bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF TWO AUSTRALIAN WOMEN SCIENTISTS TO ITS WOOL INDUSTRY
Authors: Allen Nessy
Published: October 2008

By the early 1960s there was a general decline in the consumption of wool, Australia's leading export. Prices were falling and it became clear that wool was suffering from the competitive advantages of the artificial fibres then starting to flood world markets. If the wool industry were to compete successfully, a high quality fleece would have to be produced by growers and the disadvantages of felting and shrinking would have to be overcome. Two Australian women scientists addressed these problems. One was concerned with the genetics of sheep breeding; the other worked on the physics of wool fibres to reduce their limitations in the textile product. The paper examines the major contributions made by these women in meeting the threat to the Australian wool industry posed by the development of synthetics.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND THE REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GASES
Authors: Owen Anthony D.
Published: October 2008

The opportunity for efficiency gains in energy end-uses is viewed as perhaps the single most important factor determining future levels of energy consumption, and therefore emissions of carbon dioxide (a so-called ‘greenhouse’ gas), sulphur dioxide, and other pollutants. This paper traces the path of energy utilisation during the past few decades and identifies possible future sources of major efficiency gains. Particular emphasis is placed on the electricity generation and transportation sectors.
AUSTRALIAN, US AND UK TECHNOLOGY TRANSACTIONS
Authors: Lowe Julian , Atkins Martin
Published: October 2008

A comparison of the results of surveys of Australian, US and UK technology transactions confirms earlier work on the limited role of patents and the wide range of transactions encompassed in technology purchase and sale. However, there is considerable variation between countries and between buyers and sellers of technology, concerning the nature of technology transactions and the perceived importance of proprietary knowledge. Joint venture activity also occurs across a wide spectrum of firms and is usually aimed at product development rather than fundamental research or process/manufacturing innovation. Most firms have problems with technology agreements and the complexity of negotiations is a key issue, although experience and learning over a range of transactions tends to reduce their importance.
AGROBIOTECHNOLOGY IN AUSTRALIA: ISSUES OF CONTROL, COLLABORATION AND SUSTAINABILITY
Authors: Hindmarsh Richard A. , Burch David F. , Hulsman Kees
Published: October 2008

To date, the debate on agrobiotechnological change in Australia has focused largely on the commercial aspects, and more recently the regulatory aspects, of the technology. Policy-makers have relied heavily on overseas trends, as well as proponent scientists and industry, to formulate R&D policy, and privatisation to implement policy. As a result, many social, political and environmental issues have been neglected. To correct this imbalance, and to contribute to a public policy that is sufficiently well-informed to formulate and generate policies in the Australian context, this paper focuses on three issues that have received inadequate attention: ownership and concentration in the agrobiotechnology sector, government and industry collaboration, and ecological impacts and sustainability.
PRINCIPAL-AGENT PROBLEMS AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY
Authors: Earl Peter E.
Published: October 2008

Over the past decade the advertising business has been going through structural upheavals rather similar to those that have been seen in the financial services industry, with the emergence of both giant multiservice global agencies and specialist boutique suppliers of specialised services. These changes, along with growing centralisation of media ownership, have compounded principal-agent problems that had long complicated the operations of the industry. But they have also brought new means for the advertisers to get round them. The paper explores scope for opportunistic exploitation of information advantages in this industry and the checks and balances that may serve to counter such behaviour.
STATE AND COMMONWEALTH CO-OPERATION IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
Authors: Ryan Neal
Published: October 2008

This paper addresses the problems of co-ordination and co-operation between the Commonwealth and State Governments in the delivery of science and technology (S&T) policy in Australia. Commonwealth industrial development strategies have attempted to integrate S & T into the economic system, and more recently the States have become involved in industry related S&T programs. A crucial aspect of the linkage of S&T to industrial development is the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation and delivery of State and Commonwealth programs. An important element of efficiency and effectiveness is the co-ordination of State and Federal efforts in the area. Whilst States are principal actors in industrial projects, major S&T programs are administered federally and have little relationship to regional S&T and industrial activity. There is a case for greater co-operation and co-ordination between the State Government involvement in the allocation of Commonwealth S&T resources.
WILL THE SOUFFLÉ RISE? AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS RECIPES IN THE NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
Authors: Marceau Jane
Published: October 2008

