An examination of serious participants at the Australian Wintersun Festival

Events, such as festivals, have been identified as places in which activities are provided for participants to develop skills and build their leisure careers. This study aimed to explore the leisure and tourist behaviours of serious, and at times fanatical, participants at the Wintersun Festival in Queensland, Australia. The weeklong nostalgic celebration of music, dancing, cars and lifestyles attracts participants from distant communities to travel and participate in the activities that are integral to achieving their leisure goals. This study utilised participant observation to identify nine domains which describe and explain the behaviours of participants including specialised travel, lifestyle, identity reinforcement, pride, fanaticism, social interaction, fixated consumption, competition and skill development. The results highlight the specialised travel experience undertaken by participants and the important role of events in fulfilling their personal and social goals.     

Information and Communication Technology Adoption and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Growth in New Zealand

This paper reports on an investigation of the potential to use the financial ratios of New Zealand small businesses to discriminate their location as an aid in the accurate targeting of regional economic development programs. To the extent that there are clearly identifiable differences in performance and financial structure of urban and nonurban firms, this could be significant for small business policy development and the efficient implementation of strategies.     

Code and Conduct: Predictors of Irsih Managers' Ethical Reasoning

We analyse Irish managers' perceptions about the degree of wrongness of ten types of unethical conduct. In-person interviews with 348 managing directors of Irish-owned businesses who report their perceptions of the degree of wrongness of ten business ethics problems (the dependent variables) yield the data for our study. Predictors of managers' ratings include the existence of a business code of ethics, perceived frequency of occurrence of the given acts, company size and sector, union membership, Irish business ownership and independence (the independent variables). Results indicate that approximately 75% of those sampled are independent Irish owned businesses but few (only 22% of this sample) have a formal business code. Regression analyses reveal that small firms with a code of ethics predict higher wrongness ratings for managers in regard to the practices of unfair pricing and delayed payments (unethical behavior involving firms) but managers also consider such acts the least wrong overall. Wrongness ratings on the eight remaining unethical acts are explained by the manufacturing sector. However, manufacturing firms in Ireland also have a high percentage of unionised workers indicating that unions influence managerial thinking about social and employee ethics (e.g., discrimination, insider trading). The traditional adversarial Industrial Relations model is useful in noting that unions are important in setting ethical standards for indigenous Irish-owned businesses. Given this reality, management in small, manufacturing firms should work with unions to create a more formal ethics code in order to guard against corruption and to remain competitive in the international marketplace. Those without strong unions might articulate their own organisational values.     

Sleeping with the Enemy? Strategic Transformations in Business–NGO Relationships Through Stakeholder Dialogue

Campaigning activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have increased public awareness and concern regarding the alleged unethical and environmentally damaging practices of many major multinational companies. Companies have responded by developing corporate social responsibility strategies to demonstrate their commitment to both the societies within which they function and to the protection of the natural environment. This has often involved a move towards greater transparency in company practice and a desire to engage with stakeholders, often including many of the campaign organisations that have been at the forefront of the criticisms of their activity. This article examines the ways in which stakeholder dialogue has impacted upon the relationships between NGOs and businesses. In doing so, it contributes to the call for more ‘stakeholder-focused’ research in this field (Frooman in Acad Manag Rev 24(2): 191–205, 1999; Steurer in Bus Strategy Environ 15: 15–69 2006). By adopting a stakeholder lens, and focusing more heavily upon the impact on one particular stakeholder community (NGOs) and looking in depth at one form of engagement (stakeholder dialogue), this article examines how experiences of dialogue are strategically transforming interactions between businesses and NGOs. It shows how experiences of stakeholder dialogue have led to transformations in the drivers for engagement, transformations in the processes of engagement and transformations in the terms of engagement. Examining these areas of transformation, the article argues, reveals the interactions at play in framing and shaping the evolving relationships between business and its stakeholders.     

Rapid assessment procedures in injury control

Injuries are among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. The burden caused by injuries is even greater among the poorer nations and is projected to increase. Very often the lack of technical and financial resources, as well as the urgency of the problem, preclude applying sophisticated surveillance and research methods for generating relevant information to develop effective interventions. In these settings, it is necessary to consider more rapid and less costly methods in applying the public health approach to the problem of injury prevention and control. Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAP), developed within the fields of epidemiology, anthropology and health administration, can provide valid information in a manner that is quicker, simpler, and less costly than standard data collection methods. RAP have been applied widely and successfully to infectious and chronic disease issues, but have not been used extensively, if at all, as tools in injury control. This paper describes Rapid Assessment Procedures that (1) are useful for understanding the scope of the problem and for identifying potential risk factors, (2) can assist practitioners in determining intervention priorities, (3) can provide in-depth knowledge about a specific injury-related problem, and (4) can be used in surveillance systems to monitor outcomes. Finally, the paper describes some of the caveats in using RAP.     

Culture,Gender, and GMAT Scores: Implications for Corporate Ethics

Business leadership increasingly requires a master’s degree in business and graduate management admission test (GMAT) scores continue to be an important component of applications for admission to such programs. Given the ubiquitous use of GMAT scores as gatekeepers for business leadership, GMAT scores are likely to influence organizational ethical behavior through gender, cultural, and other biases in the GMAT. There is little prior literature in this area and we contribute by empirically documenting that GMAT scores are negatively related to the cultural dimensions of masculinity and power distance and are positively related to math literacy, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism. We estimate that cultural factors may account for as much as an 80-point difference in cross-national mean GMAT scores which are also related negatively to local language literacy, national educational spending, wealth per capita, wealth inequality, and gender development. Most interestingly, we also find a significant negative association of GMAT scores with ethical orientation. These findings have important implications for business schools and corporate ethics and leadership.     

Paying for a Name? Comparing the Performance of Franchised Real Estate Brokerage Firms

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper compares the relative performance of franchised and independent real estate brokerage firms. One problem that arises when comparing the...     

Superior Construction Inc.: An assessment of risks and controls as part of a post-acquisition engagement

Superior Construction Inc. (SCI) is a fictitious Toronto-based, publicly traded construction company that operates in the civil infrastructure and buildings markets. For this case, you will assume the role of a senior internal auditor at SCI, who has been given the responsibility to lead a post-acquisition due diligence review of a recently acquired privately held construction company, Building Excellence Inc. (BEI). You are provided with background on the acquisition, as well as information that your internal audit team has gathered during the post-acquisition review. With this background information, you are asked to perform a risk assessment of the newly acquired company and recommend controls to mitigate identified risks. In addition, you will assess SCI’s pre-acquisition review and evaluate the BEI purchase decision. This case requires you to draw upon your knowledge of risks and controls and to develop an understanding of the political issues that internal auditors face.