Digital Commons Network^™

Stock Market And Gdp Growth Volatility Spillovers, Indika Karunanayake, Abbas Valadkhani, Martin O'Brien

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the interplay between stock market returns and GDP growth rates in four Anglo-Saxon economies located in three separate continents (namely, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia). We analyse the dynamics of cross-country volatility transmission across these countries by using quarterly data from 1959 to 2010 and a multivariate GARCH model. Country specific cross-mean spillovers from GDP growth to stock market returns exist only from the US growth towards its stock market, while country specific cross-mean spillovers from stock market returns towards GDP growth exist in both the US and Australia. The US economy influences all three …

The Effect Of Female And Male Health On Economic Growth: Cross-Country Evidence Within A Production Function Framework, Gazi Hassan, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

It is widely believed by development economists that the role of human capital is one of the most fundamental determinants of economic growth. Sustained growth depends on the level of human capital whose stocks increase due to better education, higher levels of health, new learning and training procedure. The intuition that good health raises the level of human capital and has a positive effect on productivity and economic growth has been modelled by enodogenous growth theorists. But empirically ascertaining the causal relationship between health and growth is more difficult due to the possible existence of endogeneity between these two variables. …

Bragging Rights And Destination Marketing: A Tourism Bragging Rights Model, Gregory M. Kerr, Clifford Lewis, Lois Burgess

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In a study seeking to understand destination choice, focus group participants consisting of travellers, mentioned the importance of ‘bragging rights’. Additionally, tourism marketers when interviewed about destination choice also referred to bragging rights. An online search of ‘travel’, ‘tourism’ and ‘bragging rights’ revealed thousands of links. Despite this, bragging rights has received limited attention in tourism research. This paper defines bragging rights, discusses its relevance to tourism and proposes a conceptual model suggesting how bragging rights can be managed by destination marketers to enhance destination image and consequently increase visitation.

Reflective Assessment In Work-Integrated Learning: To Structure Or Not To Structure, That Was Our Question, Bonnie Amelia Dean, Chris Sykes, Shirley Agostinho, Mike Clements

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper reports the findings of a research study on whether or not to structure reflective assessment tasks. It examines students' perceived benefits or limitations from structuring reflective assessments in a Commerce WIL program at the University of Wollongong. Sixty-four students over two semesters responded to a questionnaire on their perceptions of structured reflective assessments in the Internship Program. The findings of the self-reported experiences were heterogeneous and indicative of the dominant themes relevancy and flexibility. We suggest these themes stem from a misalignment of assessment and reflective practice. Correcting this misalignment could be achieved by providing a balance of …

Banking Records, Business And Networks In Colonial Sydney, 1817-24, Leanne Johns, Simon Ville

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Examining accounting transactions between depositors in the first accounts ledger of the Bank of New South Wales contributes to our knowledge of early Australian colonial businesspeople and their business activities. A social network analysis framework is applied to the transactions to disclose business networks and prominent individuals in the networks. The analysis seeks to ascertain the importance of these people to commerce and the significance of their networks in facilitating commercial relationships in a business environment fraught with uncertainty. The results illustrate the importance of networks to colonial trade and mercantile activity, especially for smaller scale businesspeople.aehr_348

Social Networks, Social Learning And Service Systems Improvement, Andrew Sense, Matthew Pepper

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article illustrates and qualitatively explores the value of understanding the social networks present in a service operation through a case study of a local government service network that manages regional development applications. It also examines how social learning underpins service systems performance improvement and how it is instrumental in creating a richer environment for ongoing service network innovation and development. It is argued that gaining a better understanding of these social networks and the social learning potential in a system offers substantial and highly practitioner-friendly avenues to progress service systems capability development. These fi ndings clearly place an emphasis …

Interest Rate Pass Through And The Asymmetric Relationship Between The Cash Rate And The Mortgage Rate, Abbas Valadkhani, Sajid Anwar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

There is an ongoing controversy over whether banks’ mortgage rates rise more rapidly than they fall due to their asymmetric responses to changes in the cash rate. This paper examines the dynamic interplay between the cash rate and the standardvariable mortgage rate using monthly data in the post-1989 era. Unlike previous Australian studies, our proposed threshold and asymmetric error-correction models account for both the amount and adjustment asymmetries. We found that the Reserve Bank of Australia’s rate rises have a much larger and more instantaneous impact on the mortgage rate than rate cuts.

