Digital Commons Network^™

Switching Barriers In Business-To-Business Services: A Qualitative Study, Venkata K. Yanamandram, L. White

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - To investigate the determinants of behavioural brand loyalty amongst dissatisfied customers in the business-to-business (B2B) services sector. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative study was conducted, with 28 personal interviews undertaken with managers who are involved in the choice of service providers. The respondents belonged to 24 organisations located in Australia. Template analysis and eyeballing were techniques used to analyse the data collected. Findings - Assessment of the reasons why dissatisfied customers stayed with the service providers resulted in six categories. The categories were found to be, in order of decreasing frequency, impact of alternative providers, switching costs (18), others …

Protecting Consumer Privacy In The Company’S Best Interest, Sara Dolnicar, Yolanda Jordaan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The increasing use of consumer databases by companies has led to increased levels of concern among consumers that their personal information may not be in safe hands once divulged to companies. A few studies have shown that consumer concern about information privacy may impact on consumer behaviour in ways directly opposed to the aims of the very marketing campaigns developed to increase sales. Should this indeed be the case, it would be in companies’ best interest to make protection of consumer privacy a priority. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether there is potential for such a market-driven …

Fear And Loathing In The Field: Emotional Dissonance And Identity Work In Ethnographic Research, S Down, Karin Garrety, R. J. Badham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper seeks to open up for discussion the emotional world of researchers in a manner that encourages and supports reflective practice. Drawing on the work of Clifford Geertz (1968) we focus on the ‘irony’ inherent to research – elaborated via the concept of ‘covertness’ – whereby ethnographic researchers construct mutual fictions in their relationships with respondents, which obscure the authenticity and sincerity of the emotional exchange between researcher and researched. Specifically we discuss examples of interpersonal dynamics which generate uncomfortable emotions and identity work on the part of researchers. Ultimately, we advance understanding of how emotions and identity work …

Are We Drawing The Right Conclusions? The Dangers Of Answer Format Effects In Empirical Tourism Research, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Empirical tourism research has a long history and empirically based findings represent an important component of theory development and managerial insight. Nevertheless, empirical data of any kind is susceptible to misinterpretation. The aim of this study is to investigate to which extent empirical tourism research accounts for three sources of potential misinterpretation of results: (1) the occurrence of answer format effects, (2) the occurrence of culturally specific response styles, and (3) the selection of data analytic techniques appropriate for the data format. A review of 43 academic publications from 2000 and 2001 suggests that empirical tourism research is strongly guided …

Integrating Information Literacy To Enhance Postgraduate Learning, George K. Kriflik, Lynda S. Kriflik

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Sourcing appropriate and reliable information is an area of skill development that requires active intervention to support the learning of postgraduate students. The investigative case study presented in this paper discusses the design, the application, and the preliminary outcomes of a group of tasks that were structured to enhance the information literacy skills of a class of postgraduate students at an Australian university. After providing the background, with reference to the literature, the discussion reviews student performance in the tasks set and the quiz questions used, as well as the students' reaction to this intervention. The results of the trial …

Environments For Change In A Faculty Of Arts: The Impact Of Teaching Off Campus, Geraldine E. Lefoe, Rebecca Albury

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

For a university in regional Australia, a new degree program offered through a remote campus and access centres, provided a supportive environment for faculty to try out new teaching and learning methods, specifically making use of a learning management system (WebCT) for aspects of communication and content. This article examines the impact this had on the faculty, in particular at the increased usage of ICT in subjects offered on campus and also examines issues such as workload and curriculum redesign, which were identified as problematic by faculty as they embraced innovative methods of teaching and learning.

Dreaming An Identity Between Two Cultures: The Works Of Alootook Ipellie, Kimberley L. Mcmahon-Coleman

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Alootook Ipellie argues that the harsh reality of life in the Arctic was the deciding factor in the development of Inuit literature. In his seminal work, "Arctic Dreams and Nightmares," his pen-and-ink drawings and short stories focus on the figure of the shaman as an entity powerful enough to mediate complex and conflicting worlds.

