Business Commons^™

Employee Retention And Customer Relationships In Services Industry, Aileen O'Connell

Theses

The business environment of the 1990s has seen a shift in firms’ emphasis away from recruiting new customers, towards nurturing and retaining those that they currently have (Palmer, 1996). The marketing emphasis has moved from customer acquisition to customer retention. Reicheld, (1996a) has identified a link between customer and employee retention, but this link has not been extrapolated by many researchers. For the purpose of this study, the researcher proposes to examine this link.

A large number of people who work for organisations are no longer what would be termed “traditional” employees of those organisations, i.e. employees for life. These …

A Framework Of Best Practice For Community Based Tourism Inititives, Cornelius O'Sullivan

Theses

This study commences with a detailed analysis of the tourism industry from a global perspective charting its inception through the time of the Persian, Assyrian, Greek, Egyptian & Roman empires to the present elimate, surpassed then by adherence to future predictions. The study then moves to examine the Irish tourism product by acknowledging the individuals who have pioneered & continue to survey its development. The study in response to its principle aim of creating a Framework of Best Practice for Community Based Tourism Initiatives identifies, discusses & evaluates in detail four core fundamental building blocks for such initiatives. These four …

Towards A Best Practice Framework : The Case Of Institutes Of Technology Campus Incubators, Mary Fenton

Theses

Campus incubators catalyse campus enterprise development by encouraging Third Level “spin offs”, commercialisation of research and facilitating “spin-in” enterprises. They provide academic staff, graduates and “spin-in” entrepreneurs with a range of support services including space, advice, training, mentoring and networking opportunities. The real value of a campus incubator location for clients is their association with a reputable Third level Institute and access to the Institute’s resources namely academic staff, embedded knowledge, manager’s expertise and enterprise netvyorks. The researcher explored literature on campus and business incubators and identified a lacuna of research on campus incubation, particularly within Irish Higher Education Institutes. …

Regional Co-Operation And Low-Cost Investment Enclaves: An Empirical Study Of Singapore's Industrial Parks In Riau, Indonesia, Caroline Yeoh, Darren Lim, Adeline Kwan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Infrastructure can be unreliable and administration subject to corruption in Asia's rapidly developing economies. Foreign investment is thus drawn to privileged investment enclaves, as well as in and around centers of international infrastructure. This context provides opportunity for Singapore-styled industrial parks, through the provision of superior infrastructure, the ability to negotiate investment concessions at inter-government level and, where existing, through the links to influential Chinese business groups in the investment location. Batamindo Industrial Park and Bintan Industrial Estate in Indonesia were the prototypes. This paper revisits the Parks, and offers a stock-take on the challenges confronting these flagship projects. Evidence …

Regionalisation And Singapore's Transborder Industrialisation: A New Perspective On Suzhou Industrial Park, Xun Cai, Lu Gao, Caroline Yeoh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The dynamics of international economic competition have prompted governments to re-examine accustomed policies, and search for alternative strategies, in order to re-position their economies for the future. This paper takes a look at Singapore’s search for a competitive positioning in the global marketplace, and focuses on the city-state’s much-publicized, and controversial, flagship project in China, viz, the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). This strategic initiative is premised on the perceptions that Singapore’s positive reputation with multinational corporations, and ‘guanxi’ (or connections) with regional governments, will give the regional sites a strategic advantage in the competition for foreign investments. Earlier studies have …

Transborder Industrialization And Singapore's Suzhou 'Experiment': A Paradox Of Context?, Lu Gao, Wee Tan, Caroline Yeoh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Integrating Business Opportunities In Contiguous Economies: A Note On The Low-Cost Manufacturing Enclaves In Batam Island, Indonesia, Wee Tan, Caroline Yeoh, Kevin Wongso