Public policy in the field of economic development in Australia is increasingly focussed on micro-economic reform and, particularly, on reform of the labour market. Over the very recent period some key policymakers have been pushing Australians also to rethink their perceptions of their socio-economic and geographical position in the world and to recognise the realities of the emerging economic order. The broad Australian business recipe is inappropriate for successful participation in the ‘third wave’ of capitalism which has shifted the locus of economic power to the Pacific region. The new recipes devised must not simply rely on deregulation but include reregulation of a more appropriate kind, with much greater emphasis on positive development assistance, on the diffusion and creation of new technologies and on a reform of institutions which retains the social protection essential to prevent the marginalisation of those who are adversely affected by the necessary transformations.
APPROPRIABILITY AND PUBLIC SUPPORT OF R&D IN CANADA
Authors: Hanel Petr , Palda Kristian
Published: October 2008

This paper investigates the extent to which considerations of inappropriability, a form of market failure, guide federal support to private industrial R&D in Canada. Statistics of the overall allocation of subsidies between grants and tax credits show little evidence at an inappropriability rationale. Econometric analysis of grant distributions, using a recently proposed operational concept of inappropriability, supports this conclusion at an aggregate level, but gives different results when a particular grant program is probed.
THE IMPACT OF NEW PRODUCT STRATEGIES OF AUSTRALIAN FIRMS
Authors: Dwyer Larry , Mellor Robert
Published: October 2008

The more information available regarding elements of successful product innovation strategies, the more able are the managers of Australian industry to meet the challenges and opportunities ofthe international marketplace. To provide some understanding ofthe new product strategies of Australian firms, research was undertaken to determine performance results achieved by 108 firms in their new product programs, to determine whether firms' performance results are linked to their new product strategies, and to analyze the implicationsfor product innovation management. The results indicate the importance of types of products developed, types of markets sought, technological and production strategies and nature and orientation of the firms' new product programs as elements of successful product innovation management.
APPRAISING INVESTMENTS IN NEW TELECOM TECHNOLOGIES: THE CASE OF SWEDISH TELECOM
Authors: Bohlin Erik
Published: October 2008

Investment management and investment appraisals of new technologies in Swedish Telecom's network have been investigated in an exploratory manner. Investments in new telecom technologies are difficult to appraise because of, among other things, systems interdependence, technical change and competition. It is argued that investment appraisals need to be more closely integrated with strategy and that it is essential for management to carefully match investment management with different types of investments in order to alleviate measurement problems and to provide the right organizational incentives for investments in new technologies.
AUSTRALIA'S INFORMATION LANDSCAPES
Authors: Newton P. W.
Published: October 2008

New technologies and the infrastructure and industries that develop around them have continuously shaped and re-shaped physical and cultural landscapes throughout history. While the antecedents of the information and communications revolution can be traced back beyond the twentieth century, the major burst of telematic products and services and their supporting infrastructures has occurred over the past quarter century. Furthermore, this development is accelerating. The manner in which information and communications technologies are re-shaping patterns of urban settlement is as yet not clear, however. The present paper identifies some emerging trends in the Australian context.
ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION: OPENNESS AND INTEGRATION — BUT WHAT KIND?
Authors: Penrose Edith T.
Published: October 2008

In advanced industrial economies… managerial hierarchies have gained an increasing advantage over market mechanisms or multilateral negotiations in coordinating the flow of goods, monitoring economic activities, and allocating resources… By the time the United States entered World War I management decisions had replaced coordination by market forces in many of the most critical sectors of the economy. The result might be termed managerial capitalism. (Chandler and Daems, 1980: 5, 6)

… the decision-taking nexus of the MNE in the late 1980s has come to resemble the central nervousd system of a much larger group of interdependent but less formally governed activities, whose function is primarily to advance the global competitive strategy and position of the core organization …

There are several implications of the new style MNEs… First they cause us to reappraise our thinking about the nature, function and boundaries of firms and markets… Second, they cast doubt on the usefulness of some of our existing classifications of our economic activities and of our traditional concepts of competition. Third, they have profoundly affected the pattern and ownership of international economic activity and the political economy of the countries which are party to it. (Dunning, 1988a: 327, 328)

The first element of a successful industrial policy is the creative use and shaping of the market. Industrial policy fails when it overrides or ignores the market and is based upon the presumption that plans and markets are alternative means of economic coordination … The market, it has been said, is a good servant, but a bad master… effective policy towards industry depends on breaking with the plan or market dichotomy that informs conventional economic theory and is taken for granted by policy makers guided by that theory. (Best, 1990: 20)
TELEWORK: ISSUES FOR NEW ZEALAND
Authors: Schoeffel Penelope , Loveridge Alison , Davidson Carl
Published: October 2008

