From institutional care to living in South Australia: intercountry adoption

The adoptees' narratives have illustrated the difficulties that they were confronted with when transitioning to a new world. Their remarkable use of self-efficacy enabled them in overcoming deprivation and abuse and leading a better life in Australia. The quality of the post-institutional care was directly related to the adoption outcomes.

The 'iPortfolio' : measuring uptake and effective use of an institutional electronic portfolio in higher education

An institutional electronic portfolio called the "iPortfolio" had over 17,000 subscribers one year after its introduction at an Australian university. This paper reports on a study to determine how students use these "iPortfolio" accounts, and factors leading to uptake and effective use. Self-assessed competence with technology skills, factors motivating uptake, and barriers to adoption were examined using an online survey completed by 554 students. Of these, 339 had an "iPortfolio" at the time they completed the survey. Survey results were examined in the context of usage patterns based on data automatically collected for operational and administrative purposes. No statistically significant difference in prior technology use or self-assessed competence with information technology was observed when comparing students with "iPortfolio" accounts to those without. Assessment was found to be the principal driver of "iPortfolio" uptake. However, about two-fifths (42.9%) of students agreed that they were likely to use the "iPortfolio" in the future, even if it was not a course requirement. An additional 29.6% were neutral. Significant use of the "iPortfolio" to reflect on extracurricular activities was not observed. Improved employability outcomes were seen to be a benefit of "iPortfolio" adoption by about half (52%) of the students. Recommendations are made to promote "iPortfolio" uptake and encourage student reflection on "lifewide" experiences that enhance employability and augment learning within the formal curriculum.

The development of internal auditing in Ethiopia: the role of institutional norms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which institutional norms determine attributes of internal audit practices and how institutional changes explain the development of these practices.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed a qualitative research approach based on archival analysis and interview evidence.

Findings – Findings indicate that regulation-based institutional norms explain the adoption of internal audit and the function's characteristics in Ethiopian organizations. Furthermore, innovative introduction of internal audit practices originate within individual organizations and eventually get institutionalized through diffusion. Such innovations are associated with organizational size, top management characteristics, internal audit advancement in technology, and exogenous input from the external environment. Widely accepted internal audit practices, as institutional norms, are not always taken-for-granted at the level of individual organizations. The institutional change perspective enables explaining how new internal audit approaches are introduced to supplant old ones.

Originality/value – This study theorizes the development of internal audit practices from an institutional change perspective. Being the first study to do so, it contributes to the understanding of key drivers of institutional change that initiate new institutional norms that foster the development of internal audit through introduction and diffusion of new audit practices as old ones are deinstitutionalized.

Bridging the copyright and licensing knowledge gap

Objectives: The purpose of this project was to examine the copyright and licensing knowledge gap of academic staff to identify their current understanding of, and attitudes towards, copyright, licensing and the open access movement in relation to the content they use, create, and share in their teaching and research practice. The motivation behind this study was to gather information to assist the Library in creating and providing effective information resources and training for academic staff.

Methods: An anonymous online survey was distributed to Faculty of Health academic staff at Deakin University. Seventy individuals in the Faculty of Health completed the survey.

Results: The results suggested that most of the academics have used content created by others in their teaching materials, but they are not confident about complying with copyright or licensing conditions whilst doing so. Most had not posted any of their own content online, but would generally be willing for it to be used by others, with attribution. Around half had never posted their published articles in an institutional or discipline repository, but again, would be willing for them to be used for educational purposes. Most academics have never shared their research data online, and some were very unwilling to do so - despite current pushes to broaden access to research data sets. Finally, most had never applied a Creative Commons licence to a piece of work, and over half were unaware of what rights they had retained under publishing agreements for their work. It was strongly indicated that an informational website would be very helpful in providing guidance around topics of copyright, licensing and sharing.

Conclusions: Results were largely consistent with other similar studies conducted around these topics. There is a clear role for librarians to continue providing such training and resources as the push for Open Access resources, publishing, and data only gains momentum.

Stories from high school and prisons rattle institutional cages

AbstractThis paper is based on two research projects. One considered ‘unsettling’Aboriginal prisoner education and the other ‘troubling’ education in high school.Juxtaposed are two critical research methodologies; critical ethnography and arelational critical allied methodology. Whilst these may at first appear very similar,on closer scrutiny it becomes clearer that independently, the place of the researcherbecomes situated in a somewhat different relationship with participants. Inworking through these layers of difference, what emerges are the entwined voicesof participants who are clearly telling us what ‘bars hold them in their cages’ andwhat spaces between could be transformational.

Fraud, market reaction, and the role of institutional investors in Chinese listed firms

The extent and type of financial fraud committed by listed firms in China, stock market reaction to the detection and announcement of fraud, and the association between institutional ownership and financial fraud are the subjects of this article. Using fraud data from the period between 2001 and 2011, the authors find wide occurrences of fraud and a strong negative market reaction on the announcement date, particularly in cases of serious fraud. Fraud is more likely to occur at firms that have a smaller proportion of independent directors and at poorly performing firms. Firms with higher mutual fund ownership subsequently have fewer incidences of fraud. Our results reports by the authors indicate that ownership by independent institutions, such as mutual funds, serves as an effective monitoring mechanism, deterring fraud and enhancing corporate governance in Chinese capital markets.

The HWMD maturity model: a foundational framework to measure effectiveness of institutional research e-infrastructures

There is a nationally recognised need for a framework and tools to measure progress in implementing e-infrastructures for research from an institutional, organisational unit and service perspective. This paper describes the development of a prototype maturity model and self-assessment tool in response to that need. The authors present a background to the environment of technology enabling services for research and the challenges of fluidity of boundaries around traditional services and roles as institutions respond to the needs of the research community. The conceptual basis of the model is presented along with the model and its various elements that explain how the model is in its current form. The information provided in this paper, combined with field site test feedback, will promote discussion and debate amongst the community and opportunities will present to gather input to optimise the model. The next steps would be to further elaborate and test the constructs and indicators of the model in field test sites and to further develop the self -assessment tool.

Competitive and cooperative behavior in embedded markets: developing an institutional perspective on bazaars

In an ethnographic study of a retail setting, we examine relationships among competitors. We find that competitors often emphasize various forms of cooperation, and we describe socio-economic behaviors that illustrate how cooperation transcends or mediates competition among retailers. Retailers selectively cooperate and compete for customers in ways that alter our understandings of concepts such as loyalty and market stability, and practices such as marketing communications and pricing. We highlight the significance of these institutional practices and the role they play in forming and maintaining community in a bazaar.

Institutional processes and the production of gender inequalities: the case of Australian child support research and administration

This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently ‘smoothed’ their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.