Business Commons^™

The Smoothing Of Reported Corporate Earnings Through Target Setting: Acceptable Practice Or Shareholder Deception?, John Hillier, Michael Mccrae

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The setting of earnings targets is frequently used by corporate managers to reduce the volatility of reported earnings over successive periods. The practice exemplifies the more informal or ad hoc category of income smoothing approaches. This paper investigates the volatility reduction potential of target setting relative to the underlying (but unobservable) income stream. The analysis uses a simulation approach based on a statistical model of accounting measurement that treats periodic earnings reports as successive samples drawn from the underlying earnings generation process. The results indicate substantial reductions in earnings volatility that are remarkably resilient to inaccuracies in targets and increase …

Leadership Styles And Company Performance: The Experience Of Owner-Managers Of Smes, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara, Anura De Zoysa, Athula S. Manawaduge

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Leadership styles of owner-managers were explored in the context of a developingcountry in South Asia with a view to examining their impact on financial performanceof SMEs. It was justified that the study has both theoretical and contextualsignificance. Data were collected from 204 companies in Sri Lanka by adopting mixedmethodologies that consisted of both qualitative and qualitative approaches.Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient were used in the analysis. The findingsrevealed that the existence of three main leadership styles in the sample, namely;entrepreneurial, managerial, and mix of both entrepreneurial and managerialleaderships. The analysis indicated that 60 percent of firms had increased financialperformance, while …

Conventions Held By Associations: A Case Study Of Buyers And Suppliers In An Emerging Conference Destination, Monica Millar, Gregory M. Kerr

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Conventions constitute one of the fastest growing segments of business tourism, with association conventions being an important sub-segment. Associations are membership-based organisations centred on a business specialisation or common interest. Many destinations have been pursing this segment to host some of the hundreds of conventions held annually by associations. Greater knowledge of associations on the part of location marketers and managers of the relevant businesses contained within the location will improve decision making and most likely lead to more opportunities. This study examines the case of the City of Wollongong, which is attempting to obtain a greater market share of …

Rational Exercising: A Lifetime Choice With A Link Between Health And Happiness, Amnon Levy

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper deals with a widespread type of investment in personal health that is not adequately explained by the economic literature. The analysis of people’s choice of intensity of engagement in health enhancing activities is made within an integrative, stochastic, micro-dynamic optimisation framework in which people’s utility is accumulated along a health-dependent random lifespan with direct and indirect mutual effects among exercise, health, consumption, utility, happiness, productivity and survival. Distinction is made between exercise’s length and exercise’s vigour in analysing the effect of exercising on health and rest. A link between health and utility is introduced: health improves (declines) as …

Ceo Pay-Performance And Board Independence: The Impact Of Earnings Management In China, Yuqing Zhu, Gary G. Tian

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the impact of board characteristics and CEO compensation on firm performance when firm performance is adjusted for the effect of earnings management. Results from regression analysis indicates that the CEO pay-performance relation is substantially lower when firm performance is adjusted for the effect of earnings management than when firm performance is measured as reported performance. That is, the positive effect of executive compensation on firm performance disappears when firm performance is measured as adjusted firm performance excluding earnings management in Chinese listed firms, and as a result, we can identify that the evident executive pay-performance relation is …

A Marketing Perspective On Choice Factors Considered By South African First-Year Students In Selecting A Higher Education Institution, Melanie Wiese, C H Van Heerden, Yolanda Jordaan, E North

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The unstable and turbulent environment in which higher education institutions all over the world currently have to operate poses many management and marketing challenges to such institutions. As non-profit organisations, the ability of higher education institutions to survive and grow would be enhanced by up-to-date knowledge and information regarding the higher education environment, and more specifically by having marketing and communication strategies that might influence students making decisions on which university to enrol at. The main goal of this study was to investigate the relevant importance of the choice factors that prospective students considered, as well as the sources of …

The Turmoil In The Markets For Mis And Ais - A Labor Process Study, Fahrettin Okcabol, George M. Mickhail, Aida Sy, Tony Tinker

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

With growing flux in MIS and AIS employment, there is increasing number of questions about the impact and direction of this technology. As far back as 1993, economic surveys consistently showed that the 1993 U.S. economic recovery was the first where white collar employment failed to bounce back (Cooper and Madigan, 1993A; Ehrear, 1993; Farrell et. al., 1993; Mandel and Farrell, 1993.) In the U.S, between March 1991 and April 1993, production jobs rose by 823,000, but white collar payrolls--managerial and administrative positions--fell by 290,000. Even after two years of expansion, non-farm jobs were still below their pre-recession level (Cooper …