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Strategic Management For Economic Development: Remaking The Singapore 'Model', Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The dynamics of international economic competition have far-reaching policy implications for both developing and developed countries. Established industrial and trade policy regimes in most countries are under tremendous strain, and this applies even to the dynamic Newly Industrialising Economies (NIEs). The outward-oriented development strategies of the Asian NIEs, which once seemed unbeatable, have run up against protectionist barriers in the developed countries, and increasingly, against competitive pressures from other up and coming developing countries. Governments in these NIEs have had to re-examine accustomed policies and strategies, and search for alternative strategies and programs, in order to re-position their economies for …

The Perceptions Of Students Outside The United States On Cases Versus Lectures, G.W. Kester, R.A. Dean, David K. Ding, S.A. Hoover, M. Skully

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper reports the results of a survey of postgraduate students at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, the University of Melbourne in Australia, Monash University in Australia, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the National University of Ireland, Galway regarding their perceptions of cases versus lectures. The respondents to our survey to prefer lectures in introductory courses and cases when used to supplement lectures or used in advanced upper level courses. They agree that cases are an effective way to provide them with an organizational context that enhances their understanding of the subject matter and how it relates to …

Residual Life Distributions From Component Degradation Signals: A Bayesian Approach, Nagi Gebraeel, Mark Lawley, Rong Li, Jennifer Ryan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Domestic And Foreign Earnings, Stock Return Variability, And The Impact Of Investor Sophistication, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Ole-Kristian Hope

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the importance of foreign earnings relative to domestic earnings for a sample of U.S. multinationals using variance decomposition. Our methodology represents an alternative and complementary approach over the prior literature, which is based on traditional regressions and earnings response coefficients. We document that domestic earnings are more important in explaining the variance of unexpected returns than are foreign earnings and that the relative importance of domestic earnings is a decreasing function of investor sophistication. Last, we classify institutional investors as either short- or long-term oriented following Bushee [1998]. We find that the variance contribution of foreign earnings increases …

Ownership Structure, Investment Behaviour And Firm Performance In Japanese Manufacturing Industries, Eric Gedajlovic, Toru Yoshikawa, Motomi Hashimoto

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using data spanning the 1996-98 fiscal years of 247 of Japan's largest manufacturers, we empirically evaluate the extent to which a firm's investment behaviour and financial performance are influenced by its ownership structure. To do so, we examine six distinct categories of Japanese shareholders: foreign investors, investment funds, pension funds, banks and insurance companies, affiliated companies and insiders. Our findings strongly indicate that the relationship between the equity stakes of a particular category of investor and a firm' s financial performance and investment behaviour is considerably more complex than is depicted in simple principal-agent representations. Such a result emphasizes the …

Theorizing, Measuring, And Predicting Knowledge Sharing Behavior In Organizations - A Social Capital Approach, Chay Yue Wah, Thomas Menkhoff, Benjamin Loh, Hans-Dieter Evers

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study aims to understand the social and organizational factors that influence knowledge sharing. A model of knowledge management and knowledge sharing was developed inspired by the work of Nahapiet and Ghoshal. Data on demographics and various social capital measures were collected from a sample of members of a tertiary educational institution in Singapore in 2003. Reward & recognition, open-mindedness and cost concerns of knowledge hoarding turned out to be the strongest predictors of knowledge sharing rather than pro-social motives or organizational concern. Overall, the findings provide evidence for the importance of a conducive organizational climate and state-of-the art performance …

Rhythms Of Life: Antecedents And Outcomes Of Work-Family Balance In Employed Parents, Samuel Aryee, E. S. Srinivas, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examined antecedents and outcomes of a fourfold taxonomy of work-family balance in terms of the direction of influence (work-family vs. family-work) and type of effect (conflict vs. facilitation). Respondents were full-time employed parents in India. Confirmatory factor analysis results provided evidence for the discriminant validity of M. R. Frone' s (2003) fourfold taxonomy of work-family balance. Results of moderated regression analysis revealed that different processes underlie the conflict and facilitation components. Furthermore, gender had only a limited moderating influence on the relationships between the antecedents and the components of work-family balance. Last, work-family facilitation was related to the …

Politico-Economic Factors Associated With Interest In Starting A Business: A Multi-Country Study, Thomas Begley, Wee Liang Tan, Herbert Schoch

