Business Commons^™

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

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

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

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

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 …

The Aging Workforce: How Can Australian Universities Address Future Workforce Challenges?, Susan Loomes, Grace Mccarthy

Grace McCarthy

Australia is facing major demographic challenges fueled by low workforce participation rates and the exit of the baby boomers from the workforce. Universities are likely to face the same workforce challenges. However, they may be in a better position than mainstream businesses due to the skills required, the flexibility of hours, and the nature and casualization of the workforce. This opens the door to attract retiring business professionals and aiding them to transition into academic teaching roles. For this non-traditional recruitment pathway to succeed, universities will need to ensure they have appropriate education and training pathways, mentoring along with peer …

Influential Organisational Capabilities For Smes’ Export Performance: An Exploratory Study, Majidah Hassan, Grace Mccarthy

Grace McCarthy

Organisational capabilities that influence the export performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been identified and discussed in previous studies which mostly have used SMEs in developed countries as their research sample. Thus, the empirical evidence from developing countries is still lacking. This exploratory study employs a resource-based view (RBV) perspective to understand how a set of organisational capabilities can influence the export performance of SMEs in Malaysia (a developing country). Based on in-depth interviews with CEOs or top level managers from twenty-three SMEs in Malaysia, the study found that capabilities to develop business networking, innovation capabilities, and capabilities …

Autonomy And Innovativeness: Understanding Their Relationships With The Performance Of Indonesian Smes, Amie Kusumawardhani, Grace Mccarthy, Nelson Perera

Grace McCarthy

AbstractThis paper reports on two Entrepreneurial Orientation dimensions: autonomy and innovativeness since there has been no significant research in this area in Indonesia, particularly related to the context of SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to report on an empirical investigation of the role of autonomy and innovativeness in the firm performance of Indonesian SMEs, using a mixed methods approach. Findings from the quantitative data analysis confirmed that autonomy and innovativeness were adopted by Indonesian SMEs. However, these EO dimensions were found to have no significant relationships with firm performance. The qualitative data analysis clarified these findings, indicating that …

Political Connection And Managerial Entrenchment: Evidence From Ceo Turnovers In China, Jerry Cao, Xiaofei Pan, Meijun Qian, Gary G. Tian

Gary Tian

Firms seek political connection by hiring politicians and ex-bureaucrats as top executives in China, especially in privately controlled firms. One unintended consequence of establishing political connection is management entrenchment. Political connected CEOs have smaller equity holding than CEOs without political background. Political connection significantly lowers the CEO turnover probability and turnover-performance sensitivity. Firm performance improves after political connected CEOs are replaced, particularly if replaced by new ones not politically connected. Overall, our findings suggest that political connection in association with management entrenchment destroys shareholder value, harms firm performance, and exacerbates corporate governance in emerging economies.

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

Simon Ville

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.

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

Jan Turbill

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 …

Strategic Ambiguity And Ethical Actions, Ah Ba Sim, Mario Fernando

Ah Ba Sim

Ethics and moral obligations of management are an integral component in corporate strategy and support is now increasing for the proposition that ethics should be central, not peripheral, to the overall management of the firm. Within this context, we examine the influence of strategic ambiguity on the ethical actions of corporations. Strategic ambiguity is a prevalent and valuable tactic in organizational strategy making. However, the influence of strategic ambiguity on organizational strategy making and communication may lead to unethical executive behaviour and action. This paper develops a framework to examine the role of strategic ambiguity in ethical action, using James …

Rivers And Puddles: Metaphors For Explaining The Need For Continuous Change And Development In Modern Organisations, Ann M. Rogerson

Ann M Rogerson

Metaphors are popular with academics and researchers to explain organisational phenomena including change, but these metaphors may not be as useful when explaining the need for continuous change to employees. This paper proposes the use of rivers and puddles as metaphors for leaders, managers and organisations to use to explain the shift required in accepting day to day change as the norm rather than a process. These relatable metaphors provide an approach to differentiating between process and adaptive change and how to explain this in terms that having meaning to individual employees and organisations.

Corporate Governance In Sri Lanka: The Status Quo, Walter Gunathilake, Anura De Zoysa, Palli Mulla Chandrakumara

Anil Chandrakumara

This paper examines the existing corporate governance environment, practices, and institutional framework in Sri Lanka and evaluates their effectiveness to identify current issues and challenges. Sri Lanka is an emerging and rapidly growing market economy in South Asia with a liberalised economic and trade policies associated with FDI, international trade, and export-led development policies. Sri Lanka's corporate governance (CG) systems and practices have been largely influenced by both colonial economic policies and post-independence govt policies. Its CG practices consists of promoting dispersed ownerships, increasing size of a board and decreasing directorship per director, greater involvement of internationally recognized few audit …

Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Using The Sri Lankan Tea Industry As A Pilot Study, Pradeepa Jayaratne, Lee Styger, Nelson Perera

Lee Styger

Genuine sustainable supply chain management is now critical to achieve competitive advantage. Risk, uncertainty, strategy, innovation, relationship, infrastructure, regulation and technology are typically historically important areas that have a strong impact on sustainable SCM. These factors have been studied within manufacturing sector in developed countries; there is a lack of research on agri-supply chain in developing countries with respect to the concept of sustainable SCM. Therefore, this research tries to map the tea supply chain and identify the influencing factors and their performance on sustainable SCM in the tea supply chain in Sri Lanka. Importantly, early research suggests that mapping …

Impact Of Work Values And Ethics On Citizenship And Task Performance In Local And Foreign Invested Firms: A Test In A Developing Country Context, Anil Chandrakumara, Paul Sparrow, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

