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In this thesis, some old decision strategies are investigated and a new one that furthers our understanding of how decisions are made is introduced. Three studies are presented. In Study I and II, strategies are investigated in terms of inferences and in Study III, strategies are investigated in terms of preferences. Inferences refer to decisions regarding facts, e.g., whether a patient has a heart disease or not. Preferences refer to decision makers’ personal preferences between different choice alternatives, e.g., which flat out of many to choose. In all three studies, both non-compensatory strategies and compensatory strategies were investigated. In compensatory strategies, a high value in one attribute cannot compensate for a low value in another, while in non-compensatory strategies such compensation is possible. Results from Study I showed that both compensatory (logistic regression) and non-compensatory (fast and frugal) strategies make inferences equally well, but logistic regression strategies are more frugal (i.e., use fewer cues) than the fast and frugal strategies. Study II showed that the results were independent of the degree of expertise. The good inferential ability of both non-compensatory and compensatory strategies suggests there might be room for a strategy that can combine the strengths of the two. Study III introduces such a strategy, the Concordant-ranks (CR) strategy. Results from Study III showed that choices and attractiveness evaluations followed this new strategy. This strategy dictates a choice of an alternative with concordant ranks between attribute values and attribute weights when alternatives are about equally attractive. CR also serves as a proxy for finding the alternative with the shortest distance to an ideal. The CR strategy combines the computational simplicity of non-compensatory strategies with the superior information integration ability of compensatory strategies. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted. Paper 2: Submitted.

This thesis provides a discussion on some analytical and empirical models of online auctions. The objective is to provide an alternative framework for analyzing online auctions, and to characterize the distribution of intermediate prices. Chapter 1 provides a mathematical formulation of the eBay auction format and background to the data used in the empirical analysis. Chapter 2 analyzes policies for optimally disposing inventory using online auctions. It is assumed a seller has a fixed number of items to sell using a sequence of, possibly overlapping, single-item auctions. The decision the seller must make is when to start each auction. The decision involves a trade-off between a holding cost for each period an item remains unsold, and a cannibalization effect among competing auctions. Consequently the seller must trade-off the expected marginal gain for the ongoing auctions with the expected marginal cost of the unreleased items by further deferring their release. The problem is formulated as a discrete time Markov Decision Problem. Conditions are derived to ensure that the optimal release policy is a control limit policy in the current price of the ongoing auctions. Chapter 2 focuses on the two item case which has sufficient complexity to raise challenging questions. An underlying assumption in Chapter 2 is that the auction dynamics can be captured by a set of transition probabilities. Chapter 3 shows with two fixed bidding strategies how the transition probabilities can be derived for a given auction format and bidder arrival process. The two specific bidding strategies analyzed are when bidders bid: 1) a minimal increment, and 2) their true valuation. Chapters 4 and 5 provides empirical analyzes of 4,000 eBay auctions conducted by Dell. Chapter 4 provides a statistical model where over discrete time periods, prices of online auctions follow a zero-inflated gamma distribution. Chapter 5 provides an analysis of the 44,000 bids placed in the auctions, based on bids following a gamma distribution. Both models presented in Chapters 4 and 5 are based on conditional probabilities given the price and elapsed time of an auction, and certain parameters of the competing auctions. Chapter 6 concludes the thesis with a discussion of the main results and possible extensions.

The goal of this study was to gather information from Aboriginal offenders and develop a categorical map that describes the factors that help and hinder maintaining a crime free life after incarceration. The critical incident technique was utilized to examine 42 Aboriginal offenders’ journeys from prison to the community. Three hundred and forty-one incidents collapsed into nine major categories representing themes that were helpful in maintaining a crime free life: 1) transformation of self; 2) cultural and traditional experiences; 3) healthy relationships; 4) having routine and structure in daily living; 5) freedom from prison; 6) purpose and fulfillment in life; 7) attempting to live alcohol and drug free; 8) professional support and programming; and 9) learning to identify and express oneself. Seventy-eight incidents formed four categories representing obstacles that interfere with maintaining a crime free life: 1) self; 2) unhealthy relationships; 3) substance use; and 4) lack of opportunity and professional support. The findings were compared and contrasted to two major theories in the literature: desistance and the risk-needs-responsivity principle. Most of the categories were well substantiated in the literature contributing knowledge to theory, policy, practice, and the community. Information obtained from this study provides an increased understanding of the needs of Aboriginal offenders and offers guidance concerning useful strategies to incorporate into their wellness plans when entering the community, most notably respecting Aboriginal culture and traditional practices. The findings also add awareness of those circumstances, issues, and problems that arise during transition that may be harmful or create obstacles to a successful transition.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis reports an investigation into children's understanding of learning, as they engage with an e-Iearning design challenge. It begins by making a case that children's views of learning are of crucial significance, not only because of their position as pre-eminent learners in families and societies, but also because their learning is at the heart of our culture's aspirations for education. Then, it examines a selection of prior studies of learning in e-design contexts in order to gauge the advantages of seeking the views of children about learning in an e-design context. This consideration revealed the technological and educational potential of e-design, suggesting that such a context would be opportune here. Fortuitously, a large, ARC-funded Linkage Project (GENESIS - Generating e-Iearning Systems in Schools) provided just such an e-design context. In this project, researchers were keen to investigate whether the slowness of schools in appropriating e-Iearning might be offset when students have a sustained opportunity to conceive, design and, as far as possible, build an e-Iearning environment in which they and other students could explore questions they were passionately curious about. As a case study within the GENESIS Project, this study followed Papert's (1973) five-step process of educational research. First, a theory of education (a biologically based generative theory) was selected. Next, the ensuing set of conditions for the intellectual growth of children (the e-Iearning design challenge itself) was laid out. These conditions were then implemented within the context of The GENESIS Project: the children were equipped with the opportunity and resources to design an e-Iearning environment to explore a science-and technology topic of their choice (How and why do we think? How come we're not born with the knowledge we know now?). Of the large set of project data, six accounts were selected as representative of the diversity and commonality of children's learning and their understanding of learning in this study. Findings revealed that these children understand learning as generating, testing and thereby modifying ideas, they appreciate that these events are influenced by each learner's values and they recognise value in undertaking this knowledge gaining activity as part of a learning community. Furthermore, these children explicitly enact opportune learning experiences, particularly technologically, demonstrating their fluency as technological thinkers, capable of having technological ideas about learning.

