In recent years wrongful convictions have received a considerable amount of research attention. This flourishing interest has resulted in a growing body of literature that aims to investigate this criminal justice phenomenon. Specifically, the current academic literature suggests that exonerees have reported feeling stigmatized; however, public perception research suggests that the public is actually supportive of exonerees. As very little research has been conducted on public perceptions of wrongful conviction—and on the views of community members, in particular—this thesis sought to further explore this topic using open-ended, structured interviews. In addition, the literature has been criticized for its lack of theory integration. Therefore, the results of this study have been interpreted in the context of Giddens‘ Structuration Theory. Indeed, public perception and support are important as they may influence policy changes and encourage the government to be more forthcoming when it comes to preventing wrongful convictions and helping exonerees post-conviction. Overall, results indicated that community members defined wrongful conviction as cases of factual innocence. They also had limited knowledge of wrongful conviction, leading some participants to believe that wrongful convictions were infrequent. Community members were also able to identify several factors that lead to wrongful convictions (e.g., mistaken eyewitnesses), felt that the criminal justice system did a fair job in light of wrongful convictions, and generally held positive views toward exonerees (e.g., believing that they should receive supportive services, such as financial compensation, job training, and apologies). Furthermore, results highlight that while community members acknowledge that exonerees likely experience stigmatization, the majority of participants did not personally express stigmatizing views. / UOIT

Academic mobility and migration of knowledge workers are two concerns in international migration studies, so how academic mobility transforms into immigration has received much attention as well. There are two commonly held approaches to the explanation of immigration of international students: the classic Push and Pull theory and its derivative studies as well as Rational Choice Theory (RCT). However, both sets of theories have their drawbacks, that their analysis is either exclusion of the micro-level decision-making process or neglect of the macro-level social structure. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected, and Giddens structuration theory has been applied to mediate micro and macro level factors for constructing a framework to understand migration motivations of Chinese undergraduate students in Canada. The major conceptions and themes drawn upon from structuration theory include agency and structure, the effects of rules and resources within structures, the capacity and knowledgeability of agent, time-space context, and the theme of duality of structure. Because gender differences are significant in this study, two models are built for female and male students respectively. The practical aim of this study is to generate more policy interests in Canada in Chinese undergraduate students in order to make Canada the foremost destination for them not only for studying abroad but also for settlement.

Academic mobility and migration of knowledge workers are two concerns in international migration studies, so how academic mobility transforms into immigration has received much attention as well. There are two commonly held approaches to the explanation of immigration of international students: the classic Push and Pull theory and its derivative studies as well as Rational Choice Theory (RCT). However, both sets of theories have their drawbacks, that their analysis is either exclusion of the micro-level decision-making process or neglect of the macro-level social structure. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected, and Giddens structuration theory has been applied to mediate micro and macro level factors for constructing a framework to understand migration motivations of Chinese undergraduate students in Canada. The major conceptions and themes drawn upon from structuration theory include agency and structure, the effects of rules and resources within structures, the capacity and knowledgeability of agent, time-space context, and the theme of duality of structure. Because gender differences are significant in this study, two models are built for female and male students respectively. The practical aim of this study is to generate more policy interests in Canada in Chinese undergraduate students in order to make Canada the foremost destination for them not only for studying abroad but also for settlement.

