Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Design Of A Performance Measurement Model For Small Firms Within The Service Sector, Vicki Baard, Edmund W. Watts

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The role of small business, as part of the value adding chain in any economy, should never be understated. In Australia small business represents 96% of all private sector business, accounts for 47% of all private sector employment and the majority fail within three to five years of establishment. Despite this contribution the small business sector, and in particular the service sector component, appear to be underrepresented in the development of specific performance measurement models, which, within the academic and professional literature appear to focus on their larger firm counterparts. Given the unique position of small business service organisations the …

A Contextual Approach To Design And Development Of Interfaces For Search Engines, Using Activity Theory As The Basis For Informing Design Decisions, Joseph A. Meloche, Li Cheng

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The goal of this study is to support the design of more effective search engines. The research presented in this chapter investigates the design of search engines in the context of information seeking
activities. This study is also informed by Activity Theory and considers Information Seeking to be a Keystone Activity. This improvement in search engine design takes into consideration the context of users, and elicits and captures users' explicit and implied requirements. The study uses Q-methodology to elicit the subjective understanding of the participants thought the phases provided by the methodology. This entails collecting, sorting and analysis of detailed …

Critical Factors For Successful Six-Sigma Implementation: An Analytical Hierarchy Process (Ahp) Based, Tritos Laosirihongthong, Khammee Saykhun, Shams Rahman

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this study is to identify critical factors for successful Six-Sigma implementation by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. Twenty-one experts, consisting of three-project champions and eighteen-black belts from five multinational companies (Singapore, Japan, and USA) locating in Thailand, were interviewed. The study has gone through four phases, including: (1) determining critical factors and performance measures in Six-Sigma implementation; (2) structuring the problem and building the AHP model; (3) collecting data from expert interviews; and (4) determining the normalized priority weights of individual factors and sub-factors. Expert Choice software was used to compute the normalized and unique …

The Development Of A User Self-Help Knowledge Management System For Help Desk: Deployment Of Knowledge Management Approach And Software Agent Technology, Kar Yin Leung, Sim K. Lau

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Most help desks have admitted their call volume has increased in the past decade while “help unavailable when needed” is the major reason for service delivery failure and user dissatisfaction. The habit of calling help desk for simple problems has prompted the investigation of transferring part of first-level troubleshooting duty from help desk to user. This research proposes the development of user self-help knowledge management system that allows user to solve simple and routine technical enquiries. The proposed approach incorporates software agent to allow autonomous handling of enquiries so that the most appropriate solution and user communication can be facilitated.

A Sequential Procedure For Testing Unit Roots In The Presence Of Structural Break In Time Series Data: An Application To Quarterly Data In Nepal, 1970-2003, Min B Shrestha, Khorshed Chowdhury

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Testing for unit roots has special significance in terms of both economic theory and the interpretation of estimation result. As there are several methods available, researchers face method selection problem while conduction the unit root test on time series data i the presence of structural break.

Designing Ethics Simulations For Uae Students, Stephanie Jones, Mark Karstad

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The 2005-6 academic year will provide students in the UAE and across the Gulf with access to a new learning tool -- a dynamic and culturally tailored simulation on ethical decision-making. The challenge of dealing with ethical dilemmas – a key part of any Business Ethics course – can now be presented to students with the help of an interactive simulation, Managing Legal and Ethical Issues in Business. The series of three inter-connected simulations have been designed to assist students in addressing issues of firstly, cheating and academic honesty/plagiarism; secondly, discrimination in hiring practices; and finally conflict of interest …

Intelligent Computation For Association Rule Mining, Hong Liu, John Zeleznikow

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Although there have been several encouraging attempts at developing SQL-based methods for data mining, simplicity and efficiency still remain significant impediments for further development. In this paper, we develop a fixpoint operator for computing frequent itemsets and demonstrate three query paradigm solutions for association rule mining that use the idea of least fixpoint computation. We consider the generate-and-test and the frequent-pattern growth approaches and propose an novel method to represent a frequent-pattern tree in an object-relational table and exploit a new join operator developed in the paper. The results of our research provide theoretical foundation for intelligent computation of association …

