Business Commons^™

Do Tourists Notice Social Responsibility Information?, Nazila Babakhani, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This empirical study explores the amount of attention tourists pay to social responsibility (environment and community) information when booking accommodation online. Visual attention is a necessary requirement for tourists to consider the social responsibility of different accommodation options when making bookings. Eye tracking methodology was used to measure the visual attention paid to social responsibility initiatives in a simulated accommodation booking webpage. Results reveal that information about social responsibility initiatives does not attract significant visual attention from tourists, especially when they are confronted with a typically large amount of information about accommodation options. Such information is therefore unlikely to affect …

A Critique Of Prospect Theory And Framing With Particular Reference To Consumer Decisions, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Prospect theory is criticized in this article for being borrowed from psychology without appropriate acknowledgement, for requiring mathematical calculations that are beyond the average person, for not investigating information processing during prospect theory choices, and for lacking application to real-world decisions-such as important product and service choices made by consumers. Further criticism is leveled at the prospect theory-derived technique known as "framing," which is based on one-sided presentation of information and would be unethical in most consumer behavior situations.

Conformance Or Evasion: Employment Legislation And Employment Practices In Self-Contained Tourist Resorts, Ali Najeeb, Mary Barrett

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how resort managers respond to employment legislation (Law No.02/2008).

Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative case study data from seven self-contained tourist resorts in the Maldives were used to investigate the managerial responses to employment legislation.

Findings: Resort managers' responses ranged from passive compliance to active resistance, with decoupling through opportunism as the dominant strategy used to circumvent the legislation. Some human resource management (HRM) practices emerged from resort managers' interactions with external stakeholders and employees. Strategic responses and HRM practices were driven by a search for legitimacy or efficiency and …

Factors Affecting The Liquidity Of Commercial Banks In India: A Longitudinal Analysis, Shyam S. Bhati, Anura De Zoysa, Wisuttorn Jitaree

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the long-term effect of various regulatory, bank-specific and macroeconomic factors on the determination of liquidity in Indian banks. For this purpose, the study uses a random effect panel data regression model and tests it with data on Indian banks for 21 years, covering the period from 1996 to 2016. The model considers the effect of regulatory factors, cash reserve ratio, and statutory liquidity, and incorporates four different liquidity ratios specific to the Indian banking scenario. The results of the analysis show contrasting relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variables measured by four liquidity ratios. It …

Changes In Health-Related Quality Of Life: A Compensating Income Variation Approach, Paul Mcnamee, Silvia Mendolia

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the relationship between negative changes in health and life satisfaction, using a sample from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey. We use panel data models and estimate the life satisfaction impact of several different changes in health status to calculate the Compensating Income Variation (CIV) of them. Our work innovates with respect to the existing literature by using a more robust CIV method that takes account of the potential measurement error in income. Further, we produce the first set of monetary values for health losses using SF-6D utility values, one of the main measures …

Earnings Quality And Corporate Social Disclosure: The Moderating Role Of State And Foreign Ownership In Vietnamese Listed Firms, Trang Cam Hoang, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

By investigating the effect of earnings quality (EQ) on corporate social disclosure (CSD) in the context of Vietnam, this study tests whether firms uphold managerial opportunism based on the agency theory or social responsibility based on stakeholder theory. It also tests the moderating effect of state and foreign ownership on the relationship between EQ and CSD. This study finds that the long-term perspective argument dominates in the relationship between EQ and CSD, indicating that EQ is positively and significantly associated with CSD. The study also finds that the increasing proportion of shares held by the government in firms weakens the …

The Role Of Credibility In The Relation Between Management Forecasts And Analyst Forecasts In Japan, Hiroyuki Aman, Wendy Beekes, Millicent M. Chang, Marvin Wee

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We explore the relation between management forecasts and analyst forecasts to determine whether a moderating role exists for credibility. Two types of credibility are examined: management credibility and analyst credibility. Management credibility is evaluated by management's forecasting ability (based upon prior forecast outcomes) and the firm's underlying Corporate Governance (CG) structure. Analyst credibility is assessed by their forecasting ability only, based upon prior forecast outcomes. Two questions are addressed by this study: (1) does management credibility moderate the relation between management's initial forecasts and initial analyst forecasts? and, (2) is the relation between analyst forecasts and subsequent management forecast revisions …

Financial Contagion And Economic Development: An Epidemiological Approach, Alberto Bucci, Davide La Torre, Danilo Liuzzi, Simone Marsiglio

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We develop an epidemiological approach to analyze how financial contagion may affect and be affected by economic activity. We show that, according to specific parameter values, the economy may converge either to a non-speculative or to a speculative equilibrium: in the former situation the level of per capita income is maximal, while in the latter it is reduced by financial contagion. The presence of economic and financial feedback effects may also give rise to macroeconomic fluctuations during the transitional path, clearly showing that such economic and financial links are an important driver of the short run macroeconomic performance. By extending …