On account of the rapid change of the consuming market and the industry market and the widely shortening of product¡¦s life cycle, confronting the stress from the market end, the competition strategy of the enterprises has conversed from pursuing high quality and low cost in the past into the strategy of satisfying customers¡¦ requirements. With the influence of satisfying the customers¡¦ diversified requirement of products, in addition that the trades shall continue taking consideration of the original factors of low cost and high quality, factors like the launch time of products, the speed of delivery date and the satisfaction degree of the customers¡¦ requirements have even become the key ones if the enterprises can maintain their competitiveness. Being facing with the threat from low labor cost of China, India and countries in South-east Asia, the superiority that OEM industries used to have has no longer existed and the only competitiveness they have lies in the R&D design capability. In consideration of this, the enterprises have developed toward globalization commerce and the mode of collaborative product commerce and implement the collaborative product commerce to create an superior R&D environment of products in accommodation with the rapid changed competition markets and integrate and cooperation with the supply chain in the upper and lower reach manufacturers and expect to set up systemized procedure from the process of product R&D to the production so as to promote the service quality to the customers as well as to decrease the failure cost of direct material and supplies and shorten the affect Time to Volume to the turnover and profits and further achieve the earlier winning chance of Time To Market and elaborate multiple strength. Under the circumstance that the speed of customers¡¦ favor to the products and its change have become faster and faster, the life cycle of products has then become shorter and shorter and the characteristics and appearances have also become more and more complicated, which have generated situations such as the structure value of products continually changed and increased, giant increasing information quantity and activities of frequent engineering change. Engineering Change (EC) has thus become an essential and important process in the whole products life cycle. How to fast and effectively deal with the engineering change with collaborative cooperation mode and shorten the products¡¦ launch cycle and ensure the quality and the satisfaction degree of the customers shall be considered as one of the important factors that the enterprises maintain their competitiveness. In view that the operation procedure of product R&D is very complicated, during the process the customers¡¦ requirement, technical demands and the capability of the suppliers may be changed due to the time and condition. Therefore, whether to shorten the time of product development and design shall become the key to determine if the enterprise can accomplish in taking the lead in the business field. According to the investigation, to the senior supervisors of an enterprise, most answers to if the time of new products development and change time of products¡¦ design are important are positive. Such answers also mean that the related issues like the procedure of R&D design and the shortening of engineering change procedure are one of the most popular topics in this trade. PTC and Reed Research Group have proceeded a research in object to more than 200 senior supervisors in charge of new products development and management in the global electronic and high technology companies. The result of the research has shown that the leading trades have gained more than 20% growth of revenue through promoting capability of products development and also gained multiple profits. The extraordinary performance of these companies with high growth is attributed to (a) products planning tools and the use of practical methods (b) mutually establish standardized internal and external coordination with cooperated partners (c) the design staffs have gained at an early date three products development capability like the enterprises and the information of supply chains and are enforced to carry them out so that that are able to implement high efficiency and conform to progress and budge and to keep tracking and solving the potential problems soonest within the design cycle. [1] On the basis of the above-mentioned results of investigation, we find that how the enterprises apply tool like Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC) to carry out the engineering change operation under the collaborative environment and further shorten the development and design time of new products and achieve the requests of diversified customers, low cost, high quality and short delivery date and finally become one of the topics that nowadays the enterprises are eager to learn. Engineering change management (ECM) is a sort of changed management in object to the released parts, blueprints, and software during the process of R&D or production and is one part of product R&D procedure. Because it is essential for each stage within the development life cycle of the whole products to carry out engineering change, therefore, the study has proceeded conferring the adjustment condition among the engineering change in object to the collaborative operation of the enterprises and the result of study has also obtained several conclusions to be provided as the reference mode when the enterprises implement ECM system and the related important topic for discussion when it is implemented and the enterprises can make appropriate adjustment and change accordingly. Keywords¡G Collaborative Product Commerce, Engineering Change, Adaptive Structuration Theory

The purpose of this thesis is to offer an exposition of Anthony Giddens¡¦ thoughts on modernity. The terms ¡¥modern¡¦ and ¡¥modernity¡¦ are probably among the most frequently used yet rarely discussed with regards to meaning and connotation. In contemporary social theories, the term modernity is frequently taken as either obsolete or true by definition. In this thesis, I try to interpret Giddens¡¦ ideas on modernity to offer a better purchase on current ideas within the field. In the first chapter, I explain why I think the research on modernity is critical to contemporary social science. Moreover, to explicate Giddens¡¦ thinking, I also discuss Giddens¡¦ academic life and the contemporary academic study in Taiwan of Giddens¡¦ writings. In the second chapter, I briefly describe Giddens¡¦ most widely discussed theory, the Structuration theory, for I think it is the theoretical basis of the thoughts on modernity. I also refer to two important contemporary thinkers¡¦ to trace Giddens¡¦ theoretical background, namely Roy Bhaskar and Jürgen Habermas. In following two chapters, I detail Giddens¡¦ theory of modernity, focusing on its fundamental characteristics, consequences and implications for the study of an increasingly globalized world. In the fifth chapter, I review the criticisms on Giddens¡¦ theory of modernity and try to defend some of those criticisms. In the conclusion chapter, I briefly go through the major points of this thesis and assess Giddens¡¦ insights to the study of modernity.

Product is the core of an enterprise, and the major portion of its cost is determined in the design phase. By managing the design chain more effectively the enterprise can design the product to fit customer need, cut down cost and speed up time to market. All the benefits give rise to the implementation of Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC) system, whose purpose is to let all relevant parties including the focal company, customers, and suppliers to design, develop and manage the product in its whole product life cycle. In the literature of information technology (IT) and organizational change, the expected results of IT implementation may not happen, depending on the interaction between technology and organization. To illustrate this phenomenon, Adaptive Structuration Theory¡¦s (AST) is invoked to probe into the interaction between the CPC system and the organization. Our research findings indicated that the implementation of CPC system is influenced by the CPC¡¦s spirit, organizational environment, task features and group¡¦s internal structure. All these lead to variation in the appropriation process, which in turn has impact on the organizational performance. AST is helpful to explain the problems encountered in implementing CPC system. These include the improvement of product design and development process, the integration of CPC system and ERP system, the selection of consulting firms, and the user¡¦s attitudes. The CPC spirit is to achieve the optimized product design and development process. In the aspect of organizational environment, both executive support and openness of organizational culture are positive factors for implementation. In the aspect task feature, the relationship of the focal company with its downstream or upstream partners has significant impact on the task to be implemented by the CPC system, whether the appropriation process will go smoothly depends the reengineering effort made on the existing processes. In the aspect of group¡¦s internal structure, the experience, learning capability, and computer efficacy of user have positive impact on implementation. In addition, the consultants are also helpful to the implementation, which can be judged by their experiences, turnover rate, and domain knowledge. The appropriation process is evaluated by the consensus and the attitude of the user towards the CPC system, and these two factors all have positive impact on the implementation. The final conclusion renders that a prior established product data management in company with product design and development process reengineering will be helpful to the implementation of CPC system. In addition, the consultants interpret CPC¡¦s spirit. Therefore a partnership with the consultant company and the communication between the user and the consultant are helpful to the implementation of CPC system.

