Digital Commons Network^™

Ohs In China-Work In Progress, Rowan Cahill, Di Kelly

Rowan Cahill

This article explores the barriers and challenges to effective implementation of occupational health and safety regulation (OHS), and occupational exposure limits (OELs) in China in order to identify the lessons for social science scholars and activists. It finds that formal labour legislation, including occupational health and safety legislation is relatively extensive, but rarely effectively realised. This has partly been because of the pace of political and economic transformation in China. As a result, the soft infrastructure of skills and knowledge necessary for an active, effective and genuinely protective OHS system are inchoate, and often, as OHS awareness has grown, firms' …

E-Government Challenge In Disaster Evacuation Response: The Role Of Rfid Technology In Building Safe And Secure Local Communities, A. Chatfield, S. F. Wamba, T. Hirokazu

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

While geographic information systems (GIS) can provide information on the static locations of critical infrastructure and evacuation routes, they do not provide the dynamically changing locations of things and people on the move. In contrast, radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless network technology can automatically identify and track the movement of assets (i.e., fire engines, ambulances, and rescue workers) and vulnerable citizens on the move (i.e., the elderly and the disabled), and hence providing local governments and communities with real-time information and enhanced decision-making capabilities, during chaotic disaster response operations (i.e., evacuation). Although the potential high impact and strategic value of …

Rfid-Enabled Warehouse Process Optimization In The Tpl Industry, S. F. Wamba, A. T. Chatfield

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

Using the value chain model and a longitudinal real-world case study of a third-party logistics (TPL) supply chain, this study provides support for the enabling role of RFID technology in effecting warehouse process optimization. Furthermore, the findings of our study reveal the RFID technology implementation costs as the key inhibitors factor of RFID widespread adoption and usage among suppliers.

Rfid-Enabled Inventory Control Optimization: A Proof Of Concept In A Small-To-Medium Retailer, H. Dane, Katina Michael, S. F. Wamba

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the impact of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology on the inventory control practices of a small-to-medium retailer using a proof of concept (PoC) approach. The exploratory study was conducted using a single case study of a hardware retailer stocking 5000 product lines provided by 110 active suppliers. To analyze the present mode of operation, procedural documents, semi-structured interviews and a participant observation was conducted. The basis for the proof of concept was a future mode of operation using a quasi-experimental design. Results indicate that in a small-to-medium retail environment, RFID technology could act as a loss prevention mechanism, …

An Investigation Of Theory And Its Application In Investment Management Education-Case Of Pakistan, Naveed Iqbal, Searat Ali, Kashif Ur Rehman, Mehmood Shah, Zeeshan Akbar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Deviation of theory from practice is the burning question of the present age. As, numerous efforts have been commenced in multi programs to inspect this prevailing disparity between knowledge and practice at different venues. This study also aims to investigate the theory practice variation in the context of investment management education on the territory of Pakistan-what is taught by the investment academics in the universities to what is used by the investment professionals in the market. The data was collected from the sample of 30 investment academics and 23 investment professionals by using convenience non probability sampling technique. The sample …

Nsw Local Council Investment Exposures, Gregory Jones, Graham D. Bowrey

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The decline in the sub-prime market in the United State of America in 2007 -2008 andthe corresponding decline in the market values of other financial investments has hada significant financial impact on many of the individuals and organisations whoparticipated in aggressively promoted investment schemes. The New South Wales(NSW) Local Government Councils was one such group of organisations impacted bythe decline in value of these types of investments. At the end of the 2006-2007financial year local councils in New South Wales had invested $590 million dollars instructured financial products such as collateralised debt obligations (CDO). By theend of January 2008, six …

The Impact Of Mobile Amusement Information On Use Behavior, Satisfaction, And Loyalty, Fumiyo N. Kondo, Jiro Hirata, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The relationship between satisfaction and loyalty has been well explored in services marketing or customer relationship management. In this study, the authors studied the relationship of 7 types of service variables under “amusement” factor. Amusement is one of the three factors extracted from 21 mobile information services. Among many different frameworks of satisfaction-loyalty, we used the framework of “past use behavior” on “satisfaction”, and then of “satisfaction” on “continued use intention” (or loyalty), resulting in a strong support of the existing model with positive significant influence on the both paths. Further, our research reveals that, on the both paths, there …

