18397 research outputs found
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Digital Transformation and Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective
No full textDigital transformation is a disruptive phenomenon that reshapes organisational design, business models, strategies, and digital infrastructures. In healthcare, where service delivery is highly complex and regulated, digital transformation requires careful alignment between technological initiatives and organisational capabilities. Achieving meaningful transformation therefore depends not only on technology adoption but on the development of specific dynamic capabilities that enable organisations to create sustained value.Despite the widespread implementation of digital technologies, existing research predominantly emphasises generic performance outcomes and competitive advantage, leaving limited understanding of how digital transformation influences patient-centred outcomes such as patient satisfaction. This study addresses this gap by examining the mechanisms through which digital transformation initiatives improve patient satisfaction in healthcare organisations, drawing on the Dynamic Capabilities View as the guiding theoretical lens.Adopting a sequential mixed methods design, the study integrates qualitative and quantitative insights from exploratory and confirmatory research. The exploratory research, based on 23 semi-structured interviews from eight case organisations, unfolds the contextual elements and how various dynamic capabilities are developed during the digital transformation journey. The dynamic capabilities lens, used to frame the research, highlighted the development of sensing, seizing and transforming dynamic capabilities, that are central to the digital transformation journey. Findings indicate that while improvements in IT infrastructure and operational processes are essential, it is the strategic alignment and continuous evolution of dynamic capabilities that most significantly enhance the patient-centred outcomes.Building on these insights, the confirmatory research tested a serial mediation model using survey data from 121 healthcare organisations. The results demonstrate that higher-order dynamic capabilities, such as digital leadership, exert both direct and indirect effects on lower- order capabilities (patient satisfaction), with these effects mediated through other lower-order capabilities such as big data analytics capability and digital business model renewal. The observed partial mediation underscores that digital leadership alone is insufficient; it must be complemented by analytics-enabled capabilities and adaptive business model renewal to realise patient-centred digital transformation outcomes.Overall, this research advances theoretical understanding by linking dynamic capabilities to patient satisfaction in healthcare and offers practical guidance for healthcare leaders seeking to align digital transformation initiatives with experiential value creation.</p
The Effects of Wellbeing-Oriented Human Resource Management Practices on Employee Service Recovery Performance and Service Sabotage in the Context of the Vietnamese Hospitality Industry
No full textThe study examines the relationship between wellbeing-oriented human resource management practices and service recovery performance and service sabotage. It found that work meaningfulness and thriving at work act as mediators, while employee resilience and narcissism act as moderators. The results confirm significant direct effects of well-being-oriented human resource management practices on employee outcomes, with moderating influences from individual factors. However, some hypotheses were found to be non-significant, suggesting potentially weaker or more complex effects.</p
Neuroelectronics: Design patterns, methods and implementations
No full textNeuroelectronics combines advanced electronics with physiology to create technologies to restore function, treat disease, and improve quality of life - often while operating in noisy, unpredictable and uncooperative environments. This work examines how devices are designed, drawing on real-world experience, literature, and regulatory review to highlight challenges, sources of error, and topics where engineers frequently discover that theory and reality are not quite on speaking terms. A modified curriculum framework, WIRED, proposes better support for this multidisciplinary field by integrating Working across disciplines, Interfacing, Regulatory, Electronics and communication, and Devices and measurement, to assist engineers navigating this evolving area of healthcare.</p
Investigating the potential of immersive virtual reality technologies for water safety education with children
No full textUnintentional drowning is a leading cause of injury-related death among children worldwide. Comprehensive water safety education, encompassing swimming and survival skills, rescue techniques, safety knowledge, and hazard recognition, is recognised as a key drowning prevention strategy. With advances in educational methods, immersive virtual reality (IVR) has emerged as a promising tool for safety education, offering the ability to simulate real-world environments and hazardous scenarios in a safe, engaging, and controlled manner. However, evidence on its use for water safety education is limited. This thesis investigates the potential of IVR to enhance children’s water safety knowledge and hazard identification.</p
Exploring consumer plastic packaging waste in urban environments using a design thinking approach to identify obstacles and develop recommendations
No full textThe current literature underscores an apparent gap in understanding the circular economy and its suitability for managing post-consumer plastic packaging waste. Australia lacks reliable evidence from the literature representing post-consumer plastic packaging waste. There is an inconsistency in recycling practices, and focusing on cities through a rigorous design thinking approach improves our understanding of the `plastic waste' wicked social problem. Nonetheless, this research presents opportunities for further exploration of plastic packaging waste management in high-density urban environments from a design perspective by exploring waste management strategies, opportunities, and limitations through the end users' perspective, the `consumers' living within metropolitan Melbourne.</p
Price Driver of Cryptocurrency Exchange Against the Major Stock Market Indices
No full textThis thesis explores how cryptocurrencies and stock markets are connected and how risk and market sentiment influence these relationships over time. Using data from multiple markets, the research examines price movements, how financial risk spreads across markets, and changes in market behaviour across different periods. The findings show that cryptocurrencies are increasingly linked with stock markets, but these connections vary across regions and over time. The study improves understanding of financial risk in modern markets and provides insights for investors, policymakers, and researchers.</p
A new approach to design heat-integrated reactive distillation process
No full textThis thesis introduced an innovative design heuristic for energy-efficient chemical processes. It is centered on the hypothesis that minimizing the reboiler duty of the heat-supplying reactive distillation (RD) column before heat integration provides a more effective optimization strategy than minimizing the total energy consumption for the double-effect heat integrated RD. The strategy was validated across multiple configurations, including ideal neat and excess designs, process-intensified RDs incorporating thermal coupling and side-stream, and complex non-ideal systems. This heuristic offers a practical pathway for industries seeking greener, more cost-effective, and sustainable chemical production.</p
Visual Imitation Learning for Robotic Manipulation in Cluttered Environments
No full textThis thesis explores how robots can learn manipulation tasks in complex environments through visual observation rather than relying on step-by-step programming. The research aims to enable robots to operate effectively in crowded and unpredictable scenarios, such as cluttered workspaces. By learning to interpret visual information and select more efficient actions, the proposed methods enhance robots’ ability to grasp objects and complete tasks while reducing errors. This work contributes to lowering the time and cost required to deploy robotic systems and supports safer and more flexible use of robots in real-world applications.</p
Exercise and Nutrition Stimuli for the Augmentation of Mitochondrial Quality Control in Skeletal Muscle
No full textExercise has a profound capacity to keep muscles health throughout life. It is increasingly recognised that benefits of regular exercise are underpinned by enhancing muscle cell function, particularly mitochondria – the part of the cell that produces energy. However, the molecular basis by which exercise improves mitochondrial quality and quantity remains poorly understood. This thesis uses a combination of animal and human models to investigate how factors such as sex and nutrition influence the molecular mitochondrial response to bouts of acute exercise. Improving understanding in this area may help guide future interventions and strategies to promote skeletal muscle health.</p
Primary School Teachers’ Attitudes Towards STEM Education
No full textThis study examines Victorian primary teachers’ perceptions, confidence, and planning practices in relation to engineering integration within STEM education. Findings show that teacher confidence is shaped more by access to targeted STEM professional learning and explicit planning support than by years of experience alone. While most teachers value engineering, many report difficulty articulating engineering intent, practices, and skills within integrated lessons. The study demonstrates that engineering problem contexts (product, process, system) act as critical planning anchors and proposes an evidence-based framework and planning tools to support generalist teachers in implementing engineering-rich STEM lessons effectively.</p