Business Commons^™

Viewing Wil In Business Schools Through A New Lens: Moving To The Edge Of Chaos With Complexity Theory, Laura L. Rook, Lisa Mcmanus

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Employers require well rounded work-ready graduates with the skills to adapt to a contemporary workplace. Australian universities are responding to these needs through the implementation of Work-integrated Learning (WIL) programs aimed at providing students with the necessary skills, knowledge and attributes employers seek. This paper describes a study of Work-integrated Learning programs in the Human Resource Management (HRM) discipline at a number of Australian business schools. Exploratory interviews were undertaken with a range of stakeholders and examined within a complexity theory lens. The findings suggest that WIL is viewed as a threat to the role of higher education rather than …

Insiders' Profits In The Australian Equities Market, Henk Berkman, Reza Bradrania, Tina Prodromou, P Westerholm

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this paper we investigate if directors of Australian companies earn persistent profits on their reported trades, if these abnormal profits are significant enough to be mimicked by outsiders, and if these insider trades have an effect on returns of other investors. We find that insiders take advantage of their private information in stocks of larger corporations, but generally do not in medium and small capitalization firms, indicating that they insiders are attracted to the liquidity and a greater presence of uninformed traders in large stocks. Insiders appear able to determine the value of their information in by trading larger …

Uncertainty, Crowding Aversion And Tourism Aversion In Tourism Destinations, Simone Marsiglio

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The author analyses the implications of crowding aversion and tourism aversion for the economic performance of tourism destinations in the case of uncertain tourist inflows. He analytically characterizes all possible scenarios, showing how different preferences of tourists (towards crowding) and residents (towards tourism) interact and affect the economic outcome. The paper shows that when tourists are crowding-averse (crowding lovers), uncertainty leads to deterioration (improvement) of economic performance, while it does not affect performance at all when tourists are crowding-indifferent. However, assessing how this will be reflected in welfare changes is more complex, since it depends also on the degree of …

Heterogeneous Effects Of High School Peers On Educational Outcomes, Silvia Mendolia, Alfredo R. Paloyo, Ian Walker

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We investigate the relationship between peers' abilities and educational outcomes at the end of high school using data from the rich Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) matched to the National Pupil Database of children in state schools in England. In particular, we focus on the effect of peers' abilities, measured through achievements in Key Stage 3 (Age 14), on high powered test scores at Ages 16 and 18, and on the probability of attending university. Our identification strategy is based on a measure of the peers of peers' ability. In particular, for each individual, we look at …

Bi-Lateral Co2 Emissions Embodied In Australia-China Trade, Kankesu Jayanthakumaran, Ying Liu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper quantifies the CO2 emissions embodied in bi-lateral trade between Australia and China using a sectoral input-output model. The results revealed: (1) that China performs lower than Australia in clean technology in the primary, manufacturing, energy sectors due to their overuse of coal and inefficient sectoral production processes, and (2) that China had a 30.94 Mt surplus of bi-lateral CO2 emissions in 2010-2011 and (3) overall global emissions were reduced by 20.19 Mt through Australia-China trade in 2010-2011. The result indicates that the greater the energy efficient a country among the trading partners the lower will be the overall …

People's Republic Of China (Prc): Thailand Economic Relationship After Signing Of Free Trade Agreement In 2005, Ying Liu, Kankesu Jayanthakumaran

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

People's Republic of China (PRC) is the third biggest nation globally situated in East Asia with the land area of 9.6 million km2 , population of 1.36 billion people and population density of 139 km - 2 . PRC's capital is Beijing and comprises of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities and two special administrative regions. Special administrative regions are Hong Kong and Macao. Thailand is the world's 51st largest country situated in Southeast Asia with the land area of 513,000 km2 and population of 67.1 million people. The population density of Thailand is around 131 km - 2 …

Islamic Finance Finally Has A Place In The Australian Economy, George Mickhail

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In its executive summary, the board makes it very clear at the outset that the review was conducted on the basis of “its understanding of common Islamic fi nance structures, and that nothing in the report should be taken to suggest that a particular product or case study described is compliant with Shariah law”.

