An investigation of industry-wide emarketplaces in the Australian automotive industry

Covisint, a global, industry-wide eMarketplace in the automotive industry, has received considerable literature attention since its inception some four years ago. Despite predictions that it would transform the industry, it has made little impact on automotive markets in countries where its progress has been documented. A lack of literature concerning Covisint use in Australia makes understanding the Australian situation quite difficult.
This study addresses this deficiency by investigating several Australian automotive organizations and their application of Covisint in conducting supply chain trading with their business partners. The research found that the application of Covisint is significantly less than its potential.

Managing respondent co-operation in Australian telephone research

Non-response to telephone surveys threatens the accuracy of the collected data and leads to increased research costs. This study examines ways in which Australian telephone research providers are combating non-response by managing the issue of respondent co-operation, including the management of the interviewers and of the survey process. The research found that many of these response-rate boosting practices proposed in the literature are not available to Australian telephone researchers, mainly for cost and regulatory reasons.

Measuring marketing performance: comparing the literature with the perspective of business executives

This paper investigated performance measurement from both an academic and an Australian practitioner perspective. The current consensus in the literature is that performance is a multi-faceted construct, incorporating both financial and non-financial aspects, and that a sole focus on financial performance measures is less appropriate to deal with the issues that confront organisations today. However, the findings ofthis research indicate that researchers and practitioners alike are driven by financial performance measures. The results indicate that sales/growth and Return-on-Investment (ROI) are the most frequently utilised financial performance measures, whilst satisfaction is the most frequently utilised non-financial measure.

Exploring the career experiences of indigenous teachers : beyond policy and resource initiatives

In this paper we provide a contextualising account of a new four-year ARC study, Indigenous Teachers: Understanding their Professional Pathways and Career Experiences . The project has grown from our concerns about the low numbers of Indigenous teachers in schools and questions about why it is that of the few Indigenous teacher education students who graduate, many resign from teaching after short periods of time or never take up teaching positions at all.

We believe that one of the reasons for the under representation of Indigenous teachers is due to what we are calling the ‘impenetrability’ of the dominant white culture of schooling, a racial imaginary that portrays the ‘naturalness’ of whiteness. Such an imaginary informs the everyday practices and relations of social power of Australian schooling from curriculum policy to the organisation of the school sports. Our research project is concerned, in part with making visible the discourses of whiteness that shape the experiences and career pathways of Indigenous teachers. In this paper we draw on excerpts of data from interviews with Indigenous teachers in order to begin to understand how discourses of whiteness have shaped their teaching and professional experiences.

Changing perceptions : marketing south eastern Australian aboriginal art

The Aboriginal cultural sector is dynamic and highly valuable to the Australian economy, returning an estimated $100 million dollars annually. The majority of Aboriginal artists and art works have been perceived to be in northern Australia-eighty percent of them are in fact in this region-but Aboriginal artists in South Eastern Australia are emerging as a strong force as they struggle for recognition from commercial and national galleries, curators, art dealers, newspaper critics, and buyers. If marketing is to be effectual, the Aboriginality of the art must be presented in a form that is understood and accepted by the audience. 1 Thus changing public perceptions is crucial to marketing South Eastern Aboriginal art. The primary task of this paper is to discuss this marketing priority for Aboriginal art and artists in South Eastern Australia, previously neglected in marketing literature. Specifically, the upcoming Melbourne Commonwealth Games are proposed as an opportunity for intensive marketing of the region's Aboriginal arts.

Changing governance mechanisms and its impact on Australian Building Societies' performance

This paper examines the relation between the governance mechanism (ownership structure) and performance of Australian building societies. Financial performance measures, provided by financial ratios of the major mutual building societies in Australia are used to explore their behaviour under different governance structures in the 1980s and 1990s. The theoretical and empirical literature has suggested that mutual deposit-taking institutions should have lower profitability and higher operating expenses than their publicly listed counterparts. Accounting ratios are observed over time to investigate if governance change in mutual deposit-taking organizations accounted for any discernable differences in profitability and cost efficiency pre- and postdemutualisation.

The impact of enterprise resource planning systems on management accounting : an Australian study

Information technology is significantly changing the operating practices of an increasing number of companies globally. These developments have important implications for the accounting profession and in particular accounting practices in the twenty-first century. This study examines the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a means of illustrating how changes in information technology allows all systems in a company to be linked to manage operations holistically.

The study investigates the change in accounting systems using a sample of Australian companies with emphasis on the adoption of ERP systems including the potential impact of ERP on capital budgeting processes. The results show that ERP systems are changing management accounting practices, although at this stage, the impact on capital budgeting techniques appears to be limited. The findings contribute to the emerging body of literature on the development of ERP systems and its impact on management accounting teaching and research.

