National culture and R&D and marketing integration mechanisms in new product development: A cross-cultural study between Singapore and New Zealand

The integration of R&D and marketing in new product development (NPD) is an important contributor to NPD performance. Of the mechanisms developed to aid functional integration, many have been developed in western cultural environments and may not have applicability in other national cultural settings. Using a sample of NPD workgroup personnel in New Zealand (NZ), the western cultural environment, and Singapore, quantitative and qualitative data have been used to measure national culture and determine the applicability of different organization integration mechanisms. Results show key differences between the two samples, indicating a link between formalization, centralization, role flexibility and interfunctional climate mechanisms with the Hofstede dimensions of Power Distance, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance of national culture. Managerial implications are that national cultural values and settings of the respondents are important when determining best integration mechanisms.     

Assessing Financial Performance of Malaysian Islamic and Conventional Commercial Banks Using Financial Ratios

A rapid growth of Islamic banking has led the Malaysian economy to gaining greater prosperity than before. Presently, there are more than 20 Islamic banks operating in Malaysia. Financial ratios calculated from the categories of liquidity, profitability, risk and solvency, and efficiency of banks can be used to gauge the overall financial performance of the banking industry. The objective is to assess the overall performance of Islamic banks as well as conventional banks in Malaysia using financial ratios. The findings indicated that conventional commercial banks in Malaysia do have better quality assets, are more liquid, and are more profitable than Islamic banks. Total expenses in conventional banks are much higher, which may affect profitability and the significant amount of non-performing loans （NPLs）, thus increasing solvency risk. The findings show positive insights of Islamic banks, whose confidence and trust are rising, over a short period with strong improvements in asset utilization, effective management, and expenditure control. This comparative study clearly identified that conventional banks are better financial performers compared to Islamic banks in Malaysia during the period of 2006-2010.     

Corruption and Tourism: An Empirical Investigation in a Non‐linear Framework

This article investigates the effect of corruption on tourism demand for a panel of countries during 1999–2009 by using panel least square and fixed effects regressions. Prior research has considered only the linear effects of corruption on tourism. We examine the relationship between corruption and tourism in a non‐linear framework after controlling for economic and heritage factors. The findings suggest that corruption has a significant effect on tourism demand and that this effect is non‐linear. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attitudes towards corporate social responsibility and perceived importance of social responsibility information characteristics in a decision context

This study addressed the questions of perceived importance of social responsibility information (SRI) characteristics in a decision context, as well as the attitudes of institutional investors toward social responsibility involvement. The results showed that SRI presently disclosed in company annual reports did not have any significant impact on institutional investors' decisions. However, if SRI were presented in quantified, financial form, and were focused on product improvement and fair business practices, such information would be perceived as more important for investment decisions. Attitudes toward corporate social responsibility also suggested that institutional investors were not totally opposed to company involvement in social activities. Hai Yap Teoh is associate professor in the Department of Accountancy, The University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. He has published extensively in local and international journals including Accounting, Organizations and Society and The International Journal of Accounting Education and Research. His major areas of research interest include corporate social responsibility and reporting.Godwin Shiu is teaching fellow in the Department of Accountancy, The University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. He is also doing a master's degree in accountancy.     

Rural-urban migration and urban underemployment in Brazil

Policies to discourage rural-urban migration, in the interest of alleviating urban poverty, are often considered without regard to the migrant experience in cities. This paper examines the income gains associated with rural-urban migration in Brazil and the assimilation of migrants in the urban labor market. Earnings functions, estimated for a sample of individuals from the 1960 population census, are utilized. The analysis shows that migrants have derived significant income benefits from moving, and that within a short period of time, their income and employment pattern are virtually indistinguishable from those of the urban-born.     

Internationalization of Australian business in the Asia-Pacific region: Issues and prospects

The phenomenal economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region initially was driven by export-oriented industrialization and more recently by intraregional trade. This provided the backdrop for the present study that examined the pattern, motivations, strategies, problems, issues, and prospects of Australian businesses and direct investments in this region. The study concluded that although an extensive trade relationship has been fostered between Australia and the Asia-Pacific, this has not been translated into direct investments. Key impediments seem to be attitudinal, because of cultural and language differences, and the lack of international competitiveness. These problems are only beginning to be recognized. An agenda for action is suggested at the Government, industry, and company levels. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Demystifying the Management Structure Puzzle: an Empirical Investigation into the Drivers of REIT Internalization

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have grown to become an important financial product in Asia, which today stands as the second largest REIT market in the world. Although existing literature has shown that externally managed REITs have underperformed their internally managed counterparts, the Asian REITs market has a strong preference for the external management model. This paper investigates the factors that drive REITs to internalize or deter them from internalizing their manager by studying the characteristics of 26 internalization subjects in Australia at their point of internalization. We compare their financial, corporate governance and portfolio characteristics to a control group. We find the MBR, the parent of the REIT manager, the asset size, and the geographic diversity of assets to be significant determinants of the probability of these REITs internalizing their manager. The low growth prospect faced by large Australian REITs that had a domestic investment focus motivates them to internalize their manager.     

Individualism-Collectivism Cultural Differences Affecting Perceptions of Unethical Practices: Some Evidence from Australian and Indonesian Accounting Students

This paper examines the impact of the individualism-collectivism dimension of culture on ethical perceptions in a sample of Australian and Indonesian Final Year accounting students. The study uses the Triandis instrument to establish that Australian students tended to be more individualistically- and Indonesian students more collectivistically-oriented. The study then proceeds to test the hypothesis of no difference in perceptions between these two country samples in their evaluations of questionable actions portrayed in five vignette situations. The findings reject the no difference cultural hypothesis, indicating that there are perceptual differences between the collectivistic Indonesian students and the individualistic Australian students. In general Indonesian students tend to perceive a lesser degree of risk for the questionable acts depicted by these cases where such acts would have beneficial impacts on close or moderately close in-groups. Consistent with this observation, they also tend to perceive a greater amount of gain if this gain impacts more on close or moderately close in-groups.These results suggest that ethics teaching, either as separate or integrated into other courses, is a delicate subject that is even more critical in a multicultural environment such as Australia where universities have growing numbers of culturally-distinct Asian students. Australian-based teachers of accounting students, in particular, should exercise extreme sensitivity when addressing issues of ethical conduct in the classroom to avoid offending those from different cultural backgrounds. More research into experiences of teaching business ethics to a group of culturally diverse students, as well as publications of suitable teaching materials that highlight and address these problems would be a significant step forward.