Academic literature on the topic 'Higher Australia Finance'

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of voluntary governance mechanisms in Australia. Design/methodology/approach This study identifies similar choices of corporate governance by Australian firms and tests the effectiveness of the choices made based on the earnings quality of reported firms. Cluster analysis is conducted using governance best practice variables, firm size and an earnings quality variable. Findings This paper’s results support the voluntary governance approach for smaller firms, but suggest that mandatory governance requirements could be beneficial for larger firms. Evidence suggests that a benefit accrues for larger firms with the adoption of governance best practice. Cluster analysis indicates that larger firms tend to exhibit higher levels of adoption of governance best practice than smaller firms. Originality/value This paper adds to the literature by providing important information regarding the suitability of adoption of voluntary governance mechanisms in Australia.

Two competing theories of initial engagement audit pricing are examined empirically. DeAngelo's (1981a) model predicts initial engagement discounts in all settings, while Dye's (1991) model specifically predicts discounting will not occur in settings where audit fees are publicly disclosed. Unlike the United States and most countries, audit fees are publicly disclosed in Australia. Our study examines initial engagement pricing in Australia during a time period when comparable U.S. studies report discounts of 25 percent (Ettredge and Greenberg 1990; Simon and Francis 1988). The Australian evidence finds initial engagement discounting only for upgrades from non-Big 8 to Big 8 auditors. Discounting for upgrades to Big 8 auditors is consistent with economic theories of discount pricing by sellers of higher-priced, higher-quality experience goods as an inducement to purchase when uncertainty about product quality is resolved through buying (experiencing) the goods. The evidence in our study is generally consistent with Dye's (1991) conclusion that public disclosure of audit fees precludes initial engagement discounting and the potential independence problems arising from such discounting.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the association between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) effort due to higher levels of material adjustments and audit fees. In addition, this paper tests whether these associations differ between industry specialist auditors and non-specialist auditors. Design/methodology/approach The authors measure IFRS effort by using differences between local GAAP and IFRS. More specifically, they measure the differences in the balances of accounts that are prepared under IFRS as opposed to the previously used Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) standards. They posit that higher material adjustments and more risk to fair presentation of financial statements require additional accounting and auditing effort (“IFRS effort”). Findings The authors find that audit fees are higher when accounting standards are more material and complex at an aggregate level. Nevertheless, not all standards are equally complex and/or material and not all individual standards contribute to higher audit fees. In addition, the results show that the positive association between IFRS effort and audit fees is more pronounced when firms are audited by city-level industry specialists than by non-industry specialists. Originality/value Overall, the results are consistent with the prediction of increasing audit fees for firms requiring higher levels of IFRS effort compared to firms requiring lower levels of IFRS effort. The results contribute to the understanding that not all IFRS are equally complex and, thereby, the standards require different levels of auditor effort. Isolating specific standards based on materiality/risk levels is informative to standard setters for standard setting, standard implementation and post-implementation review of standards.

Management as an occupation has become increasingly feminised in Australia over the last two decades. This article focuses specifically on specialist managers, answering the question of where we are now in terms of gender equity. It charts the increasing but uneven growth of women’s employment among specialist management occupations. Women remain concentrated into a relatively small number of management specialisations and it is argued that there is a gendering of certain management roles which is reflected in the value attached to these roles. Using data sourced from the Australian Tax Office, the article shows that men earn higher income across all specialist management groups, including those that are highly feminised, and higher salary across all specialisations excepting one – childcare directors. Evidence is presented detailing the relativities between management specialisations, showing a variation between men and women in terms of rank. Women are much less valued in some management specialisations, such as finance. Men are much less valued in others, such as childcare. The article concludes by speculating how greater gender equity can be achieved among specialist managers but observes that ‘management’ and ‘male’ are still tightly connected.

Abstract. This study investigates Lithuanian females’ personal investment peculiarities in line with Australia’s case analysis and application as a good practice method. Based on many publicly available research females tend to have less knowledge about finances in general and particularly investment processes; hence, it leads to their lack of interest into investing and the possibility of poor money management. This issue might be solved by investigating why it appears first and adopting the practical example from countries with developed investment market. In the case of comparison of personal investment strategies among Lithuanian and Australian females the two sets of questionnaires have been used to collect the data for further analysis. The main findings revealed by the survey were, that women in Australia had a higher financial literacy level, invested more often, and chose broader variety of investment instruments compared to Lithuanian females. Moreover, the significant discovery of the article disclosed that Lithuanian females chose not to invest due to the lack of additional funds and the shortage of financial knowledge. The main limitation occurred during the research was the lack of the available data on personal investment topic in Lithuania’s official statistic sources such as The Lithuanian Department of Statistics. The results of the research contribute towards improving Lithuanian female personal finance and investment areas and could be applied to further studies or used for the education program dedicated to financial literacy among women in Lithuania creation. Furthermore, this article creates an original value to personal finance, investment, and financial literacy areas in Lithuania by introducing an idea to not only conduct more studies in these fields, but also to use comparative analysis and good practice method from the countries that demonstrates high achievements in personal finance and gender equality areas. Keywords: personal investment management, female investment, financial literacy, investor’s profile, investing, investment options, investment strategies. JEL Classification G51, G53 Formulas: 1; fig.: 5; tabl.: 1; bibl.: 15.

Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
This study examines the influence employee personality type has on employee and organisational outcomes at one of Australia’s largest financial-services organisations. It is specifically focused on knowledge-based workers who are employed in productivity-centred roles. In the banking and finance industry, the products on offer are a commodity, as customers can obtain the same products and services from each of the main providers, and there is no difference between them from a functionality perspective. So, the one differentiator is the competitive advantage that sets an organisation apart from the next. With every organisation chasing that competitive advantage, companies need to become more creative in how they ascertain that ever-priceless competitive advantage. One of the ways of obtaining competitive advantage is through the implementation and management of an organisation’s talent pipeline. Companies need to determine ways to attract and recruit the best people to help set their business apart from the rest, and, used correctly, the right personality profiling coupled with effective knowledge-based productivity and application of high-performance work systems can be factors that can set a company apart from its competition. Personality profiling is a tool that has been around for some time. Personality profiling provides individuals with insightful information about their preferences and, ideally, tasks they enjoy and do not enjoy. If used correctly, personality profiling can provide insights into how to get the best out of an individual in many different settings. This study has focused on Myer’s Briggs personality profiling (MBTI) as the preferred tool, as the Myer’s Briggs instrument has been around since the early 1920s, it provides 16 different personality types that reflect the entire population and it is detailed enough, but also concise in nature, to accurately reflect the entire population. It is also widely used by business. Historically, productivity has been grounded in the manufacturing or the operational environment, however, in recent times, companies have seen an increased demand for productivity in the knowledge-based environment. The literature tells us that, for organisations to survive in today’s tough market, an organisation needs to know how to use its resources and productivity to differentiate itself, as this differentiation can be the key to competitive advantage. Previous research has argued that organisations need to increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers, as the demand for employees with an academic education has greatly increased and is still on the rise. This study has reviewed and analysed the concept of high-performance work systems (HPWS), which is said to be the logical focus for building and maintaining competitive advantage. HPWS is underpinned by the Ability, Motivation and Opportunity (AMO) model. Simply put, Ability is the idea that employees will perform because they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so. Motivation is that employers need to build the right environment, as the right environment will see employees perform because they are motivated to do so and, finally, by creating an environment which focuses on Opportunity for employees, which is the notion that if the work structure and environment provides the necessary support, then employees will use it. The critical review of the literature has guided the research in the identification of the theoretical framework to examine the research problem, the related research questions and the development of seven groups of associated hypotheses. Adopting a positivist, quantitative research method and approach, a self-administered online survey instrument was developed. The online survey was promoted via e-mail to the productivity community at one of Australia’s largest financial-services organisation, with 288 responses received. After data cleaning and screening, a total of 263 responses were deemed usable for analysis. Respondents were typically full-time employed (91%) and female (55%). The average age (and mode at 42%) was the 36-45-year-old category, most of the sample respondents were university educated (Bachelor qualified 42%, Masters/Doctorate 23%) and had been with the organisation 6-10 years on average. Regarding productivity aspects, most respondents (83%) were Green Belt qualified and had been at that level for several years on average, and most (62%) respondents had an active productivity project at the time of data collection and 76% had completed 2+ productivity projects in their career (33% had completed 6+ productivity projects). Accordingly, the sample was deemed suitable for the purposes of the research. There were several different tests used to understand the relationships and whether there were interactions between the different variables, which included descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, ANOVA and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The tests showed that in most of the relationships between the dependent and independent variables relationships were present. Specifically, there were supported relationships seen between MBTI and Ability, MBTI and Motivation and MBTI and Opportunity. In addition, there were partially supported relationships seen between MBTI and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB), MBTI and affective organisational commitment (AOC) and MBTI and productivity, specifically task enjoyment, which was linked to satisfaction and duration. The findings lead to both theoretical and practice-related implications. Theoretical implications include the contribution of the study to the productivity domain, as operational definitions and terms of operation have now been developed for a highly complex and poorly investigated topic. Next is the contribution to the knowledge-based productivity methodology, which will pave the way for future research through growth and evolution of the productivity domain. The final contribution is to the HPWS domain, coupled with personality profiling and productivity, providing the start of a new stream of research that will allow future researchers the ability to evolve the research domain. Practical implications include the recommendation of a formal community of productivity experts and a means for communication and future talent management, along with defined roles and responsibilities for productivity-based knowledge workers. This can be followed by the development of a mechanism for talent pipeline management through a threefold model that will help manage recruitment and career progression and lastly business knowledge and understanding concerning organisation competitive advantage.

