ORCID Profile
0000-0003-3135-4592
Current Organisations
RMIT University
,
University of Queensland
,
Griffith University
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 29-06-2010
DOI: 10.1108/17511341011051261
Abstract: Much research has focused on the reasons for child labor. This paper, in examining the experiences of late nineteenth century Australia seeks to ask the alternate research question: “What are the factors that cause managers to desist from the use of child labor during periods of initial industrialization, even where the society is characterized by a youthful demography and low levels of manufacturing productivity?”. This study measures the incidence of child labor in Queensland, Australia's third largest state, through an examination of the censuses for 1891 and 1901. It then locates the results of this analysis in the nineteenth century Australian peculiar pattern of economic investment. It is found that industrializing Australia had an extremely low incidence of child labor. This is attributed to the highly capitalized nature of the Australian rural and mining sectors, and the linkages between these sectors and the wider economy. This suggests that counties, or regions, with a highly commercialized primary sector, and with manufacturing establishments with high skill requirements (even if characterized by low productivity), will have a low incidence of child labor. The most effective policy for reducing the incidence of child labor is to enhance capital investment in the primary sector and enhance the need for workplace skills in the secondary sector. The International Labor Organisation suggests that there is currently a revival in child labor. This paper suggests that the most effective policies for reducing the incidence of child labor are ones that seek to foster increased levels of capital investment in the primary sector, rather than ones directed towards legal restriction or poverty alleviation.
Publisher: Academy of Management
Date: 2014
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2005
DOI: 10.1007/BF03216825
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 02-2000
DOI: 10.1108/EB037952
Abstract: The fundamental relationship between accounting variables and firm valuation is a recurring theme in capital market research. This paper investigates this relationship within a balance sheet context and highlights the importance of controlling for relevant economic factors. We do this by conditioning explanatory power on the firm's relative financial leverage position, after controlling for cashflows and firm size, and using an arctan regression model to take account of temporary components in cash and earnings flows. Using data for 743 firm‐years for Australian Stock Exchange listed stocks, we find that for firms which are ‘above optimal leverage’: (i) earnings contain a greater level of transitory items, particularly when firm size is small and (ii) cashflows provide higher incremental information. Our results are consistent with investors perceiving earnings as progressively less informative as the probability of failure increases, and the likelihood of earnings manipulation for the purpose of reducing proximity to debt covenants increases.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-1997
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2000
Publisher: Virtus Interpress
Date: 2011
Abstract: We investigate the association between various dimensions of corporate governance and the quality of reported earnings for Australian companies in 2000 and 2002, before and after a number of large corporate collapses. We create four dimensions of corporate governance (board, committee, ownership and audit quality) using fifteen in idual corporate governance attributes. We find only audit quality appears to improve earnings quality, and only in 2002. Further, we find earnings quality is positively related to firm size and information environment, and negatively related to firm leverage, for the combined 2000-2002 s le. We interpret these results as indicative of economic considerations having an overriding impact on earnings quality, compared to corporate governance, despite the shockwaves felt from recent high-profile corporate collapses
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-01-2008
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 07-2005
DOI: 10.1108/10309610580000672
Abstract: This paper estimates the value added by Big 8/6/5 auditors after controlling for the permanent and non‐permanent impact of earnings and cash flows using linear and nonlinear (arctan) regression models. The linear model shows significant value added for industrial firms that utilise Big 8/6/5 auditors while an arctan model shows that large auditors value‐add by attesting to the permanence of earnings for large firms. We demonstrate that refinements to the audit research can be made by using response coefficients to filter out the different timing components inherent in earnings and cash flows.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Date: 15-03-2018
DOI: 10.5622/ILLINOIS/9780252041839.003.0010
Abstract: New World railroads were seminal to nineteenth-century industrialization and European expansion. Funded by the profits of industrialization, the railroads opened new lands for agricultural and pastoral settlement, the produce of which fed the industrial workforces of the North Atlantic littoral while at the same time providing factory looms and foundries with their essential raw materials. Whether in private hands (as in the United States) or under public ownership (as in Australia), New World railroads were in managerial terms unequalled in the size and complexities of their organization. In the 1890s the power of railroad management was seemingly confirmed when they imposed dramatic reductions in wages and other employment conditions on their workforces. Where resisted, as in the United States Pullman Boycott, opposition was soon broken. Yet the managerial and financial strength of the railroads was by the 1890s more apparent than real. As mere cogs in a global production system, the railroads were financial victims of forces that they themselves helped unleash. As railroad-fueled rural expansion gradually sw ed global commodity markets, the railroads found that the prices obtained for their core custom (notably corn and wheat) fell remorselessly. As prices fell, so too did railroad rates. While it was these economic mechanisms that drove management toward labor conflict, victories on this front did little to improve management’s position. The reason for this is that the railroads suffered primarily from revenue rather than labor cost problems. Saddled with large fixed costs, the railroads found that even the most severe wage and staffing cuts made little difference to their financial plight.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2014
DOI: 10.1111/AUAR.12034
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 22-05-2020
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical account of four unsuccessful merger attempts between Australia’s two major professional accounting bodies over a 30-year period (1969 to 1998), each of which ultimately failed. An analysis of the commonalities and differences across the four attempts is provided and social identity theory is used to explain the differences between members level of support for these merger bids. This study adopts a qualitative approach using a historical research methodology to source surviving business records from public archives and other data gathered from oral history interviews. The study found that, across all four merger attempts between Australia’s two professional accounting bodies, there was strong support from society members (the perceived lower-status group) and opposition exhibited by institute members (the perceived higher-status group). This study also found that the perceived higher-status organisation always initiated merger discussions, while its members rejected the proposals in the members’ vote. This paper focusses on the Australian accounting profession, considering a historical account of merger attempts. Further research is required that includes interviews and surveys of those involved in making decisions regarding merger attempts. This paper is the first to examine in detail these four unsuccessful merger attempts between the largest accounting organisations in Australia.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 30-05-2018
Abstract: In both the New and Old Worlds, the railways were invariably the largest business enterprises of the nineteenth century in terms of both employment and capitalisation. This article explores whether Australia’s railroads were also seminal institutions for the employment of accountants and the advance of their discipline, through a consideration of the effects of commonalities and differences with the American experience. Commonalities exist in the similar roles played by American and Australian railways in the global economy, while differences principally relate to ownership structure – the former being privately owned and the latter state-owned. State ownership is found to have had a more significant influence than economic commonalities. Financial accounting was retarded due to (1) dealings with investment markets being the responsibility of Parliamentarians and (2) the abstinence of Australian railways from financial endeavours such as land speculation. The domination of cost accounting by professional engineers also left little room for qualified accountants.
No related grants have been discovered for Peta Stevenson-Clarke.