Business Commons^™

Accommodating Student Diversity And Different Learning Backgrounds, Ann M. Rogerson, Louise C. Rossetto

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Student mobility presents both challenges and opportunities in higher education due to language, cultural and learning background differences among students. Effective integration of 'real world' group situations into class and assessment activities assists students to develop skills in accommodating cross-cultural language differences in line with convergent principles of communication accommodation theory. This case study reports on a cross-cultural post-graduate Management subject in a regional Australian university, demonstrating how explicit teaching results in improved learning outcomes by integrating experiences with theory, while better preparing students to participate in a globalised workforce.

Overcrowded Housing Looms As A Challenge For Our Cities, Shanaka Herath, Rebecca Bentley

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Overcrowding is an inevitable and often overlooked result of the affordable housing shortage in our cities. When a dwelling requires four or more extra bedrooms to reasonably accommodate occupants, the standard commonly used in Australia defines that as severe overcrowding. In 2011, 41,390 Australians lived in severely overcrowded dwellings, an increase of one-third from 2006. This increase occurred mostly in cities where house prices had risen sharply.

Companies Keep Slashing Jobs, But New Technologies Won't Replace Good Management, Mary Barrett

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As technology improves, it's tempting for company executives to slash jobs that are "standard" and "routine", making them easy to automate. But research shows focusing on improving management practices will do more to improve companies' bottom lines.

Bank Work Experience Versus Political Connections: Which Matters For Bank Loan Financing?, Xiaofei Pan, Gary G. Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines how bank lending decisions are affected either by executives' connections with banks, through their former banking experience, or by their political connections with governments, using a sample of bank loans granted to Chinese listed non-state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from 2003 to 2010. We find that bank loans are more closely related to profitability for firms with bank connections, while firms' political connections weaken this relationship. We further find that the influence of bank connections is more significant for firms from less supported industries or less developed regions. Furthermore, firms with bank connections are less likely to become financially …

Imagining A Better Future: The Outcomes Of The Wellness Wednesday Self-Care Program For Healthcare Staff, Alison Franklin, Marie Tobin, Shamika Almeida, Jackie Donsante, Padmini Pai, Alera Riley-Henderson, Valerie J. Wilson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is recognition that working in the aged care setting can be physically and psychologically demanding, stressful and can lead to staff burnout. These types of demands can result in reduced job satisfaction, disengaged staff and can be detrimental to care delivery. In order to address these issues in a 52 bed sub - acute geriatric hospital within Australia, a self-care program was initiated to support staff wellbeing. The staff (nursing, allied health, managers, security staff) themselves were engaged in co-designing the self-care program alongside the project team. The Wellness Wednesday program runs for 45-60mins every Wednesday for eight weeks …

Can Haptic Inputs Mitigate Choice Overload?, Nguyen T. Thai, Ulku Yuksel

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the effects of haptic inputs on consumers' preference for large assortments after selecting an option from different assortment sizes. Our experiments reveal that physically touching and imagining touching (i.e., haptic imagery), compared to the control (i.e., no-touch) condition, eliminate adverse effects caused by large assortments. A moderate, but not high, level of touch frequency is required to reduce perceived difficulty and increase preference for large assortments when being exposed to large (vs. small) assortments. These findings expand our current understanding of the literature on haptic and choice overload.

When Too Many Anti-Consumption Opportunities Lead To Anti-Consumption Of Anti-Consumption, Michael S. Lee, Ulku Yuksel, Nguyen T. Thai

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A petition is a document signed by numerous people, announcing a demand that requires a corporation or public entity to take an action to remedy a transgression via essential course of practices. Signing a petition to support a positive cause or a boycott call, as an upshot of a negative cause worth boycotting, may be less taxing for consumers than partaking in boycotts organized by boycott organizers. Thanks to the internet and social media, hundreds of thousands of online petitions are created worldwide each year with millions of signatures supporting various causes (Antonetti & Manika, 2017; Wright, 2016). This raises …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We investigate peer ability effects on high-stakes test scores at ages 16 and 18, and on the probability of university attendance. To account for endogeneity in peer ability, we use the average ability of the primary school peers of one's secondary school peers, excluding those from the same primary school of the individual, as an instrumental variable for average secondary school peer ability. Our results show that average peer quality has a small effect on an individual's test scores, and a larger proportion of low-quality peers has a significantly detrimental effect on achievements of an average student. Furthermore, peer ability …