Media-Induced Voluntourism In Yunnan, China, Jun Shao, Michelle Scarpino, Yoonjung Lee, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Media-induced tourism as well as voluntourism are topics increasingly investigated in the tourism literature. However, a discussion of the intersection of these two forms of tourism (i.e., mediainduced voluntourism) is currently missing from the literature. Using the example of two Chinese TV dramas, this article seeks to shed light on motivations and activities of media-induced voluntourists to the Chinese province of Yunnan. Based on a thematic analysis of online postings of the fans of these Chinese TV dramas, the article finds empirical evidence for media-induced voluntourism. The findings reveal that fans travel to Yunnan not only to engage in altruistic …

Tourist-Activated Networks: Implications For Dynamic Bundling And En Route Recommendations, Florian Zach, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article discusses tourist-activated networks as a concept to inform technological applications supporting dynamic bundling and en route recommendations. Empirical data were collected from travelers who visited a regional destination in the US and then analyzed with respect to its network stmcture. The results indicate that the tourist-activated network for the destination is rather sparse and that there are clearly differences in core and peripheral nodes. The findings illustrate the stmcture of a tourist-activated network and provide implications for technology design and tourism marketing.

Organization-Based Social Marketing: An Alternative Approach For Organizations Adopting Sustainable Business Practices, Mary Franks Papakosmas, Gary Noble, John Glynn

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article conceptualizes a new area for social marketing practitioners by focusing on individual behavior change that might occur within organizations. Organization-Based Social Marketing (OBSM) draws from organization change theory and internal marketing theory, while maintaining social marketing’s focus on beneficial behavior modification. The article argues that as such, OBSM represents a viable approach for organizations seeking to address the increasing demand for change strategies that promote proenvironmental behavior among their employees

How To Use Qualitative Research To Design A Managerially Useful E-Service Questionnaire, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

E-service questionnaires must be content-aligned with the company or organization’s customer relationship management system (CRM). Four phases of qualitative research will ensure this alignment. The first phase is a qualitatively evaluative search of the practitioner literature on e-retailing, both B2B and B2C, and on CRM so as to capture evolving knowledge in both fields. The second phase is individual depth interviews (IDIs) with potential, current, and lapsed customers to map their e-interactive behavior and experiences. The third phase is dyadic depth interviews (DDIs) with the marketing manager and the website designer to fully understand the company’s current and potential e-service …

Role Of Remuneration Committee In Narrative Human Capital Disclosure, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study empirically investigates whether independent directors on the remuneration committee influence narrative human capital disclosure (NAHCD) in firms where independent directors dominate the board composition. NAHCD is measured by frequency of occurrence, using latent content analysis in the annual reports of the top 30 listed firms on the Colombo Stock Exchange from 1998 to 2006. This study examines two attributes of corporate governance, controlling for other corporate governance attributes and firm-level attributes. The findings highlight the importance of considering a firm’s independent director involvement in the remuneration committee when determining NAHCD strategy.

Emotional Branding Pays Off: How Brands Meet Share Of Requirements Through Bonding, Companionship, And Love, John Rossiter, Steven Bellman

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Emotional branding is defined here as the consumer’s attachment of a strong, specific, usage-relevant emotion—such as Bonding, Companionship, or Love—to the brand. The present large-scale survey of buyers of frequently purchased consumer products finds that, for such products, full-strength emotional branding is attained among, at most, only about 25 per cent of the brand’s buyers but that, if attained, it pays off massively in terms of personal share of purchases. Emotional branding may well be more widely effective for high involvement, positively motivated products (not surveyed here). It seems that advertising can generate the expectancy of strong, specific, emotional attachment, …

How Coviewing Reduces The Effectiveness Of Tv Advertising, Steven Bellman, John R. Rossiter, Anika Schweda, Duane Varan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In the present study – a naturalistic laboratory experiment – coviewing of TV commercials reduced their effectiveness (delayed proven ad recall) from 63%, obtained by single viewers, to 43%, for both coviewers. During coviewing, the ‘mere presence of another’ apparently distracts each coviewer’s attention from the screen. The reduction in TV ads’ effectiveness due to coviewing is equivalent to the loss from channel-change zapping, which reduces ad recall to 45%. More deleterious but less prevalent modes of digital video recorder-enabled ad avoidance are skip-button zapping, which reduces recall to 35%, and moderately fast zipping (X 8 fast forward), …

The Impact Of Migrant Remittances On Economic Growth: Evidence From South Asia, Arusha V. Cooray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Incorporating migrant remittances among other variables into a growth model, and employing panel data over the 1970-2008 period, this study investigates the impact of migrant remittances on economic growth in South Asia. Migrant remittances are found to have a significant positive effect on economic growth. A significant positive interactive effect of remittances on economic growth is detected through education and financial sector development.