Statistics On Indigenous Peoples: International Effort Needed, Richard Madden, Per Axelsson, Tahu Kukutai, Kalinda Griffiths, Christina Storm Mienna, Ngaire Brown, Clare Coleman, Ian T. Ring

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In 2007, the UN General Assembly endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In the following years, there has been a strong call from a range United Nations agencies and spokespersons for countries to act to improve their statistics relating to Indigenous peoples as part of their response to the Declaration. These calls have emphasised the need for a holistic approach, describing strengths and resilience of Indigenous peoples and not just a focus on gaps and disadvantage. National responses have been mixed and overall statistics remain inadequate. Significantly, there has been no international statistical effort through …

Technological Innovation In The Maritime Industry: The Case Of Remote Pilotage And Enhanced Navigational Assistance, Benjamin Brooks, Tim Coltman, Miles Yang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Advances in technological innovation have been deployed to support autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles in many industries. A question that remains unanswered is why very little progress has been made in remote pilotage over the past 15 years. This paper draws together theories from innovation management and the high reliability organisation literatures to shed light on this question. Using a case study of two Australian ports, we examine a business case for remote pilotage demonstrating that despite positive cost benefit models, ambiguities in benefits exist throughout the ecosystem. The discussion sheds light on unique challenges that Port executives face where it …

Big Data Analytics In E-Commerce: A Systematic Review And Agenda For Future Research, Shahriar Akter, Samuel Fosso Wamba

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There has been an increasing emphasis on big data analytics (BDA) in e-commerce in recent years. However, it remains poorly-explored as a concept, which obstructs its theoretical and practical development. This position paper explores BDA in e-commerce by drawing on a systematic review of the literature. The paper presents an interpretive framework that explores the definitional aspects, distinctive characteristics, types, business value and challenges of BDA in the e-commerce landscape. The paper also triggers broader discussions regarding future research challenges and opportunities in theory and practice. Overall, the findings of the study synthesize diverse BDA concepts (e.g., definition of big …

Unlocking The Potential Of Branding In Social Marketing Services: Utilising Brand Personality And Brand Personality Appeal, Ross Gordon, Nadia Zainuddin, Christopher A. Magee

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This paper aims to demonstrate the utility of branding theory for social marketing services. Specifically, this is to our knowledge the first to investigate brand personality (BP) and brand personality appeal (BPA) in a single study as predictors for consumer attitudes and intentions to engage with a service. Design/methodology/approach - The associations between BP and BPA and their subsequent associations with attitudes and intentions are tested in two service types, i.e. a commercial marketing service (banking) and a social marketing service (health screening). This involved a cross-sectional dual online survey administered to a sample of 395 women 50-69 …

Interactive Dynamic Learning Environment (Idle), Belinda Kathlyn Gibbons, Karlheinz Kautz, Mario Fernando, Trevor A. Spedding

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The global business community requires graduates with skills and capabilities to cope with real-world interdisciplinary problems. Two key issues frequently noted are the silo disciplinary focus and the lack of exposure to responsible decision-making (RDM). IDLE (Interactive Dynamic Learning Environment) is a web-based computer simulated enterprise delivered through a systems approach broadening students' understanding of the interrelationship between corporations, society and the environment. Engagement in IDLE develops students' understanding and application of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability through the identification of business interdependencies. In IDLE, integrating systems dynamics with agile dynamic system development methods enabled the intricate multifaceted relationships …

Conventional Accounting In Determining An Enterprise's Wealth: Sign Or Referent - A Theoretical Discourse For Augmentation, Sudhir C. Lodh

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: This paper is an attempt to assess the duality check of wealth determination through corporate reporting using the currently accepted accounting equation and/or conventional accounting. That is, the theory of interest here is to explicate as to whether prevailing accounting equation is adequate to capture all plausible realities in determining absolute economic (or otherwise) wealth of an entity.

Design/methodology/approach: In enhancing a theory of interest and sensitising our argument on conventional accounting, there is a necessity to use methodical discretions; which ultimately 'inform and reflect the implicit epistemology and metaphysics' (Ravenscroft and Williams 2009) of our discipline of accounting. …

Bank Outreach And Performance: Evidence From Banking Efficiency In Sri Lanka, Bolanda Hewa Thilakaweera, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study evaluates the impact of geographical dispersion of bank branches and their growth on banking sector efficiency in Sri Lanka for the period 2006-2014. Deviating from conventional models used in literature this study employs double-bootstrap semi-parametric truncated regression models based on data envelopment analysis (DEA).Our empirical results show that bank efficiency is not significantly influenced by branch expansion and geographical dispersion in an environment of higher economic growth. This study concludes that a likely decline in bank efficiency with expansion in branch networks, as asserted in the mainstream literature, is not valid when there is a high demand for …

Preventing Tourists From Canceling In Times Of Crises, Homa Hajibaba, Yasemin Boztug, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Tourism destinations experiencing a crisis are vulnerable to trip cancelations and sudden drops in demand. Little is known about trip cancelations and how to prevent them. Specifically, it is unclear whether the effectiveness of different prevention approaches varies across crises and tourists segments. Using a conjoint design, the present study investigates the comparative stated effectiveness of different prevention approaches in situations where different crises hit a destination. Results indicate that certain prevention actions indeed have the potential to reduce cancelations. The most effective approach is change of accommodation-especially so when combined with an upgrade-followed by information updates and finally the …

