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Systematic Risk Factors For Australian Stock Market Returns: A Cointegration Analysis, Mazharul H. Kazi

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper identifies the systematic risk factors for the Australian stock market by applying the cointegration technique of Johansen. In conformity with the finance literature and investors’ common intuition, relevant a priori variables are chosen to proxy for Australian systematic risk factors. The results show that only a few systematic risk factors are dominant for Australian stock market price movements in the long-run while short-run dynamics are in place. It is observed that the linear combination of all a priori variables is cointegrated although not all variables are significantly influential. The findings show that bank interest rate, corporate profitability, dividend …

The Accounting Profession: Serving The Public Interest Or Capital Interest?, Mary Kaidonis

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

As an integral facet of society, the accounting profession has a role in the State and the corporate sector, and is also expected to serve the public interest. The capacity for the Australian accounting profession to serve the public interest is considered in the context of legislation and the accounting standard setting process. Specific reference is made to the CLERP Act 1999 and ASIC Act 2001. It is argued that the combined effect of these Acts is to legislate bias so that accounting standards privilege the specific needs of holders of capital, that is capital interest. The assumption that capital …

Paradigm Shift In The Microfinance Sector And Its Implications For Theory Development: Empirical Evidence From Pakistan, Ashfaq A. Khan

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

Financial and non-financial subsidized resources at the disposal of international donor agencies available for continued support of the microfinance sector are not unlimited. One of the strategies resorted to by the donor community to ensure supply of financial resources to the sector was to make it lucrative to private-sector investment. Thus, for more than a decade now, the donor community has been emphasizing profitability on the part of microfinance institutions to enable the sector to attract commercial capital. This move on the part of the donor community led microfinance institutions to adapt both functionally and structurally to better cope with …

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Of Two Note-Issuing Banks In Hong Kong, Freda Hui, Graham Bowrey

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The environmental performance and management disclosure of organisations came under increased scrutiny over the past decade due to several factors, particularly the impact organisations have on the world’s environment and the rapid change in the world’s climate. These concerns prompted organisations, including financial institutions, to review the level of their environmental performance and management disclosures to demonstrate, amongst other objectives, their level of social responsibility. Due to the nature of their business, financial institutions are not generally seen to contribute directly to the degradation of the environment; however, they do provide the funds for many organisations’ projects which directly affect …

Does Internet Reporting Improve The Accessibility Of Financial Information In A Global World? A Comparative Study Of New Zealand And Indian Companies, Bikram Chatterjee, Lindsey Hawkes

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The accessibility of business reporting, including financial reports on company websites is not necessarily increased by providing more information on websites. The quality of Internet-based information is affected by both the accessibility and quantity of information provided. However, the accessibility of the information is an under researched area. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge on web-based business reporting, by considering the dimension of accessibility in terms of website appearance and visual design from four different perspectives. The aim is to consider the differences that occur in website organisation as a way of considering the accessibility of information …

Managers’ Propensity To Take Risk In Project Selection Decisions: The Effect Of Payoff Magnitude, Kevin Baird, Sujatha Perera, Ting T. Meng

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper examines the factors that influence managers’ propensity to take risk in project selection decision contexts with a special focus on payoff magnitude as an influencing factor. This study utilises an experimental research design to examine this relationship in a project selection context. The results reveal that there is an inverse relationship between payoff magnitude and the participants’ propensity to take risk with individuals becoming more risk averse as the level of payoff magnitude increases. The study also provides an insight into the key factors considered by risk averse and risk taking managers when making project selection decisions.

Assessment In The Professional Experience Context, N. Brown

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Professional Experience is a key component of teacher education programs, bringing together the different disciplines of Education into a real-world setting. Helping pre-service teachers see theory in practice and begin to put theory into practice requires a close and explicit linkage between the coursework and practicum. A shared discourse that is accessible to pre-service teachers, field-based colleague teachers and university lecturers is an essential element in this process, particularly as there is an embedded assessment component. This project describes the evaluation of an assessment rubric developed for Professional Experience in the Bachelor of Teaching at UTAS.