Household, Private And Public Savings And Investment, Foreign Capital Inflows And Gdp Growth In India With Structural Breaks 1950-2005, Reetu Verma

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The objective of this paper is to examine the short and the long-run interrelationshipsbetween sectoral savings and investment, foreign capital inflows and their roles in thegrowth process for India for the period 1950 to 2005. This paper uses theAutoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) procedure to test for both the long-run andshort-run effects between the eight variables, along with any endogenously detectedstructural breaks. This is in response to shortcomings relating to previous studies whichpredominantly analyse savings and investment aggregates only, over long time periodswhich contain structural changes, using bivariate estimation techniques, which areshort-run in nature. The analysis firstly tests for the short-run …

Simulation Modelling And Strategic Change: Creating The Sustainable Enterprise, Patrick M. Dawson, Trevor A. Spedding

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper highlights the benefits of using discrete event simulation models for developing change management frameworks which facilitate productivity and environmental improvements in order to create a sustainable enterprise. There is an increasing need for organisations to be more socially and environmentally responsible, however these objectives cannot be realised in isolation of the strategic, operations and business objectives of the enterprise. Discrete Event Simulation models facilitate a multidimensional approach to enterprise modelling which can integrate operations and strategic considerations with environmental and social issues. Moreover these models can provide a dynamic roadmap for implementing a change strategy for realising the …

Understanding The Propensity Of Chinese University Students For Leisure Travel Within Australia, Yun Zhang, Lois Burgess, Gregory M. Kerr

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The provision of education to international students in Australia is increasingly important tothe higher education sector as well as other industry sectors including tourism. Althoughprevious studies have identified the contributions of international students to tourism, thereare limited studies investigating leisure travel behaviour based on student nationality andsegments within nationalities. As the first stage of a broader study, this research by way ofopen-ended interviews, investigates the propensity of Chinese university students to travelwithin Australia. By way of qualitative data analysis the findings reveal a number ofparadoxes which need to be addressed in further research to better understand the attitudesand behaviours of …

The Phillips Curve And The Nairu: A Reinterpretation, Edgar J. Wilson

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper criticises the use of partial equilibrium analysis in new Keynesian explanations of wage and price stickiness, specifying the Phillips curve as a structural equation (rather than the outcome of the monetary transmission process), and using comparative static ad hoc models to characterise the dynamic trade-off.

An intertemporal optimisation model with imperfect competition is solved to generate a dynamic Phillips curve. The predicted wage inertia and impact effects on employment accord with empirical evidence on the effects of monetary policy. The employment dynamics allow an alternative interpretation of the NAIRU relative to the ‘natural rate of unemployment’ (NRU).

Not Offering Don't Know Options In Brand Image Surveys Contaminates Data, Sara Dolnicar, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The aims of this study were (1) to understand the extent to which offering or not offering a Don’t know option has the potential of contaminating survey data, and (2) to investigate the interaction between offering a Don’t know option and the verbalisation of scale points. Results from an experimental study with 196 online panel members indicate that empirical data sets can be contaminated if Don’t know options are not offered to respondents who are unable to to assess an object under study. The maximum extent of data contamination could not be determined because only one product category was examined. …

Reward, Risk And Response In Australian Cooperative Research Centres, T. Turpin, Samuel Garrett-Jones

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Cooperative research centres are a well-established organizational embodiment of the ‘triple helix’. As complex inter-organizational structures they are subject to diverse management strategies. The imperatives that drive their strategic plans and their impact on partner organizations and the careers of the scientists who work within them are not well understood. We examine 370 participants’ experience in Australian Cooperative Research Centres and consider their effect on personnel and organizations in the public research system. We propose that a necessary part of management strategies is the negotiation and reconciliation of risk and reward for partner organizations and careers of participating scientists. Achieving …

Reflections Of A New Academic, C. L. Cortese

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – The purpose of this poem is to describe the feelings of uncertainty and frustration that may be experienced by new academics as they seek to publish, or attempt to publish, in academic journals for the first time.
Design/methodology/approach – The poem is a reflective piece that expresses some of the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty faced by the author. A poem was selected as the medium for this reflection because it is an indirect way of expressing the issues and may have resonance for other new (or even not so new) academics.
Findings – The process of elucidating …

R Package Gcexplorer: Graphical And Inferential Exploration Of Cluster Solutions, Theresa Scharl, Friedrich Leisch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Cluster analysis is commonly applied to microarray data in order to find groups of co-expressed genes where cluster algorithms with the ability to visualize the resulting cluster objects (e.g., a dendrogram for hierarchical clustering) are usually preferred. The display of cluster solutions particularly for a large number of clusters is very important in exploratory data analysis. It gives practitioners an idea of the relationships between segments of a partition and allows to interpret the cluster results. Neighborhood graphs (Leisch, 2006) can be used for visual assessment of the cluster structure of centroid-based cluster solutions. In a neighborhood graph each node …

