Business Commons^™

Testing For Differences In Technical Efficiency Among Groups Within An Industry, Phuong Le, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study generalizes the test performed by Simar and Zelenyuk (2007) to examine differences in the technical efficiency among (Formula presented.) groups within an industry (where (Formula presented.)). For this purpose, the (Formula presented.) groups are divided into pairs and each group is compared with all other (Formula presented.) groups. The (Formula presented.) groups can then be classified into three cohorts: those performing better, equally and worse, relative to the benchmark group. For illustration purposes, annual data for Vietnamese banks covering the period 2005‒2012 is used.

A Review Of Research On Regulation Changes In The Asia-Pacific Region, Millicent M. Chang, Andrew B. Jackson, Marvin Wee

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In this study, we review the financial research on regulation in the Asia-Pacific region. We do this by analysing six leading regional accounting and finance journals - Abacus, Accounting & Finance, Australian Accounting Review, Australian Journal of Management, International Review of Finance and the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. We identify five main themes of regulation research relating to: (i) banking and financial institutions, (ii) markets and trading, (iii) corporate governance, (iv) disclosure and (v) accounting standard setting. Our paper synthesises the regional literature in these areas and provide some suggestions for future directions.

Does Director Trading Change The Information Environment?, Millicent M. Chang, Xiaolin Qian, Jing Yu, Yvonne See

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Investigating ASX300 firms for the period 2002-2010, we find that the information content of director trading has a negative relationship with post-trade information asymmetry, but a positive relationship with information efficiency. These results are mainly driven by director purchases rather than their sales, and are stronger in non-executive director trading. Our results are robust to the adoption of IFRS in 2005 and the global financial crisis in 2008. These findings back the claims of insider trading proponents, by showing that director trading plays a crucial role in reducing information asymmetry and in improving information efficiency for stock market participants.

Board Gender Diversity And Corporate Response To Sustainability Initiatives: Evidence From The Carbon Disclosure Project, Walid Ben-Amar, Millicent M. Chang, Philip Mcilkenny

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the effect of female representation on the board of directors on corporate response to stakeholders' demands for increased public reporting about climate change-related risks. We rely on the Carbon Disclosure Project as a sustainability initiative supported by institutional investors. Greenhouse gas emissions measurement and its disclosure to investors can be thought of as a first step toward addressing climate change issues and reducing the firm's carbon footprint. Based on a sample of publicly listed Canadian firms over the period 2008-2014, we find that the likelihood of voluntary climate change disclosure increases with women percentage on boards. We …

The Links Among Characteristics, Controls And Performance Of Inter-Firm Innovation Projects, Maria Cadiz Dyball, Andy Wang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This study aims to explore the effects of: (1) the project characteristics of asset specificity, uncertainty and complexity on the performance of, and, the use of formal and social controls in inter-firm innovation projects, and, (2) the use of formal and social controls on the performance of inter-firm innovation projects. In addition, the mediating role of the use of formal and social controls in the relationships between the characteristics and performance of inter-firm innovation projects is also examined. Survey data from 75 organisations in innovation-active industries in Australia were analysed using the structural equation modelling with the Partial Least Square …

Does Frontline Employees' Empowerment Make A Difference In Data Driven Services?, Saradhi Motamarri, Shahriar Akter, Venkata K. Yanamandram

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: In high contact services, customers anticipate a service offering that well meet their specific needs over a standardised service (Di Mascio 2010; Gwinner et al. 2005; Wilder et al. 2014). With the evolving big data (BD) driven services, service adaptation is becoming feasible (Rust and Huang 2014). Frontline employees' (FLEs) empowerment plays a vital role in service adaptation as it provides them organisational support to make decisions while they serve the customers (Chebat and Kollias 2000). The extant literature stresses that service adaptation contributes to customer satisfaction. However, there are very few studies that examined the role of empowerment …

The Effects Of Corporate Social Disclosure On Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh, Mohammed Bhuyan, Sudhir C. Lodh, Nelson Perera

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: This study examines the influence of corporate social disclosure on firm performance within the context of Bangladesh.

