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Publication Embargo Essays on the role of rural finance, green finance and digital financial inclusion on agricultural carbon emissions reduction : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2024) Hu, DieGreen agricultural development is significant for China against the background of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and at the same time, it is crucial to secure China's food security. This thesis examines the influence of finance on agricultural carbon emissions, specifically focusing on the significant role of rural finance, green finance and digital financial inclusion. This thesis comprises three essays investigating whether rural finance, green finance and digital financial inclusion help to reduce agricultural carbon emissions in China. The first essay estimates China's agricultural carbon emissions from 2001 to 2020 and analyzes the temporal and spatial characteristics of agricultural carbon emissions, providing a research base for the thesis. Next, the essay examines the impacts of rural finance on agricultural carbon emissions by introducing the rural finance development indicator into the environmental Kuznets Curve Theory. This not only extends the theory but also helps validate the rural environmental Kuznets Curve in China. The findings reveal that the environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is invalid in rural China and that rural finance is not conducive to reducing agricultural carbon emissions. The second essay uses a bidirectional-fixed effects regression model, a quantile regression mode, and a difference-in-differences model to investigate the impacts of green finance on agricultural carbon emissions (ACEs). The results reveal that green finance significantly negatively correlates with ACEs in the eastern and central regions but is insignificant for the whole of China. Secondly, there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of green finance on ACEs. The impacts of green finance on agricultural carbon emissions also vary across different quantities, showing an asymmetric impact of green finance on ACEs. Thirdly, the Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones do not show a direct policy effect on ACEs. The third essay investigates the combined effect of green finance and digital financial inclusion on ACEs using bidirectional fixed-effects regression, moderation mechanism analysis, and Two-Stage Least Squares instrumental methods. The finding reveals that green finance positively impacts ACEs reduction but digital financial inclusion negatively impacts ACEs’ reduction. Moderation mechanism analysis shows that digital financial inclusion has a negative role in moderating the impact of green finance on ACEs, indicating uncoordinated development between green finance and digital financial inclusion in rural China. The results are robust to different methods that address the endogeneity issues. This thesis extends the ACEs theory into the agricultural sector, not only enhancing the scope of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Theory into the agricultural sector but also addressing the omitted variables criticized by scholars by considering financial development's impact on the environment. This thesis also examines the role of green finance in reducing carbon emissions in the agricultural sector, which was overlooked in previous research. Using quantile regression to examine the asymmetric effects of green finance across different quantiles and a difference-in-differences model to examine green policy impacts provides more robust results and critical information for formulating policies. More importantly, this thesis provides a unique perspective to examine the combined effects of green finance and digital financial inclusion, offering pivotal conclusions and policy recommendations.Publication Embargo An examination of the quality of sustainability reports in the GCC : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2024) Kashif, SameerahThe growing global sustainability challenges and rising stakeholder demand for companies to be accountable for their actions have led to an increase in sustainability reporting. Given this increase, it is important to examine the quality of sustainability reports to determine whether they provide incremental information which facilitates informed decision making by stakeholders. However, studies examining the quality of sustainability reports have typically focused on content quality, with few studies investigating textual quality, visual quality and/or balanced reporting. The quality of sustainability reports published by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) listed companies is examined in this research. This research focuses on readability, graphs, and negative information to examine textual quality, visual quality and balanced reporting, respectively. In Phase 1, a quantitative analysis is conducted to investigate textual quality by measuring the level of language difficulty (readability) of sustainability reports. In Phase 2, visual quality is examined by conducting a quantitative analysis of graphs used in sustainability reports. In Phase 3, quantitative and qualitative analyses are used to investigate balanced reporting in sustainability reports. The research findings are examined and interpreted through the lens of impression management and legitimacy theory. This research finds that overall, sustainability reports published by the GCC listed companies include complex language that makes the reports difficult to read. Report readers would require at least a post-graduate level of education to efficiently read and understand the sustainability reports. Considerable evidence of impression management elements is found in the graphs included in the sustainability reports. The findings of the balanced reporting analysis reveal that generally companies are reluctant to report on the challenges and setbacks faced during business operations. When companies report negative information, they mostly adopt legitimation strategies that reinforce corporate commitment towards sustainable business practices. Companies are also found to symbolically portray commitment