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Articles 1 - 22 of 22
Full-Text Articles in Business
A Refined Basket Of Goods Approach For Comparing Construction Costs Between Countries, Rick Best
A Refined Basket Of Goods Approach For Comparing Construction Costs Between Countries, Rick Best
Rick Best
Most comparisons of construction industry performance require that construction costs be converted to a common base. Existing mechanisms for such conversions produce unreliable results. A proposed method for producing industry-specific conversion factors was tested using a single building type. A basket of materials and labour was identified and weighted to reflect the cost share of each item in a completed project. Prices for the basket were gathered in three cities and simple construction specific conversion indices were calculated based on the construction purchasing power of each currency. The construction purchasing power parities (CPPPs) showed marked differences from other available conversion …
Fundamental Investment Research – Do Us Results Apply To Australian Investors?, Bruce Vanstone, Tobias Hahn, Gavin Finnie
Fundamental Investment Research – Do Us Results Apply To Australian Investors?, Bruce Vanstone, Tobias Hahn, Gavin Finnie
Bruce Vanstone
For many investors, the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 has sparked renewed interest in value-based investment approaches. There is much published research supporting the use of fundamental analysis for value-based investment, and much of this research comes from the US. In previous articles, we have shown that US based fundamental investment research does not translate well to the Australian market. In this paper, we show how to test a well documented US fundamental investment strategy and find that it also does not transfer well to our Australian market.
Issues In Property Management: Caravan Parks- Housing On The Fringe- The Frankston View, Lynne Armitage, Victoria Brown
Issues In Property Management: Caravan Parks- Housing On The Fringe- The Frankston View, Lynne Armitage, Victoria Brown
Lynne Armitage
Whilst investment pressure from excess funds generated by compulsory superannuation contributions is creating opportunity for major international investment in property, at the current extreme of the property investment continuum lies the caravan park. Here, owners and investors also seek a positive return on investment but are stymied by a complex web of concerns which differ in character, though sometimes not in substance, from those of better recognised property investment vehicles.
Across Australia ownership of such parks is widely distributed amongst generally small investors many of whom are owner-operators of the park. This piecemeal pattern of ownership and the very broad …
What Drives Tbl Reporting: Good Governance Or Threat To Legitimacy?, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem
What Drives Tbl Reporting: Good Governance Or Threat To Legitimacy?, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem
Pamela Kent
This paper provides two complementary explanations for the adoption of triple bottom line (TBL) reporting by Australian companies. The first explanation is that companies adopt TBL reporting to legitimise their relationship with society because of adverse publicity from the media. The second explanation is that TBL reporting is adopted because of the company’s desire to achieve high-quality reporting and transparency inferred by strong corporate governance. Companies with TBL reporting had significantly more adverse media coverage before implementing TBL reporting than non-TBL companies. TBL reporting is also significantly and positively related to the existence of an environmental or sustainable development committee …
Droughts And Big Baths Of Australian Agricultural Firms, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem, Glenn Cuffe
Droughts And Big Baths Of Australian Agricultural Firms, Pamela Kent, Reza Monem, Glenn Cuffe
Pamela Kent
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether Australian agricultural firms display big bath behaviour during droughts by recognising extraordinary and abnormal losses. It is hypothesised that Australian agricultural firms are more likely to report big bath losses in drought years than in non-drought years and, in a given drought year, agricultural firms are more likely to report big bath losses than firms in other industries.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyse 405 firm-years data for agricultural firms over 1980-1995. For comparison, they also analyse matched-pair samples of 17 and 30 non-agricultural firms for the drought years of …
Exploration Of Firm Strategic Control In Australia And The United States And Implications For Global Governance Structures, Timothy Kiessling, Keith Duncan, Michael Harvey
Exploration Of Firm Strategic Control In Australia And The United States And Implications For Global Governance Structures, Timothy Kiessling, Keith Duncan, Michael Harvey
Keith Duncan
Our empirical study of 246 Directors, financial executives, accountants and credit/security analysts explore the concept of firm corporate control and what theoretically developed attributes contribute to an entity having corporate control over another. We first develop and test a model of corporate control. We then delve into what combinations of direct ownership, indirect ownership, ownership dispersion, and board of director representation are required for dominant corporate control. Due to the use of conjoint analysis, we are able to make suggestions as to the relative importance of each in regard to corporate control.
