Business Commons^™

Money Buys Financial Security And Psychological Need Satisfaction: Testing Need Theory In Affluence, Ryan T. Howell, Mark Kurai, Wing Yin Leona Tam

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The most prominent theory to explain the curvilinear relationship between income and subjective well-being (SWB) is need theory, which proposes that increased income and wealth can lead to increased well-being in poverty because money is used to satisfy basic physiological needs. The present study tests the tenets of need theory by proposing that money can buy happiness beyond poverty if the money satisfies higher-order needs. Findings indicate that in older adults (n = 1,284), as economic standing rises, so do individual perceptions of financial security (a safety need), which in turn increases overall life satisfaction. Further, a path model tested …

A Taxonomy Of Mobile Applications In Tourism, Heather Kennedy-Eden, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The rapid growth in the use of smart phones and respective mobile applications has created new ways for the tourism industry to connect with their visitors while travelling. This paper proposes a taxonomy of mobile apps in tourism from two perspectives: a taxonomy on what services travel-related apps provide to the user and a taxonomy based on the level of customization the user has with the mobile application. The taxonomies provide insights into app development trends as well as gaps in the mobile app landscape. Understanding the opportunities currently provided by apps is also critical from a marketing perspective.

Industry Associations And Non-Competitive Behaviour In Australian Wool Marketing: Evidence From The Melbourne Woolbrokers' Association, 1890-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

From the 1890s the sale of Australian wool was organised through a series of regionally based associations of wool selling brokers and wool buyers. They engaged in cartel-type behaviour by price fixing and exclusive dealing. We ask the question whether the wool selling brokers exploited their monopoly power to the full in setting fees and charges paid by the growers and buyers. Association records provide data on the pricing structure and rationale for changes. We surmise that the existence of the cartel lifted prices above competitive levels. However, the pricing behaviour was moderated to a strong form of limit pricing.

Migrant Remittances, Financial Sector Development And The Government Ownership Of Banks: Evidence From A Group Of Non-Oecd Economies, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates the influence of migrant remittances on two dimensions of the financial sector, namely, size and efficiency in a sample of 94 non-OECD economies. Evidence suggests that migrant remittances contribute to increasing the size and efficiency of the financial sector. The study, in addition, examines the impact of remittances on financial sector size and efficiency through their interaction with the government ownership of banks. The results suggest that remittances lead to larger increases in financial sector size in countries in which the government ownership of banks is lower, and increases in efficiency in countries in which the government …

Measuring The Banking Efficiency And Productivity Changes Using The Hicks-Moorsteen Approach: The Case Of Iran, Amir Arjomandi, Charles Harvie, Abbas Valadkhani

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study is the first to use a comprehensive decomposition of the Hicks–Moorsteen TFP index developed by O’Donnell (2010a) to analyse efficiency and productivity changes in a banking context. The paper investigates the efficiency and productivity growth of the Iranian banking industry between 2003 and 2008, encompassing pre- and post-2005-reform years. The advantage of this approach over the popular constant-returns-to-scale Malmquist productivity index is that it is free from any assumptions concerning firms’ returns to scale. We assume that the production technology exhibits variable returns to scale. Our findings show that the banking industry’s technical efficiency level – which had …

Technical Efficiency Performance Of Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprises, Teerawat Charoenrat, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper employs a stochastic frontier production function and technical inefficiency effects model to measure and explain the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Cross-sectional firm-level data from the industrial census conducted in 2007 is used. A simple average technical efficiency levels in all categories of manufacturing SMEs analysed in 2007 is found to be low, indicating a high degree of technical inefficiency in the production process. Despite reform measures aimed at improving firm performance, Thai manufacturing SMEs have remained predominantly labour intensive. The technical inefficiency effects model reveals that firm size, firm age, skilled …

Human Capital Externalities, Departmental Co-Authorship And Research Productivity, Frank Neri, Joan Rodgers

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Lucas (1988) hypothesised that human capital externalities explain persistent productivity growth and become manifest via interactions between workplace colleagues. Consistent with the first part of this hypothesis, Fox and Milbourne (2006) concluded that an increase in the average level of human capital in Australian economics departments raised the research productivity of departmental members. This paper tests the robustness of this finding by using a direct, rather than a proxy, measure of human capital and confirms the existence of human capital externalities within Australian economics departments. But we go further by investigating the second part of Lucas’ hypothesis. Whilst there are …