This study examines the impact of work values and individual characteristics on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and task performance (TP). A theoretical foundation was developed in order to use work values and ethics as antecedents of OCB. Using five work related values orientations and 416 responses from Sri Lankan manufacturing sector employees, it is found that gender, employment category, and level of education influence citizenship performance. Importantly, the impact of work values on OCB is found to be more significant than that of demographic factors, with three dimensions (work norms, work ethics, and intrinsic values) found to be significant in …

The Influence Of Levels Of Supply Chain Integration On The Relationship Between Corporate Competitive Capabilities And Business Performance: Evidence From Malaysian Smes, Siti Nur 'Atikah Zulkiffli, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

This study aims to empirically investigate the influence of levels of supply chain integration (SCI) as a moderating variable on the relationship between corporate competitive capabilities (CCC) and business performance. Data was collected from a postal questionnaire from 135 Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The data was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, cluster analysis and multi-group SEM analysis. The findings confirm that the levels of SCI in a given firm moderate the relationship between CCC and business performance for that firm. The study also contributes to the body of knowledge by expanding the understanding of levels of SCI as a moderator.

A Literature Analysis On Business Performance For Smes - Subjective Or Objective Measures?, Siti Zulkiffli, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

The study examines the basic research methodologies and approaches for assessing business performance. It provides a critical literature analysis on how perception-based evaluation can be used to evaluate performance, specifically for SMEs. The analysis of the literature covers articles from major journals related to the topic. The methodology followed during the conduct of this paper involves starting with the broad case of articles in general business performance measurement, then focusing on the indicators used to study SMEs. Next, the review screens the list, focusing on the differences between subjective and objective measures. The validity issue related to subjective measures is …

Modelling Corporate Competitive Capabilities For Smes In The Malaysian Manufacturing Sector: An Exploratory Study, Siti Zulkiffli, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

This study empirically tests the relationship between the four factors of corporate competitive capabilities (CCC) (cost leadership, differentiation, innovative marketing and customer service) and business performance. The study specifically emphasises small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. The study’s quantitative approach is based on the responses of 135 Malaysian manufacturing SMEs responded to a postal questionnaire. Empirical results from structural equation modelling (SEM) demonstrate an insignificant relationship between CCC and business performance.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Using The Sri Lankan Tea Industry As A Pilot Study, Pradeepa Jayaratne, Lee Styger, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

Genuine sustainable supply chain management is now critical to achieve competitive advantage. Risk, uncertainty, strategy, innovation, relationship, infrastructure, regulation and technology are typically historically important areas that have a strong impact on sustainable SCM. These factors have been studied within manufacturing sector in developed countries; there is a lack of research on agri-supply chain in developing countries with respect to the concept of sustainable SCM. Therefore, this research tries to map the tea supply chain and identify the influencing factors and their performance on sustainable SCM in the tea supply chain in Sri Lanka. Importantly, early research suggests that mapping …

Autonomy And Innovativeness: Understanding Their Relationships With The Performance Of Indonesian Smes, Amie Kusumawardhani, Grace Mccarthy, Nelson Perera

Nelson Perera

AbstractThis paper reports on two Entrepreneurial Orientation dimensions: autonomy and innovativeness since there has been no significant research in this area in Indonesia, particularly related to the context of SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to report on an empirical investigation of the role of autonomy and innovativeness in the firm performance of Indonesian SMEs, using a mixed methods approach. Findings from the quantitative data analysis confirmed that autonomy and innovativeness were adopted by Indonesian SMEs. However, these EO dimensions were found to have no significant relationships with firm performance. The qualitative data analysis clarified these findings, indicating that …

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

Shamika Almeida

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 …

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

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

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 …

A Template For Integrated Reporting, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – This paper sets out to outline the concept of integrated reporting and to propose a template for integrated reporting in organisations.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach to the conceptual model is founded on concepts proposed on integrated reporting by the King Report on Governance for South Africa (King III), and the International Integrated Reporting Council in the U.K.

Findings – The integrated report should explain the story of reaching the organisation’s vision, underpinned by its values, enacted by management, monitored by governance, and using facets of resources relating to financial capital, intellectual capital, social capital, and environmental capital.

Practical …

Application Of The Task-Technology Fit Model To Structure And Evaluate The Adoption Of E-Books By Academics, John D'Ambra, Concepcion S. Wilson, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Increasingly, e-books are becoming alternatives to print books in academic libraries, thus providing opportunities to assess how well the use of e-books meets the requirements of academics. This study uses the task-technology fit (TTF) model to explore the interrelationships of e-books, the affordances offered by smart readers, the information needs of academics, and the "fit" of technology to tasks as well as performance. We propose that the adoption of e-books will be dependent on how academics perceive the fit of this new medium to the tasks they undertake as well as what added-value functionality is delivered by the information technology …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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 …

Eagles And Turkeys: Human Capital Externalities, Departmental Co-Authorship And Research Productivity, Frank Neri, Joan R. Rodgers

Faculty of Business - 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 extend the analysis in two important dimensions. Firstly, we investigate the second part …

Assessment Guiding Learning: Developing Graduate Qualities In An Experiential Learning Programme, Michael David Clements, Bonnie Amelia Dean

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

As industry demands increase for a new type of graduate, there is more pressure than ever before for higher education (HE) to respond by cultivating and developing students who are prepared for these workplace challenges. This paper explores an innovative experiential learning programme built on the principles of work-related learning that develops students to attain graduate qualities for competitiveness in the business sector. The role and importance of assessment as a core influence for learning is recognised and embedded into the programme, as well as the prevalence of meeting the needs of its stakeholders. Issues concerning assessing work-oriented learning are …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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 …

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

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

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 …