Business Commons^™

Disclosure Incentives, Mandatory Standards And Firm Communication In The Ifrs Adoption Setting, Marvin Wee, Ann Tarca, Millicent M. Chang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We investigate the content, timing and relevance of firms' narrative disclosure about the effects of IFRS adoption in annual statutory financial statements and firm announcements to the stock exchange for 150 large listed Australian firms in the three-year period surrounding adoption (which occurred from 1 January 2005). We observe communication about changes in financial reports, even when the change relates to accounting rather than economic events. We record more disclosure by firms experiencing an adverse change in earnings, consistent with them being sensitive to signals about future earnings. When economic performance is stronger, firms provide less discussion of the accounting …

Choice Overload During Travel Decision Making For Self Vs. Other, Nguyen T. Thai, Ulku Yuksel

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

It has been a common belief that major accomplishments of modern societies and developed economies are evidenced through providing more choices and varieties for consumers. Economists and conventional wisdom believe that having more choices maximises utility (Broniarczyk, 2008); thus, people should prefer to have as many options as possible to make informed decisions. In psychology and marketing literature, having more choices is argued to help increase well-being, satisfy diverse consumer needs (Dworkin, 1982), increase purchase and consumption (Koelemeijer & Oppewal, 1999), reduce search costs (Hutchinson, 2005), and enhance personal freedom of choice (Schwartz, 2004). In contrast, recent studies has reported …

Implications Of Ownership Identity And Insider's Supremacy On The Economic Performance Of The Listed Companies, Qaiser Rafique Yasser, Abdullah Al Mamun

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We adopt a multi-theoretic approach to investigate a previously unexplored phenomenon in extant literature, namely the differential impact of ownership identity and director dominate shareholding on the performance of emerging market firms. The main research question addressed is, whether the impact of this relationship is conditional on the identity of the block investor. First, the relationship between overall block ownership and firm performance is tested by employing multiple regressions on 500 firm-year observations for the period from 2007 to 2011. Then, the block ownership is classified as the state, individuals, insiders, financial institutions, corporate and foreign investors and the influence …

Ceo Duality Structure And Firm Performance In Pakistan, Qaiser Rafique Yasser, Abdullah Al Mamun, Abdul Suriya

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This article examines the impact of CEO duality on firm performance; which attracted much attention, especially in emerging economies, yet yielded several inconsistent empirical results. CEO duality exists when the offices of the CEO and Chairman are retained by the same person. This study examines the relationship between CEO duality and the performance of Pakistani public listed companies by using a sample of five years, from 2007 to 2011. This study tested the hypotheses with data obtained from the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 indexed firms, and employed the agency and stewardship theory perspectives. However, our empirical results do not show …

The Impact Of Demographic Factors On Tax Compliance Attitude And Behavior In Malaysia, Abdullah Al Mamun, Harry Entebang, Shazali Abu Mansor, Qaiser Rafique Yasser, Thurai Murugan Nathan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This research explored the existence of differences in the impact of demographic factors on tax compliance attitude and behavior in Johor Bahru, Johor. The sample for the preliminary study is small which 92 respondents only and thus the optimum of the results is limited. The result of this investigation shows the ignorance of taw law among taxpayers in Johor Bahru, Johor may be a significant concern to the Government. Majority of the respondents agree that cash received for work dine is taxable but view bartering goods with a friend and not reporting it, though illegal, on their tax return as …

Leadership Styles And Generational Effects: Examples Of Us Companies In Vietnam, Anne Cox, Zeenobiyah Hannif, Chris Rowley

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Leadership styles are an important issue for a range of areas, including business and management. One aspect of this is the influence of the age of people on their receptivity to leadership styles. Yet, research on this area using Asian contexts is limited. Consequently, our research looks at the generational effect in the reception of leadership styles - performance-oriented and participative. In particular, we examine the different value orientations of age cohorts and their reception to different leadership styles in Vietnam. First, we outline three strands of literature, namely culture and leadership, generation as a subculture and Vietnam as a …

The Science Of Attracting Foster Carers, Melanie Randle, Leonie Miller, Sara Dolnicar, Joseph Ciarrochi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Across the world the number of children needing a foster home is increasing; however, the number of individuals willing to foster a child is decreasing. It is therefore critical to gain insight into the barriers preventing people from fostering a child. Using data from a 2009 survey of 756 Australians, combinations of barriers are investigated by conducting a posteriori segmentation analysis within the market of potential foster carers. Four segments are identified and profiled to determined significant differences in terms of psychological and socio-demographic characteristics. Findings, including the fact that almost one-third of respondents indicated that they had not considered …