This paper reviews international trends and associated issues of telework (work that is performed remote from clients or employers assisted by electronic communication facilities). It examines whether telework in New Zealand is following reported trends and concludes that the forces driving telework in New Zealand are different from those elsewhere, for structural reasons which are described. The results of a small survey of New Zealand teleworkers suggest that the growth of teleworking in New Zealand is among professional and technical workers with scarce skills or in small innovative home-based businesses. The implications of these findings for New Zealand's future development are discussed.
JAPAN'S MOVE UP THE TECHNOLOGY ‘FOOD CHAIN’
Authors: Forester Tom
Published: October 2008

Japan is about to overtake the US to become No.1 in information technology, the key technology of our era. Starting four decades ago with transistor radios and televisions, the Japanese had by the 1970s come to dominate most areas of consumer electronics. In the 1980s, Japanese companies targeted and swiftly captured leadership of the critically important semiconductor industry. Along the way, the Japanese have gained a stranglehold over key areas of advanced manufacturing technology; they have come to reign supreme in modern office equipment such as faxes and photocopiers; and they have even become No.1 in the huge global telecommunications equipment market.

In computers and software per se, Japanese companies have been steadily moving up the so-called technology “food chain”, quietly building market share in laptop computers, workstations, mainframe computers and supercomputers, and carefully targeting next-generation computing technologies. In this process, they are being aided by fundamental economic and technology trends in the IT industry.
COMMERCIALIZATION OF SCHOLARSHIP IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES
Authors: Leslie Larry L. , Harrold Ross I.
Published: October 2008

In their search for greater financial independence, Australian universities are encouraging academics to commercialize the application of their knowledge and research skills. While these commercialized scholarship (COS) activities generate significant direct financial returns, they also impact indirectly upon the mainstream activities of university life. There has been little research into these indirect effects on university teaching, research and service.

This article reports a survey of academic and administrative staff of two Australian universities which compared direct and indirect costs and benefits of academics’ COS activities. A novel evaluation technique was employed to assess the extent to which interviewed staff believed that the indirect benefits of COS (such as closer relations with external bodies, prestige and spin-off effects on teaching and research) were in aggregate more significant than the direct financial effects. The technique was also used to assess indirect costs of COS, such as time lost to basic research, and the time and other university facilities consumed for which there is incomplete reimbursement. An aggregation of these indirect and direct benefits and costs suggested that COS projects could be more favourable to universities than a narrow financial analysis would suggest.
INVISIBLE PARTICIPANTS. WOMEN IN SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA, 1830 — 1950
Authors: Moyal Ann
Published: October 2008

There is a great deal of contemporary pressure to examine why women are not going into science, to encourage them to do so, and, among a growing band of feminist scholars, to question and challenge the long male-centred structuring and domination of the ethos of science. Deep cultural forces survive that continue to locate most women in the profession's lower ranks; the place of women in science leadership and policymaking in Australia is conspicuously small, while the very architecture of science and its invisible colleges and networks appear to perpetuate the expectation that science is a masculine world. How has this scenario developed in Australia? What part have woman played in the society and community of science? How widespread has their participation been? And what, in a sweep across a century or more, are the inhibitors that have kept women out of ‘mainstream’ science? This paper examines the background in Australia.
THE ROLE OF SMALL FIRMS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROBOTICS MARKET IN SPAIN
Authors: Sánchez Angel
                      Martínez
Published: October 2008

This paper studies the structure and development of the robotics market in Spain. The robotisation process of Spanish industry began in the bigger firms, but nowadays small and medium sized firms are the main adopters of robots. The degree of concentration of demand has decreased more than that of supply. The participation of robots in Spanish technology is still small although half the robots adopted are manufactured in Spain. The development of supply has been endogenous, but supplier firms share robots with other equipment in their product portfolio.
THE POLITICS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM IN AUSTRALIA
Authors: Joseph R.A.
Published: October 2008

The structure and organisation of many national and international telecommunications networks around the world has undergone considerable change in recent years. These changes have been characterised as part of the global trend away from the traditional regulation of telecommunications towards a so-called ‘deregulated’ environment. This article looks at the recent history of the process of change and reform which has occurred in telecommunications in Australia. It is argued that the simple notion of deregulation of telecommunications as a process where the government withdraws from market intervention does little to explain the complex nature of change which has occurred in Australia. By linking telecommunications policy to broader changes in technology policy, the paper aims to widen the base of current evaluation of telecommunications policy. This paper observes that it is possible to interpret the ‘deregulation’ of telecommunications as part of a longer historical process of various Australian government institutions trying to come to terms with economic and technological change. The particular emphasis placed in political rhetoric on technology in general and telecommunications specifically as a source of progress has meant that many important social issues have been neglected or inadequately addressed.
INNOVATION, CORPORATE ORGANISATION AND INDUSTRY POLICY: WILLIAM LAZONICK ON THE FIRM AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Authors: Robertson Paul L.
Published: October 2008

