Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Innovation Lock-In: Unlocking Research And Development Path Dependency In The Australian Wine Industry, D. K. Aylward

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Innovation within the Australian wine industry is at a crossroads. More specifically, under the influence of fundamental paradigm shifts, the objectives, extension and uptake of R&D within the industry’s current innovation framework are being subjected to rather schizophrenic forces. At one level, industry organizations are directing the R&D agenda from within a national, ‘Brand Australia’ context. At another level, the firms that are being serviced by these organizations are demanding region-specific R&D extension in response to global pressure for differentiation and products at higher price-points. This paper will explore these contradictory forces and the degree to which they signal an …

Design As Research: Emergent Complex Activity, Helen M. Hasan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

There is current interest in design science as a research method in the field of Information Systems. This paper explores this proposition by incorporating established theories into the design research process. These include a view of information systems as essentially socio-technical, notions of tool mediation and expansive learning from Activity Theory and the concept of emergence from Complexity Theory where good design outcomes come from non-deterministic and organic processes. A case of innovative collaborative systems development illustrates how this view of design science may be of value.

Go*Team: A New Approach To Developing A Knowledge Sharing Culture, L. Warne, Helen M. Hasan, D. Hart

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In the ideal organisational environment, the voluntary transfer of information and knowledge would be the norm, and this understanding would underpin ongoing collective sense-making, leading to appropriate and creative actions for organizational outcomes. Workplaces are full of learning opportunities and in work life, socially based learning is occurring all the time. This paper describes Go*Team, a micro world simulation, for helping enculture the importance of collaborative processes that are at the heart of a knowledge sharing culture. The design of Go*Team and ways of playing the game are discussed, as are ways that Go*Team can be applied in order to …

Sna As An Attractor In Emergent Networks Of Research Groups, Helen M. Hasan, Hamid Pousti

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

While many progressive enterprises are becoming more network-centric, many research-oriented organisations retain a traditional hierarchy with an ego-centric culture. Paradoxically, network-centrism is associated with technology, innovation and creativity, the hallmarks of cutting-edge research. Using concepts of emergence from complexity theory, this study takes a developmental, action research approach to the application of social network analysis in legitimising a network of research groups in a traditionally managed institution. The results indicate that an emergent network is as valid an organisational structure as an imposed hierarchy for research management. The study also demonstrates the use of social network analysis and similar technological …

Leadership Learning: Building On Grounded Theory To Explore The Role Of Critical Reflection In Leadership Learning, George K. Kriflik, Lynda S. Kriflik

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

A study of eight senior managers from different organisations has combined Critical Theory and Grounded Theory approaches. This study builds on the findings of a previous substantive study (Kriflik 2002) which identified the most successful leadership strategies, as perceived by participants. The most successful strategies are those in which leaders focussed on their own behaviours, attitudes and actions. Building on these findings this study explores leadership competencies and the mechanisms which enhance, or enable, leaders’ ability to learn such competencies. Interviews were conducted and transcribed, then analysed, and became the basis for the choice of subsequent participants. The study identified …

Living In A Land Of Fire, R. J. Whelan, P. Kanowski, M. Gill, A. Andersen

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Fires are an inherent part of the Australian environment. They cannot be prevented, but the risks they pose — to life, health, property and infrastructure, production systems, and to environment values — can be minimised through systematic evaluation and strategic planning and management. Fires have a fundamental and irreplaceable role in sustaining many of Australia’s natural ecosystems and ecological processes, and they are a valuable tool for achieving many land management objectives. However, if they are too frequent or too infrequent, too severe or too mild, or mistimed, they can erode ecosystem ‘health’ and biodiversity and compromise other land management …

Modelling Blended Learning Environments: Designing An Academic Development Blog, Geraldine E. Lefoe, Wendy Meyers

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

A major challenge facing academic developers is meeting the development needs of both time poor academics and those staff in multi-location campuses, especially sessional tutors, who may start teaching several weeks before electronic access is enabled. Necessary restrictions placed on access to local intranet and Learning Management Systems meant rethinking how to meet the needs of all staff and in the process model good practice through the use of blended learning environments. One regional university, with seven national and one international campus, is currently redesigning their staff development program to incorporate the use of blogs and wikis to provide access …

Macroeconomic Aspects Of Substance Abuse: Diffusion, Productivity And Optimal Control, Amnon Levy, Frank Neri, D. Grass