Stakeholders' Power, Corporate Characteristics, And Social And Environmental Disclosure: Evidence From China, Yingjun Lu, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the influences of stakeholders' power and corporate characteristics on social and environmental disclosure practices of socially responsible Chinese listed firms identified by a social responsibility ranking list. A stakeholder-driven, three-dimensional social and environmental disclosure index including disclosure quantity, disclosure type quality and disclosure item quality, is constructed to assess sample firms' social and environmental disclosures in their two public reports: annual reports and corporate social responsibility reports. Findings indicate that corporate social and environmental disclosures have significant and positive associations with firm size, profitability, and industry classification. The roles of various powerful stakeholders in influencing corporate social …

National Electronic Health Records And The Digital Disruption Of Moral Orders, Karin Garrety, Ian Mcloughlin, Rob Wilson, Gregor Zelle, Mike Martin

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The digitalisation of patient health data to provide national electronic health record systems (NEHRS) is a major objective of many governments. Proponents claim that NEHRS will streamline care, reduce mistakes and cut costs. However, building these systems has proved highly problematic. Using recent developments in Australia as an example, we argue that a hitherto unexamined source of difficulty concerns the way NEHRS disrupt the moral orders governing the production, ownership, use of and responsibility for health records. Policies that pursue digitalisation as a self-evident 'solution' to problems in healthcare without due regard to these disruptions risk alienating key stakeholders. We …

Tourism Marketing Communications On A Chinese Social Media Platform, Jing Ge

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Social media have become important communicative platforms for tourism marketers but it is not clear if and how the communicative language of marketerto- consumer is different from consumer-to-consumer. Given the enormous growth of both tourism and social media in China, this paper focuses on patterns in language use by the Chinese tourism marketers on Weibo. Using systemic semiotic approach, it selects and investigates two corpora of communication on Weibo - tourism to consumer and consumer to consumer. This study expects to provide the firm understanding and categorize the patterns in the language used by Chinese social media marketers so that …

Do Smart Phones Bring Us Closer? A Family Life And Vacation Perspective, Heather Kennedy-Eden

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Relationships developed in families are crucial because these bonds play an integral part in learning how to function and interact in society. In the past, these bonds were strengthened by spending leisure time together as a family but now smart phone technology provides opportunities for individual entertainment, connecting on social media, and spending time physically together while being emotionally separated. This research looks at this issue from a systems theory perspective, conceptualizing families as open, self-regulating social systems with the smart phone being a technical system within the family system. The smart phone acts as a conduit between immediate family …

Saving In Cycles: How To Get People To Save More Money, Leona Tam, Utpal Dholakia

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Low personal savings rates are an important social issue in the United States. We propose and test one particular method to get people to save more money that is based on the cyclical time orientation. In contrast to conventional, popular methods that encourage individuals to ignore past mistakes, focus on the future and set goals to save money, our proposed method frames the savings task in cyclical terms, emphasizing the present. Across the studies, individuals using our proposed cyclical savings method provide an average of 74% higher savings estimates and save an average of 78% more money when compared to …

Can A Carbon Tax Be Effective Without A Grand Coalition?, Amnon Levy

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper analyzes an interaction between a carbon-tax collecting and investing coalition of rich countries, abstaining rich countries and poor countries. The non-coalition countries may suffer from loss of reputation and guilt and may overstate the emission-moderating effect of the carbon tax. As long as these three types of countries react to their counterparts' emissions, taxing carbon-dioxide emissions unilaterally does not necessarily reduce the global emissions. Nor does it necessarily moderate the emissions of the coalition.

A Psychological Profile Of Potential Youth Mentor Volunteers, Melanie Randle, Leonie Miller, Joseph Ciarrochi, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Mentoring programs rely on adult volunteers to offer disadvantaged children friendship, role modeling, and insight into the way others relate. However, with the increasing numbers of children requiring mentors, programs are finding it difficult to attract enough volunteers. This study investigates (a) community awareness of an Australian youth mentoring program, (b) the proportion of the population who would consider becoming a mentor in future, and (c) whether those who would consider it differ significantly in their psychological characteristics. While awareness of the program is low, consideration of mentoring is relatively high. Those who would consider volunteering for the program have …

The Effect Of Financial Status On Earnings Quality Of Chinese-Listed Firms, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This article investigates the relation between accounting-based earnings quality attributes and the financial status of Chinese companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2005 to 2007 by classifying them as either "healthy" or "bankrupt" firms. The authors find that accruals quality, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness are significantly different between healthy and bankrupt firms, but not earnings persistence. Additional analysis undertaken indicates that firm categories (healthy, financially distressed, and bankrupt) based on financial status does not indicate distinct differences in earnings quality attributes.

