Business Commons^™

Information Technology Capability Within Small-Medium Enterprises, Aurelio Ravarini

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The study presented in this thesis investigates the influence of IT capability on the relationship between IT expenditures and long term business performance. To do so, the Resource Based View (RBV) has been used as the theoretical framework, and, within such a framework, the concept of sustainable competitive advantage has been used as a point of reference. IT capability, a term often mentioned in the scientific literature dealing with the applications of RBV in the IS field, has been the subject of this study. Within the IS discipline, IT capability is perceived to have considerable influence on the effect of …

Linking Uses Of Management Control Systems With Strategic Capabilities And Business Level Strategies For Organizational Performance Evidence From The Sri Lankan Textile And Apparel Industry, Nirosha D. Kapu Arachchilage

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigates how the uses of Management Control Systems (MCS), namely, diagnostic use and interactive use, as moderating variables, influence the relationship between business (competitive) strategies (which are determined by strategic capabilities) and organizational performance. Simons’ levers of control model, Porter’s theory of generic competitive strategy and the Resource Based View (RBV) of strategy have been considered as the underpinning theories and models of the study in developing the theoretical framework and hypotheses. The theoretical framework consists of two strategic capabilities (low cost competency and uniqueness competency), two generic business strategies (cost leadership and differentiation), two uses of MCS …

From Canter To Cantor: Negotiating Constraints, And The Perceptions Of Elitism In Serious Leisure Pursuits : The Experiences Of A High Performing Athlete And Artist, Lorraine O'Neill

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Everyone experiences leisure differently but, for people who excel in a chosen field, a hobby can become a serious goal-oriented leisure pursuit. Many talented people, however, fail to reach their leisure goals due to constraints. This study explored individual life experiences of serious leisure participants. It focused on the lived experiences of individual event [horse] riders and opera singers who successfully negotiated their constraints, enabling them to reach their high performance goals.

The purpose of this study was to explore positive personal strategies that individuals used to negotiate constraints in serious leisure. This was done by exploring intrapersonal, interpersonal and …

The Predictive Ability Of Corporate Financial Disclosures : Australian Evidence, Yun Ren

Theses : Honours

This thesis examines the predictive ability of corporate financial disclosures. Factor Analysis and Discriminant Analysis are used to differentiate between good companies and poor companies in Australian manufacturing industry. Good and poor companies are identified based on their 2009 financial data and the prediction models are constructed based on their 2008 data. 64 companies are selected finally, with 29 good companies and 35 poor companies. Financial ratios, company size, corporate governance and conservatism are employed in this study to examine whether they can predict corporate perforn1ance. Because only 3 7 companies disclosed research and development (R&D) expenses, which are used …

Infusing Critical Thinking Into An Employability Skills Program: The Effectiveness Of An Immersion Approach, Sophie Kennedy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The demands of the knowledge economy have placed renewed emphasis on graduate employability and the development of higher-order thinking skills. Preparing graduates for the workplace requires new instructional approaches to develop a matrix of interrelated skills. This study investigates an immersion approach to developing employability skills with emphasis on the infusion of critical thinking skills in an undergraduate business degree.

The research is situated within the pragmatic paradigm and comprises a mixed methods approach. Analyses of project instructions, student reflections and test scores are presented in an explanatory case study in three parts: the infusion of critical thinking skills in …

Management Accounting And Organizational Change : Impact Of Alignment Of Management Accounting System, Structure And Strategy On Performance, Tuan Tuan Mat

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The business environment in Malaysia has changed rapidly over recent decades, and
continues to change. Globalization has brought new technology and made the
business environment in Malaysia open to greater competition. Central Government
economic policy relating to ‘knowledge economy (k-economy)’ and vision 2020
have also opened the market up for competition and certainly increased
technological development. These changes have impacted greatly on the business
environment in Malaysia, especially on manufacturing industry, which has been
identified as the most active and important contributor to the Malaysian economy.
Literature has identified that changes in both external and internal organizational
factors have influenced …

Why Ask The Guests? : An Examination Of Mechanisms And Efficacy Of Guest Feedback Used In Hotels In Perth, Selly Sugio

Theses : Honours

This study has explored the importance of feedback mechanisms in the hospitality industry. A mixed methodology was adopted so that the main or major issues could be identified and the respondents' feelings and emotions examined and discovered. In-depth interviews were conducted to discover and explore hotel managers' feeling, emotions, thoughts and understanding of feedback mechanism in the hotel. A questionnaire was developed to investigate the hotel front office or room division staff perspective on feedback mechanisms in the hotel. The rich data is very important because it gives the study more significance and detail. This research found that using feedback …

An Exploration Of The Perceptions Of Flexible Work Arrangements (Fwas) And Factors Affecting Their Uptake At A Tertiary Education Institution In Australia, Fleur Sharafizad

Theses : Honours

Flexible work arrangements (FW As) have become an area of considerable interest. The reason for this increased interest is that flexibility has been found to offer organisations a competitive advantage and helps in attracting and retaining high quality employees (Carlson, Grzywacz & Kacmar, 2010, p. 330). FWAs do not only offer employees the opportunity to create a better work-life balance (WLB) their uptake has also been linked to increased organisational commitment, morale and job satisfaction. Work-life conflict, on the other hand, has been linked to negative individual, as well as organisational consequences. Research has, however, identified gaps between the FW …

The Predictive Ability Of Corporate Narrative Disclosures: Australian Evidence, Yinan Dong

Theses : Honours

The mam objective of this study is to contribute to the academic literature by investigating the relationship between narrative disclosures and corporate performance based on Australian evidence. The research design takes as its starting from the content analysis of discretionary narrative disclosures conducted by Smith and Taffler (2000), and extends their research by combining thematic content analysis and syntactic content analysis. This study focuses on the discretionary disclosures (the Chairman's Statement) of· · Australian manufacturing companies. Based on the Earnings per Share (EPS) movement between 2008 and 2009, 64 sample companies are classified into two groups: good performer and poor …