From birth to death : The life of the standards board for England
- Authors: Lawton, Alan , Macaulay, Michael
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Public Administration Review Vol. 77, no. 5 (2017), p. 720-729
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- Description: Organizations wax and wane, and some cease to exist altogether. The Standards Board for England was abolished after a 10-year life. Created to regulate the ethical behavior of local politicians in England, the ethics of politics was undermined by the politics of ethics. This article analyzes the life of the Standards Board initially through the lens of a life-cycle approach to organizations but finds that a problem-cluster approach provides a sharper picture. Over its lifetime, the Standards Board faced a number of crises; its failure to resolve these crises and an unfavorable political climate led to its demise. © 2017 by The American Society for Public Administration
Happiness, altruism and the Prius effect : How do they influence consumer attitudes towards environmentally responsible clothing?
- Authors: Reimers, Vaughan , Magnuson, Bryce , Chao, Chih‐Wei (Fred)
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management Vol. 21, no. 1 (2017), p. 115-132
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- Description: Purpose: Academic research and consumer polls often report strong consumer support for environmentally responsible products (ERPs), and yet the proportion of sales they account for is often comparatively small. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the purported reasons behind this “attitude-behaviour gap” by measuring the influence of six relatively untested factors on consumer attitudes towards environmentally responsible clothing (ERC). Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a consumer household sample. It also used a quantitative survey approach to collect its data and structural equation modelling to analyse it. Findings: Of the six factors, four were found to have a significant influence on consumer attitudes: altruism, status enhancement, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and happiness. Originality/value: Altruism, environmental concern, PCE and self-identity have consistently featured in other environmental contexts, but less so in the specific context of ERC. Happiness and status enhancement have yet to appear in any study relating to the purchase of ERPs.
Hosting friends versus hosting relatives : Is blood thicker than water?
- Authors: Yousuf, Mohammad , Backer, Elisa
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Tourism Research Vol. 19, no. 4 (2017), p. 435-446
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- Description: Little research has been undertaken to examine visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel from the perspective of hosts. Additionally, little research has explored the differences between VFs and VRs, treating VFR as one homogenous group. This research examined the hosts' perspective of hosting friends versus relatives through in-depth interviews with 34 local residents in three contrasting destinations in Australia. Key differences were found between the experiences of hosting friends versus relatives, with immigration a key aspect in impacting the outcome. This is the first study to examine hosting friends versus relatives and to consider how immigration and destination impact VFR travel experiences for hosts.
Institutional isomorphism and whistle-blowing intentions in public sector institutions
- Authors: Pillay, Soma , Reddy, P. , Morgan, Damian
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Public Management Review Vol. 19, no. 4 (2017), p. 423-442
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- Description: Over the years the new institutionalism in public sector analysis has contributed significantly to our understanding of the dynamics of public sector institutions. While it has moved research away from behavioural explanations to recognizing political and cultural contexts, the focus on public sector institutions has been minimal. This research examines, by self-report questionnaire from employees in two government organizations, how institutional mechanisms shape whistle-blowing intentions within the context of a developing country. Despite the country context, findings from this study are encouraging in that participants’ intentions to blow the whistle were found, generally, to be strong. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Re-visiting an old topic with a new approach: the case of ethical clothing
- Authors: Magnuson, Bryce , Reimers, Vaughan , Chao, Chih‐Wei (Fred)
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management Vol. 21, no. 3 (2017), p. 400-418
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- Description: Purpose: A recent study by Reimers et al. (2016) suggests that the attitude-behaviour gap, as it applies to ethical clothing, may be due to academics having defined it differently to the way that consumers do. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a direct follow-up to that study by employing their consumer-based definition in order to help identify the clothing attributes that influence the purchase of ethical clothing. Design/methodology/approach: A consumer household sample in combination with a quantitative survey approach was used to collect the data, while structural equation modelling was used to analyse it. Findings: In spite of the ethical clothing context, only two of the four ethical clothing dimensions were found to influence consumer attitudes. In contrast, all three conventional dimensions were found to be significant. Originality/value: Ethical clothing has typically been operationalised using just two of these four dimensions. Ironically, one of the two dimensions often overlooked by academics, slow fashion, had one of the strongest influences on consumer attitudes. In addition, the cost of buying ethical clothing has often been defined in unidimensional terms; typically price. This study adopted a broader conceptualisation, defining it in terms of price, time and effort, and found it to serve as a salient influence over consumers’ attitudes to ethical clothing. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited.