Design/methodology/approach: This study develops hypotheses with the light of legitimacy and signalling theory using top 200 firms listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange, Bangladesh. Corporate social disclosure (CSD) data are based on the period from 2011 to 2013, and the firm performance (FP) is based on the respective following year 2012 to 2014. A corporate social disclosure index (CSDI) including three categories (long-term, short- term and general disclosure) is constructed to measure the extent of social disclosures in annual reports. Firm performance …

Foreign Exchange Intervention In Asian Countries: What Determine The Odds Of Success During The Credit Crisis?, Mei-Ching Chang, Sandy Suardi, Yuanchen Chang

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the factors that increase the odds of intervention success by Asian central banks in the foreign exchange market from January 2005 to November 2013. The results show that leaning-against-the-wind intervention strategies are effective in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, particularly to counter the pressure of appreciating domestic currency by purchasing US dollar. We find that coordinated and first day interventions are associated with higher odds of effective intervention. There is also evidence that central banks intervene to calm disorderly market.

Why Pls-Sem Is Suitable For Complex Modeling? An Empirical Illustration In Big Data Analytics Quality, Shahriar Akter, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Saifullah Dewan

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The emergence of multivariate analysis techniques transforms empirical validation of theoretical concepts in social science and business research. In this context, structural equation modeling (SEM) has emerged as a powerful tool to estimate conceptual models linking two or more latent constructs. This paper shows the suitability of the partial least squares (PLS) approach to SEM (PLS-SEM) in estimating a complex model drawing on the philosophy of verisimilitude and the methodology of soft modelling assumptions. The results confirm the utility of PLS-SEM as a promising tool to estimate a complex, hierarchical model in the domain of big data analytics quality (BDAQ).

The Association Of Earnings Quality With Corporate Performance: Evidence From The Emerging Market Of China, Shiguang Ma, Liangbo Ma

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate the association of earnings quality with corporate performance of publicly listed firms of China and tries to provide a new explanation. Poor earnings quality is normally characterized by unhealthy profitability and/or untrue financial information, which leads to a misallocation of capital and low corporate performance. The largest emerging economy of China has experienced a fast and fluctuant growth, while the companies have been thought of low earnings quality.

Design/methodology/approach: Initial univariate and multivariate analyses are conducted using four earnings quality measures and either accounting-based corporate performance or market-based corporate performance. Further …

Public Attitudes Towards Gambling Product Harm And Harm Reduction Strategies: An Online Study Of 16-88 Year Olds In Victoria, Australia, Samantha L. Thomas, Melanie J. Randle, Amy Bestman, Hannah Pitt, Steven Bowe, Sean Cowlishaw, Mike Daube

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Background: Gambling has quickly emerged as an important global public health issue. With new technologies used to develop high intensity gambling products and promotions aimed at driving consumption, public health organisations and researchers, community groups, and politicians have argued for a range of regulatory and education measures aimed at reducing gambling harm. However, there has been limited research seeking to understand community perceptions of the harms associated with gambling products and environments, and the level of community support for strategies designed to prevent and reduce gambling harm.

Methods: An online study of 500 adolescents and adults (aged 16 and over) …

Big Data And Disaster Management: A Systematic Review And Agenda For Future Research, Shahriar Akter, Samuel Fosso Wamba

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The era of big data and analytics is opening up new possibilities for disaster management (DM). Due to its ability to visualize, analyze and predict disasters, big data is changing the humanitarian operations and crisis management dramatically. Yet, the relevant literature is diverse and fragmented, which calls for its review in order to ascertain its development. A number of publications have dealt with the subject of big data and its applications for minimizing disasters. Based on a systematic literature review, this study examines big data in DM to present main contributions, gaps, challenges and future research agenda. The study presents …

How Do Materialists Choose Prominent Brands In Emerging Markets?, Vida Siahtiri, Wai Jin J. Lee

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Materialism is a worldwide phenomenon. However, our knowledge about the effect of materialism on consumer brand choice is limited. This study unlocks the path from materialism to brand prominence focusing on fashion, quality, and price consciousness. Our findings within the Chinese context show that the paths from materialism to fashion, quality, and price consciousness are positive. Further, we found that the paths from fashion and quality conscious to brand prominence are positive, while the path from price conscious to brand prominence is negative but not significant. These findings have significant implications for brand managers in emerging markets.

