Sun exposure and sun protection behaviours among young adult sport competitors

Objective: To explore the relationship between sun protection and physical activity in young adults (18-30 years) involved in four organised sports.

Methods: Participants (n=237) in field hockey, soccer, tennis and surf sports completed a self-administered survey on demographic and sun-protective behaviours while playing sport. Differences in sun-protective behaviour were explored by sport and by gender.

Results: Sunburn during the previous sporting season was high (69%). There were differences between sports for sunburn, sunscreen use and reapplication of sunscreen. Lifesaving had the highest rates compared with the other three sports. Hats and sunglasses worn by participants varied significantly by sports. A greater proportion of soccer and hockey players indicated they were not allowed to wear a hat or sunglasses during competition. For all sports, competition was played mainly in the open with no shade provision for competitors while they were playing. There were some gender differences within each of the sports. Female soccer and tennis players were more likely to wear sunscreen compared with males. Female hockey players were more likely to wear a hat compared with males.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight that there is still room for improvement in sun-protective behaviours among young adult sport competitors. There is a need for a systematic approach to sun protection in the sporting environments of young adults.

Implications: Health promotion efforts to increase physical activity need to be paired with sun protection messages.

New Zealand and its competitors in the knowledge economy

In the US, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Ireland and other countries, the growth of the Internet and other related new technologies have become the catalyst for the creation of ‘knowledge economies’. The new information and communication technologies have created global markets for goods and services. Countries that have encouraged their people through education and life-long learning and by investing heavily in research and development (R&D) are well positioned to take advantage of these new global markets. Along with globalisation has come the death of distance. Thanks to the Internet, New Zealand is no longer remote from the rest of the world.

But New Zealand’s economy is still too dependent on producing commodities for export. While efforts over the last fifteen years to diversify markets have been very successful, we still need to expand our limited range of products. We must take the next important step and transform New Zealand from a pastoral economy into a knowledge-driven economy. For New Zealand, the Internet is the modern equivalent of the freezer ship that revolutionised our economy last century. If New Zealanders do not seize the opportunities provided by the knowledge economy, we will survive only as an amusement park and holiday land for the citizens of more successful developed economies.

This article puts New Zealand into world perspective by assessing its knowledge economy benchmarks against its competitors. It outlines the theoretical background to ‘‘new growth theory'' and delineates the lessons of that theory, especially for New Zealand. It treats the key issues for New Zealand’s emergence as a knowledge economy, including education, the M ori dimension, immigration, research and development, venture capital, export policy and telecommunications regulation.

Has China displaced its competitors in high tech trade?

This paper empirically investigated the extent to which China displaced its competitors in high-tech exports using disaggregated data for the period 1992–2013. To address the endogeneity problem, we used a comprehensive set of instruments for Chinese high-tech exports in relevant markets, including China's GDP and distances to those markets. Results of our IV regressions revealed that in most of the high-tech sectors, Chinese exports had displaced the exports of its developing competitors such as India, South American exporters like Brazil and Mexico, and South-East Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, especially in the period prior to the 2007–08 global financial crisis. Yet, Chinese exports had been associated with more high-tech exports of developed exporters like OECD countries, South Korea and Japan. Our findings suggest that while China became the world's top high-tech exporter, its high-tech exported products had been substitutes to those of other developing and emerging economies but complementary to that of developed economies.

What contributes to vocational excellence? Characteristics and experiences of competitors and experts in WorldSkills London

Modelling Vocational Excellence (MoVE) International is a WorldSkills Member research initiativesupporting:• skills improvement and Competition best practice• international skills benchmarking, and• promotion of vocational excellence to young people, employers and policy makers.MoVE International is the inaugural research project for the WorldSkills Foundation and is alsosupported by Skills Finland, WorldSkills UK, WorldSkills Australia and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum.The research team is a partnership between: University of Tampere, Finland; University of Oxford,UK; and RMIT University, Australia, with support from Deakin University, Australia.The research initiative sets out to produce outcomes relevant to the interests of its majorstakeholder groups. The data produced by the study offers WorldSkills International and individualWorldSkills Members a framework for international benchmarking on skills quality, and a windowinto the WorldSkills experience for Competitors and Experts. Through the research reports,WorldSkills Member organizations will also gain access to global data on WorldSkills Competitorsand Experts which may be applied to improve training and professional development. Importantly,young people are afforded a global voice. In telling their own stories they can share theirexperiences with peers, and provide future Competitors with insights into the experience of beinginvolved in international skill competitions. For WorldSkills International, the data is a source ofpromotional material, and may contribute to event and organizational evaluation.The MoVE research project launches the WorldSkills Foundation’s program of research,engagement and advocacy. MoVE offers the Foundation an opportunity to influence the globaldebate on vocational education and training, and to shift the orientation of VET research away froma ‘deficit’ framework to one which highlights benefits and opportunities (see section 2.2 for a fullerexplanation of these research orientations).The outputs of the 2011 MoVE international research project include this global report and casestudies of the Australian, Finnish and British teams that competed at WorldSkills London 2011.