Recent contributions to linear semi-infinite optimization
- Authors: Goberna, Miguel , López, Marco
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: 4OR: A Quarterly Journal of Operations Research Vol. 15, no. 3 (2017), p. 221-264
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160100854
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- Description: This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in the theory of deterministic and uncertain linear semi-infinite optimization, presents some numerical approaches to this type of problems, and describes a selection of recent applications in a variety of fields. Extensions to related optimization areas, as convex semi-infinite optimization, linear infinite optimization, and multi-objective linear semi-infinite optimization, are also commented. © 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.
Stadiums and scheduling : Measuring deadweight losses in the Victorian Football League, 1920–70
- Authors: Frost, Lionel , Borrowman, Luc , Halabi, Abdel
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Economic History Review Vol. , no. (2017), p.
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- Description: Over a 50 year period, Australian Rules football's major league, the Victorian Football League, did not always use its largest and best-equipped stadium for regular season games between its most popular teams or schedule those teams to play twice in a regular season. We calculate deadweight losses from the use of capital goods (stadiums) and effects of match scheduling in this professional sports league. Such analysis has not been attempted previously because of the absence of a counterfactual. The welfare losses were significant but not sufficient to threaten the survival of a distance-protected cartel.
The center for epidemiologic studies depression scale : Invariance across heterosexual men, heterosexual women, gay men, and lesbians
- Authors: Gomez, Rapson , McLaren, Suzanne
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Psychological Assessment Vol. 29, no. 4 (2017), p. 361-371
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- Description: The present study examined measurement invariance of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in community groups of Australian heterosexual men (N = 1106), heterosexual women (N = 2111), gay men (N = 527), and lesbians (N = 712). Confirmatory factor analysis of CES-D item scores supported the theorized oblique 4-factor model. There was support for full measurement invariance across the 4 groups, based on differences in approximate fit indices. In contrast there was support for only partial invariance when the chi-square difference test was applied. Lack of invariance was mostly for depressed affect and somatic symptom items, with noninvariant somatic symptom items showing consistently high factor loadings and thresholds among lesbians compared with the other groups. The findings are discussed in relation to the use of the CES-D, the relevance of different depression symptoms to how depressions is experienced by the different gender and sexual orientation groups, and gender role socialization and minority sexual orientation theories. (PsycINFO Database Record
The shame and guilt scales of the test of self-conscious affect-adolescent (TOSCA-A) : Factor structure, concurrent and discriminant validity, and measurement and structural invariance across ratings of males and females
- Authors: Watson, Shaun , Gomez, Rapson , Gullone, Eleonora
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Assessment Vol. 24, no. 4 (2015), p. 517-527
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- Description: This study examined various psychometric properties of the items comprising the shame and guilt scales of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Adolescent. A total of 563 adolescents (321 females and 242 males) completed these scales, and also measures of depression and empathy. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for an oblique two-factor model, with the originally proposed shame and guilt items comprising shame and guilt factors, respectively. Also, shame correlated with depression positively and had no relation with empathy. Guilt correlated with depression negatively and with empathy positively. Thus, there was support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the shame and guilt factors. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis comparing females and males, based on the chi-square difference test, supported full metric invariance, the intercept invariance of 26 of the 30 shame and guilt items, and higher latent mean scores among females for both shame and guilt. Comparisons based on the difference in root mean squared error of approximation values supported full measurement invariance and no gender difference for latent mean scores. The psychometric and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Understanding the proclivity of Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) travel across Family Life Cycle Stages in Australia
- Authors: Backer, Elisa , Lynch, David
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Tourism Research Vol. 19, no. 4 (2017), p. 447-454
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- Description: The Family Life Cycle (FLC) model is frequently used for understanding travel patterns and consumer behaviour. The aim of this research was to consider the relationship between FLC stages and travel engagement in Australia. Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFRs) and non-VFRs (n = 102 029) were found to be significantly different in their FLC composition. In addition, the prevalence of FLC stages changed between the groups, with families comprising 27.5% of domestic VFRs yet comprising 37.9% of domestic non-VFRs. This study has provided a valuable assessment of the relationship between FLC stages and domestic travel in Australia and is the first paper to integrate two common approaches used in tourism for market segmentation.