Drawing on Weber’s rationalisation theory and feminist critiques of the consumption-production literature, this thesis describes the impacts and changes in dietary practices that have occurred in households as a result of limited or constrained time available for family food provisioning, and how these changes can be understood as a product of contemporary Australian policy, cultural and food landscapes. It adopts feminist ethnography and household food strategies as important methodological innovations to forge a culturally informed account of convenience-orientated dietary practices in family households within contemporary Australian society. The data were collected from 15 Brisbane family households between January 2002 and August 2006. The thesis argues that dietary practices observed in ‘time-poor’ households have evolved as solutions to the problem of time scarcity by women whose role has traditionally been to feed families. The ‘solutions’ are shaped by the resources to which households have access, and ideas and traditions about family care, food and its responsibility, and available alternative options. Change is observed in diets, menus, source of prepared meals and prepared ingredients, but also organisation of food provisioning and distribution of workload. Also being reshaped is the role of food in the expression of cultural identity, commensality and, in the family setting, the transmission of food skills and knowledge. An analysis that critiques the usefulness of ‘speeding up’ domestic food provisioning as a viable and sustainable solution to the retention of the family meal is drawn, highlighting the problematic nature of persistent nostalgic interpretations of commensal eating patterns in culinary, food activism, sustainability and nutrition discourses. In the absence of a coherent moral philosophy for guiding current public health policy and practice, Kittay’s public ethic of care is proposed as a suitable model. A key challenge for future research is to ensure that household level sociocultural analysis continues to enrich broader debates in food policy and public health.

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[Abstract]Within the Australian marketplace there is often considerable similarity between competing products and services. The need for all firms to develop a competitive advantage in this market is pressing. Franchises are a growing competitive business sector in Australia, with an annual growth rate in excess of 12%. Franchised business units are no different from other firms in that they need to develop a competitive advantage. Within this current fast changing business environment there has not been any research published on how owners and operators within franchised business units in Australia use organisational learning strategies to develop their strategic capability with a view to gaining a competitive advantage. Many firms have adopted traditional training approaches in organisational learning to develop their firm’s strategic capability believing this strategy to be in line with best practice. This narrow training view of organisational learning involves key employees within a firm identifying skill gaps between where the firm needs to be and the current competencies of their staff. The gap is then bridged by traditional training methods that extend staff competencies to meet the firm’s requirements. These traditional training approaches separate learning from the work context and have been identified by many researchers over the years as an inefficient practice. This study was undertaken using a case study approach based on semi-structured interviews to gain an understanding on how franchised business units in Australia used a range of organisational learning strategies to develop their strategic capability. People were interviewed from various organisational levels at five major franchises. The study found that strategic capability is enhanced by developing a learning environment that integrated both operational and strategic learning strategies. Based on the research findings, a franchised business unit’s strategic capability will, in many cases, determine the difference between the franchise’s performance in the marketplace and that of its competitors, hence, developing organisational learning strategies to gain and apply these capabilities are of a critical importance in a franchised business unit gaining a competitive advantage. The study found a number of key ingredients in organisational learning strategy that built a firm’s capability. These key ingredients include adopting a work-based learning strategy which incorporates learning activities such as listening and observing others in the workplace; regular internal training; access to external courses; controlled on-the-job training and supporting individuals and groups within their normal work; developing and implementing accredited in-house learning which would include opportunities for staff to develop both operational and strategic levels of learning; formal and informal mentoring for developing the skills of individuals and groups; participation in higher education; and the use of internal state and national franchise conferences as a tool in developing staff and to provide a work environment where empowerment of staff at all levels is encouraged, accepted and supported by the required learning strategies to make it successful. For franchised businesses within Australia aspiring to gain or build on competitive advantage, it is envisaged that the findings of this research will foster the implementation of a combination of organisational learning strategies that encompass both operational and strategic learning, and include learning for both the individual and collective groups.