Planning In The Poncini Family Business, Mary Barrett, Luca Gottardi, Ken Moores

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The case relates the history of a diversified family business, Poncini Enterprises, located in the Trentino region of northern Italy. The firm began in the late 1940s with trucks and gradually diversified into property investment, retailing of bricks and construction tools and, more recently, grape growing. These various stages of diversification have stretched the firm's resources and heightened long-standing family difficulties and conflicts. The family business includes four siblings, three sons, a daughter, and their elderly, widowed father, who has recently experienced health problems. The youngest son, Lorenzo, has recently returned to the business after an extended period of accounting …

Unhappy Workplaces Look A Lot Like Unhappy Marriages, New Research Shows, Irit Alony

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Not all negativity in the workplace is a bad sign. Common sense says employees who describe their workplace in negative terms are the ones that are more likely to leave it, but new research shows this isn't the case.

Supporting Medicare Health, Equity And Efficiency In Australia: Policies Undermining Bulk Billing Need To Be Scrapped, Simon Eckermann, Lynnaire M. Sheridan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Forget semantics; Federal health policies that undermine bulk billing and encourage 'user-pays' charging of patients for primary care move Australia towards a US-style health care system. They are expected to cost the health system more, not A$12 billion less, and undermine Medicare's bottom-line universal access equity, efficiency and health outcome objectives.

Branch Expansion And Banking Efficiency In Sri Lanka's Post-Conflict Era, Bolanda Hewa Thilakaweera, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study assesses changes in the technical efficiency of commercial banks in Sri Lanka following the end of armed conflict in 2009. The weighted aggregate-efficiency technique, based on a group-wise heterogeneous subsampling bootstrap approach, is employed to compare efficiency levels during the periods 2007-2009 and 2010-2013. This technique allows for heterogeneity in environmental and regulatory conditions between the two periods while assuming homogeneity within each period. Our results reveal that the banking sector experienced a significant efficiency improvement post-conflict even with unprecedented branch expansion. The findings, therefore, controvert the mainstream view that bank efficiency declined with rapid industry expansion. Further, …

To Control Or Not To Control Oil Spills: Shell's Narrative Of Accountability In Nigeria, Sanja Pupovac, Mary A. Kaidonis, Lee C. Moerman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This paper re-considers corporate accountability with a specific focus on Royal/Dutch/Shell's discursive categorization of oil spills in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach - Using text analysis, we reflect on the classification of oil spills as operational (controllable) and sabotage (uncontrollable) and the construction of self and the 'other' that inverts accountability relationship.

Findings - We found Shell's identity construction of self and 'other' assigns the causes of, and human agency to, oil spills that inverts the accountability relationship. Shell provides accountability of the communities but not to the communities. To control or not to control oil spills, is a question which …

How To Use C-Oar-Se To Design Optimal Standard Measures, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: This paper aims to extend Rossiter's C-OAR-SE method of measure design (IJRM, 2002, p. 19, p. 4, pp. 305-335; EJM, 2011, p. 45, p. 11, p. 12, pp. 1561-1588) by proposing five distinct construct models for designing optimally content-valid multiple-item and single-item measures.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper begins by dismissing convergent validation, the core procedure in Nunnally's (1978) and Churchill's (1979) psychometric method of measure design which allows alternative measures of the same construct. The method of dismissal is the mathematical demonstration that an alternative measure, no matter how highly its scores converge with those from the original measure, will …

Cooperatives: Governance And Accountability Systems For A Better World?, Vassili Joannides De Lautour, Corinne L. Cortese

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

To date, there are few general studies on cooperatives, with some being empirical, practical or issue-driven (Tchami, 2007 ) whilst others are very specialised (Gouil, 2010 ; Jaumier, 2016 ; Jaumier et al., 2012 ; Joannidès, 2013 ). In most cases, most studies focus on a particular type of organisation, generally farmers' cooperatives (Deroy and Thénot, 2012 ; Thénot, 2011 ; vanPeursem et al., 2016 ). Considering cooperatives as case studies often leads to empirical discussions of particular industries or countries, but rarely leads to a conceptualisation of the issues that affect the cooperative form (Béziaud, 2012 ; Diaz, 2012 …

Participation In Moral Hazard Problems, Guillaume Roger

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Two principals engage in Hotelling competition for an agent's services under incomplete information as to her outside option (location). This renders the agent's participation decision probabilistic from the perspective of each principal. Regardless of the market structure at equilibrium the optimal contract features a trade-off between participation probability and incentives. Rent and effort are inversely related and non-monotonic in the agent's transport cost and so in market structures; they increase (decrease) with competition. Uncertainty as to the agent's location may increase or decrease the rent compared to full information. This correspondingly harms or benefits principals.

