Business

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 50
  • (2013) Cecez-Kecmanovic, Dubravka; Kennan, Mary Anne; Williamson, Kirsty; Johanson, Graeme
    Book Chapter
    This chapter begins with a broad overview of the methodological landscape that distinguishes between three levels: the level of meta-theoretical assumptions where different paradigms are articulated, the level of research methods and the level of research techniques and tools. Different research paradigms are then discussed, making explicit the assumptions that inform them, and the relationships between methodology, theory and method in conducting research. We then build on this analysis illustrating the distinctive nature of the paradigms with examples from three seminal papers from within the same topic domain, information richness. Drawing on these papers, we discuss how the methodological assumptions determine choice of research paradigm, formulation of research questions and selection of methods, and provide practical examples of how this is achieved. The chapter concludes by summarising the arguments for adopting a broader view of research methodology and its importance for achieving greater reflexive awareness of our ‘unconscious metaphysics’ that underlay and influence how we see and research the world.

  • (2013) Kennan, Mary Anne; Williamson, Kirsty; Johanson, Graeme
    Book Chapter
    This chapter describes the various forms and sources of research data and the importance of planning to appropriately manage data throughout their life cycle. The many reasons that data should be managed within research projects and programs (and beyond to enable future use) are discussed. Legal, ethical and policy reasons for planning are introduced, as are practical and pragmatic reasons, along with the role of researchers in data management processes. Ten important components of a data management plan are addressed and a checklist for researchers in the early stages of constructing a data management plan is provided. The chapter concludes by providing references to useful data management tools and resources.

  • (2013) Kennan, Mary Anne; Thompson, Kim M; Williamson, Kirsty; Johanson, Graeme
    Book Chapter
    This chapter begins by reinforcing the integral role of writing and dissemination in the research process, while acknowledging that writing and dissemination practices vary from discipline to discipline, field to field. Despite these differences, there are characteristics and processes that most research writing and dissemination have in common, and these are discussed here. From the general structure of a research report to the importance of writing throughout the research process, key aspects of research writing are addressed after which dissemination and publishing are defined and major and emerging forms of publication are described. The chapter concludes with a discussion of peer review and the ethics of authorship.

  • (2013) Chen, Elaine; Shipton, Helen; Bednall, Timothy; Sanders, Karin
    Conference Paper

  • (2013) Ibrahim, Waleed
    Thesis
    With the growth of the Internet, firms have realised the potential of this medium as a tool to expand their businesses and offer enormous benefits to their customers. E-commerce is a way to conduct business transactions online. It provides convenience for people to purchase goods and services at lower costs and without the need of having to speak to someone directly or going into a store. E-commerce assists businesses to develop new markets, increase productivity through cost reductions and establish electronic links between businesses which makes it an integral part of the local and global market. Despite e-commerce having been around since the mid-1990s and attracting more and more attention from businesses and consumers, the adoption of e-commerce is still relatively slow among retailers compared to other ways of doing business. This is due to the lack of understanding of the e-commerce phenomenon and the context that is affecting its adoption. This research aims to provide better understanding of e-commerce adoption among Australian retailers. For this purpose the study interviewed firms from different retail categories and used a combination of Daniel et al.’s (2002) stages of growth (SOG) model and Tornatzky and Fleischer’s (1991) technology-organisation- environment (TOE) framework as the basis to develop an integrated e-commerce model that outlines the evolution of e-commerce from B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) perspectives. The model will be a useful tool for retailers to have a better understanding of their current state of B2C and B2B initiatives as well as helping them to develop suitable strategies to implement online trade and to sell products and services over the Internet. The data analysis has identified five B2C e-commerce maturity levels: web presence, e-commerce portal, e-commerce implementation, e-commerce integration and enterprise integration. The B2B e-commerce levels describe the involvement of the firm in B2B from simple format interaction through emails and other communication tools over the internet to more sophisticated levels until the final level which represents full integration of online and in-store operations. In addition, the study findings suggest that the defined e-commerce levels are influenced by internal and external factors. However, these factors were found to have a different effect on each level of adoption. In addition, the research findings suggest that organisations can reach a stagnation point from which they have no motivation to move further up to the following e-commerce maturity level either now or in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the study identified anxiety points among e-commerce maturity levels where the retailers were found to be interested in advancing further in their e-commerce implementation to integrate e-commerce with their in-store POS (point-of-sale); however, they were uncertain about proceeding as this move is associated with high human and financial investment. Finally, the study found that according to the case organisations, it is unlikely that the online trade will replace the traditional form of trade conducted through the physical location. However, among the case organisations who were involved in e-commerce, the study found that e-commerce represents an important business model for them, despite the low revenue percentage generated through this emerging and developing application of various information and communications technologies (ICTs). The proposed model is expected to be used as a roadmap for organisations considering online trade with customers and business partners.

