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Service Quality Of Mhealth: Development And Validation Of A Hierarchical Model Using Pls, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray Dec 2015

Service Quality Of Mhealth: Development And Validation Of A Hierarchical Model Using Pls, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray

Shahriar Akter

Advancing research on service quality requires clarifying the theoretical conceptualizations and validating an integrated service quality model. The purpose of this study is to facilitate and elucidate practical issues and decisions related to the development of a hierarchical service quality model in mobile health (mHealth) services research. Conceptually, it extends theory by reframing service quality as a reflective, hierarchical construct and modeling its impact on satisfaction, intention to continue using and quality of life. Empirically, it confirms that PLS path modeling can be used to estimate the parameters of a higher order construct and its association with subsequent consequential latent …


Development And Validation Of An Instrument To Measure User Perceived Service Quality Of Mhealth, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray Dec 2015

Development And Validation Of An Instrument To Measure User Perceived Service Quality Of Mhealth, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray

Shahriar Akter

The role of service quality in fostering the growth of mHealth services has gained much attention in the academic and practitioner communities. However, empirical research in this area has been beset by inadequate conceptualization and the lack of a validated scale. This study addresses these limitations by theoretically conceptualizing and empirically validating a multidimensional service quality scale in the mHealth context. The findings show that mHealth service quality is a hierarchical, multidimensional, and reflective construct, which consists of three primary dimensions and eight subdimensions. The results also confirm that the mHealth service quality scale is more effective at predicting satisfaction …


Modelling The Impact Of Mhealth Service Quality On Satisfaction, Continuance And Quality Of Life, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray, Umme Hani Dec 2015

Modelling The Impact Of Mhealth Service Quality On Satisfaction, Continuance And Quality Of Life, Shahriar Akter, John D'Ambra, Pradeep Ray, Umme Hani

Shahriar Akter

Understanding the impact of service quality on economic and social outcomes is critical to extend the focus of IT service research. This study evaluates the impact of quality on both these dimensions in mHealth using a cross disciplinary approach. The conceptual model is rooted in the traditional cognition-affective-conation chain but explicitly incorporates convenience, confidence, cooperation, care and concern as the primary dimensions of mHealth quality. The model is validated in the context of a business-to-consumer mHealth services using partial least squares path modelling. The results confirm that service quality has both direct and indirect impact on continuance intentions (i.e. economic …


Hope For The Future: Identifying The Individual Difference Characteristics Of People Who Are Interested In And Intend To Foster-Care, Joseph V. Ciarrochi, Melanie J. Randle, Leonie M. Miller, Sara Dolnicar Jul 2015

Hope For The Future: Identifying The Individual Difference Characteristics Of People Who Are Interested In And Intend To Foster-Care, Joseph V. Ciarrochi, Melanie J. Randle, Leonie M. Miller, Sara Dolnicar

joseph Ciarrochi

High-quality foster placements can help a foster-child to thrive and can counter some of the risk factors normally associated with being a foster-child. Unfortunately, demand for foster-carers has been outstripping supply. The present study sought to identify the characteristics of people who have high potential to become a foster-carer. A large, representative sample from the general population (544 male; 544 female; Mage = 40.8; SD = 13) completed an anonymous survey that included comprehensive measurement of demographics, personal resources (e.g. social support), personal characteristics (e.g. hope) and foster-care interest, intentions and information seeking. Analyses revealed that people who sought information …


Strategic It Alignment: An Evaluation And Process-Level Reconceptualization Of The Construct, Magno Queiroz, Tim Coltman, Rajeev Sharma, Paul Tallon, Peter Reynolds Jan 2015

Strategic It Alignment: An Evaluation And Process-Level Reconceptualization Of The Construct, Magno Queiroz, Tim Coltman, Rajeev Sharma, Paul Tallon, Peter Reynolds

Magno Queiroz

Strategic IT alignment is an important construct that has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention. However, a close examination of how the construct has been defined and operationalized in the literature reveals a number of limitations and inconsistencies. In particular, the construct has been defined too broadly and used loosely to account for diverse phenomena. This situation is problematic because it undermines the relevance of IT alignment research for IS scholars and practitioners. This paper reviews enduring challenges to strategic alignment research and proposes a process level conceptualization for the construct. In particular, the proposed re conceptualization meets two …


Role Of Remuneration Committee In Narrative Human Capital Disclosure, Indra Abeysekera Aug 2014

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

Indra Abeysekera

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.


