Business Commons^™

Transforming Business Using Digital Innovations: The Application Of Ai, Blockchain, Cloud And Data Analytics, Shahriar Akter, Katina Michael, Muhammad Rajib Uddin, Grace Mccarthy, Mahfuzur Rahman

Sydney Business School - Papers

This study explores digital business transformation through the lens of four emerging technology fields: artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud and data analytics (i.e., ABCD). Specifically, the study investigates the operations and value propositions of these distinct but increasingly converging technologies. Due to the dynamic nature of innovation, the potential of this ABCD hybridization, integration, recombination and convergence has yet to be considered. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the findings of the study show wide-reaching and diverse applications among a variety of vertical sectors, presenting exploratory research avenues for future investigation. The study also highlights the practical implications of these new technologies.

Lean Six Sigma And The Australian Business Excellence Framework: An Exploratory Case Within Local Government, Oriana Price, Matthew P. Pepper, Matthew Stewart

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a contextualized local government case study of the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in conjunction with the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) to highlight the importance of a good strategic fit between LSS and organizational objectives before implementation.

Design/methodology/approach A local government council is used in a case study-based approach. Organizational artefacts and documents were used for data collection in conjunction with interviews from senior executives within the organization.

Findings Results indicate that when used in conjunction with the ABEF, LSS provides focus on organizational learning practices embedded within the …

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 …

The Introduction Of Well-Being Into The Curriculum Of An Executive Mba Program: The Sydney Business School As A Reflective Case Study, Lee Styger, Lauren P. Richardson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is hardly an established university anywhere in the world that does not have, or aspire to have, an MBA program. Few universities, however, have dedicated Executive MBA (EMBA) programs and of those universities that do, there is much confusion regarding what constitutes an EMBA. For example, some university providers suggest that an EMBA is simply an extension of the full-time MBA program that is offered to part-time students. Other university providers claim that an EMBA is a stand-alone and differentiated program, consisting of a bespoke curriculum, designed for the mature executive.

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.

Enacting Spiritual Leadership In Business Through Ego-Transcendence, Lauren Klaus, Mario Fernando

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Ethical dilemmas in organisations can arise due to situational circumstances, the decision making process and the conditions in which they are made. Academic literature offers some insights into analysing ethical decision making; these include guidelines on how to deal with ethical dilemmas (e.g. Abramson, 1985; Loewenberg and Dolgoff, 1996; Reamer, 1990). Recently, several prominent corporate scandals have been reported in the media. These include News International Limited, Barclays and BP. According to business ethics scholars, one of the causes for the escalating incidents of corporate scandals is triggered by the weaknesses in the leaders' decision making process. For example, Giacalone …

(Dis)Engaging With Sustainability: Evidence From An Australian Business Faculty, Maria Cadiz Dyball, Andy Wang, Sue Wright

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how the lack of staff engagement with a university's strategy on sustainability could be an enabling lever for organisational change. It examines the attitudes and views of employees of a business faculty at an Australian metropolitan university as it attempts to adopt a holistic approach to sustainability. Design/methodology/approach - The paper opted for a case study using data from an on-line survey, semi-directed interviews with key management personnel and archival material. Responses were analysed using Piderit's (2000) notion of ambivalence. Findings - The paper provides empirical insights into why staff …

Dimensions Driving Business Student Satisfaction In Higher Education, Mazirah Yusoff, Fraser Mcleay, Helen Woodruffe-Burton

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This study aims to identify the dimensions of business student satisfaction in the Malaysian private higher educational environment and evaluate the infuence that demographic factors have on satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 1,200 undergraduate business students at four private higher educational (PHE) institutions in Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the underlying dimensions that drive student satisfaction. ANOVA and t-tests were conducted to evaluate the influence that demographic factors have on the results.

Findings - Factor analysis resulted in the adoption of a 12-factor solution from an original set of …

Tracking The Environmental Footprint Of Business Activities, Corina Ionescu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In Australia, large organisations are required to report their direct, Scope 1, and indirect, Scope 2, Green-House Gas (GHG) emissions annually through the National Government Emissions Reporting Scheme (NGERS). These organisations must therefore find the resources and means to measure these aspects of their Environmental Footprint. SMEs are not yet required to report to NGERS and most do not have the knowledge and resources to do it. Many, however, would like to know more about their environmental impact and how they can reduce it in simple, cost-effective ways.