towards sustainability when reporting negative information. The findings indicate various impression management elements that lower the textual quality, visual quality and impede balanced reporting in sustainability reports. By being the first research that examines textual quality, visual quality and balanced reporting in a single study, this research provides insights into the role of impression management and its potential to affect the quality of sustainability reports and corporate legitimacy. In doing so, this research adds to the limited literature on impression management in sustainability reports and contributes to the debate in academic literature of whether sustainability reports are used to communicate incremental information or as tools for impression management. This research provides guidance to companies on the use of language, graphs and negative information to enable them to communicate information in an accurate, balanced, and clear manner. This research will benefit companies, standard-setters and legislators by highlighting the textual and visual features of best practice and the significance of balanced reporting for publishing good quality sustainability reports.Item Open Access Corporate digitalization and green innovation: Evidence from textual analysis of firm annual reports and corporate green patent data in China(Wiley-Blackwell, 2024-07) Fang, L; Li, ZhaohuaWe investigate the effect of corporate digitalization capabilities on green innovation among Chinese-listed firms. Using a panel dataset of 2908 companies from 2011 to 2020, we use textual analysis and entropy weighting on corporate annual reports to construct a yearly corporate digitalization index. Our findings show that corporate digitalization promotes green innovation, as evidenced by patent applications and grants. This relationship is stronger for firms with fewer financial constraints and in provinces with strong intellectual property protection. We also find the national digital policy of the “Internet Plus” strategy has a stronger positive effect on corporate green innovation for corporations with a higher degree of digitalization. Our results are robust to various alternative measures, econometric models, and different samples.Item Open Access Climate-related regulations and financial markets: A meta-analytic literature review(MDPI AG, 2024-09) Ho, Linh; Gan, Christopher; Zhao, ZhenzhenCountries are confronting climate change using climate-related regulations that require firms and investors to disclose their green strategies and activities. Using the Meta-Analysis Structural Equation Modeling (MASEM) technique, this study evaluates the relationship between climate-related regulations and financial markets. The meta-regression analysis is conducted based on the outcomes of 52 empirical studies screened from 143 relevant articles. The results show the predictive power of the climate-related disclosure (CRD) laws and environmental regulations (ERs) on financial performance across all studies. ERs create mixed impacts on the equity market and support the debt market. Firm value is affected by ERs either negatively or positively. Methodologies and risk-related factors (market, industry, and firm risks) are important in explaining the relationships between ER/CRD and financial performance. The more developed the market, the less the impact of ERs and CRD on the equity market. Considering industry risk is recommended because different industries are exposed to changes in policies differently. The ER/CRD–firm value relationship is affected by all market, industry, and firm risks. The downside effect of mandatory CRD on the equity market suggests that policy makers, firms, and investors should be cautious in passing a new CRD regulation for transformation towards a sustainable economy.Publication Embargo A trajectory of financial inclusion: An empirical analysis of Ghana households : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2024) Saka, Abraham Nii AdoteyeThe need for a paradigm shift towards inclusive growth has recently received increased attention from governments and policy-makers. Financial inclusion plays a central role in inclusive growth. This is because financial inclusion is an enabler of economic growth, poverty reduction, income inequality reduction and women empowerment, especially in developing countries such as Ghana. Notwithstanding these benefits, the level of financial inclusion in Ghana is low. The World Bank provides a roadmap (the gateway to financial inclusion) on how to move people from being unserved (financial exclusion) to being served (financial inclusion). This roadmap highlights the need for households to have access to formal financial services such as payments, credit, savings, insurance, and remittances. This means that measuring the level of a country’s financial inclusion must include these services for it to be representative. Previous studies focused on banks and neglected other financial intermediaries, such as insurance companies (insurance financial services) in creating a financial inclusion index to measure a country’s level of financial inclusion. This study includes insurance in creating a financial inclusion index for Ghana for our study period (1980 to 2021) to find that there have been improvements in the level of financial inclusion during that time. This suggests that several financial sector reform programmes implemented in Ghana, as well as legal and regulatory reforms in the banking and insurance sectors, have had a positive impact on financial inclusion in Ghana. The financial inclusion score average was 0.25 for Ghana for the study period, which categorizes Ghana as a low financial inclusion country per Sarma’s (2008; 2012) categorization. Overall, however, the upward trend in financial inclusion in Ghana during the study period is an encouraging sign for the push to ensure all Ghanaian households are financially included. The study investigates what factors drive financial inclusion in Ghana and finds financial inclusion has a positive, significant relationship with GNI per capita and MSCPS in Ghana. Conversely, the study finds a negative relationship between financial inclusion and the real effective exchange