Business Commons^™

Career Capital Development Of Women In The Arab Middle East Context: Addressing The Pipeline Block, Payyazhi Jayashree, Valerie Lindsay, Grace Mccarthy

Sydney Business School - Papers

Taking a career capital approach, this paper addresses the issue of ‘pipeline block’ frequently experienced by women seeking career advancement. Focusing on the Arab Middle East (AME) region, we take a contextually relevant multi-level approach to examine these issues. The study uses a qualitative, interview-based approach, drawing on data obtained from women leaders from the AME region. Drawing on Bourdieu’s capital-field-habitus framework, we explore how women in the AME developed career capital in particular organizational fields. Our findings show the importance of human and social capital, as well as the influence of habitus for women’s career advancement in specific fields. …

Transforming Business Using Digital Innovations: The Application Of Ai, Blockchain, Cloud And Data Analytics, Shahriar Akter, Katina Michael, Muhammad Rajib Uddin, Grace Mccarthy, Mahfuzur Rahman

Sydney Business School - Papers

This study explores digital business transformation through the lens of four emerging technology fields: artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud and data analytics (i.e., ABCD). Specifically, the study investigates the operations and value propositions of these distinct but increasingly converging technologies. Due to the dynamic nature of innovation, the potential of this ABCD hybridization, integration, recombination and convergence has yet to be considered. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the findings of the study show wide-reaching and diverse applications among a variety of vertical sectors, presenting exploratory research avenues for future investigation. The study also highlights the practical implications of these new technologies.

Revisiting Customer Analytics Capability For Data-Driven Retailing, Md Afnan Hossain, Shahriar Akter, Venkata K. Yanamandram

Sydney Business School - Papers

Customer analytics is one of the most dominant strategic weapons in today's competitive retail environment. In spite of its strategic importance, there is scant attention to investigating customer analytics capabilities in the retail context. Drawing on a systematic literature review and thematic analysis, this study proposes a multidimensional customer analytics capability model by identifying relevant dimensions and sub-dimensions in retail settings. The principal contribution of this study is that the model links a customer analytics perspective to a resource-based view (RBV)-capability of the retailers by proposing six customer analytics capability dimensions and twelve sub-dimensions in the spectrum of market orientation …

Reshaping Competitive Advantages With Analytics Capabilities In Service Systems, Shahriar Akter, Angappa Gunasekaran, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Mujahid M. Babu, Umme Hani

Sydney Business School - Papers

Big data analytics capability can reshape competitive advantages for a service system. However, little is known about how to develop and operationalize a service system analytics capability (SSAC) model. Drawing on the resource based view (RBV), dynamic capability theory (DCT) and the emerging literature on big data analytics, this study develops and validates an SSAC model and frames its impact on competitive advantages using 251 survey data from service systems analytics managers in the U.S. Partial Least Squares (PLS)-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used as a data analysis technique to develop and validate the hierarchical SSAC model. The main findings …

Frontline Employee Empowerment: Scale Development And Validation Using Confirmatory Composite Analysis, Saradhi Motamarri, Shahriar Akter, Venkata K. Yanamandram

Sydney Business School - Papers

Empowerment has been argued as a viable strategy to enable frontline employees (FLEs) to manage the complexities of service encounters. Organisations must cascade insights from analytics to frontlines for dynamic (re)bundling of service elements while serving customers. However, very little is known on how FLEs are empowered in analytics-driven services. This study addresses these research gaps, drawing on a systematic literature review and in-depth interviews (n = 30), followed by conceptualisation and validation of an empowerment scale through a pilot (n = 50) and the main study (n = 304). This research confirms empowerment as a second-order construct consisting of …

Building Dynamic Service Analytics Capabilities For The Digital Marketplace, Shahriar Akter, Saradhi Motamarri, Umme Hani, Riad Shams, Mario Fernando, Mujahid M. Babu, Kathy Shen

Sydney Business School - Papers

Service firms are now interacting with customers through a multitude of channels or touchpoints. This progression into the digital realm is leading to an explosion of data, and warranting advanced analytic methods to manage service systems. Known as big data analytics, these methods harness insights to deliver, serve, and enhance the customer experience in the digital marketplace. Although global economies are becoming service-oriented, little attention is paid to the role of analytics in service systems. As such, drawing on a systematic literature review and thematic analysis of 30 in-depth interviews, this study aims to understand the nature of service analytics …

Customer Analytics Capabilities In The Big Data Spectrum: A Systematic Approach To Achieve Sustainable Firm Performance, Md Afnan Hossain, Shahriar Akter, Venkata K. Yanamandram

