Search results

Mega events offer a rich context for relationship marketing research, but no known research has investigated relationship leveraging among clients during mega events. This paper compares relationship leveraging by an Australian state government department and a private sector banking firm during Rugby World Cup 2003. A qualitative case study method highlighted a less structured approach to public sector relationship leveraging. Different timeframes for the relationship lifecycle, as well as philosophical, environmental and operational factors, impact upon event-based relationship marketing. Future comparative research is recommended.

Seeks to understand the inter‐organisational networks that influence events tourism strategy making by public‐sector event development agencies in Australia.

A qualitative methodology of convergent interviews, followed by multiple case research across six Australian states and territories, was employed. The inter‐organisational relationships and networks of events agencies that impact on their strategy processes for events tourism were the “cases” in focus.

Strategies of a reactive‐proactive nature mostly guide events tourism development by Australia's corporatised event development agencies. These agencies maintain “soft”, loosely formed networks that consist of relatively stable clusters of intra‐governmental and corporate membership with a peripheral, ad hoc membership of other stakeholders.

Although the paper studies perceptions of strategy making at a single point in time, it provides valuable insights into the public sector environment, institutional settings and key relationships that impact on events tourism strategies.

Event development agencies should consider how the unique requirements of event bidding, event development and expansion might facilitate different types of stakeholder engagement and network formation. Integration of regional, metropolitan and state strategies for events tourism may also widen the network of influence on strategies.

The paper informs public sector operatives establishing or managing event development agencies, where tourist generation is a primary marketing goal. It contributes new knowledge in a tourism field that is under‐researched.

This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is expected that some existing clients may have an incentive to switch away from a newly merged firm as the same larger firm now audits close competitors once audited by separate firms. Prior theory also suggests that another group of potential clients should be attracted to the newly merged firm where the merger enhances or creates industry specializations. The expectation is that in both of these instances there will be increased switching activity associated with the newly merged audit firm. Contrary to expectations, a significantly lower level of switching behaviour was observed for the newly merged firm compared with that of the other Big 5 firms, suggesting that an advantage of enhanced specialization may not be the attraction of new clients but the retention of existing clients. When comparing the nature of the switches, some support was found for the view that the switches to the new firm were likely to be in enhanced areas of specialization, but no evidence was found to suggest that close competitors would switch away from this firm. The greater rate of retention of clients compared with other Big 5 firms was not associated with a more competitive audit pricing policy.

This chapter will show faculty the benefits of using picture postcards in different disciplines for encouraging critical thinking, analysis, and visual literacy in the active learning classroom while helping students to contextualize what they are learning in the course. It will provide strategies for how to teach this material including possible sample worksheet questions that could be used in multiple disciplines. This chapter will present one way that faculty can innovatively use active learning strategies to teach students archival skills, analytical thinking, visual literacy, cultural competency, historical and locational awareness, collaboration with other students, and disciplinary content. Furthermore, it will discuss how this activity is equally well-suited for both innovative active and experimental classroom setups as well as large lecture halls and traditional classroom setups and how modifications can be made for each environment.

Career programmes within secondary school curriculum can impact on a young person's sense of direction and meaning in life. The purpose of this paper is to report on an evaluation that was conducted in 2009 of the careers programmes in one secondary college in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

The research team utilised a multi‐method approach collecting 273 surveys and undertaking both focus groups and interviews, ensuring the voices of young people were at the centre of the work.

Innovative careers and transition programmes create opportunities for young people to plan for their future. Similarly the absence of established careers programmes can compound the disadvantage that some students experience. The findings evidence how important it is for schools to support inclusive classrooms that enable young people to make informed decisions about their career pathways.

The research findings were used to form a model of good practice and highlight the transformational impact of career and transition programmes for young people. The current research explores student knowledge, confidence, attitudes and perceptions while they are still at school. A longitudinal study, tracking these same young people as they progress to tertiary education and/or employment, would enable more definitive evidence on actual transitions and the actual outcomes experienced by young people.

This paper is of value to the education sector as it looks to respond to the need to develop a more seamless approach to young people making successful transitions to further education and/or employment.

The extant literature has established that industry-specialist auditors gain performance-enhancing industry-specific sub-specialty knowledge (e.g., Solomon, Shields, & Whittington, 1999) via training and on the job experience. This knowledge has been shown to allow specialists to outperform non-specialists on a range of industry-specific tasks. The current study extends this line of research by comparing and contrasting the relative performance gains enjoyed by industry-specialist auditors in two different industry settings, one regulated and the other unregulated. When specializing in regulated industries, auditors gain very detailed industry-specific knowledge which is not the case for specialists in unregulated industries (Dunn & Mayhew, 2004). By comparing industry-specialists to non-specialists with matching industry-based experience, this study measures the relative benefits of specialization in different industry settings, rather than the benefits of specialization per se, which has been well established in the literature. This study finds that the performance gains made by regulated industry-specialists significantly outweigh those made by unregulated industry-specialists on industry-specific tasks. The implications of these results for future research and practice are explored in the body of the chapter.

This paper highlights inclusion issues Indigenous people experience maintaining their mental health in the workplace.

Using a grounded theoretical approach, five sharing circles were conducted with the Nokiiwin Tribal Council's community members to better understand inclusivity issues related to workplace mental health.

Five themes emerged from the data related to enhancing inclusivity and workplace mental health for Indigenous workers: (1) connecting with individuals who understand and respect Indigenous culture; (2) respecting Indigenous traditions; (3) hearing about positive experiences; (4) developing trusting relationships and (5) exclusion is beyond the workplace.

The next step is to finalize development of the Wiiji app and evaluate the effectiveness of the app in helping Indigenous workers feel included at work and to improve workplace mental health. If effective, the Indigenous-developed e-mental health app will be promoted and its benefits for helping Indigenous workers feel included at work and also for providing accessible mental health resources, will be known. In the future, other Indigenous groups may be potentially interested in adopting a similar application in their workplace(s).

There is very little known about inclusivity issues related to Indigenous workers' maintaining their mental health. This paper identifies major issues influencing the exclusion and inclusion of Indigenous workers.

Energy and environment has gained traction within the field of entrepreneurship literature, but a comprehensive empirical study that examines the relationship between the cost of energy and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) innovation is an omission. Therefore, this novel study aims to examine the relationship between the cost of energy and SMEs innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by first examining the differential impact of the various generation sources on the price of electric energy. This research has enabled us to investigate and understand the transmission mechanism of increasing/decreasing electricity price on innovation decisions and activities of SMEs in SSA.

Using quantitative approach, with the data from the World Bank Enterprise and Innovation Follow-up Surveys, the study utilises a Tobit model to test whether the generation mix (renewable and non-renewable generation sources) increases or decreases electricity prices and examine the impact of the cost of electric energy on SMEs innovation in SSA.

The findings of this study shows that the cost of electricity affects negatively on SMEs innovation decision and activities of SMEs in SSA. The impact of renewables on the price of electricity has a larger magnitude relative to that of non-renewables. This finding has implications for policy makers promoting renewable energy without a policy design to tackle the unintended price effect of promoting renewable energy.

This is the first study to introduce cost of energy into an innovation model and to empirically examine the role of cost of energy for innovation activities of SMEs in SSA. Further, it examines the sources of generation on electricity price in SSA. The study contributes towards the empirical literature, and the findings also have implication for policy makers regarding the unintended consequences of promoting the transition to low-carbon electricity generation sources on SMEs via the cost of doing business implication.