Stock Market And Gdp Growth Volatility Spillovers, Indika Karunanayake, Abbas Valadkhani, Martin O'Brien

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the interplay between stock market returns and GDP growth rates in four Anglo-Saxon economies located in three separate continents (namely, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia). We analyse the dynamics of cross-country volatility transmission across these countries by using quarterly data from 1959 to 2010 and a multivariate GARCH model. Country specific cross-mean spillovers from GDP growth to stock market returns exist only from the US growth towards its stock market, while country specific cross-mean spillovers from stock market returns towards GDP growth exist in both the US and Australia. The US economy influences all three …

The Effect Of Female And Male Health On Economic Growth: Cross-Country Evidence Within A Production Function Framework, Gazi Hassan, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

It is widely believed by development economists that the role of human capital is one of the most fundamental determinants of economic growth. Sustained growth depends on the level of human capital whose stocks increase due to better education, higher levels of health, new learning and training procedure. The intuition that good health raises the level of human capital and has a positive effect on productivity and economic growth has been modelled by enodogenous growth theorists. But empirically ascertaining the causal relationship between health and growth is more difficult due to the possible existence of endogeneity between these two variables. …

New Theoretical Perspectives On Family Business Entrepreneurial Behavior, Mary Barrett, Ken Moores

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Family business leaders are often characterized as entrepreneurs (Aldrich and Cliff 2003 ; Shepherd and Haynie 2009 ). In attempting to understand the entrepreneurial thinking of family firm leaders, scholars have typically borrowed from the extant literature on entrepreneurship, which traditionally emphasizes characteristics of individual entrepreneurs such as their personalities, propensity for risk-taking, personal values, and so on. 1 However as Aldrich and Martinez ( 2003 ) point out, there are changes afoot in how entrepreneurship is being studied, including (a) a shift in theoretical emphasis from the characteristics of entrepreneurs as individuals to the consequences of their actions, (b) …

Towards The Development Of An Evaluation Questionnaire For Academic Conferences, Clifford Lewis, Gregory M. Kerr

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Each year, academic conferences are held at destinations throughout the world. These conferences provide benefits to the host destination's economy as well as to the conference participants. Involving travel and accommodation, academic conferences can be classified as business tourism. Academics often have a range of conferences from which to choose. The conference experience therefore may be important in the decision to reattend or recommend a conference to other potential attendees. While many conference organizers distribute a "conference evaluation sheet" at the end of a conference, there is no evidence of a standardized questionnaire that evaluates the entire conference experience. The …

Reflective Assessment In Work-Integrated Learning: To Structure Or Not To Structure, That Was Our Question, Bonnie Amelia Dean, Chris Sykes, Shirley Agostinho, Mike Clements

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper reports the findings of a research study on whether or not to structure reflective assessment tasks. It examines students' perceived benefits or limitations from structuring reflective assessments in a Commerce WIL program at the University of Wollongong. Sixty-four students over two semesters responded to a questionnaire on their perceptions of structured reflective assessments in the Internship Program. The findings of the self-reported experiences were heterogeneous and indicative of the dominant themes relevancy and flexibility. We suggest these themes stem from a misalignment of assessment and reflective practice. Correcting this misalignment could be achieved by providing a balance of …

A New C-Oar-Se-Based Content-Valid And Predictively Valid Measure That Distinguishes Brand Love From Brand Liking, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article provides a new, C-OAR-SE-based, contrastive measure that distinguishes “brand love” from “brand liking.” The new measure is tested in an empirical study conducted among German university students about brands of products that they buy in four diverse product categories. From a consumer perspective, the incidence of consumers who have a loved brand in the category was found to be only 17% for laundry detergent, 18% for coffee, and 26% for computers, peaking at 45% in the fashion clothing category — findings that suggest that over half of young consumers do not acquire the state of brand love. Turning …

Heterogeneity Among Potential Foster Carers: An Investigation Of Reasons For Not Foster Caring, Melanie Randle, Leonie Miller, Sara Dolnicar, Joseph Ciarrochi

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Although Australia is experiencing a shortage of foster carers, there is currently little understanding of why people do not become carers. This study explores the reasons given for not fostering though a survey of 897 non carers. Results indicate that, at the aggregate level, people do not become carers because they do not know anything about fostering, or because they are busy with their own children, work, or commitments to family and friends. However, if we account for heterogeneity, differences in these barriers are observed for subgroups within the sample. We investigate the structure of the market of potential foster …