Sydney Business School - Papers

Customer analytics plays a vital role in generating insights from big data to improve service innovation, product development, personalization, and managerial decision-making; yet, no academic study has investigated customer analytics capability through which it is possible to achieve sustainable business growth. To close this gap, this chapter explores the constructs of the customer analytics capability by drawing on a systematic review of the literature in the big data spectrum. The chapter's interpretive framework portrays a definitional aspect of customer analytics, the importance of customer analytics, and customer analytics capability constructs. The study proposes a customer analytics capability model, which consists …

Cutting Penalty Rates Was Supposed To Create Jobs. It Hasn’T, And Here’S Why Not, Martin J. O'Brien

Sydney Business School - Papers

After three years of submissions, hearings and deliberations, Australia’s workplace relations umpire, the Fair Work Commission, decided in 2017 to decrease the penalty rates paid to retail and hospitality workers on the safety-net award for working on Sundays and public holidays. For years employer groups had argued that high penalty rates (up to double standard pay) were an unaffordable anachronism in the modern economy, and the commission essentially agreed. In particular, it concluded the evidence was that cutting penalty rates (by between a quarter and a half) would lead to more trading hours and services on offer on Sundays and …

Conceptualizing Vacation Dedication, Amata L. Ring, Venkata K. Yanamandram, Ulrike Gretzel, Sara Dolnicar

Sydney Business School - Papers

To better understand and predict tourism demand, we introduce the concept of vacation dedication to the tourism literature. Vacation dedication is a form of enthusiasm for and devotion to going on vacation. It is an enduring urge to go on a vacation that is so strong that it persists in spite of external constraints. We empirically test its links to the well-established constructs of travel involvement, commitment, and tourist identity. Affective commitment emerges as most strongly associated with vacation dedication, pointing to an important emotional component.

Patterns Of Recruitment Of Academic Leaders To Australian Universities And Implications For The Future Of Higher Education, Susan Loomes, Alison Owens, Grace Mccarthy

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper reports on research conducted to understand key factors impacting the recruitment and selection of senior academic leaders in Australian universities. A key finding emerging from this research was an increasing reliance on executive search firms when recruiting senior academic leaders. This reliance is driven by a range of factors including an ageing and contracting pool of potential academic leaders, growing competition domestically and internationally and the declining attractiveness of academia as a sustainable career in the context of increased casualisation of the academic workforce. Concurrently, workforce planning and succession planning have not been a high priority for many …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Regional Policy Responses To Mass Redundancies: The Case Of The Illawarra Region, Australia, Martin J. O'Brien, Scott Burrows

Sydney Business School - Papers

Regional economies historically reliant on large-scale manufacturing are particularly susceptible to episodes of mass employee redundancies. This was evident in the case of the Illawarra region in 2011 following the announcement of BlueScope Steel to close one of its two remaining blast furnaces. In common with recent closures of large manufacturers in regional Australia, the Federal Government reacted with policies to help redundant workers obtain reemployment as well as investment attraction strategies to create employment in the region. The research presented here uses a longitudinal and mixed methods approach to analyse the effectiveness of these policies. We uncovered a number …

Ability, Motivation And Opportunity: Managerial Coaching In Practice, Grace Mccarthy, Julia Ahrens

Sydney Business School - Papers

The practice of managerial coaching is increasing globally, although there is still comparatively little research into it. Using an online survey, we examined the practice of managerial coaching in Australian organisations through Appelbaum et al.'s Ability Motivation Opportunity framework. A thematic analysis of 580 responses revealed that managers regularly coached their own employees and were motivated by the outcomes they achieved through coaching. Emerging strongly from this research was the delight managers took in seeing their employees transform, as well as improved relationships and the (re‐)building of trust. Furthermore, coaching resulted in employees becoming more innovative and ready for change. …

Involving Kids In Making Schools Sustainable Spreads The Message Beyond The Classroom, Belinda Kathlyn Gibbons, Bonnie Amelia Dean, Stephanie Perkiss

Sydney Business School - Papers

The recent student-led climate protests reflect the need for schools to provide opportunities to nurture their students' global, environmentally conscious minds. Modern education isn't only about teaching kids the traditional concepts of say, English and Mathematics - it is also about helping to develop confident adults and informed citizens.

Connecting 'Talent' Meanings And Multi-Level Context: A Discursive Approach, Sharna L. Wiblen, Anthony Mcdonnell

Sydney Business School - Papers

Through an in-depth, multilevel case study of a professional services firm, this paper illuminates what stakeholders mean when they use the term 'talent'. The paper underlines how various contextual factors including, workforce composition, ownership structures and individual perceptions influence talent meanings within an organisation. Our analysis of talent phenomena at a multiplicity of levels illustrates that it is not only about the words, phrases, and terms employed when talking about talent that requires examination. There is a need to deliberate on the meanings that underpin the talk because while stakeholders may talk the same way they may mean different things. …

How Westpac Is Alleged To Have Broken Anti-Money Laundering Laws 23 Million Times, Ian K. Fargher

Sydney Business School - Papers

Australia's second-biggest bank, Westpac, is poised to overtake the biggest, the Commonwealth Bank. Not in terms of assets, earnings or market capitalisation, but in having to pay the heftiest fine in Australian corporate history.