rate. Government spending, inflation and money supply are negatively but insignificantly related to the level of financial inclusion in Ghana. Finally, I find that insurance and financial service imports (positive), urbanization (positive), mobile money availability (positive), fixed telephone ownership (negative), and remittances (positive) had no influence on the level of financial inclusion in Ghana during the study period. The literature suggests that there is no consensus on the direction of the relationship between financial inclusion, poverty and income inequality. To investigate the direction of the relationship for Ghana, the study runs an ordinary least square multiple regression using household consumption (a proxy for poverty) as the dependent variable, which is regressed against several independent factors including our comprehensive financial inclusion index. I find that level of financial inclusion, which averages 0.25, did not improve household consumption (reduce the prevalence of household poverty) in Ghana during the study period. A possible explanation could be the structure of the financial system of Ghana is not well-developed and financially included (Ghana is classified as low financial inclusion country with an average financial inclusion score of 0.25) to reach majority of the households (especially poorer individuals and households) to effectively reduce the prevalence of poverty in Ghana positively. The ineffectiveness of the financial sector in the allocation of funds causes low labour productivity, which increases the prevalence of poverty amongst households. In addition, an underdeveloped financial system with a low level of competition creates an ineffective financial system and discourages improvements in the level of financial inclusion in an economy. Our finding is supported by a recent study that found household consumption improved countries that had a financial inclusion index score of 0.356 or higher. For the relationship between financial inclusion and Human Development Index (HDI), which is the proxy for income inequality in this study, I find that financial inclusion positively and significantly influences HDI in Ghana. A possible explanation could be that financial inclusion enables households and individuals to afford education to build their skill and capacity, which can help them to secure employment with better and sustainable disposable income to reduce the overall level of income inequality in the country. Access to finance (through borrowing from the financial sector) can support the financial needs of individuals and households as well as help those individuals with entrepreneurial ambition to start small businesses, which can generate further income for them. Further, access to the financial sector helps individuals to save and invest their excess disposable income to generate investment income. Therefore, financial inclusion helps to reduce the level of income inequality amongst households in Ghana. I also find that the GDP per capita growth, ICT literacy and personal inward remittances have positive, significant effects on the HDI level in Ghana, whereas government spending and rural population growth have an inverse effect on HDI. Inflation (negative) and trade openness (negative) both have an insignificant impact on HDI in Ghana over the study period. I also find that FII*GNI per capita is positive and significantly impacts the HDI. An index to measure the level of women’s empowerment in Ghana is missing from the Ghanaian empirical literature. This study uses the PCA approach to create a women empowerment index for Ghana using four dimensions (labour and economics; good-life and health; politics, governance and leadership; and education and skill building) to find that the level of women’s empowerment improved year-on-year during the study period (1990 – 2021). Despite the fact that many studies have suggested that financial inclusion improves women’s empowerment (and vice versa), a study examining the direction of the relationship is missing from the Ghanaian literature. This study investigates the relationship and finds that financial inclusion and women empowerment are positively related during the study period, which means Ghanaian women are increasingly being empowered as time passes. In investigating the relationship between financial inclusion and women’s empowerment, I find that labour and economics, and politics, governance, and leadership exhibit positive, significant relationships with the level of financial inclusion in Ghana whereas good-life and health, and the education and skill building dimensions exhibit a positive but insignificant relationship with financial inclusion in Ghana over the study period.Item Open Access Price stability properties and volatility analysis of precious metals: An ICSS algorithm approach(MDPI AG, 2022-10) Fatima, S; Gan, Christopher; Hu, BaidingThis paper investigates the price stability properties of precious metals during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, 2007–2008 Global Financial Crisis, and 2010 Eurozone Crisis. To analyse the interaction between precious metal prices and the US stock market stock performances, we use the ICSS algorithm along with the GARCH model to evaluate how the number of rapid changes in volatility of precious metals has been reduced. The results suggest gold is the most stable of the precious metals. However, silver, platinum, and palladium showed positive price correlation when the US Dow Jones market was unstable. These results imply that: (1) the correlation among stocks market returns has little to no significant impact on the price movement of precious metals, but the US Dow Jones has some influence on precious metal markets except gold, which means investors can reap this benefit from diversification; (2) investors can systematically increase their portfolio returns by going short with the gold investments with low price co-movement and long on silver, platinum, and palladium with high co-movement with stock prices.Item Open Access Financial market spillovers and investor attention to the Russia-Ukraine War(Elsevier, 2024-08-17) Li, Zhaohua; Hu, Baiding; Zhang, Yuqian; Yang, WanyiThis study examines