Business Commons^™

Framing Advertisements To Elicit Positive Emotions And Attract Foster Carers: An Investigation Of High Cognitive Elaboration Donations, Melanie J. Randle, Leonie M. Miller, Joanna Stirling, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Advertisements that elicit negative emotions (e.g., guilt) have been found effective in prompting socially desirable behaviors, such as making monetary donations to charity. This study investigates whether this principle generalizes to a specific case of high-cognitive-elaboration donations: fostering a child. Results from an advertising experiment conducted with 470 respondents indicate that this is not the case. Rather, positive emotions caused stronger reactions to the advertisements, with processing motivation and preexisting attitudes playing a critical role. Implications for marketing foster care—and possibly other, similar high-cognitive-elaboration donations—include that ongoing communication and elicitation of positive emotions is essential to first form the right …

How To Improve Firm Performance Using Big Data Analytics Capability And Business Strategy Alignment?, Shahriar Akter, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Angappa Gunasekaran, Rameshwar Dubey, Stephen J. Childe

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The recent interest in big data has led many companies to develop big data analytics capability (BDAC) in order to enhance firm performance (FPER). However, BDAC pays off for some companies but not for others. It appears that very few have achieved a big impact through big data. To address this challenge, this study proposes a BDAC model drawing on the resource-based theory (RBT) and the entanglement view of sociomaterialism. The findings show BDAC as a hierarchical model, which consists of three primary dimensions (i.e., management, technology, and talent capability) and 11 subdimensions (i.e., planning, investment, coordination, control, connectivity, compatibility, …

A Conceptual Investigation Of Maintenance Deferral And Implementation: Foundation For A Maintenance Lifecycle Model, Christopher Savage, Karlheinz Kautz, Rodney J. Clarke

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Despite the fact that society and organizations rely heavily on Information Systems (IS) and software, the maintenance of vendor-supplied IS, in particular standard package software has gained little attention within the academic literature. This paper presents a conceptual study of the current state of research concerning the reasons for deferral and performance of vendor-supplied maintenance by the purchasing organization. These reasons have so far neither been investigated together nor from that perspective. Based on a systematic literature review and taking the purchaser's viewpoint, reasons for maintenance deferral and performance are identified from the literature. They build the groundwork and foundation …

Worse And Worse Off: The Impact Of Lymphedema On Work And Career After Breast Cancer, John Boyages, Senia Kalfa, Ying Xu, Louise Koelmeyer, Helen Mackie, Hector Viveros, Lucy Taksa, Paul J. Gollan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: Our study examines the impact of breast cancer-related lymphedema on women's work and career. Our research addresses a significant knowledge gap regarding the additional impact of lymphedema on breast cancer survivors.

Methods: An online national survey was conducted with 361 women who either had breast cancer without lymphedema (Group 1, n = 209) or breast cancer with lymphedema (Group 2, n = 152). Participant recruitment was supported by the Breast Cancer Network Australia and the Australasian Lymphology Association.

Results: Both breast cancer and lymphedema had a significant negative influence on women's work and career. Respondents reported changes in employment …

Risky Utilities, Jean-Charles Rochet, Guillaume Roger

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We develop a theory of "risky utilities," i.e., private firms that manage an infrastructure for public service and that may be tempted to engage in excessively risky activities, such as reducing maintenance expenditures (at the risk of provoking a breakdown of the system) or in speculation (at the risk of incurring massive losses it cannot bear). These risky utilities include financial utilities like exchanges, clearinghouses or payment systems, as well as standard utilities like electricity transmission networks. Continuation of service is essential, so risky utilities cannot be liquidated. The optimal regulatory contract minimizes the social cost among the contracts that …

Investing In Skill And Searching For Coworkers: Endogenous Participation In A Matching Market, Chris Bidner, Guillaume Roger, Jessica Moses

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We demonstrate how search frictions have important yet subtle implications for participation in a skilled labor market by studying a model in which agents invest in skill prior to searching for coworkers. Search frictions induce the existence of acceptance-constrained equilibria, whereby matching concerns-as opposed to investment costs-dissuade the marginal agent from investing and participating in the skilled matching market. Such equilibria are robust, relevant, and have comparative static properties that contrast sharply with the intuitive properties arising in a benchmark static setting. We consider an extension with separate matching "marketplaces," and show that our main results continue to hold.

Dialogic Accounting And Accountability Systems For Women's Empowerment: A Participatory Action Research (Par) Case Study In A Microfinance-Ngo In Bangladesh, Farzana A. Tanima, Judy Brown

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of dialogic accounting and accountability systems in addressing women's empowerment in the microfinance context, in Bangladesh. There are debates about whether women are actually being empowered through microfinance initiatives, and concerns about the accountability of microfinance institutions. This study examines these controversies, drawing and building on Mayoux (2002) and the work of others on 'competing logics' evident in microfinance theory and practice. In recognition of the dominance of economic logics in traditional accounting, it responds to calls to develop more multi-dimensional accountings and ways of operationalising proposals for greater …

Communicating With Parents Of Obese Children: Which Channels Are Most Effective?, Melanie J. Randle, Anthony D. Okely, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Background: One of the strategies proven most successful in curbing rising rates of childhood obesity involves targeting parents as agents of change. Prior studies have focused on what messages to communicate, but few have investigated how they should be communicated.

