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Item A Semiotic Framework to Understand How Signs in a Collective Design Task Convey Information: A Pilot Study of Design in an Open Crowd Context(2013-01-01) Laughland, Carmel; Williams, Anthony; Gu, Ning; Phare, DarinA leading factor in reshaping boundaries between participatory design and co-creation is the power of crowd-sourcing; however crowd sourced design often produces less innovative results than smaller expert design teams. In design, representation plays a fundamental role whilst in crowd sourced design the collective interaction with representations is restricted. We propose more effective design in collective intelligence lies in the crowd’s ability to generate meaningful contributions via the content of shared representations. In order to investigate this, the current paper examines how meanings are generated through the use of visual representations. We introduce a semiotic framework to understand the mechanisms of how signs convey con-textual information in a collective design task, and illustrate the framework by applying it in an analysis of the signs used by the crowd engaging in an openly shared design task.
Item Accounting Academic Workloads in the Higher Education Sector: Balancing Workload Creep to Avoid Depreciation(2018-12-01) Williams, Anthony; Northcote, Maria T.; Long, Warrick R.; Barnes, LisaAccounting Academics according to the literature are subject to external influences such as preparing graduates for future workplaces, bridging the gap between industry and academia and development of pathways to becoming professional accountants for their student cohort. Add to this the internal influences of delivery methods for student engagement, work integrated learning and casualization of the workforce, the accounting academic is at capacity in terms of how these influences impact on workload. Using the “lived experience”, this research delves further into the academic themselves to find that they categorise their workload into four themes of Teaching, Research, Accounting academic administration and development of Curricula, deemed the TRAC Framework for this study. Using this workload TRAC framework, accounting academics identified five factors they believe will influence their future roles. These include growth in international students, that student success will be a shared responsibility, that student engagement will be critical, that curricula design will involve stakeholder input and that expectations around research will change. These additional impact factors when added to the already at capacity workload model for accounting academics, will create a type of workload creep. The workload impact factor (WIF) model is created for this research to demonstrate just how these additional factors will be absorbed by accounting academics, ballooning their workload. This workload creep can be described as an increase in academic wear and tear, almost like depreciation on capital assets, a recognition of a diminution in economic benefit or value. Accounting academics must be careful to balance their future workload so as to not become commercially obsolete.
Item Accounting Academic Workloads: Balancing Workload Creep to Avoid Depreciation in the Higher Education Sector(2020-06-27) Williams, Anthony; Northcote, Maria T.; Barnes, Lisa; Long, Warrick R.Accounting academics are subject to external influences such as preparing graduates for future workplaces, bridging the gap between industry and academia and development of pathways to becoming professional accountants. Add to this the internal influences of delivery methods for student engagement, work integrated learning and casualisation of the workforce, the accounting academic is at capacity in terms of how these influences impact on workload. Using the “lived experience”, this research delves into the academic themselves to find that they categorize their workload into four themes of Teaching, Research, Accounting academic workload and development of Curricula, deemed the TRAC Framework for this study. Using this workload TRAC framework, accounting academics identified five factors they believe will influence their future roles. These include growth in international students that student success will be a shared responsibility that student engagement will be critical, that curricula design will involve stakeholder input and that expectations around research will change. These additional impact factors when added to the already at capacity workload model for accounting academics, will create a type of workload creep. This workload creep can be described as an increase in academic wear and tear, almost like depreciation on capital assets.
Item Accounting Students and Their Writing Skills: Inside-Outside Autoethnographic Reflection(2017-05-01) Fitzsimmons, Phil; Howson, KeithThis paper seeks to report on the findings of a qualitative research project that sought to illuminate one cohort of accounting students understanding and approach to writing. The first in a planned series of projects, this particular research instance used the paradigmatic framework of an authoethnographic bricolage as a reflexive tool so as to gain entrée into this cohort’s awareness. What emerged from this ‘inside-outside’ methodology or ‘research into self’, ‘research through self’ and ‘research on self’ was the apparent tension between the requirements of tertiary writing and the ‘contexts of culture’ and ‘context of situation’ of the accounting cohort. This tension appears to have arisen as these students’ previous contexts of education were grounded in didactic teaching and learning with the possibility that critical thinking and reading-writing connections were absent. Thus, these students were unable to make semiotic transfers between the various forms of genres and registers required by a university class, and possibly the requirements of twenty-first century accountancy. It would appear that while proficient in the technicalities required by pre-service accountants, as they had never experienced a learning environment that required meta-awareness and meta-cognitive interactions, they focused only on surface features of writing, as opposed to using writing as a means of ‘rendering and connecting thought’.