In two recent books and several articles, William Lazonlck has examined the proper industry policy for countries during periods of significant innovation. On the basis of the historical development of Britain, the USA and Japan, he concludes that successful innovation requires the establishment of large, vertically-integrated firms that are able to manoeuvre flexibly because their workers are willing and able to cooperate with change. Although Lazonick's arguments are persuasive in many respects, they are based on assumptions of future developments that are not necessarily correct. In particular, large firms may not be the best vehicles for the development and implementation of innovation. Moreover, increasingly ‘intelligent’ machines may erode the need for a flexible workforce, much as happened with the advent of Fordism in the early decades of the twentieth century. As a result, nations should be wary of committing themselves to centralised and uniform policies when the nature of the problem is still uncertain.
THE ECONOMIC RATIONALE OF UNIVERSITIES: A RECONSIDERATION
Authors: Earl Peter E
Published: October 2008

This paper is an attempt to make a contribution to current debates about the reform of higher education by using the work of Ronald Coase on the nature of the firm as a framework for considering alternative institutional structures for delivering educational services. Attention is focused particularly on rival ways of coordinating the delivery of educational services and guaranteeing standards. Extreme market-based scenarios involving freelance academics and itemised billing for specific services are contrasted with the present system involving very incomplete contracts for academic employees and package deal purchases of degrees by students. Costs and benefits of different institutional structures are examined. The role of academic professionalism in limiting opportunistic behaviour is considered in relation to policies that involve an increase in auditing of tertiary institutions.
PRICING OF RESEARCH: WHAT WILL THE MARKET BEAR?
Authors: Young Ralph , Garrett Bob , Walsh Chris
Published: October 2008

It has long been the practice of many competitive funding agencies to fund research at a level below full cost, and frequently to exclude salary costs. The implicit subsidy to beneficiaries has been a matter of concern to research performers as well as to government. More recently the greater emphasis given to competitive funding, reductions in direct appropriation funding, the setting of priorities by funding agencies which may differ from a research performer's assessment of priorities and the imposition of external funding targets on research performers by government with the aim of strengthening ties with industry have changed the nature of the game. The commercialisation thrust associated with these changes has given the issue of research pricing greater priority. This paper considers a number of theoretical pricing issues against this background, including the relevance of marginal cost pricing and the impact of the marginal funding policy of granting agencies. A Commonwealth view of research pricing is then offered, based on recent work undertaken by a working party of the Coordination Committee on Science and Technology. The paper concludes with a discussion of CSIRO's recent experience with research pricing and likely future directions for research pricing policy.
THE IMPACT OF TELE-NETWORKING ON RESEARCH
Authors: Johnston Ron
Published: October 2008

It is commonplace that communication technologies are altering the face of research…Networks have become an accepted part of the practice of science. Researchers continue to clamour for network capability, and devour network capacity and services as fast as engineers can deploy them. But there is much more growth and experience to come. We are at an early stage of the learning curve.

Policies that influence the rate of adoption and degree of access to telecommunication channels have profound implications for science. At one extreme, as different scientific disciplines adopt different channels at different rates, the likelihood of cross-disciplinary research decreases and differences in the rate of progress in those disciplines become more obvious … At the other extreme, adoption of the same telecommunication channels at the same rate promotes the sharing of knowledge, extended research groups, more information transfer, and the rapid diffusion of scientific information - but undermines disciplinary boundaries and reward structures.
CORPORATE ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE IN THE AUSTRALIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY
Authors: Hodgkinson Ann
Published: October 2008

The Australian telecommunications equipment sector appears to have shown a marked improvement in international competitiveness since the mid-1980s. This paper analyses the causes of this growth in terms of responses to changes in the global— particularly the Asia-Pacific — market and market developments in Australia. This improved competitive position has resulted in organisational change within multinational firms based in Australia, with evidence of corporate specialisation, growing intra-industry trade and emerging strategic alliances which will link the local industry more closely with global developments.
GENE MAPPING AND POLICY-MAKING: AUSTRALIA AND THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
Authors: Balmer Brian
Published: October 2008