Objective: To identify the channels most effective for communicating with parents of overweight and obese children and understand whether their use of parenting information sources differs from others in the community.

Design/setting: This study utilizes data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Families were included if weight and height information was available for parents and children at three …

Do E-Books Enhance The Reading Experience: An Affordance Theory Perspective, John D'Ambra, Concepcion S. Wilson, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The digitisation of publishing has redefined the publishing industry and the reading experience for consumers. E-readers and smart devices are now part of the value proposition of e-books offering affordances ranging from overcoming the physical limitations of print books to providing the functionality of information systems to the reading experience. A gap exists in understanding the preferences of readers for print books and e-books. Through an affordance theory lens this paper aims to go some way to fill the gap in understand the perception of reading e-books on smart devices as well as advancing the use of affordance theory in …

How Do Gamified Mobile Apps Influence Customer Value, Satisfaction And Behavioural Intentions To Cease Smoking?, Rory Mulcahy, Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Kerri-Ann Kuhn, Nadia Zainuddin

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Providing customers greater value through technological and mobile services has been an evolving topic in the services marketing literature (Gummerus et al., 2011; Pihlström et al., 2008; van Riel et al., 2005). In particular, there is growth in the development of mobile phone applications (apps) as part of the service mix for transformative service programs, such as mental health and wellbeing (Schuster, et al. 2013), as well as smoking (Abroms et al., 2013). However, what is yet to be explained is the influence of the relatively new phenomenon of "gamification" (the use of game like design features) in these apps …

Being Aware About Academic Integrity, Ann M. Rogerson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

•What is academic integrity?
•How do we become AWARE about academic integrity?
•How to identify potential issues
•Discussion/questions
•References

Realizing Value From Business Analytics Platforms: The Effects Of Managerial Search And Agility Of Resource Allocation Processes, Abhijith Anand, Rajeev Sharma, Tim Coltman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Few organizations have been able to realize value from their investments in business analytics. This could be due to an inadequate understanding of the pattern of investments required to realize value from business analytics. Specifically, we propose that business analytics requires an upfront investment of infrastructure capital to build a mature platform, followed by multiple investments of innovation capital to create value through competitive actions informed by analytics-enabled insights. Drawing on dynamic capabilities and digital options literatures, we develop a model in which the effect of investments in maturity of the business analytics platform on organizational value is moderated by …

Is Environmental Protection Beneficial For The Environment?, Alberto Ansuategi, Simone Marsiglio

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We analyze a simple endogenous growth model with environmental interactions. Economic production generates emissions of pollutants whose environmental impact is mitigated by abatement activities financed by government expenditure; environmental quality affects preferences but does not play any productive role. We show that government intervention, by reallocating resources from capital accumulation to environmental preservation activities, allows the economy to achieve a sustainable balanced growth path. Along such a path, softer environmental policy regimes lead to win–win outcomes, fostering economic growth and improving environmental quality. Such a result needs to be interpreted as a long run outcome, but it clearly shows that …

Does The Military Turn Men Into Criminals? New Evidence From Australia's Conscription Lotteries, Peter Siminski, Simon Ville, Alexander Paull

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this paper, we estimate the effect of military service on the perpetration of crime. Several hypothesized links exist between service and crime, but recent quasi-experimental studies on this subject have produced mixed results. Our contribution to this literature uses Australia's Vietnam era conscription lotteries for identification along with criminal court data from Australia's three largest states. We find no evidence that military service increases or decreases crime in any category. In our preferred specification, the 95 % confidence interval rules out positive (negative) effects larger than 11 % (10 %) relative to the mean crime rate.

Economic Growth And Abatement Activities In A Stochastic Environment: A Multi-Objective Approach, Simone Marsiglio, Davide La Torre

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We analyze the effect of uncertainty on economic growth and environmental quality in a concave stochastic bicriteria dynamic problem, solved by means of scalarization techniques and the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. Specifically, we focus on an endogenous growth model with purposive abatement activities, where environmental quality, subject to random shocks, is merely a source of utility and does not play any productive role. We show that even in the absence of direct (environmental) productivity effects, along the optimal path production results enhanced by an indirect productivity effect, which transforms environmental quality into the engine of growth. However, this does not prevent uncertainty …

Responses And Rejoinders To Commentaries, Yaowen Shan, Terry S. Walter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Responses and rejoinders to commentaries on: Shan, Y. & Walter, T. (2016). Towards a Set of Design Principles for Executive Compensation Contracts. Abacus: a journal of accounting, finance and business studies, 52 (4), 619-684.

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.