Graphic Design Education: A Revised Assessment Approach To Encourage Deep Learning, G. Ellmers, M. Foley, S. Bennett

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

In this paper we outline the review and iterative refinement of assessment procedures in a final year graphic design subject at the University of Wollongong. Our aim is to represent the main issues in assessing graphic design work, and informed by the literature, particularly 'notions of creativity' (Cowdroy & de Graaff, 2005), to develop and incorporate assessment procedures that allow creative ability to be assessed with greater transparency and objectivity. In the first iteration we developed a structure to standardise and clarify the existing model for the subject. Once this structure was in place we identified issues that would benefit …

Using Assessment Practice To Evaluate The Legal Skills Curriculum, M. T. O'Brien, J. Littrich

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

A comprehensive audit of the skills curriculum offered to students in a Bachelor of Laws program yielded important insights about the collective impact of assessment tasks on the hidden and operational skills curriculum. This qualitative case study supports the views (1) that assessment tasks provide significant skills practice and performance opportunities for students; (2) that assessment provides students with important cues about what type of learning is valued; and (3) that review of assessment practices across the curriculum can provide important information for curricular reform.

Assessment: What Drives Innovation?, N. Falchikov, K. Thompson

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

The developing discourse which moves assessment away from a measurement model towards one of learner empowerment and the development of assessment for lifelong learning sets the context for this paper. Within this framework, we explore how the demands made on practitioners may influence current reported assessment practices. The reasons given by practitioners for implementing innovations in assessment illuminate the ways in which academics are attempting to meet these demands. Using data from a recent UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) funded literature review, we examined six different types of innovation in assessment. These were presentations and other non- written assessments; portfolios …

Integrating Graduate Attributes With Assessment Criteria In Business Education: Using An Online Assessment System, D. Thompson, L. Treleaven, P. Kamvounias, B. Beem, E. Hill

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

This paper describes a study of the integration of graduate attributes into Business education using an online system to facilitate the process. ‘ReView’ is a system that provides students with criteria-based tutor feedback on assessment tasks and also provides opportunities for online student self-assessment. Setup incorporates a process of ‘review’ whereby assessment criteria are grouped into graduate attribute categories and reworded to make explicit the qualities, knowledge and skills that are valued in student performance. Through this process, academics clarify and make explicit the alignment of assessment tasks to learning objectives and graduate attribute development across units and levels of …

Assessment In First Year University: A Model To Manage Transition, J. A. Taylor

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

For most students assessment guides their study and learning practice. Yet in the literature associated with the first year of study at university, few have mobilised the power of assessment to develop and engage first year undergraduate students. This paper presents a model of assessment for first year students which separates the semester into three overlapping assessment phases: assessment for transition, assessment for development and assessment for achievement. The implementation and usefulness of the model is supported by examples from mathematics, engineering, computing, communication and nursing studies at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). Particular attention is paid to assessments …

Using A Cross-Institutional Collaborative Model To Deliver A National Roundtable Conference On Assessment: A Case Study, N. Brown, J. Littrich

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

This paper describes the organisation, preparation and delivery of a major project, namely, a national roundtable conference on assessment, in the context of a wider project involving the development and application of a model of collaboration between tertiary institutions based on a distributive leadership framework. It analyses feedback received from round table participants and comments on both the utility and the limitations of the adopted model for the purpose of the round table project.

Editorial 5.1, Geraldine E. Lefoe, D. Boud

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

We welcome you to the first edition of JUTLP for 2008. This special edition is focussed on meeting the needs of practice through an examination of changes in assessment at the institutional, faculty, course and subject level. The Special Edition was prompted by a roundtable 'Assessing student learning: Using interdisciplinary synergies to develop good teaching and assessment practice' in Sydney on Tuesday 6th September, 2007 sponsored by the Carrick Institute (now renamed the Australian Learning and Teaching Council). The forum hosted 45 people from around Australia and New Zealand to discuss strategies for improving assessment in the higher education sector. …

Sustainability Reporting In Fishing Industry Management - Regulation Versus Voluntarism, Susan Wild

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

A growing number of major corporations and industry organizations now overtly advocate the general concept of corporate social and environmental responsibility, commonly emphasising the ‘business case’ for such behaviour on the basis that it is ‘good for business’. Many now report to their stakeholders on a voluntaristic basis a range of information regarding their impacts on the social and physical environment in which they operate. Intrinsic to the business case model is the argument that an optimal balance between the needs of economic growth and the sustainable management of natural resources can best be attained through the conventional mechanisms of …

The State Of The Australian Middle Class, Clive Hamilton, Christian Downie, Yi H. Lu

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

There is a widespread view that the middle class in Australia is doing it tough, that they are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a decent standard of living and are suffering from mortgage stress. Indeed, some media reports have announced the end of the middle class dream. This paper tests a number of these popular views against the statistical data. It asks whether the typical Australian family can be said to be struggling? Are mortgages creating severe problems for middle-class families? Is the middle class shrinking? Are families coping financially only because wives are going out to work?