The Changing Importance Of Vacations: Proposing A Theoretical Explanation For The Changing Contribution Of Vacations To People's Quality Of Life, Melanie J. Randle, Ye Zhang, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Vacations are assumed to be important to everyone because they improve quality of life through personal growth, self-fulfilment (McCabe & Johnson, 2013), improved mental health (Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004) and physical health (Chen & Petrick, 2013), leading to higher work performance (De Bloom, Geurts, & Kompier, 2013) and greater leisure life satisfaction (Neal, Sirgy, & Uysal, 1999). Vacations also benefit vulnerable groups, such as people with health issues and disabilities, and low-income families (Gump and Matthews, 2000, McCabe and Johnson, 2013, Pritchard et al., 2011). Contradicting the assumption that vacations are important to everyone, some empirical evidence suggests people differ …

Mixed Views In The Academy: Academic And Student Perspectives About The Utility Of Developing Work-Ready Skills Through Wil, Lisa Mcmanus, Laura L. Rook

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Work-integrated Learning (WIL) can be a vehicle for the development of students' work-ready skills. This paper presents the views of undergraduate business students and academics about the role and perceived importance of work-ready skills in the business curriculum and the perceived role of WIL activities in enabling the development of work-ready skills. A total of 50 business students and 24 academics from a number of faculties across the university participated. While students and academics both agree that a combination of on and off campus WIL activities are most effective for developing work-ready skills, students and academics hold different views to …

Intrinsic Religiosity, Personality Traits, And Adolescent Risky Behaviors, Silvia Mendolia, Alfredo R. Paloyo, Ian Walker

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We investigate the relationship between self-reported importance of religion and risky behaviors in adolescence using data from a large and detailed longitudinal study of English teenagers. We use school and individual fixed effects, and treatment effects with inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment, controlling for a rich set of characteristics, including individual personality traits. Our results show that individuals with low religiosity are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors.

Incorporating The Concepts Of Sharing-In And Sharing-Out In Csr: Australian Consumers' Perspective, Anjum Amin-Chaudhry, Alan A. Pomering, Lester W. Johnson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is based on attending to concerns beyond a corporation's shareholders. This concern embraces the concepts of sharing and caring for others. Logically then, the literature on sharing might inform theory and practice around CSR initiatives. To date, however, theory around the theme of sharing is absent from extant CSR literature, and, presumably, it is omitted as a perspective on CSR practice. This paper addresses this gap by empirically investigating consumers' responses to different types of sharing involved in a range of CSR initiatives. We test the sharing theory to provide generalizable conclusions. Data was collected via …

Tiered Information Disclosure: An Empirical Analysis Of The Advance Peek Into The Michigan Index Of Consumer Sentiment, Weishao Wu, Wenchien Liu, Sandy Suardi, Yuanchen Chang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper studies market microstructure implications of informed high-frequency traders (HFTs) from two seconds of advance peek into the Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), provided by Thomson Reuters to its elite customers. Using individual stocks in the NASDAQ data set, we show how HFTs trade around ICS events. We find that liquidity demanders during two seconds of advance peek earn substantive profits, which are consistent with the notion that HFTs' informational advantages may increase adverse selection costs for other market participants. This evidence elucidates the debate on regulatory oversight and its role in circumventing the potentially adverse effects from …

The New Australian System Of Corporate Governance: Board Governance And Company Performance In A Changing Corporate Governance Environment, Mark Rix

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the changing duties and responsibilities of boards and directors of Australian public companies. The corporate governance environment in Australia is currently going through a period of significant transformation raising the question of whether in this fluid and shifting environment company and board performance can still be assessed largely on the basis of profit, share price and dividends generated over the short term. These almost certainly will continue for some time to be the key metrics of company and board performance and it is hard to see how it could be otherwise. Nevertheless, a growing chorus of influential …

Asean Income Gap And The Optimal Exchange Rate Regime, Ngoc Hong Nguyen, Charles Harvie, Sandy Suardi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This article investigates the optimal exchange rate regime in a group of ASEAN countries, which minimizes the adverse effects of foreign demand shocks on real output, the real exchange rate, price level and between country income gap. Using a panel structural vector autoregressive model for small open economies, we show that the extent by which foreign demand shocks influences the between-country income gap depends on the exchange rate regime and the transmission channels through output, the price level and the real exchange rate. Our results show that a fixed exchange rate is better in insulating output and real exchange rates …

