After 100 years at an historically low level, inequality began to rise in the late 20th century, a trend which was especially marked in the English-speaking countries including New Zealand. Various explanations have been advanced, but internationally the most favoured theory is skill-biased technological change, driven by the new information and communication technologies. This thesis used income and wage data from the New Zealand Population Census and the New Zealand Income Survey to examine wage trends between 1991 and 2004. As in other developed countries wage dispersion was increasing in the 1990s, though it appears to have slowed since 2001, and the increased inequality is strongly correlated with workers' skills and qualifications. There is also a correlation between new technology and earnings inequality, but this appears to be attributable to the demand for skills in the industries which are changing fastest, rather than anything intrinsic to the new technology.

The research project reported in this dissertation discovered, applied and drew inferences about the utility and applicability of an enhanced paradigm of Entrepreneurial Business Planning (EBP). The project was motivated by the observation that a clear disparity existed between the teaching of entrepreneurship � in which attention to EBP has been intense and significant � and entrepreneurship research � in which attention to EBP has been negligible. Discovery commenced with development of an analytical framework suitable for classifying and analysing an EBP paradigm, should one be found to exist. This framework was created by combining the four essential ingredients of a paradigm � distilled from an analysis of several definitions of the word paradigm in appropriate contexts � with the three core roles which Mintzberg (1994) argued are the key descriptors of the function of any plan. An existing but inadequate EBP paradigm was revealed by a content analysis, conducted according to an adapted combination of the methodological prescriptions of Krippendorf (1980) and Carney (1972), of a large sample of the existing EBP normative literature: that is, prescriptions purporting to teach the reader how to write a successful Entrepreneurial Business Plan. A combination of logical critique, application of appropriate analytical models and development of grounded theory � based upon the methodology first articulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967) � resulted in production of an enhanced EBP paradigm, a complex construct embracing: (1) precise definition of application boundaries, (2) twelve laws; (3) six success rules; (4) and specified instrumentation requirements. Application of the enhanced EBP paradigm involved four research case studies embracing the case research methodology espoused by Yin (1989). Four Entrepreneurial Business Plans were written according to the prescriptions of the enhanced EBP paradigm and submitted to the marketplace. Sufficient time (between four and eight years) was allowed for results to be monitored. The four case study businesses were selected to span a variety of key attributes designed to maximise two things: (1) the ability to attribute causation of observed results (most particularly the attraction of the investment funds solicited by each Entrepreneurial Business Plan) directly the application of the enhanced EBP paradigm rather than any other possible cause; (2) the ability to make wide rather than narrow inferences about the applicability and utility of the enhanced EBP paradigm. Inferential conclusions were drawn from individual and cross-case analysis. Four points encapsulate the most significant results of the research to the community of entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners and beyond them, to the managerial community at large. (1) The research provides a basis for systematic inquiry in the field of Entrepreneurial Business Planning and a template for quality assessment of Entrepreneurial Business Plans. (2)It redresses the imbalance between research and teaching in an important field of the entrepreneurship discipline. (3)It extends the domain, credibility and utility of entrepreneurship as a discipline. (4) It is the potential generator of many practical analytical constructs and corollary theory in a wide variety of managerial fields. Extended case analysis provided two examples of domain extension and the generation of corollary theory and practice: first, in the field of �venture renaissance� (a term coined to represent the domain of all non startup applications of the enhanced paradigm of Entrepreneurial Business Planning) and second, in the field of mergers and acquisitions. These two illustrations of corollary theory and practice provide strong concluding arguments in favour of the proposition that the enhanced EBP paradigm has substantial general utility. In summary, as a result of the research reported in this dissertation, Entrepreneurial Business Planning may be regarded as a distinct grouping of integrated techniques amounting to a managerial technology for removing impediments to business growth by attracting necessary investments on behalf of articulated strategies. Entrepreneurial Business Planning has thus emerged from vague definition amid the narrow contextual confines of a startup venture seeking venture capital, to precise definition in a far broader context as a generic technology for the removal of impediments to business growth, wherever and however they occur.

