Business Commons^™

The Economy, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

The rapid expansion and diversifi cation of the economy in the twentieth century brought immense wealth and many new opportunities to many Australians. Real per capita income grew nearly sixfold in the century following Federation. When the first federal parliament met on 9 May 1901, Australia was still suffering the effects of the 1890s downturn, and it would wait another seven years until average incomes returned to their pre-Depression peak of 1891. The following four decades were marked by the uncertainty surrounding two world wars and an inter-war Depression. Higher levels of real income began to be achieved by the …

Institution Building And Variation In The Formation Of The Australian Wool Market, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

The relocation of the wool market from London to the major Australian port cities from the late nineteenth century required the formation of an institution to govern the auction business, namely the wool brokers' association. Regional variations, among Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, occurred in the structure and effectiveness of the institution despite each regional association having been formed around the same time, for the same purpose, and with an overlap of participating firms. We draw on institution theory to guide our account and find that the impact of legacy factors and differences in market conditions explain the regional variations.

Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprise Technical Efficiency: Evidence From Firm-Level Industrial Census Data, Teerawat Charoenrat, Charles Harvie, Yot Amornkitvikai

Charles Harvie

Thai manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) face intense competition in domestic and foreign markets. Given their importance to the economic development of the country it is important to have a clear understanding of their readiness to face the rigors of international competition, including the barriers and specific problems that they face. This study uses a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and technical inefficiency effects model to analyze the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing SMEs and key factors impacting upon it. Analysis of cross-sectional data from a 2007 census of Thai manufacturing SMEs indicates that their weighted average technical efficiency …

The Role Of The United States Coast Guard In Marine Environmental Protection: The Uscgc Alex Haley Example, Ted Watts, Carol J. Mcnair-Connolly

Ted Watts

Few countries in the world task their military with the role of marine pollution response in addition to its responsibility as a military service. One country that does is the United States of America. The United States Coast Guard has, in addition to its military and security missions, the task of marine pollution response and enforcement. This program includes the prevention of oil and chemical spills, unauthorized ocean dumping and to prevent the introduction of invasive marine species into the maritime environment . This paper considers the operational and environmental costs associated with a major oil spill and the revenue …

The Aging Workforce: How Can Australian Universities Address Future Workforce Challenges?, Susan Loomes, Grace Mccarthy

Grace McCarthy

Australia is facing major demographic challenges fueled by low workforce participation rates and the exit of the baby boomers from the workforce. Universities are likely to face the same workforce challenges. However, they may be in a better position than mainstream businesses due to the skills required, the flexibility of hours, and the nature and casualization of the workforce. This opens the door to attract retiring business professionals and aiding them to transition into academic teaching roles. For this non-traditional recruitment pathway to succeed, universities will need to ensure they have appropriate education and training pathways, mentoring along with peer …

Political Connection And Managerial Entrenchment: Evidence From Ceo Turnovers In China, Jerry Cao, Xiaofei Pan, Meijun Qian, Gary G. Tian

Gary Tian

Firms seek political connection by hiring politicians and ex-bureaucrats as top executives in China, especially in privately controlled firms. One unintended consequence of establishing political connection is management entrenchment. Political connected CEOs have smaller equity holding than CEOs without political background. Political connection significantly lowers the CEO turnover probability and turnover-performance sensitivity. Firm performance improves after political connected CEOs are replaced, particularly if replaced by new ones not politically connected. Overall, our findings suggest that political connection in association with management entrenchment destroys shareholder value, harms firm performance, and exacerbates corporate governance in emerging economies.

Industry Associations And Non-Competitive Behaviour In Australian Wool Marketing: Evidence From The Melbourne Woolbrokers' Association, 1890-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

From the 1890s the sale of Australian wool was organised through a series of regionally based associations of wool selling brokers and wool buyers. They engaged in cartel-type behaviour by price fixing and exclusive dealing. We ask the question whether the wool selling brokers exploited their monopoly power to the full in setting fees and charges paid by the growers and buyers. Association records provide data on the pricing structure and rationale for changes. We surmise that the existence of the cartel lifted prices above competitive levels. However, the pricing behaviour was moderated to a strong form of limit pricing.