The Scholarly Output Of Universities And Academics In The Asia-Pacific Region Who Publish In Major Finance Journals: 2000-2007, Elvis Jarnecic, Reuben Segara, Lydia Segara, Joakim P. Westerholm

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The study examines the scholarly output of all universities and their finance academics in the Asia-Pacific region. We evaluate the scholarly output of 1,341 research academic staff across 300 leading Asia-Pacific universities in the period 2000 to 2007. A significant contribution of our study is that it presents ranking league tables for finance journals with respect to journal quality. The necessity of well defined ranking tables help university executive management, government policy and funding bodies in better assessing research performance. The study also constructs a new measure called to Research Productivity Dependency (RPD) index, which acts as a risk management …

Corporate Response To Climate Change: What Do Stakeholders Expect?, M. S.V. Prasad, B. Sandhya Sri

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper examines different perceptions on climate change management and disclosures from the viewpoint of stakeholders in Indian Corporations. The paper shows how climate change strategies and disclosures at different organizational levels can be linked to the societal and competitive contexts that companies face, embedded in a stakeholder view. Companies are divided according to certain attributes - location, geographical spread, industry, degree of vertical integration and diversification, companies prioritizing particular stakeholder groups, and their climate change strategies and disclosures including internal measures, supply-chain measures and/or market-based measures that move beyond the supply chain are analyzed. This paper attempts to illustrate …

A Philosophy Of Teaching, S. Lenthen

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

Students these days, spoon-fed

cows that chew the mental cud,

uncaring of the earth that sprouts,

nor of the stomach that digests....

Trees Count, P. Ptolemy (Pseud.)

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

There's carbon in the atmosphere, it's rising as we speak. It's past three eighty parts per mil, and heading for a peak. It's higher than it's ever been, than we've ever seen before. Says old air trapped in ice, from an Antarctic core. The Arctic ice is melting, and the sea is on the rise. We've got to slow emissions; we've got to stabilise.

A Survey Of The Relation Between Capital Structure And Corporate Strategy, M. La Rocca, T. La Rocca, D. Gerace

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper responds to the general call for integration between finance and strategy research by examining how financial decisions are related to corporate strategy. In particular, the paper focuses on the link between capital structure and strategy. Corporate strategies complement traditional finance paradigms and extend our insight into a firm’s decisions regarding capital structure. Equity and debt must be considered as financial instruments as well as strategic instruments of corporate governance (Williamson 1988). Debt subordinates governance activities to stricter management, while equity allows for greater flexibility and decisionmaking power. The literature on finance and strategy analyzes how the strategic actions …

Tackling The Failure Of Microfinance Efforts Through Amalgamating Microfinance With Charity: Two Viable Alternatives In The Context Of Pakistan, Ashfaq Khan

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The drastic shift in the microfinance paradigm during the early 1990s, when the donor community adopted a new approach as to the sustainability of microfinance institutions, changed the overall scenario of the paradigm. Instead of providing subsidized financial services to microfinance institutions (MFIs) for their life time, the donors started emphasizing self-sustainability on the part of MFIs through making them adopt principles of commercialism. The shift in the donors’ approach, although relieved of their burden to a considerable extent, gave rise to an increase in the interest rates on loans for the poor. Many scholars considered it as a drift …

Trigger Points: Enhancing Generic Skills In Accounting Education Through Changes To Teaching Practices, T. Watts, C. J. Mcnair

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

In 2001 a small Australian university implemented particular intervention strategies designed to improve specific educational outcomes in its accounting degree program. These outcomes mirrored the three core areas of the Graduate Careers Council of Australia’s Course Experience Questionnaire: (1) good teaching, (2) overall satisfaction, and (3) generic skills. Five areas were identified for intervention: (1) the effective allocation of full-time staff, (2) the effective use of sessional staff, (3) greater commitment by sessional staff, (4) the introduction of common subject outlines, and (5) the proactive response to student evaluations. The results indicate a statistically significant improvement in 2003 in the …

