Business Commons^™

Board Diversity And Corporate Social Disclosure: Evidence From Vietnam, Trang Cam Hoang, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Debates around sound corporate governance propose board diversity as a key attribute to sufficiently challenge executive management for stakeholder engagement. This study contributes to this debate by empirically investigating the effect of board diversity on corporate social disclosure (CSD) of Vietnamese listed firms. The study finds a significantly positive effect of diversity-in-boards (dissimilarities among directors within a board, i.e., demographic attributes of board members) on CSD while diversity-of-boards (dissimilarities among firm boards, i.e., board structure) has no effect on CSD. The results contribute by showing that a single theoretical approach can provide an adequate explanation for board diversity. The study …

To What Extent Did The Economic Stimulus Package Influence Bank Lending And Corporate Investment Decisions? Evidence From China, Qigui Liu, Xiaofei Pan, Gary G. Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Using a panel of Chinese firms over the period 2003-2013, we show that, from the supply-side perspective, as a result of the implementation of the economic stimulus package in China, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) received more bank loans and invested more than non-SOEs. We further find that after the implementation of the economic stimulus package, bank lending became less responsive to firm profitability, and firm investments became less responsive to investment opportunities for SOEs, non-SOEs from favoured industries and regions, and non-SOEs with political connections. Overall, our findings support the view that the stimulus package and the associated increase in bank …

Branch Expansion And Banking Efficiency In Sri Lanka's Post-Conflict Era, Bolanda Hewa Thilakaweera, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study assesses changes in the technical efficiency of commercial banks in Sri Lanka following the end of armed conflict in 2009. The weighted aggregate-efficiency technique, based on a group-wise heterogeneous subsampling bootstrap approach, is employed to compare efficiency levels during the periods 2007-2009 and 2010-2013. This technique allows for heterogeneity in environmental and regulatory conditions between the two periods while assuming homogeneity within each period. Our results reveal that the banking sector experienced a significant efficiency improvement post-conflict even with unprecedented branch expansion. The findings, therefore, controvert the mainstream view that bank efficiency declined with rapid industry expansion. Further, …

Ethnic Diversity And Trust: New Evidence From Australian Data, Silvia Mendolia, Alex Tosh, Oleg Yerokhin

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the relationship between neighbourhood ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity and individuals' local and generalised trust. A wide literature across economics and sociology has recognised the importance of trust in facilitating economic growth and development. We use fixed effects and instrumental variable regression and control for a wide set of individual and local area characteristics. Our results show that a 1 standard deviation increase in ethnic and linguistic fractionalisation is associated with a decrease in local trust of about 0.12 standard deviations, while we do not find any significant relationship between heterogeneity and generalised trust.

The Big End Of Town Meets The Local Council: The Investment Habitus Of Four Sets Of Australian Councils During The Gfc, Gregory Jones, Claire Beattie, Graham D. Bowrey, Ciorstan Smark

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 led to a substantial write-down in the value of investments such as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) with one class of investors being NSW Local councils. This article analyses interviews with four different investor types (or sets) of local councils, each of which took a substantially different approach to CDO investment. This categorisation into sets was based on interviews of 28 individuals working within 14 local councils as well as commentaries on legal cases involving a class action of local councils suing Lehman Brothers Australia as well as Grange Securities over losses in their investments. …

Corporate Rebranding: An Employee-Focused Nonprofit Case Study, Paul A. Chad

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this paper was to examine the process by which a nonprofit organization conducted corporate rebranding and to assess the relevance of the principles of corporate rebranding originally developed by Merrilees and Miller (2008) in relation to for-profit organizations. A community-owned nonprofit organization that recently introduced corporate rebranding was examined. Semistructured in-depth interviews with employees from all organizational levels explored the rebranding process and employee feelings toward the process. Findings revealed that, while ultimately successful, rebranding did not progress smoothly. Problems related to initial management attempts to utilize minimal external expertise and to low levels of employee involvement …

To Control Or Not To Control Oil Spills: Shell's Narrative Of Accountability In Nigeria, Sanja Pupovac, Mary A. Kaidonis, Lee C. Moerman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This paper re-considers corporate accountability with a specific focus on Royal/Dutch/Shell's discursive categorization of oil spills in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach - Using text analysis, we reflect on the classification of oil spills as operational (controllable) and sabotage (uncontrollable) and the construction of self and the 'other' that inverts accountability relationship.

