Craig W. Furneaux

BIM: Enabling Sustainability and Asset Management through Knowledge Management

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the use of virtual building information models to develop building design solutions and design documentation and to analyse construction processes. Recent advances in IT have enabled advanced knowledge management, which in turn facilitates sustainability and improves asset management in the civil construction industry. There are several important qualifiers and some disadvantages of the current suite of technologies. This paper outlines the benefits, enablers, and barriers associated with BIM and makes suggestions about how these issues may be addressed. The paper highlights the advantages of BIM, particularly the increased utility and speed, enhanced fault finding in all construction phases, and enhanced collaborations and visualisation of data. The paper additionally identifies a range of issues concerning the implementation of BIM as follows: IP, liability, risks, and contracts and the authenticity of users. Implementing BIM requires investment in new technology, skills training, and development of new ways of collaboration and Trade Practices concerns. However, when these challenges are overcome, BIM as a new information technology promises a new level of collaborative engineering knowledge management, designed to facilitate sustainability and asset management issues in design, construction, asset management practices, and eventually decommissioning for the civil engineering industry.

Australian Indigenous entrepreneurship: a capital-based view

Encouraging entrepreneurship has been advocated as the most promising avenue for economic development of Indigenous communities in Australia. Unfortunately, the number of Indigenous people engaged in small businesses in Australia is low compared with participation rates in other countries. One explanation suggested for this low participation rate in small business is that Indigenous Australians lack the traits or cultural attitudes necessary for success. This paper advocates a different view, arguing instead that analysing Indigenous access to capital in its multiple forms provides for a richer explanation – and exploration – of the barriers to Indigenous entrepreneurship.

Financial Literacy and Pension Investment Decisions

The call for enhanced financial literacy amongst consumers is a global phenomenon, driven by the growing complexity of financial markets and products, and government concerns about the affordability of supporting an ageing population. Worldwide, defined benefit pensions are giving way to the risk and uncertainty of defined contribution superannuation/pension funds where fund members now make choices and decisions that were once made on their behalf. An important prerequisite for informed financial decision-making is adequate financial knowledge and skills to make competent investment decisions. This paper reports the findings of an online survey of the members of a large Australian public sector-based superannuation fund and shows that although respondents generally understand basic financial matters, on average, their understanding of investments concepts, such as the relationship between risk and returns, is inadequate. These results highlight the need for education programs focusing specifically on developing fund members’ investment knowledge and skills to facilitate informed retirement savings decisions.

Public Values Embedded in Australian Public Works Procurement

Procurement arrangements for public works are highly contextualized as jurisdictions adapt and respond to local issues and constraints. Policy-makers in Australia at all levels are focused on protecting public values when procuring public works. Public values are shown here to be consistent across Australian jurisdictions, although considerable variety exists in the institutional arrangements that safeguard these values.

Purchasing social good(s): a definition and typology of social procurement

Social procurement has gained attention in modern public management; however, considerable differences exist in understanding what social procurement actually is. Divergent definitions of social procurement inhibit effective policy implementation, and can result in imprecision in empirical research. This paper develops a typology of social procurement implementation, and advances a coherent single definition of social procurement. Clarifying the intent and approaches to social procurement will assist policy implementation and empirical evaluation.

Modelling NPO–Government Relations: Australian case studies

Abstract Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are major providers of services in many fields of endeavour, and often receive financial support from government. This article investigates different forms of government/non-profit funding relationships, with the viewpoint being mainly, though not exclusively, from the perspective of the non-profit agencies. While there are a number of existing typologies of government/NPO relations, these are dated and in need of further empirical analysis and testing. The article advances an empirically derived extension to current models of government/NPO relations. A future research agenda is outlined based on the constructs that underpin typologies, rather than discrete categorization of relationships.

Social Innovation and Social Enterprise: Evidence from Australia

‘Social innovation’ is a construct increasingly used to explain the practices, processes and actors through which sustained positive transformation occurs in the network society (Mulgan, G., Tucker, S., Ali, R., Sander, B. (2007). Social innovation: What it is, why it matters and how can it be accelerated. Oxford: Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship; Phills, J. A., Deiglmeier, K., & Miller, D. T. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6(4):34–43, 2008.). Social innovation has been defined as a “novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions, and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.” (Phills, J. A., Deiglmeier, K., & Miller, D. T. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6(4):34–43, 2008: 34.)

Social procurement and new public governance

In recent years, the search for innovative, locally relevant and engaging public service has become the new philosophers’ stone. Social procurement represents one approach to maximising public spending and social value through the purchase of goods and services. It has gained increasing attention in recent years as a way that governments and corporations can amplify the benefits of their purchasing power, and as a mechanism by which markets for social enterprise and other third sector organisations can be grown. Despite growing policy and practitioner interest in social procurement, there has been relatively little conceptual or empirical thinking published on the issue. Taking a critically informed approach, this innovative text examines emerging approaches to social procurement within the context of New Public Governance (NPG), and examines the practices of social procurement across Europe, North America, and Australia. Considering both the possibilities and limitations of social procurement, and the types of value it can generate, it also provides empirically-driven insights into the practicalities of ‘triple bottom line’ procurement, the related challenges of measuring social value and the management of both the strategic and operational dimensions of procurement processes. As such it will be invaluable reading for all those interested in social services, public governance and social enterprise.

Engineering asset procurement: Operationalising complex adaptive system theory

Procuring the management and maintenance of engineering assets are key activities of government, particularly given the importance of these assets for business and society. Despite their importance, the most effective methods for procuring engineering assets are still to be determined due to the complexity inherent in such arrangements. While Complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory has been advocated as a coherent theoretical framework for examining both procurement and engineering assets, considerable challenges remain in operationalizing this framework for government systems. There are thus two challenges: developing an understanding of the complexity and dynamics of procurement systems, together with a practical problem of how to model such systems. This paper outlines CAS theory and suggests ways that it might be operationalized to examine engineering asset procurement.

Founders, Families, and Futures: Perspectives on the Accountability of Australian Private Ancillary Funds

This research explores perspectives on the accountability of Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs), a type of Australian endowed philanthropic foundation. PAFs are relatively new giving structures that have experienced strong growth over the past 15 years. With limited regulatory obligations and exemptions available from public reporting, PAFs have discretion in various forms of public accountability. Using Ebrahim’s conceptual framework of nonprofit accountability, this study explores PAF accountability in terms of to whom, for what, how, and why, examining tensions between PAFs’ private form and public purpose. Through in-depth interviews with managers and trustees of 10 PAFs, findings reveal that PAFs engage in accountability for internal reasons relating to their mission and purpose, and their desire to lead others in philanthropy. PAFs are influenced by philanthropic peers, in particular other PAFs; but their accountability does not necessarily include public disclosure or transparency. Four variations to Ebrahim’s accountability framework are proposed.