THE AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS PROFESSION: AN APPRAISAL OF SOME CURRENT TRENDS*

Using the results of the first part of their 1994 membership survey, Ahmadi-Esfahani and Brakey (1996) examined the structure, conduct and performance of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society qualitatively. This paper extends that analysis by appraising some current trends in the Australian agricultural economics profession quantitatively. It concentrates on the second part of the survey to address a number of fundamental questions. A comparison of the US and Australian agricultural economics professions is made. The implications of the analysis for the product mix of the Society are explored.     

Social Media Influencers as a Crisis Risk in Strategic Communication: Impact of Indiscretions on Professional Endorsements

ABSTRACT

Social media influencers (SMIs) are increasingly employed by organizations to amplify their strategic communication efforts. Yet, little is known about the impact an SMI’s personal indiscretion has on their endorsing organizations. This article examines the factors that trigger these crises and their effects on the organizational image. Five cases – PewDiePie (U.S.), Munroe Bergdorf (UK), James Charles (U.S.), Grace Mongey (Ireland) and Sarah Bowmar (U.S.) – were analyzed using Rapid Issue Tracking, a method to capture stakeholders’ sentiments. Findings showed that SMIs’ personal indiscretions trigger paracrises. Organizations typically used distancing strategies but adopted image repair situationally. Anchored on image repair theory, we propose a framework for crisis identification and response strategies. With the increasing use of SMIs in marketing, their potential as a new type of crisis trigger warrants attention.     

Consideration of the Role of Guanxi in the Ethical Judgments of Chinese Managers

The importance of personal connections and relationships, or guanxi when doing business with the Chinese is widely acknowledged amongst Western academics and business managers alike. However, aspects of guanxi-related behaviours in the workplace are often misunderstood by Westerners with some going so far as to equate guanxi with forms of corruption. This study extends earlier study of Tan and Snell: 2002, Journal of Business Ethics 41(December), 361–384) in its investigation of the underlying modes of moral reasoning in ethical decisions relating to aspects of guanxi, amongst Hong Kong managers. Managers’ ethical judgements and underlying moral reasoning relating to a series of guanxi-related behaviours were recorded. Content analysis yielded categories that correspond with categories of moral reasoning described in Kohlberg’s (1969, Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research, Rand McNally, Chicago, pp. 347–480) model. As hypothesised, it was found that harsher ethical evaluations of guanxi-related behaviours were positively correlated with the stage of moral reasoning. The most common types of reasoning were those corresponding to Kohlberg’s stages four and five which relate to moral reasoning based on law and order, and on reason rather than emotion. Stage 6, concerned with more universalistic approaches to moral reasoning, was utilised considerably less, consistent with popularly held beliefs of the relativistic nature of Chinese ethics.     

Island Tourism and Sustainability: A Case Study of the Lakshadweep Islands

Lakshadweep archipelago, off the south-western coast of India, is a relatively little known island tourism destination. With a very fragile environment, traditional society and marginal economy, and almost entirely dependent on the mainland, Lakshadweep has been developing tourism as an important economic activity. With its geographical and environmental limitations, sustainability is a major issue in Lakshadweep tourism. However, the islands seem to have turned these limitations to their advantage by developing and managing tourism in a controlled manner. This paper considers the development of tourism in Lakshadweep islands within the context of sustainability. Examining the structural and developmental features of Lakshadweep tourism, the paper seeks to identify specific development and management patterns, if any, and explores potential strategies for promoting sustainability-oriented tourism in Lakshadweep.     

Tactics of Labor Struggles

Some actions by employers have the potential to generate outrage due to perceived injustice or abuse. Employers have five main methods to inhibit such outrage: covering up the action, demonizing the workers, reinterpreting what is happening, referring the matter to official channels that give only the appearance of justice, and using intimidation and bribery. Examples from Australian labor struggles are used to illustrate these tactics and how they can be opposed.     

UNIFIED CHINA AND DIVIDED EUROPE

This article studies the causes and consequences of political centralization and fragmentation in China and Europe. We argue that a severe and unidirectional threat of external invasion fostered centralization in China, whereas Europe faced a wider variety of smaller external threats and remained fragmented. Political centralization in China led to lower taxation and hence faster population growth during peacetime compared to Europe. But it also meant that China was more vulnerable to occasional negative population shocks. Our results are consistent with historical evidence of warfare, capital city location, tax levels, and population growth in both China and Europe.     

Price incentives and consumer payment behaviour

In this paper we estimate the effect of particular price incentives on consumer payment patterns using transaction-level data. We find that participation in a loyalty program and access to an interest-free period tend to increase credit card use at the expense of alternative payment methods, such as debit cards and cash. Interestingly though, the pattern of substitution from cash and debit cards differs according to the price incentive. An implication of the findings is that the Reserve Bank reforms of the Australian payments system are likely to have influenced observed payment patterns.     

Margin trade,short sales and financial stability

We model how leveraged trading activities constrained by dynamic funding availability affect financial stability. In the market, customers trade based on the fundamental value of the risky asset and make full payment for their transactions, while speculators take trading position based on margin, which is constantly adjusted by the financier, the fund provider, according to the price volatility. As a result of equilibrium price discontinuity triggered by dynamic margin requirements, trivial shocks to external supply, wealth or fundamental value can be transmitted into asset price crashes or jumps. We find that tightening margin requirements improves (mitigates) the market liquidity in the bull (bear) market, and that imposing short sale constraints helps prevent the price from falling further when the asset is sufficiently under-priced and accelerate price collapse when the asset is over-priced.

     

Ethical Leadership as a Balance Between Opposing Neural Networks

This paper examines the impact of integrated reporting (IR) on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into the business model and the related economic and ESG performance changes. To investigate these internal and external transformational effects of IR, important differences between IR and alternative ESG reporting strategies are worked out. Using three matched samples of companies from around the world for the sample period 2002–2011, IR companies are matched with companies applying (a) no ESG reporting, (b) stand-alone ESG reporting, or (c) ESG reporting in the annual report. The results suggest that IR is a superior mechanism only for the integration of ESG issues into the core business model when comparing IR with the ESG reporting strategies of (a) no ESG reporting and (c) ESG reporting in annual reports. In comparison with (b), stand-alone ESG reporting, the results indicate that IR is negatively associated with the ESG integration level and with the economic and ESG performance. Moreover, this negative impact is lower for companies that have already implemented ESG management tools prior to the initiation of IR and is stronger for companies residing in countries with legal requirements for the disclosure of ESG information. A separate change analysis reveals that companies do not benefit from a switch from stand-alone ESG reporting to IR. Thus, this paper provides empirical evidence that contradicts the general notion of IR as a superior reporting mechanism, as the benefits of IR are driven by several factors.