A workplace intervention designed to interrupt prolonged occupational sitting: Self-reported perceptions of health from a cohort of desk-based employees over 26 weeks
- Authors: Mainsbridge, Casey , Cooley, Dean , Fraser, Sharon , Pedersen, Scott
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Workplace Health Management Vol. 9, no. 2 (2016), p. 221-237
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- Description: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of a workplace intervention designed to interrupt prolonged occupational sitting time (POST) and its impact on the self-reported health of a cohort of desk-based employees. Design/methodology/approach - In total, 43 participants received an interactive computer-based software intervention for 26 weeks. For the first 13 weeks the intervention passively prompted the participants to interrupt POST and perform brief bouts of non-purposeful movement. The second 13 weeks involved the passivity of the intervention being removed, with the intervention only accessible voluntarily by the participant. This approach was adopted to determine the sustainability of the intervention to change workplace health behaviour. Findings - ANOVA results revealed a significant interaction between group and test occasion, F(2, 42)=2.79, p<0.05, such that the experimental group increased their total health from pre-test to post-test (13 weeks), and to second post-test (26 weeks) with a medium effect size of Cohen's d=0.37. Research limitations/implications - An action research approach was implemented for this study, and hence the participants were organised into one group. Based on a communitarian model, the intervention aimed to monitor how desk-based employees adapted to specific health behaviours, and therefore a control group was not included. Practical implications - Passively prompting desk-based employees to interrupt POST and perform non-purposeful movement at work improved self-reported health. Participant perceptions of health were maintained following the removal of the passive feature of the intervention. Social implications - Interventions predicated on a social ecological model that modify how employees interact with the workplace environment might provide a framework for health behaviour change in populations where sitting is customary. Originality/value - The passive approach used in this study removed the individual decisionmaking process to engage in health behaviour change, and established a sustainable effect on participant health. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Application of fuzzy risk analysis for selecting critical processes in implementation of SPC with a case study
- Authors: Khorshidi, Hadi , Gunawan, Indra , Nikfalazar, Sanaz
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Group Decision and Negotiation Vol. 25, no. 1 (2016), p. 203-220
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- Description: Fuzzy risk analysis is widely used in risk assessment of components by linguistic terms. Fuzzy numbers are used to quantify the associated uncertainty. This study employs fuzzy risk analysis to evaluate processes for implementing statistical process control (SPC) in a specified manufacturing system. To reach this goal, fuzzy risk analysis has been applied based on both ranking and similarity of generalized trapezoidal fuzzy numbers in a stepwise procedure. Therefore, a new approach has been introduced for fuzzy risk analysis of processes to overcome the shortcomings of previous fuzzy risk analysis approaches. As a result, fuzzy risk analysis is used as a decision making technique to select critical processes under uncertainty. Also, the application of the proposed SPC implementation algorithm is illustrated in the manufacturing line of a car battery factory. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Assessing public participation initiatives in local government decision-making in Malaysia
- Authors: Manaf, Halimah , Mohamed, Ahmad , Lawton, Alan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Public Administration Vol. 39, no. 11 (2016), p. 812-820
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- Description: ABSTRACT: Increased public participation in government decisions contributes significantly to the enhancement of grass-roots democracy. This article assesses the level of involvement of local citizens in local government decisions in Malaysia. Public participation was assessed using questionnaires on the range and extent of initiatives used by local government. The questionnaires also probed citizens’ perceptions of these initiatives and expectations for greater citizen empowerment. Data were gathered from 206 local citizens randomly selected from six local authorities in the northern region of Malaysia. The findings reveal a desire on the part of local citizens to participate in their local government decision-making process. © 2016 Taylor & Francis.