Panel Evidence On The Impact Of Toursim Growth On Poverty, Poverty Gap And Income Inequality, Renuka Mahadevan, Sandy Suardi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Using a panel of 13 tourism-intensive economies for the period 1995-2012, this paper shows that rising growth in tourism which is proxied by tourism receipts to GDP ratio has an impact on poverty conditional on the poverty measure used. Using a panel Vector Autoregression method, there is little evidence to suggest that growth in tourism reduces headcount poverty. However, the poverty gap measure shows that the amount of money needed to help the poor out of poverty is significantly reduced. Based on different types of Gini coefficient, the results fail to find an improvement in income inequality resulting from tourism …

Why Is Empowerment Important In Big Data Analytics?, Saradhi Motammarri, Shahriar Akter, Venkata Yanamandrama, Samuel Fosso Wamba

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Big data analytics with its intricate insights is enabling service providers to better gauge customer needs. It is equally delivering information about the competitive landscape of services to customers. The frontline employees (FLEs) responsible for managing the diversified needs of these 'informed customers' face multiple challenges. The FLEs need not only information about their products/ services but also about markets and customers. A systematic review of the extant literature of big data and FLEs has helped to understand that FLEs need empowerment to adapt their services in high contact big data driven services. Empowerment as a concept is well known …

"Rapid" But Not "Raid": A Reflection On The Use Of Rapid Ethnography In Entrepreneurship Research, Nadeera Ranabahu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how rapid ethnography (RE) is used to understand the business decision-making process of micro-entrepreneurs. The objective of this paper is to highlight the applicability of RE in entrepreneurship research and outline practical strategies that can be used by future RE researchers. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is written as a reflection using the author's experience in using RE. Findings: This paper highlights that RE can be used as a research technique in entrepreneurship research. The study shows how to incorporate technological advances into RE without violating the underlying ethnographic principles. The paper also …

Robot Induced Technological Unemployment: Towards A Youth-Focused Coping Strategy, Eduardo Pol, James Reveley

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As an agent of economic and social change, robotization has elicited considerable concern about technological unemployment. Focusing on youth, this paper makes four contributions to the debate over this labour-displacing technological change's effects. First, to clarify the magnitude of the job threat to young people, the paper accentuates the conceptual distinction between technological unemployment and frictional unemployment. Second, the possibility of persistent technological unemployment, which the young are currently facing, is linked to strong uncertainty stemming from the rapidity of invention in robotics and artificial intelligence. Third, the paper advances a plausibility-based argument about the inevitability of technological unemployment. Fourth, …

Small And Medium Enterprise Productivity And Its Determinants: Evidence From Vietnamese Manufacturing Smes, Cong Nguyen, Charles Harvie, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Progressive Australian Views Will Win Out Over Parochial Foreign Policy White Paper, George Mickhail

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

No doubt, Australia's parochial anxieties about China in its recent Foreign Policy White Paper stem from a Eurocentric establishment with entrenched "Cold-War" era views about international relations and fantasies about preserving a bygone legacy of Anglo-American hegemony.

A Simple Method For Measuring Relative Barriers To Economic Development, Eduardo Pol

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The message conveyed by the pioneer work of Jacob Viner in the middle of the 20th century is that any action plan to propel economic development in a particular country requires sharp focus on the identification of the barriers to economic development observable in that country. Unfortunately, Viner did not provide insight into how to measure the barriers to economic development. This paper argues that it is possible to assess the relative heights of the barriers to economic development between two countries using the indicators underpinning the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI).To evaluate this claim, it helps to have a specific …

The Impact Of Integration Quality On Customer Equity In Data Driven Omnichannel Services Marketing, Tasnim M Taufique Hossain, Shahriar Akter, Uraiporn Kattiyapornpong, Samuel Fosso Wamba

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The plethora of digital channels has shifted multichannel services to an omnichannel environment. In the omnichannel context, the borderline of offline, online and digital channels is diminishing as consumers utilize several channels simultaneously to complete any purchases. Additionally, as more channels are introduced, the amount of customer data collected at each touch point is increasing rapidly. However, the urgent need to integrate all information with service attributes within these channels will result in increasing cost and consequently customer dissatisfaction if they are disintegrated. To address this phenomenon, this research focuses towards developing quality dimension for data driven omnichannel services marketing. …

The Privacy Paradox In The Data-Driven Marketplace: The Role Of Knowledge Deficiency And Psychological Distance., Heenkenda Mudiyanselage Ruwan Jayawickrama Bandara, Mario Fernando, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The current digital marketplace maneuvered by big data lures consumers to disclose information that is private, while they express concern about revealing personal information. The privacy paradox describes the unexpected behavior of people who disclose personal information in spite of being concerned by their privacy. In this paper, we explain the privacy paradox in the data-driven digital marketplace context. We take two related but different routes to expound the privacy paradox. Firstly, using the Theory of Incomplete Information (TII) we argue that, knowledge deficiency of consumers due to incomplete information impedes them to make a rational decision. Secondly, using the …

