Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Taxonomy Of Mobile Applications In Tourism, Heather Kennedy-Eden, Ulrike Gretzel

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The rapid growth in the use of smart phones and respective mobile applications has created new ways for the tourism industry to connect with their visitors while travelling. This paper proposes a taxonomy of mobile apps in tourism from two perspectives: a taxonomy on what services travel-related apps provide to the user and a taxonomy based on the level of customization the user has with the mobile application. The taxonomies provide insights into app development trends as well as gaps in the mobile app landscape. Understanding the opportunities currently provided by apps is also critical from a marketing perspective.

Migrant Remittances, Financial Sector Development And The Government Ownership Of Banks: Evidence From A Group Of Non-Oecd Economies, Arusha Cooray

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This study investigates the influence of migrant remittances on two dimensions of the financial sector, namely, size and efficiency in a sample of 94 non-OECD economies. Evidence suggests that migrant remittances contribute to increasing the size and efficiency of the financial sector. The study, in addition, examines the impact of remittances on financial sector size and efficiency through their interaction with the government ownership of banks. The results suggest that remittances lead to larger increases in financial sector size in countries in which the government ownership of banks is lower, and increases in efficiency in countries in which the government …

Technical Efficiency Performance Of Thai Manufacturing Small And Medium Sized Enterprises, Teerawat Charoenrat, Charles Harvie

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper employs a stochastic frontier production function and technical inefficiency effects model to measure and explain the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Cross-sectional firm-level data from the industrial census conducted in 2007 is used. A simple average technical efficiency levels in all categories of manufacturing SMEs analysed in 2007 is found to be low, indicating a high degree of technical inefficiency in the production process. Despite reform measures aimed at improving firm performance, Thai manufacturing SMEs have remained predominantly labour intensive. The technical inefficiency effects model reveals that firm size, firm age, skilled …

Towards The Development Of An Evaluation Questionnaire For Academic Conferences, Clifford Lewis, Gregory M. Kerr

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Each year, academic conferences are held at destinations throughout the world. These conferences provide benefits to the host destination's economy as well as to the conference participants. Involving travel and accommodation, academic conferences can be classified as business tourism. Academics often have a range of conferences from which to choose. The conference experience therefore may be important in the decision to reattend or recommend a conference to other potential attendees. While many conference organizers distribute a "conference evaluation sheet" at the end of a conference, there is no evidence of a standardized questionnaire that evaluates the entire conference experience. The …

Heterogeneity Among Potential Foster Carers: An Investigation Of Reasons For Not Foster Caring, Melanie Randle, Leonie Miller, Sara Dolnicar, Joseph Ciarrochi

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Although Australia is experiencing a shortage of foster carers, there is currently little understanding of why people do not become carers. This study explores the reasons given for not fostering though a survey of 897 non carers. Results indicate that, at the aggregate level, people do not become carers because they do not know anything about fostering, or because they are busy with their own children, work, or commitments to family and friends. However, if we account for heterogeneity, differences in these barriers are observed for subgroups within the sample. We investigate the structure of the market of potential foster …

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

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

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 …

Identifying Barriers To Internal Supply Chain Integration Using Systems Thinking, Franciscus Bakker, Tillmann Boehme, Dirk Pieter Van Donk

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This exploratory site-centred research investigates barriers to internal supply chain integration in practice, using systems thinking. A multi-method procedure termed the Quick Scan Audit Methodology is applied to four engineering to order case companies from two different country settings to identify and categorize the actual barriers to internal supply chain integration. The study establishes that the case-significant barriers to internal supply chain integration chiefly relate to behavioral / cultural factors and the organizational arrangement / structures imposed on employees. A cross-case comparison reveals two major clusters of supply chain integration barriers termed “fire-fighting” and “functional-silo mentalities”. The fundamental structures of …

An Empirical Analysis Of Iran's Banking Performance, Amir Arjomandi, Charles Harvie, Abbas Valadkhani

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency and productivity growth of the Iranian banking industry between 2003 and 2008, encompassing pre- and post-2005-reform years.

Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a new decomposition of the Hicks-Moorsteen total factor productivity index developed by O’Donnell to analyse efficiency and productivity changes in a banking context. The advantage of this approach over the popular constant-returns-to-scale Malmquist productivity index is that it is free from any assumptions concerning firms’ optimising behaviour, the structure of markets, or returns to scale. The paper assumes that the production technology exhibits variable returns to …

Is The Rising Cost Of Education Uniform Across All Of Australia's Capital Cities?, Abbas Valadkhani, Shima Hassan Zadeh Forughi, Amir Arjomandi

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper compares and contrasts the aggregate cost of education in Australia with the cost of education in each of its eight capital cities surveyed in the Consumer Price Index. It appears that education is becoming a relatively more expensive item among Australian households with rising substantial differences across various geographical areas. Over the last three decades on average the Australian economy witnessed an overall annual inflation rate of 4.2 per cent, whereas the growth of education cost was 7.3 per cent per annum. It is interesting to note that the rising cost of education was not the same across …

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

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

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 …

Reply To "Response: Board Composition And Firm Performance: Evidence From Bangladesh - A Sceptical View", Afzalur Rashid, Anura De Zoysa, Sudhir Lodh, Kathleen Rudkin

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper replies to Chowdhury’s (2010) response to the paper "Board Composition and Firm Performance: Evidence from Bangladesh" (2010). It challenges the strength of the criticisms, arguing that the factors discussed in Chowdhury (2010) do not necessarily impair the outcome of the research. The authors elucidate issues raised, and in so doing, reproduce the results incorporating the commentator’s suggestions

Emergency Service Volunteers: A Comparison Of Age, Motives And Values, Julie E. Francis, Michael Jones

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Understanding why volunteers join an emergency service and why they stay is critical to developing more effective recruitment and retention strategies. Subsequently, this study examines the roles of age, motivations and values in satisfaction among New Generation (aged below 35 years) and Traditional Generation (aged 35 years and above) volunteers. The research conducted an online survey of 252 State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers. The results indicate a mix of similarities and differences across the generations. First and foremost though, the primary reasons for joining and staying with the service are the same for both age groups - and those reasons …

Continuance Of Mhealth Services At The Bottom Of The Pyramid: The Roles Of Service Quality And Trust, Shahriar Akter, Pradeep Ray, John D'Ambra

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Continued usage of information systems (or, IS continuance) has proven to be a critical success parameter for ICT implementation at the top of the global economic pyramid. However, there are few studies which have explored continued IS usage at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP) though it represents the majority of the world's population. To fill this knowledge gap, this study develops an mHealth continuance model at the BOP framing the impact of two post adoption expectation beliefs (i.e., perceived service quality and perceived trust). This study extends ECM (expectation confirmation model) perspective synthesizing the extant literature on continued …

The Impact Of Pre-School On Adolescents’ Outcomes: Evidence From A Recent English Cohort, Patricia Apps, Silvia Mendolia, Ian Walker

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates the relationship between attendance at nursery school and children’s outcomes in adolescence. In particular, we are interested in child cognitive development at ages 11, 14 and 16, intentions towards tertiary education, economic activity in early adulthood, and in a group of non-cognitive outcomes, such as risky health behaviours (smoking, early pregnancy, use of cannabis) and personality traits (feelings and commitments about school; psychological well-being). Using matching methods to control for a very rich set of child’s and family’s characteristics, we find that pre-school childcare largely improves results in cognitive tests at age 11 and 14 and 16, …

Flexible Rasch Mixture Models With Package Psychomix, Hannah Frick, Carolin Strobl, Friedrich Leisch, Achim Zeileis

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Measurement invariance is an important assumption in the Rasch model and mixture models constitute a flexible way of checking for a violation of this assumption by detecting unobserved heterogeneity in item response data. Here, a general class of Rasch mixture models is established and implemented in R, using conditional maximum likelihood estimation of the item parameters (given the raw scores) along with flexible specification of two model building blocks: (1) Mixture weights for the unobserved classes can be treated as model parameters or based on covariates in a concomitant variable model. (2) The distribution of raw score probabilities can be …