Bifactor model of WISC-IV : Applicability and measurement invariance in low and normal IQ groups
- Authors: Gomez, Rapson , Vance, Alasdair , Watson, Shaun
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Psychological Assessment Vol. 29, no. 17 (2016), p. 902-912
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- Description: This study examined the applicability and measurement invariance of the bifactor model of the 10 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) core subtests in groups of children and adolescents (age range from 6 to 16 years) with low (IQ =79; N = 229; % male = 75.9) and normal (IQ >/=80; N = 816; % male = 75.0) IQ scores. Results supported this model in both groups, and there was good support for measurement invariance for this model across these groups. For all participants together, the omega hierarchical and explained common variance (ECV) values were high for the general factor and low to negligible for the specific factors. Together, the findings favor the use of the Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) scores of the WISC-IV, but not the subscale index scores. (PsycINFO Database Record
Emotional labour under public management reform : an exploratory study of school teachers in England
- Authors: Rayner, Julie , Espinoza, Daniel
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: International Journal of Human Resource Management Vol. 27, no. 19 (2016), p. 2254-2274
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- Description: This study uses the concept of emotional labour to illuminate areas of pressure and strain for teachers in English primary and secondary schools. It explores the impact of aspects of new public management reform on the nature and differences in the emotional labour experienced by teachers. The aim of this research was to help us understand the difficulties and tensions that this group of public sector professionals may be experiencing in the current environment. This research investigates the emotional side of teaching as a source of both job satisfaction and stress, in a performance-driven education sector. Findings show that the emotional labour presented differs in terms of its source, severity and impact on educational and personal goals and also that prescriptive and bureaucratically driven teaching frustrates teachers. The study contributes to the growing literature on emotional labour distinctive to public institutions. Theoretical and practical implications for recruitment, selection and training are discussed concluding with a research agenda.
Enviropreneurial marketing in greening corporate activities : Evidence from four Chinese green firms
- Authors: Song-Turner, Helen , Polonsky, Michael
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: European Business Review Vol. 28, no. 5 (2016), p. 506-531
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- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the enviropreneurial marketing approach used by firms in China and its impact on the success of green marketing actions, with the aim of drawing useful lessons from the literature and successful green firms. Design/methodology/approach: This study follows the inductive case study approach, and the qualitative data come from a study of four firms engaging in enviropreneurial marketing activities. Interview data were triangulated with qualitative data from other sources. Findings: The evidence from this study indicates that enviropreneurial marketing plays a central role in developing innovative product or services, adopting an innovative and pragmatic green marketing mix that differentiates and creates changes within industry and markets. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is that data samples are from successful firms labelled as “green” by the Chinese authorities, based on winning “official” awards. These do not necessarily represent the opinions of a cross section of firms within China with respect to enviropreneurial marketing. Future studies should include a mixed population of firms. Practical implications: Policy makers and marketing practitioners need to consider drivers to ensure that Chinese firms integrate enviropreneurial marketing activities, which need to complement the delivery of functional value. Social implications: Green initiatives/changes within the firm seem to be partly driven by the environmental orientation of these firms’ founders, thus, developing an environmental orientation in managers may be important to drive enviropreneurial marketing activities. Originality/value: This study contributes by confirming the current literature on green marketing and examining the positive impact of enviropreneurial marketing on firms’ performance in the context of marketing in emerging markets. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Funding Australian economics research : Local benefits?