Tax incentives for foreign direct investment part II : Design considerations

Part I of this article concluded that tax incentives for foreign direct investment (FDI) have become increasingly common over the past 10 years or so, especially among developing countries, and that there is substantial evidence to support the proposition that tax considerations now play an important role in many investment decisions. Countries seeking to attract FDI often feel compelled to offer tax inducements that are at least as attractive as those offered by their neighbours or competitors. Countries do so at a cost, however, and that cost may be substantial. Governments are thus placed in a dilemma - can they afford to cut taxes in order to attract investment, and can they afford not to? The second part of this article assumes that countries, and especially most developing countries, will continue to feel obliged to provide tax incentives. The aim of this part therefore is to examine ways in which those incentives can be made more effective and more efficient, thereby reducing their cost to the host country.

The relevance to international mergers of the ethical perspectives of participants

International mergers are becoming more widespread among medium-sized companies that for decades have held a prime position in their home country market, but who now feel threatened that they may not be of a significant size to continue to be viable in the international marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to examine the merger of one Australian company and one of its former competitors in the international marketplace from the perspective of the congruence between their espoused ethical cultures in business prior to the merger. A questionnaire comprising 46 questions was sent to the public relations manager of each organization prior to the merger. These managers were asked to fill in the questionnaire and to provide a copy of their code of ethics. The research found that organizations need to not only have a code of ethics, but also need to focus especially on the area of code augmentation to ensure that they communicate the ethos of their code to their employees.

The secret to a fashion advantage is brand orientation

The purpose of this research was to develop a comprehensive measure of brand orientation and empirically examine whether a fashion retailer's brand orientation assists in explaining variations in its retail offer advantage over competitors. This study provides a conceptualisation and operationalisation of brand orientation within the context of fashion retailing. Four dimensions of brand orientation are introduced including distinctiveness, functionality, value adding and symbolic. The results suggest that the more brand oriented the fashion retailer, the greater its retail offer advantage over competitors. It concludes with new insights and suggestions for fashion retailers in driving greater differentiation and competitive advantage.

Factors affecting e-commerce adoption by SMEs : a meta-analysis

There have been a myriad of research studies concerning SME e-Commerce adoption. However, the findings of these studies with regard to adoption factors have often been fragmented and contradictory. This paper analyses the previous research and synthesises the findings into a cohesive model of factors affecting SME adoption of e-Commerce. Eight meta-factors were identified: (1) perceived relative advantage; (2) perceived compatibility; (3) perceived complexity; (4) pressures from trading partners; (5) pressures from competitors; (6) external change agents; (7) knowledge and expertise about e-Commerce; and (8) management attitudes towards e-Commerce. These meta-factors were further grouped into three contexts: technological, environmental and organisational.

An early painter's persona as metaphor

This article analyses the marketing of an early Australian entrepreneurial female painter as metaphor in the exploration of the brand concept. It does so through the extension of her persona to her art, through examination of her diaries, letters and public documents. The use of the metaphor as a means of promulgating the 'brand as person' is discussed. Thus, the buyer of art chooses a painting with confidence because of the personality projected by the creator of the art work, in the same way as a successful brand of another product might be purchased. This article places the analysis within the context of social change of the time, giving some indication of the market and competitor positions and her motivation for differentiating herself from others. It highlights the conflict that the painter's brand caused to the artist's competitors at the time and how that affected her long-term reputation. The artist's idiosyncratic approach to painting and her vigorous self-promotion as an artist sought a reappraisal of the genre of lowly flower painting in the late nineteenth century.