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Public health is a legal term of art referring specifically to delineated powers, duties, rights, and responsibilities. An emerging human rights conception of public health justifies government intervention. Intervention involves public officials taking appropriate measures including environmental regulations pursuant to specific legal authority, after balancing private rights and public interests, to protect the health of the public. This article is a critical analysis of the performance of the actors in maintaining environmental standards in India. Part II is a discussion on the source of environmental law in India. Part III discusses the performance of the legislature. Part IV evaluates the …

Intellectual Capital Performance And Cash-Based Incentive Payments: Impact Of Remuneration Committee And Corporate Governance Features, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh, Alistair Brown

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Decisions On Audit Committee Composition And Expertise And The Influence Of Board Of Director Characteristics: Further Evidence From Singapore, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

What Determines Residual Income?, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates the determinants of residual income scaled by book value of equity, i.e., abnormal return on equity (ROE), by analyzing the impact of value-creation (economic rents) and value-recording (conservative accounting) processes on abnormal ROE. I rely on economic theories to characterize economic rents and develop an empirical measure—the conservative accounting factor—to capture the effect of conservative accounting. As expected, industry abnormal ROE increases with industry concentration, industry-level barriers to entry, and industry conservative accounting factors. Also as expected, the difference between firm and industry abnormal ROE increases with market share, firm size, firm-level barriers to entry, and firm …

Equity Incentives And Earnings Management, Qiang Cheng, Terry Warfield

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the link between managers' equity incentives—arising from stock-based compensation and stock ownership—and earnings management. We hypothesize that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to sell shares in the future and this motivates these managers to engage in earnings management to increase the value of the shares to be sold. Using stock-based compensation and stock ownership data over the 1993–2000 time period, we document that managers with high equity incentives sell more shares in subsequent periods. As expected, we find that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to report earnings that meet or just …

Partnering For Perfection: An Economics Perspective On B2b Electronic Market Strategic Alliances, Qizhi Dai, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

New technological innovations have made it possible for new intermediaries to create value in business processes that involve the procurement of manufacturing and services supplies. Associated with these innovations is the emergence of business-to-business (B2B) electronic markets. These act as digital intermediaries that aim to reduce the transaction costs and mitigate the risks inherent in procurement. They improve buyers’ capabilities to search for attractive prices and also serve to increase the liquidity of sellers’ products. In this chapter, the authors explore the evolution of B2B e-market firms in terms of the strategies they employ to “perfect” their value propositions and …

Understanding Business Group Performance In An Emerging Economy: Acquiring Resources And Capabilities In Order To Prosper, Daphne W. Yiu, Garry D. Bruton, Yuan Lu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The prevalent organizational form in most emerging markets is business groups. These groups have typically been viewed through a transaction cost economics perspective where they are perceived as responses to inefficiencies in the market. However, the evidence to date on what generates a positive business group-performance relationship in such environments is not well understood. This study expands the understanding of business groups by employing the resource-based and institutional theoretical perspectives to examine how groups acquire resources and capabilities to prosper. The empirical evidence is based on over 224 business groups in the emerging economy context of China and shows that …

Assessment Centers: Recent Developments In Practice And Research, Filip Lievens, George C. Thornton Iii

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In an assessment center, candidates who participate in various simulation exercises are evaluated by a multiple trained assessors on job-related dimensions. Examples of commonly used simulation exercises are role-plays, presentations, in-baskets, or group discussions. For nearly fifty years, assessment centers have remained a popular approach for managerial selection and development (Spychalski, Quinones, Gaugler, & Pohley, 1997), and they have been shown to have substantial validity (Thornton & Rupp, 2004). Assessment centers are also very much an international affair as they are used around the globe (Byham, 2001; Kudisch, Avis, Fallon, Thibodeaux, Roberts, Rollier, & Rotolo, 2001; Sarges, 2001). Over the …