Propensity To Shop: Identifying Who Shops Til They Drop, Uraiporn Kattiyapornpong, Kenneth E. Miller

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Tourist shopping expenditure is a vital ingredient which contributes significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation. Past research has stressed the importance of specific demographic variables related to shopping behaviour; however, it has not included interactions between or configurations among demographic variables, shopping related psychographics, and shopping destinations. This study seeks to address that gap. The data was collected from a large representative sample of 26,686 Australian domestic short-stay visitors. Binary logistic regression found that demographic variables and their specific interactions were significantly related to tourist shopping behaviours as well as psychographics, trip motivation and their shopping …

'So, What Did You Do?' A Performative, Practice-Based Approach To Examining Informal Learning In Wil, Bonnie Amelia Dean, Chris Sykes, Jan Turbill

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

A growing body of research in work-integrated learning (WIL) demonstrates the importance of industry experience for student learning. Much of this research however focuses on individual, formal learning that occurs in WIL programs typically captured through assessment. What is less visible is the informal learning experienced during placement. In this paper, we argue that such omissions are suggestive of the incommensurability of the standard paradigm of learning with informal learning. The standard paradigm limits informal learning by privileging individual, cognitive processes of recall, thereby casting experience as “static and sedimented, separated from knowledge making processes” (Fenwick, 2009, p.235). This paper …

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

Identifying Barriers To Internal Supply Chain Integration Using Systems Thinking, Franciscus Bakker, Tillmann Boehme, Dirk Pieter Van Donk

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This exploratory site-centred research investigates barriers to internal supply chain integration in practice, using systems thinking. A multi-method procedure termed the Quick Scan Audit Methodology is applied to four engineering to order case companies from two different country settings to identify and categorize the actual barriers to internal supply chain integration. The study establishes that the case-significant barriers to internal supply chain integration chiefly relate to behavioral / cultural factors and the organizational arrangement / structures imposed on employees. A cross-case comparison reveals two major clusters of supply chain integration barriers termed “fire-fighting” and “functional-silo mentalities”. The fundamental structures of …

Social Networks, Social Learning And Service Systems Improvement, Andrew Sense, Matthew Pepper

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article illustrates and qualitatively explores the value of understanding the social networks present in a service operation through a case study of a local government service network that manages regional development applications. It also examines how social learning underpins service systems performance improvement and how it is instrumental in creating a richer environment for ongoing service network innovation and development. It is argued that gaining a better understanding of these social networks and the social learning potential in a system offers substantial and highly practitioner-friendly avenues to progress service systems capability development. These fi ndings clearly place an emphasis …

An Empirical Analysis Of Iran's Banking Performance, Amir Arjomandi, Charles Harvie, Abbas Valadkhani

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency and productivity growth of the Iranian banking industry between 2003 and 2008, encompassing pre- and post-2005-reform years.

Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a new decomposition of the Hicks-Moorsteen total factor productivity index developed by O’Donnell to analyse efficiency and productivity changes in a banking context. The advantage of this approach over the popular constant-returns-to-scale Malmquist productivity index is that it is free from any assumptions concerning firms’ optimising behaviour, the structure of markets, or returns to scale. The paper assumes that the production technology exhibits variable returns to …

Media-Induced Voluntourism In Yunnan, China, Jun Shao, Michelle Scarpino, Yoonjung Lee, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Media-induced tourism as well as voluntourism are topics increasingly investigated in the tourism literature. However, a discussion of the intersection of these two forms of tourism (i.e., mediainduced voluntourism) is currently missing from the literature. Using the example of two Chinese TV dramas, this article seeks to shed light on motivations and activities of media-induced voluntourists to the Chinese province of Yunnan. Based on a thematic analysis of online postings of the fans of these Chinese TV dramas, the article finds empirical evidence for media-induced voluntourism. The findings reveal that fans travel to Yunnan not only to engage in altruistic …

Is The Rising Cost Of Education Uniform Across All Of Australia's Capital Cities?, Abbas Valadkhani, Shima Hassan Zadeh Forughi, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper compares and contrasts the aggregate cost of education in Australia with the cost of education in each of its eight capital cities surveyed in the Consumer Price Index. It appears that education is becoming a relatively more expensive item among Australian households with rising substantial differences across various geographical areas. Over the last three decades on average the Australian economy witnessed an overall annual inflation rate of 4.2 per cent, whereas the growth of education cost was 7.3 per cent per annum. It is interesting to note that the rising cost of education was not the same across …

