Business Commons^™

Factors Affecting Csr Disclosure In Nepalese Banks: A Global Reporting Initiative Perspective, Gopi Bidari

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the extent of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures made by Nepalese banks in their annual reports based on GRI G4 guidelines. Also, this thesis accentuates the relationships between the influencing factors (i.e. bank size, bank age, bank profitability and ownership structure) and the CSR disclosure levels (i.e., economic, social, environmental and the overall CSR disclosures).

A sample of 82 banks was selected from the Nepal Stock Exchange for the year 2014. CSR related information was collected from the annual reports of the sample banks. Content analysis and multiple regression analysis tools were used to test the developed …

Measuring The Quality And Identifying Influencing Factors Of Sustainability Reporting: Evidence From The Resources Industry In Australia, Siew Hoon Ong

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The lack of a standardised reporting framework in sustainability reporting has resulted in companies producing unaudited generic sustainability information that are not reflective of companies’ actual sustainability performance. The disclosures also differ in quality and hinder comparison. This study addresses these problems with the development of a new scoring index that integrates the hard and soft principles in Clarkson, Li, Richardson and Vasvari’s (2008) environmental index with performance indicators of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) framework. The newly developed index comprises all three aspects of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) and adopts a standardised scoring scale that is reflective of …

The Effect Of Hypothesis Framing, Prior Expectation And Professional Trait Scepticism On Experts’ And Novices’ Evidence Selected In A Complex Task, Abhijit Das

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examines evidence selection strategy among external auditors (i.e. professionals) and accounting students (i.e. novices) in a going concern assessment task considering three factors; hypothesis framing, prior expectation and professional “trait” scepticism as measured by Hurtt (2010) scale. Within this context, the study sets out to accomplish three goals: (1) to re-examine evidence selection strategy based on hypothesis framing and prior expectation, (2) to validate the Hurtt (2010) scale using expert reviews and confirmatory factor analysis and (3) to investigate whether professional trait scepticism influences selection strategy.

Owing to the incidence of high-profile accounting and auditing scandals worldwide, the …

The Experience Of Role Balance Among Australian Working Women With Multigenerational Caring Responsibilities, Kiah Lee Evans

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Approximately 10% of women in developed countries are working sandwich generation women, who combine paid employment with ongoing multigenerational caring responsibilities for at least one child under 18 years and one parent or parent-in-law. This role combination is expected to become more common due to the increased workforce participation of women, childbirth at an older age, reduced fertility rates, an ageing population and a trend towards community based care. Although there are numerous benefits related to membership in the working sandwich generation, there are also a range of costs related to role participation and quality of life. In particular, these …

Creativity, Design And Management In Australian Fashion Enterprises, Bruno Santarelli

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this study a number of Australian fashion enterprises are investigated in an effort to understand how product development is managed and creativity facilitated. Of particular interest was the interaction between the various actors in the creative process and the manner in which they influenced creative output. The study was underpinned by a wideranging review of the literature that reflects the multidisciplinary nature of creativity and innovation in business.

The study is timely because Australian fashion enterprises are operating in an increasingly challenging market with a perfect storm of competitive drivers at play. Technology enables instant dissemination of fashion trends …

Human Resource Planning Practices In The Omani Public Sector: An Exploratory Study In The Ministry Of Education In The Sultanate Of Oman, Adnan S. Al Wahshi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Human resource planning (HRP) is the management process that helps organisations prepare for the number of employees and the types of skills needed to achieve organisational goals and objectives. In short, the aim of HRP is to have the right people in the right place at the right time. However, unlike the private sector, HRP practices are not widespread in the public sector. Literature on the ways in which HRP is conducted in public sector organisations has been limited to date. While the process of moving from traditional models of public management to New Public Management (NPM), and the Resource-Based …

Understanding Influences On The Critical-To-Success Factors In Online Brand Communities, Stephanie A. Meek

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In an internationally competitive market a company’s brand is its most valuable asset, and increasing and retaining loyal customers is key to long-term success. Forging binding relationships between consumers and their brand is therefore of critical importance to most organisations (Lhotáková, 2012). Previous studies indicate that online brand communities (OBCs) effectively facilitate such relationships (Backhaus, Steiner & Lugger, 2011; Madupu & Cooley, 2010) and provide companies with reliable marketing intelligence to potentially gain a competitive advantage.

OBCs are online forums dedicated to a specific brand, where consumers gather and exchange information and socialise. Today they are more prevalent than ever …