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper deals with macroeconomic aspects of widespread substance abuse with a reference to illicit drugs as an example. Substance abuse impedes the productivity of the labor force and reduces economic growth. Workers are either nonusers and therefore fully productive, a number of whom are employed by the government in drug-control activities, or users who are only partially productive. Efficient management of the nation’s portfolio of workers involves eradicating drug use when initial user numbers are lower than a critical level, but allows user numbers to rise to, and be accommodated at, a stationary level when initial user numbers exceed …

Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Perceived Switching Costs Model In The Business Services Sector, Venkata K. Yanamandram, L. White

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Switching costs has been recognised as a primary reason why dissatisfied customers stay with their suppliers. While a validated multidimensional scale of switching costs exists in a business-to-consumer context, there has been little empirical research effort devoted to operationalising different types of switching costs in business service relationships. This research strives to develop a model taking into consideration the various types of switching costs. Data was collected online from 453 Australian businesses using a key informant approach. While the initial Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) failed to produce the hypothesised six-factor model, a re-run of EFA identified a five-factor model, with …

Customers’ Sensitivity To Different Measures Of Corporate Social Responsibility In The Australian Banking Sector, Alan Pomering, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received considerable research attention over the past several decades, including a growing body of work examining consumer responses to firms’ socially-responsible initiatives. Much of this has been of an experimental design, with CSR narrowly focused on one or two dimensions of consumer goods. Findings from these studies suggest consumers will respond positively to firms’ CSR initiatives. Prior studies do not, however, provide any indications how sensitive consumers are to a range of different kinds of CSR activities. Furthermore, no studies have so far been undertaken in the context of fairly standardized services which are offered …

The User-Friendliness Of Alternative Answer Formats, Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grun

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Despite the increasing resistance of consumers to participate in market research and the vast amount of literature on the methodological superiority of certain answer formats over others, the issue of user-friendliness of different answer formats has not been investigated extensively in the past. We contribute to this area of research by investigating respondents’ preferences for one of five answer formats. The preference is not measured hypothetically, respondents are invited to choose their preferred format and complete the questionnaire in the respective version. Results indicate that ordinal (polytomous and dichotomous) scales are the respondents’ favourite choices. These favourite answer formats are …

Consumer Information Privacy: A Building Block For Marketing Leadership, Sara Dolnicar, Yolanda Jordaan

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Increasingly, violations of consumers’ personal information are altering the way consumers feel about divulging their personal information to organisations. It is proposed that by identifying which consumers react in which ways to different uses of their personal information, distinct market segments could be constructed. Such segments could offer businesses an opportunity to act responsibly by discriminating their information use in dependence of the segment needs, creating opportunities for competitive advantage and market leadership. This paper provides a brief overview on information privacy, marketing relationships and market leadership; and empirically explores general and personal privacy concerns and behaviour segments in terms …

From Battle Metris To Symbiotic Symphony: A New Model For Musical Games, Mark Havryliv, E. Vergara-Richards

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

Music and games have a rich history of interplay. Instrumental composers engage with the idea of game play as a way to serialise musical material, facilitate performer’s real-time decision making and organise a particular theatricality in performance. On the other hand, electronic game developers typically use music as a motivational device in a game, and in more sophisticated games conceive the creation of sound and music as an artefact of game play.

Whilst both these types of works can exhibit a tremendous degree of complexity in the relationship between game play and music, this paper argues that the question – …

Facilitating Uptake Of Online Role Play: Reusability, Learning Objects And Learning Designs , Sandra Wills, A. Mcdougall

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

This study tracks the uptake of online role play in Australia from 1990 to 2006 and the affordances to its uptake. It examines reusability, as one affordance, from the perspective of two often polarized constructs: Learning Object and Learning Design. The study treats “reuse” on two levels: reuse of an existing online role play and reuse of an online role play as the model for another role play. In keeping with terminology that has come into recent use, we propose that the first level implies the online role play is used as a Learning Object and the second level implies …

Answer Format Suitability - The Interdependence Of Answer Format And Construct Measured, Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grun

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The vast majority of surveys use ordinal answer formats independently of the construct under study. We hypothesise that the ordinal scale is not optimal under all circumstances, but that the suitability of answer formats depends on the construct measured. A repeat measurement study is conducted using binary and ordinal answer formats measuring two different constructs: attitudes and behavioural intentions. A clear interaction effect between answer formats and constructs is revealed, supporting the notion that there is not a single optimal answer format, but that some constructs are naturally more suitable for certain answer formats than others. These findings call for …