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Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology in Information Technology in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technonlogy / The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in business has evolved to such an extent that many organizations (if not all) rely on Information Technology (IT) systems to better manage their processes, get competitive advantage, improve performance (efficiency and effectiveness), provide quality services on time and most importantly to keep customers happy. This has changed the way people communicate and conduct businesses, lowering processing cost, time and improving a return on investment. Therefore, high quality software systems are essential. Organizations adopt Agile Scrum methodologies in order to develop applications that help them to obtain a return on investment quickly, to improve customer satisfaction and to maintain competitive advantage. However, the IT industry is yet to develop error-free software that meets the expected quality standards. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the extent to which software quality assurance measures can be understood and applied to maximize the quality of software projects developed under Scrum methodology. A qualitative research method informed by an interpretive approach was used to collect and analyse data. Following the purposive sampling technique, five Scrum teams operating in different environments and two academics from one academic institution were interviewed. Structuration Theory (ST) was then used as an analytical framework to analyse data and to improve the understanding of Scrum practices and related quality assurance (QA) processes. Drawing on the major terms of ST, the contextual terrain of the Scrum development process was mapped. It reflected that rules are important aspects of Scrum functions. However, rules are not as strictly applied as in the traditional methodologies. The developer skill, project type and size have a direct influence on the practice/s. In Scrum, rules are flexible in that they can be modified to meet the environment and conditions of the team. Equally significant are resources, most particularly, time and the human resources in the form of developers and Scrum leaders. Otherwise, unit testing, user acceptance testing, close collaboration and code reviews were perceived as the most important practices in Scrum projects. In view of the findings, recommendations can be summed up into 4 main points; (1) that to ensure quality assurance in Scrum, Scrum teams, especially team leaders, should enforce compliance to standards, regardless of time pressures and tight deadlines; (2) It seems that the practice of working with the client to test final products as a quality assurance mechanism is working for all parties. This practice is encouraged and must be maintained; (3) Code reviews must be enforced, and that organisations invest in resources including the constant training of developers; (4) Project product owners, project managers, team leaders and business analysts should regularly meet with the user to verify requirements prior to the implementation phase. Active stakeholder involvement can minimize development costs and time.

This dissertation was developed as two distinct themes within one final study. The first theme is located within Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. These two chapters examine the nature of both policy analysis and organizational theory in terms of their development within the American versions of Public Administration and Political Science. I conclude that the distinctions that have been created between the two areas of research are false, and that within the basic structure of American political theory both policy development and administrative implementation are a single unified endeavor. I then propose that Anthony Giddens Theory of Structuration offers both policy analysis and organizational theory a meta-theory that would allow for both areas of research to be reconnected. Various policy and organizational analysis models are examined, and alterations in these models are suggested to comply with the basic concepts of Giddens Theory of Structuration. A final model of analysis is presented which incorporates elements from these various models, and allows for the examination of the overall operation of a policy subsystem in terms of both policy analysis and organizational theory. The second theme is located within Chapters 4 through 10. The analytical model that was created in the first theme is applied it to a specific policy subsystem, namely the wire-based telecommunications industry of the United States. The relationship between the industry and government is examined from its original inception to the implementation of the Telecommunications Deregulation Act of 1996. Seven distinct periods of development are analyzed. Each period of analysis seeks to locate the basic underlying structural principles forming the foundations for decisions in both the private and public sectors, and the processes for adaptation and adjustment. The examination of the processes engaged in the various periods supports the conclusion reached in the original analytical model, namely that political and administrative interaction are in fact linked, forming a unified process. A single underlying structural principle is located that has formed the basis for the policy subsystems existence, namely the concept of Compound Federalism as originally envisioned by the Republic's Founding Fathers. / Ph. D.

Yes / The race against ‘Digital Darwinism’ in public sector had caused failures of several high profile large-scale Digitally Enabled Service Transformation (DEST) projects. While technical and managerial issues are often emphasised as the factors underpinning such failures, the vital role of key actors and the interplay between these actors and structures is underplayed when examining the causes of DEST failure. To enable a richer understanding of DEST, this paper proposes an analytical lens combining Institutional Theory (IT) and Structuration Theory (ST) to explore the case of ‘Universal Credit’, a very large and ambitious DEST project in the UK. Analysis reveals that the institutional actors and structures played significant roles in the transformation process. Albeit governing the actors’ actions, institutional structures are shaped through actions that are influenced by knowledge, power and norms. Hence, recognising and addressing these subliminal factors are critical to promote actions that can facilitate DEST success. The contributions of this case study are two-folds. Theoretically, it provides a distinctive conceptual approach to study DEST; and practically, the lessons help in signposting better managerial practices.