Dynamic Forecasts Of Financial Distress Of Australian Firms, Maria Kim, Graham Partington

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Dynamic forecasts of financial distress have received far less attention than static forecasts, particularly in Australia. This study, therefore, investigates dynamic probability forecasts for Australian firms. Novel features of the modelling are the use of time-varying variables in forecasts from a Cox model. Not only is this one of relatively few studies to apply dynamic variables in forecasting financial distress, but to the authors' knowledge it is the first to provide forecasts of survival probabilities using the Cox model with time-varying variables. Forecast accuracy is evaluated using receiver operating characteristics curves and the Brier Score. It was found that the …

In War As Well As In Peace: From The Displacement Effect To Incrementalism In Public Expenditures, Giuseppe Eusepi, Edgar Wilson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The paper will study the trend in public expenditure starting from the Peacock and Wiseman (1961)'s contribution known as displacement effect. In our view, the notion of displacement effect is important not for its capability to capture essentials in the mechanisms governing taxing and spending areas in public economy, but rather for what it does not explain: incrementalism in public expenditure. According to Peacock and Wiseman, wars allow governments to drastically increase expenditure without constraining government to go back to the pre-war levels once the war is over. Our main point is that the unbridled increase in public expenditure during …

Organizational Change Within Charities: Improved Performance Via Introduction Of Market Orientation And Other Strategic Orientations, Paul Chad

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Market orientation is recognised as the key strategic orientation enabling for-profit organizations to gain improved performance. Adopting such an orientation can also aid nonprofit charities facing pressure to become more businesslike due to increasing competition in the current global environment. Knowledge regarding exactly how charities can change is however highly under-researched. Based upon examination of multiple case studies of charities that underwent organisational change to improve performance, the change management process is analysed using a discourse transformation framework to identify how charity managers successfully introduced new strategic orientations dominated by a market orientation. A "checklist" is developed that offers nonprofit …

Do Venture Capitalists Play A Monitoring Role In An Emerging Market? Evidence From The Pay-Performance Relationship Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry Cao, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behaviour by examining their impact on CEO pay-performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of agency conflict. In particular, we find that venture capital (VC) monitoring is hampered in firms that experience severe controlling-minority agency problems caused by disproportionate ownership structures. We provide further evidence that VC is more likely to exert close monitoring in firms that have greater managerial agency conflict, and thus require more direct monitoring. However, controlling-minority agency problems have a greater impact on …

Convergence In Sovereign Debt Ratios Across Heavily Indebted Eu Countries: Evidence From Club Convergence, N Apergis, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We study the convergence of sovereign debt accumulation in five European Monetary Union (EMU) countries using quarterly data from June 2009 to June 2013, with a focus on debt ratio convergence following the 2009 sovereign debt crisis and the adoption of fiscal consolidation programmes. We test the Phillips and Sul (2007) club convergence hypothesis. We find the evidence of a lack of debt convergence for Greece and Portugal. Our results support the view that there is not a uniform austerity prescription for all, especially, without emphasizing friendly growth policies, which makes these countries more prone to investors' sentiments.

A Critical Reflection On The Role Of Stakeholders In Sustainable Tourism Development In Least-Developed Countries, Sotear Ellis, Lynnaire Sheridan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

While investigating the implementation of community-based tourism in least-developed countries (LDCs), the critical role of stakeholders in sustainable tourism development became apparent. External stakeholders, in particular, develop theory models and define policy for translation into the field yet there is little critical consideration of their role and influence. This article encapsulates insights achieved by the researchers at the interface of theory and practice in a challenging LDC setting.