Service Quality Of Mhealth: Development And Validation Of A Hierarchical Model Using Pls, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Advancing research on service quality requires clarifying the theoretical conceptualizations and validating an integrated service quality model. The purpose of this study is to facilitate and elucidate practical issues and decisions related to the development of a hierarchical service quality model in mobile health (mHealth) services research. Conceptually, it extends theory by reframing service quality as a reflective, hierarchical construct and modeling its impact on satisfaction, intention to continue using and quality of life. Empirically, it confirms that PLS path modeling can be used to estimate the parameters of a higher order construct and its association with subsequent consequential latent …

Are There Smaller Leverage Effects In Less-Developed Markets? Evidence From An Oil Exporting Country, Mosayeb Phalavani, Parinaz Ezzati

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Abstract: Problem statement: This study uses daily data from the Tehran Stock Market (TSM) to illustrate the nature of stock market volatility in an undeveloped and young stock market. Although most studies suggest that a negative shock to stock prices will generate more volatility than a positive shock of equal magnitude but there is no evidence of asymmetric effect in TSM. Determine the nature of stock market volatility in an oil exporting country. Approach: Trading in Tehran Stock Market (TSM) is based on orders sent by the brokers. The data consist of 2375 daily observations of the closing value of …

Radio Frequency Identification: A Case For Health Care, Sylvain Bureau, Markus Bick, Selwyn Piramuthu, Yannick Meiller, Wei Zhou, Samuel Fosso Wamba

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The use of RFID tags in healthcare applications has been gaining momentum over the past decade. This is partly due to recent advances in information technology and the need to reduce errors while simultaneously improving the efficiency of the system. We, at the RFID European Lab, have been studying various aspects of RFID implementations in healthcare environment over the past several years. The potential for RFID implementations in healthcare environment is enormous. We consider several such opportunities and identify possible extensions.

The Spread Of Ict Innovation In Accounting Education, Sam H. Jebeile, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper conveys the findings of a study conducted to evaluate the initiation of an interactive online computer-assisted learning module, called WEBLEARN, in an undergraduate introductory accounting course at an Australian university. The purpose was to aid students in the preparation of cash flow statements, a topic that from the student perspective is usually considered fairly difficult. Following the pilot of the module, student responses were collected via questionnaire in order to evaluate their perceptions regarding the WEBLEARN module. Diffusion of innovations theory was utilized as a framework for assessing student responses and to guide further development of modules in …

Ability, Gender, And Performance Standards: Evidence From Academic Probation, Jason M. Lindo, Nicholas J. Sanders, Philip Oreopoulos

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We use a regression discontinuity design to examine students' responses to being placed on academic probation. Consistent with a model of introducing performance standards, we find that being placed on probation at the end of the first year discourages some students from returning to school while improving the GPAs of those who do. We find heterogeneous responses across prior academic performance, gender, and native language, and discuss these results within the context of the model. We also find negative effects on graduation rates, particularly for students with the highest high school grades.

Regression Tree Construction By Bootstrap: Model Search For Drg-Systems Applied To Austrian Health-Data, Thomas Grubinger, Conrad Kobel, Karl Peter Pfeiffer

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Background. DRG-systems are used to allocate resources fairly to hospitals based on their performance. Statistically, this allocation is based on simple rules that can be modeled with regression trees. However, the resulting models often have to be adjusted manually to be medically reasonable and ethical. Methods. Despite the possibility of manual, performance degenerating adaptations of the original model, alternative trees are systematically searched. The bootstrap-based method bumping is used to build diverse and accurate regression tree models for DRG-systems. A two-step model selection approach is proposed. First, a reasonable model complexity is chosen, based on statistical, medical and economical considerations. …

The Size Of The Government And Economic Growth: An Empirical Study Of Sri Lanka, Shanaka Herath

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Growth models are fundamentally of two fold; the neoclassical growth model, also known as the exogenous growth model developed primarily by Solow (1956) and the new growth theory, also known as the endogenous growth model, pioneered by Romer (1986), Lucas (1988), Barro (1990) and Rebelo (1991).

Employability And Marketing Education : Insights From The United Kingdom, Troy W. Heffernan, Weizhe Feng, Robert Angell, Yan Fang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The importance of developing employability attributes within university graduates is gaining rapid momentum in the UK. One reason for this is that employers in the UK are disappointed by the quality of graduates moving into the workforce; this sentiment has also been echoed by the UK Government. With this in mind, attempts have been made to identify general attributes that lead to employability. However, to-date limited research has been undertaken to identify the key employability attributes for marketing graduates. Consequently, this study explores and identifies the key attributes for marketing graduates from an employer's perspective. Further, in-depth interviews with marketing …

Transaction Costs And Institutional Trading In Small-Cap Equity Funds, Carole Comerton-Forde, David R. Gallagher, Jumana Nahhas, Terry S. Walter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the magnitude and determinants of trading costs for small-cap funds in Australia. The total price impact for these funds is 0.99% (-0.34%) for purchases (sales). This is considerably larger than costs reported in prior literature. Both purchases and sales exhibit price continuations after the trade package, consistent with an information effect. Although we do not observe the directional asymmetry typically shown in the literature, the magnitude of the total and permanent effects for purchases is larger than for sales. We also show that price impact is related to fund inflows and outflows.