Smooth Test For Density, Aurobindo Ghosh, Anil K Bera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recently econometricians have shifted their attention from point and interval forecasts to density forecasts because at the heart of market risk measurement is the forecast of the probability density functions of various financial variables. In this paper, we propose a formal test for density forecast evaluation based on Neyman's smooth test procedure. Apart from accepting or rejecting the tested model, this approach provides specific sources (such as the location, scale and shape of the distribution) of rejection, thereby helping in deciding possible modifications of the assumed model. Our applications to S&P 500 returns indicate capturing time-varying volatility and non-gaussianity significantly …

State Of The Fisheries Report 2003/04, J. W. Penn, W. J. Fletcher, F. Head

Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

The State ofthe Fisheries Report is published annually to provide an additional level of detailed reporting of the management of fish stocks and their environment undertaken by the Department of Fisheries. A summary report from the document is included in the Department's Annual Report to Parliament, which includes the Department's non-financial (fishery) performance indicators.

By summarising management changes, compliance activities and research data including stock assessments and breeding stock levels, this document provides a valuable reference point for Western Australian fisheries of major importance to the commercial and recreational sectors, and the developing aquaculture sector.

This year's State of the …

E-Procurement Structures In Purchasing Consortia: Towards A Conceptual Framework, Bernd Ludwig Huber

Doctoral

In the literature there has been little empirical research investigation into purchasing consortium issues focusing on a detailed analysis of information and communication technology (ICT) based procurement strategies. While some anecdotal accounts of such advances in supply chain management can be found, there is a need to relate the term electronic purchasing consortia (EPC) to academic literature, thus empowering clearer theoretical analysis. EPC enable purchasing organisations to varying degrees, to electronically conduct tasks that are necessary for the management of demand aggregation of two or more legal entities, provide efficient ICT-based communication infrastructures and rely more on electronic communication than …

2005 Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress meeting minutes for 2005.

A Multi-Agent Approach For Solving Optimization Problems Involving Expensive Resources, Hoong Chuin Lau, H. Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose a multi-agent approach for solving a class of optimization problems involving expensive resources, where monolithic local search schemes perform miserably. More specifically, we study the class of bin-packing problems. Under our proposed Fine-Grained Agent System scheme, rational agents work both collaboratively and selfishly based on local search and mimic physics-motivated systems. We apply our approach to a generalization of bin-packing - the Inventory Routing Problem with Time Windows - which is an important logistics problem, and demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach.

The Effects Of Shilling On Final Bid Prices In Online Auctions, Robert J. Kauffman, Charles A. Wood

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An increasing number of reports of online auction fraud are of growing concern to auction operators and participants. In this research, we discuss reserve price shilling, where a bidder shills in order to avoid paying auction house fees, rather than to drive up the price of the final bid. We examine the effect that premium bids have upon the final selling price, since they are linked with reserve price shill bids. We use 10,260 eBay auctions during April 2001, and identify 919 auctions involving 322 sellers and 1583 bidders involved in concurrent auctions for the exact same item. We find …

Technology Competition And Optimal Investment Timing: A Real Options Perspective, Robert J. Kauffman, X. Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Companies often choose to defer irreversible investments to maintain valuable managerial flexibility in an uncertain world. For some technology-intensive projects, technology uncertainty plays a dominant role in affecting investment timing. This article analyzes the investment timing strategy for a firm that is deciding about whether to adopt one or the other of two incompatible and competing technologies.We develop a continuous-time stochastic model that aids in the determination of optimal timing for managerial adoption within the framework of real options theory. The model captures the elements of the decision-making process in such a way so as to provide managerial guidance in …

The Creation And Economic Regulation Of Housing Markets: A Comparison Of The Experiences Of Singapore And Korea, Sock-Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Privatization, creation of markets and economic regulation are terms that few would immediately associate with the housing sector. Mainstream housing markets in most of the free market economies of the developed world are regarded as competitive markets, with little need for economic regulation of the market. Regulations that attempt to control behavior directly are generally limited to policies relating to rent control, the provision of rental housing or rental allowances for lower income groups, as well as land use regulations and building controls.

The housing sectors of Singapore and Korea are highly unusual in the extent of government involvement and …