Item Accounting Students’ Reflections on a Course to Enhance their Interpersonal Skills(2013-12-16) Daff, LynCommunication skills are critical for an accountant's workplace success; however accounting education research to date has mainly focused on the writing and presentation skills aspects of communication skills. Research on developing accounting students' interpersonal skills has received scant attention. This paper provides an example of how to incorporate interpersonal skills into the accounting curriculum. Details are given on how to execute the course to promote effective, positive student outcomes. Examining students' learning journal responses to the initiated course highlights potential problems associated with teaching interpersonal skills to accounting students. This information may assist educators in avoiding common difficulties and in facilitating favourable student learning. The study finds students experienced initial apprehension and concern when practising their interpersonal skills. However as time elapsed, confidence grew, class dynamics changed, and significant improvements in students' communication and attitudes were evident. The importance of laying an appropriate foundation for interpersonal skills development is also discussed.
Item Accounting: Information for Business Decisions(2012-01-01) Simmons, Sharelle; Slaughter, Geoff; Kavanagh, Marie; Bazley, John; Nikolai, Loren A.; Cunningham, BillieAccounting: Information for Business Decisions is designed to lead students through the real-world business cycle and how accounting information informs the decision making process throughout this cycle. Students will learn how to base these decisions on two kinds of accounting information – managerial and financial. Departing from the traditional approach introductory accounting textbooks take, students are called on to apply both the managerial and financial approaches throughout the topic coverage of each chapter, instead of focusing on each aspect in isolation of the other. The conversational approach of the writing engages students in the theoretical content and how it applies to contemporary real-world scenarios. [from publisher's website].
Item Accounting: Information for Business Decisions(2014-10-17) Simmons, Sharelle; Slaughter, Geoff; Kavanagh, Marie; Bazley, John D.; Nikolai, Loren A.; Cunningham, Billie M.Accounting: Information for Business Decisions is designed to lead students through the real-world business cycle and how accounting information informs the decision making process throughout this cycle. Students will learn how to base these decisions on two kinds of accounting information – managerial and financial. Departing from the traditional approach introductory accounting textbooks take, students are called on to apply both the managerial and financial approaches throughout the topic coverage of each chapter, instead of focusing on each aspect in isolation of the other. The conversational approach of the writing engages students in the theoretical content and how it applies to contemporary real-world scenarios. [from publisher's website].
Item Accounting: Information for Business Decisions(2018-04-19) Simmons, Sharelle; Kavanagh, Marie; Bazley, John D.; Nikolai, Loren A.; Cunningham, Billie M.Accounting: Information for Business Decisions is designed to lead students through the real-world business cycle and how accounting information informs the decision making process throughout this cycle. Students will learn how to base these decisions on two kinds of accounting information – managerial and financial. Departing from the traditional approach introductory accounting textbooks take, students are called on to apply both the managerial and financial approaches throughout the topic coverage of each chapter, instead of focusing on each aspect in isolation of the other. The conversational approach of the writing engages students in the theoretical content and how it applies to contemporary real-world scenarios. [from publisher's website].
Item An Examination of Financial Literacy Levels Amongst Owner/Managers of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises(2017-07-01) Barnes, Lisa; Campo, Michael A.To date there has been limited research focusing on the financial literacy of small and medium business sized business. This research looks specifically at the level of financial literacy among small business owners/mangers within an Australian context. The purposes of the hypotheses are to understand the relationship between the financial literacy of the owners/managers of small businesses against both their demographic and company characteristics. More specifically, the key research question investigated in this study is: what is the level of financial literacy among small business owners/managers, and what are the determinants of the level of literacy The research has significant implications for small business, as the reason given for many small business failures relates to the financial ability of owners/managers. Therefore, the research should provide consequential information to industry-groups, small businesses, financial institutions and policy makers. The literature review defines financial literacy and small business and looks at the literature to date with respect to the relevant hypotheses. The methodology for the dissertation will exploratory and quantitative in nature and will use a multiple choice questionnaire for a survey into business in Australia. The sampling frame will consist of professional members of the Australian Institute of Management. The findings show that overall financial literacy can improve for SME owner managers, and that education in particular can assist to increase overall financial literacy.