  • (2013) Cheng, Wai-Lun
    Thesis
    This thesis was undertaken to examine hypotheses about the potential to apply the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to understand the transfer of training. Prior to developing the hypotheses, previous theories were discussed and empirical studies published over the past few decades were reviewed. Due to inconsistent findings, the thesis argues that the role of trainees, especially their intention (as envisaged in the TPB), should form a new direction for studying transfer behavior. For the thesis, two empirical studies were conducted. The first study tested an intention-based model to explain transfer of training behavior. Specifically, attitude toward the transfer behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were proposed as antecedents of transfer intention, while transfer intention and perceived behavior control predicted transfer behavior. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) (n = 132 construction practitioners in Hong Kong) showed that the three antecedents positively affected transfer intention, which in turn affected transfer behavior positively. Perceived behavioral control did not affect transfer behavior significantly. Moreover, a post-hoc analysis supported the mediating role of transfer intention in the relationship between the antecedents and transfer behavior. The second study examined a similar model, but added two variables – transfer performance and gender. A survey was carried out of 168 working people in Hong Kong. Testing with SEM revealed the acceptance of the explanatory powers of the different structural equations. However, among the three antecedents, only attitude toward the transfer behavior was significantly related to transfer intention. Perceived behavioral control and transfer intention were significantly related to transfer behavior, which was in turn related to transfer performance. Also, the moderating role of gender was tested with hierarchical regression analysis, and only male respondents were found to be significant in moderating the relationship between perceived behavioral control and transfer intention. Overall, the findings of this thesis support the use of the TPB in explaining transfer of training. However, the varying findings from the two studies draw attention to the nature of work (teamwork and the control of resources) that may exert influence on the transfer process. This implication is useful to develop future research directions.

  • (2013) Sahgal, Sidharth
    Thesis
    This dissertation is composed of three stand-alone research projects in corporate governance, banking and empirical asset pricing. In the first project, I use a sample of S&P 1500 firms to examine the role of outside directors with extended tenures in board-level governance, monitoring decisions, and advising outcomes. I find that firms with a higher proportion of directors with extended tenures have lower CEO pay, higher CEO turnover sensitivity following poor performance, and a smaller likelihood of intentionally misreporting earnings. These firms are less likely to make acquisitions, while the acquisitions that are made are of higher quality. My results show that regulatory efforts to impose term limits may, therefore, be misguided. In the second project, I use a sample of large banks across 38 countries to examine how the concentration of the banking system impacts the choice of business activities and consequently the stability of banks. I show that banks in less concentrated banking systems have higher levels of non-traditional business activities with higher shareholder returns, but at a cost of increased systemic risk. In contrast, the non-traditional business activities in highly concentrated banking systems help reduce the volatility of profits and also the systemic risk of banks. Unlike previous research, I show that there is not always a one-to-one relationship between non-traditional business activities and systemic risk. In the third project, I propose a novel measure of institutional attention based on readership statistics of news articles on Bloomberg terminals. I find that investors pay more attention to news stories for larger and low book-to-market firms. Contrary to previous studies, I do not find that institutional attention is reduced on Fridays. There is a sharp increase in abnormal turnover and absolute adjusted returns on days when institutional investors pay attention to news. The effects of institutional investor attention are much larger for smaller firms. Finally, while short term reversals are reduced on days after news is published, I provide some evidence that short term reversals do not occur on days after published news is read.