the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on global commodity and financial markets by analysing the volatility and return spillovers of 26 assets across six different markets. We find significant increases in volatility spillovers after the invasion although increases in return spillovers were milder. Stock and currency markets were the leading spillover transmitters and receivers. Investor attention to the conflict played a large role in driving market spillovers, particularly in extreme quantiles. Meanwhile, uncertain market conditions seem to provide significant feedback to investor attention, resulting in amplified market risk. Our findings highlight the substantial effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on global market spillovers and the role of investor attention in shaping these dynamics.Item Open Access Did emotional intelligence traits mitigate COVID-19 uncertainty effects on financial institutions’ board decision-making process?(MDPI, 2024-03-06) Hall, J; Jones, G; Beattie, Claire; Sands, JThis study uses a qualitative research mixed methods design to explore the Coronavirus pandemic’s uncertainty effect on mature board governance practices and a board decision processes framework within 16 large Australian financial services entities. Findings provide support for two effects. Firstly, the Coronavirus pandemic had led to a hesitation effect on the board members on-going journey of developing a conscious sense of ‘self’ and awareness. Secondly, the skills and diversity of personalities of directors comprising the board has a positive impact on the effectiveness and success of strategic decisions. The ongoing ambiguity impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on effective board decision-making processes was investigated. The board members expressed confidence in the Australian financial services sector’s ability to overcome the global Coronavirus pandemic’s temporary uncertainty impact on board decision processes frameworks. Future research may extend the focus to senior executives’ or owners’ EI personality traits to investigate the relationship between such individual’s or teams’ traits and ongoing effective board decision-making processes during uncertainty in either developing or developed countries or a cross-cultural study.Publication Embargo The dynamics of socially responsible investment funds’ performance persistence : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2024) Shanthirathna, NeleeshaSocially Responsible Investment (SRI) is an investment strategy that considers social, ethical and environmental elements in investment. SRIs have grown into a widely followed investment practice offering a variety of products to investors. This fund industry is more focused on embracing sustainability practices in its operations. Performance persistence is a good indication for investors, analysts, portfolio managers and institutions. However, there is a paucity of research on the persistence of SRI funds. This study analyses the performance persistence of SRI funds in the United States (US) from 2001 to 2021, including the 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. First, we examine the performance persistence of SRI funds before, during and after the 2008 global financial crisis. Second, we investigate the performance persistence of SRI funds before and during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Third, we focus on the relationships between fund-specific factors and the performance persistence of SRI funds. Finally, we explore the impact of macroeconomic indicators on the performance persistence of SRI funds. We use Carhart (1997) and Fama French (2015) models to measure the performance of SRI funds. We then follow Hendricks, Patel and Zeckhauser (1993) and Carhart (1997) recursive methods to analyse the performance persistence of SRI funds. We use multinomial logit regression to identify the relationships between fund-specific factors (fund size, age, flow and asset class), macroeconomic variables (interest rate, inflation, money supply and economic activity) and the performance persistence of SRI funds. Our results reveal a positive, significant performance persistence in SRI funds before and during the 2008 global financial crisis. However, the results show no evidence of performance persistence before the COVID-19 period crisis; only the nonparametric tests reveal positive performance persistence of SRI funds during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Fund characteristics and macroeconomic variables significantly affect the performance persistence of SRI funds. We divide the study period following the 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Our results show most fund characteristics and macroeconomic variables are significant after the 2008 global financial crisis and before the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. This is the first empirical study to evaluate these aspects of the performance persistence of SRI funds. Identifying SRI fund performance persistence in different market conditions is important for investors to make better investment decisions, manage risk and build a diversified portfolio. Fund analysts can identify potential problems early and adjust their recommendations. They can enhance their reputation as trusted advisors by providing informed recommendations.Item Open Access How do mandatory climate-related disclosures affect energy and agriculture markets?