Understanding Supply Chain Analytics Capabilities And Agility For Data-Rich Environments, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Shahriar Akter

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose: Big data-driven supply chain analytics capability (SCAC) is now emerging as the next frontier of supply chain transformation. Yet, very few studies have been directed to identify its dimensions, subdimensions and model their holistic impact on supply chain agility (SCAG) and firm performance (FPER). Therefore, to fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a dynamic SCAC model and assess both its direct and indirect impact on FPER using analytics-driven SCAG as a mediator.

Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on the emerging literature on big data, the resource-based view and the dynamic capability …

The Rise Of The Social Business In Emerging Economies: A New Paradigm Of Development, Shahriar Akter, Nabila Jamal, Md Mahfuz Ashraf, Grace Mccarthy, P Varsha

Sydney Business School - Papers

Social business has emerged as a sustainable and innovative means to solve emerging social problems. Although it is gaining momentum, there is a paucity of studies on the drivers of social business models and its key success factors. Drawing on a systematic literature review and an in-depth analysis of 31 social businesses in Bangladesh, the study presents eight key drivers and four success factors for a sustainable social business model. The findings show eight key drivers for social business models including customer centricity, quality, social needs, latent demands, incidental gains, innovation through partnerships, inspirations from initiatives and collaborative eco-systems. The …

Voices Unheard: Employee Voice In The New Century, Adrian Wilkinson, Paul J. Gollan, Senia Kalfa, Ying Xu

Sydney Business School - Papers

The concept of employee voice has attracted considerable attention in research since the 1980s primarily in the fields of Employment Relations/Human Resource Management (ER/HRM) and Organisational Behaviour (OB). Each of these disciplines focuses on different aspects of employee voice, the former examining the mechanisms for employees to have 'a say' in organisational decision-making (Freeman, Boxall, & Haynes, 2007; Gollan, Kaufman, Taras, & Wilkinson, 2015; Wilkinson & Fay, 2011) and the latter considering voice as an 'extra-role upward communication behaviour' (Morrison, 2014, p. 174) with the intent to improve organizational functioning. The purpose of voice is seen by each of these …

Training For The Coaching Leader: How Organizations Can Support Managers, Julia Ahrens, Grace Mccarthy, Trenton J. Milner

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose – The demand for leaders to coach their employees is increasing as the benefits become more and more evident. However, little is known about the training managers have received in coaching or what support is available/required from their organizations. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper encompassed a survey of 580 managers in Australian organizations with more than 200 employees. The authors used qualitative thematic analysis to examine the extensive free text answers.

Findings – The findings indicated that while some managers had received some form of training in coaching (30-40 percent, depending on training …

Continuance Of E-Textbook Use By Tertiary Students: A Qualitative Approach, John D'Ambra, Concepcion S. Wilson, Md Shahriar Akter

Sydney Business School - Papers

Textbooks are an important information resource for tertiary students. E-textbooks are now widely available and accessible to students offering them distinct advantages over print books at lower costs. However the uptake of e-textbooks has been slow and student preferences for either medium are not well understood. This study adopts a qualitative approach using an expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) lens and revealed causal mapping to understand from students participating in focus groups, their intentions to continue using e-textbooks. We extend ECT by including two new constructs: perceived quality and perceived value. The results assist in interpreting students' behavior regarding intentions to continue …

Turning Information Quality Into Firm Performance In The Big Data Economy, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Shahriar Akter, Laura Trinchera, Marc De Bourmont

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose: Big data analytics (BDA) increasingly provide value to firms for robust decision making and solving business problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore information quality dynamics in big data environment linking business value, user satisfaction and firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the appraisal-emotional response-coping framework, the authors propose a theory on information quality dynamics that helps in achieving business value, user satisfaction and firm performance with big data strategy and implementation. Information quality from BDA is conceptualized as the antecedent to the emotional response (e.g. value and satisfaction) and coping (performance). Proposed information quality dynamics are tested …

A Narrative Approach To Coaching Multiple Selves, Paul Lawrence

Sydney Business School - Papers

According to many philosophers and psychologists, we are each not one, but many. The origins of multiplicity theories are briefly outlined before several contemporary theories are described in more detail. In this conceptual paper, it is argued that a multiplicity perspective of self, challenges us to think differently about coaching. Six specific implications are considered, and a pragmatic link between multiplicity theory and post-modernist principles explored. It is argued that a narrative approach to coaching may be particularly useful for the coach interested in experimenting with multiplicity theory, and some initial approaches to applying multiplicity theory in practice are suggested.

