Business Commons^™

Audit Firm Executives Under Pressure: A Discursive Analysis Of Legitimisation And Resistance To Reform, Michael Harber, Warren Maroun, Alan Duboisee De Ricquebourg

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The UK audit profession is facing a crisis of public trust and legitimacy following a series of high-profile audit failures. This resulted in the executive leadership of UK audit firms being summoned before a House of Commons Select Committee as part of its inquiry into ‘the future of audit’. During this inquiry the audit executives walked a tightrope, to both defend the social contract from an existential threat and attempt to influence policy reforms in their favour. This paper draws on ‘neutralisation techniques’ from deviance theory and the ‘grammar of legitimation’ from legitimacy theory to inform a discursive analysis of …

The Commercialist Identity Of Mid-Tier Firm Auditors: A Precarious Balancing Of Priorities, Michael Harber, Gizelle D. Willows

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: This paper aims to extend our understanding of how mid-tier firm auditors legitimise and institutionalise the logic of commercialism within their profession. This paper is responsive to research that shows how Big Four auditors have restructured the market and re-cast the relationality between the two logics to forge an identity that suits them commercially. Such research provides insight into auditor agency and intentionality, illustrating how auditors maintain and indeed grow their status and role within society.

Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews with audit executives situated in a strategically challenging regulatory context are interpreted through a theoretical framework developed from institutional …

Disputed Interpretations And Active Strategies Of Resistance During An Audit Regulatory Debate, Michael Harber, Grietjie Verhoef, Charl De Villiers

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: The paper aims to examine disputed interpretations of “key meanings” between the audit regulator and Big 4 firms during a highly contentious regulatory debate, showcasing their use of “strategies of resistance” to achieve their intended outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative analysis is performed of the discourse in a South African audit regulatory debate, set within the country's unique political and historical context. The analysis is informed by the theoretical construct of a “regulatory space” and an established typology of strategic responses to institutional pressures.

Findings: The study’s findings show how resistance to regulatory intentions from influential actors, notably the Big …

The Role Of Tradition For Food And Wine Producing Firms In Times Of An Unprecedented Crisis, Alessandro Bressan, Abel Duarte Alonso, Oanh Thi Kim Vu, Lan Thi Ha Do, Wil Martens

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, the study will investigate the importance of tradition for businesses operating during the COVID-19 crisis, notably, as a valuable proposition and strategy. Second, the study seeks to advance theoretical understanding, proposing two frameworks based upon emerging dimensions, the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach: An online survey gathered the views of 107 predominantly micro and small-scale owner-manager and family-owned firms involved in the food and wine sector. These participants are based in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries in the crisis.

Findings: Three fundamental dimensions emerge from the findings. The …

Audit Quality Implications Of Regulatory Change In South Africa, Harina Ndaba, Michael Harber, Warren Maroun

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: This paper explores how technical constructions of audit practice are influenced by mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR) regulations. The paper responds to calls for additional research on how external regulation influences audit quality and supplements the predominately quantitative research dealing specifically with firm rotation and its relevance for audit quality.

Design/methodology/approach: Data are collected from South Africa which is the latest jurisdiction to adopt MAFR (from 2017). Detailed interviews with 49 participants comprising 24 audit partners and 25 non-auditors are conducted to explore how MAFR can impact audit quality. For this purpose, audit quality is defined according …

Solar Energy Penetration And Volatility Transmission To Electricity Markets - An Australian Perspective, Abdul Rashid Abban, Mohammad Z. Hasan

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The contribution of solar energy to electricity production has intensified in recent years. In this study, we aim to measure the impact of higher solar penetration on electricity prices across regional and national electricity markets in Australia. Using daily data, we also estimate volatility transmission among the Australian electricity markets. Univariate and multivariate GARCH models are employed to achieve the objectives of the study. The results show that increasing solar penetration decreases electricity prices in the regional electricity markets of Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. However, the results further reveal that the joint negative effect of solar energy on electricity …

The Impact Of Psychological Contract Breaches Within East-West Buyer-Supplier Relationships, Russel P.J Kingshott, Piyush Sharma, Herbert Sima, David Wong

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The expanding role of Asian firms in global supply chains has meant that their Western counterparts need to be capable of transcending the East-West divide in their relational building efforts if they wish to successfully participate in these networks. This paper draws upon social exchange (SE) theory to integrate the exit, voice, loyalty, neglect (EVLN) typology with the psychological contract (PSYCON) literature, to examine how Australian buyer firms build and nurture relationships with their Chinese suppliers. Data from 327 Australian managers collected using an online self-administered questionnaire reveals the negative effects of PSYCON breaches towards their suppliers on neglect, voice …