Investigating Iternational Accounting Standard Setting: The Black Box Of Ifrs 6, Corinne L. Cortese, Helen J. Irvine

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the role of powerful entities and coalitions in shaping international accounting standards. Specifically, the focus is on the process by which the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) developed IFRS 6, Exploration for and Evaluation of Mineral Resources. In its Issues Paper, the IASB recommended that the successful efforts method be mandated for pre-production costs, eliminating the choice previously available between full cost and successful efforts methods. In spite of the endorsement of this view by a majority of the constituents who responded to the Issues Paper, the final outcome changed nothing, with choice being retained. A compelling …

The Relationship Between Spiritual Well-Being And Ethical Orientations In Decision Making: An Empirical Study With Business Executives In Australia, Mario Fernando, Rafi Chowdhury

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The relationship between spiritual well-being and ethical orientations in decision making is examined through a survey of executives in organizations listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The four domains of spiritual well-being, personal, communal, environmental and transcendental (Fisher, Spiritual health: its nature and place in the school curriculum, PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, 1998; Gomez and Fisher, Pers Individ Differ 35:1975–1991, 2003) are examined in relation to idealism and relativism (Forsyth, J Pers Soc Psychol 39(1):175–184, 1980). Results reveal that spiritual well-being, in particular the communal domain of spiritual well-being, is correlated with and predictive of idealism. However, the relationship …

The Effect Of Information On Public Acceptance - The Case Of Water From Alternative Sources, Sara Dolnicar, A. Hurlimann, Long Nghiem

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study aims to provide conclusive evidence that information about water from alternative sources increases public acceptance. We conducted an experiment with 1000 Australian respondents asking them about their acceptance of recycled and desalinated water for a range of purposes under two conditions: 1) no information provided and 2) information about the production process provided. Results indicate that – both for desalinated and recycled water – the stated likelihood of use increases significantly if people are provided with information about the production process. This has major implications for public policy makers indicating that providing factual information (as opposed to persuasive …

Inter-Firm Collaboration In Australian Telecom Market, Aimee Zhang, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The Australian telecommunications market is a typical mature market in a developed country. This paper gives an overview of the Australian telecommunication market’s development, industry structure, major components and contributions, major firms, key government agencies and organizations in this market. The history and development process of the Australian telecommunications market is, like most telecom markets in the world, one from monopoly to limited competition, from state ownership to market driven and from closed to open. To study inter-firm collaboration types, benefits, and barriers, a qualitative interview was conducted to collect real industry data from different sectors. Face-to-face interviews were adopted …

The Influence Of Board Size On Intellectual Capital Disclosure By Kenyan Listed Firms, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of board size on firms disclosing more, rather than less, strategic and tactical intellectual capital resources using the top 26 of the 52 firms ranked by the Nairobi Stock Exchange for market capitalization in 2002 and in 2003. This study identifies intellectual capital disclosure by three separate categories: internal capital, external capital, and human capital. Hence, this study examines the influence of board size on six disclosure outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The study develops hypotheses using the resource dependency theory. Using content analysis for data generation, this study classifies …

Customer Relationship Management And Firm Performance, Tim Coltman, Timothy M. Devinney, David F. Midgley

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In this paper, we examine the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) on firm performance using a hierarchical construct model. Following the resource-based view of the firm, strategic CRM is conceptualized as an endogenously determined function of the organization’s ability to harness and orchestrate lower order capabilities that comprise physical assets, such as IT infrastructure, and organizational capabilities, such as human analytics and business architecture. Our results reveal a positive and significant path between a superior CRM capability and firm performance. In turn, superior CRM capability is positively associated with human analytics and business architecture. However, our results suggest the …

Migrant Remittances, Financial Sector Development And The Government Ownership Of Banks, Arusha V. Cooray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates the influence of migrant remittances on twodimensions of the financial sector, namely, size and efficiency. Evidence suggests thatmigrant remittances contribute to increasing the size and efficiency of the financialsector. The study, in addition, examines the impact of remittances on financial sectorsize and efficiency through the government ownership of banks channel. While theresults suggest that remittances lead to larger increases in financial sector size incountries in which the government ownership of banks is lower and increases inefficiency in countries in which the government ownership of banks is higher, thegovernment is found to play an important role in promoting …

