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This paper presents results from a comparative study of company directors of the top 250 Australian companies. The paper analyses the concentration of directorship holding in Australia and New Zealand in 1991 and compares this with other Australian, New Zealand, British, Canadian and American studies. The paper argues that while the density of interorganisational interlocks in Australia is quite normal by international standards, such comparisons are substantially affected by the relatively small number of board positions characteristic of Australian companies. When we allow for this external parameter by considering the concentration of directorship holding by persons, there is evidence of a significant concentration of available positions in the hands of relatively few persons in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The paper suggests that the organisation of business power in Australia reflects a continuing tension between principles of regulation derived from the larger economies of Britain and the United States and practical concerns of business leadership in Australia generated by the geopolitical realities facing Australian business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to examine the effect intellectual capital (IC) has on firm performance of Australian companies. Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative data are collected for Australian companies listed between 2004 and 2008. IC is measured using Pulic's value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) and its components (human, structural and capital employed efficiencies (HCE, SCE, CEE)). Direct and moderating relationships between VAIC, HCE, SCE, and CEE and four measures of performance are statistically analysed. Findings – The results suggest that there is a direct relationship between VAIC and performance of Australian publicly listed firms, particularly with CEE and to a lesser extent with HCE. A positive relationship between HCE and SCE in the prior year and performance in the current year is also found. However evidence also suggests the possibility of an alternative moderating relationship between the IC components of HCE and SCE with physical and financial capital (CEE) which impacts on firm performance. Research limitations/implications – There are some missing data and some transgression of the assumptions of OLS regression. Originality/value – This paper presents the first study of the IC relationship with firm performance in Australia. Inconclusive results from prior studies in developing countries suggested the need for a study from a developed country such as Australia. The paper is also the first to investigate whether IC moderates the relationship between CEE and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of investment in R&D by Australian firms, with a focus on the role of tax policy. The analysis considers an unbalanced panel of financial data of approximately 500 large Australian firms between 1990 and 2005. The principal result is that no evidence can be found that the user cost of R&D is an important determinant of firm R&D investment decisions. A corollary is that there is no evidence that tax incentives are an effective policy tool. Growth in sales is found to be the primary determinant of R&D investment, which is interpreted as evidence of the central role of demand conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a number of important issues regarding the ethical practices and recent behaviour of large Australian firms in nine industries. These issues include whether firms have a written code of ethics, whether firms have a forum for the discussion of ethics, whether managers consider that their firm's activities have an environmental impact and whether there are any statistical relationships between the size, industry class, ownership, international involvement and location of the firm and its ethical management practices. These questions are examined by using data collected from a sample of 136 large firms operating in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to share findings from a major international study, focusing on how custodians of business excellence (BE) frameworks promote and create awareness of frameworks at the national level. Design/methodology/approach - The project was commissioned by the present custodians of the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF), with the objectives of enhancing the ABEF and increasing its usage within Australia. The methodology consisted of a literature review, three surveys, a series of focus groups and key informant interviews. The study involved input from 16 countries world-wide. Findings - Awareness of the ABEF is lower than was previously estimated in Australia, with under 10 per cent of randomly sampled organisations being aware of the model. ABEF evaluators perceived the methods of promoting the ABEF to be relatively ineffective. World-wide, custodians of BE models reported that awareness of BE had generally increased in their country in the last three years. Based on an international survey, various examples of good promotional practice from model custodians world-wide are reported. Research limitations/implications - The primary focus is on the Australian context, although the findings draw on a range of international sources and hence are of relevance to all BEF custodians. Practical implications - The findings from the project were used to redesign the ABEF, and are expected to help inform national business excellence strategies world-wide. Originality/value - The paper is one of the first to focus on how a BEF custodian can and should create national awareness of a BE framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization processes have resulted in greater complexity, interdependence and limited resources. Consequently, no one sector can effectively respond to today's business or wider challenges and opportunities. Non-government organizations and corporations are increasingly engaging each other in recognition that shareholder and societal value are intrinsically linked. For both sectors, these partnerships can create an enabling environment to address social issues and can generate social capital. Located in the Australian context, this paper explores the dimensions of community organization capacity building as an aspect of business-community organization partnerships. An Australian case study is used to demonstrate the benefits to business, community organizations and ultimately the communities in which the corporation is embedded and which are serviced by the community organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we provide an overview of empirical data relating to the use, scale and cost of executive options schemes in Australia. Our data is based on a sample of 100 large listed Australian corporations. Our data suggests that approximately 80% of large listed corporations in Australia presently employ executive options schemes, but that the size and cost of these schemes reduced significantly