Business Commons^™

A Profile Of The Home-Based Business Sector Within The City Of Swan, Beth Walker

Research outputs pre 2011

Home-based businesses are the single biggest business cohort in Australia, accounting for 67% of all small businesses and 58% of all businesses [1]. Home-based businesses are not a new phenomenon but what is precipitating the current interest in this cohort is the duel factors of emerging new technologies and industrial restructuring. This is demonstrated on the one hand by technology making it easier to actually work from home, while at the same time job losses in traditional main-stream occupations are making self-employment more attractive. These and other reasons could account for home-based businesses being the fastest growing business sector with …

E-Conomy- From Here To Where? 3rd International We-B Conference, Nick Lethbridge (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

No abstract provided.

Taking Your Values Shopping: Conversations About Values And Fulfilment: Dialogue And Engagement With Customer Stakeholders In The Body Shop, Western Australia, Patricia Morrigan, Megan Paull

Research outputs pre 2011

The specific contribution to this field of study is about customer 'engagement', their values and fulfilment. In this research we wanted to have a conversation with customers of The Body Shop Australia (TBS) about taking their values shopping. We found that TBS customers were remarkably clear and passionate about their own personal values and had no trouble expressing them in a conversation with us. Customer stakeholders in this research expressed values that were 'postmaterialist', concerned with the environmentally human choice and self -expression, gave importance to belonging among family and friends and showed a marked lack of trust in global …

Protecting The Infrastructure: 3rd Australian Information Warfare & Security Conference 2002, William Hutchinson (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The conference is hosted by the We-B Centre (working with a-business) in the School of Management Information System, the School of Computer & Information Sciences at Edith Cowan University. This year's conference is being held at the Sheraton Perth Hotel in Adelaide Terrace, Perth. Papers for this conference have been written by a wide range of academics and industry specialists. We have attracted participation from both national and international authors and organisations.

The papers cover many topics, all within the field of information warfare and its applications, now and into the future.

The papers have been grouped into six streams: …

A Comparison Of Perceived Social Responsibility Standards With Perceived Social Responsibility Performance In The Australian Banking Industry : A Stakeholder Analysis, William J. Phillips

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study is to investigate extent to which Australian banking corporations embrace social responsibility. It endeavours to establish the meaning of social responsibility generally and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in particular. In view of the multiple definitions of the concept of ‘social responsibility’ offered by various authors Such.1 Boatright (1993), Freeman (1994), Walters (1977), and Wheeler (1998), the views of power dependent Australian bank stakeholders were solicited to form an operational definition for the study. This created a collective conception of social responsibility as it is applied to Australian banks, allowing corporate social responsibility standards to be …

Are Sri Funds Different From Non-Sri Funds, From A Financial Asset Perspective?: Evidence From Some Australian Sri Funds, Ingebjørg Kristoffersen

Theses : Honours

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) has seen a remarkable growth in recent years – primarily in the US and UK, but also in other markets including Australia. This growth, along with the development of corporate social responsibility, is suggested to be a result of increased awareness in social, environment and human rights issues. The literature offers several suggestions as to how SRIs and SRI funds may differ from other investments, as financial assets. It has been suggested that SRIs are more likely to represent smaller stocks, and also more likely represent growth rather than value stocks compared to non-SRIs. Furthermore, different …

An Investigation Into The Validity Of The Intra-Continental And Intercontinental Casselian Hypothesis (Ppp) And Uncovered Interest Rate Parity (Uip) In Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Countries A Long Run Structural Modelling Approach, Fidelia M. Gandiya

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The current high exchange rate volatility in the face of globalization, underpinned by growing trade and financial and commodity markets liberalization has attracted the resurgence of considerable interest from both financial economists and policy makers, into the validity of international parity relationships. Using multivariate cointegration framework and long run structural modelling, this paper investigates the evidence in support of two of the parity relationships that underpin either implicitly or explicitly much of international macroeconomics. The first is the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis or the theorem that there exists an invariable long-run equilibrium real exchange rate. The second is the …

Home And Away: The Tourist, The Flâneur And Everyday Life, John S. Gates

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the role and status of the tourist in the present day. It argues that the tourist, and the touristic experience, is emblematic of the consumption-based economy of late capitalism. It analyses tourism as a practice of, rather than opposed to, everyday life, for many subjects in late-capitalist Western society. The argument is developed by comparing and contrasting the tourist with the flâneur. The flâneur is regarded as a representative subjectivity of early modernity who developed visual and spatial practices, methodologies of movement and observation, which interpreted the city. The tourist's relationship with the global spaces of the …

How Green Is Your Hotel? : An Examination Of Environmentally Friendly Practices Of The Phuket Hotel Industry, Aungkan Thongkao

