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International joint ventures (IJVs) have become popular because of their importance as a strategic alternative in global competition. Construction companies consider IJVs as a vehicle to enter new markets and exploit business opportunities. Being a special type of strategic alliance, IJVs offer partnering companies to combine the distinctive competencies and the complementary resources. Despite the benefits associated with IJVs, such entities are very difficult to manage mainly due to their inherent complexity, involving a mixture of different cultures, managerial systems, philosophies, and attitudes. As a result of these difficulties, the failure rate of IJVs is generally high. Therefore, measurement of the performance of IJVs has been an important research topic for a few decades. However there is no consensus on an appropriate definition of the indicators and determinants of IJV performance in construction. In this study, a framework is proposed to model the IJV performance in construction industry. A multi-dimensional performance measure is developed and determinants influencing the level of performance are defined. In this context, a questionnaire survey was administered to Turkish construction companies that have established IJVs with foreign partners. The validity of the proposed drivers and measures of performance is investigated and relationships between them are analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique. The results point out the significance of the inter-partner fit and the quality of partner relations for a successful IJV operation. The findings of the study also suggest that project-related factors have a moderate influence on IJV performance. In a properly designed IJV structure, partners with compatible skills, resources, and cultures are found to maintain good relations and are expected to achieve greater IJV success.

Gli esseri umani vengono definiti come membri di un gruppo quando assumono i significati che il gruppo stesso crea ed utilizza per concepire sè stesso, i suoi membri e l'universo in generale. Abbiamo studiato i significati che definiscono un essere umano nella versione dell'"autolesionista utente di un gruppo online". In primo luogo, tramite un'analisi tematica di post condivisi nel forum del gruppo siamo venuti a conoscenza delle teorie sul comportamento, la sofferenza ad esso associata ed altre tematiche che definiscono "l'autolesionista". I risultati ottenuti hanno dimostrato che i significati che descrivevano il dolore associato all'autolesionismo erano più rilevanti rispetto a quelli legati all'atto. In seguito tramite IPA di interviste individuali abbiamo compreso che la qualità dello spazio del forum e della relazione tra le dimensioni online e offline determinavano influenze reciproche tra la partecipazione al forum, gli effetti sul sè e sul comportamento e il tipo di utilizzo del forum. Infine abbiamo condotto quattro incontri online con un gruppo di utenti del forum e lavorando sui significati, abbiamo stimolato la loro capacità di diventare consapevoli del loro stato mentale in relazione al comportamento autolesionista. / Human beings are defined as members of a group when they assume the meanings that such group creates and uses to conceive itself, its members and the world in general. We studied meanings that shape a human being in the version of a “self-injurer member of an online group”. Firstly, through a thematic analysis of posts shared in the forum of the group we became acquainted with theories about the behavior, its associated sufferance and other issues that define “a self-injurer”. We found that the most important meanings related to the sufferance rather than to the practice of self-injurious gestures. Secondly, through IPA of individual interviews we understood that the quality of the space of the forum and the relationship between online and offline dimensions determined influences between the self-injurer's identity and her experience in the forum in terms of participation, effects on self and behavior, and type of use of the forum. Finally, we conducted four online meetings with a group of users of the forum and always focusing on meanings, we stimulated their capacity to be aware about their mental states in relation to self-injury.

This thesis describes a research investigation into the implementation of the Last Planner System (LPS) in Nigeria, to improve construction processes within the Nigerian construction industry. LPS is known to be the most developed practical use of Lean Construction. It focuses on minimising the negative impacts of variability, uncertainties, buffers, making projects more predictable, creating reliable work plans and convalescing collaborative planning. However, the Nigerian construction industry is associated with a number of challenges which impair its performance. These challenges were grouped and classified into six major barriers: these include: supervision and quality control, fluctuation and variations, subcontractor involvement, resistance to change, cultural issues, and lengthy approvals. Consequently, a Design Science Research (DSR) approach is adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing LPS in construction projects in Nigeria. In order to achieve this aim, an Action Research strategy is adopted and three case studies are reported; two of these cases describe how LPS was successfully implemented in construction projects within Nigeria. While the third case involved an investigation into the state of production plan reliability, of a successful project in Nigeria. These projects were selected based on non-probabilistic sampling from different geographical locations in Nigeria to represent different kinds of construction projects within the country. The first and second cases involved the implementation of LPS within the construction of a prototype student’s hostel and the construction a 4 Kilometre single carriageway road respectively. The third on the other hand involved the construction of a multipurpose hydro-power dam project; where comparisons were made between typical LPS projects and the project management techniques applied within the project. Data was collected through observation site activities, interviews, documentary analysis and questionnaire survey. The data generated was subsequently analysed by means of content analysis and evaluated in terms of its reliability, validity, representativeness, flexibility, rigour and reflexivity. In view of the LPS implementation within the two case studies, six barriers were identified and classified together with the six barriers associated with the Nigerian Construction industry. These barriers were linked, measured and ranked in averages of their degrees of occurrences. It was revealed that the major barriers were cultural issues and resistance to change, while the others include; lengthy approval, subcontractor’s involvement, poor supervision and quality, fluctuations and variations. Hence, a framework was developed to mitigate these barriers, when implementing LPS in construction projects in Nigeria. The main steps of the framework include: the need to identify purpose; the need to identify stakeholders impact; the need to obtain Sponsorship; the need to build a cross functional team; the need to create measurement indices; the need for training on Lean techniques and LPS; and finally the need to create a right working climate. Furthermore a focus group between construction practitioners was organised to test and evaluate the framework developed. It was revealed from the focus group that the framework has the potential to facilitate the implementation process as proposed.