Macintyrean Virtue Ethics In Business: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Mario Fernando, Geoff Moore

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper seeks to establish whether the categories of MacIntyrean virtue ethics as applied to business organizations are meaningful in a non-western business context. It does so by building on research reported in Moore (Organ Stud, 33(3): 363-387, 2012) in which the application of virtue ethics to business organizations was investigated empirically in the UK, based on a conceptual framework drawn from MacIntyre's work (After Virtue 2007). Comparing these results with an equivalent study in Sri Lanka, the paper finds that the categories are meaningful but that there are both similarities to and considerable differences in the content of these …

Building Academic Capability To Facilitate And Support The Transition Of First Year Social Inclusion Business Students, Michael Zanko, Jan Turbill, Bonnie Cord

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The first year in higher education has been of growing interest particularly in light of the Australian Federal Government's mandate to target students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. This paper reports on one faculty's Social Inclusion Project designed to help teachers support first year student transition into tertiary studies. This paper outlines an action learning project directed at building knowledge and skills around transition pedagogy for subject coordinators of core first year business subjects. The project was deliberately designed to develop academics' ability to confidently monitor students' progress through the use of both formative and summative assessment practices and to modify …

Disruptive Innovation In Health Care: Business Models, Moral Orders And Electronic Records, Karin Garrety, Ian Mcloughlin, Gregor Zelle

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is widespread consensus that current healthcare costs are unsustainable, and that efficiencies could be achieved by reorganising care and making greater use of information technology, in particular nationally available electronic health records. Such approaches have, however, been difficult to implement, partly because incentives for uptake are weak. In this article we argue that the difficulties go deeper than calculations of costs and benefits, and include disruptions to the complex moral orders that surround the production and exchange of health information. Using the introduction of national electronic health records in England and Australia as examples, we show how attempts to …

Awakening Giant: International Business In China Growth, Opportunities And Challenges, Ananda Wickramasinghe, Alberto Ordigoni

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper analyses China's growth through a developmental state framework, taking into account the positive role of the state in deliberately fostering a strategic industrial policy, with the aim of creating a process of rapid industrialisation and overcoming structural and technological constraints. It is argued that China growth has been achieved through a strong industrial policy implemented by state intervention in a way similar to other late-industrialised East Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In particular, there are three main features in Chinese development typical of a developmental state policy: the constant control by the …

The 4-L Framework Of Family Business Leadership, Mary Barrett

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The 4-L framework for learning family business leadership is a practical model based on empirical research into the learning experiences of second or later generation family business owners who attained the CEO role in the family firm. The strength of this framework is that it takes account of:

• The special characteristics of firms run primarily by blood-related members of a single family;
• The paradoxes family firm leaders have to manage in combining two conventionally unrelated systems: business and family.

Reorienting The Information Systems Function To Support Increasing Levels Of Business Service, Magno J. Queiroz, Tim Coltman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Business scholars and practitioners are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities that exist when service is added to traditional product offerings. However, the literature has not previously explored the question of how the IS function is responding to greater emphasis on service. In this paper, we employ a multi-case research design to investigate the role of the IS function in supporting increasing levels of service. Our study contributes to the literature by showing that differences in IS service orientation and collaborative capabilities affect the ability of firms to support service. The implications for IS and managerial practice are discussed by …

Creating Business Value Through Agile Project Management And Information Systems Development: The Perceived Impact Of Scrum, Karlheinz Kautz, Thomas H. Johansen, Andreas Uldahl

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Value creation through information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) is a major IS research topic. However there still exists an ambiguity and fuzziness of the 'IS business value' concept and a lack of clarity surrounding the value creation process. This also true for organizations that develop IS/IT and for development technologies like information systems development and project management methods that are applied in the production of IS/IT. The agile method Scrum is one such technology. In the research presented here we studied productivity, quality and employee satisfaction as supported by Scrum as value creating measures. Our positive assessment is …