National Culture And The Gender Diversity Of Corporate Boards, Catherine Whelan, Sarah A. Humphries

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Controlling for board size and the presence of a female chairperson, this study investigates the association between the gender diversity of corporate boards and the six Hofstede cultural dimensions. Results indicate that the percentage of women on boards is negatively related to Power Distance and positively related to Individualism and Long-term Orientation. The percentage of women on boards tends to be higher in cultures that tolerate inequalities in the distribution of power. There is also evidence that the percentage of women on boards is influenced by the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members and the long-term horizon …

Influence Of Personality Traits And Moral Values On Employee Well-Being, Resilience And Performance: A Cross-National Study, Vidya S. Athota, Pawan Budhwar, Ashish Malik

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Research examining the relationship at the interface of personality, values, moral foundations and its impact on employees’ subjective well-being, resilience, job performance and satisfaction is almost non-existent. This study addresses this Special Issue’s call focusing on the key antecedents and consequences of resilience on individual and/or organizational level outcomes. It does so by analyzing data from two different, through comparative cross-national studies in Australia and India. Employing a quantitative survey method, we collected data from 195 respondents in Australia and 257 respondents from India. Employing the core theory of moral foundations in association with its relationships with individual personality, values, …

Reality Checks For Career Women: An Interpretevist Paradigm, Mary Anthony, Werner Soontiens

Business Papers and Journal Articles

This paper reflects on the latent organisational process that leads tothe scarcity of women in senior positions. Utilising characteristics of legitimisation, institutionalisation and self-determination theories the paper observes how women manage upward mobility. Subsequently, it was important to investigate the mid-level cohorts, as there lies the critical question triggering the anomaly. Focusing on the public sector with an interest in gendered organisations, the study examines law enforcement. Conversely, the aim of this paper is to focus on why there is a continued dearth in the number of policewomen at top level positions in USA and Australia. A qualitative study with …

An Eeg Study On Emotional Intelligence And Advertising Message Effectiveness, Joseph Ciorciari, Jeffrey Pfeifer, John Gountas

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Some electroencephalography (EEG) studies have investigated emotional intelligence (EI), but none have examined the relationships between EI and commercial advertising messages and related consumer behaviors. This study combines brain (EEG) techniques with an EI psychometric to explore the brain responses associated with a range of advertisements. A group of 45 participants (23females, 22males) had their EEG recorded while watching a series of advertisements selected from various marketing categories such as community interests, celebrities, food/drink, and social issues. Participants were also categorized as high or low in emotional intelligence (n = 34). The EEG data analysis was centered on rating decision-making …

The Failure Of Historians To Engage With Recent Economic Thought: The Case Of Millmow, Gregory C. Moore

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The narrative that follows is a review essay of Alex Millmow’s A History of Australasian Economic Thought (2017). The chief finding is that Millmow fails to devote sufficient attention to the history of economic theory in the last decades of the twentieth century because of his preoccupation with the history of economic policy. This is demonstrated, in part, by considering the extent to which Millmow appraises the work of those prominent modern economists who are identified in an informal survey of ten respondents.

Managing Women's Post Retirement Career In Law Enforcement Organisations: Lessons From Developed Nations For Emerging Economies, Mary Anthony, Werner Soontiens

Business Papers and Journal Articles

This paper explores protean careers US and Australian policewomen seek post retirement. Two research questions address why policewomen seek a protean career after retirement from law enforcement. The study utilised a phenomenological approach involving semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 policewomen in middle and top management roles in the USA and Australia. Analysis of data involved coding for emergent themes based on the interpretivist research philosophy. Interview transcripts of 40 policewomen from these countries show that more than 90% of the women from the USA were aggressively seeking to develop protean careers while that was not the case in Australian law …

Environmental Advertising In China And The Usa: The Desire To Go Green, H De Burgh-Woodman

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Book Review

Environmental advertising in China and the USA: the desire to go green, by Xinghua Li, London and New York, NY, Routledge, 2016, 158 pp., £90.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-415-74413-3

To Punish First And Reward Second: Values Determine How Reward And Punishment Affect Risk-Taking Behavior, V Sagar Athota, P O'Connor, R Roberts