Occupational Health And Safety Management In Organizations: A Review, Michael Zanko, Patrick Dawson Mar 2014

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

Michael Zanko

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 …


Reframing Occupational Health And Safety Management: A Social Innovation Approach, Patrick M. Dawson, Michael Zanko Mar 2014

Reframing Occupational Health And Safety Management: A Social Innovation Approach, Patrick M. Dawson, Michael Zanko

Michael Zanko

This paper argues that traditional thinking about occupational health and safety (OHS) issues has limited the development of innovative solutions to improve employee well-being. However, recent interest in social innovation provides an opportunity to rethink approaches to OHS management. We consider the emphasis in industrial production on the push for ever greater performance (and profits), often at the expense of the well-being of employees. Next, we examine social aspects of work and consider the new, emerging concept of social innovation. Finally, we forward a more holistic model of OHS for improving the conditions and well-being of employees. Finally, we call …


Not All Repeat Customers Are The Same: Designing Effective Cross-Selling Promotion On The Basis Of Attitudinal Loyalty And Habit, Yuping Liu-Thompkins, Leona Tam Mar 2014

Not All Repeat Customers Are The Same: Designing Effective Cross-Selling Promotion On The Basis Of Attitudinal Loyalty And Habit, Yuping Liu-Thompkins, Leona Tam

Leona Tam

Not all repeat purchases are created equal. They can be driven by both positive reaction toward a brand (i.e., attitudinal loyalty) and automaticity triggered by non-brand-related contextual cues (i.e., habit). Combining the loyalty literature with recent habit research, the authors suggest ways to distinguish the two drivers of repeat purchase and examine how they affect consumer response to cross-selling promotions. In Study 1, the authors propose a method to derive individual-level habit strength from consumer transaction records and demonstrate the influence of both attitudinal loyalty and habit on repeat purchase. Studies 2a and 2b then show that attitudinal loyalty facilitates …


A Practice-Based Approach To Student Reflection In The Workplace During A Work-Integrated Learning Placement, Christopher Sykes, Bonnie Amelia Dean Mar 2014

A Practice-Based Approach To Student Reflection In The Workplace During A Work-Integrated Learning Placement, Christopher Sykes, Bonnie Amelia Dean

Christopher Sykes

In the Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) curriculum, reflection on workplace activities is widely used to support student learning. Recent critiques have demonstrated the limitations of current approaches to support students' reflective learning of workplace practices. By employing a practice-based approach, we seek to refocus WIL reflection on workplace practices, emphasising the 'embedded (social), engaged (practice) and embodied (material) aspects' of students' reflective practices in the workplace. We argue that reflection-in-the-midst-of-action includes an often-overlooked phenomenological contribution that shifts attention from cognition to action. This study uses a case study of one typical WIL student to illustrate the importance of reflection-in-the-midst-of-action and the …


A Dissemination Methodology For Learning And Teaching Developments Through Engaging And Embedding, Lesley Treleaven, Chris Sykes, Jarrod Ormiston Mar 2014

A Dissemination Methodology For Learning And Teaching Developments Through Engaging And Embedding, Lesley Treleaven, Chris Sykes, Jarrod Ormiston

Christopher Sykes

Dissemination of learning and teaching innovation in higher education requires approaches to change that are socially contextualised, dynamic and self-reflexive. This article, therefore, presents a methodology for dissemination employing an embedding heuristic and engaging in participatory action research. The embedding approach emphasises three organisational domains of action: first, the capacity of communities of practice and distributed leaders to generate organisational commitment and seed activities; second, formal and informal organisational policies and procedures that provide reciprocal processes for initiating and systematically sustaining curricular change; and, third, accessible resources, tools and databases that support implementation of innovation. The methodology is applicable for …


Divergent Approaches To Investment: A Tale Of Three Local Councils, Greg Jones, Ciorstan Smark, Anne Abraham Mar 2014

Divergent Approaches To Investment: A Tale Of Three Local Councils, Greg Jones, Ciorstan Smark, Anne Abraham

Ciorstan Smark

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 led to a substantial write-down in the value of investments such as Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs) with one class of investors being NSW local councils. This paper analyses interviews with three local councils, each of which took a substantially different approach to CDO investment. It adopts the lens of Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to describe and explain behaviour regarding decisions to invest (or not) in CDOs, and how these decisions impacted on them. Interesting themes arise regarding differing views on the appropriate role of local councils, and on the degree and form of "capital" …