This paper examines various unsuccessful attempts by Australian geneticists to become involved in the international Human Genome Project. Several attempts were made by various scientists to gain support for organized gene mapping through the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce and the Cooperative Research Centres funding scheme. Different expectations of the role of science in each case played a crucial role in shaping policies and their eventual outcome.
THE JAPANESE INNOVATION SYSTEM: HOW IT WORKS
Authors: Fransman Martin
Published: October 2008

The R&D expenditures of the top five Japanese R&D spenders — Hitachi, Toyota, Matsushita, NEC and Fujitsu — is as great (in terms of purchasing power parity) as the total R&D expenditure of the entire private sector in Britain. One of the key determinants of success has been the institution of lifetime employment. The assumption of ‘no exit’ has had important consequences which have influenced organisational practices conducive to innovation in new product development, the interfacing of R&D, production, and marketing, and just-in-time and quality control activities which depend on information flows and cross-functional coordination. MITI's relatively great influence derives largely from its central nodal position in a vast and complex information network that criss-crosses not only Japan but also the world. MITI's internal organizational structure consists of a matrix of vertical units, which correspond to the main industrial sectors in the economy, and horizontal units which deal with issues that cut across the various sectors.
THE EMPLOYMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ENEMY ALIENS (ESTEA) SCHEME IN AUSTRALIA: A REPARATION FOR WORLD WAR II?
Authors: Homeyer Uta v.
Published: October 2008

The new fields of atomic and nuclear science represented a weapon of immense power which, following 1945, became the key to military and economic activity precipitating the post-war arms race. Antipodean Australia was not unaffected by these advances in scientific knowledge. The Australian government, impressed by the technological changes elsewhere in the world and confident in the belief that the nature of science was universal, participated in what was, in effect, a hunt for German scientists. During the Cold War period 1949/52, approximately 145 German scientists and engineers were brought to Australia under the ‘Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens’ (ESTEA) scheme. Their arrival and subsequent activities were given minimum publicity and it took 46 years before application for access to the closed files, of what was quite an elaborate Commonwealth government project, was successful.
ECONOMICS OF FILM AND TELEVISION IN AUSTRALIA
Authors: Acheson Keith , Maule Christopher
Published: October 2008

Molloy and Burgan's study of film and television production and distribution in Australia summaries the idiosyncratic features of the industry, identifies the domestic policies affecting this sector and discusses a number of the economic issues. This review of the study provides a different interpretation of some of the economic issues. A framework for analysing the industry is proposed, one which focuses on the management of three types of risk: uncertainty ex ante about what will attract viewers; difficulties in containing cost overruns; and the problem of piracy.
GLOBAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN INFORMATION: The story of TRIPS at the GATT
Authors: Drahos Peter
Published: October 2008

The paper tells the story of how the US managed to secure an agreement, which heavily favoured it, on intellectual property at the GATT. This agreement has important implications for global information flows. Understanding this event, the paper argues, will help us to understand some of the mechanisms which operate to bring about global regulatory institutions. Coercion of some kind will be fundamental to the constitution of global regulatory orders.
INFORMATION FOR ALL OR KNOWLEDGE FOR THE ELITE? THE CONTOURS OF A DISSIMILAR EUROPEAN INFORMATION POLICY
Authors: Becker Jörg
Published: October 2008

In the areas of telecommunications and databanks, the following developments are likely to occur in the former CMEA countries: I. Eastern Europe will loose human resources through brain drain. 2. Owing to a chronic lack of hard currency, information transfer from West to East will decrease. 3. The change from large national markets to small markets will involve immense cost and will impede the development of market economies. 4. In telecommunications, the technical integrity of networking will be endangered by inadequate planning. 5. Improvement to only metropolitan telecommunications and supply of telecommunications only in response to economic demand will deprive the general market of investment and ensure that telecommunications is available only to the rich. 6. Financing of Eastern European telecommunications by Western European firms will lead to dependency. 7. Western telecommunications firms will be interested in serving only the economically powerful. 8. Eastern European enterprises will become merely branches of West European concerns.
‘WANT OF NOVELTY’ AND PATENT LITIGATION: THE CASE OF THE CYANIDE PROCESS OF GOLD EXTRACTION, 1892–1902
Authors: Lougheed Alan
Published: October 2008

In the years between 1887 and 1910, two major processes for the extraction of precious and base metals from their ores, the cyanide and the flotation processes, were developed. While these were very important advances in the technology affecting the mining industry (and are still as important now as they were when first used) they were both subjected to fierce litigation in the Courts. This is the story of the cyanide process.
RESEARCH MANAGEMENT AND COMMERCIAL MARKETS: CULTURAL CHANGE IN AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
Authors: Turpin Tim , Deville Adrian
Published: October 2008