This paper examines how the circumstances of Arctic colonisation and the author's early life have influenced his stories. Through close critical analysis, it is suggested that Ipellie's shaman draws on the twin crises of extreme initation and colonisation in order to harness his magical powers. In …

Cognitive Tools Of Classsim: Building Connections Between Theory And Practice, Lisa Carrington, Lisa K. Kervin, Brian Ferry

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

This paper reports on the incorporation of an embedded tool within a virtual classroom environment (ClassSim) and the use of this by pre-service teachers as they engage with the software. The classroom simulation reported on in this research was developed to provide pre-service teachers with a safe virtual environment in which they are able to explore ‘authentic’ and practical classroom scenarios. The embedded tool, referred to as the ‘Thinking Space’, was developed to support pre-service teachers in capturing their reflections about the complex role of a teacher as they move through the experience. Encouraging reflection has long been acknowledged as …

Authentic Learning In Crime Prevention Practice, Catherine Layton

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Authentic learning activities closely approximate the interrelationships, differing perspectives in, as well as complexity and competing outcomes of, everyday life. In the online environment, collaborative studies can constitute authentic learning by offering opportunities for the personal construction of knowledge through dialogue and reflection. This paper outlines aspects of learning demonstrated by five crime prevention practitioners, mostly police, who undertook the online supported postgraduate subject ‘Partnerships in Crime Prevention’. Students were required to identify problems in their communities, and to work ‘in partnership’ with fellow students and the lecturer as they moved through an action research process in seeing how these …

Developing Familiarity With Learning Design Tools Through Subject Analysis, Christine A. Brown

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

The application of quality processes to tertiary teaching can result in a more team-based approach to course curriculum planning, the instructional design of individual subjects or units, the learning support associated with subject implementation and subsequent evaluation. The "art" of teaching requires more explicit communication within and across different teams that may be involved in each stage. Learning designs provide tools for design teams to map out learning environment attributes such as resources, tasks, people and interactions. Experienced teaching academics, unfamiliar with such tools, require orientation to them to achieve their communication potential. One way to introduce learning design models …

Determining The Cotnrols For Strata Gas And Oil Duistribution Within Sandstone Reservoirs Overlying The Bulli Seam, M. Armstrong, P. Hatherly, S. Thomson

Resource Operators Conference

The continuing and effective management of gas within the sandstones overlying the Bulli seam mines of BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal is required to ensure safe and productive mining operations. Recent surface exploration has also detected the presence of oil accumulations in these sandstones which have the potential to impact on future mining operations. Some of these hydrocarbons are located within the longwall relaxation zone of the overlying strata and, as a result, can migrate to the goaf and active workings subsequent to extraction. A number of new exploration techniques, which are in common use by the petroleum industry, have been …

Students' Preference For Teaching Strategies That Strengthen The Learning Of Economics In Middle Eastern Universities, Mokhtar M. Metwally, Nelson Perera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

A survey, covering a random sample of 139 students, was conducted at the University of Wollongong in Dubai during the months of September-November 2004, to gather opinions of students about their attitudes towards strategies that promote the teaching and learning of economics The technique of factor analysis was used to model the preference of students for various strategies. Multiple discriminant analysis was used to find out whether there are any significant differences in the attitudes of students at different stages :"students learning introductory economic subjects", "students learning intermediate economic subjects" and "students learning advanced and applied economic subjects" Factor scores …

Collaborative Action Research: Making It Happen, Victoria Traynor, Phillipa Baker, Joanna Defriez, Wilna Dirkse Van Schalykwyk, Julie Mcgarry, Deborah Thompson, Ruth Bartlett

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Does Landing Technique Displayed During Volleyball Training Replicate The Demands Of Competition?, C Wild, Bridget J. Munro, Julie R. Steele

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Despite chronic lower extremity syndromes being extremely problematic in volleyball internationally, there is a lack of research pertaining to the demands experienced by volleyball players in terms of landings performed during competition and whether these are replicated during training. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the differences in landing mechanics displayed by volleyball players during competition compared to training. Video data (25 Hz) of the Australian Men's volleyball team were collected for three training sessions and two competition matches at the Asian men's Volleyball Championships in 2003. Frequency data for six players were analysed (Chi-square analysis) to …

Federal Criminal Law And Tribal Self-Determination, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

Under the rubric of "tribal self-determination," federal policymakers have shifted federal governmental power and control to tribal governments in nearly all areas of Indian policy. Normatively, this shift reflects an enlightened view about the role of Indian tribes in Indian policy. As a practical matter, it has also improved services to Indians on reservations by placing functions with tribal service providers who are more knowledgeable and more accountable than their federal counterparts. Despite broad adoption of self-determination as the dominant federal policy, felony criminal justice on Indian reservations has remained an exclusive federal function, and a highly ineffective enterprise, according …

Identifying Authentic Mobile Learning In Teacher Education: A Design-Based Approach, Anthony J. Herrington, Janice A. Herrington