The Consequences And Correction Of Inflation In Personal Savings Estimates In Specific Future Time Frames, Leona Tam, Uptal M. Dholakia

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

We examined the consequences of personal savings estimate inflation that occurs when decision makers provide savings estimates for specific future months when compared with the next month or the next year time frames, along with a method to attenuate this bias. The results of three experiments showed that the savings estimate inflation leads to significantly larger estimates of desired nest egg size (Experiment 1) and preference for riskier choices in other financial domains such as investment and employment decisions (Experiment 2). An attempt to attenuate this bias revealed that it is corrected when individuals provide a budgeting estimate prior to …

I Was Only Nineteen, 45 Years Ago: What Can We Learn From Australia's Conscription Lotteries?, Peter Siminski, Simon Ville

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The Australian conscription lotteries of 1965-1972 are a unique and underutilised resource for studying the effects of army service and veterans’ programs. Drawing on many data sources and 25 years of related US literature, we present a comprehensive analysis of this natural experiment, examining indicators of health, personal economic outcomes, family outcomes and educational attainment. We discuss the numerous potential mechanisms involved and the limitations of available data.

Newspaper Coverage Of Water Issues In Australia, Anna Hurlimann, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The media has been found to have an impact on public debate, public opinion, and public policy agendas. Public debate, and public opinion about water conservation and water supply management projects matter because they can influence specific outcomes. For example, public opinion can potentially lead to positive behaviour, like increased water conservation, or potentially negative behaviours such as public opposition to developments such as dams or water recycling plants, which may be necessary under changing climatic conditions. It is therefore critical to understand how the media reports on water-related topics. Results from a content analysis of 1253 newspaper articles published …

Championing Sme Ecollaboration, Lois Burgess, Michael L. Jones

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Collaboration and eCollaboration are arguable necessities for firms in today's economic age. Gone are the times when a firm could stand alone in the market warding off the competitive pressures of rival firms. Today, just the competitive forces of globalization alone are significant drivers to enable collaboration amongst rivals. The advantages of collaboration and eCollaboration for SMEs are profuse, providing small firms a measure of economic security in a world in which many industries face hyper-competition, particularly from countries with very low costs of labor. In discussing the nature and advantages of eCollaboration, the need for an eCollaboration champion becomes …

Community Acceptance Of Recycled Water - Can We Inoculate The Public Against Scare Campaigns?, Byron Kemp, Melanie J. Randle, Anna Hurlimann, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Without improved water resource management, it is predicted that water shortages will affect two-thirds of humanity by 2025. One solution that has traditionally faced fierce public resistance is recycled waste water. This study investigates the extent to which public communication strategies can influence community acceptance of recycled water, using the framework of Inoculation Theory. A four-phase experimental design was conducted. Participants completed an initial questionnaire and were then randomly assigned to a control group, a manipulation check group or a treatment group. A final follow-up survey measured changes in the dependent variable: stated likelihood of using recycled water for different …

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

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

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 …

Biclustering: Overcoming Data Dimensionality Problems In Market Segmentation, Sara Dolnicar, Sebastian Kaiser, Katie Lazarevski, Friedrich Leisch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Data-driven market segmentation is a popular and widely used segmentation method in tourism. It aims to identify market segments among tourists who are similar to each other, thus allowing a targeted marketing mix to be developed. Typically data used to segment tourists are characterized by small numbers of respondents and large numbers of survey questions. Small samples and numerous questions cause serious methodological problems that have typically been addressed by using factorcluster analysis to reduce the dimensionality of data. Recently, factor-cluster analysis has been shown as an unacceptable solution to the problem of high data dimensionality in segmentation. In this …

Layoffs And Urban Poverty In The State-Owned Enterprise Communities In Shaanxi Province, China, Zhiming Cheng

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper applies a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine urban poverty in China’s state-owned enterprise communities where laid-off workers concentrate. A sequential explanatory model using interviews, Participatory Poverty Assessments and community household survey on textile and military industries in Shaanxi Province of northwestern China shows that low-income households suffered multidimensional disadvantages. Qualitative techniques have helped to reveal the hidden aspects of poverty while statistical tools have captured holistic information on the communities. These approaches together (Q-squared) consider both the outsiders’ and insiders’ views on the laid-off poor and benefit the making of effective anti-poverty …

