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(2010)ThesisThis thesis investigates the dynamics of trading behaviour and provides a comprehensive assessment of the overall performance of all Finnish retail and institutional investors over the years 1995 through 2004 using detailed transaction data on daily trades and investor identities. In contrast to prior published studies for Finland, this study reveals a significantly superior performance achieved by households over institutions in the longer run, either before or after the trading expenses. Despite much lower transaction costs, institutions trade several times as much as the most active household age group that reduces their net return as much as for households. I also find institutional trading is the key contributor to the volatility of Nokia share price. This study further examines the trading performance of individual investors across gender and age bands and documents both males and females in their thirties are the best performing traders among their respective gender groups on either a gross or net basis. In term of gender, male groups show significantly higher turnover while females hold higher-risk stocks. Frequent trading reduces men’s net return more so than do women in all age groups. The life cycle hypothesis does not seem to apply to Finnish working males nearing retirement after Nokia price crashed in 2000. This age group of 60 to 69 were net buyers of Nokia shares, and hence does not indicate a movement out of a high-risk investment into cash or bonds. I find strong evidence of correlated trading among household groups with young and middle-aged males sharing the highest cross correlations between their contemporaneous buy intensity. The level of correlated trading is surprisingly persistent and increases year by year. This finding suggests that profitable herding behaviour encourages more information sharing among households over time.
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(2011)ThesisAbstract The Australian Taxation Office’s administrative tax shortfall penalty system is based on the actions of a taxpayer relevant to a tax shortfall. In the absence of the entity’s cooperation in providing documentation and evidence of intent, the determination of the facts from third party sources can be a complex and expensive process. My research has found duplication between s 284-75(3) and s 286-75(1) of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (TAA) this could not have been the intention of the drafters of these provisions. The only explanation is that the brief prepared for the Explanatory Memorandum to Parliament for s 284-75(3) TAA, did not properly explain the distinction and full purpose of the subsection. The result being that staff engaged in compliance activities have to rely on the formal powers of s 353-10 TAA to obtain source documents from recalcitrant taxpayers. The evidence from cases cited in this thesis is that s 284-75(3) is used only to apply 75% penalty for a default assessment where there is failure to lodge a Statement, s 286-75(1) also applies a different type of penalty effectively for the same offence. This would suggest that ‘other document’ in s 284-75(3)(a) was intended to be for documents substantiating a statement to the Commissioner and not the statements covered by s 286-75(1). The aim of the Commissioner is to gain community confidence thus ensuring taxpayer compliance with tax legislation . This can sometimes be thwarted by complexities and inefficiencies in the penalty system. This study analyses the antecedents of the tax penalty domain and its current practices to make recommendations to enhance taxpayer equity, improve future compliance and make the operation of the regime simpler for all participants. The findings of this study are that a satisfactory administrative tax shortfall penalty regime should involve mutual obligations on the part of the Tax Office and taxpayers; be easy to understand; have the effect of isolating non-compliant taxpayers; and assists in the administration of penalties at lower cost.
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(2011)ThesisEmotional labour is the process of regulating both inward feelings and outward expressions for the purpose of achieving work goals (Grandey, 2000). Past research shows that the performance of emotional labour to produce positive emotional displays is associated with both positive and negative outcomes for the organisation and the employees who produce the emotional display (Bono & Vey, 2005). However, some employees must engage in negative emotional labour which involves the regulation of feelings and expressions in order to display negative emotions for the purposes of carrying out work duties. This thesis contributes to the wider body of emotional labour research by investigating the antecedents, strategies and consequences of negative emotional labour. Two studies are reported. Study 1 uses an experimental design and draws upon recent developments on the interpersonal effects of anger to examine whether the expression of negative affect by employees and the intensity with which it is expressed lead to greater compliance to requests made. Results demonstrate that the expression of negative affect, regardless of its intensity, lead to increased compliance with employee requests. Study 2 extends the findings of the first study by examining the antecedents, deep and surface acting strategies, and consequences of expressing negative affect in a field study of debt collectors. Results show that employees engage in negative emotional labour when they perceive the negative emotional display rules of their organisation. In addition, the emotional labour strategy used by employees has an influence on the outcomes of emotional labour. Deep acting results in increased employee performance while surface acting leads to detrimental outcomes such as emotional exhaustion and acts of workplace deviance. Implications for research, practice and future directions are discussed.