Trade Credit Use And Bank Loan Access: An Agency Theory Perspective, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this study we find that firms' use of trade credit significantly facilitates their access to bank loans in the future, suggesting a complementary relationship. Such a relationship is more profound for firms with higher perceived agency costs, i.e., firms with opaque corporate information, firms located in regions with less developed external institutions, and firms at an early stage of existence. Firms switch from trade credit to bank loans as the main source of debt financing as they age. However, the process is slower for firms with a greater level of corporate information opacity and firms located in regions with …

Financial Liberalisation, Bank Ownership Type And Performance In A Transition Economy: The Case Of Vietnam, Phuong Le, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi, James Borthwick

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Employing a sample of Vietnamese banks covering the period 2005 to 2015, this study investigates the influence of partial, and selective, financial liberalisation on bank efficiency by ownership type in a transition economy. The key findings are: (1) state-owned banks outperformed all other ownership types; (2) selective privatisation of state-owned banks exerted a positive influence on bank efficiency; (3) rural-to-urban private bank transformation decreased banking system efficiency; (4) minority foreign ownership exerted an insignificant impact on bank efficiency; (5) business group ownership improved the provision of intermediation services but deteriorated overall bank operating efficiency. Overall, the findings suggest that the …

Emissions Pricing Policies And Business Cycles: Fixed Vs. Variable Tax Regimes, Fariba Ramezani, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As by-products, emissions follow economic fluctuations. Ignoring this fact in environmental policies can lead to unexpected emissions fluctuations and an increase in intervention costs. Using a real business cycle model, we compare two policies: a fixed tax policy where the price is constant over time and a variable tax regime where the tax rate is set at the beginning of each period. We find that while both programs result in lower emissions, a variable tax regime is preferable since first, it can ensure that the maximum welfare is always achieved, and second, it is more effective in stabilising emissions.

An Investigation In The Sustainable Economic Practices Of Ecovillages, Oriana Price, Mary Johnsson, Emma Heffernan, Belinda Gibbons

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Ecovillages represent an alternative yet innovative form of residential living that prioritises community and sustainability. However, prior worldwide research suggests that 90% of ecovillages fail to sustain as living communities. This 2019 report represents Phase 2 of a small project investigating practices within one Australian ecovillage. The original focus was on what kinds of economic practices can help to sustain ecovillage viability. The findings that emerged suggest that an integrated learning approach that considers sociocultural, ecological and economic factors might develop a more durable approach to practising and ‘living’ sustainability.

Gastronomic Trails As Service Ecosystems, Namita Roy, Ulrike Gretzel, Gordon R. Waitt, Venkata K. Yanamandram

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Gastronomic trails are a growing phenomenon in the context of gastronomic tourism. Gastronomic trails provide guidance for exploring foodscapes (Hall and Gössling 2016) or culinary terroirs (Croce and Perri 2010), and are therefore considered effective means for enhancing tourist experiences. With the growth in understandings of gastronomic tourism, trails have also been used as an important tourism development tool (Plummer et al. 2005; Bruwer 2003; Boyne et al. 2002). These trails are typically themed around different types of food or beverages. Examples of such trails include 'Craft Beer Trails', 'Wine Trails', 'Chocolate Routes', or 'Cheese Trails'.

How And When Does The Brand Orientation-Market Orientation Nexus Matter?, Wai Jin (Thomas) Lee, Aron O'Cass, Phyra Sok

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: While extant research highlights the importance of both market orientation and brand orientation in brand success, it is still unclear how they actually combine to contribute to brand performance. Grounded in the theoretical perspectives of the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities, this study unpacks how, and when, brand orientation and market orientation link systematically to influence brand performance. Design/methodology/approach: In testing the research hypotheses involving mediation and moderation effects, survey data were gathered from a sample of business firms in the manufacturing sector and analyzed through regression analysis. Findings: The results suggest brand orientation manifests through market orientation to …

'Everyone Knows Grandma'. Pathways To Gambling Venues In Regional Australia, Amy Bestman, Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie J. Randle, Hannah Pitt, Rebecca Cassidy, Mike Daube

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In regional Australia, families (including children), attend community venues that contain gambling products, such as electronic gambling machines (EGMs), for a range of non-gambling reasons. However, there is a gap in research that seeks to understand how these venues may become embedded into family social practices. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and cultural capital, this paper aimed to explore factors that influence family decisions to attend venues and perceptions of risk associated with children's exposure to gambling products. Face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 parents who attended community gambling venues with their children, in New South Wales, Australia. …

State Ownership And Earnings Management In Highly-Valued Firms: Evidence From China, Leye Li, Gary S. Monroe, Jing Wang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We examine how state ownership affects Chinese firms’ earning management during a period of high valuation. Based on a sample of 19,107 firm-year observations with sufficient data on the China Securities Markets and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database over the period from 2003 to 2017, we find the magnitude of accruals management first increases for up to three years of high valuation, and then reduces after the fourth year. This finding is consistent with the view that the difficulty of consistently using accruals to manage earnings upwards increases over time because of the reversing nature of accruals. We find that managers …