Dolorous Songs And Blessing Of The Curses: Corporate Governance In Australia, Jane Andrew, K. Cooper, K. Islam

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The spate of corporate collapses that have plagues the business community in the last few years has had both positive and negative impacts. These have implicated accounting in the scandals and the commonality in the nature of collapses has bought in a number of blessings by triggering global consciousness and consensus to root out the problems. We argue that regulatory changes, the emergence of corporate governance codes, mandatory compliance with accounting standards for greater transparency and the emergence of a new accounting order would not have been possible without such spectacular failures.

Costing Schizophrenia, Ciorstan J. Smark

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This article looks at a particular subset of mental illness in Australia: schizophrenia, and reflects on how the direct costs that fall within the parametres of the health budget are privileged (inscribed), compared to how indirect costs that fall outside this boundary fail to be inscribed appropriately. This article concludes that, from a social accounting point of view, this boundary is arbitrary and an example of poor accounting.

The University Of Wollongong Library Professional Cadetship Experience: Developing The Skills For A Career In Librarianship, Rebecca Daly

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

The recently established University of Wollongong Library Professional Cadetship is an opportunity for those interested in a future in librarianship to undertake combined fulltime employment and Postgraduate study in a Library and Information Science Degree. The Cadetship model also aims to partly address the problem of succession planning for the University Library which has a vested interest in securing an ongoing generation of information professionals. In September 2005 I became the first cadet to begin the three year fixed term program, beginning with placement in Lending Services, and followed by Journal Access Services, each for a six month period. Management …

Uv-B Screening Potential Is Higher In Two Cosmopolitan Moss Species Than In A Co-Occurring Antarctic Endemic Moss – Implications Of Continuing Ozone Depletion, J. L. Dunn, Sharon A. Robinson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Concentrations of UV-B absorbing pigments and anthocyanins were measured in three moss species, over a summer growing season in Antarctica. Pigment concentrations were compared with a range of climatic variables to determine if there was evidence that pigments were induced by UV-B radiation, or other environmental parameters, and secondly if there were differences between species in their pigment responses. Significant seasonal differences in the potential UV-B screening pigments were found, with the two cosmopolitan species Bryum pseudotriquetrum and Ceratodon purpureus appearing better protected from the potentially damaging effects of ozone depletion than the Antarctic endemic Schistidium antarctici. Bryum pseudotriquetrum accumulated …

Lion Or Mouse? The Circus Worlds Of Salman Rushdie And Peter Carey, Paul Sharrad

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

A reading of Rushdie's 'Shalimar the Clown' and Carey's 'The Unusual Life of Tristram Smith' as fictional uses of the circus, dramatising the writer's role and allegorising political dynamics of terrorism and postcolonial liberation.

The Occupiers And The Occupied: A Nexus Of Memories, Christine M. De Matos

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores the cultural dimensions of the interactions between the Japanese occupied and Australian occupiers in the Hiroshima prefecture between 1946 and 1952.

The Globalization Of Accounting Standards: The Case Of The United Arab Emirates, H. J. Irvine, N. Lucas

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are a manifestation of globalization, with financial reports prepared under IFRS presenting an image consistent with that of multinational corporations and developed countries. Developing countries and emerging economies, in pursuing the global economic benefits offered by the adoption of IFRS, face challenges in adapting their regulatory infrastructure and culture to western-oriented accounting standards. Based on data gathered primarily from archival sources, this paper suggests that the UAE, in embracing globalization and adopting IFRS, will need to develop appropriate regulatory systems to overcome cultural issues relating to secrecy and fraud.

A Foucauldian Approach To Founder’S Influence In A Non-Profit Organization, A. Abraham, Hemant Deo

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Founder’s influence has been largely understudied in non-profit organizations (NPOs) both in terms of research and the organization itself (Ogbonna and Harris, 2001, Stevens, 2003). From, a historical perspective, the work of Foucault provides a lens for viewing such organizations in that it creates a pathway for understanding their development. In this paper, the Foucauldian framework incorporates the concepts of archaeological and genealogical underpinnings within a power and knowledge framework to explain the formation of one NPO, the Australian Girl Guides and the influence of its architect and founder Robert Baden-Powell.