Strategic Ambiguity And Ethical Actions, Ah Ba Sim, Mario Fernando

Ah Ba Sim

Ethics and moral obligations of management are an integral component in corporate strategy and support is now increasing for the proposition that ethics should be central, not peripheral, to the overall management of the firm. Within this context, we examine the influence of strategic ambiguity on the ethical actions of corporations. Strategic ambiguity is a prevalent and valuable tactic in organizational strategy making. However, the influence of strategic ambiguity on organizational strategy making and communication may lead to unethical executive behaviour and action. This paper develops a framework to examine the role of strategic ambiguity in ethical action, using James …

Rivers And Puddles: Metaphors For Explaining The Need For Continuous Change And Development In Modern Organisations, Ann M. Rogerson

Ann M Rogerson

Metaphors are popular with academics and researchers to explain organisational phenomena including change, but these metaphors may not be as useful when explaining the need for continuous change to employees. This paper proposes the use of rivers and puddles as metaphors for leaders, managers and organisations to use to explain the shift required in accepting day to day change as the norm rather than a process. These relatable metaphors provide an approach to differentiating between process and adaptive change and how to explain this in terms that having meaning to individual employees and organisations.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Using The Sri Lankan Tea Industry As A Pilot Study, Pradeepa Jayaratne, Lee Styger, Nelson Perera

Lee Styger

Genuine sustainable supply chain management is now critical to achieve competitive advantage. Risk, uncertainty, strategy, innovation, relationship, infrastructure, regulation and technology are typically historically important areas that have a strong impact on sustainable SCM. These factors have been studied within manufacturing sector in developed countries; there is a lack of research on agri-supply chain in developing countries with respect to the concept of sustainable SCM. Therefore, this research tries to map the tea supply chain and identify the influencing factors and their performance on sustainable SCM in the tea supply chain in Sri Lanka. Importantly, early research suggests that mapping …

The Influence Of Levels Of Supply Chain Integration On The Relationship Between Corporate Competitive Capabilities And Business Performance: Evidence From Malaysian Smes, Siti Nur 'Atikah Zulkiffli, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

This study aims to empirically investigate the influence of levels of supply chain integration (SCI) as a moderating variable on the relationship between corporate competitive capabilities (CCC) and business performance. Data was collected from a postal questionnaire from 135 Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The data was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, cluster analysis and multi-group SEM analysis. The findings confirm that the levels of SCI in a given firm moderate the relationship between CCC and business performance for that firm. The study also contributes to the body of knowledge by expanding the understanding of levels of SCI as a moderator.

Are Low-Skill Public Sector Workers Really Overpaid? A Quasi-Differenced Panel Data Analysis, Peter Siminski

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Public–private sectoral wage differentials have been studied extensively using quantile regression techniques. These typically find large public sector premiums at the bottom of the wage distribution. This may imply that low skill workers are ‘overpaid’, prompting concerns over efficiency. We note several other potential explanations for this result and explicitly test whether the premium varies with skill, using Australian data. We use a quasi-differenced Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel data model which has not been previously applied to this topic, internationally. Unlike other available methods, this technique identifies sectoral differences in returns to unobserved skill. It also facilitates a …

Political Connections, Founder-Managers, And Their Impact On Tunneling In China's Listed Firms, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We investigate the impact of manager political connection and founder status on tunneling in China's listed firms from 2004 to 2010. By classifying the political connections into three dimensions with two categories of controlling ownerships, we find that overall manager political connection is negatively related to tunneling in private firms but positively related to tunneling in SOEs. The CPC/CPPCC-type connection is likely to protect firms from tunneling, while the official-type connection facilitates tunneling from firms. The impact of these two types of political connection on tunneling is stronger at the central level than the local level. A chairman's political connection …

Eagles And Turkeys: Human Capital Externalities, Departmental Co-Authorship And Research Productivity, Frank Neri, Joan R. Rodgers

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Lucas (1988) hypothesised that human capital externalities explain persistent productivity growth and become manifest via interactions between workplace colleagues. Consistent with the first part of this hypothesis, Fox and Milbourne (2006) concluded that an increase in the average level of human capital in Australian economics departments raised the research productivity of departmental members. This paper tests the robustness of this finding by using a direct, rather than a proxy, measure of human capital and confirms the existence of human capital externalities within Australian economics departments. But we extend the analysis in two important dimensions. Firstly, we investigate the second part …

Through The Eyes Of Ex-Foster Children: Placement Success And The Characteristics Of Good Foster Carers, Melanie Randle

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Most research focusing on foster placement success or the characteristics of good foster carers is based on the opinions of people currently involved in the foster care system, such as foster carers, social workers or children in care. The few studies which include former foster children usually collect factual (usually quantitative) data to evaluate their pathways or achievements since leaving care, such as educational attainment or employment. This study differs because it examines the perceptions and opinions of adults who were in foster care as children, in relation to the important issues of what constitutes successful foster placement and the …