The Portrayal Of Aboriginal Spiritual Identity In Tourism Advertising: Creating An Image Of Extraordinary Reality Or Mere Confusion?, Alan A. Pomering

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper considers how Aboriginal identity and spirituality are appropriated to construct national identity for an Australian tourism advertising campaign, and proposes a research agenda to investigate whether incongruity, based on consumers’ prior knowledge of Indigenous Australians’ real everyday identity, might reduce advertising effectiveness.

Strategic Ambiguity And Ethical Actions, Ah Ba Sim, Mario Fernando

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Ethics and moral obligations of management are an integral component in corporate strategy and support is now increasing for the proposition that ethics should be central, not peripheral, to the overall management of the firm. Within this context, we examine the influence of strategic ambiguity on the ethical actions of corporations. Strategic ambiguity is a prevalent and valuable tactic in organizational strategy making. However, the influence of strategic ambiguity on organizational strategy making and communication may lead to unethical executive behaviour and action. This paper develops a framework to examine the role of strategic ambiguity in ethical action, using James …

An Examination Of Csr Assurance Reports Of Equator Principles Signatories, Chi Fun Freda Hui, Graham D. Bowrey

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: To undertake a review of the assurance reports, prepared by audit firms and non-audit firms, on the CSR performance and management reporting disclosures of a specific sample of Equator Principles signatory banks.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on an initial examination of assurance reports of CSR reporting disclosures of a group of banks who are signatories of the Equator Principles. Rudimentary content analysis has been used to identify the differences in the structure of the titles, number of words and focus of these CSR reporting disclosures assurance reports.

Findings: The key finding from this initial review …

Destination Choice By Young Australian Travellers: A Theoretical Explanation To A Practitioner Problem, Clifford Lewis, Gregory Kerr, Alan Pomering

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Domestic tourism in Australia is in decline. This is particularly the case with young Australian travellers (YATs) who seem to prefer to travel overseas rather than consume domestic tourism experiences. This paper first provides an overview of theories of destination choice which concludes that such models may be inadequate in understanding destination choice on the part of YATs. A conceptual model of destination choice which examines the potential importance of and relationships between ritual, ritual inversion, and fashion is presented, following which an agenda for research is proposed.

Cross Country Co-Movements Of Gdp Growth Rates: Are They Systematic?, Abbas Valadkhani, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Using factor analysis this paper examines discernable patterns of real GDP growth comovementsacross 97 countries, using consistent time series data for the period 1961-2008.Of these countries only 21 are found to form three statistically significant groupings, wheremembership count exceeds more than two. Ten major OECD European countries plus Japanand Hong Kong form the first well-defined common bloc of countries (G12). The second bloc,consisting of six major Asian countries (G6), have GDP growth rates that exhibit a very highdegree of correlation, based on their robust factor loadings. The last group of countiescollectively witnessed a very substantial degree of cross-country growth co-movementsconstituted …

Mapping The Archive: An Examination Of Research Reported In Ajll 2000-2005, Pauline J. Harris, Janice B. Turbill, Lisa K. Kervin, Kathryn Harden-Thew

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Amidst commissioned research reports and policy reforms in literacy education, this paper examines research reported in the 2000–2005 archive of the Australian Journal of Language and Literacy (AJLL). This focus arises from the selective inclusion of literacy research in recent literacy education policy reform documents in Australia and overseas and the exclusion of other research, including research from this AJLL 2000/5 archive. Given the high national and international standing of AJLL, we felt it was timely and important to engage in a retrospective mapping exercise with this collection of research and critically examine its relationship to literacy education policy. So …

Identifying And Measuring Factors Of Technical Inefficiency: Evidence From Unbalanced Panel Data Of Thai Listed Manufacturing Enterprises, Yot Amornkitvikai, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study employs stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and two-stage DEA approaches to predict firm technical efficiency and analyse an inefficiency effects model. Aggregate translog stochastic frontier production functions are estimated under the SFA approach using an unbalanced panel data of 178 Thai manufacturing enterprises listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), covering the period 2000 to 2008. The maximum-likelihood Tobit model is used to conduct the second-stage of the two-stage DEA model to investigate the relationship between technical inefficiency and environmental variables. Both parametric and non-parametric approaches are found to produce consistent results. The empirical evidence from both approaches …