Detecting Contract Cheating In Essay And Report Submissions: Process, Patterns, Clues And Conversations, Ann M. Rogerson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Detecting contract cheating in written submissions can be difficult beyond direct plagiarism detectable via technology. Successfully identifying potential cases of contract cheating in written work such as essays and reports is largely dependent on the experience of assessors and knowledge of student. It is further dependent on their familiarity with the patterns and clues evident in sections of body text and reference materials to identify irregularities. Consequently, some knowledge of what the patterns and clues look like is required. This paper documents how to identify some of the patterns and clues observed in essay and report submissions. Effective assessment design …

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.

Heutagogy - An Updated Approach To Masters Education, Lauren P. Richardson, Carol Mcgowan, Lee Styger

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose. This paper examines the development of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) compliant Master of Business Administration (MBA) subject. The aim was to equip students with the fundamental skills they would need to become lifelong learners. We used an embedded team teaching approach as a way to facilitate heutagogical practice. Methodology. A literature search was conducted to see how the AQF requirements were being met for MBA courses. This is connected to the single case study of an MBA subject's development. Findings. The findings indicate that an embedded team teaching style proved to be beneficial in enabling the heutagogical double …

A Pilot Study Into Mapping Atypical Supply Networks, Mark Edwards, Pauline J. Ross, Lee Styger

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

A system can only be improved if it is measured. In order to adequately measure a system, that system needs to be mapped and all key inter-nodal linkages, constraints and pathways recorded. Commercial supply chains demonstrate similar characteristics to other systems. Much has been written about mapping supply systems, where typically, the product or service is tracked from the originating source such as a raw materials supplier to the end customer of the product such as the consumer. There is however, another classification of supply system, where the payment for the product or service is not undertaken by the end …

Challenges Implementing Work-Integrated Learning In Human Resource Management University Courses, Laura L. Rook

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The examination of work-integrated learning (WIL) programs in the undergraduate Human Resource Management (HRM) curriculum is an area under-represented in the Australian literature. This paper identifies the challenges faced in implementing WIL into the HRM undergraduate curriculum. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 participants including academics, careers advisors, professionals and students from nine Australian universities. The findings show that a lack of resources, a clash of agendas, legal and ethical issues, expectations, the HRM profession and academic perspectives of WIL, are impacting on how WIL programs in HRM are being developed. Recommendations are made for the future development of …

Exogenous Oil Shocks And The Fiscal Policy Response In Oil-Exporting Countries: Evidence From Libya, Issa Saleh Ali, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The downtrend in oil prices beginning in 2014 represents a challenge for small­open developing and exporting economies like Libya. This stems from the importance of government revenue generated from the natural resource sector in financing government consumption and investment expenditures as well as capital imports. The dependency on the natural resource sector and a relatively weak non-natural-resource tax base renders fiscal positions highly challenging in oil­ exporting countries. As more than 90 percent of Libya's government revenue is generated from the oil sector, the budget components are the most influenced by oil-related shocks. Transitory oil price increases, especially after 2000, …

Chaotic Edge Thinking Understanding Why Work Practices Fail, Laura L. Rook, Genevieve Watson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Mental models can affect people's actions and have the capacity to affect how people achieve organizational outcomes. An ethnographic complexity-based inquiry into the mental models of staff and management about work practices was undertaken within a not-for-profit organization. Interviews were conducted to uncover the mental models held by management and staff about actual work practices and ideal work practices. A comparison of the individual mental models revealed that individuals in the organization were in a state of chaotic edge thinking, where everything is perceived as a threat, procedures are formed to control, and people are reacting radically. This was a …

Effects Of Intraday Weather Changes On Asset Returns And Volatilities, H Shim, Maria H. Kim, Doojin Ryu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Analyzing the intraday dataset on weather and market information with the use of the extended GJR-GARCH framework, this study explores in depth the weather effects on the asset returns and volatilities of the Korean stock and derivatives markets. Our intraday analyses contribute to the existing literature by going beyond the attempt of prior studies to capture the weather effects using the average daily observations alone. The empirical results document a modest presence of the weather effect on the returns and volatilities, though the significance of its impact is found to vary across different market conditions and indices. We also find …