Cross-cultural differences in the perception of pictorial material has long been established and documented. In the Republic of South Africa, which is increasingly globalized, and where it is appealing from financial, economic and training perspectives, the temptation is to use Western-based AAC symbol systems and strategies in intervention with clients from other language and cultural orientations. The aim of this study was to determine the translucency ratings of specific Blissymbols as rated by six-to seven-year-old Setswana-speaking children. A secondary aim was to determine whether the ratings changed after second and third exposures in order to determine the learnability of these symbols. A brief comparison was made between the results of the current study and the results reported in the Quist et al., study (1998). Thirty-five Setswana learners were exposed to 93 selected Blissymbols, based on a study by Quist et al., (1998). A three-point semantic differential scale, consisting of three faces accompanied each Blissymbol. Participants marked the face that best described his/her perception of the specific symbol’s iconicity. This procedure was repeated over a period of three days. The results indicated that the translucency ratings of the majority of the Blissymbols ranged from moderate to high. The research further demonstrated significant differences in translucency ratings between the first and second exposures, suggesting learning of the symbols. A smaller difference was noted between Days 2 and 3. A correlation in findings was noted between the current study and the Dutch and US studies (Quist et al., 1998). / Dissertation (M (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / MA / unrestricted

Despite the impact of Information Technology (IT) in today's service economy, its nature and role are elusive or ambiguous to say the least. This ambiguity has made it so difficult to measure the value of IT. To clarify the ambiguity, this study, with a focus on the strategic dimension of IT application in the web of organizational activities, proposes a conceptual model that relates IT application to Knowledge Management and then to Strategy. In this effort, incorporating the Co-alignment model as a theoretical binding agent, the role of IT is defined as a facilitator of organizational knowledge management that is regarded as the core of strategic management. The conceptual model proposed is further developed into a structural model for empirical testing. The goodness of fit of the model is assessed through the technique of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) along with first-order and second-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using the survey responses of unit managers of multi-unit restaurant companies of the U.S. and Korea. Since the mail survey was conducted in two different nations, relevant multi cultural issues are also addressed to justify the use of combined samples for the study. The results of the statistical analyses indicate that IT application can be incorporated successfully into the domain of strategic management of restaurant companies as the facilitator of Knowledge Management activities. The hypotheses of the links between IT application and financial performance remained unsolved due to invalid data. However, this study made a certain degree of contribution in identifying the dynamics of IT application in the process of strategic management incorporating the principle of the Co-alignment model. / Ph. D.