Development And Validation Of An Instrument To Measure User Perceived Service Quality Of Mhealth, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The role of service quality in fostering the growth of mHealth services has gained much attention in the academic and practitioner communities. However, empirical research in this area has been beset by inadequate conceptualization and the lack of a validated scale. This study addresses these limitations by theoretically conceptualizing and empirically validating a multidimensional service quality scale in the mHealth context. The findings show that mHealth service quality is a hierarchical, multidimensional, and reflective construct, which consists of three primary dimensions and eight subdimensions. The results also confirm that the mHealth service quality scale is more effective at predicting satisfaction …

A Critical Assessment Of The Role Of Fashion In Influencing The Travel Decision And Destination Choice, Clifford Lewis, Gregory M. Kerr, Lois Burgess

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

While the word fashion is often associated with clothing and accessories, the objective of this paper is to argue that as a broader concept, fashion has relevance to tourism. It is argued that fashion can influence behaviour and both the decision to travel, and the destination selected may in some cases be a fashion statement by the traveller. Following discussion as to the meanings and explanations of fashion, a conceptual model is presented having the purpose of demonstrating how fashion can be a moderating variable in the travel decision and destination selection process. The model proposes the influence of fashion …

A Practice-Based Approach To Student Reflection In The Workplace During A Work-Integrated Learning Placement, Christopher Sykes, Bonnie Amelia Dean

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In the Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) curriculum, reflection on workplace activities is widely used to support student learning. Recent critiques have demonstrated the limitations of current approaches to support students' reflective learning of workplace practices. By employing a practice-based approach, we seek to refocus WIL reflection on workplace practices, emphasising the 'embedded (social), engaged (practice) and embodied (material) aspects' of students' reflective practices in the workplace. We argue that reflection-in-the-midst-of-action includes an often-overlooked phenomenological contribution that shifts attention from cognition to action. This study uses a case study of one typical WIL student to illustrate the importance of reflection-in-the-midst-of-action and the …

Institution Building And Variation In The Formation Of The Australian Wool Market, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The relocation of the wool market from London to the major Australian port cities from the late nineteenth century required the formation of an institution to govern the auction business, namely the wool brokers' association. Regional variations, among Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, occurred in the structure and effectiveness of the institution despite each regional association having been formed around the same time, for the same purpose, and with an overlap of participating firms. We draw on institution theory to guide our account and find that the impact of legacy factors and differences in market conditions explain the regional variations.

Does Ceo Pay Dispersion Matter In An Emerging Market? Evidence From China's Listed Firms, Fang Hu, Xiaofei Pan, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines how the institutional features of emerging economies (i.e., government ownership, political connections, and market reform) influence CEO pay-dispersion incentives. Consistent with our expectation, we find that CEO pay dispersion generally provides a tournament incentive in China's emerging market, as it is positively associated with firm performance. In addition, tournament incentives are weaker where firms are controlled by the government and where the CEO is politically connected, but it became stronger after the China's split-share structure reforms. Further, we find that in state controlled firms the satisfaction gained by meeting multiple economic and social goals largely reduces the …

Estimating And Forecasting Residential Electricity Demand In Iran, Elham Pourazarm, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study examines the short- and the long-run relationship between electricity demand and its determinants in the Iranian residential sector. The study employs unit root tests, cointegration and error-correction models on annual time series for the period, 1967-2009. The results show that electricity price is insignificant and income elasticity is lower than unity. The most influential factor influencing household electricity demand is cooling degree days. The number of electrified villages (an indicator of economic progress) is statistically significant, showing that economic progress has a positive impact on electricity demand. Electricity demand is forecast until 2020. The results show that under …

Trade Liberalisation And Manufacturing Wage Premiums: Evidence From Thailand, Kankesu Jayanthakumaran, Piyapong Sangkaew, Martin O'Brien

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates trade related industrial wage premiums. The procedure involves (1) estimating industrial wage premiums and (2) linking those estimated wage premiums to trade related variables. Results reveal that (1) in addition to workers' characteristics, industry characteristics where workers are employed were important in determining the wages for workers, (2) falling output tariffs resulted in increased wage premiums, and (3) an increase in intermediate imports exerted a strong positive influence on wage premiums. Linked employer and employee micro data may provide further insights which are currently not available.