Are Low-Skill Public Sector Workers Really Overpaid? A Quasi-Differenced Panel Data Analysis, Peter Siminski Feb 2014

Are Low-Skill Public Sector Workers Really Overpaid? A Quasi-Differenced Panel Data Analysis, Peter Siminski

Peter Siminski

Public–private sectoral wage differentials have been studied extensively using quantile regression techniques. These typically find large public sector premiums at the bottom of the wage distribution. This may imply that low skill workers are ‘overpaid’, prompting concerns over efficiency. We note several other potential explanations for this result and explicitly test whether the premium varies with skill, using Australian data. We use a quasi-differenced Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel data model which has not been previously applied to this topic, internationally. Unlike other available methods, this technique identifies sectoral differences in returns to unobserved skill. It also facilitates a …


Enhancing The Educational Subject: Cognitive Capitalism, Positive Psychology And Well-Being Training In Schools, James Reveley Feb 2014

Enhancing The Educational Subject: Cognitive Capitalism, Positive Psychology And Well-Being Training In Schools, James Reveley

James Reveley

Positive psychology is influencing educational policy and practice in Britain and North America. This article reveals how this psychological discourse and its offshoot school-based training programs, which stress happiness, self-improvement and well-being, align with an emergent socioeconomic formation: cognitive capitalism. Three key points are made. First, there is an elective affinity between cognitive capitalism and positive psychology, whose advocates promote 'mindfulness','curiosity' and 'psychological flexibility' as the means to personal fulfilment. Second, an array of technologies of the self spring from the positive psychology discourse; mindfulness practice is one of these. Currently being trialled in British and North American schools, this …


Does Ceo Pay Dispersion Matter In An Emerging Market? Evidence From China's Listed Firms, Fang Hu, Xiaofei Pan, Gary Tian Feb 2014

Does Ceo Pay Dispersion Matter In An Emerging Market? Evidence From China's Listed Firms, Fang Hu, Xiaofei Pan, Gary Tian

Xiaofei Pan

This paper examines how the institutional features of emerging economies (i.e., government ownership, political connections, and market reform) influence CEO pay-dispersion incentives. Consistent with our expectation, we find that CEO pay dispersion generally provides a tournament incentive in China's emerging market, as it is positively associated with firm performance. In addition, tournament incentives are weaker where firms are controlled by the government and where the CEO is politically connected, but it became stronger after the China's split-share structure reforms. Further, we find that in state controlled firms the satisfaction gained by meeting multiple economic and social goals largely reduces the …


An Analysis Of Mature Aged Female Participation In New South Wales Regional Labour Markets, Natalie Akmacic, Martin O'Brien Feb 2014

An Analysis Of Mature Aged Female Participation In New South Wales Regional Labour Markets, Natalie Akmacic, Martin O'Brien

Martin O'Brien

The analysis of regional markets has surfaced as an important emerging area of economic research in recent years. In particular, economists have attempted to explain the factors behind divergent trends in different regions' growth, migration, structural change and employment. With this in mind, the focus of this paper is to explore the trends in regional labour force participation for mature females over the period 1992 to present. The labour force participation of this group is particularly relevant in the context of Australia's ageing population. To analyse mature age participation we utilise ANOVA to determine the differences between various Australian regions …


Trade Liberalisation And Manufacturing Wage Premiums: Evidence From Thailand, Kankesu Jayanthakumaran, Piyapong Sangkaew, Martin O'Brien Feb 2014

Trade Liberalisation And Manufacturing Wage Premiums: Evidence From Thailand, Kankesu Jayanthakumaran, Piyapong Sangkaew, Martin O'Brien

Martin O'Brien

This paper investigates trade related industrial wage premiums. The procedure involves (1) estimating industrial wage premiums and (2) linking those estimated wage premiums to trade related variables. Results reveal that (1) in addition to workers' characteristics, industry characteristics where workers are employed were important in determining the wages for workers, (2) falling output tariffs resulted in increased wage premiums, and (3) an increase in intermediate imports exerted a strong positive influence on wage premiums. Linked employer and employee micro data may provide further insights which are currently not available.