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The current study investigated whether manipulating participants’ pre-exposure to reward and punishment affects the extent to which sensation seeking and values predict risk-taking behavior. Participants (n = 195) were randomly allocated to one of two conditions, defined by the order at which they were rewarded or punished for risk-taking behavior. Risk-taking behavior was measured in both conditions using the Balloon Analogue Risk Test, however this was set-up such that participants in group 1 were rewarded for risk-taking behavior prior to being punished, whereas participants in group 2 were punished for risk-taking behavior prior to being rewarded. Participants also completed questionnaires …

Non-Financial Disclosure And Market-Based Firm Performance: The Initiation Of Financial Inclusion, S Bose, A Saha, H Khan, S Islam

Business Papers and Journal Articles

We examine the association between financial inclusion disclosure and firm performance in Bangladeshi banks from 2009 to 2014 in response to a regulatory directive on the engagement of banking firms in financial inclusion activities. We find a positive association between financial inclusion disclosure and banking firms’ subsequent performance, with this relationship moderated by market competition and government ownership. We also find evidence that firms’ engagement in financial inclusion activities increases their market share, with the disclosure of this information reducing the information asymmetry between managers and capital market participants. The broad implication of our research findings is that firms considering …

A Systematic Review Of Quality Of Student Experience In Higher Education, A Tan, B Muskat, A Zehrer

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and synthesize major streams of research on quality of student experience in higher education, in order to present an agenda for future research.

Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of high quality journals published during the period 2000 to 2014 in the areas of quality of student experience and higher education was performed.

Findings: Findings highlight current research trends on the quality of student experience in higher education. Results show five prevailing research streams: 1) exploration of learning experience; 2) exploration of student experience; 3) gender differences in assessment of higher education experience; …

Contagion Risk For Australian Authorised Deposit-Taking Institutions, Selim Akhter, Mohammad Zahidul Hasan

Business Papers and Journal Articles

This paper investigates the contagion risk for Australian-owned authorized deposit taking institutions (ADIs) spilling from the US and UK banks. We hypothesized that Australian ADIs are prone to extreme shocks experienced by its US and UK counterparts. We define four discrete events for the Australian banking sector in terms of the number of banks exceeding at a time an extreme value. The extreme value is defined as the 90^th percentile on the negative tail of the distribution of changes in the distance to default obtained through Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1974) formula. Then we fit a multinomial …

Understanding The Relationships Between Tourists' Emotional Experiences, Perceived Overall Image, Satisfaction, And Intention To Recommend, G Prayag, S Hosany, B Muskat, G Del Chiappa

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The purpose of this study is to empirically test an integrative model linking tourists’ emotional experiences, perceived overall image, satisfaction, and intention to recommend. The model was tested using data collected from domestic tourists visiting Sardinia, Italy. Results show that tourists’ emotional experiences act as antecedents of perceived overall image and satisfaction evaluations. In addition, overall image has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction and intention to recommend. The study expands current theorizations by examining the merits of emotions in tourist behavior models. From a practical perspective, the study offers important implications for destination marketers.

Macroeconomic Impact Of Remittances And The Dutch Disease In A Developing Country, Fazle Rabbi, Mamta B. Chowdhury, Mohammad Zahid Hasan

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The magnitude of the flow of remittances to a developing country like Bangladesh and their rate of growth has become a significant factor in its economy. The huge flow of remittances affects the production sector and employment structure, as well as the scale of external trade competitiveness of the economy as measured by the real exchange rate (RER). Movement of the RER from its equilibrium position is very important and is also crucial in identifying the factors most influencing this movement. Using Johansen cointegration and Vector Error Correction models, this study has found that the flow of remittances is appreciating …

Asymmetry And Persistence Of Energy Price Volatility, Mohammad Zahid Hasan, Selim Akhter, Fazle Rabbi

Business Papers and Journal Articles

This study estimates and compares the asymmetry and persistence of volatility of crude oil, natural gas and coal- three main sources of energy. This study also evaluates the effect of recent Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on the return and volatility of these energy prices. Threshold GARCH (TGARCH) and fractionally integrated GARCH (FIGARCH) model are employed to facilitate the study. The estimated results show that coal return volatility exhibits strong mean reversion whereas crude oil and natural gas return volatility endures shocks for relatively higher period. The estimated results also confirm that volatility of crude oil and natural gas increases after …

Accountants’ Truth: Knowledge And Ethics In The Financial World By Matthew Gill [Book Review], David Gilchrist

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Whenever there is commercial scandal the role of accounting and accountants in that scandal has been a constant source of interest to academics, the media and the community in general. It would seem that scandalous episodes, such as those involving Enron and HIH, carry an enduring fascination as well as a lesson for people in all walks of life. In response to such scandals, analysis is undertaken with a view to explanation, to punishment and to avoidance of repetition. Explanation and punishment are usually effected, however, avoidance of repetition is often less than successful. In “Accountants’ Truth”, Dr Matthew Gill …

Turning Blue Sky Into Solid Ground, David Gilchrist

Business Papers and Journal Articles

In this article, Professor David Gilchrist reviews recent developments in thinking around Not-for-profit regulation and highlights the growing consensus as to the elements of a sound national regulatory framework.