This research was executed as three separate studies. Study 1 focused on the perception of pain and the semantic aspects of pain. Study 2 focused on the measurement of acute pain and mood states. Study 3 focused on the psychological treatment of cancer pain. In Study 1 a group of 66 Setswana-speaking adults were required to describe what they saw, what happened, and what would be the outcome with respect to three visually presented pain scenes using The Pain Apperception Test (PAT) A qualitative analysis of their responses shows that pain is experienced as an all encompassing experience affecting all aspects of their lives, such as the physical, emotional, social, and economic. This was found to be true, irrespective of gender and age with the exception of economic issues. A qualitative analysis of their responses to the Pain Eliciting Incidents Questionnaire (PEIQ) reveals that the Setswana pain descriptors are classifiable according to the three dimensions of pain namely, the sensory-discriminative, affective-motivational, and cognitive-evaluative. Sludy 2 applied the Profile of Mood States (POMS) preoperatively to a group of 58 female laparotomy (gynaecological) patients. These patients were also tested post-operatively with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Wisconsin Brief Pain Questionnaire (WBPQ) as pain measures. The pain measures were taken at no medication and at the peak of medication. Factor analysis could not confirm the validity of the six POMS scales. These scales also did not show correlations with post-operative pain. Correlations between the pain measures showed acceptable reliability and validity of the VAS and the WBPQ. In Study 3 three groups of 15 cancer patients each, suffering from chronic pain, were treated over a period of two weeks with either cognitive behavioural therapy plus medication, reassurance therapy plus medication, or medication only. Comparison of before and after treatment pain measures showed that both cognitive behavioural therapy and reassurance therapy had a beneficial effect. Follow-up results three months later showed that the beneficial effect of reassurance therapy did not persist. Patients treated with cognitive behavioral therapy still showed the beneficial effects thereof. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Thesis by publication. / Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, 2008. / Bibliography: leaves 124-133. / Introduction - Literature review -- Online word-of-mouth: a comparison of American and Chinese discussion boards -- Electronic word-of-mouth: a comparison of stated and revealed behaviour on electronic discussion boards -- A cross-cultural comparison of electronic word-of-mouth and country-of-origin effects -- Conclusion. / The growth of electronic discussion boards has enabled consumers from different cultures to communicate with people of similar interests. Through this online channel, marketing concepts such as word-of-mouth (WOM) and country-of-origin (CoO) effects have the potential to become more important because of the potentially large number of participants involved. The US and China, being the largest and second-largest online population in the world respectively, are ideal countries to investigate the frequency and extent of these marketing concepts. --The thesis consists of three separate but inter-related papers which have been published in journals or have been accepted for publication. Each paper builds on the one before and analyses different aspects of online consumer behaviour such as information-giving, information-seeking and the CoO statements made by participants of discussion boards. By examining and comparing the frequency and content of discussion postings on discussion boards within US and China based websites, the thesis makes a comparison of the information-giving and information-seeking behaviour of the discussants and also looks at the extent and the content of CoO statements made. Online observation of discussion postings from six different discussion boards (three each from the US and China) was conducted over two 90-day period in 2004 and 2005 and a total of 5,993 discussion postings were downloaded for analysis. In addition, an online survey of 214 participants was conducted to compare the stated and actual (or "revealed") behaviour of discussants on the US and China based discussion boards. -- Overall, the findings indicate consistent differences over a 12-month period in the bahaviour of the US and Chinese discussants. The US discussants were found to provide more information than their Chinese counterparts while the Chinese discussants exhibited more information-seeking bahaviour on the discussion boards. The findings also indicate that the Chinese discussants demonstrated more negative CoO statements and these statements were observed to be related to Japan and/or brands that originated from Japan. The findings suggest that such negative CoO statements can increase rapidly online and it appears that the negative sentiments by the Chinese were apparently unrelated to product quality; instead they appear to have been predominantly associated with war related animosity. -- These findings have important implications for marketers selling to the Chinese as discussion boards appear to be more important as a source of information for the Chinese than the Americans. Also, given that the Chinese discussants demonstrated a high level of negative CoO statements relating to products from Japan, marketers selling Japanese products to the Chinese must understand the underlying issues related to these negativeCoO statements and take steps to prevent non-purchase of Japanese products. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / vii, 133 leaves ill

This research was executed as three separate studies. Study 1 focused on the perception of pain and the semantic aspects of pain. Study 2 focused on the measurement of acute pain and mood states. Study 3 focused on the psychological treatment of cancer pain. In Study 1 a group of 66 Setswana-speaking adults were required to describe what they saw, what happened, and what would be the outcome with respect to three visually presented pain scenes using The Pain Apperception Test (PAT) A qualitative analysis of their responses shows that pain is experienced as an all encompassing experience affecting all aspects of their lives, such as the physical, emotional, social, and economic. This was found to be true, irrespective of gender and age with the exception of economic issues. A qualitative analysis of their responses to the Pain Eliciting Incidents Questionnaire (PEIQ) reveals that the Setswana pain descriptors are classifiable according to the three dimensions of pain namely, the sensory-discriminative, affective-motivational, and cognitive-evaluative. Sludy 2 applied the Profile of Mood States (POMS) preoperatively to a group of 58 female laparotomy (gynaecological) patients. These patients were also tested post-operatively with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Wisconsin Brief Pain Questionnaire (WBPQ) as pain measures. The pain measures were taken at no medication and at the peak of medication. Factor analysis could not confirm the validity of the six POMS scales. These scales also did not show correlations with post-operative pain. Correlations between the pain measures showed acceptable reliability and validity of the VAS and the WBPQ. In Study 3 three groups of 15 cancer patients each, suffering from chronic pain, were treated over a period of two weeks with either cognitive behavioural therapy plus medication, reassurance therapy plus medication, or medication only. Comparison of before and after treatment pain measures showed that both cognitive behavioural therapy and reassurance therapy had a beneficial effect. Follow-up results three months later showed that the beneficial effect of reassurance therapy did not persist. Patients treated with cognitive behavioral therapy still showed the beneficial effects thereof. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)