Hard To Reach: Examining The National Disability Insurance Scheme Experience - A Case Study In Wollongong, Freda C. Hui, Corinne L. Cortese, Mona Nikidehaghani, Sandra H. Chapple, Kellie M. Mccombie

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We report on interviews conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Our aims were to assess the effectiveness of the NDIS in communicating with people with disabilities who are socio‐economically disadvantaged, to consider the types of assistance required, and to provide recommendations to improve the NDIS. Our interviewees are characterised as ‘hard to reach’, a cohort that is missing out on benefits they might receive under the NDIS because of the socioeconomic disadvantage that compounds their disability hardship. Some of our key findings were that many of our interviewees were unaware of the NDIS, …

Caught Between Two Worlds: Clusters, Microfinance Officers And Accountability Mechanisms In A Sri Lankan Mfi, Nadeera Ranabahu, Lee C. Moerman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper studies the accountability mechanisms and dynamics that exist within a microfinance context when microfinance officers (MFOs) interact with borrowers at the community level (MFO-community interface). In the Sri Lankan microfinance institution (MFI) used in this study, community units or clusters comprising of several peer or solidarity groups engage with MFOs in the field. Using Ritchie and Richardson's (2000) accountability typologies (codified, contingent, assumed and collateral), this article explores how multiple and complex accountability relationships manifest at the MFO community interface.The data collected from interviews, discussions, observations, document reviews and the primary researcher's reflective notes demonstrate that both codified …

Disclosure And Reporting Against The Sustainable Development Goals: Connecting New Stakeholders To Sustainability Data, Theresa Heithaus, Richard Mills, Stephanie Perkiss

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This case study focuses on the disclosures of thirty seven companies and a unique research approach to making their corporate sustainability performance more open, comparable and engaging. A group of 40 students at the University of Wollongong worked in a structured way to aggregate comparable data on corporate sustainability on a selection of metrics related to the SDGs. This report offers an in depth look at one example of the kind of projects that WikiRate and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) have been running since 2016, involving more than 2,000 students. For this case study, WikiRate staff reviewed …

Work-Integrated Learning Design For Undergraduate Business Degrees: Stakeholders' Perspectives, Laura L. Rook, Lisa Mcmanus

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Work-integrated Learning (WIL), where the theory and practice of work are integrated through various activities in the curricula, provides several benefits to stakeholders if designed and implemented correctly. This study explored the views of undergraduate students and academics in relation to the potential implementation of a Work-integrated Learning program in the undergraduate degrees of a business school at a regional university through the lens of stakeholder theory. A total of 50 students and 24 academics participated in the study. The findings suggest students and academics hold different views to the effectiveness of on-campus and off-campus WIL activities, structure of a …

Disclosing Volunteers As 'Human Capital': Analysing Annual Reports Of Australian Emergency Services Organisations, Yoke J. Berry, Michael L. Jones

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Annual reports of 11 volunteer-based emergency services organisations were analysed to determine how volunteers are valued in terms of human capital. A simple method was designed to enable comparison between agencies on nine categories of human capital being volunteer numbers, gender, age, length of service, diversity (three types), training and awards. The results were compared to the disclosure of the same categories pertaining to paid staff. Results showed that narratives of annual reports gave recognition and praise to volunteers but human resources sections reported primarily on paid staff. Data on volunteer numbers and diversity are poorly reported in many annual …

Microfinance: A Magic Bullet For Poverty Alleviation And Empowerment?, Farzana A. Tanima, Nunung N. Hidayah

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In contemporary times microfinance is promoted by powerful organisations such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank as a cutting-edge financial innovation that has the potential to meet certain development ends and goals, including poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. Indeed, the UN officially declared 2005 the International Year of Microfinance. However, research on the impact of microfinance is often conf licting, with certain studies providing evidence of the empowering effects of microfinance, and other studies analysing its disempowering potentials. Such conflicting perspectives challenge the 'magic bullet' notion of microfinance and illustrate the richness of research in this field. …

