Innovation in Australian mid-market firms: The critical role of leader cognition. The innovation literature has focused on innovation in large corporations and small entrepreneurial firms, ignoring medium-sized firms. With a rare opportunity to work with a partner organisation on a range of mid-market firms, the project aims to focus on the unique theoretical aspects of innovation in medium-sized firms. The project’s investigation addresses critical gaps in the innovation strategy literature and ....Innovation in Australian mid-market firms: The critical role of leader cognition. The innovation literature has focused on innovation in large corporations and small entrepreneurial firms, ignoring medium-sized firms. With a rare opportunity to work with a partner organisation on a range of mid-market firms, the project aims to focus on the unique theoretical aspects of innovation in medium-sized firms. The project’s investigation addresses critical gaps in the innovation strategy literature and contributes to a nascent literature on the microfoundations of organisational outcomes. Specifically, the project focuses on how leader cognitions drive the intensity and type of innovation and influence the performance consequences of innovation. The project also aims to provide practical prescriptions to medium-sized firms in Australia.Read moreRead less
Technology and innovation management in high risk situations. The value of Australian bulk commodity exports and container imports is expected to double from $400 billion to $800 billion by 2020, placing considerable pressure on port waters. This project will examine the challenge whereby port operators are both encouraged to take risks to innovate but are constrained by the consequences of risk.
Organisational Readiness for Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation. An ERP implementation is a significant organisational intervention and its success is affected by many variables including the organisation's culture, decision-making strategies, risk taking orientation, leadership strategies and perceptions of the value of Information Technology. We seek to develop a organisational behaviour modification program in order to position the firm to succeed by overcoming barriers in these ele ....Organisational Readiness for Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation. An ERP implementation is a significant organisational intervention and its success is affected by many variables including the organisation's culture, decision-making strategies, risk taking orientation, leadership strategies and perceptions of the value of Information Technology. We seek to develop a organisational behaviour modification program in order to position the firm to succeed by overcoming barriers in these elements. We will (1) identify key variables that inhibit an ERP implementation; (2) develop strategies to orient the organisation to achieve business benefit from the ERP implementation; and (3) track the effectiveness of these strategies through a program of participative action research.Read moreRead less
Outsourcing - Leveraging productivity improvements and better performance from new approaches. Through exploring customer expectations, reasons for outsourcing, and the results obtained, this research will discover those success factors that contribute to positive outsourcing outcomes for key stakeholders, such as the labour force, the outsourcing company and the customer. It will develop models to leverage current performance and use the resulting knowledge to improve Australia's performance in ....Outsourcing - Leveraging productivity improvements and better performance from new approaches. Through exploring customer expectations, reasons for outsourcing, and the results obtained, this research will discover those success factors that contribute to positive outsourcing outcomes for key stakeholders, such as the labour force, the outsourcing company and the customer. It will develop models to leverage current performance and use the resulting knowledge to improve Australia's performance in outsourcing sectors such as Business Processes and IT. The project will lead to a robust, long-term relationship between industry and academia to produce industry relevant, theoretically sound research.Read moreRead less
Maximising diffusion of innovative products on public infrastructure projects: A qualitative management study of open innovation systems. Australia's infrastructure in water, energy, health, education, transport and communication is the platform for our future prosperity and growth. In response to an identified deficit, Australian governments are embarking on major investment programs. Our ability to deliver these programs efficiently and effectively relies heavily on the promotion of innovation ....Maximising diffusion of innovative products on public infrastructure projects: A qualitative management study of open innovation systems. Australia's infrastructure in water, energy, health, education, transport and communication is the platform for our future prosperity and growth. In response to an identified deficit, Australian governments are embarking on major investment programs. Our ability to deliver these programs efficiently and effectively relies heavily on the promotion of innovation in the delivery phase. This study contributes to this major challenge by identifying how diffusion of innovative products can be maximised on infrastructure projects, focusing on knowledge flows within open innovation systems. The study will provide tools to optimise delivery of a world-class and integrated infrastructure network to meet Australia's future social and economic needs.Read moreRead less