Item An Integrated Approach to BIM Competency Assessment, Acquisition and Application(2013-11-01) Williams, Anthony; Sher, Willy; Succar, BilalProfessional, organisational and educational institutions have started to adopt BIM software tools and adapt their existing delivery systems to satisfy evolving market requirements. To enable individuals within these organisations to develop their BIM abilities, it is important to identify the BIM competencies that need to be learned, applied on the job, and measured for the purposes of performance improvement. Expanding upon previous research, this paper focuses on individual BIM competencies, the building blocks of organisational capability. The paper first introduces several taxonomies and conceptual models to clarify how individual competencies may be filtered, classified, and aggregated into a seed competency inventory. Competency items are then fed into a specialised knowledge engine to generate flexible assessment tools, learning modules and process workflows. Finally, the paper discusses the many benefits this competency-based approach brings to industry and academia, and explores future conceptual and tool development efforts to enable industry-wide BIM performance assessment and improvement.
Item Are They Ready? Accounting Academics' Perspectives of the Preparedness of New Student Cohorts(2018-06-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Williams, Anthony; Barnes, Lisa; Long, Warrick R.The research reported here has as its central question of how do Australian accounting academics perceive the preparedness of students to study accounting at university. The research looks at how well prepared new cohorts of accountancy students are to engage. The research found that accounting academics identified four success factors required for students to study accounting at first year university level, identifying those needing to be addressed prior to beginning study, and others within the course of study itself. These four success factors included the ability to participate in the course with an apropos level of English language proficiency, to commence with a certain level of assumed knowledge which is then further extended, to develop and utilise higher order thinking skills, and finally to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas through written and verbal means.
The findings, of the study reported here, provide insight into what students need as preparation to study accounting at university, using the Success Factor Timeline (SFT). The SFT bring together disparate concepts into one framework for consideration of student selection procedures and course design. It also provides appropriate scaffolding for first year students to better enable them for success, based on attributes they need to possess before commencing university studies, and attributes they can learn whilst at university.
Item Beating-the-Odds on Enterprise Growth in Peripheral Regions(2018-06-01) Molloy, Courtney; Kriz, Alexandra; Barnes, Lisa; Hessell, Timothy; Kriz, AntonFew academics have the chance to enter a region’s innovation system’s “sandpit” and “dig” through the multiple layers. This paper with its participatory action research and action learning approach provides such a narrative. There is a lack of research investigating SMEs in the mature phases of growth and more particularly when key decisions are being undertaken. This paper reports on findings of such a study using a macro-meso-micro level ecosystem perspective. Management theory is increasingly accepting that action research does provide appropriate levels of rigour. Vividness of this peripheral systems experience will hopefully encourage others to follow. We find interesting insights along the way including that real change stems from innovation in the SME family leader more than finding triggers in the firm. Changed innovation management outcomes through observing such deeper seated rationales helps fill an important gap.
Item Big Decisions in Small Business Ecosystems:Stakeholder Priority(2020-02-01) Barnes, Lisa; Westrenius, AnnikaIn an increasingly competitive environment,engaging with stakeholders is no longer an option but anecessity to ensure short-term and long-term success. This is particularly true in small business, yet little is known about how small business managers make those decisions, often under uncertainty and time pressure. Small businesses operate in networks of interdependent entities (ecosystems) where individuals are known to each other. This supports building of relationships, trust and reputation and removes the separation between ‘business’and ‘ethics’ by promoting a long-term focus. Yet, limited resources and conflicting demands result in a need to prioritise some stakeholder demands. As suggested by Stakeholder Salience, decision makers may prioritise stakeholder claims based on perceived levels of power, legitimacy and urgency. The key decision makers of nine Australian small businesses were asked about their relationships with important stakeholders, how decisions regarding the priority of various stakeholders and their expectations were made and what factors may affect such decisions. Relationships with stakeholders were identified as dynamic and strategic resources, interviewees invested considerable time and effort to build and maintain positive relationships. Consistent with Stakeholder Salience model, decisions were affected by perceptions of stakeholders’ level of power, legitimacy and urgency. This research also found that intuitive perceptions about the stakeholder affected the decision-making process, and identified the following additional factors: commitment, dependence and potential exit costs as well as the decision maker’s perception of alignment with own values, thereby introducing a moral and ethical consideration that would sometimes take priority over other considerations.
Item Big Decisions in Small Business: Stakeholder Priority(2019-03-01) Barnes, Lisa; Westrenius, AnnikaIn an increasingly competitive environment, engaging with stakeholders is no longer an option but a necessity to ensure short-term success and long-term survival (Gibson & Myurnighan, 2010; McVea & Freeman, 2005; Porter, 1985; Freeman, 1984). This is particularly the case in small business, yet little is known about how small business owner-managers negotiate and make those decisions, often under uncertainty and time pressure.