The Use Of Team-Based Learning As An Approach To Increased Engagement And Learning For Marketing Students: A Case Study, Paul Chad

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Marketing educators are often faced with poor preclass preparation by students, declining student interest in attending classes as the semester progresses, and student complaints regarding previous bad experiences with team assessment activities. Teambased learning (TBL) is an innovative teaching strategy using semiformalized guidelines aimed to enhance student engagement and improve teamwork and, hence, overcome the typical problems faced by educators. This case study examines the firsttime use of TBL in a postgraduate marketing subject at an Australian university. The results indicate that the TBL innovation has a positive influence on student engagement and offers opportunities to assist learning. The study …

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

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

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 …

Sempls: Structural Equation Modeling Using Partial Least Squares, Armin Monecke, Friedrich Leisch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Structural equation models (SEM) are very popular in many disciplines. The partial least squares (PLS) approach to SEM offers an alternative to covariance-based SEM, which is especially suited for situations when data is not normally distributed. PLS path modelling is referred to as soft-modeling-technique with minimum demands regarding mea- surement scales, sample sizes and residual distributions. The semPLS package provides the capability to estimate PLS path models within the R programming environment. Different setups for the estimation of factor scores can be used. Furthermore it contains modular methods for computation of bootstrap confidence intervals, model parameters and several quality indices. …

A New Way Of Identifying Biomarkers In Biomedical Basic-Research Studies, Alexander Yassouridis, Tonia Ludwig, Axel Steiger, Friedrich Leisch

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

A simple, nonparametric and distribution free method was developed for quick identification of the most meaningful biomarkers among a number of candidates in complex biological phenomena, especially in relatively small samples. This method is independent of rigid model forms or other link functions. It may be applied both to metric and non-metric data as well as to independent or matched parallel samples. With this method identification of the most relevant biomarkers is not based on inferential methods; therefore, its application does not require corrections of the level of significance, even in cases of thousands of variables. Hence, the introduced method …

Informing Destination Recommender Systems Design And Evaluation Through Quantitative Research, Ulrike Gretzel, Yeong-Hyeon Hwang, Daniel Fesenmaier

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - Destination recommender systems need to become truly human-centric in their design and functionality. This requires a profound understanding of human interactions with technology as well as human behavior related to information search and decision-making in the context of travel and tourism. This paper seeks to review relevant theories that can support the development and evaluation of destination recommender systems and to discuss how quantitative research can inform such theory building and testing. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a review of information search and decision-making literatures, a framework for the development of destination recommender systems is proposed and the implications …

Tell Me Who You Think You Are And I Tell You How You Travel : Exploring The Viability Of Market Segmentation By Means Of Travelers' Stated Personality: Insights From A Mature Market (Switzerland), Christian Laesser, Anita Zehrer

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

People travel to different destinations for different reasons. In this study, we investigate the viability of market segmentation by personal traits (based on and exemplified by Jungian's MBTI variables) of travelers from Switzerland, by performing a data-driven a posteriori segmentation by means of k-means clustering. To identify the segmentation power of personal traits, this analysis is complemented with a multiple discriminant analysis as well as a number of contingency tests to identify differences between the segments. We identified four clearly definable segments, which differ in terms of the psychographic traits of the segment members but also in terms of some …

Attracting Volunteers In Highly Multicultural Societies: A Marketing Challenge, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Volunteer managers face a typical marketing problem: how to identify the right consumers (in this case, volunteers), attract them, and keep them loyal. In multicultural societies this challenge is amplified because of the different groups originating from countries that can vary significantly in terms of the extent of volunteering and reasons for being involved. The consequence of this heterogeneity is limited success of generic marketing campaigns. Using the theory of planned behavior, we investigate differences between Australian residents from different cultural backgrounds in their volunteering behavior. Groups differed in attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control, suggesting the need for …