Earnings Quality And Stress Levels Of Chinese Listed Companies, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma Feb 2014

Earnings Quality And Stress Levels Of Chinese Listed Companies, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Shiguang Ma

This paper investigates the relation between earnings quality and stress levels of Chinese companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2003 to 2007 by classifying them as financially stressed and bankrupt (SB), financially stressed and not bankrupt (SNB), and not financially stressed and not bankrupt (NSNB) firms. We measure the earnings quality by four separate attributes: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness. We find that earnings quality levels are parallel to firm's stress levels: the SB firms have the lowest earnings quality measured by each of the four earnings attributes, the SNB firms have a …


Political Connections, Founder-Managers, And Their Impact On Tunneling In China's Listed Firms, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma, Gary Tian Feb 2014

Political Connections, Founder-Managers, And Their Impact On Tunneling In China's Listed Firms, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma, Gary Tian

Shiguang Ma

We investigate the impact of manager political connection and founder status on tunneling in China's listed firms from 2004 to 2010. By classifying the political connections into three dimensions with two categories of controlling ownerships, we find that overall manager political connection is negatively related to tunneling in private firms but positively related to tunneling in SOEs. The CPC/CPPCC-type connection is likely to protect firms from tunneling, while the official-type connection facilitates tunneling from firms. The impact of these two types of political connection on tunneling is stronger at the central level than the local level. A chairman's political connection …


Increasing Demands On Information Systems And Infrastructures For Complex Decision-Making, Helen Hasan, Stephen Smith Feb 2014

Increasing Demands On Information Systems And Infrastructures For Complex Decision-Making, Helen Hasan, Stephen Smith

Helen Hasan

To extend the development of cumulative theory on the enduring themes of Information Systems (IS), we take an historical perspective of a core topic within the field, namely Decision Support Systems (DSS). Motivated by the complexity of strategic decision-making within the Climate Change Working Group of the State Government of New South Wales, we conducted a content analysis of IT strategy documentation from 1989 to the present. In our analysis of the resulting concept maps we observe the increasing dynamism and complexity of DSS over this period and suggest that we are now entering a critical era for IS in …


Unordered Business Processes, Sustainability And Green Is, Helen Hasan Feb 2014

Unordered Business Processes, Sustainability And Green Is, Helen Hasan

Helen Hasan

Green Information Systems (Green IS) provides a socio-technical perspective on the diverse complex phenomena of organisational sustainability. The Cynefin sense-making framework is eminently suitable for making sense of dynamic, complex phenomena and for guiding sensible decisions on how to meet the challenges they present. The Cynefin framework is described here and illustrated in terms of both ordered and unordered business processes. It is the unordered that are the least understood; but they are the most critical when it comes to sustainability. While order may be appropriate in the short term, sustainability issues also demand a more challenging long-term perspective. Just …


Modelling Real-Time Online Information Needs: A New Research Approach For Complex Consumer Behaviour, Robert G. Grant, Rodney J. Clarke, Elias Kyriazis Feb 2014

Modelling Real-Time Online Information Needs: A New Research Approach For Complex Consumer Behaviour, Robert G. Grant, Rodney J. Clarke, Elias Kyriazis

Robert Grant

A major challenge for online vendor website operations is serving information that meets visitor needs at a given point in their purchase process. The problem arises from the complexity of human behaviour as well as changing needs with the evolution of consumer knowledge and skills through the purchase process. The most difficult element however is determining the effects of information provided on the site as well as from other sources that the consumer may access and anticipating resulting consumer needs. This paper discusses the contributions and limitations of current modelling techniques and utility studies of online consumer information to model …


Managing Collaboration Across Boundaries In Health Information Technology Projects, Karin H. Garrety, Andrew Dalley, Ian Mcloughlin, Rob Wilson, Ping Yu Feb 2014

Managing Collaboration Across Boundaries In Health Information Technology Projects, Karin H. Garrety, Andrew Dalley, Ian Mcloughlin, Rob Wilson, Ping Yu

Karin Garrety

One reason that it is so difficult to build electronic systems for collecting and sharing health information is that their design and implementation requires clear goals and a great deal of collaboration among people from diverse social and occupational worlds. This paper uses empirical examples from two Australian health informatics projects to illustrate the importance of boundary objects and boundary spanning activities in facilitating the high degree of collaboration required for the design and implementation of workable systems.