Tribes In Personal Finance? The Dave Ramsey Phenomenon, Ciorstan Smark

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: This paper explores the Dave Ramsey financial planning phenomenon (comprising his syndicated Radio Programs; Books on the New York Times Bestseller List; Twitter and Facebook presence; Program of Live events and seminars) and considers whether this financial planning phenomena meets the criteria set out by Godin (2008, 13) for a "tribe" and by Foucault (1977) for a "disciplinary Institution".

Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs a form of the Socratic or dialogue approach to explore and comment on various aspects of the tribe mentality that is evident in Davey Ramsey phenomenon. The discourse seeks to deconstruct the alignment of the phenomenon …

"Pick-Any" Measures Contaminate Brand Image Studies, Sara Dolnicar, John R. Rossiter, Bettina Grun

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Brand image measures using the typical "pick-any" answer format have been shown to be unstable (Rungie et al., 2005). In the present study, we find that the poor stability results are mainly caused by the pick-any measure itself because it allows consumers to evade reporting true associations. Using a forced-choice binary measure, we find that stable brand attribute associations are in fact present with much higher incidence (70%), thus outperforming both the measures predominantly used in industry (pick-any, 41%) and academia (7-point scale measure, 59%). Under simulated optimal conditions the forced-choice binary measure leads to 90% stability of brand-attribute associations …

Reconciling The Invisible Hand And Innovation, Eduardo Pol

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

It is generally agreed that Adam Smith invoked the Invisible Hand to send the message to posterity that a free-market economy is the best form of economic organization. Strictly speaking, the Invisible Hand of Adam Smith is a conjecture about the virtues of a free-market economy. There are three claims in this paper concerning the interpretation of the Invisible Hand conjecture. First, the neoclassical interpretation engenders a conceptual confusion -identified here as the 'double paradox' of the Invisible Hand. Second, the interpretation of Adam Smith's conjecture on the beneficial effects of the free-market economy cannot -and should not- be confined …

Designing Is Service Strategy: An Information Acceleration Approach, Pierre J. Richard, Tim Coltman, Byron Keating

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Information technology-based innovation involves considerable risk requiring foresight; yet our understanding of the way in which managers develop the insight to support new breakthrough applications is limited and remains obscured by high levels of technical and market uncertainty. This paper applies discrete choice analysis to support improved empirical explanation of how and why decisions are made in information systems. A new experimental method based on information acceleration is also applied to improve prediction of future IS service strategies. Both explanation and prediction are important to IS research and these two behaviourally sound methods complement each other. Specifically, the combination of …

The Contribution Of Vacations To Quality Of Life, Sara Dolnicar, Venkata Yanamandram, Katie Cliff

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The contribution of vacations to people’s life satisfaction and Quality of Life (QOL) has recently attracted substantial attention among tourism researchers. Yet, most QOL scales do not include vacations: 7% explicitly measure vacations whereas 42% only include items relating to vacations within the broader Leisure domain. Leisure and vacations, however, differ substantially in nature with leisure referring to regular home-based activities and vacations being infrequent leisure activities away from home. As a consequence of the common amalgamation of vacations with leisure, there is limited knowledge about the specific contribution of vacations to people’s QOL. The present study (1) presents empirical …

Collaborative Network Success And The Variable Nature Of Trust, Ronald Beckett, Michael Jones

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

We observe that the nature of trust when viewed in a collaborative context can have varied implications and outcomes. For example, actors who may trust one another in one situation may not display the same level of trust in other situations. These trust variations arise as a result of differences in organisational competencies, the nature of the contract and the level of goodwill the collaboration expects. It is broadly agreed that trust is important in relation to collaborative ventures. In this article, we use the ARCON reference model as a framework to consider endogenous and exogenous aspects of trust important …

Water Conservation Behavior In Australia, Sara Dolnicar, Anna Hurlimann, Bettina Grun

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Ensuring a nation’s long term water supply requires the use of both supply-sided approaches such as water augmentation through water recycling, and demand-sided approaches such as water conservation. Conservation behavior can only be increased if the key drivers of such behavior are understood. The aim of this study is to reveal the main drivers from a comprehensive pool of hypothesized factors. An empirical study was conducted with 3094 Australians. Data was analyzed using multivariate linear regression analysis and decision trees to determine which factors best predict self-reported water conservation behavior. Two key factors emerge: high level of pro-environmental behavior; and …