Small businesses operate in networks of interdependent entities (ecosystem) where individuals are known to each other (McVea & Freeman, 2005). Such interdependence support relationship building, trust and reputation building thereby removing the separation between ‘business’ and ‘ethics’ and promoting a long-term focus (Clifton & Amran, 2011).
Limited resources and conflicting demands result in a need to prioritise some stakeholder demands over others. As suggested by Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997), decision makers may priorities stakeholder’s perceived as more ‘salient’ than others. Stakeholder salience (Mitchell et al, 1997) is the combined effect of perceived levels of power, legitimacy and urgency. Although confirmed as a viable method used by managers to prioritise stakeholders (Agle, Mitchell & Sonnenfeld, 1999), in small business other factors may also be important for understanding how decisions regarding which stakeholder claim should be given immediate attention and which can be disregarded are made.
The key decision makers of nine Australian small businesses were asked about their relationships with important stakeholders, how decisions regarding the priority of various stakeholders and their expectations were made and what factors may affect such decisions.
Relationships with stakeholders were identified as dynamic and strategic resources and considerable time and effort was invested by the interviewees to build and maintain positive relationships. Consistent with Mitchell et al’s (1997) model of stakeholder salience, decisions were affected by perceptions of power, legitimacy and urgency. This research also found that intuitive perceptions about the stakeholder affected the decision-making process. These factors included level of commitment, dependence and potential exit costs as well as the decision maker’s perception of alignment with own values, thereby introducing a moral and ethical consideration that would sometimes take priority over other considerations.
Item Board Governance in the Not-for-Profit Sector: The "GOLDEN" Rule Model for Recruitment and Retention of Voluntary Boards of Directors(2017-06-01) Howson, Keith; Barnes, LisaThe Global Financial Crisis demonstrated the importance of Accountability, Transparency and good Corporate Governance of all types of organizations be they Not-for-Profit (NFP) or for-profit. This research seeks to explore the current type of governance mechanisms used to monitor and control Not-For-Profit (NFP) entities at the Board of Directors (BOD) level. It uses case study analysis to investigate the “GOLDEN” Model Rules for NFP Directors. The questions explore the Board and governance mechanisms for NFPs, particularly focusing on the “value added” by Board members, to make recommendations for reporting of Governance by NFPs. This model demonstrates the obligations of Directors in terms of legislation, common law duties and equitable fiduciary duties in relation to governance, social responsibility, transparency and risk management, in a sector that contributes so much to the global economies in terms of employment and GDP (OECD, 2009 and ABS 2015).
Item Clusters and Destinations: Complex Adaptive Systems in a New State of Disruption(2017-07-01) Barnes, Lisa; Kriz, Anton; Keogh, ClareIndustry specific clusters are important features of regional development. Benefits of firm cluster engagement leading to knowledge spillovers and innovation are promoted by the World Bank and OECD. Cluster innovation and economic development require harnessing but as clusters are a form of complex adaptive system (CAS), it is difficult to anticipate how such systems will develop or grow. This study explores how and why micro-enterprises (MEs) engage in cluster development initiatives in a tourism accommodation context. MEs as a tourism service are particularly important in the broader context of R&D management as these enterprises and the cluster they inhabit add substantive value to a regional innovation system (RIS). Using a case study approach, the theoretical framework draws on Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group’s ‘actor, activities, resources model’ to understand ME cluster engagement. Analysis of qualitative interviews and secondary data from three substantial Australian tourism regions adds deep insight of clustering and CAS issues. What was not expected was the incredible growth of Airbnb while the research was unfolding. Combined with stakeholder lack of knowledge, the study provides interesting insights for those confronting similar disruptors. Airbnb has managed to offer a surrogate, more formalised cluster offering where mostly informal clustering existed for the three cases analysed. Providing what becomes an Airbnb open innovation ecosystem to three variations of tourism-related clusters for the ME accommodation sector brings unexpected benefits. Ultimately however Airbnb does have limitations for the three regional cases which for varying reasons have found themselves in a considerable state of flux. Ultimately Airbnb complements but is not a replacement for localised RIS tourism services endeavours.