Modelling Residential Water Demand In Queensland, Australia: A Comparative Analysis Of Pricing Structures And Estimation Techniques, A. C. Worthington, H. Higgs, M. Hoffmann

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper uses monthly data from eleven local governments to model residential water demand in Queensland, Australia from 1994 to 2004. In the sample, residential consumption is charged using a variety of structures including fixed charges without allowance, fixed charges with allowance and excess rates, two-part tariffs comprising an access charge and a flat consumption rate and multi-part tariffs with an access charge and two or more limits with increasing consumption rates. Water demand is specified as average monthly household water consumption and the demand characteristics include the marginal and average price of water and daily average maximum temperatures and …

A State Of The Art Review Of Residential Water Demand Modelling, A. C. Worthington, M. Hoffmann

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The increased reliance on demand-side management policies as an urban water consumption management tool has stimulated considerable debate among economists, water utility managers, regulators, consumer interest groups and policymakers. In turn, this has fostered an increasing volume of literature aimed at providing best-practice estimates of price and income elasticities, quantifying the impact of non-price water restrictions and gauging the impact of nondiscretionary environmental factors affecting residential water demand. This paper provides a synoptic survey of empirical residential water demand analyses conducted in the last twenty-five years. Both model specification and estimation and the outcomes of the analyses are discussed.

The Rationale And Impact Of The Adoption Of International Financial Reporting Standards: The Case Of The United Arab Emirates, Helen J. Irvine, Natalie Lucas

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The focus of this paper is the rationale and impact of the adoption of a globalized set of accounting standards on an emerging economy, with particular emphasis on the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The paper is based on data gathered primarily from archival sources, studied in the context of the globalization of international financial reporting and the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The UAE has embraced globalization in order to participate in the benefits it offers, including attracting foreign direct investment. Its adoption of IFRS is part of that process. In implementing IFRS, the UAE will face challenges …

Review Of Structure And Basement Control Of The Lapstone Structural Complex, Sydney Basin, Eastern New South Wales, C. L. Fergusson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

In the western Sydney Basin, the Lapstone Structural Complex is a major north-trending association of monoclines and faults that forms the frontal ridge of the Blue Mountains Plateau. At Kurrajong Heights, the Lapstone Structural Complex is dominated by an east-facing monocline with a gently dipping central limb containing several different homoclinal segments. At the Hawkesbury Lookout section, strata are steeply dipping to near vertical along the main east-facing monocline. The Lapstone Structural Complex has been related to either steep east-dipping extensional faulting or to moderate to steep west-dipping contraction faults. Strike-slip displacement may also have played a role in its …

Towards The Development Of An Integrative Governance Framework For The Third Sector: A Theoretical Review And Analysis, Murray E. Millar, Anne Abraham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper reviews the theoretical approaches taken in the governance literature in order to assess the relevance of their application to the third sector and to develop an integrative governance framework to help guide third sector organisations as they seek to improve their governance practices. Governance has been studied extensively in the corporate sector, and also, to a much lesser degree, in the third sector. However, there is evidence that a large gap still exists between what is prescribed as good governance and what has been empirically demonstrated as good governance. Due to the complexity of governance and the current …

A Challenge To Traditional Economic Assumptions: Applying The Social Theory Of Communicative Action To Governance In The Third Sector, Murray E. Millar, Anne Abraham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

A major distinguishing feature of third sector organisations (TSOs) compared with business organisations is that their purpose for existence is not to make profit for shareholders, but to promote civil society activities and build social cohesion. This paper asserts that if the purpose and the functional rationality of such organisations are significantly different from business organisations, then it should not be assumed that the approaches to governance in both types of organisations should be the same. Instead, the approaches to governance should be intimately linked to the character of the organisation being governed. Thus, this study is set in a …

Teaching And Learning In Accounting Education: Students' Perceptions Of The Linkages Between Teaching Context, Approaches To Learning And Outcomes, A. Abraham

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Research in accounting education has almost neglected both student perceptions of the learning context and their approaches to learning. Instead, studies have focused on either the teaching context or the outcomes of learning. This omission has meant that accounting educators often experience difficulty in understanding what students conceive learning to be, how they perceive the learning task, or how they approach learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the perceptions, the approaches and the outcomes of students in a business subject in order to discover how these students learn, and thus to provide some strategies …