Does The Interest Rate For Business Loans Respond Asymmetrically To Changes In The Cash Rate?, Abbas Valadkhani, Amir Arjomandi, Martin J. O'Brien

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article examines the dynamic relationship between the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA's) cash rate and the variable interest rate for lending to small businesses. The relationship is evaluated via an asymmetric GARCH model using monthly data spanning from August 1990 to October 2012. Our results show that a 1 percentage point increase in the cash rate results in an instantaneous 1.086 percentage point rise in the variable rate for small businesses, whereas an equivalent 1 percentage point cut only leads to a 0.862 percentage point fall with a delay of up to 2 months. This outcome has obvious implications …

Extending The Use Of Market Orientation: Transforming A Charity Into A Business, Paul A. Chad

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Charities play a crucial role within society but are facing growing competition. Adopting a market orientation assists for-profit organisations to improve performance and can potentially also assist charities. This paper examines the under-researched topic of how market orientation can be appropriately introduced into a charity, and the resultant effect upon performance. A charity that introduced market orientation is examined using a discourse transformation framework. Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews of employees identifies how management changed the organisation through use of a three-phase process of new managerialism, professionalism and embedding. Few if any papers have previously examined how management of a …

Systemic Power, Disciplinary Agency, And Developer-Business Client Relations, Bruce Rowlands, Karlheinz Kautz

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper presents Hardy's multi-dimensional model of power and illustrates its application to the field of IS. Findings from a case study of developer-business client power relations within a large financial institution are presented. Our findings indicate that from the developers' perspective, the client exercised near complete control, with developers unwittingly playing a cooperative but submissive role. Our study makes two principal contributions. First, we combine Hardy's (1996) multi-dimensional power framework and the principles of Pickering's (1995) version of disciplinary agency to propose why the developer was compliant in this scenario of power inequality. Second, we examine how a development …

The Influence Of National Culture On Business Students' Career Attitudes - An Analysis Of Eight Countries | Der Einfluss Nationaler Kulturen Auf Die Karriere-Einstellungen Von Wirtschaftsstudenten - Eine Analyse Aus Acht Landern, Marjaana Gunkel, Christopher Schlagel, Ian M. Langella, Joy V. Peluchette, Elena Reshetnyak

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Despite the fact that career attitudes and their influence on career outcomes is widely researched in the field of occupations and careers, little is known about the influence of cultural norms and values on career attitudes. We propose that national cultural dimensions influence students' career planning, career adaptability, career optimism, and career-related knowledge. We test these relations using an eight country sample with more than 1,800 students. The results show that national culture has significant effect on all four career attitudes and in particular on career planning and career optimism. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and provide future research …

Repositioning The Business Of Sustainable Manufacturing, Lee Styger

Sydney Business School - Papers

The current contextual reference of sustainable manufacturing has typically been influenced by contemporary and academic literature to a point where a myopic view could be said to exist, that places the concept of sustainability outside that of commercial operating principles. Furthermore, recent decisions concerning supply integration and commissioning are typically being based around issues such as short term risk mitigation, and early steps towards developing protocols focused on corporate social responsibility introduce further pressure into businesses, that could lead to a significant hiatus in operating efficiency. Recent research has indicated that in many cases, supply networks are fragmented and lack …

An Identification Of The Current Constraints Of Knowledge Business Modelling As A Strategic Decision Making Tool, Lee Styger

Sydney Business School - Papers

Business models are widely used and it might be argued, have an important role to play in assisting users to develop, plan and analyse their organisations better. Typically, many business models are however poorly understood and executed by their users. This often leads to inappropriate decision making and the wrong strategic direction being implemented. There are complex and interrelated factors for the poor execution of business modelling, however, some of the key influencing factors include, lack of training, a disassociation of the graphical representation from the narrative, and the lack of formal rules in the use of the business models. …

You Never Know What Question You Are Going To Answer: Creating Effective Tension For Effective Learning Using Business Case Studies, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara, Ananda Wickramasinghe

Sydney Business School - Papers

Case studies in business management have been used as an effective approach and tool for enhancing students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills by providing opportunities for student to apply appropriate theories, concepts and models for real world issues faced by organisations. Despite the popularity of the case study approach in business and management education, it is self evident that the effective use of case studies to achieve above mentioned benefits is challenging and problematic mainly because case studies are misused and abused in different ways, including just adopting a popular method, just asking students to read and answer the questions, …

Ideas Are Cheap, It's A Coach That Business Really Needs, Gordon B. Spence, Padraig B. O'Sullivan

Sydney Business School - Papers

"We want to be innovative" is a catch cry of most Australian organisations. Little wonder. Australian companies are among the least proficient innovators in the OECD and seem to fail at creating the conditions needed for innovation to flourish.

