, established theory and multiple methodologies. Hypotheses were developed to test the relationships between the independent variable constructs, specific independent variables within the constructs, and the dependent variable construct (innovation intensity). The relationships were tested using a database consisting of 102 completed responses from Australia and 68 responses from Europe. Survey responses which were only partially completed were deleted from the database. The responses from Australia were mainly from Victoria and Queensland with a small number of responses from other States. The European responses were from 3 leading biotechnology countries in Europe namely Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. Biotechnology firms and biotechnology associations in other European countries were invited to participate in the survey but did not respond. The hypotheses were further explained by utilising six case study firms. These companies were recognized by their peer groups and biotechnology industry associations as "success stories" because of their reputation for implementing management practices and strategies as a strategic part of their innovation performance programs. A major finding was that the constructs of the model provided a valid and reliable model for measuring and predicting the relationship between management strategies and practices and innovation intensity. For example, dimensions such as management support, project management and commercial orientation had a significant and positive effect on innovation intensity. The second major finding was that Organisational Climate had a positive but insignificant effect on innovation intensity. However, removal of the organisational climate construct from the model weakened its predictive power in relation to innovation intensity. This finding, from the quantitative analysis, was qualified by the case study research thus highlighting the benefit of using multiple methodologies. The most significant finding, and contribution to the theory, was the identification of management practices which had a positive and significant effect on the variables comprising innovation intensity. This finding was also qualified by case study research. The study concluded that a long-term strategic approach to new product development (radical innovation) is critical to innovation performance in biotechnology firms. Continuous improvement (incremental innovation) is also important for companies to improve their existing products and organisational capacity to meet customer needs. The constructs of the model such as Management Support, Organisational Climate, Project Management, Commercial Orientation and Innovation Intensity complement each other as part of a broader strategic approach to innovation management and performance. The limitations of the study and the implications of the research findings for managers and policy makers are reviewed along with directions for future research into innovation management in biotechnology firms.
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ItemCapturing the gains from innovation: assessing the effectiveness of appropriation mechanisms( 2004)This dissertation examines the effectiveness of appropriation mechanisms in preventing imitation, and enabling a firm to capture the returns from their innovation activities. A theoretical framework, founded primarily in the resource-based literature, is developed within which the effectiveness of appropriation mechanisms are explored. In this framework, first, the characteristics of appropriation mechanisms themselves are seen as inhibiting imitation, and second, other antecedent and contextual factors are contended to influence the effectiveness of appropriation. Multiple research methods are employed to investigate the research questions of interest. Quantitative data gathered from 238 large Australian organisations are used to construct a structural equation model (SEM) examining the hypothesised model relating a dynamic innovation capability, performance outcomes and the moderating effect of appropriation mechanisms. Further, antecedents of appropriation mechanism effectiveness, internal and external learning, is explored. Qualitative data obtained from six case studies across a number of industries are used to consolidate and elaborate on the extent to which the hypothesised model is supported or challenged, and provide some evidence of various other contextual factors that may influence the effectiveness of barriers to imitation. The data were consistent in their support for the hypothesised model. A dynamic innovation capability, as expected, was found to be significantly and positively associated with improved innovation and business performance. Further, appropriation mechanisms were found to have significant moderating effects on this relation, largely attributable to their socially complex, causally ambiguous and interdependent characteristics. Learning sources, both internal and external, also play an important antecedent role in appropriation effectiveness, along with contextual factors such as competitor response time, the nature of the innovation, and the type of industry. Overall, appropriation mechanisms are effective in protecting a firm's innovation from imitation, and enhance a firm's ability to capture the gains from their dynamic innovation capability.
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ItemInformation and coordination: the economic organization of tourism( 1997)This study set out to explain the nature of economic coordination in tourism and explore the reasons which have prevented the development of the supply-side analysis of tourism and engendered much debate about whether tourism is an industry or not. A survey of the economics and alternative literatures on tourism reveals a wide variety of interpretations about the fundamental nature of tourism coordination problems. It also sets the premises of the study which claims that tourism constitutes an excessively diverse and volatile sector in which novelty plays an inherent, critical, role. The methodology proposed does not concentrate the analysis on one aspect, as has been done in past tourism studies, but undertakes to tackle the broader coordination of such a fragmented and turbulent system. This is approached initially by reviewing alternative theories of the firm and of industrial coordination. It identifies a basic methodological divergence between models based on conventional equilibrium principles and evolutionary alternatives. In the latter, structural uncertainty plays a fundamental role and economic agents take steps to deal with the prospects of ignorance. The thesis subsequently develops a learning theory coordination combining elements of evolutionary-cognitive models of knowledge production and coordination. What emerges is a theory of choice between alternative learning strategies. The firm undertakes the management of dynamic tradeoffs between learning strategies. Its boundaries evolve as it must decide between combinations of product and process learning heuristics and mix internal and external learning channels. The thesis develops the important notion that inter-firm networking is an especially important external learning strategy in systems where abstract commodity concepts are ill-developed. In such circumstances, firms can develop product-or process- related competences in appropriating innovation rents in either dimension. If many networking strategies can be sustained by different firms and these affect the nature of products and process technological standards, variation will be sustainable and Schumpeterian competition (with respect to both product and process technologies) will dominate. The thesis contrasts the transaction costs and evolutionary perspectives on tourism. It shows that the former overlooks diversity and generates context specific statements incompatible with its deterministic intentions. The evolutionary-cognitive perspective produces an original framework for the analysis of tourism coordination which makes the novel and critical claim that inter-firm networks constitute the salient feature of tourism coordination. This is important because it allows to provide a genuinely broad outlook on tourism diversity and fragmentation, and explains the process generating and constraining variation. It also becomes possible to distinguish and categorise alternative, external and tourism-specific, learning strategies corresponding to attempts to formulate rent-generating commodity standards. These inter-firm networks match well the diverse, and incompatible, predictions found in the literature about organizational patterns and structural development. /An innovative empirical application to a regional tourism system shows that it is indeed possible to categorise inter-firm networking behaviour according to learning strategies. It does so by correlating patterns of connections with participation in markets in which tourist-consumers and products have distinctive attributes.