Does A Gender Disparity Exist In Academic Rank? Evidence From An Australian University, Arusha Cooray, Reetu Verma, Lynne Wright

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Employing a unique administrative data set on academics from the University of Wollongong (UOW), we investigate if women are under-represented in academic rank, taking into account information on personal characteristics, job characteristics, education and productivity. The results suggest that males have a significant advantage in rank attainment. The possession of a PhD, the number of years of experience and the number of journal articles, books, book chapters, competitive grants and ERA A* ranked articles appear to be important for academic rank attainment. A Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition test indicates that both supply side and demand side factors play a role; however, there …

University Teaching With A Disability: Student Learnings Beyond The Curriculum, Lynnaire Sheridan, Suzanne Kotevski

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This research examines the learning experience of university students who were tutored by a teacher with quadriplegia mixed type cerebral palsy. It was inspired by Pritchard's [2010. "Disabled People as Culturally Relevant Teachers." Journal of Social Inclusion 1 (1): 43-51] argument that the presence of people with a disability in the classroom is important as these teachers deliver both content and generate 'other' learnings. This study examines what was different about the learning experience and what additional learnings may have occurred because of the students' interaction with a tutor with a disability. It begins to explore what educational scaffolding may …

Peer-Pressure And Rational Underage Binge-Drinking, Amnon Levy

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper provides a utility-based definition of binge-drinking and examines the compatibility of this phenomenon with a rational decision making. Prohibition of young people's consumption of alcohol is frequently violated by binge-drinking in groups. The analysis considers the roles of peer-pressure, full price of alcohol and crowding in underage group-drinking sessions and identifies the conditions for binge-drinking by expected utility maximizing members. Rational binge-drinking occurs when the impact of the peer-pressure on the individual member's utility exceeds the loss of utility from the forgone spending on all other goods associated with the expected full marginal cost of consuming alcohol.

Challenging Behaviours, Co-Morbidities, Service Utilisation And Service Access Among Community-Dwelling Adults With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Multicentre Study, Grahame K. Simpson, Mark Sabaz, Maysaa Daher, Robert Gordon, Barbara Strettles

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Objective: To examine patterns, predictors and unmet needs of service utilisation and access to mental health and/or drug and alcohol services among community-dwelling adults with severe traumatic brain injury, and compare those who displayed challenging behaviours with those not displaying challenging behaviour. Design: Retrospective multicentre study.

Subjects: All active clients (n = 507) of the New South Wales (NSW) Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program (BIRP) community rehabilitation teams.

Methods: Clinician-rated data were collected on client challenging behaviours, mental health and functional status, service utilisation and unmet needs. Between-groups analyses (challenging behaviour versus no challenging behaviours) were conducted to examine patterns of …

An Evaluation Of The World's Major Airlines' Technical And Environmental Performance, Amir Arjomandi, Juergen Seufert

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this empirical study, we apply bootstrapped data envelopment analysis (DEA) models under variable returns to scale to examine both the environmental and technical efficiencies of airlines. Using the regional classification of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), we chose 48 of the world's major full-service and low-cost carriers from six different regions, and then estimated their performance over the period 2007-2010. Our empirical results show that many of the most technically efficient airlines are from China and North Asia, whilst many of the best environmental performers are from Europe. We also found that although the number of environmentally oriented …

Ownership Control And Debt Maturity Structure: Evidence From China, Wenjuan Ruan, Grant Cullen, Shiguang Ma, Erwei Xiang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The authors examine the debt maturity structure of Chinese listed companies during the period when bond market was under-developed and the majority of commercial banks were owned by the state. The purpose of this paper is to answer why and how the different ownership control types impact the firms' preference and accessibility to either long- or short-term debts.

Design/methodology/approach - The univariate analysis was used to test the differences of debt maturity choices for firms grouped by ownership control types, profitability and institutional development. Then, logit regression and ordinary least squares regression were applied to examine the determinants …

A Comparison Of Group-Based Research Methods, Melanie Randle, Hugh Mackay, Dorothy Dudley

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In the modern era, group-based methods have come to largely dominate qualitative research, particularly in the commercial arena of market research. The most commonly used method is the "focus group" technique, which involves a group of strangers being directed to discuss a pre-determined set of topics. In reality, in many parts of the world, including Australia where this study was conducted, focus groups are often employed as the default technique without systematically questioning the appropriateness of methodological characteristics or the impact they have on the resultant data. This empirical study compares two different group-based methods - the "focus group" approach …

Theories To Define And Understand Family Firms, Mary Barrett

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

My earlier chapter in this volume on the four phases of learning in family firms relies on some important theories about the nature of family firms and how they differ from non-family firms. This chapter explains them briefly.

Activity Theory: Who Is Doing What, Why And How, Helen Hasan, Alanah Kazlauskas

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In simple terms, Activity Theory is all about 'who is doing what, why and how'. However, things are rarely that simple. Sometimes referred to as the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Activity Theory is grounded in the work of the Russian psychologist Vygotsky and his students, in particular, Leontiev, in the 1920s. Activity Theory provides a lens with which to tease out and to better understand human activity.