Australia’s Joseph Gutnick is a billionaire, a diamond and gold miner, a political player, a philanthropist, and a rabbi. On October 20, 2000, Gutnick awoke in Victoria to find himself accused of tax evasion and money laundering by the American business magazine Barron’s. The article, “UnHoly Gains,” suggested that Gutnick had engaged in shady dealings with Nachum Goldberg, a Melbourne money launderer jailed in 2000 for washing AU$42 million in used notes through a bogus Israeli charity. Gutnick read the story, not in the print version of Barron’s but on the online version of its sister publication, “wsj.com,” a website on a server physically located in New Jersey. Gutnick was not the only Australian to read the story. Approximately seventeen hundred Australians subscribed to wsj.com, including many Australian business and finance leaders. An enraged Gutnick vehemently denied the illicit association with Goldberg. To protect his reputation, he sued Dow Jones & Company—the parent company of both Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal—in an Australian court, taking advantage of tough Australian libel laws unleavened by the U.S. First Amendment. The legal arguments in the Gutnick case mirrored those in the Yahoo litigation in France a few years earlier. Dow Jones argued that Australian courts were legally powerless (or “without jurisdiction”) to rule on the legality of information on a computer in the United States, even if it appeared in Australia. The Australian High Court, like the court in France, disagreed. For material published on the Internet, it stated, the place where the person downloads the material “will be the place where the tort of defamation is committed.” Within two years of this decision, Dow Jones agreed to pay Gutnick AU$180,000 in damages and AU$400,000 in legal fees to settle the case. It also issued this retraction: “Barron’s has no reason to believe Mr. Gutnick was ever a customer of Mr. Goldberg, and has no reason to believe that Mr. Gutnick was a money laundering customer of, or had any criminal or other improper relationship with, Mr. Goldberg.”

We provide the first reliable measure on the size of India’s creative economy, explore the many challenges faced by the creative industries, and provide recommendations to make India one of the most creative societies in the world. India’s creative economy—measured by the number of people working in various creative occupations—is estimated to contribute nearly 8% of the country’s employment, much higher than the corresponding share in Turkey (1%), Mexico (1.5%), the Republic of Korea (1.9%), and even Australia (2.1%). Creative occupations also pay reasonably well—88% higher than the non-creative ones and contribute about 20% to nation’s overall GVA. Out of the top 10 creative districts in India, 6 are non-metros—Badgam, Panipat (Haryana), Imphal (Manipur), Sant Ravi Das Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), Thane (Maharashtra), and Tirupur (Tamil Nadu)—indicating the diversity and depth of creativity across India. Yet, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, India’s creative exports are only one-tenth of those of the People’s Republic of China. To develop the creative economy to realize its full potential, Indian policy makers would like to (i) increase the recognition of Indian culture globally; (ii) facilitate human capital development among its youth; (iii) address the bottlenecks in the intellectual property framework; (iv) improve access to finance; and (v) streamline the process of policy making by establishing one intermediary organization. India must also leverage its G20 Presidency to put creative economy concretely on the global agenda.

This paper argues that liberal democratic politics in Australia is in a life-threatening crisis. Australia is on the verge of slipping into a techno-feudal (post-capitalist) and post-political (new Centrist) state of perpetual emergency. Citizens in Australia, be they of the Left or Right, must make an urgent attempt to wrest power from an increasingly non-political Centrism. Within this Centrism, government is deeply captured by the international corporate interests of Big Tech, Big Natural Resources, Big Media, and Big Pharma, as beholden to the economic necessities of the neoliberal world order (Big Finance). Australia now illustrates what the post-political ‘new normal’ of a high-tech enabled bio-security state actually looks like. It may even be that the liberal democratic state is now little more than a legal fiction in Australia. This did not happen over-night, but Australia has been sliding in this direction for the past three decades. The paper outlines that slide and shows how the final bump down (covid) has now positioned Australia as a world leader among post-political bio-security states.

This rapid review synthesises the literature from academic sources, knowledge institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and trusted independent media outlets on the challenges small island development states (SIDS) face when they lose correspondent banking relationships (CBRs). The rapid review concludes that, although the loss of CBRs is a global phenomenon, regions with SIDS, such as the Pacific and Caribbean, have seen the highest rates of withdrawals. During the last decade, local and regional banks in SIDS have lost and continue to lose bank accounts at large global banks to a critical level, sometimes having only one or none CBRs with banks in major economies, such as the Unites States, the United Kingdom, the European Union or Australia. This means that local banks have reduced access to financial services related to cross-border financial transactions, impacting on remittances and trade finance.