Stochastic Volatility Models With Arma Innovations: An Application To G7 Inflation Forecasts, Bo Zhang, Joshua Chan, Jamie L. Cross

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We introduce a new class of stochastic volatility models with autoregressive moving average (ARMA) innovations. The conditional mean process has a flexible form that can accommodate both a state space representation and a conventional dynamic regression. The ARMA component introduces serial dependence which renders standard Kalman filter techniques not directly applicable. To overcome this hurdle we develop an efficient posterior simulator that builds on recently developed precision based algorithms. We assess the usefulness of these new models in an inflation forecasting exercise across all G7 economies. We find that the new models generally provide competitive point and density forecasts compared …

Sharks, Social Sentiment And Science, Mehmet Ibrahim Mehmet, Peter Denyer-Simmons, Rodney J. Clarke

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This article is positioned within critical and strategic social marketing literature (Andreasen, 1995; Goldberg, 1995; Gordon, 2011, 2013; Gordon, Moodie, Eadie, & Hastings, 2010), which asserts the importance of conducting community-based research to gain insights that assist in strategic social program design (Andreasen, 2002; French & Gordon, 2015). Campaign design failures associated with 'top down' or 'expert led' approaches, have been linked to poor in-depth community research (French & Gordon, 2015, p.13). The policy design/implementation of New South Wales shark management strategy has been an example of a top down, expert driven implementation design strategy. The aim of this research …

Sustainable Tourism Development: An Application Of Social Exchange Theory In Thailand, Uraiporn Kattiyapornpong, Morakot Ditta-Apichai, Chatchasorn Kanjanasilanon, Kumpanart Siriyota

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As multi-stakeholders in tourism development help to create tourism experience, it is therefore vital to understand each stakeholder’s perception towards tourism development. In additon, local leaders and policy makers play a critical role in facilitating the mutual benefits of all tourism stakeholders in sustainable tourism development in the local community. Most research on Social Exchange Theory (SET) in tourism only focuses on resident’s and tourist’s perceptions toward tourism, and some studies indicate the ambiguous explanation and interpretation on SET in understanding community’s perceptions toward tourists and tourism. Therefore, it is a need to understand local leaders’ and policy makers’ perceptions …

Stock Liquidity, Corporate Governance And Leverage: New Panel Evidence, Sivathaasan Nadarajah, Searat Ali, Benjamin Liu, Allen Huang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We examine the effect of stock liquidity and corporate governance on the firm's leverage decision in the order-driven stock trading system and less stringent governance environment of Australia. Using a sample of 1207 non-financial firms from 2001 to 2013, resulting in 9855 firm-year observations, we find the posited negative stock liquidity-leverage relation, confirming prior research observations that firms with more liquid stocks are significantly less leveraged. We also find a significant and negative relation between corporate governance quality (CGQ) and leverage, indicating that firms with high CGQ significantly reduce leverage. In a closer analysis, we find that the significantly negative …

The Interplay Between Accounting Professionals And Political Ideologies: The Emergence Of Chinese Accounting Standards From 1978 To 1992, Lina Xu, Corinne L. Cortese, Eagle Zhang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This article explores the role of accounting professionals in the emergence of the first set of accounting standards - Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBE) - in China between 1978 and 1992. Based on a variety of sources drawn from the archives of Chinese language accounting textbooks and highly ranked academic journals, this article reveals how accounting professionals adapted accounting thoughts and practice to fit the demands of the prevailing political ideologies, which facilitated the social conditions essential for the development of ASBE. Drawing on theoretical perspectives on the interplay between accounting and its social context, as pronounced and advocated …

The Role Of Public Health Advocacy In Preventing And Reducing Gambling Related Harm: Challenges, Facilitators, And Opportunities For Change, Jennifer David, Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie J. Randle, Mike Daube, Susan Balandin

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Background: Public health advocacy is important in preventing harm and promoting health in communities. There has been little research into public health advocacy strategies which address gambling related harms. This study aimed to identify the role of advocacy in gambling reform, challenges to gambling advocacy implementation, and strategies that could facilitate change.

Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 50 stakeholders with backgrounds in gambling policy, research, health promotion, and advocacy. Participants were asked about how advocacy could be used to address gambling harm, and the range of barriers and facilitators for effective advocacy responses. A constant …