Banking Records, Business And Networks In Colonial Sydney, 1817-24, Leanne Johns, Simon Ville

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Examining accounting transactions between depositors in the first accounts ledger of the Bank of New South Wales contributes to our knowledge of early Australian colonial businesspeople and their business activities. A social network analysis framework is applied to the transactions to disclose business networks and prominent individuals in the networks. The analysis seeks to ascertain the importance of these people to commerce and the significance of their networks in facilitating commercial relationships in a business environment fraught with uncertainty. The results illustrate the importance of networks to colonial trade and mercantile activity, especially for smaller scale businesspeople.aehr_348

Organization-Based Social Marketing: An Alternative Approach For Organizations Adopting Sustainable Business Practices, Mary Franks Papakosmas, Gary Noble, John Glynn

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article conceptualizes a new area for social marketing practitioners by focusing on individual behavior change that might occur within organizations. Organization-Based Social Marketing (OBSM) draws from organization change theory and internal marketing theory, while maintaining social marketing’s focus on beneficial behavior modification. The article argues that as such, OBSM represents a viable approach for organizations seeking to address the increasing demand for change strategies that promote proenvironmental behavior among their employees

Why Do Some Business Relationships Persist Despite Dissatisfaction? A Social Exchange Review, Venkata K. Yanamandram, Lesley White

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper reviews the relevant theories and marketing literature to develop a theoretical foundation for understanding the process and outcome of struggling business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships. Specifically, the paper provides a social exchange perspective of the factors that influence the likelihood of dissatisfied customers remaining in a present relationship by serving as deterrents to discontinuing the relationship. In doing so, the paper identifies the common features of, noteworthy differences among, and gaps in these theories. The paper also connects determinant factors to an outcome variable in order to explain what drives a customer in managing an unsatisfying business relationship, and …

The Invisible Hand Of Business Strategy Processes: Culture, Power And Politics In Stragegy In A Developing Country, Ananda Wickramasinghe

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper argues the reasons for limited compatibility of western strategic approaches with production relations in Sri Lankan tea plantation sector from findings of case study research. Reasons for this include the great diversity within the sector in relation to key issues including caste and class, ethnic groups and their political groupings, and in particular to modes of production which span traditional, capitalist and state capitalist models. Managers in developing countries struggle to assimilate such prescriptive perspectives and frameworks into their firms in response to external pressures. This suggests strategy research needs to be informed beyond generalised strategy and national …

Engaging Industry: Embedding Professional Learning In The Business Curriculum: Final Report 2011, Theo Theo Papadopoulos, Tracy Taylor, Eveline Fallshaw, Michael Zanko

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Professional learning has become a feature of business curricula in universities throughout Australia and around the world. 'Professional learning' is often used to denote educational programs that are explicitly linked to industry and professional bodies through industry placements, industry projects and teaching approaches that highlight contemporary industry issues. Professional learning encompasses the skills, qualities and attributes that are required by a profession and the processes through which those skills are learnt: that is, the methods of teaching - case studies, role plays, field trips, work placement and the like. Professional learning encourages deep learning in relation to the student's future …

Using Decision Tree In Business Collaborator, Chao Sun, Yu Zhang

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - Business collaboration is important for small and medium sized enterprises. The traditional method of choosing business collaborator is largely based on individual's experience and subjective criteria. However, the failure rate of business collaboration is still high for less experienced small firms. The purpose of this research is to find a different solution for managers in choosing business collaborators.

Methodology - Decision Tree is an advanced technology, which is used in different business and industry areas. It is adopted in this study to help the managers choosing business partners. This study using the data collected from 339 firms in …