Defending Marshall’S 'Masterpiece': Ralph Souter’S Critique Of Robbins’ Essay, Anthony M. Endres, Mark Donoghue

Business Papers and Journal Articles

We examine Ralph W. Souter's defence, in the 1930s, of Marshall's Principles against Robbins' attempt to recast economics as a 'purely formal science of implications'. Souter elaborated on Marshall's invocations progressively to increase the realism of economic science and contrasted this perspective on Marshall with Robbins' atomistic bias, neglect of historical time and irreversibilities, arbitrary restrictions on the scope of economic science and emphasis on logical and mathematical form over content. Souter demonstrates that Robbins takes a Walrasian-inspired perspective on Marshall's equilibrium concept whereas the 'authentically Marshallian' equilibrium notion generally incorporates potential for endogenous change. On this and other matters …

Staff Retention Factors In The Not-For-Profit Sector: An Examination Of A Western Australian Community Organisation, Nurdan Colleran, David Gilchrist, Charlotte Lucy Morris

Business Papers and Journal Articles

In Australia today Not-for-profit organisations, like most other entities, are trying to respond effectively to challenges associated with the recruitment and retention of competent, experienced and committed staff. Unlike government and commercial entities, however, the poor resourcing of Not-for-profit organisations makes it necessary to approach the issue of recruitment and retention with more creativity than perhaps is required of organisations in the other two sectors of the Australian economy. This is particularly the case for Not-for-profit organisations operating in Western Australia where the economic conditions based on resource exploitation make recruitment and retention, even in the context of the recently …

Governance In Government, David Gilchrist

Business Papers and Journal Articles

In this article, David Gilchrist reviews some of the issues facing members of public sector boards and committees and provides some ideas as to how such people can undertake due diligence prior to taking their position.

The Economics Of Charity – Who Cares?, Lucy Morris

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The current Australian human services charity profile is as a socially moral, not-for-profit business which generates a surplus; a community organization advocating on behalf of disadvantaged people and communities. This description is becoming harder to reconcile with the reality of relativist values-based care work carried out on a daily basis by tens of thousands of women for meagre wages in poor employment conditions. This paper argues that human services charity work is gendered and combined with its religious, social and ethical underpinnings, oppressive employment conditions and practices are facilitated that are flourishing in the present economic rationalist/neoliberal environment.

Audit As An Empowerment Tool – How To Take Control Of The Audit Process For Pro-Active Board Level Leadership In Nfps, David Gilchrist

Business Papers and Journal Articles

Most Not-for-profit Organisations (NFPs) have had their annual general meetings or are working toward them. As readers know, an important part of the annual general meeting is the provision of accounts to members and the opportunity for those members to hear from their auditor. In this article I intend to discuss some ideas that Boards of NFPs could consider in their role at the pinnacle of corporate governance within their organisation. The purpose of such ideas is to provide board members with tools that may allow them to exercise greater control and take greater comfort in terms of the operations …

Review Of John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand, Mark Donoghue

Business Papers and Journal Articles

John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand opens in St James Park, on a warm summer’s morning, with the teenage Mill striding to his office in Leadenhall Street in the financial heart of the City of London. Suddenly, Mill’s attention is caught by a small bundle abandoned beneath an oak tree. Curious, Mill kneels down beside it and unwraps the layers of soiled blankets only to discover a dead, newborn baby. This grisly experience remained etched in Mill’s mind for the duration of his life and was perhaps formative in shaping his views on the twin rights of life and liberty.

[Extract …

Review Of J.S.Mill Revisited: Biographical And Political Explorations, Mark Donoghue

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The commemorative John Stuart Mill bicentennial conference held at University College London in June 2006 has generated renewed interest in the life and work of this notable Victorian personality. In this latest offering, Bruce Kinzer, the veteran of several scholarly works focusing on various aspects of Mill's political thought, has presented his latest deliberations in a work that focuses on two important and overlapping subjects: the first group of chapters cover certain familiar biographical themes relating strictly to Mill's formative years while the latter half of the book dclves into various facets of Mill's political thought and activities in relation …