An Exploration Into The "Over The Wall Handling" Phenomenon Of Aid And Development Supply Chain Systems, Mark Edwards, Lee Styger

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper provides some insight regarding the causes and implications of waste within Aid and Development programs and the impact on Aid effectiveness. In order to understand this better, a comparative case study analysis of three Aid and Development programs using a systems mapping process was used to identify major constraints within these supply chain systems. This work identified a complex matrix of nodal links within these systems that correspond to the flow of both funding and value creation. The findings point to Aid and Development supply chain systems being a closed loop system where much of the funding can …

Lessons Learned From Introducing Social Media Use In Undergraduate Economics Research, Martin J. O'Brien, Katharina Freund

Sydney Business School - Papers

The research process and associated literacy requirements are often unfamiliar and daunting obstacles for undergraduate students. The use of social media has the potential to assist research training and encourage active learning, social inclusion and student engagement. This paper documents the lessons learned from developing a blended learning model for undergraduate economics research incorporating social media blogging at a regional university in Australia. Student surveys, interviews with colleagues and students, in addition to a review of higher education literature highlight key issues associated with the choice of social media platform, need for clarity in assessment design, and assumptions of student …

Active Teaching Strategies And Student Engagement: A Comparison Of Traditional And Non-Traditional Business Students, Amir Arjomandi, Juergen Heinz Seufert, Martin J. O'Brien, Sajid Anwar

Sydney Business School - Papers

Using survey data, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of student engagement for different groups of students, many of which may be classified as "non-traditional". The analysis presented in this paper is based on Kahu's framework for student engagement. Both the antecedents as well as consequences of engagement are incorporated in the framework used in this paper. The research highlights the role that active teaching strategies may play in this engagement framework. An important contribution of this research is to show that non-traditional students generally display greater engagement than traditional students. However, while there is a strong connection between active …

A Pilot Study Into Mapping Atypical Supply Networks, Mark Edwards, Pauline J. Ross, Lee Styger

Sydney Business School - Papers

A system can only be improved if it is measured. In order to adequately measure a system, that system needs to be mapped and all key inter-nodal linkages, constraints and pathways recorded. Commercial supply chains demonstrate similar characteristics to other systems. Much has been written about mapping supply systems, where typically, the product or service is tracked from the originating source such as a raw materials supplier to the end customer of the product such as the consumer. There is however, another classification of supply system, where the payment for the product or service is not undertaken by the end …

Affordance Theory And E-Books: Evaluating The E-Reading Experience Using Netnography, John D'Ambra, Concepcion S. Wilson, Shahriar Akter

Sydney Business School - Papers

E-books have changed the business of book publishing and the reading experience of the general public. Dedicated e-readers and other smart devices are integral to e-books offering affordances to overcome the physical limitations of print book and to provide the functionality of information technology. Using netnography, comments by online readers to articles in The New York Times and Scientific American were analysed and coded by themes identified in the literature of e-books versus print books. An Affordance Theory approach was used to provide insights into the readers' perceptions of real and actual affordances and the value delivered by these affordances. …

Vocational Experiences And Quality Of Life Of Migrants: Overview And Future Research, Zhou Jiang, Ying Wang, Fei Guo, Paul J. Gollan

Sydney Business School - Papers

Quality of life is a complicated concept that has attracted broad attention from multiple disciplines. This article introduces a set of studies that employ diverse approaches to explore how work, vocational, and career experiences shape quality of life among migrants, and proposes a future agenda to extend this stream of research. Specifically, operationalizing quality of life in different ways, research showcased in this special issue has demonstrated how international and intranational migrants achieve, maintain, and enhance their well-being in different life domains. Reflecting on the literature and the showcased studies, this article proposes that future research should advance the current …

The Impact Of Corporate Social Responsibility Indicators On Consumer Behavior: A Case Study: Electronic And Quasi-Electronic Customers Of Persian Carpet Co., Mohammad Mashhadi, Arezoosadat Hashemiamin

Sydney Business School - Papers

In recent years with the increasing competition in the market, corporate social responsibility has been much considered. There are many researches in this field at the world. In this article we study the effect of corporate social responsibility indicators on consumer behavior of electronic and semi electronic customers of Iranian carpet companies. At the end of the article, depending on the results obtained, we will find this effect.

Business Confidence And Tax Reform Key To Turnbull Government Re-Election: Ceda, Stephen Martin

Sydney Business School - Papers

If the Malcolm Turnbull-led government wins over business and brings to the table a strong economic agenda it will be returned to office, albeit with a reduced majority, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia's 2016 Economic and Political Overview predicts.