Systems Resemblance And Workpractice Evolution: Implications For Work Activity (Re)Design, Rodney J. Clarke

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is concerned with addressing the question of how apparently disparate and unconnected systems can resemble each other. The question of what counts as a systems resemblance necessitates developing contextual workpractice descriptions associated with the systems features and ultimately entire systems. Using systemic semiotics an apparent ontogenetic convergence between entirely different systems is used to show that systems resemblance can be inferred when the constituent workpractices of information systems consist of comparable register features and especially if they exhibit comparable generic features. The implications of these findings for a new class of work activity (re)design practices are considered.

Managing Mission, Members And Money: A Financial Analysis Model For The Nonprofit Sector, Anne Abraham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Nonprofit organisations (NPOs) are melting pots combining mission, members and money. Given that the mission of a nonprofit organisation is the reason for its existence, it is appropriate to focus on financial resources in their association with mission and with the individuals who are served by that mission (Parker 2003; Wooten et al 2003; Colby and Rubin 2005). Measurement of financial perfonnance by ratio analysis helps identify organisational strengths and weaknesses by detecting financial anomalies and focusing attention on issues of organisational importance (Glynn et al 2003).

Questions have been raised that relate the perfonnance of NPOs to their financial …

A Conceptual Model For Predicting Overseas Market Entry Order Decisions, Peter R. Massingham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

I investigate the factors that influence firms’ order of entry into overseas markets. The existing literature identifies a range of firm and industry characteristics that influence the timing entry decision. I extend this research by developing a holistic conceptual model that explains how these factors interact to create conditions leading to first, second and late mover strategies. The paper argues that the factors combine to create strategic scenarios for each entry order. I undertake a four-step process to explain how managers may use this conceptual model to plan appropriate entry order decisions for each scenario. A key to the process …

Responsibility For Occupational Health And Safety Outcomes In The Labour Hire Industry: A Tripartite Arrangement?, Alex Spillett, Michael Zanko, Andrew J. Sense

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Labour hire workers are one category of a group more generally labelled contingent, temporary, precarious or casual workers. Research shows they are generally at increased risk of occupational injury and illness compared to permanent employees. It is proposed that one of the causal factors is the unique tripartite employment relationship used to engage labour hire. The dynamics and behaviours in this triangular relationship are discussed with reference to the legal and organisational uncertainty that it frequently presents. A model is proposed that suggests the occupational health and safety interdependence between the three parties. The potential occupational health and safety outcomes …

Using Institutional Theory To Develop A Conceptual Framework For Benchmarking, Edmund W. Watts, Amanda Mead

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The objective of this research was to develop a conceptual framework based on 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 conceptualisation of benchmarking identifying the four dimensions of benchmarking, internal, direct competition, industry, and best-in-class. This was followed by the development of a construct for investigation using institutional theory through its major components, organisational isomorphism, organisational dependency, and organisational legitimacy. Overlaying the benchmarking and institutional theory literature on the four dimensions of benchmarking and the institutional theory construct a conceptual crossover was …

Inter-Activity: An Activity Theory Model For Socio-Technical Work Spaces, Alanah Kazlauskas, Kate Crawford

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The issues that face human society are often addressed in a sociotechnical context that utilizes both social and technical tools. Such socio-technical milieux do not just happen but evolve over time. The ongoing emergence of more and more complex socio-technical contexts presents challenges to those involved as well as for sociocultural researchers. Vygotsky's (1978) Cultural Historical Activity Theory has been expanded upon by a number of researchers including Engestrom (1999) in order to develop understandings of work-based activity systems with a view to the identification of tensions within and to further development of those activity systems. Other researchers (Lave & …

Towards Executive Information Systems Adoptions By Knowledge Workers: An Extension Of The Technology Acceptance Model To Account For Social-Cultural Factors, Emmanuel Ikart

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In recent years a number of organisations have implemented executive information systems (EIS) in order to improve the performance gains on their executives’ job. Although the use of EIS is important to executives, majority of executives are unwilling to use EIS because of their design failures. By using social factors, habits and facilitation conditions variables from Triandis’ framework, this paper extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to derive useful variables to address the problem of the low usage of EIS by executives. This paper reports on the research in progress in Australia on the adoption and usage of EIS by …