Relationship Of The Australian Stock Market With Its Major Trading Partners: A Simple Exposition, Mazharul H. Kazi

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper examines the relationship between Australian stock market and the equity markets of its major trading partners namely, UK, USA, Canada, Germany, France, and Japan using 1945 to 2002 annual data series. The analysis of this paper considers both the foreign exchange risk element and the notion of share-return parity into its modified structural model which is estimated by applying both OLS and GMM methods. The UK, Canadian and French markets are found significant from OLS estimation; while GMM estimation suggests four markets including the German are significant at 5% level. Accordingly, this paper concludes that Australian stock market …

Transformation Of The Australian Public Sector And Environmental Accounting Practices: The Case Of Water In 2001, David R. Moore

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper analyses a case study undertaken in 2001 of a Victorian public sector water utility to examine the implications of public sector ‘modernisation’ reforms of the 1980s and 1990s for the adoption of environmental accounting (EA) procedures within the Victorian water industry. Legislative reforms have resulted in the allocation of overhead costs for the purpose of segmented reporting and to measure the ‘full cost’ of departments. This was consistent with the “managerialist”, “marketization” and “strategic” phases of public sector ‘modernisation’ reforms, but did not measure the full economic (environmental) cost. The application of full cost recovery for the purpose …

Personal Reflections On A Tale Of Two Books: Social And Environmental Accounting Research In The Past, Present And Future, Reg Mathews

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This paper was requested by the guest editors of the Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal (AABFJ) following the Sydney CSEAR conference. One topic suggested to me was to write a comment on recent developments leveraging on GG 2007 or that part that has not been published previously. I am pleased to attempt this but wish also to make reference to another book published at the same time (Unerman, Bebbington and O’Dwyer (UBOD 2007), because I believe that the different perspectives presented are informative for all scholars in the field of SEAR which is now often referred to as SA. …

Editorial: Social And Environmental Accounting Research (Sea) - A Special Issue?, Cornelia Beck, Sandra Van Der Laan

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

For what is now an extended period of time, a number of researchers have been working in what could be described as “an isolated, very small and persecuted community… seeking to reify this mysterious oddity that was social accounting (emphasis in original)” (Gray, 2007, p. 2). However, with increasing commercial and regulatory emphasis globally on environmental degradation and rehabilitation, climate change and the social responsibilities of the corporate world, this isolated, small community has not only gained a voice, but an increased profile and credibility for researchers in the area. As such, social and environmental accounting (SEA) research (as it …

Accounting And Accountability By Provincial Councils In Fiji: The Case Of Namosi, Nacanieli Rika, Masilina Tuiloa, Nathaniel Tuiseke, Si’Ata Finau-Tavite

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly to examine how the concepts of accounting and accountability are understood by indigenous Fijians; and secondly to examine the role of accounting in the accountability of provincial councils. Provincial councils are part of the Fijian Administration, which runs alongside the central government but applies only to indigenous Fijians. The Fijian Administration was introduced by the British colonial administration in the late 1800s as a mechanism for controlling indigenous Fijians. It has undergone several reviews resulting from criticisms that it has failed to fulfill the aspirations of indigenous Fijians. There is evidence of …

Corporate Social Reporting Practices Of Top Indian Software Firms, Vijaya Murthy, Indra Abeysekera

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

This study examines the corporate social reporting practices and the motivations behind such practices of the top 16 software firms in India. The 2003-2004 annual reports were analysed using content analysis to examine social reporting relating to human resource and social relations, combined with 14 case study interviews that examined managerial motives behind corporate social reporting (CSR) relating to the sample firms. When findings were analysed using legitimation strategies, the results indicate that firms use dual strategies in reporting their human resource and social relations to legitimise their activities to stakeholders

The Financial Information Value Chain: Repositioning Accounting Knowledge, Kevin Clarke, Jack Flanagan, Sharron O'Neill

Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal

Recently a body of literature has emerged from the United States that attempts to quantify and explain the role the media plays in the provision of financial information to share markets. This paper extends that line of enquiry by focusing on the implications for the accounting profession of various forms of alternative, frequently mediadriven, financial information providers. The paper briefly examines the demographic changes in the Australian share markets and adopts a ‘value chain’ approach in its analysis of the relationship between the media and the accounting profession. It highlights the growth in the media’s provision of financial information, analysis …