after 2000. We argue that this reflects the impact of increased public scrutiny over options schemes and the impending move in Australia towards a financial reporting regime in which treating the cost of options as an expense for the purposes of calculating annual profit and loss is mandatory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper attempts to develop a framework for electronic commerce (e-commerce) success. Key factors impacting e-commerce are identified from a detailed literature review. These factors are then differentiated according to their contribution to the success of e-commerce and according to the locus of impact. The final model is then cast in a structural equation modeling framework comprising four exogenous variables (internal driver, internal impediment, external driver and external impediment) and one endogenous variable (e-commerce success) with 24 observed variables. Data are collected via a questionnaire-based survey from large Australian companies. The study results suggest that increased benefits (both internal and external) from the use of e-commerce significantly predict the perceived and/or expected success of e-commerce. However, lowering of impediments (internal and external) does not significantly affect the success of e-commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is widely deployed in work organisations, very little is known about how HR practitioners customise it for use, how employees react to being typed, and how (or if) they apply it in their daily work. This article reports the findings of a study that used interviews with HR practitioners and employees to investigate perceptions and uses of the MBTI in an Australian manufacturing site. A variety of interpretations and uses was found, illustrating that the effects of a device like the MBTI cannot simply be read off from the normative claims contained within it. Despite the variety of uses to which the tool was put, employees judged its effects to be moderately beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the extent to which Australian firms that report small profits and/or small increases in earnings (i.e. benchmark beaters) have done so by the upward manipulation of these earnings. Although evidence of an unusually large number of firms managing to just beat such earnings benchmarks has been interpreted as evidence of earnings management, this approach fails to identify those firms that are the manipulators from those where unbiased earnings fall naturally into the benchmark beating group. Our results suggest that caution is required in interpreting benchmark beating as an indicator of the extent of earnings management. Using several methods for estimating the unexpected accrual component of earnings, we show that although benchmark beaters have larger positive unexpected accruals than other firms, a similar result holds when firms with small losses or earnings declines (i.e. ‘just miss’ firms) are compared with other firms. Moreover, there is no statistically significant difference between unexpected accruals for the benchmark beating and just miss groups. At a minimum, we reject the joint hypothesis that unexpected accruals capture earnings management and that an unusual kink around zero in the distribution of earnings levels or earnings changes is caused by earnings management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory-driven conceptual model is used to identify factors that shape the international human resource management (IHRM) activities of Australian multinational corporations (MNCs) in their overseas subsidiaries. The findings show that their IHRM activities appear to be shaped, to varying degrees, by strategic factors. The most important explanatory variables are subsidiary role and national cultural distance between home and host countries, although the results of national culture may change through adopting a more sophisticated framing and measurement of the variable. Interestingly enough, the parent HR managers were found lo stress the role of subsidiary company factors in determining HR policies and practices in the subsidiaries. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution because the cross-sectional nature of the study is limited in explaining very complicated HRM phenomena that evolve over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article raises the issue of growing inequalities in remuneration in Australia at a time of severe economic recession. The salary packages of the CEOs and senior managers of large Australian companies have been increased substantially in recent years often in spite of poor performance of the companies. At the same time real wages have either stagnated or, according to some researchers, have fallen in the same period. In addition unemployment has risen to unprecedented high levels (above 11%). The ethics of such growing differentials are rarely addressed in the literature on compensation. It is mooted that the lack of ethical scrutiny affects staff morale and performance by non-managerial employees adversely. It tends to make a mockery of the philosophy of performance-based pay and the concept of appointment and promotion on the basis of merit. Without suggesting a widespread breakdown in norms and standards in Australia this article does question the quality of Australian management and raises the issue of appropriate corrections. Studies about the need for a new direction in management education and into the role of the Boards of Directors, their competence and functions have been conducted and others are in train. These suggest a preference for piecemeal reforms while, perhaps, more drastic measures are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article reports on the results of a qualitative, comparative case study of the management of expatriates by four Australian companies. International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is a field in its infancy and the study aims to contribute to theory-building by examining the IHRM activities of selection, predeparture training, compensation and repatriation in the context of the organization in which these activities take place. The purpose was to extend our understanding of IHRM beyond the descriptive studies of earlier research, though existing knowledge in the area was the starting point. Thus, while the initial focus of the investigation was on the IHRM activities, the use of an exploratory qualitative methodological approach allowed the examination of the process of expatriate management. This approach also assisted in identifying underlying relationships, patterns and trends which could be interpreted as linkages or interrelationships between IHRM activities and other organizational factors, such as stage in internationalization, type of industry, strategy and structure. It was possible to identify linkages between the four major IHRM activities, and what were defined as firm-specific and situation-specific variables. These linkages were then conceptualized into a suggested framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]