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(2011)ThesisThis study examines whether the survival of Australian companies subject to voluntary administration is associated with the experience of administrators and their professional firm affiliation. A comprehensive data set of 212 voluntary administrations of listed public companies covering the 16 year period from 1993 to 2008 is compiled for analysis. The study finds that administrator experience is positively associated with the initial survival of companies in the VA phase and the ultimate survival of companies in the DOCA phase. This finding is robust to various definitions of experience and various control variables for the financial and other characteristics of companies. The positive association between administrator experience and ultimate survival also persists when the liquidation category is extended to de facto liquidations where pre-administration shareholders lose 95% or more of the value of their equity. The study’s main findings are consistent with the explanation of experienced administrators being relatively better managers of companies rather than self-serving managers that delay liquidation for higher fees. Additional analyses of liquidations in the VA/DOCA phases and losses made by pre-administration shareholders, however, provide evidence consistent with administrator opportunism in the VA phase. In terms of administrator firm affiliation, the study finds that there is a negative association between administrators from Big 4 audit firms and initial survival in the VA phase reflecting the conservative nature or reputational concerns of these firms. In contrast, no association is found between administrators from Large 4 insolvency firms and company survival. There is a positive association, however, between administrators from Mid-tier firms and initial survival in the VA phase. The indirect evidence of administrator opportunism in the study underscores the research need for better public access to information about administrators’ fees.
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(2011)ThesisThe obesity epidemic persists, despite countless strategic efforts made to counter it. The aim of my research was to discover if there is a new approach to be taken to contain the obesity epidemic. In the final chapter of this thesis, I present a study design intended to test the efficacy of a novel and scalable obesity intervention strategy. In Chapter 1, which provides detail about the obesity problem I am addressing, I point out that the obesity epidemic is contributed to in two (related) ways: an increasing body mass index (BMI) amongst the present population and an increased risk that high BMI will affect future generations. This observation, although seemingly obvious, is rarely pointed out, and is the first indication that the causality of the obesity epidemic is not well understood. I suggest that there is a prevalent causal understanding of the obesity epidemic, which fails to discern causes of obesity from causes of the obesity epidemic and, as a result, accurately depicts neither. I call this view, modelled in Chapter 2, The Conventional View. Two additional models are presented, which address the weaknesses of The Conventional View. In Chapter 3 I argue that if my updated causal model of the obesity epidemic, An Updated View, is more accurate than The Conventional View the goals of most current obesity interventions are suboptimal. This argument follows being able to show that the goals of current obesity intervention strategies are based on The Conventional View. The study design presented in the final chapter is the main contribution of this thesis. An obesity intervention strategy delivered to pregnant women targets causal factors prominent in An Updated View. There are two main questions addressed by the hypotheses in this study. Firstly, will the treatment enable glucose control? And then, will improved glucose control translate into a reduced risk of obesity for women (the present population) and their children (future generations)? In other words, will the intervention reduce the obesity epidemic?
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(2011)ThesisThis study examines vertical product differentiation within the Big 4 audit firms in the Australian audit market and potential pricing effects resulting from this differentiation. Assuming a competitive Big 4 audit market, systematically higher prices pertaining to one particular Big 4 audit firm is indicative of utilisation of a product differentiation strategy. A firm-wide premium implies existence of vertical product differentiation or quality differentiation. I single out PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the firm which is most likely to be using vertical product differentiation as its predecessor firm Price Waterhouse is historically considered to be the most prestigious of the Big N firms. In particular, I investigate if there is evidence of a PwC premium relative to the other Big 4 audit firms. Using a sample 5,686 observations over the period 2000 to 2009, I find evidence of a PwC audit fee premium in Australia on average and in specific years. Over this period, after controlling for client attributes, Ernst and Young (EY), KPMG and Deloitte (DT) have 9.7%, 10.8% and 12% lower audit fees than PwC, respectively. I also explore the alternative explanations of location, office size, and auditor industry specialisation in assessing the robustness of these findings. Using size and industry matched samples and propensity score matched samples, I further find that the PwC premium identified is a result of PwC being differentiated as a firm rather than having differentiated clients. My findings are of interest to audit researchers, regulators, auditors and auditees because pricing differentiation by PwC poses implications for future audit research, audit regulation and auditor selection. The identification of a PwC premium highlights a new dimension of product differentiation (vertical or quality differentiation) within the Big 4 audit market.