Driving Innovation: Mixing, Matching and Transforming Knowledge-Intensive Services into Innovation. The principal aim of the project is to elucidate the ways in which firms mix and match internally and externally provided knowledge intensive services to build the capability and competences needed for sustained innovation. By investigating an area of innovation largely overlooked by international and Australian analysts, the project aims to provide policy makers with substantial analytical and em ....Driving Innovation: Mixing, Matching and Transforming Knowledge-Intensive Services into Innovation. The principal aim of the project is to elucidate the ways in which firms mix and match internally and externally provided knowledge intensive services to build the capability and competences needed for sustained innovation. By investigating an area of innovation largely overlooked by international and Australian analysts, the project aims to provide policy makers with substantial analytical and empirical insights as the basis for more effective industrial development strategy. The project is rooted and develops from parallel work by 12 OECD countries to provide unequalled access for Australian policymakers to comparative data from many of Australia's partner nations.Read moreRead less
Improving patient health outcomes in acute care hospital settings using mobile wireless technology and handheld computers. This project will investigate the use of wireless handheld computers, in three acute care clinical units located at Southern Health and the Royal Women's Hospital, to determine the impact on patient safety and quality of care. There is a need for real time point-of-care access (and input) to patient information, nursing reference information, and drug information for nurses ....Improving patient health outcomes in acute care hospital settings using mobile wireless technology and handheld computers. This project will investigate the use of wireless handheld computers, in three acute care clinical units located at Southern Health and the Royal Women's Hospital, to determine the impact on patient safety and quality of care. There is a need for real time point-of-care access (and input) to patient information, nursing reference information, and drug information for nurses in Australian hospitals. This project aims to address this need by providing nurses with wireless handheld access to such resources. This project is extremely significant, as the outcomes will provide nurses, in Australia and overseas, a set of guidelines for managing wireless handheld computers in clinical units, to enhance patient safety and quality of care.Read moreRead less
Technological innovation and change in supply chain integration. In examining emerging technology that can transform the performance of Australian industry we address the following priority goals: better understanding the processes that will advance knowledge and facilitate the development of technological innovations; the potential application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies across an entire supply chain; and the improved management of information in the storage, distribut ....Technological innovation and change in supply chain integration. In examining emerging technology that can transform the performance of Australian industry we address the following priority goals: better understanding the processes that will advance knowledge and facilitate the development of technological innovations; the potential application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies across an entire supply chain; and the improved management of information in the storage, distribution, and delivery of products (smart information use). Improvement in the operational efficiency and performance of the supply chain will increase national wealth while minimising environmental impacts on the environment, for example, through the better utilisation of heavy freight carriers.Read moreRead less
InformationTechnology (IT) Audit Methodologies in the Australian Public Sector: Addressing Mandatory Requirements of International Standards. The primary benefit occurs in relation to National Research Priority 3: Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, notably Priority Goal 'Smart Information Use', as it will enable more sophisticated and accurate assessments of current IT audit methodologies. In turn, these improvements will enable more effective IT audits by ....InformationTechnology (IT) Audit Methodologies in the Australian Public Sector: Addressing Mandatory Requirements of International Standards. The primary benefit occurs in relation to National Research Priority 3: Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, notably Priority Goal 'Smart Information Use', as it will enable more sophisticated and accurate assessments of current IT audit methodologies. In turn, these improvements will enable more effective IT audits by government audit offices in Australia, bringing reduced risk and increased efficiency to organisations subject to audit, as well as increasing conformance with the new accounting and auditing standards. Furthermore, all Australian citizens, (the indirect clients of public sector audit services), will benefit from well-managed program-delivery systems.Read moreRead less
Visual optimisation of patient flow in Hospital Emergency Departments. Recent policy announcements by the State and Federal Governments have centred on the need to explore the use of process management principles, normally applied to manufacturing industry, to health services management. This multidisciplinary project addresses one of the most pressing needs in health services - provision of methods to reduce patient queues and waiting times in emergency departments through interactive computing ....Visual optimisation of patient flow in Hospital Emergency Departments. Recent policy announcements by the State and Federal Governments have centred on the need to explore the use of process management principles, normally applied to manufacturing industry, to health services management. This multidisciplinary project addresses one of the most pressing needs in health services - provision of methods to reduce patient queues and waiting times in emergency departments through interactive computing simulation to visualise and plan work process improvements. This smart use of information will benefit hospital managers, patients and their carers, is transferable to other health contexts, and by optimising resource usage has the potential to help build Australian (health) business.Read moreRead less