Item Co-existence of Transaction and Non Transaction-Managed Activity in a Persistent Object Store(2005-08-01) Ashton, Maurice G.; Henskens, Frans A.Persistent object stores provide an execution environment in which data and its interrelationships are, by default, retained in their original form beyond the lifetimes of the program or programs that created them. Stability mechanisms ensure that such stores always start up in a self-consistent state, even after non-orderly shutdowns that result from events such as power outages or hardware failures. An efficient means of implementing stability uses Directed Dependency Graphs (DDGs) to facilitate execution of user processes in parallel with updates to the durable store image. The authors have previously shown how these DDGs can be extended and used to provide optimistic, transaction-based concurrency control for processes executing in persistent object stores [2].
The management of persistent objects differs from that afforded by conventional DBMS because the entire dataset exists in the same repository. As in conventional systems, it is appropriate that some data is accessed (queried and mutated) independently of the transaction system. In this paper, we examine the issue of interaction between processes that execute under transaction control with those executing independently of the transaction system. Interestingly, this co-existence is achieved without enforcing transaction semantics on the independent activity.
Item Collaborative Design: A Real World Study of How Design Team Members Communicate Design Concepts(2013-01-01) Williams, AnthonyAlthough individual designers can successfully implement a multi-dimensional approach, large and complex design projects also invariably require collaborative work among designers. This paper considers the question of collaboration in large design projects and, more specifically, the concept of Multi Disciplinary Design Teams (MDDTs) and the communication strategies employed to achieve shared understanding. The paper reports on the findings of a research project that analyses the design processes of professional design practitioners in the workplace environment, using a range of established ethnographic research methods. The research reveals some significant anomalies that challenge our two main measures of performance: expertise and success. The research identified various success profiles of successful communication, which is distinct from conventional concepts of design expertise and differs according to the designers’ ability to articulate their design thinking to other members of the team. The project monitored team members of a MDDT, drawn from a range of design disciplines including engineers, architects, urban planners and industrial designers, and considered success in communicating design concepts within this context.
Item Company Directors Behaviour is "Mad Hatters Tea Party", Curiouser and Curiouser(2021-09-24) Barnes, LisaCorporate governance is not a new concept. In fact the last 15 years has seen a surge in academic publications and case law in relation to the lack of corporate governance. Research Gap is that Company Directors are attending a “mad hatters’ tea party” when it comes to the implementation of governance codes, with the recent spate of court cases involving breaches of directors fiduciary duties. Methodology used was review of case law using archival data. This research looks at the type of case law issues of corporate governance in Australia and in particular accountability, and relates the case law to the Corporations Act (2001) to find where company directors are getting corporate governance wrong. The findings indicate that perhaps the “if not why not” prescription, should not be an option for corporate governance for some Boards. For some Boards the invitation from Alice to jump down the rabbit hole into creative accounting and bad board behaviour at the “mad hatters’ tea party” is just too great an incentive. Implications show that this review of important corporate governance case law will assist Boards to concentrate their efforts on improving the environment they operate in, as good governance equates to good business.
Item Consumer Purchasing Decisions in Financial Institutions: Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy(2017-12-27) Barnes, Lisa; Tinker, MatthewWhilst there have been significant amounts of literature written on CSR there is still a gap in understanding how CSR activities influence consumers perception. This gap is particularly evident in the financial services sector given they are the largest contributors to CSR in Australia (ACCSR, 2011). The aim of this research is how CSR activities can influence the purchasing behaviour of consumers when it comes to financial institutions. There is a further gap in the literature in understanding how perceptions of consumers towards CSR change dependent on situational context.
In addressing the research problem, the study focusses on understanding the most influential CSR initiatives, understanding how the influence of CSR initiatives can change depending on situational context and then delves further to understand how demographic attributes can alter perception. Bhattacharya and Sen’s (2004) framework was used to frame the questionnaire that was answered by 1014 respondents, showing to be sufficiently representative of the Australian population. The outcomes of this research were used to develop a comprehensive framework for Australian Financial Institutions to use when developing their CSR strategy.
It was clear that across all investment types and situational contexts, Community Support was the most influential form of CSR across the sample. Whilst this was the case, the level of influence differed across demographic groups and changed to varying degrees based on situational context dependent on the respondent. Community Support’s influence as a CSR initiative was clearly ahead of others presented to the respondents followed by Employee Support and Environment Support dependent on the investment method and the situational context. This research also addresses the question of influence of demographics by finding that they are a major factor in what and how CSR initiatives influence a person. This dissertation has led to the development of the CSR Strategic Investment Application (SIA) Framework which can be used by Financial Institutions in the development of an optimal CSR strategy, and a revised version of Bhattacharya and Sen’s (2004) framework leading to the Enhanced CSR Framework Model which can be applied by Australian Financial Institutions in future.