The Quantification Of Migrant Labour From The Pacific: Gender And The F…..G Plaza, Jing Wang, Keith Hooper, James Prescott, Nadesa Goundar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Prescott and Hooper (2009) drew attention in their paper to the change for Pasifika workers having to adapt from a “commons” driven society to an “anti-commons” society. They showed how migrants coming from a task orientated society had to adapt very quickly to what the French writer Foucault (1977a) identified as a disciplinary regime characterised by measurement, and surveillance from invisible managers. Compare this with, for example, the task of fishing among an island community. Fishing depends on nature. The tides, currents, winds and weather must all be right there being no fixed time of starting.

Ability, Motivation And Opportunity: Managerial Coaching In Practice, Grace Mccarthy, Julia Ahrens

Sydney Business School - Papers

The practice of managerial coaching is increasing globally, although there is still comparatively little research into it. Using an online survey, we examined the practice of managerial coaching in Australian organisations through Appelbaum et al.'s Ability Motivation Opportunity framework. A thematic analysis of 580 responses revealed that managers regularly coached their own employees and were motivated by the outcomes they achieved through coaching. Emerging strongly from this research was the delight managers took in seeing their employees transform, as well as improved relationships and the (re‐)building of trust. Furthermore, coaching resulted in employees becoming more innovative and ready for change. …

Duration Of Equity Overvaluation And Managers' Choice To Use Aggressive Underlying Earnings Disclosure And Accrual-Based Earnings Management: Australian Evidence, Yiru Yang, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines whether equity overvaluation duration influences managers' choice of different earnings management mechanisms and how corporate governance and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's underlying earnings disclosure guidelines influence managers' choices. The study samples Australian Securities Exchange 200 firms from 2009 to 2016. Findings show that on average, firms more likely engage in accrual-based earnings management in the early overvaluation stage. In later stages, firms more likely disclose underlying earnings aggressively to sustain overvaluation. Additionally, firms with a high proportion of independent directors on the board prefer to disclose underlying earnings aggressively to sustain the equity overvaluation; firms …

Decentralization And Firm Investment: Evidence From China, Xiaofei Pan, Yiping Wu, Huihang Wu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Taking advantage of decentralization reform that enlarges the authority of county government in China, we construct a quasi-experiment. Using a large sample of Chinese firms, we show that after the implementation of decentralization reform, firms located in decentralized counties experienced a significant increase in investment expenditure compared with other firms. We also find that after the decentralization reform, state owned enterprises (SOEs) experienced greater increase in investment expenditure on average compared with non-SOEs, and that, within non-SOEs, collective firms have an even larger increase in investments, followed by foreign firms and private firms. Further analysis shows that the influence of …

Rights, Respect And Responsibilities Online - Reflections And Efficacy, Michelle J. Eady, Michael L. Jones, Irit Alony, Yoke Berry

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Demands for moral development are increasing in business and professional training. Mixed results of diversity training programs in the higher education sector suggest that innovative approaches are required for preparing students to become morally upright leaders and teachers. This research looks at the implementation of an online interactive tutorial that focuses on students working and learning together with others from a variety of diverse backgrounds. The study comprises a three-year investigation on the attitudes and understandings of students prior to a group work assessment task, and after completing the online tutorial. First year primary education students (n=594) completed pre- and …

Contemporary Trends In Professional Doctorates, Michael L. Jones

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Undertaking a PhD is commonly viewed as an apprenticeship, where the student learns the trade of becoming an academic. However, the doctoral degree did not start off with that intention, and it may not continue this way into the future. The initial design of the PhD was a professional degree which gave students the licence to teach. Research was not a focus of the degree until the 1800s. Recently, the purpose of the doctorate has been under examination. This re-examination has come about for a number of reasons: (1) Employment options within academe are no longer as abundant or secure …

Women's Gambling Behaviour, Product Preferences, And Perceptions Of Product Harm: Differences By Age And Gambling Risk Status, Simone Mccarthy, Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie J. Randle, Amy Bestman, Hannah Pitt, Sean Cowlishaw, Mike Daube

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Background: Women's participation in, and harm from gambling, is steadily increasing. There has been very limited research to investigate how gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of gambling harm may vary across subgroups of women.

Methods: This study surveyed a convenience sample of 509 women from Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. Women were asked a range of questions about their socio-demographic characteristics and gambling behaviour. Focusing on four gambling products in Australia-casino gambling, electronic gambling machines (EGMs), horse betting, and sports betting-women were asked about their frequency of participation, their product preferences, and perceptions of product harms. The sample …