The Development Of An Industry Specific Performance Measurement Model For Service Organisations Within The Small Business Sector, Vicki Baard, Edmund W. Watts

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The role of small business, as part of the value adding chain in any economy, should never be understated. In Australia small business represents 96% of all private sector business, accounts for 47% of all private sector employment and the majority fail within three to five years of establishment. Despite this contribution the small business sector, and in particular the service sector component, appear to be underrepresented in the development of specific performance measurement models, which, within the academic and professional literature appear to focus on their larger firm counterparts. Given the unique position of small business service organisations the …

Impact Of Economic Policy Reform And Regional And Global Shocks On Trade And Growth In East Asia: Econometric Evidence For China, Van Hoa Tran

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The paper introduces the generalised gravity theory (Tran Van Hoa 2004) to construct a simply flexible simultaneous-equation econometric model of growth and trade of China and its five major trading countries or blocs (Japan, ASEAN-6, the European Union, the US, and Austrralia).

A Model For Corporate Governance, Decision-Making, And Accountability In Today's Universities, Jack Flanagan, John Little, Edmund W. Watts

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The government’s goal over the past decade of increased self-reliance has required universities to adopt the corporate mantle of governance consistent with that used in the private sector. The corporatisation of the university sector brought with it a unique set of problems to which senior university management had not previously been exposed. The solution to some of these problems includes developing governance systems to guide strategic decision-making based on well-developed ethical principles. This paper suggests such an approach to governance based on contemporary management and ethical foundations. In this model governance is depicted as an achievement of thinking across four …

Application Of Non-Linear Error Correction Models To The Demand For Money In Tunisia, Sami Khedhiri, Boudhina Riadh

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Non linear error correction models (NLECM) have been increasingly used recently in the econometric literature since they lead to more insightful results than the linear models in empirical studies. In this research we present alternative methods of dealing with non linearity in error correction models. We apply these models to the demand for money in Tunisia and our results show that we get better predictions than the usual linear models. It is also shown that the speed of adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium is faster than what we get using linear error correction models.

Are The Standard Drivers For E-Commerce Adoption In Regional Smes Really Standard: A Comparison Of Australian, Swedish And Us Regional Smes, Robert C. Macgregor, Lejla Vrazalic, Deborah Bunker

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The sluggish pace of E-commerce diffusion in the SME sector is well documented. In response to this, one area that has given rise to continued research is the development of criteria (drivers) for Ecommerce adoption in the SME sector. This research has given rise to a 'standard' set of drivers that has become the basis upon which research into E-commerce adoption in SMEs is carried out. While a number of studies have attempted to develop models of E-commerce adoption, little has been done to discover whether, indeed, these criteria are universal to the sector. This paper presents the findings of …

Macro-Econometric Modeling For An Oil Dependent Economy: An Instruments-Targets Approach For The Uae Economy, Ajit Karnik, Cedwyn Fernandes

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study constructs a macro-econometric model to analyze the problems of regions that exhibit dependence on non-renewable resources (e.g. oil). The role of th eoil sector in the UAE and the extent to which it subsidizes the rest of the economy is evaluated. The macro-econometric model constructed consists of four sectors, has 25 equations and is evaluated and calibrated employing dynamic simulation techniques. Counter =factual and policy experiments are carried out and the instruments-targets approach is used to analyze the impact of the oil sector. The paper highlights the continued dependence of the UAE economy on oil and the urgency …

Consumer Preferences For Online And Offline Resources In The Process Of Buying A High Involvement Service Bundle: A Qualitative Exploration, Robert G. Grant

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Adding online resources to a promotional mix adds a new level of complexity to marketing communications. The challenge for marketers is to retain a focus on value delivery which requires understanding both main effects and interactions between communication and promotional methods. This paper reports a qualitative study preceding a non-discrete choice experiment simulation to research information source effects at different stages of the buying process for different service types.