The Impact Of Husband’S Job Loss On Partners’ Mental Health, Silvia Mendolia

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of job loss on family mental well-being. The negative income shock can affect the mental health status of the individual who directly experiences such displacement, as well as the psychological well-being of his partner; also, job loss may have a significantly detrimental effect on life satisfaction, self-esteem and on the individual’s perceived role in society. This analysis is based on a sample of married and cohabitating couples from the first 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. In order to correct for the possible endogeneity of job loss, data …

Factors Affecting The Export Participation And Performance Of Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprises (Smes), Yot Amornkitvikai, Charles Harvie, Teerawat Charoenrat

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper employed the 2007 Thai Industrial Census to empirically examine the effects of firm-specific and industry factors on a firm’s decision to export and the export performance of 65,111 Thai manufacturing SMEs which are classified into eight submanufacturing groups. Six econometric models are indentified to capture linear and nonlinear effects of firm-specific factors as well as to analyze each industry effect for Thai manufacturing SMEs. Four limited dependent variable models (i.e., the probit model, the logit model, the linear probability model, and the Tobit model) are used to study the factors affecting a firm’s export decision and its export …

Marketing Measurement Revolution: The C-Oar-Se Method And Why It Must Replace Psychometrics, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – New measures in marketing are invariably created by using a psychometric approach based on Churchill’s “scale development” procedure. This paper aims to compare and contrast Churchill’s procedure with Rossiter’s content-validity approach to measurement, called C-OAR-SE.
Design/methodology approach – The comparison of the two procedures is by rational argument and forms the theoretical first half of the paper. In the applied second half of the paper, three recent articles from the Journal of Marketing (JM) that introduce new constructs and measures are criticized and corrected from the C-OAR-SE perspective.
Findings – The C-OAR-SE method differs from Churchill’s method by …

Accounting And Neoliberalism: A Critical Reading Of Iasb/Fasb's Conceptual Framework For Financial Reporting 2010, Ying Zhang

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores the influence of neoliberal free market ideology on the accounting standard setting by using IASB/FASB’s Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting 2010 as an example. By positioning the analysis in broader literature of neoliberalism and financialisation, this paper reveals the bias underlying the conceptual framework that promotes the interest of neoliberal financiers and its potential social impacts. This paper argues that the changes that take place in the joint project serve to strengthen the beliefs in the neoliberal markets and favours a very small group of users over the ‘public interest’ consideration of financial reporting. As unfolded through …

An Assessment Of M-Health In Developing Countries Using Task Technology Fit Model, Amina Tariq, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Health challenges present arguably the most significant barrier to sustainable global development. The introduction of ICT in healthcare, especially the application of mobile communications, has created the potential to transform healthcare delivery by making it more accessible, affordable and effective across the developing world. However, current research into the assessment of mHealth from the perspective of developing countries particularly with community Health workers (CHWs) as primary users continues to be limited. The aim of this study is to analyze the contribution of mHealth in enhancing the performance of the health workers and its alignment with existing workflows to guide its …

Three Good Reasons Not To Use Factor-Cluster Segmentation, Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grun

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Market segmentation is very popular both in tourism industry and among tourism researchers. Tourism industry uses it to identify homogenous subsets of tourists and to select the most suitable of them to target over the medium and long term. Tourism researchers use it to gain a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity of consumer behaviour among tourists. There are two basic forms of market segmentation: a priori (Mazanec, 2000) or commonsense segmentation (Dolnicar, 2004) and post-hoc (Myers and Tauber, 1977), a posteriori (Mazanec, 2000), or data-driven segmentation (Dolnicar, 2004). In commonsense segmentation the users determine in advance which tourist characteristic should …

Self-Congruity And Volunteering : A Multi-Organisation Comparison, Melanie Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

1. Purpose: To examine: (1) if individuals who prefer different volunteering organisations have different self-concepts; (2) if individuals perceive their preferred volunteering organisation as more similar to their self-concept than other volunteering organisations; and (3) if self-congruity theory correctly predicts consumer (volunteer) behaviour differences across organisations and organisational missions.
2. Design/methodology/approach: We collected data on people’s preferred volunteering organisation, their self-concept and their perceived image from eight volunteering organisations using an online self-completion survey. We then used chi-square tests and paired-sample t-tests to identify significant differences between groups.
3. Findings: Individuals who prefer different volunteering organisations differ significantly in their self-concept. For the …

Historical Approaches To Creativity And Innovation, Simon Ville

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In this chapter, I will analyse historical approaches to creativity and innovation. Initially, this will take the form of a broad international comparative perspective and then, more specifically, I will address recent Australian historical experience. This will include a focussed look at sources of new technology in the interwar period. In the final section of the paper, I will address briefly the policy implications arising from the historical survey.