Board Structure And Firm Performance: Evidence From Australia, Ingrid Bonn
Board Structure And Firm Performance: Evidence From Australia, Ingrid Bonn
Ingrid Bonn
The influence of corporate governance on firm performance has been discussed for a number of years, but mainly in a United States and European business context. This article investigates the composition of boards of directors in large Australian firms and analyses whether board structure has an impact on performance, as measured by return on equity and market-to-book value ratio. The results showed that outsider ratio and female director ratio were positively associated with firm performance, whereas board size and directors' age had no influence on firm performance.
Financial Crises And Stock Market Volatility Transmission: Evidence From Australia, Singapore, The Uk, And The Us, Indika Karunanayake, Abbas Valadkhani, Martin J. O'Brien
Financial Crises And Stock Market Volatility Transmission: Evidence From Australia, Singapore, The Uk, And The Us, Indika Karunanayake, Abbas Valadkhani, Martin J. O'Brien
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
With the globalization of international trade and finance, the interaction between international financial markets has increased markedly. Therefore, this paper examines the nature of interaction between stock market returns and their volatility, with a particular focus on the global financial crises in 1998 and 2008 for Australia, Singapore, the UK, and the US. This study applies multivariate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model with dummy variables for weekly data spanning from January 1992 to June 2009. Based on the results obtained from the mean return equations, we could not find any significant impact on returns arising from 1998 and 2008 …
A Longitudinal Study Of The Use Of The Web By Regional Tourism Organisations (Rtos) In Australia, Lois Burgess, Belinda Parrish, Joan Cooper, Carole Alcock
A Longitudinal Study Of The Use Of The Web By Regional Tourism Organisations (Rtos) In Australia, Lois Burgess, Belinda Parrish, Joan Cooper, Carole Alcock
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The information-intensive nature of the tourism and travel industry suggests an important role for Web technology in the promotion and marketing of tourist destinations. The rapid development of the Internet is also having profound impacts on the industry. In fact, travel and tourism has become the single largest category of products sold over the Internet (Tourism White Paper, 2007). With reports of travel purchases and reservations being one of the fastest growing segments of the Internet community it is no surprise that the number of tourism operators on the Web has increased considerably over the past few years. This paper …
Contributions Of Longitudinal Data To Poverty Measurement In Australia, Joan R. Rodgers, John L. Rodgers
Contributions Of Longitudinal Data To Poverty Measurement In Australia, Joan R. Rodgers, John L. Rodgers
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Chronic poverty is of greater social consequence than transitory poverty but its measurement requires longitudinal data. This article uses six waves of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to explore the extent to which longitudinal data contribute to what is known about poverty from cross-section data. We find an imperfect correspondence between people's annual poverty status and chronic poverty status. Consequently, policies that aim to reduce chronic poverty using means-tested benefits may be partially misdirected if beneficiaries are identified using annual income. Furthermore, some households experiencing chronic poverty may fall through the safety net.