  • (2013) Nguyen, Thi Thuy
    Thesis
    The first study examines ownership concentration in the US and in 40 other countries. The recent study by Holderness (2009) challenges the widely belief and earlier findings (e.g. La Porta et al. (1998, 1999) and shows that the ownership of US firms is at least as concentrated as that of elsewhere. These findings raise fundamental questions regarding US ownership structure and the relation between ownership concentration and investor protection. Using a comprehensive international sample across 41 countries, this study re-examines the ownership concentration between US firms and non US firms. This study also extends the method of Holderness (2009) by examining at different cutoffs and controlling for country heterogeneity, and thus we find that US firms are more diffuse than non US firms. This paper also confirms that investor protection reduces ownership concentration cross countries. The second study examines the relationship between blockholdings and firm value and how this relationship changes across investor protection regimes for 20883 observations in 37 countries from 2006 to 2009. This study finds a U shaped relationship between firm value and the control rights of blockholdings. The U shaped relationship provides evidence that supports the entrenchment effect when the control rights of blockholdings are not sufficiently high. In addition, this study finds that the relation between blockholdings, firm value, and investor protection is not monotonic. The final study investigates the earnings management of firms that have different types of ultimate owners and how the earnings management of these firm groups responds to investor protection in 36 countries. Similar to other studies, I find that the earnings management of firms having ultimate owner is higher than that in widely held firms. However, I find this relationship does not hold for all firm groups having different types of ultimate owners. Furthermore, whereas other studies find that insiders are associated with greater earnings management in low investor protection countries than those in high investor protection countries, this study finds the opposite pattern for some firm groups. These findings contribute to the literature by examining the heterogeneity of blockholders, accounting reports, and investor protection.

  • (2013) Wong, Shine Shang-Hong
    Thesis
    In 2012, the impact of phoenix activity on the Australia’s market economy was estimated by PWC to be as high as $3.19 billion per annum. The aim of the thesis is to assess the effectiveness of the current operation of the regulatory regime in curbing phoenix activities in Australia, with particular reference to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (“Corporations Act”). In particular, the thesis seeks to explore whether a legal definition for the term “phoenix activity” and specific legal consequences for engaging in phoenix activity should be incorporated into the Corporations Act. The specific legal consequences considered include self-initiated remedies for early intervention of phoenix activities and proactive remedies for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”) to take the appropriate regulatory actions. The significance of the thesis is to establish an appropriate theoretical framework to assess the effectiveness of the current laws in dealing with phoenix activities, and to propose law reform within the Corporations Act in order to combat phoenix activities. The theoretical framework chosen for the thesis is a combination of Ayres and Braithwaite’s pyramid of enforcement strategies and the DEFEAT test, which consists of Deterrence, Efficiency, Fairness, Expertise, Accountability and Transparency as factors in assessing the effectiveness of the current laws in dealing with phoenix activities. The thesis concludes by presenting five law reform recommendations with respect to the Corporations Act: (1) to propose a legal definition for the term “phoenix activity” within s 9 of the Corporations Act; (2) to include commercial transactions which led to, or may lead to, phoenix activities in the definition of uncommercial transactions under s 588FB of the Corporations Act; (3) to amend s 459A of the Corporations Act to allow those who have standing, to apply to the court to wind up phoenix companies; (4) to amend s 601AH of the Corporations Act to allow ASIC to reinstate, through the courts, deregistered companies that have been suspected of conducting phoenix activities; and (5) to introduce s 588GA of the Corporations Act to include both criminal and civil liabilities attached to directors who are found to have conducted phoenix activities.

  • (2013) Zhang, Yuyu
    Thesis
    The thesis investigates “where were the auditors in asset securitizations”, a criticism of the audit profession before and after the onset of the global financial crisis (GFC). Asset securitizations increase audit complexity and audit risks, which are expected to increase audit fees. Using US bank holding company data from 2003 to 2009, this study examines the association between asset securitization risks and audit fees, and its changes during the global financial crisis. The main test is based on an ordinary least squares (OLS) model, which is adapted from the Fields et al. (2004) bank audit fee model. I employ a principal components analysis to address high correlations among asset securitization risks. Individual securitization risks are also separately tested. A suite of sensitivity tests indicate the results are robust. These include model alterations, sample variations, further controls in the tests, and correcting for the securitizer self-selection problem. A partial least squares (PLS) path modelling methodology is introduced as a separate test, which allows for high intercorrelations, self-selection correction, and sequential order hypotheses in one simultaneous model. The PLS results are consistent with the main results. The study finds significant and positive associations between securitization risks and audit fees. After the commencement of the global financial crisis in 2007, there was an increased focus on the role of audits on asset securitization risks resulting from bank failures; therefore I expect that auditors would become more sensitive to bank asset securitization risks after the commencement of the crisis. I find that auditors appear to focus on different aspects of asset securitization risks during the crisis and that auditors appear to charge a GFC premium for banks. Overall, the results support the view that auditors consider asset securitization risks and market changes, and adjust their audit effort and risk considerations accordingly.