The Economy, Simon Ville

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The rapid expansion and diversifi cation of the economy in the twentieth century brought immense wealth and many new opportunities to many Australians. Real per capita income grew nearly sixfold in the century following Federation. When the first federal parliament met on 9 May 1901, Australia was still suffering the effects of the 1890s downturn, and it would wait another seven years until average incomes returned to their pre-Depression peak of 1891. The following four decades were marked by the uncertainty surrounding two world wars and an inter-war Depression. Higher levels of real income began to be achieved by the …

Insights Into Mature Consumers Of Financial Services, Trenton Milner, Daniela Rosenstreich

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate psychographic, demographic and situational characteristics of Baby Boomer generation consumers, specifically in relation to their consumption of financial services.

Design/methodology/approach: A survey was pre-tested and 776 responses (77.6 per cent response rate) were subjected to correlation and ANOVA analysis. The survey covered a wide range of variables for decision making for financial services, including situational, demographic, and psychographic.

Findings: Consumers who scored higher on scales for competitiveness and need for material resources tended to have higher incomes. Mature consumers were likely to face major life events involving their children and parents, …

Managerial Coaching: Challenges, Opportunities And Training, Grace Mccarthy, Julia Milner

Sydney Business School - Papers

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the growing practice of managerial coaching. Much of the coaching literature is set in the context of an external coach coming into an organisation. However managers are increasingly being expected to coach their employees, a change in role which can create tensions. Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines the literature on coaching managers. The paper also discusses practical implications for coach training. Findings - This paper identifies key differences in the issues faced by coaching managers and by internal/external coaches and recognises the importance of adequate training of managers …

A Review Of Consumer Decision-Making Models And Development Of A New Model For Financial Services, Trenton Milner, Daniela Rosenstreich

Sydney Business School - Papers

It is recognised that existing theories of Consumer Decision Making (CDM) are not well suited for financial services and there have been calls for development of a new conceptual model. This article reviews prominent models of CDM and identifies strengths and limitations. A new conceptual model that is applicable to financial services is developed. An important element of the model is the recognition that the components interact rather than a consumer following a linear progression through a series of stages. The new model better reflects the iterative decision-making process relevant to financial services and enhances marketers' understanding of the process …

Earnings Quality And Stress Levels Of Chinese Listed Companies, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the relation between earnings quality and stress levels of Chinese companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2003 to 2007 by classifying them as financially stressed and bankrupt (SB), financially stressed and not bankrupt (SNB), and not financially stressed and not bankrupt (NSNB) firms. We measure the earnings quality by four separate attributes: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness. We find that earnings quality levels are parallel to firm's stress levels: the SB firms have the lowest earnings quality measured by each of the four earnings attributes, the SNB firms have a …

Stages Of Trust Development In Banking Relationship, Shyam S. Bhati, Anura De Zoysa

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Using data collected from eight bank branches in India, this study examines how the trust between branch manager and loan officer begins and develops in multiple stages over a period of time. It seeks to fill an important gap in the academic literature on the development of trust between trustor and trusted over a period of time by empirically examining the trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer in a bank. The results of the cross case qualitative analysis conducted on stages of trust development using pattern matching technique suggest that trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer …

Enhancing The Educational Subject: Cognitive Capitalism, Positive Psychology And Well-Being Training In Schools, James Reveley

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Positive psychology is influencing educational policy and practice in Britain and North America. This article reveals how this psychological discourse and its offshoot school-based training programs, which stress happiness, self-improvement and well-being, align with an emergent socioeconomic formation: cognitive capitalism. Three key points are made. First, there is an elective affinity between cognitive capitalism and positive psychology, whose advocates promote 'mindfulness','curiosity' and 'psychological flexibility' as the means to personal fulfilment. Second, an array of technologies of the self spring from the positive psychology discourse; mindfulness practice is one of these. Currently being trialled in British and North American schools, this …

Sharing The Research Journey - Fostering A Love Of Research In Coursework Masters Students, Grace Mccarthy

Sydney Business School - Papers

Based on addressing the motivational needs identified in Self Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), the paper outlines an engaging approach to developing research skills in a coursework masters program. Self Determination theory is a needs based theory of motivation, focusing on basic human needs to relate to others in a group, to strive for competence, and to enjoy autonomy. According to Deci and Ryan (2002), social environments which fulfil these needs will result in motivated, engaged and successful individuals. Our students enjoy autonomy in their choice of topic and develop competence in research skills. Although each student conducts an …