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The adoption of mobile technologies in higher education has been variable and inconsistent across the sector. Little is known about how people learn best from mobile devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants and portable digital audio players, and yet these are the technologies of choice of a generation of young adults who are proficient and competent in their use. This paper describes a project to explore, implement and document pedagogies that go beyond the use of mobile technologies for information delivery and communication. It describes a design-based approach to researching the use of mobile devices as cognitive tools …

Ada Emerge Symposium, Dunedin, November 2005, Su Ballard, Stella Brennan

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Aotearoa Digital Arts is New Zealand/Aotearoa's only digital artists' network. Instigated in 2003 by Stella Brennan and Sean Cubitt during Brennan's stint as inaugural Digital Artist in Residence at Waikato University's Screen and Media Department, ADA has grown to claim a particular place in the local context. ADA was born of the observation that although new media artists were often highly networked in terms of both their own practice and their professional relationships, there was no national organisation drawing together those with a common interest in digital art. This recognition suggested the irreversible importance of place against the frictionless communication …

Extreme Contagion In Emerging Stock Markets Using Extreme Value Copulas, Ramzi Nekhili

University of Wollongong in Dubai - Papers

This paper uses multivariate extreme value theory to model the tail dependence as a measure of extreme contagion in emerging stock markets. Using the extreme value copulas, we determine the joint probabilities of simultaneous crashes between two emerging markets. The study is performed on a number of East-Asian emerging markets that have lived the well-known Asian flu. The results revealed the existence of a high contagion of crisis in the Asian emerging markets with a continuous high risk dependence structure in the aftermath of the Asian flu.

3-Methyl-5-Nitrouracil, Maciej Kubicki, Pawel Wagner

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

The mol­ecules of the title compound, C₅H₅N₃O₄, are approximately planar. The nitro group makes a dihedral angle of 1.3 (4)° with the plane of the six-membered ring. This coplanar disposition is a reason for the changes in valence angles in the vicinity of the nitro group. Mol­ecules are connected into dimers by means of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, and these dimers make larger structures with the help of relatively short C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.

Efficiency In The Australian Stock Market, 1875-2006: A Note On Extreme Long-Run Random Walk Behaviour, A. C. Worthington, H. Higgs

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This note examines the weak-form market efficiency of the Australian stock market. Daily returns from 6 January 1958 to 12 April 2006 and monthly returns from February 1875 to December 2005 are examined for random walks using serial correlation coefficient and runs tests, Augmented Dickey-Fuller, Phillips-Perron and Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt and Shin unit root tests and multiple variance ratio tests. The serial correlation tests indicate inefficiency in daily returns and borderline efficiency in monthly returns, while the runs tests conclude that both series are weak-form inefficient. The unit root tests suggest weak-form inefficiency in both return series. The results of …

The Value Of Prerequisites: Providing The Links Between Understanding And Progression, V. Baard, T. Watts

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This paper contributes to the debate about understanding and progression provided through the use of discipline specific prerequisites. The results were compared of those students from 2003 2004 and 2005 completing the subject Principles of Finance and who had, or had not, completed the subject Business Statistics, a desired but not a formal prerequisite for Business Finance. First, the average mark in Principles of Finance for all students who had completed Business Statistics was compared to the average mark of all students who had not completed Business Statistics. Second, the average pass mark for all students in Principles of Finance …

The Fall Of Management Accounting: The Nira And The Homogenization Of Cost Practices In The U.S., C J. Mcnair-Connolly, T. Watts, R. Vangermeersch

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This paper explores the impact of societal trends on cost practices, and the management techniques used to support business structures, within the United States. Specifically, the influence of the National Industrial Recovery Act [NIRA] on the development of the costing and pricing policies is explored from the perspective of social rule system theory. The premise of the paper is that the NIRA, as enforced through the symbol of the "Blue Eagle" displaced the free market economy in the United States. This resulted in a pseudo-competitive market structure where full cost recovery and the earning of a fair and reasonable profit …

The Decline And Fall Of Seasonality In The Australian Stock Exchange, 1958-2005, A. C. Worthington

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This paper examines calendar effects in Australian daily stock returns over the forty-seven years from 6 January 1958 to 30 December 2005. Three principal calendar effects – day-of-the-week, day-of-the-month and month-of-the-year – are examined separately and jointly using parametric tests of differences in means and variances and a regression-based approach. The results indicate that the Australian market is characterised by seasonality of all three forms, with Tuesday, December and the second day of the month among the most significant. However, there is also evidence of structural change in these relationships, with indications that the market has become more efficient in …