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The global hospitality industry is currently facing many challenges from the external business environment. These include the effects of global recession, a downturn in overall trade and an increased demand for service excellence from a much more quality conscious clientele. A more recent challenge, however, relates to an increase in global awareness of environmental issues. Contemporary consumers require goods and services to be produced, or delivered, in environmentally friendly ways. As a result, managers are being forced to reconsider their business strategies and activities. Indeed a wide range of industries has already responded to consumers' dictates on conservation issues. It …

Determinants Of Corporate Governance Disclosures By Australian Listed Companies Subsequent To The Introduction Of Asx Listing Rule 4.10.3, Lisa M. Cullen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study has considered the incentives motivating listed mining and industrial companies to provide governance related disclosures in their annual reports. An examination is made of the impact of listing rule 4.10.3 that was applicable from 30 June 1996. Accordingly the years 1995, 1996 and 1997 are examined. A sample of 100 mining companies and 100 industrial companies was drawn primarily from the Connect 4 database of companies. Adopting political cost theory the study hypothesised that governance disclosures were positively related to the proportion of non-executive directors, gearing, ownership diffusion, Big 6 external auditor and firm size.

The Use And Usefulness Of Managed Fund Ratings In Australia, Paul Gerrans

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Managed fund ratings have become an increasingly available piece of information to guide choice of managed funds. From the perspective of modem portfolio theory and specifically within the efficient markets paradigm, the value of such information is questionable. No profitable relationship should be able to be demonstrated between a fund rating and its subsequent performance. This thesis investigates the relationship between fund ratings and subsequent performance using Morningstar ratings, the most prominent Australian rating provider, for two of the largest and most important groups of managed funds. A positive relationship between a fund's star rating, its quantitative and qualitative components, …

Designing A Framework For The Alignment Of E-Business Strategy And Consultant Engagement Processes For Australian Smes : A Cross-Case Analysis, Shirley A. Bode

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The majority of SMEs have neither the internal expertise nor financial resources to enable in-house development of electronic commerce and therefore turn to the services of website design consultants to assist them. Unfortunately, they often engage consultants without any clear idea of their intended e-business strategy and without due care as to effective engagement processes. This frequently leads to ineffective e-business development and a highly disaffected group of small entrepreneurs. The study suggests that there is a significant gap between the intended strategies of SMEs and the actual e-business strategy implemented. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between Australian …

Finding The True Performance Of Australian Managed Funds, Victor Soucik

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

When making conclusions about the performance of managed funds, it is critical that the framework in which such performance is measured provides an accurate and unbiased environment. In this thesis I search for true performance of the two major classes of funds- equity as well as fixed interest managed funds. Focusing, first on the former class, I examine five measurement models across three risk-free proxies, nine benchmarks proposed by the extant literature (covering conditional and unconditional as well as single and multi factor definitions) and over three independent periods in an effort to identity (in a consistent setting) the most …

Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Politeness For The Customer In Spoken Aspects Of Service In The Restaurant In Australian English And Japanese, Chieko Imaeda

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In listening to members of different cultures, it is possible to feel bad, even while recognising that the speaker is trying to speak politely. Sometimes we do not feel very comfortable with someone else’s speech, even though their expressions might be very polite with the choice of specific linguistic forms to show a high level of formality such as terms of address and specific types of formulaic expression such as ' I (don 't) think ... ' or ' I (don't) believe' . The speaker may be intending to speak politely in a considerate way. But the hearer's reaction may …

Corporate Social Disclosure In The Timber Industry In Western Australia 1989-1998 : A Test Of Legitimacy Theory, Theo Christopher

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In recent years, accounting researchers have turned their attention to media agenda setting theory in addition to legitimacy theory as the theoretical framework for researching voluntary social disclosure in the annual report of a company. Their research has tended to show a significant relationship between the extent and change in the number of press media social reports and the extent and level of social disclosure in the annual report of a company based on the same classification of Social items. They have also explored the existence of a time lag between the number of press media reports and disclosure in …

An Exploratory Study Of Constructive Differentiation By Managers Of Multi-Ethnic Workforces In Indonesia And Malaysia, M. A. Fergusson-Stewart

Theses : Honours

Indonesia and Malaysia are two of Australia's closest geographical neighbours and represent major trading partners; Malaysia, as one of the economic success stories of Southeast Asia and Indonesia, as the third most populous nation in the world are politically and economically of great significance to business in Australia. Both have experienced racial rioting, the former as recently as 1998, and the later in 1969. Much of the tension that has led to these riots centres around the relationship between the ethnic Chinese communities in these countries and the other ethnic groups, particularly the Pribumi in Indonesia and the Bumiputera in …

Interviewer Questioning Strategies: Small Business: The Implications That Inappropriate Questioning Has For Compliance With The West Australian Equal Opportunity Act, 1984, Kelly Pember

Theses : Honours

No abstract provided.