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(2010)ThesisThe study examines the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on changes in auditor reporting behaviour in Australia, in particular, whether auditors change their likelihood of issuing a going concern opinion and change their audit effort in response to a challenging audit environment. Using non-financial Australian listed companies over the period 20052009, I test whether the propensity of going concern modifications issued by auditors, audit report lag and audit fees vary in the financial crisis period (2007-2009) compared with the pre-financial crisis period (2005-2006). I find an increase in the propensity to issue going concern opinions by auditors during the period 2008•2009 compared with the period 20052006; that Big N auditors respond to the GFC earlier than non-Big N auditors; and that all Big auditors increase their propensity to issue going concern opinions in response to the GFC, though the degree of increase varies between Big N auditors. However, variation between Big N auditors in propensity to issue going concern opinions is sensitive to model specification and definition of the GFC period. I also find evidence of increased audit fees but no evidence of longer audit report lags during the crisis period relative to the pre-crisis period. Overall, I provide evidence on to what ex tent auditors exercise their professional scepticism regarding particular issues and how much resources they invest in conducting audit engagements during the GFC. My findings are of interest to regulators, auditors and financial information users because it assists auditors and regulators to assess the appropriateness of the strategies implemented and it also informs financial information users of the extent to which audit opinions are informative during the financial crisis. Also, the study informs the policy and law makers as to the impact of shareholder actions on auditor opinion issuance.
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(2010)ThesisAccording to the knowledge based view of organisation, knowledge is an important productive resource that provides organisations competitive advantages. It is also argued that no single organisation has the full-range of expertise to survive. New knowledge is acquired not only from internal knowledge resources but also from sources outside the organisation’s boundaries. Thus, inter-organisational knowledge sharing is important for organisations to gain new knowledge. Many organisational relationships have been created to transfer knowledge. The customer-supplier relationship as part of the supply chain is a special type of inter-organisational relationship that is highly knowledge-intensive. Many of the critical failures in supply chain management are the consequence of poor knowledge sharing activities with organisation partners. One of the barriers to knowledge sharing is the lack of intention to share knowledge. The lack of intention to share knowledge as a starting point for knowledge sharing is even more important in customer supplier relationship because knowledge sharing is not normally viewed as one of the main targets by supply chain partners and therefore may not receive appropriate attention. Unlike knowledge transfer activities in other types of inter-organisational alliances, knowledge transfer between supply chain partners is generally not targeted and is less guaranteed. Thus, intention to share knowledge with its supply chain partners is of particular interest for an organisation. The focus of this study is to investigate the intention to share knowledge in customer-supplier relationships. The study aims to identify factors influencing this intention to share knowledge between supply chain partners by focusing on a simple two-level supply chain. In order to achieve this aim, a research model is developed based on the relevant theories of knowledge sharing in existing literature and then tested and extended through multiple case studies. The resulting integrated conceptual model about the intention to share knowledge in supply-chain relationships makes an important contribution to the literature as well as to knowledge sharing in practice.
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(2011)ThesisThis thesis is the first to investigate the association between market competition, the choice between dividends and stock repurchases as payout methods, and dividend smoothing. Using a sample of U.S. firms in the period 1963-2009, I find that firms in highly competitive industries prefer to pay out through repurchases rather than dividends, perhaps because they are less capable of maintaining stable future profitability. Before 1982, regulatory constraints prevented firms from aggressive repurchase programs. In the post-1982 period, as the introduction of Rule 10b-18 removed the regulatory constraints on repurchases, firms in highly competitive industries demonstrated significantly decreased preferences for paying out dividends and increased preferences for repurchases, which implied substitution of dividends with repurchases. I also show that dividend payers in highly competitive industries tend to keep dividends at a relatively persistent level and distribute increases in earnings through repurchases, thus their dividend levels are smoother than those in less competitive industries. Further, I also confirm the hypothesis of Grullon and Michaely (2007) that high competition is associated with high payout levels.