Findings - We found Shell's identity construction of self and 'other' assigns the causes of, and human agency to, oil spills that inverts the accountability relationship. Shell provides accountability of the communities but not to the communities. To control or not to control oil spills, is a question which …

How To Use C-Oar-Se To Design Optimal Standard Measures, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: This paper aims to extend Rossiter's C-OAR-SE method of measure design (IJRM, 2002, p. 19, p. 4, pp. 305-335; EJM, 2011, p. 45, p. 11, p. 12, pp. 1561-1588) by proposing five distinct construct models for designing optimally content-valid multiple-item and single-item measures.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper begins by dismissing convergent validation, the core procedure in Nunnally's (1978) and Churchill's (1979) psychometric method of measure design which allows alternative measures of the same construct. The method of dismissal is the mathematical demonstration that an alternative measure, no matter how highly its scores converge with those from the original measure, will …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

Cooperatives: Governance And Accountability Systems For A Better World?, Vassili Joannides De Lautour, Corinne L. Cortese

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

To date, there are few general studies on cooperatives, with some being empirical, practical or issue-driven (Tchami, 2007 ) whilst others are very specialised (Gouil, 2010 ; Jaumier, 2016 ; Jaumier et al., 2012 ; Joannidès, 2013 ). In most cases, most studies focus on a particular type of organisation, generally farmers' cooperatives (Deroy and Thénot, 2012 ; Thénot, 2011 ; vanPeursem et al., 2016 ). Considering cooperatives as case studies often leads to empirical discussions of particular industries or countries, but rarely leads to a conceptualisation of the issues that affect the cooperative form (Béziaud, 2012 ; Diaz, 2012 …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

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

Participation In Moral Hazard Problems, Guillaume Roger

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Two principals engage in Hotelling competition for an agent's services under incomplete information as to her outside option (location). This renders the agent's participation decision probabilistic from the perspective of each principal. Regardless of the market structure at equilibrium the optimal contract features a trade-off between participation probability and incentives. Rent and effort are inversely related and non-monotonic in the agent's transport cost and so in market structures; they increase (decrease) with competition. Uncertainty as to the agent's location may increase or decrease the rent compared to full information. This correspondingly harms or benefits principals.

Risky Utilities, Jean-Charles Rochet, Guillaume Roger

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

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

The Perceived Impact Of The Agile Development And Project Management Method Scrum On Process Transparency In Information Systems Development, Karlheinz Kautz, Thomas Heide Johansen, Andreas Uldahl

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper contributes to research on information systems development (ISD) with a case study that demonstrates the positive impact of the agile development and project management method Scrum on process transparency in ISD projects. It is part of a project for which we developed a framework comprising of the six concepts productivity, quality, team leadership, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and process transparency for investigating the impact of Scrum. It provides operationalizations of the latter concept through five identified indicators. Despite the fact that the case unit had challenges, the indicators identified the areas where it managed to exploit the potential …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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

Towards A Set Of Design Principles For Executive Compensation Contracts, Yaowen Shan, Terry S. Walter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Executive compensation has been controversial for many years. Controversies over executive pay have sparked outrage from some sectors and calls for increased regulation and reform. Yet others argue that knee-jerk reactions to perceived abuses of pay can lead to a host of unintended and inefficient outcomes. This paper argues that much of this controversy is due to executives being rewarded via contracts that have weaknesses in design. We argue that few stakeholders in firms would object to generous compensation for managers whose performance results in abnormally high long-term shareholder wealth creation. We state a set of principles, developed from a …

The Environmental Kuznets Curve And The Structural Change Hypothesis, Simone Marsiglio, Alberto Ansuategi, Maria Carmen Gallastegui

