Australian Audit Reports: 1996–2003

In 1996 Australia revised audit reporting standard AUS 702 to align with many of the concepts in the international audit reporting standard ISA 700. These included preventing auditors issuing a "subject to" qualified opinion, and permitting auditors to modify the audit report in specific circumstances by including an emphasis of matter (EoM) paragraph. This research examines the frequency with which different types of opinions are issued and the circumstances giving rise to the inclusion of an EoM paragraph, and compares the types of opinions issued by the major audit firms and for the various industry sectors over the period 1996–2003.     

Ethics in Advertising Decisionmaking: Implications for Reducing the Incidence of Deceptive Advertising

A survey of 206 advertising professionals assessed the relative influence of four factors (ethics, legal considerations, business considerations, and anticipated approval of management/peers) on decision-making about advertising content and policy. Most professionals were influenced only by legal considerations; ethics exerted a relatively minor role. Age and length of professional experience were related to the factor that exerted the dominant influence on an individual's decisionmaking. Those who were youngest and had least professional experience were most influenced by business considerations. Professionals who were slightly older with slightly more experience were most influenced by legal considerations. Finally, those professionals who were the oldest and had the most experience were primarily influenced by ethical considerations. The results are used as basis for identifying specific actions in professional training, advertising agency management, and advertising regulation which have potential to reduce the incidence of deceptive advertising.     

A Comparative Performance Analysis of New Wave Food Cooperatives and Private Food Stores

The purpose of this study was to determine what “new wave” store front food cooperatives offer their patrons, relative to private grocery stores. A marketbasket price survey of 73 non-meat food items was conducted at 10 cooperatives and eight private stores in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area in 1981. Consumer satisfaction was examined via a mail questionnaire returned by 1,089 patrons of both store types. A new kind of food cooperative shopper was identified, the minor user. Minor users were more recent cooperative patrons and more closely resembled a traditional, established, middle-class family. Unlike the more traditional co-op user, price was the most important store choice criterion for the minor user. Cooperatives were judged by their patrons to be performing slightly less satisfactorily than private stores. However, the two store types were not found to differ in their performance of the two functions most important to consumers, i.e., price and quality. Member shoppers at a cooperative could save 15 percent, or about $290 per year for the average household, a return on a typical member's work contribution of $6.04 per hour.     

Reading the wind: how middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers

Issue selling is an important mechanism for creating change initiatives in organizations. This paper presents two studies that examine what middle managers think about as they decide whether or not to sell strategic issues to top management. In Study 1 middle managers identify themes that indicate a favorable or unfavorable context for issue selling. Top management’s willingness to listen and a supportive culture were the most often named contributors to context favorability, while fear of negative consequences, downsizing conditions and uncertainty were thought to signal that a context was unfavorable for issue selling. Study 2 identifies factors that middle managers associate with image risk in the context of issue selling. Violating norms for issue selling, selling in a politically vulnerable way and having a distant relationship with top management were regarded as major contributors to a middle manager’s level of image risk. Both studies enrich our understanding of the social psychological mechanisms that undergird the strategic change process. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The disinfectant action of low-temperature laundering

The purpose of this research was to investigate the disinfectant action of a heavy-duty biological detergent at low and recommended washing temperatures. The effectiveness of the process was measured in terms of the removal, transfer and destruction of bacteria from infected test pieces. The results indicate that reducing the washing temperature decreases the degree of disinfection and increases the cross-infection of any articles washed in the same load. Evidence is also obtained that shows that the presence of detergent is more important than the washing temperature for disinfectant action.     

Gender, Race, and Promotions within a Private-Sector Firm

This article empirically tests the proposition that the gender-race composition of an employee's occupation significantly affects the likelihood of promotion. Using data obtained from the personnel files of a financial services firm, we find that a high concentration of white females in an occupation adversely affects the probability of promotion, but only for white females and minorities in that occupation. A similar, attenuated pattern exists in occupations with either high concentrations of minority females or high concentrations of minority males. Additional empirical evidence suggests that the system of rules governing the promotion of white males differs significantly from that of the other three gender-race groups.     

AUSTRALIAN CREDIT UNIONS AND THE DEMUTUALIZATION AGENDA

ABSTRACT ** :  There is a strong prospect of widespread demutualization occurring in the Australian credit union industry in coming years. This paper explains the reasons for this phenomenon, identifies some potentially undesirable social consequences, and examines the relative merits of alternative types of demutualization process. It identifies a number of principles which warrant reflection in the design of legislation addressing demutualization processes.     

An Experimental Analysis of Contingent Capital with Market‐Price Triggers

We report an experiment that evaluates three market‐based regimes for triggering the conversion of contingent capital bonds into equity: a “fixed‐trigger” regime, where a price threshold triggers mandatory conversion; a “regulator” regime, where regulators make conversion decisions based on prices; and a “prediction market” regime, where regulators also observe a market that predicts conversion. Consistent with theory, we observe inefficiencies and conversion errors in the fixed‐trigger and regulator regimes. The prediction market somewhat improves the regulator's performance, but inefficiencies and conversion errors persist. The regulator regime has conversion errors over the widest range of shocks.