(2024) Ho, Linh; Renwick, AlanWith the rise of mandating climate-related disclosures (CRD), this paper investigates how energy and agriculture markets are exposed to climate disclosure risk. Using the multivariable simultaneous quantile regression and data from 1 January 2017 to 29 February 2024, we examine daily and monthly responses of energy and agriculture markets to climate disclosure risk, energy risk, market sentiment, geopolitical risk, and economic policy risk. The sample covers the global market, Australia, Canada, European Union (EU), Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). The results show that climate disclosure risk creates both positive and negative shocks on the energy and agriculture markets and the impacts are asymmetric across quantiles in different economies. The higher climate disclosure risk, the greater impacts of crude oil future on the energy sector in North America (Canada and the US) and Europe (EU and the UK), but no greater effects in Asia Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore). The agriculture sector can hedge against economic policy and geopolitical risks, but it is highly exposed to climate disclosure and energy risks. This study timely contributes to the modest literature on the asymmetric effects of climate disclosure risk on the energy and agriculture markets at the global and national levels. Our findings offer practical implications for policy makers and investment practitioners in understanding financial effects of mandating CRD to diversify risks depending upon market conditions and policy uncertainty.Publication Open Access The effects of corporate governance on firm performance in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): A comparative analysis : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2023) Fernando, ChavikaIncreasing dependence on corporate governance (CG) raises questions about whether corporate governance positively impacts firm performance and whether other variables can change the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. We investigate the relationship between corporate governance features, including board effectiveness, block ownership, and national governance, on the firm performance of ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms. We use the fundamental features of CG, such as board size, board independence, gender diversity, CEO duality, institution ownership, foreign ownership, insider ownership, government effectiveness, the rule of law and regulatory quality to analyse their impact on firm performance as measured by return on equity and Tobin’s Q. We use 265 ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms (2385 firm-year observations) from 2010-2019 and uses OLS estimation and System-GMM estimator to control for the endogeneity issue. The results show that, except for CEO duality and insider ownership, that have no significant impact on performance, the other governance mechanisms significantly influence the performance of ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms. Specifically, board independence, board gender diversity, governance effectiveness, the rule of law, and regulatory quality significantly positively influence ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms. The results show a significant negative relationship between block ownership variables and the performance of ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms. From a theoretical perspective, we emphasise how CG impacts firm performance and uncover the importance of CG systems in ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms. From a practical perspective, we not only explain the optimal structure of CG that can enhance performance but also identify the moderating impact on board effectiveness, block ownership, national governance and the performance of ASEAN-6 non-financial listed firms.Publication Open Access Examining the role of personal innovativeness and trust in predicting generation Z’s online booking behaviour(Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia, 2023-04) Hapsari, Raditha; Sabil Husein, Ananda; Gan, ChristopherThis study responds to the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) critics regarding the model's missing self-regulatory and motivational variables. The research integrates personal innovativeness and perceived risk in the TAM model and explores the interrelationships among those constructs. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data for this study, and 293 consumers of the Indonesia Online Travel Agent (OTA) industry participated. The data were analysed using Partial Least Square, which employed the inner and outer model evaluations to analyse the data. The results demonstrated that Generation Z's attitude toward using the OTA application is positively affected by its perceived usefulness and ease of use. Moreover, three variables significantly affect Generation Z's behavioural intention to use e-commerce applications. Personal innovativeness significantly affects perceived transaction risks and attitudes toward using the OTA application. These results imply that in order to enhance customers’ willingness to keep using the application, the OTA practitioners should ensure that their customers experiencing the ease-of-use dan the usefulness of the application, so that the customers will have a greater willingness to use the same application in the future.Publication Open Access Using Google Trends to track the global interest in International Financial Reporting Standards: Evidence from big data(Wiley-Blackwell, 2023-04) Zhang, YuqianThis study proposes a novel method for identifying international accounting differences under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Using Google Trends data extracted between January 2014 and August 2022, it creates an index, the Global IFRS/IAS Search Index (GISI), which comprises the search activities of 121 jurisdictions for 45 IFRS accounting standards. To assess its relative validity, I classify Nobes' (1983) 14 jurisdictions in addition to 20 OECD countries. The cluster analysis demonstrates that the GISI is a viable alternative for analyzing international differences under IFRS. The results indicate that incorporating big data could be beneficial for examining global accounting issues. A judgmental international classification of financial reporting practices.Publication Restricted Working capital management practices of small and medium-sized businesses in New Zealand : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2023) Lim, Yew HockSmall and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) contribute significantly to a country’s economic growth. As the business environment changes constantly; SMEs need support and guidance on how to address working capital management (WCM) issues. Such knowledge will enable them to implement WCM effectively, increase their competitive advantage, and ensure their ultimate survival. Knowledge of WCM in SMEs, including a greater