- Authors: Doraisami, Anita , Millmow, Alex
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Economic and Labour Relations Review Vol. 27, no. 4 (2016), p. 511-524
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- Description: In Australia there is a systematic ranking of academic research performance, with a major impact metric being based on publications in prestigious journals. Other countries like Britain with its Research Excellence Framework also have similar metrics. While much analysis and publicity is devoted to the rankings of the quality of research, there has been very little focus on how this ranked research has then gone on to make a public policy impact. In the case of the economics discipline, there has been little exploration of the relationship between publication in a high-ranked journal and contribution to an analysis of Australia's most pressing economic issues. This article investigates the extent to which articles in the Diamond list of journals from 2001 to 2010 addressed Australian economic issues. Our results indicate that articles on current policy issues accounted for a very modest fraction of total Diamond list journal articles. One possible explanation for this finding, which is investigated further, is the correlation between an economics department's Excellence in Research Australia ranking and the number of staff who obtained their doctorates from an overseas university. Such a correlation has implications for the status afforded to economics research with a specific national focus. © University of New South Wales.
Group decision making in health care : A case study of multidisciplinary meetings
- Authors: Sharma, Vishakha , Stranieri, Andrew , Burstein, Frada , Warren, Jim , Daly, Sharon , Patterson, Louise , Yearwood, John , Wolff, Alan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Decision Systems Vol. 25, no. (2016), p. 476-485
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- Description: Abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that Multi-Disciplinary Meetings (MDM) practiced in some medical contexts can contribute to positive health care outcomes. The group reasoning and decision-making in MDMs has been found to be most effective when deliberations revolve around the patient’s needs, comprehensive information is available during the meeting, core members attend and the MDM is effectively facilitated. This article presents a case study of the MDMs in cancer care in a region of Australia. The case study draws on a group reasoning model called the Reasoning Community model to analyse MDM deliberations to illustrate that many factors are important to support group reasoning, not solely the provision of pertinent information. The case study has implications for the use of data analytics in any group reasoning context. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Integrating SWOT analysis into the FMEA methodology to improve corrective action decision making
- Authors: Sutrisno, Agung , Kwon, Hyuckmoo , Gunawan, Indra , Eldridge, Stephen , Lee, Tzongru
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management Vol. 17, no. 1 (2016), p. 104-126
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- Description: Improving the method for selecting risk-based competing improvement strategies has equal importance with failure risk quantification inthe FMEA methodology. Nevertheless, there are few studies which focus on this issue. Furthermore, the influence of factors relating to the businessenvironment which may support or derail improvement efforts is not considered in previous studies. In order to address these limitations, a model is proposed in which the impact of environmental factors is considered byintegrating SWOT analysis into the FMEA method in order to support the appraisal of competing risk-based improvement efforts. The impact of SWOTvariables is deployed using a decision support model based upon the benefit, cost, opportunity, risk and organisational readiness index (BCOR2) approach inorder for the FMEA team to select from competing corrective actions. A case example from industry is provided in which the proposed model is applied. This example illustrates that this new model contributes successfully to good practice by identifying the most appropriate corrective action option to take andimproves upon the decisions provided by existing developments of the FMEA methodology.
Is J the new K? Initial letters and brand names
- Authors: Van Doorn, George , Paton, Bryan , Spence, Charles
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Brand Management Vol. 23, no. 6 (2016), p. 666-678
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- Description: According to the marketing literature on sound symbolism, ‘‘K’’ is overrepresented as the initial letter in top brand names relative to the frequency with which it appears as the initial letter of words in the English dictionary. However, it is now 35 years since the original study on ‘the K-effect’ was published and there is, of course, a possibility that trends have changed during that time. Using the Top 200 company names from the Fortune 500 list, and comparing the initial letter-frequency to two benchmarks (i.e. the relative frequencies of first letters of words in the English dictionary and Card and Eckler’s (1975) derived letter-frequencies), our analyses (using conservative Bonferroni corrections) reveal, in fact, that A and J are overrepresented as initial letters in top company names, while S is underrepresented. We argue that the paucity of company names starting with the letter K, and the fact that K is thought to be unique, may reflect an opportunity for those starting new companies.