Research institutions and universities have undergone significant organisational change during the past decade. While these organisations have been pressed to attract an increasingly larger proportion of their research budget from industry, they have introduced business principles and practices in order to manage their scientific research and to focus it more on producing commercial outcomes. As individual scientists and institutions have responded to these changing research environments, the research cultures of these organisations have undergone a transformation. This paper seeks to unpack the notion and process of ‘cultural change’ and to emphasise the social dynamics that underpin such change.
THE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN: HOW CUBA IS FINANCING A NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE
Authors: Roche Edward Mozley , Blaine Michael James
Published: October 2008

Cuba has a poor telecommunications infrastructure with 19 persons for each telephone. The switching equipment is analog, and dated. In addition, Cuba is in a difficult political situation due to the dispute with the United States over compensation for properties expropriated during the revolution. Yet, in spite of its communist traditions of state ownership, in 1994 it sold 49% of its telecommunications company to a private Mexican firm. An explanation for this is found in the technology needs of the island and the different financial options available to Cuba, including issuing bonds, taking out commercial loans, and making private stock placements.
INSIDE THE BLACK BOX: A LOOK AT THE CONTAINER
Authors: Gans Joshua S.
Published: October 2008

The containerisation revolution, despite being centered on a relatively simple technology, did not take over the cargo shipping industry until the 1960s. This paper argues that the timing of its introduction was determined by organisational as opposed to technological factors. This argument is developed by looking at the events leading up to the introduction of containers into cargo shipping. The rapid spread of containers and the role of standards are also considered. Nonetheless, given the nature of finding coherent organisational patterns and complementarities, it is argued that informational externalities were most probably responsible for any delay in the container system's introduction.
REGULATORY SYSTEMS DESIGN
Authors: Lamberton D. M.
Published: October 2008

If the broad purpose of regulation is to replicate the results of a competitive market, we need to be clear what are those results. It is a reflection of the difficulty of that task that competition has been given so many labels, ranging from perfect to managed; and can relate to products, processes, locations, firms, nations, technologies and systems.

Modelling in which the collection, processing and use of information is continuous is needed. This approach has to be carried into the design of regulatory systems. In particular, the information processes in which the regulator and firm participate must not be locked away in ‘black boxes’. Learning, knowing and having information are complex matters, giving rise to lock-in and diversity, and affecting key concepts like technology, information, cost and profit.
MOVING BOUNDARIES: TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE INTERFACE BETWEEN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
Authors: Hill Stephen
Published: October 2008

The transformation of the interface between academic institutions and their environment can be depicted in terms of moving boundaries: the academic-commercial, managerial and university work. These movements represent fundamental transformations of universities, in structure, referent external objectives, meaning and work. It is of great importance to realise that whilst these changes may appear from close up to be unique to changes within the Australian scene, they are not. Instead, the movement of the three boundaries is set within shifts that are currently going on within global society. Representing as they do, deep penetration of commercial market parameters into the very premises of acadaemia, these changes represent the impact of postmodernism on contemporary academic work.
THE AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL AND THE INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR IN THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Authors: Hooton Joy
Published: October 2008

Unlike other Western democracies, Australia makes negligible provision for scholars, who work largely outside institutions, notwithstanding the fact that much valuable research is produced and published by such individuals. This exclusion is symptomatic of a much grosser distortion in the general administration of research funding.

This paper addresses firstly the apparent perception of the nature and value of research on the part of the Department of Employment, Education and Training and their political masters in the context of government policy as a whole in the tertiary sector; secondly, the impact of this policy on the life of the academic, especially the academic in the humanities and social sciences; and thirdly the likely impact of the policy on the nature and quality of current research.
THE POLITICS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM IN NEW ZEALAND
Authors: Joseph R.A.
Published: October 2008

This paper presents an historical account of the reforms to New Zealand's telecommunications policy which have occurred since 1986. The history is set around three stages: the period leading up to the review of the New Zealand Post Office in 1986; the corporatisation and subsequent privatisation of Telecom New Zealand in 1990; and, the implementation of the so-called ‘light-handed’ regulatory regime since 1990. This paper focuses on the period up to 1990 to address the question why telecommunications reform took place in New Zealand. It is argued that the ideological disposition of the New Zealand Treasury was very influential in determining the outcomes of the reform process. This paper also makes some observations on the broader political aspects of the reform process.
IMPACTS OF THE DOMESTIC MICROWAVE OVEN
Authors: Aitken Campbell , Ironmonger Duncan
Published: October 2008