Does organizational structure matter? The behaviour of Australian Building Societies pre-and post-demutualization

Financial performance measures, provided by accounting-based financial ratios, of the major mutual building societies in Australia are used to explore their behaviour pre-and post-demutualization in the 1980s and 1990s. The theoretical and empirical literature has suggested that mutual deposit-taking institutions would have lower profitability and higher operating expenses than their publicly listed counterparts. Common accounting ratios are observed over time to investigate if ownership change in a mutual deposit-taking organization accounted for any discernable differences in profitability and cost efficiency of the firms after conversion.

Agricultural land retirement: lessons from an Australian case study

In this paper, we analyse the case for agricultural land retirement in Australia. For the case study considered, using defined criteria, we demonstrate that land retirement is an effective policy option. This finding depends crucially on the magnitude and sign of the price effect resulting from a fall in wool production because of agricultural land retirement. Uniquely in the literature, we argue that the price effect will positively contribute to a benefit–cost analysis of agricultural land retirement. We detail the necessary conditions that need to prevail for this to occur. We also explain why the expected benefits of land-use change are fewer than might be expected in the case study.

Family member presence during resuscitation in the emergency department: an Australian perspective

Objective: The practice of family member presence during resuscitation in the ED has attracted widespread attention over the last few decades. Despite the recommendations of international organizations, clinical staff remain reluctant to engage in this practice in many EDs. This paper separates the evidence from opinion to determine the current state of knowledge about this practice.

Methods: A search strategy was developed and used to locate research based publications, which were subsequently reviewed for the strength of evidence providing the basis for recommendations.

Results: The literature was examined to reveal what patients and their family members want; the outcomes of family presence during resuscitation for patients and their family members; staff views and practices regarding family presence during resuscitation. Findings suggest that providing the opportunity to be with their critically ill family member is both important to and beneficial for families, however, disparity in staff views has been identified as a major obstacle to family presence during resuscitation. Examination of published guidelines and staff practices described in the literature revealed consistent elements.

Conclusion: Although critics point to the lack of rigour in this body of literature, the current state of knowledge suggests merit in pursuing future research to examine and measure effects of family member presence during resuscitation on patients, family members and healthcare providers.

Realising air leakage in Australian housing

Air tightness of Australian buildings is a great unknown. Despite testing methods being developed and implemented in many advanced European and North American countries, this has not happened in Australia. This paper notes energy efficiency gains that can be achieved through tighter construction, and follows on from the investigation into testing methodology and literature discussed in TEC 23: Air Leakage in Buildings – Review of International Literature and Standards. Several domestic case studies are used to implement two accepted testing methods and aid to build the case for increased awareness of airtight housing in Australia.

Impact of internationalisation on business decision-making: the Australian experience

The research considered the impact on the range of decision areas available to strategy setting for organisations internationalising part of their operations to reduce costs. The research utilised qualitative research data collected from interviews with 10 CEOs based on a structured interview guide formulated around the principal issues identified in the literature. Thematic analysis was used to extract evidence in relation to issues identified in the literature as well as new issues not currently identified .It found that internationalisation significantly reduced the range of decision areas available for strategic decision making. This affected the range of inputs to the formulation process, as well as the strategic choice options available. Organisations internationalising operations to reduce costs should increase levels of staff involvement through revolutionary strategy formulation processes, adopted more centralised corporate strategy processes and utilise a clearly differentiated and sequential relationship between corporate and business level strategies. The findings indicate that different strategy formulation processes are required for different levels of internationalisation of operations to reduce operating costs. Research into international strategy must recognize the change in the approach to strategy formulation that occurs as organisations increase their level of international operations. Future research to identify whether the currently generally adopted strategy formulation processes are adequate for all levels of internationalisation of operations should be pursued.

Exclusions and inclusions: multiculturalism in contemporary Taiwanese and Australian picturebooks

In a 1990 essay on multiculturalism and Australian children's literature, John Stephens points out that in texts of the 1970s and 1980s, examinations of multicultural issues are conducted within a relatively conservative set of paradigms where views of cultures other than Anglo-Celtic are filtered through the perspectives of Anglo-Celtic, middle-class characters, and multiculturalism is valued only in so far as it is seen to contribute to the wellbeing (economic and psychological) of the dominant culture. In Taiwan, as social groups previously marginalised seek justice through the practices and policies of multiculturalism, long-standing resentment at the authoritarian conduct of the Nationalists has manifested in texts which examine the political conflicts and cultural clashes of the past: the silenced truth is uncovered and the stigmatisation of certain ethnic groups is gradually removed.\n But these texts typically address ideas of cultural difference obliquely and by way of analogies, rather than through the realist representations of WhoeverYou Are and Fang Fang's Chinese NewYear.