The Perceived Impact Of The Agile Development And Project Management Method Scrum On Process Transparency In Information Systems Development, Karlheinz Kautz, Thomas Heide Johansen, Andreas Uldahl

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper contributes to research on information systems development (ISD) with a case study that demonstrates the positive impact of the agile development and project management method Scrum on process transparency in ISD projects. It is part of a project for which we developed a framework comprising of the six concepts productivity, quality, team leadership, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and process transparency for investigating the impact of Scrum. It provides operationalizations of the latter concept through five identified indicators. Despite the fact that the case unit had challenges, the indicators identified the areas where it managed to exploit the potential …

Towards A Set Of Design Principles For Executive Compensation Contracts, Yaowen Shan, Terry S. Walter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Executive compensation has been controversial for many years. Controversies over executive pay have sparked outrage from some sectors and calls for increased regulation and reform. Yet others argue that knee-jerk reactions to perceived abuses of pay can lead to a host of unintended and inefficient outcomes. This paper argues that much of this controversy is due to executives being rewarded via contracts that have weaknesses in design. We argue that few stakeholders in firms would object to generous compensation for managers whose performance results in abnormally high long-term shareholder wealth creation. We state a set of principles, developed from a …

The Environmental Kuznets Curve And The Structural Change Hypothesis, Simone Marsiglio, Alberto Ansuategi, Maria Carmen Gallastegui

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We provide a very simple macroeconomic investigation of the role that structural changes might play in generating inverted U-shaped income-pollution relationships. Differently from previous research which mainly focuses on empirical, static or general equilibrium models, we develop a standard balanced growth path (BGP) analysis. We show that along the BGP equilibrium an inverted U-shaped income-pollution relationship may occur as a response to structural changes, but whether this is the case or not it will crucially depend upon the magnitude of a production externality parameter. Moreover, we show that the negative relationship between income and pollution can only be a transitory …

Enacting Spiritual Leadership In Business Through Ego-Transcendence, Lauren Klaus, Mario Fernando

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Ethical dilemmas in organisations can arise due to situational circumstances, the decision making process and the conditions in which they are made. Academic literature offers some insights into analysing ethical decision making; these include guidelines on how to deal with ethical dilemmas (e.g. Abramson, 1985; Loewenberg and Dolgoff, 1996; Reamer, 1990). Recently, several prominent corporate scandals have been reported in the media. These include News International Limited, Barclays and BP. According to business ethics scholars, one of the causes for the escalating incidents of corporate scandals is triggered by the weaknesses in the leaders' decision making process. For example, Giacalone …

Good Corporate Governance Is Good For Banks' Bottom Line, Amir Arjomandi, Juergen H. Seufert, Ruhul Salim

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Sound corporate governance not only boosts banks' efficiency, it is also good for the profit of Australian banks and their shareholders. However, new research shows that factors such as the number of board meetings, the involvement of large shareholders in boardroom decisions and whether or not the board has independent members don't play a significant role in achieving those goals.

How To Get A Better Bang For The Taxpayers' Buck In All Sectors, Not Only Indigenous Programs, Peter M. Siminski

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A report released today by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) has drawn attention to the lack of quality evaluations being conducted on Indigenous programs. The report identified 1082 Indigenous-specific programs delivered by government agencies, Indigenous organisations, not-for-profit NGOs and for-profit contractors. It found 92% have never been evaluated to see if they are achieving their objectives. While it oversteps in some regards, this report raises a very important point: we don't really know what works if we don't check. That's a lesson that applies to all areas of public policy spending, not just Indigenous affairs.

Framing The Usefulness Of Ehrm In Talent Management: A Case Study Of Talent Identification In A Professional Services Firm, Sharna L. Wiblen

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As talent management evolves from intuitive to evidence-based decision-making, the role of electronic Human Resource Management (eHRM) to gather, distribute, and analyze data becomes more critical. However, surprisingly few academic studies investigate the role of technology in talent management. Drawing on a qualitative case study of talent management in a large professional services firm, this paper critically examines how eHRM information technologies are framed as useful within talent identification discourses. The findings reveal two distinct but interrelated sets of processes employed to identify talent and suggest that the perceived usefulness and centrality of eHRM are influenced by how stakeholders shape …