Financial Planning In Australia: Industry Or Profession?, Brian Murphy, Ted Watts
Financial Planning In Australia: Industry Or Profession?, Brian Murphy, Ted Watts
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Purpose - This paper tests whether financial planning in Australia remains an industry or can be considered a profession Design/Method/Approach - A set of attributes of professionalism were derived from the literature-public/societal responsibility, a systematic body of theory, professional authority and ethical responsibility - sample of 78 financial planners were asked to provide attitude statements relating to professionalism as well as demographic information of their business. Findings - Evidence from the attitude statements provide by the respondents to the attributes of professionalism failed to achieve a satisfactory level of professionalism for any attribute. Research limitations - The financial services operators …
Do Organisational Characteristics Explain The Differences Between Drivers Of Ict Adoption In Rural And Urban General Practices In Australia, Robert C. Macgregor, Peter N. Hyland, Charles Harvie
Do Organisational Characteristics Explain The Differences Between Drivers Of Ict Adoption In Rural And Urban General Practices In Australia, Robert C. Macgregor, Peter N. Hyland, Charles Harvie
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
A number of studies have compared general medical practices in rural locations with those in urban locations. Some of these studies have concentrated on the reasons why a GP might choose to work in a rural or urban setting. Others have examined the type of work required to be undertaken by medical professionals. Increasing use of information and communications technology (ICT) in medical practices has led to some studies examining their use in rural as well as urban settings. However, little if any research has examined whether ICT adoption drivers differ between rural and urban GPs based on their organisational …
Ranking And Clustering Of The Faculties Of Commerce Research Performance In Australia, Simon Ville, Abbas Valadkhani
Ranking And Clustering Of The Faculties Of Commerce Research Performance In Australia, Simon Ville, Abbas Valadkhani
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
There is a growing policy focus in Australian higher education on quantitative research performance assessment. However, most of the analysis has addressed aggregate performance at the institutional level, an approach inconsistent with recent policy emphasis on diversity among universities and one that ignores performance variations across disciplines. Using averaged and all available data for 2000-2004, cluster analysis is used to classify Australian Commerce Faculties into groups that exhibit similar research performance, measured by publication, PhD completion and secured competitive research grant funding. We also use factor analysis to generate full-multidimensional rankings within the resulting two or three clusters. It is …
Distinguished Fellow Of The Economic Society Of Australia, 2008: Alan Woodland, Edgar J. Wilson
Distinguished Fellow Of The Economic Society Of Australia, 2008: Alan Woodland, Edgar J. Wilson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This citation acknowledges Professor Alan Woodland as an eminent Australian economist and surveys his exceptional international record of scholarship and research with a selection of his insightful contributions to the understanding of the complex issues of international trade, taxation and welfare. These issues are at the forefront of our nation's economic priorities and it is appropriate that we formally recognise his outstanding contributions to the discipline study of economics with the award of Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia.
The Potential Pitfalls Of Transferring Constructs Across Cultural Settings: Experience From Npd Research In Australia, Janette K. Rowland, Elias Kyriazis
The Potential Pitfalls Of Transferring Constructs Across Cultural Settings: Experience From Npd Research In Australia, Janette K. Rowland, Elias Kyriazis
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the research design and methodology choices in the field of Marketing Management in order to choose the best “fit” for the authors’ research on developing a climate of trust within the new product development process. Many researchers often use constructs developed and empirically tested in other cultural contexts. This often allows for interesting cross-cultural comparisons. While useful, this paper cautions on the blind application of constructs and survey instruments. Reporting on experience from exploratory research carried out in the context of the NPD process in Australian manufacturing firms, we show the potential …
Regional Branding: Perspectives Of Tourists In Australia, Uraiporn Kattiyapornpong, Deon Nel
Regional Branding: Perspectives Of Tourists In Australia, Uraiporn Kattiyapornpong, Deon Nel
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper aims to explore the overlap and gap between the communication efforts of destination marketing organisations (DMO)’s and consumer perspectives of tourism destination within Australia. This paper applies qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Three stages of analysis are discussed. The web site content of state tourism authorities are analysed using Leximancer. The results show that states are using differing perceptual dimensions to portray characteristics of state tourism destinations. It is also found that consumers can recall the slogans and positioning of some states to a much greater extent than others. Finally it was shown that there was little correspondence and …
Diversity Management In Australia And Its Impact On Employee Engagement, Pat Skalsky, Grace Mccarthy
Diversity Management In Australia And Its Impact On Employee Engagement, Pat Skalsky, Grace Mccarthy
Sydney Business School - Papers
Diversity, defined as differences relating to gender, ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability or any other source of difference can have a major impact on employee engagement. In this article, the authors examine the results of a recent survey and uncover how diversity is managed in Australia.