Microwave ovens have been adopted by Australian households with remarkable speed. Over 5 million microwave ovens have been sold in Australia, and approximately 77 per cent of Australian homes contain one. It is plausible - but difficult to prove that microwave ovens have reduced time spent cooking. Most foods take less time to prepare in a microwave oven than a conventional oven; women's cooking time has fallen during the microwave's diffusion period, while microwaveable foods have become widely available. The microwave oven has influenced household food purchases and can reduce household energy use via several mechanisms.
TRANSLATING THE MFP: NATIONAL INNOVATION MANAGEMENT POLICY, HIGH TECHNOLOGY INCUBATORS AND AUSTRALIA-JAPAN RELATIONS
Authors: Roberts Rhonda
Published: October 2008

The drive by governments to find new means of managing technological change in the quest for competitive advantage has led to an expansion in the international construction of high technology incubators for the purpose of accelerating innovation rates. In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) asked the Australian government to jointly build in Australia a ‘city of the future’ known as the Multifunction Polis (MFP) which would incubate high technology industries for the twenty-first century. An analysis of the curious course of MFP design negotiations sheds light on a number of important issues including cultural differences in constructing solutions to national innovation problems and the use of the promise of innovation in shaping international relations.
BRINGING MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES TO AUSTRALIA'S COMMUNICATION FUTURES: BEYOND THE SUPERHIGHWAY?
Authors: Lennie June , Hearn Greg , Stevenson Tony , Inayatullah Sohail , Mandeville Tom
Published: October 2008

A case study is presented of the multi-method and multi-discipline approach to anticipating the social and policy implications of new communication and information technologies (C&IT) being adopted by the Communication Centre at the Queensland University of Technology. This work draws on frameworks which include action research, structurational approaches to technology, coevolutionary systems theory, information economics, feminist and poststructuralist theories, and civilisational and critical approaches to futures studies. The main theoretical perspectives and methodologies we draw on are outlined, together with some of our research findings. Some future scenarios for communication in Australia, beyond the technological optimism of the information superhighway rhetoric, are presented. The often paradoxical relationship between technological change and social change is recognised. We argue that rather than being driven by the entertainment or commercially-oriented applications of the ‘information superhighway’, we need alternative future scenarios and designs for C&IT which facilitate cooperation, gender equity, inclusion of the Other and social justice.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON AUSTRALIA'S COMMUNICATIONS FUTURE
Authors: Langdale John V.
Published: October 2008

Australia's communications future is being increasingly shaped by globalisation trends. However, complex interrelationships exist between forces operating at global, national and local scales. Social and business networks have a major role in moulding Australia's communications future. The changing nature of family social networks have significant communications implications. The use of telecommunications to deliver public services is growing in importance as governments attempt to lower costs of the delivery of these services.
AUSTRALIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT: ISSUES FOR THE FUTURE
Authors: Joseph R.A.
Published: October 2008

Australian telecommunications policy is undergoing a period of rapid change. Policy statements released to date have placed emphasis on competition and liberalisation but with a focus on the domestic situation. Australia's involvement in international telecommunications policy change has received less attention than domestic telecommunications reform issues. It is argued in this paper that the success of what Australia wants to achieve nationally through telecommunications will depend in large part on international telecommunications regulatory developments and Australia's response to them. The complexity and direction of international change in telecommunications requires a more sophisticated approach to policy development than has taken place in Australia to date. This paper sketches an outline of current trends in international telecommunications reform, Australia's response to them and identifies issues for the future. These future issues include information policy, tensions between competition policy and trade policy, industry policy, direct foreign investment, and codes of conduct for multinational companies. Some areas requiring further research are also identified.
RE-ENGINEERING TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR THE WAY PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE: SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE DESIGN OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Authors: Gillard Patricia , Wale Karen , Bow Amanda
Published: October 2008

This article uses findings from a close study of eleven people's telecommunications uses at home and a national survey to argue for the importance of technology development which is based on people's demonstrated uses and interests. Values about privacy at home and practices of controlling phone intrusion were shown to be related to choice of future technologies. Those who wanted to be accessible to callers chose services which enhanced communication such as video phones whereas those who wanted to control incoming calls chose services such as ‘intelligent’ phones. The study illustrates the contribution of ethnographic approaches and criticises research based on economic models and quantification alone.
Nurturing National Talent: The Australian Research Council's Fellowship Scheme
Authors: MARCEAU JANE , PRESTON HUGH
Published: October 2008