Understanding The Global Financial Crisis, Eduardo Pol

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The financial meltdown 2007-08 was a vast and complex event that many analysts are still trying to decipher. The purpose of this paper is to impart an understanding of the global financial crisis with a sharp focus on informed conjectures. To this end, the paper first provides a picture in the large of the financial turmoil 2007-08, and then, singles out contributing factors to the crisis (such as sub-prime mortgages, excessive risk-taking and securitization) which taken in isolation could not possibly explain the collapse of the financial system. The main claims of this paper are the following two. First, no …

The Management Of Subsidiaries In Emerging Malaysian Multinational Enterprises, Ah Ba Sim

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

While there is increasing research on Asian multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the newly industrialized economies, there is a dearth of studies on MNEs from the lesser developed Asian countries, particularly in the area of subsidiary-management. This paper aims to contribute to this knowledge gap with empirical evidence from a study based on six case studies of MNEs from Malaysia, a rapidly developing country. Some differences as well as commonalities in subsidiary-management were found among our sample firms. These are discussed in relation to the literature on management of subsidiaries in other Asian and western MNEs. Implications for research and limitations …

The Probability Of Informed Trading Based On Var Model, Min Xu, Shancun Liu

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The paper researches the representative variable of the probability of informed trading, selecting CCER high-frequency trading data of Shanghai stock exchange from 2003.7.1 to 2003.12.31, adopting VAR model. Different from previous studies, the paper firstly accounts for the dynamic relationship between trade and price. Then, the content of information in trading volume, duration and trading direction are considered in our model. Finally, it gets the probability of informed trading and analyzes this variable. The results show: the probability of informed trading is about 0.172713; the more asymmetric information is, the larger spread is; the probability of informed trading is the …

Predicting Online Travel Purchases: The Case Of Switzerland, Isabelle Engeler, Christian Laesser, Thomas Bieger, Pietro Beritelli

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines why and under what conditions prospective travelers complete their bookings through online services compared to other methods. The study is based on a representative survey within 1,898 Swiss households. The results show that the likelihood of booking online increases if someone is drawn to a website to gather information in the first place, and if the product sold through the website is transparent and well-understood (either per se or because the customer is familiar with the product), or if any other booking-related communication would impose a financial charge, independent of the socio-demographic background of the prospective traveler.

Dubai's Potential As An Integrated Logistics Hub, Cedwyn Fernandes, Gwendolyn Rodrigues

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The objective of this study is to examine the potential of Dubai as an integrated logistics hub, identify gaps and recommend polices accordingly. The key features of an integrated logistic hub are identified. The logistics performance of Dubai is compared to that of the top ranked logistics performing country, Singapore. Gaps that need to be looked into for Dubai to attain a similar status as Singapore are identified. The views of company managers in Dubai with regards to logistics facilities in Dubai are elicited using a survey method and analyzed. The study reveals that Dubai requires further development and investment …

Analysing The Asymmetric Effects Of Inflation On Real Investment: The Case Of Iran, Abbas Valadkhani, Amin Reza Kamalian, Mosayeb Pahlavani

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Using a threshold regression model and annual data (1960-2008), this paper examines thedeterminants of investment in Iran. We found that real GDP, the trade openness indexand inflation can influence investment. However, the effect of inflation on investmentfollows an asymmetry adjustment process. The threshold value for the rate of inflationhas endogenously been estimated to be at 11.9 per cent. If the annual rate of inflationexceeds this threshold, it will have a negative impact on investment. But, if inflationremains below this rate, not only the negative effect fades away but also rising prices canboost investment.

Threshold Concepts And Their Relevance To Economics, Roderick M. O'Donnell

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In exploring the learning experiences of tertiary students, some educationalists have advanced the ‘threshold concept hypothesis’ according to which certain concepts in various disciplines act as thresholds. Such concepts need to be mastered before further progress can be made in a discipline – they are thus like portals or entrances to be traversed before students can think like practitioners of that discipline. In economics, the concept of opportunity cost has been selected as a prime example of a threshold concept. This paper subjects the threshold concept hypothesis to critical scrutiny on logical and methodological grounds, and then investigates its applicability …

Sustainable Tourism Marketing: What Should Be In The Mix?, Alan Pomering, Lester W. Johnson, Gary Noble