Analysing Beef Supply Chain Strategy In Australia, The United States And The United Kingdom, Ferry Jie, Kevin Anthony Parton
Analysing Beef Supply Chain Strategy In Australia, The United States And The United Kingdom, Ferry Jie, Kevin Anthony Parton
Sydney Business School - Papers
The purpose of the paper is to apply recently developed methods to compare and contrast the operation of beef supply chains in Australia, the US and UK. This comparison reveals aspects of the supply chains that are a consequence of their respective contexts, including resource endowments in the various countries. The market structure is a critical factor in determining optimal supply chain configurations. As a consequence, a lean approach to SCM is more likely to succeed in Australia than in the other two countries.
Understanding The Propensity Of Chinese University Students For Leisure Travel Within Australia, Yun Zhang, Lois Burgess, Gregory M. Kerr
Understanding The Propensity Of Chinese University Students For Leisure Travel Within Australia, Yun Zhang, Lois Burgess, Gregory M. Kerr
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The provision of education to international students in Australia is increasingly important tothe higher education sector as well as other industry sectors including tourism. Althoughprevious studies have identified the contributions of international students to tourism, thereare limited studies investigating leisure travel behaviour based on student nationality andsegments within nationalities. As the first stage of a broader study, this research by way ofopen-ended interviews, investigates the propensity of Chinese university students to travelwithin Australia. By way of qualitative data analysis the findings reveal a number ofparadoxes which need to be addressed in further research to better understand the attitudesand behaviours of …
Reward, Risk And Response In Australian Cooperative Research Centres, T. Turpin, Samuel Garrett-Jones
Reward, Risk And Response In Australian Cooperative Research Centres, T. Turpin, Samuel Garrett-Jones
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Cooperative research centres are a well-established organizational embodiment of the ‘triple helix’. As complex inter-organizational structures they are subject to diverse management strategies. The imperatives that drive their strategic plans and their impact on partner organizations and the careers of the scientists who work within them are not well understood. We examine 370 participants’ experience in Australian Cooperative Research Centres and consider their effect on personnel and organizations in the public research system. We propose that a necessary part of management strategies is the negotiation and reconciliation of risk and reward for partner organizations and careers of participating scientists. Achieving …
The Power Of History: Accounting Standard Setting And The Extractive Industries In Australia, C. L. Cortese
The Power Of History: Accounting Standard Setting And The Extractive Industries In Australia, C. L. Cortese
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The application of accounting standards assists in the production of financial information that is used as the basis for decision making by a wide variety of stakeholders. Viewed in this way, the process of setting accounting standards is critical because it will ultimately generate information that will shape people’s behaviour. Accounting standard setting processes have been analysed, applauded, and critiqued by many scholars in recent decades. Lobbying efforts of constituents have been scrutinised, the standard setting processes in different geographic regions have been analysed and compared, and the economic consequences of proposed accounting alternatives have been identified and debated.
High Performers Down Under: Lessons From Australia's Winning Companies, Graeme Cocks
High Performers Down Under: Lessons From Australia's Winning Companies, Graeme Cocks
Graeme Cocks
Drawing on the results of a major 4 year empirical study, this paper identifies the common attributes of eleven of Australia’s long-term high performing organisations. The research involved a survey over 1000 senior executives to identify these organisations and covers the period from 1982 to 2007. It dispels several current myths about the characteristics of winning organisations and identifies how these differ from USA studies. Nine key elements for long-term success have been identified: effective execution, perfect alignment, adapting rapidly, clear and fuzzy strategy, leadership not leaders, looking out and looking in, right people, managing the downside and balancing everything. …