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We provide a very simple macroeconomic investigation of the role that structural changes might play in generating inverted U-shaped income-pollution relationships. Differently from previous research which mainly focuses on empirical, static or general equilibrium models, we develop a standard balanced growth path (BGP) analysis. We show that along the BGP equilibrium an inverted U-shaped income-pollution relationship may occur as a response to structural changes, but whether this is the case or not it will crucially depend upon the magnitude of a production externality parameter. Moreover, we show that the negative relationship between income and pollution can only be a transitory …

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 …

Students' Perception On Use Of Technology In The Classroom At Higher Education Institutions In Philippines, Virginia Carbonilla Gorra, Shyam S. Bhati

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Issue of unintended consequences of use of technology in class room is important because unintended consequences can cause disruption in class room and negate the institutional policies regarding strategic direction and intervention in teaching and learning process. Current literature on the use of e-learning for teaching focuses on factors which increases the effectiveness of e-learning but there is very little research on unintended consequences of e-learning, particularly in regard to developing countries. The present research seeks to fill in this gap in the research. This research investigates the consequences of the use of technology during classroom activities in higher education …

Good Corporate Governance Is Good For Banks' Bottom Line, Amir Arjomandi, Juergen H. Seufert, Ruhul Salim

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Sound corporate governance not only boosts banks' efficiency, it is also good for the profit of Australian banks and their shareholders. However, new research shows that factors such as the number of board meetings, the involvement of large shareholders in boardroom decisions and whether or not the board has independent members don't play a significant role in achieving those goals.

How To Get A Better Bang For The Taxpayers' Buck In All Sectors, Not Only Indigenous Programs, Peter M. Siminski

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A report released today by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) has drawn attention to the lack of quality evaluations being conducted on Indigenous programs. The report identified 1082 Indigenous-specific programs delivered by government agencies, Indigenous organisations, not-for-profit NGOs and for-profit contractors. It found 92% have never been evaluated to see if they are achieving their objectives. While it oversteps in some regards, this report raises a very important point: we don't really know what works if we don't check. That's a lesson that applies to all areas of public policy spending, not just Indigenous affairs.

Framing The Usefulness Of Ehrm In Talent Management: A Case Study Of Talent Identification In A Professional Services Firm, Sharna L. Wiblen

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As talent management evolves from intuitive to evidence-based decision-making, the role of electronic Human Resource Management (eHRM) to gather, distribute, and analyze data becomes more critical. However, surprisingly few academic studies investigate the role of technology in talent management. Drawing on a qualitative case study of talent management in a large professional services firm, this paper critically examines how eHRM information technologies are framed as useful within talent identification discourses. The findings reveal two distinct but interrelated sets of processes employed to identify talent and suggest that the perceived usefulness and centrality of eHRM are influenced by how stakeholders shape …

Family Control, Accounting Misstatements, And Market Reactions To Restatements: Evidence From China, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma, Gary G. Tian

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

We examine the impact of family control on the likelihood of accounting misstatements and on market reactions to subsequent restatements. Using a matched-firm approach, we find that family control overall reduces the incidence of misstatements, consistent with the notion that controlling families have a greater concern for reputation than nonfamily blockholders. However, compared to nonfamily firm restatements, restatements announced by family-controlled firms trigger significantly more negative market reactions. We attribute the more negative market reactions to the greater loss in reputation and higher investor scepticism of the credibility of corporate insiders for family firms than for nonfamily firms following restatements.

Exploring Mind Mapping Techniques To Analyse Complex Case Study Data, Fadi Kotob, Lee Styger, Lauren P. Richardson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper discusses using mind mapping techniques as a viable and complementary approach for analysing the complex qualitative data collected during a research project. Using a case study methodology to undertake the investigation, data collecting focused on conducting semi structured interviews with employees of the Lebanese Association of SOS Children‟s Villages. This was followed by an exploratory exercise to analyse ten of the interviews conducted by using mind mapping techniques and assess the possible suitability of the technique for conducting qualitative data analysis. The study concludes that mind mapping is a suitable technique for analysing large amounts of qualitative research …