Stages Of Trust Development In Banking Relationship, Shyam S. Bhati, Anura De Zoysa Feb 2014

Stages Of Trust Development In Banking Relationship, Shyam S. Bhati, Anura De Zoysa

Anura De Zoysa

Using data collected from eight bank branches in India, this study examines how the trust between branch manager and loan officer begins and develops in multiple stages over a period of time. It seeks to fill an important gap in the academic literature on the development of trust between trustor and trusted over a period of time by empirically examining the trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer in a bank. The results of the cross case qualitative analysis conducted on stages of trust development using pattern matching technique suggest that trust relationship between branch manager and loan officer …


Strategic It Alignment: An Evaluation And Process-Level Reconceptualization Of The Construct, Magno Queiroz, Tim Coltman, Rajeev Sharma, Paul Tallon, Peter Reynolds Feb 2014

Strategic It Alignment: An Evaluation And Process-Level Reconceptualization Of The Construct, Magno Queiroz, Tim Coltman, Rajeev Sharma, Paul Tallon, Peter Reynolds

Tim Coltman

Strategic IT alignment is an important construct that has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention. However, a close examination of how the construct has been defined and operationalized in the literature reveals a number of limitations and inconsistencies. In particular, the construct has been defined too broadly and used loosely to account for diverse phenomena. This situation is problematic because it undermines the relevance of IT alignment research for IS scholars and practitioners. This paper reviews enduring challenges to strategic alignment research and proposes a process level conceptualization for the construct. In particular, the proposed re conceptualization meets two …


The Economy, Simon Ville Nov 2013

The Economy, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

The rapid expansion and diversifi cation of the economy in the twentieth century brought immense wealth and many new opportunities to many Australians. Real per capita income grew nearly sixfold in the century following Federation. When the first federal parliament met on 9 May 1901, Australia was still suffering the effects of the 1890s downturn, and it would wait another seven years until average incomes returned to their pre-Depression peak of 1891. The following four decades were marked by the uncertainty surrounding two world wars and an inter-war Depression. Higher levels of real income began to be achieved by the …


Institution Building And Variation In The Formation Of The Australian Wool Market, David Merrett, Simon Ville Nov 2013

Institution Building And Variation In The Formation Of The Australian Wool Market, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

The relocation of the wool market from London to the major Australian port cities from the late nineteenth century required the formation of an institution to govern the auction business, namely the wool brokers' association. Regional variations, among Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, occurred in the structure and effectiveness of the institution despite each regional association having been formed around the same time, for the same purpose, and with an overlap of participating firms. We draw on institution theory to guide our account and find that the impact of legacy factors and differences in market conditions explain the regional variations.


Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprise Technical Efficiency: Evidence From Firm-Level Industrial Census Data, Teerawat Charoenrat, Charles Harvie, Yot Amornkitvikai Jul 2013

Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprise Technical Efficiency: Evidence From Firm-Level Industrial Census Data, Teerawat Charoenrat, Charles Harvie, Yot Amornkitvikai

Charles Harvie

Thai manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) face intense competition in domestic and foreign markets. Given their importance to the economic development of the country it is important to have a clear understanding of their readiness to face the rigors of international competition, including the barriers and specific problems that they face. This study uses a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and technical inefficiency effects model to analyze the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing SMEs and key factors impacting upon it. Analysis of cross-sectional data from a 2007 census of Thai manufacturing SMEs indicates that their weighted average technical efficiency …


The Role Of The United States Coast Guard In Marine Environmental Protection: The Uscgc Alex Haley Example, Ted Watts, Carol J. Mcnair-Connolly Jul 2013

The Role Of The United States Coast Guard In Marine Environmental Protection: The Uscgc Alex Haley Example, Ted Watts, Carol J. Mcnair-Connolly

Ted Watts

Few countries in the world task their military with the role of marine pollution response in addition to its responsibility as a military service. One country that does is the United States of America. The United States Coast Guard has, in addition to its military and security missions, the task of marine pollution response and enforcement. This program includes the prevention of oil and chemical spills, unauthorized ocean dumping and to prevent the introduction of invasive marine species into the maritime environment . This paper considers the operational and environmental costs associated with a major oil spill and the revenue …


Employee Wellbeing In Australian Organisations - A Snapshot Of Current Practices, Grace Mccarthy, Shamika Almeida, Julia Ahrens Jul 2013

Employee Wellbeing In Australian Organisations - A Snapshot Of Current Practices, Grace Mccarthy, Shamika Almeida, Julia Ahrens

Grace McCarthy

Research has shown that employee wellbeing is associated with a range of positive outcomes such as reduced stress and improved productivity. The aim was to assess the nature and prevalence of wellbeing programs in Australian organisations. An email invitation was sent to 3471 HR professionals in Australia of whom 313 responded to the online survey (9%). Findings indicate that this small subset of Australian HR professionals consider that the benefits of well-being programs outweigh the costs and have a variety of initiatives in place which contribute to employee wellbeing. However, the low response rate may suggest that many organisations do …