Occupational Health And Safety Management In Organizations: A Review, Michael Zanko, Patrick Dawson

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In examining the research literature on occupational health and safety (OHS), this paper argues that the growth in the number of specialists in OHS has resulted in an emphasis on policy and practice away from more scholastic concerns previously addressed by academics in the disciplines of psychology and sociology. A hiatus has occurred, and this is evidenced by the general absence of studies in management, even though OHS is increasingly seen as a key operational and strategic concern of business organizations. The authors call for OHS to be placed firmly on the research agenda of management scholars, and advocate the …

Tourist-Activated Networks: Implications For Dynamic Bundling And En Route Recommendations, Florian Zach, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article discusses tourist-activated networks as a concept to inform technological applications supporting dynamic bundling and en route recommendations. Empirical data were collected from travelers who visited a regional destination in the US and then analyzed with respect to its network stmcture. The results indicate that the tourist-activated network for the destination is rather sparse and that there are clearly differences in core and peripheral nodes. The findings illustrate the stmcture of a tourist-activated network and provide implications for technology design and tourism marketing.

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

One Legacy Of Mazanec: Binary Questions Are A Simple, Stable And Valid Measure Of Evaluative Beliefs, Sara Dolnicar, Friedrich Leisch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – Academic researchers love multi-category answer formats, especially five- and seven-point formats. More than a decade ago Josef Mazanec concluded that these formats may not the best choice, and that simple binary-answer options are preferable in some empirical survey contexts. The purpose of the present study is to investigate empirically Mazanec’s hypothesis in the context of the measurement of evaluative beliefs relating to fast-food restaurants.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an online experiment that asked respondents to assess evaluative beliefs relating to fast-food brands using either a forced binary (n = 100) or a seven-point answer format (n = …

Accounting As An Instrument Of Neoliberalisation? Exploring The Adoption Of Fair Value Accounting In China, Ying Zhang, Jane Andrew, Kathleen Rudkin

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose This paper explores the implementation of fair value accounting (FVA) in China as part of a global process of neoliberalisation and financialisation of political and economic systems. It establishes that FVA forms part of the technical architecture of neoliberalism. Design/methodology/approach In considering the processes of neoliberalisation in China, this paper uses a qualitative approach to explore some of the impacts the adoption of FVA has had on Chinese capital markets. Findings It is shown that the practice of FVA is imbued with assumptions about the state and the market that have little bearing on the realities of Chinese capital …

Role Of Remuneration Committee In Narrative Human Capital Disclosure, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study empirically investigates whether independent directors on the remuneration committee influence narrative human capital disclosure (NAHCD) in firms where independent directors dominate the board composition. NAHCD is measured by frequency of occurrence, using latent content analysis in the annual reports of the top 30 listed firms on the Colombo Stock Exchange from 1998 to 2006. This study examines two attributes of corporate governance, controlling for other corporate governance attributes and firm-level attributes. The findings highlight the importance of considering a firm’s independent director involvement in the remuneration committee when determining NAHCD strategy.

How To Use Qualitative Research To Design A Managerially Useful E-Service Questionnaire, John R. Rossiter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

E-service questionnaires must be content-aligned with the company or organization’s customer relationship management system (CRM). Four phases of qualitative research will ensure this alignment. The first phase is a qualitatively evaluative search of the practitioner literature on e-retailing, both B2B and B2C, and on CRM so as to capture evolving knowledge in both fields. The second phase is individual depth interviews (IDIs) with potential, current, and lapsed customers to map their e-interactive behavior and experiences. The third phase is dyadic depth interviews (DDIs) with the marketing manager and the website designer to fully understand the company’s current and potential e-service …

Reply To "Response: Board Composition And Firm Performance: Evidence From Bangladesh - A Sceptical View", Afzalur Rashid, Anura De Zoysa, Sudhir Lodh, Kathleen Rudkin

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper replies to Chowdhury’s (2010) response to the paper "Board Composition and Firm Performance: Evidence from Bangladesh" (2010). It challenges the strength of the criticisms, arguing that the factors discussed in Chowdhury (2010) do not necessarily impair the outcome of the research. The authors elucidate issues raised, and in so doing, reproduce the results incorporating the commentator’s suggestions