Workplace Human Rights Reporting: A Study of Australian Garment and Retail Companies

The opening of the Australian economy in a globalised world has led to Australian garment and retail corporations moving their manufacturing overseas and acquiring goods from overseas providers. This is usually better for the corporations’ bottom‐line, as they can purchase goods overseas at a fraction of their local cost, partly due to cheap labour. Australia is one of the many OECD countries not to have a well regulated environment for workplace human rights. This study examines 18 major Australian retail and garment manufacturing corporations and finds that workplace human rights reporting is poor, based on content analysis of their annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports and websites. This is probably due to the failure of the Australian Government to provide adequate oversight by promulgating mandatory reporting standards for both local and overseas operations of Australian companies. This permits corporations to avoid reporting their workplace human rights standards and breaches.     

Contributions to the exchequer funds by state level public sector enterprises: does political alignment matter?

Regular payments or contributions to states’ exchequer funds are mandated for state level public sector enterprises (SLPEs) in most states in India. However, in the absence of a regular mechanism to ensure timely payments, the contributions are abysmally poor. In most SLPEs, the situation is driven by the presence of soft budget constraints and strong financial support from the state governments. The current study analyses the effect of political factors on the contribution that SLPEs make to the state governments’ exchequer funds. Using different econometric methods, the study finds that SLPEs located in assembly constituencies that are politically aligned with the state government, make frequent and larger contributions to the exchequer funds. Surprisingly, the subsidies provided to the SLPEs by state governments are not driven by political alignment between the state government and the constituency where the enterprise is located. In fact, subsidies compensate for the contributions to the extent that there is no effect of political alignment on net contributions (contributions–subsidies) by SLPEs to state governments. Finally, political alignment has a strong influence on the relative share of contributions made by SLPEs to state governments vis-à-vis the centre. These results are robust across different model specifications.     

Industrial-Relations Practices of Japanese Multinationals and Their Subsidiaries in Canada: Are They Transferable to Canadian Firms?

This paper presents the findings of a comparative study of the industrial-relations practices of thirty Japanese parent companies and their subsidiaries in Canada. Our analysis indicates that differences in the degree of Japanese industrial-relations practices among the parent companies and their subsidiaries in Canada cannot be explained either by cultural or by structural factors. The only meaningful role of the “Japanese” factors in our findings is the high correlation of the degree of Japanese-style industrial relations with the low rates of labour turnover in the Japanese subsidiaries in Canada. As far as the transferability of Japanese industrial-relations practices to Canadian enterprises is concerned, it appears that the enterprise-union structure and the Japanese work ethic-that is, loyalty and close identification with the firm-would be unacceptable to most workers in Canada. The principles in the Japanese industrial-relations system which can be applied to the Canadian scene include better management of human resources, an extensive system of training and education for all employees, and a joint consultative mechanism based on a relationship of trust between labour and management. Résumé Ce mémoire présente les résultats d'une étude comparative traitant des méthodes de relations industrielles de trente sociétés-mères japonaises et de leurs filiales au Canada. Notre analyse indique que les différences en matière de relations industrielles entre les sociétés japonaises et leurs filiales canadiennes ne peuvent ětre expliquées par des phénomènes culturels ou structurels. Selon nos études, le seul rǒle signicatif des caractéristiques “japonaises” se retrouve dans la corrélation élevée existant entre le degré des méthodes japonaises et le faible taux de roulement dans les filiales canadiennes. Il semble cependant que l'application dans l'entreprise canadienne des pratiques de relations industrielles japonaises, entre autres, la structure syndicale et l'éthique de travail qui exigent loyauté et identification étroite avec l'entreprise, sarient inacceptables pour la plupart des travailleurs au Canada. Parmi les principes japonais qui seraient acceptés dans l'industrie canadienne, on retrouve une meilleure gestion des ressources humaines et des programmes complets d'études et de formation à l'intention de tous les employés, de měme qu'un mécanisme de consultation mutuelle fondé sur des rapports de confiance entre les employés et la direction.     

The Indian broadband plan: A review and implications for theory

Given the benefits of ubiquitous broadband deployment and availability that include economic growth, participation in the Internet economy and increased competitiveness, several countries have launched major national initiatives to accelerate broadband deployment including supporting such initiatives often as a part of their fiscal stimulus plans. These include Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, UK and USA and the European Union as a whole.     

Business travellers' connections to home: ICTs supporting work‐life balance

This paper examines the role of information communication technology in enabling connections to home for work‐related travellers. Although digital connectivity for work‐related tasks are well researched, the use of digital technology for home communication is under‐researched. The study draws on a qualitative study of UK‐based organisations and business travellers to explore how these travellers use ICTs for personal use while ‘on the move’. The findings reveal that organisations are supportive of work‐life balance for employees, but fail to consider specific needs of those whose work takes them away from home. For business travellers, insights are gained into practices around connecting to home and the value of this virtual presence for relationships with family while absent and work‐life balance. The study identifies and discusses practice occurring around three activities; checking in, maintaining relationships with home and sharing experiences.     

The performance implications of power–trust relationship: The moderating role of commitment in the supplier–retailer relationship

The current research examines how coercive power and non-coercive power affect trust and how these relationships are affected by affective and calculative commitment. It also expands the understanding of the role of an under-researched dimension of performance, i.e., strategic performance, and studies it as a mediating variable in the relationship between trust and financial performance. The proposed model is empirically tested using Partial Least Squares (PLS) in supplier–retailer channel in Taiwan. The findings reveal that affective commitment has a positive moderating effect on the negative relationship between coercive power and trust, while calculative commitment has a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between non-coercive power and trust. The results also indicate that strategic performance partially mediates the effect of trust on financial performance. The research advances theoretical understanding on the complex power–trust relationship and provides insights into the role of commitment in both enabling and undermining channel relationships. The findings highlight the importance of building affective commitment in channel relationships and the critical role of strategic performance in the trust–financial performance relationship.     

On axiomatic characterization of some non-additive measures of information

An axiomatic characterization of non-additive measures of information associated with a pair of probability distributions having the same number of elements has been given. This quantity under additional suitable postulates leads to the non-additive Entropy, Directed-Divergence and Inaccuracy of one or more parameters.     

Early Movers Advantage? Evidence from Short Selling during After‐Hours on Earnings Announcement Days

We examine short sellers’ after‐hours trading (AHT) following quarterly earnings announcements released outside of the normal trading hours. Our innovation is to use the actual short trades immediately after the announcements. We find that on these earnings announcement days, there is significant shorting activity in AHT relative to shorting activity both during AHT on nonannouncements days and during regular trading sessions around announcements. Short sellers who trade after‐hours on announcement days earn an excess return of 0.82% and 1.40% during before‐market‐open (BMO) and after‐market‐close (AMC)sessions, respectively. The magnitude of these returns increases to 1.48 (3.92%) for BMO (AMC) earnings announcements with negative surprise. We find that the reactive short selling during AHT has information in predicting future returns. Short sellers’ trades have no predictive power if they wait for the market to open to trade during regular hours. In addition, we find that the weighted price contribution during AHT increases with an increase in after‐hours short selling. Overall, our results suggest that short sellers in AHT are informed. Our findings remain robust using alternative holding periods and after controlling for macroeconomic news announcements during BMO sessions.