Political Cycles In The Australian Stock Market Since Federation, A. C. Worthington

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This paper examines the presence of a political cycle in Australian monthly stock returns from January 1901 to December 2005. The period selected includes fifty-nine Liberal-National (or their antecedents) and Labor ministries and forty-seven elections. The political cycle is defined in terms of the party or coalition in power, ministerial tenure and election information effects. The market variables are defined in terms of returns, excess returns over inflation and excess returns over interest rates. Descriptive analysis indicates that mean returns and excess returns over inflation are nearly 85 percent higher and excess returns over interest rates 193 percent higher under …

Macroeconomic Forces And Stock Prices: Some Empirical Evidence From An Emerging Stock Market, G. B. Wickremasinghe

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This paper examines the causal relationships among stock prices and macroeconomic variables in an emerging stock market, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). We use data on six macroeconomic variables and All share Price Index (ASPI) of the CSE for the period January 1985 to December 2004. In the empirical analysis, we employed recently developed root tests that possess better power and size properties than widely-used Dickey-Fuller type unit root tests. Johansen's test, Error-correction models, variance decomposition and impulse response analyses indicate that there are both short and long-run causal relationships among stock prices and macroeconomic variables in Sri Lanka. These …

Dorothea Dix: A Social Researcher And Reformer, Ciorstan J. Smark

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802 – 1887) was a passionate and pioneering nineteenth century mental health reformer. Bound by the conventions and proprieties of her time, she was nevertheless a ground breaking advocate of people with mental illness. Her methods of research, lobbying and advocacy were both innovative and effective. This paper traces Dorothea Lynde Dix’s researches in Massachusetts from 1841 until 1848. Her methods of research and lobbying are illustrated in the context of social and legal conventions that did not allow women to directly address the state legislatures of the time. The detractors of “Dragon Dix” are examined. Her …

Conceptualising The Praxis Of Benchmarking Through Institutional Theory, C J. Mcnair-Connolly, T. Watts

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

The objective of this research is to develop a conceptual framework based on classical institutional theory to explain the key drivers or mechanisms behind the adoption and use of the business practice of benchmarking. The paper commences with the development of a conceptual view of benchmarking placing the four dimensions of benchmarking on a continuum from passive to active actions that improve performance. This is followed by the development of a construct for investigation using institutional theory through its major components, organisational isomorphism and organisational legitimacy and their drivers. Overlaying the conceptual view of benchmarking and the institutional theory construct …

Modelling Residential Water Demand In Queensland, Australia: A Comparative Analysis Of Pricing Structures And Estimation Techniques, A. C. Worthington, H. Higgs, M. Hoffmann

Faculty of Business - Accounting & Finance Working Papers

This paper uses monthly data from eleven local governments to model residential water demand in Queensland, Australia from 1994 to 2004. In the sample, residential consumption is charged using a variety of structures including fixed charges without allowance, fixed charges with allowance and excess rates, two-part tariffs comprising an access charge and a flat consumption rate and multi-part tariffs with an access charge and two or more limits with increasing consumption rates. Water demand is specified as average monthly household water consumption and the demand characteristics include the marginal and average price of water and daily average maximum temperatures and …

Working With Global English: The Experience Of English Language Teachers In A University Language College, Peter Kell, Gillian Vogl

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Through in-depth interviews and focus groups with English Language teachers employed at a university bridging college, this paper explores the challenges that teachers face in preparing international students for university life in Australia. Findings from this research suggest that the narrow business focused objectives of the English Language market undermine more holistic approaches to teaching English. A more holistic approach is required to respond to the social and cultural needs of students while they are studying in Australia. Nevertheless, this research suggests that regardless of the instrumental and reductionist neo liberal philosophy which informs these programs, meaningful intercultural dialogue, critical …

To The Smell Of Pineapples: Writing A Queensland Auto-Bio-Graphie, Francesca T. Rendle-Short

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

I grew up eating pineapples in everything; well, nearly everything (let's not exaggerate). They were a sweetener, made things juicy. Pineapple jam, pineapple breadcrumbs stuffed in the chicken roast for Sunday lunch after church, pineapple on the barbeque for the Christian folk my parents (MotherJoy and Onward) invited home, crushed pineapple in the punch, pineapple in the boiled fruitcake, pineapple in sandwiches as a treat through the summer holidays, pineapple in the curried rice salad for days my mother felt adventurous. We ate from pineapples too. Imagine then refined white sugar being spooned out of a fancy pineapple canister with …