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This thesis examines the role of banks in influencing innovation and analyses their links to payment systems modernisation. The main argument is that banks are a type of technological institution having the potential to promote innovation, although such roles may be implicit or secondary. This role is investigated in eight chapters. The first three chapters review the major innovation models and progress in payment system. An analytical framework, based on evolutionary and resource-based views, is developed to examine how resources and routines which reflect an organisation's stock of skills, influence innovation, and assist them in sustaining competitive advantage. The following three chapters present the empirical results. In a survey of innovation in the banking industry, research results suggested that although there were relatively high levels of information technology awareness and application, particularly in payment system automation, there remained a moderate level of innovative capabilities among the banks studied. Further analysis through four mini case studies of the largest commercial banks also suggested similar increases in technological investments, but replication rates were also relatively high. Thus, it is argued that such investments may gain, but not sustain, competitive advantage, whereby the latter requires banks to innovate by acquiring, accumulating, and advancing their stock of skills. In this respect, the role of the central bank in creating a conducive environment for innovation is also important which may be seen through its involvement in payment systems modernisation. The final two chapters discuss the policy and research implications. It is argued that central bank policies oriented towards payment system reform, along with new payment product and services development by commercial banks, have come to play an important part in promoting technological innovation in banking. Such roles in reforming rudimentary payment systems have helped strengthen national information infrastructures, especially in emerging market economies, and moreover, have influenced the set-up of a national innovation system in banking which underpins economic development.

This research aimed at understanding the reading practices of two groups of international postgraduate students across three semesters. The research was underpinned by a conceptual framework incorporating metacognitive concepts with framing theory. The methodology involved individual interviews using academic text and pair think-alouds followed by retrospective interviews using general-interest texts. The interviews and pair think-alouds took place at an Australian university with Thai and IndianBangladeshi postgraduate students and at university campuses in Thailand and India. The data selected from the interviews and pair think-alouds revealed significant changes in reading practices between first and third semester at an Australian university and the participants' awareness of these changes. The participants' reflections also provided some explanation for the differences in their cognitive and metacognitive strategy use. The research study was important because, at the postgraduate level, students are faced with complex text interpretation processes. International students, in addition, have to make a significant cultural/study shift; not only do they have to become accustomed to the reading of academic texts using discipline-specific patterns but often have to adjust to different conventions used by authors from cultural backgrounds other than their own. Little is known, in particular, about Thai and Indianmangladeshi postgraduate students' reading experiences in their own countries or how their reading practices change during study at an Australian university. The research findings suggest a dynamic, multi-dimensional, developmental framework for conceptualising international postgraduate students' reading practices in first semester at an Australian university, and the changes in reading practices and the educational and socio-cultural influences on these changes by third semester; the findings, in addition, can inform the debate on literacy levels in the cross-cultural academic environment and can contribute to discussions on such pedagogical issues as reforming of curricular structure, the internationalisation of curricula and the development of more culturally sensitive supervisory frameworks.

The aim of this ethnographic study was to explore and describe the lay care (self-care) phenomenon in Thai culture. Spradley's (1979) ethnographic method was utilised to investigate the meaning of lay care, the lived experiences of 10 individuals who had suffered a stroke and their family caregivers in caring for the sick person at home.The meanings and perceptions of self-care from the individuals' and their families' perspectives, were explored, including the practices and cultural issues relating to care at home. The data collection was undertaken over a 10 month period in Songkla Province, southern Thailand. The major sources of data were the transcripts of semi-structured informal interviews, focus group discussions, field notes of participant observations and interviews with other individuals who were knowledgeable of health services and cultural issues relating to care and treatment in the community.Data analysis revealed a number of themes related to family relationships, and home and community care. These themes included the lived experience at both home and healing centres, experiences with change and loss after the stroke and coping with these, perceptions of care-receiving and caregiving, scope of the family's responsibilities in the caregiving role, caregiving burden, factors influencing the quality of care and the recipient's satisfaction with care. Other themes related to support and health services: Western and traditional medicine, social networks and religion. These themes were discussed from three perspectives: the individual, the family and community resources.The results of the study support the concept of interdependence of family members, and to a lesser extent their wider social network, in health and illness. Consequently the model of care developed from this study focuses on the family, with the family as a whole contributing to the ++ / well-being of its members through both the promotion of family members' health and the restoration of the health of the family with a sick member(s). Implications of this model of care were identified for nursing practice, education and research.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. (Linguistics))--Mahidol University, 1983.

Thesis (M.A. (Linguistics))--Mahidol University, 1979.

Thesis (M.A.)--Arizona State University, 1987. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [201]-210).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 190 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-190).