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

When tourism marketers consider how they will manage the marketing activities they wish to direct toward a particular target market, they turn to a framework such as the marketing mix. But what should a contemporary tourism marketing mix include? We consider three popular marketing mix approaches to develop a typology of activities that, we argue, should be in the mix for the tourism marketer, given the specific characteristics of tourism product offers. More importantly, we go one step further to consider how this expanded marketing mix might accommodate the imperative of sustainability by cross-referencing the mix elements with the three …

A Comparison Of Factual/Low Context Versus Emotional/High Context Message Appeals: Persuading Chinese Smokers To Ring The Chinese Quitline, Michael Camit, Gary I. Noble, Jennifer Ann Algie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study does not support the notion developed from cross cultural advertising literature that members of a particular cultural group will prefer a particular message advertising appeal if it reflects values that are congruent to its culture. An experimental design is applied to examine whether emotional/ high context appeals (n=120) are more persuasive than factual/ low context appeals (n=124) among target groups from collectivist cultural backgrounds. Analysis of Chinese smokers’ pre-and-post intentions to contact the Chinese Quitline after viewing print advertisements determined that there was no difference between the two ad groups’ shift scores. The common use of direct translations …

A Theoretical Analysis Of Bank Relationship, Shyam S. Bhati, Michael Mccrae, Anura De Zoysa

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper analyses the banking relationship between branch manager and loan officer of a bank branch using two theoretical approaches - Agency Theory and Trust Theory. The analysis is performed across five dimensions of the business relationship between branch manager and loan officer – supervisor subordinate relationship, delegation of authority, assumption of risk in lending, goal congruence and mutual dependence. It is concluded that Trust theory is better descriptor of the banking relationship between branch manager and loan officer as compared to Agency theory because Trust theory can explain situations involving multifaceted relationship such as one between branch manager and …

Customer Orientation In An Australian Public Service Agency And Its Effect On Public Service Motives: Developing A Research Study, Christa Wood

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The Australian public service has experienced dramatic changes during the last few decades. One of the changes is the push for public servants to behave in accordance with private sector principles, such as customer service orientation. This paper is developing a research study that aims to analyse the motivational forces that enable (or disable) the behavioural changes of public servants and what impact (if any) those changes have on traditional public service motives. The study intends to use an extended expectancy-valence model together with a public service motive measurement scale to identify if there are relationships between motivational forces, customer …

Hongkong And Shanghai Bank And The Foochow Loan: A Case For Dual Identities, Freda Hui, Kathleen M. Rudkin

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose Accounting practices of Hongkong and Shanghai Bank from 1865 to 1876 fostered dual identities of the bank for the west and the east. Hongkong and Shanghai Bank used these identities to act opportunistically in commercial dealings with the British colonial administration of Hong Kong, the public of the Scotland and Britain, and the Emperor of China and his government. This paper argues the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank varied its financial reporting practices to manage its identities in different cultural constituencies, and to enable a unique identity to emerge.

Design / Methodology / Approach The approach taken is to use …

Company Support For Employee Volunteering: A National Survey Of Companies In Canada, Debra Basil, Mary Runte, M Easwaramoorthy, Cathy Barr

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Company support for employee volunteerism (CSEV) benefits companies, employees, and society while helping companies meet the expectations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A nationally representative telephone survey of 990 Canadian companies examined CSEV through the lens of Porter and Kramer’s (2006, ‘Strategy and society: the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility’, Harvard Business Review, 78–92.) CSR model. The results demonstrated that Canadian companies passively support employee volunteerism in a variety of ways, such as allowing employees to take time off without pay (71%) or adjusting their work schedules (78%). These Responsive CSR efforts contribute to the company’s …

Location-Based Services For Emergency Management: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael, Roba Abbas

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the deployment of locationbased services for nationwide emergency management by focusing on the perspectives of two stakeholders, government and end-users, in the cellular mobile phone value chain. The data collected for the study came from a single in-depth interview and open comments in a preliminary end-user survey. The themes presented have been categorised using a qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that although governments and end-users believe that location-based services have the potential to aid people in emergencies, there are several major disagreements over the proposed deployment. This paper is an attempt to help determine the underlying motivations …

Using The Brand Molecule Concept To Guide The Management And Marketing Of A Professional Sports Team, Alan Pomering, Dirk Melton, Gregory Kerr

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The sports industry is an important one; it is estimated to be the 11th largest industry in the United States. Within this industry, individual sports, at both the amateur and professional levels, compete for talented players, supporters, government funding, and sponsorship dollars. It is therefore important for sports to manage their sports brands. We use Lederer and Hill’s (2001) brand molecule concept to explain the brand management implications for a professional, national sports team, the Bulldogs, a Sydney-based team in Australia’s National Rugby League competition. The brand molecule highlights for the brand manager the positive and negative atoms that comprise …