Festivals, art and mentoring : disseminating knowledge, enhancing skills and developing networks in regional Victoria

Many regional festivals use art as a vehicle to engage with a broader cross-section of the community; highlight the artistic talent of their region; introduce art to their region; and to distinguish theirs from others. Regional Arts Victoria and Arts Victoria recently piloted a mentoring program, Directions, for regional festivals that indicated an interest in developing their artistic direction. Three experienced artistic directors were selected to participate in the program as mentors, and each of these mentored two festival directors whose festivals are located in Regional Victoria. The aim of this paper is to highlight the potential of mentoring within the context of festival management by exploring the outcomes of Directions. A case study approach is used, and although this limits the generalisability of the results to other festivals, the information gained provides insights into managing festivals within the context of artistic direction. A number of themes emerged from the study that appear to have broadened the perspective of 'art' in those festivals participating in the program. Furthermore, the program has highlighted that while festivals and artistic directors in regional locations experience varying degrees of isolation, they have a great deal of creativity and skill. Directions provided organisers of the festivals with the confidence to make decisions that enable them to capitalise on their extant creativity and skills. Festivals are then able to be marketed against their competitors with unique selling positions, which is important for sustainability. The results obtained through the evaluation of this pilot program provide Regional Arts Victoria and Arts Victoria opportunities to effectively assess the need for such programs for festivals in regional Victoria in the future.

Marketing information sources and the performance of Australian businesses

This study investigated the various sources of information used by business organisations and their association with business performance indicators. The results showed that larger Australian companies predominantly used various internal and external secondary data sources of information, followed by formal primary marketing research. The study indicated an association between market share and the use of competitors, advertising agencies, and sales promotion agencies as sources of information, while overall financial performance was associated with the use of competitors and media/trade publications.

The role of brand orientation in explaining retail offer advantage

We provide a conceptualisation and operationalisation of brand orientation within the context of retailing. We then empirically test this operationalisation in terms of a retail offer advantage across the dimensions of merchandise, trading format, customer service and customer communication. Our results suggest that the degree to which a retailer values brands and its practices are oriented towards building brand capabilities provides a valuable theoretical framework to explain variations in retailers' advantage over their competitors.

Auditor independence: regulation, oversight and inspection

Much of what auditors do is unobservable. Indeed, what goes on in an audit has been described as ‘secret audit business’. Audits in this context are of financial reports and those financial reports are the representations of the management of those companies, not the auditors. The audits of financial reports are of value in that they provide a competent and independent (of auditee management) attestation of the validity of those management representations. This attestation lowers the ‘information risk’ for the users of these financial reports. There has been a marked increase in activity to regulate matters relating to independence. The proposals outlined in CLERP 9 are one example of this. The requirements in the United States under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are a further example.

Audit firms operate in a highly regulated yet highly competitive market. Evidence exists to suggest that audit firms are active competitors in respect of audit pricing and competency, including specialist industry expertise. Until recently, there has been little or no observable evidence that audit firms compete in respect of independence. The issues as they relate to audit independence are complex. One issue is that threats to independence are frequently subtle and difficult to observe and measure. Hence, controlling the decisions that relate to them cannot rely solely on regulation which itself inevitably relies on crude definitions and imprecise measures. Additionally, further regulation may not achieve the desired end without other processes being but in place in tandem.

This paper argues that:

1. auditors of certain classes of companies (in particular, those that are publicly traded) should be provided with incentives or requirements to have observable processes on independence
2. the means of observability should be in the form of an inspection and review process focussing on issues critical to the audit, such as independence
3. expert persons not having a current or past financial interest in the firm or in the commercial outcomes of the review should be used in the inspection and review process
4. the review process should have wide-ranging powers of inspection to examine the policies, processes, structures and ‘culture’ of audit firms
5. the report of the inspection and review should be made public, unedited and in full, and in a timely fashion. The primary objectives of this proposal are to (1) make more transparent to the market for information the characteristics of the audit firms and their process to ensure audit independence, and (2) provide a rigorous oversight of independence decision-making by persons who have no commercial interest in the outcome of the decision.

Tendering for low cost generics in Australia

An Australian federal government committee recently proposed, as a cost-saving measure, the introduction of sealed-bid competitive tendering to exclusively supply the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme with specific generic medicines. A similar plan involved an open tender to supply generic products below a government set price, also linked with a reduced patient co-payment as an incentive. These proposals represented an opportunity to encourage the price of generic pharmaceuticals to move closer to the marginal cost of production—a process that could be subsequently applied to innovative (or brand-name) patented medicines in a therapeutic class with many competitors. This article examines these tendering proposals, particularly in relation to the potential for increased involvement of generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in the Australian market.