This paper examines the functioning of a Research Fellowship Scheme in Australia and its place in the higher education system. It indicates the educational paths and early career tracks which have led the gifted researchers studied to their elite positions. It indicates how the research strategies of supervisors (Heads of Department and School) affect the placing of Fellows and how the sociological and institutional contexts of the broader education system influence outcomes. It suggests some of the dilemmas faced by policymakers attempting to strengthen the research and higher education systems of small countries with limited resources which want to maintain a national and international science capability.
Economics and the Diffusion of Communication and Information Technologies: Joseph Schumpeter and the Self-organisation Approach
Authors: FOSTER JOHN
Published: October 2008

Economic motivations and economic processes play a key role in the emergence and diffusion of communication and information technologies. The objective of this paper is to offer an economic approach which is better suited to understanding such motivations and processes within an interdisciplinary context than the conventional, equilibrium-oriented, perspective. It is argued that many modern ‘neoclassical’ economists, stressing competition, have little in common with the old ‘classical’ tradition in economics, which was based on synergies. The ideas of Joseph Schumpeter are highlighted as a distinct alternative to neoclassical economics and viewed from a self-organisational perspective. It is explained that self-organisation in the economic domain is a related, but different, process to that identified by Ilya Prigogine in physio-chemical contexts. In particular, knowledge and informational considerations become central. A modelling strategy that can track self-organisational growth processes and provide an assessment of their structural stability is discussed.
The Knowledge-based Economy: A Sisyphus Model
Authors: LAMBERTON DON
Published: October 2008

The current fashionable emphasis on the knowledge-based economy is missing the real significance of the dichotomy between tacit and codified knowledge. A continuing input of tacit knowledge is essential to sustained innovation and growth. Without this, the modern thrust towards codification based on IT can lead to an economy with plenty of processing capacity but no new knowledge to process.
Modelling the Coevolution of Communications and Socio-economic Structure
Authors: ALLEN PETER M.
Published: October 2008

Economic modelling that employs ‘the complex systems’ approach shows that factors such as communication and diversity are vital to systematic function and evolution. A ‘complex systems’ model of market evolution is presented and discussed to illustrate these issues.
The Vexed Question of Research Priorities: An Australian Example
Authors: Aitkin Don
Published: October 2008

This paper discusses the nature of the research priorities debate in Australia, and traces the working out of that debate over recent years. The discussion is embedded in an account of how the institutional structure developed to allocate funds for research and how mechanisms were put in place to try to establish national research priorities. It is argued that the prioritising processes developed by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australian Science and Technology Council (ASTEC) during the 1980s and early 1990s are adaptable enough for current and future use, but that by 1996–7, the possibility of a sustained effort to work out national research priorities appeared remote.
R&D Incentives and their Economic Outcomes in the Australian Context
Authors: Freed Gerry
Published: October 2008

Research and development (R&D) is presented not as a primary source of local economic activity but as secondary to fundamental factors influencing corporate survival in small economies. The increasing difficulties of demonstrating causality between levels of Industrial R&D (IRD) expenditure and local economic activity are discussed. It is argued that industry specific, selective support schemes are more likely than generic tax concessions to be effective in periods of rapid trans-national restructuring. Such support appears of limited value unless aligned with a broader policy to assist local enterprises to adapt to competitive forces.
Defence R&D and the Management of Australia's Defence Technology
Authors: Markowski Stefan , Hall Peter , Dessi Albert
Published: October 2008

Technological innovation for defence-related purposes has often facilitated major advances of socio-economic significance well beyond the defence sector. In the post-Cold War era, government spending on military research and development (R&D) is falling around the world but for Australia, the changing strategic environment presents challenges which imply there may be substantial benefits from maintaining existing, modest levels of domestic R&D effort This paper examines the policy drivers in this area, embedding analysis of defence R&D spending in the broader processes of procuring R&D-intensive, hi-tech weapons systems. It concludes that if Australia is to reduce the inefficiencies often associated with defence procurement, it may need to have a core of defence-dedicated R&D undertaken by government itself.
Catching Up or Marking Time? Technology Transfer and Market Fragmentation in Australia
Authors: TODD JAN
Published: October 2008

Australia was a latecomer to industrialisation, dependent on the importation of ‘foreign’ technology to help ‘catch up’. While such a strategy can lead to entrenched structural dependence, a dynamic variant of product cycle theory suggests that windows of opportunity for genuine catching up are created at times of transition to new technological systems or paradigms. Such conditions arose in Australia in the 1920s with the emerging shift from natural to synthetic materials. By studying the subsequent development of a local synthetic resin industry, this article highlights the way technology transfer processes can affect market structure and behaviour, and the cumulative effect of the resulting industrial weaknesses.