Thesis (MA--Art and Design) -- AUT University, 2005. / Cover title. Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (xxii, 85 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm.) in City Campus Collection (T 707 JOE)

Product development efforts are extremely important to a company's success in today's global competitive business environment. Yet, these highly consequential efforts are terribly nebulous to a point that past experiences are inherently underutilized. This thesis demonstrates a methodology to quantify past product development efforts in an attempt to better utilize past experiences. The methodology is centered around conducting an observational study, using regression analysis to expose relationships between various aspects of past product development efforts. In the study, products developed in the past serve as observational units, various cost and time variables serve as dependent variables, and a variety of variables characterizing product development efforts serve as independent variables. The nominal group technique is employed, along with formal personal interviewing, to identify the many different variables targeted for data collection. Regression analysis is used to test and identify relationships between the multitude of combinations of dependent and independent variables. Three simple model forms are used to 'capture' any potential relationship: a straight line model, an exponential model, and a natural-logarithmic model. Dependent-independent variable combinations that have met a given statistical criteria, in one of these three model forms, are labeled statistically notable, and later classified as practically relevant. The applicability of the methodology is demonstrated by presenting 'generic' results obtained by making use of information and historical data from a well established electronics company who wishes to be referred to as Company X. These results show that cost and/or time increase with the increase in: the number of parts in a product, the number of assembly processes, quality/utility of the product, or a product performance enabling specification. Furthermore, product shape is found to be associated with cost and time. Interestingly though, only a relatively few variables were found to be associated with time as compared to cost. The statistical models that were identified can serve as a quantitative historical record and perhaps a prediction tool for Company X, giving them a competitive advantage in their future product development efforts. / Graduation date: 1997

Thesis (MCW) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (193 leaves ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T NZ823.3 BOT )

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New School University, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-57). Also available in electronic format on the World Wide Web. Access restricted to users affiliated with the licensed institutions.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-90).

Aquifers of the Roswell groundwater basin are unconfined and confined types in Permian San Andres Formation and Artesia Group carbonates and evaporites, and the shallow unconfined Quaternary sedimentary and alluvial aquifer. The carbonate-evaporite aquifers were developed from solution by meteoric water, groundwater, the Pecos River, and its tributaries. The structural geology of the region includes Cenozoic folding and wrench faulting. Regional dextral strike-slip faults, <30 Ma to as young as 0.5 Ma, dominate the hydrogeologic framework of the groundwater basin. The faults created major lithologic and structural boundaries for the groundwater systems developed between them. The Roswell groundwater "basin" is actually a series of en echelon structural blocks with aquifers developed in erosion-beveled, fault-displaced Permian carbonates and evaporites partly covered by Quaternary sedimentary rocks and alluvium. The confined portions of the carbonate aquifers are in the San Andres Formation, the Artesia Group, or a solutional-karstic melange of the two. The Permian aquifers developed within each structural block exhibit different hydrochemical and hydrologic properties. The rock groups produce distinctive bulk element water chemistry signatures which are readily visible on ternary plots, Piper diagrams, and Fingerprint diagrams. San Andres Formation waters have high HCO₃⁻, intermediate SO₄²⁻ , and low Cl⁻ that demonstrate a preponderance of carbonates with some evaporites. Waters hosted by the Artesia Group are characterized by low HCO₃⁻, high SO₄²⁻ , and high Cl⁻that reflect evaporites with some carbonates. Quaternary alluvial aquifer waters show low Ca²⁺, low HCO₃⁻, with moderately high SO₄²⁻- and Cl⁻. Normative mineral reconstructions identify the lithologic combinations through which the waters flowed to acquire their present chemical characteristics. Plotted as charts the normative mineral reconstructions can be correlated as are electric well logs. Mineral stability diagrams support exchange by sodium liberation and calcium replacement in Na-smectite marine clays for altering the Ca⁺ - Na⁴ groundwater chemistry. Hydrochemical plots provide a robust means of identifying aquifer sources of groundwater and delineating their structural and stratigraphic boundaries. The work should be expanded to include more water analyses from each group, and as a means to identify unknows, such as the sources of water to the Pecos River.

No description available.

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.