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This research utilizes the Model for Marketing in Small Professional Service Firms, based on Carson's Model for the Development of Small Firm Marketing, to examine the marketing of Physician Services in Puerto Rico. To achieve its objectives, a combination of quantitative(survey) and qualitative (cases) research is used. From the literature a series of statements is generated to form hypotheses that are tested utilizing the results of a questionnaire survey of 105 physicians in Puerto Rico. The results suggest a possible change of attitude of service providers towards marketing and its use. They reveal that physicians in Puerto Rico are in agreement with the marketing concept but most do not adopt "traditional" techniques of marketing- preferring to focus on the physician/patient relationship. Analysis of eight cases demonstrates the importance of this relationship and suggests that though is seen as important in attracting and retaining patients, most physicians do not see this as marketing, which is perceived to be mostly "advertising" and "selling." Many are cautious not to "commercialise" their practice and any differences in their behaviour can be explained by the way they believe the physician/patient relationship is best enhanced. The research proposes a Model for Marketing Solo Professional Service Firms that depicts the_ relation between the changes, over time, in the personal life cycle of the service provider/owner manager and the stages in the life cycle of the business practice. The model suggests that throughout there is a need to focus on one aspect of marketing for the practice, which may change over time, and that the elements determining the marketing activities at a particular time, how they are undertaken and why they are utilised, are constantly evolving. Thus the marketing practices of small professional firms appear to be contingent on both the external and internal environment of the practice.

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In Peninsular Malaysia there is a stock of public sector housing for the low income group popularly known as low cost housing units which have been built over the last three decades. It is common for the owners-occu piers, through their own initiatives and efforts, to alter or to extend these houses so as to improve their housing conditions and at the same time to meet the developing needs of the households. This research aims to identify explanations for the phenomenon of owner-initiated transformation of public sector low cost housing particularly in the urban communities of Malaysia. It seeks to further knowledge on transformation from the owners-occupiers point of view, which expresses the need to be realistic of what they can afford when carrying out the transformations. This transformation activity has been slowly recognised as a form of housing supply for low income households and their tenants. Owner-occupiers exhibit a wide range of characteristics and motives for transforming these low cost houses. They may be grouped into two broad categories, that is, those primarily seeking to have an extra space for the household and those more concerned with the house as an economic investment. Transformation is generally carried out to at least the standard of the original dwelling. Where there is plenty of extra space available, the scale and cost of transformation is quite extensive. There are lessons to be learnt from looking at the characteristics of the transformed housing estates. Professionals and other actors in the housing field should acknowledge that, whatever planning provisions and housing designs are laid out by the authority, public sector housing for the low income group will inevitably and continuously undergo a process of transformation with or without government financial backing in order to meet the households' developing needs. This gradual shelter improvement among the low income households in the urban communities of developing countries contributes to the improvement of housing quality and increases the existing national housing stock.

Thesis (MEngineering)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Strategies for reuse of components are important in order to create a closed loop manufacturing system. Over decades, the notion has been gaining ground due to environmental and legislative reasons. Reuse of components is desirable and in many cases might be economically beneficial. However, the implementation of reuse strategies has been hindered by the requirement of reliable methodologies to assess the remaining life and reuse potential of used components. The estimation of the remaining life is problematic as the useful life of a component is affected by several causes of obsolescence. The common causes are due to physical and technological issues. So far, little research has attempted to address these issues simultaneously, and integrating them. This thesis seeks to develop methodologies that aid in predicting the integrated remaining lifetime of used components. There are three core parts of this research. First, the methodology determines the remaining life of used components from the physical lifetime perspective. This was derived from the estimation of physical failure using failure rate data, and the statistical analysis of usage intensity age as obtained from customers survey. Second, the research presents the use of the technological forecasting technique to predict the remaining technological life. As it is influenced by the technology progress, the forecast was developed on the basis of product technology clusters and market trend extrapolation analysis. Finally, the resulting estimations from the two aspects were combined to obtain an integrated assessment for estimating the remaining life of components. The potential for components in a product to be reused is justified when the remaining life is greater than the average expected lifespan of the product. Two cases of domestic appliances – televisions and washing machines were used to highlight and demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology. The results show that the proposed method provides the practitioners with a promising tool for end-of-life decision making. This is in particularly attractive when used as a preliminary decision support tool prior to the time consuming and costly processes such as disassembly and quality testing.