understanding of the WCM practices that SMEs actually employ and their motivations for, and barriers to, WCM, is needed to help SMEs adapt to ever-changing conditions. WCM is central to a business’s profitability, growth, and survival. However, only some SMEs manage working capital (WC) well. Since the early 1980s, poor WCM has been identified as the primary cause of SMEs’ failure, with approximately half of all SMEs failing within the first five years. WCM involves the management of four key business components: cash, inventory, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. The goal of WCM is to achieve an optimal WC level, where the business’s current assets are sufficient to meet its obligations or current liabilities. While excessive WC incurs opportunity costs, insufficient WC increases the risk that a business cannot meet its short-term obligations. Despite its critical role in business success, scholarly literature has shown that, due to SMEs’ unique characteristics, many SMEs lack identifiable, systematic, and/or effective WCM procedures. WCM for SMEs is often overlooked in previous studies. Given the importance of WCM, this research addresses omissions in the WCM literature by examining the WCM practices of New Zealand SMEs. More specifically, it identifies SMEs’ WCM practices, their motivators for, and barriers to, adopting (effective) WCM practices, and actions that SMEs could take to modify their WCM practices to address potential WCM issues. It contributes through the collection of qualitative data to provide deeper insights. The findings draw on questionnaire responses from 164 SMEs from 15 industries, and 11 interviews with SMEs, located in the Auckland and Canterbury regions. The research found that many of the participating SMEs lacked an understanding of the importance of WCM and had limited knowledge of WCM practices or procedures that could be taken to manage WC more effectively. While some of the SMEs lacked any identifiable systematic processes, others adopted informal, ad-hoc WCM practices and/or only basic WCM techniques. The identified causes are related to barriers such as resource constraints, having a simple business model with low sales volumes, and a lack of knowledge and expertise in financial management. Consequently, rather than spending time to identify and develop systematic WCM practices, most of the SME management teams of this research focused on revenue-generating activities or activities perceived to generate a higher return. This may provide insight into other aspects of WCM outside the scope of this research, including why SMEs are less efficient in managing WC, and why they are more vulnerable to financial crises. The research identifies WCM actions, from WCM planning to daily operations monitoring, that, when implemented will assist SMEs in addressing potential WCM issues and subsequently, improving the effectiveness of their WCM. Given their significant role in local economies, this research’s findings have implications that extend far beyond individual businesses.Publication Open Access Using accounting information systems to benefit micro businesses : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2024) Benbow, PamelaNinety percent of all businesses in New Zealand are micro businesses, defined as having zero to five employees. This sector is critical to New Zealand’s economy. Micro businesses create opportunities for new entrepreneurial talents, provide employment and offer consumers choice and variety including specialist goods and services. Central to all businesses is the need for information, managed by the accounting information system (AIS). The AIS supports decision-making, achieving business objectives and managing limited resources. Prior studies and government reports call for further research of micro businesses so that this sector of the economy can be strengthened. This research addresses this call by exploring the benefits of using AIS in micro businesses using multiple methods, including desk-based research, semi-structured interviews with professional accountants, a survey of micro business and finally semi-structured interviews of micro business owners. Findings show that a variety of tools are used, ranging from manual record keeping, to spreadsheets, to computerised AIS, and including a mixture of these tools. The majority of microbusinesses use computerised AIS tools, of which two software providers dominate. Some accounting firms specialise their practice either through industry or choice of AIS. Other accountants accommodate any AIS approach, focusing on the individual micro business needs. AIS use by micro businesses is primarily focused on monitoring cash flow, sales and income activities and compliance reporting (GST and income tax). The greatest utilisation of computerised AIS and add-on tools are observed with these activities. Micro businesses could utilise other features more, especially reporting, as a basis for decision-making. The decision to adopt computerised AIS includes factors affecting the individual business owner (generation, individual knowledge and skill and personal attitude to technology), internal business factors (financial costs, time costs and the business purpose and future) and external business factors (supply chain, regulatory bodies and supporting services). The benefits of using computerised AIS include connectivity, autofill, automated calculations and drilldown. Connectivity through cloud technology provides accessibility to a single version of the data between users regardless of location. Autofill populates data entry screens with information previously captured, reducing the need for typing. Automated calculations automatically completes basic arithmetic in the creation of invoices, supplier bills and reports. Finally, drilldown enables direct access to supporting detail for information provided on screen. These benefits may not be available in older versions of computerised AIS, or versions that only include a subset of the features. This research increases the understanding of factors impacting micro businesses in their decision to implement computerised AIS, and the benefits from doing so. The findings support accountants, government agencies and AIS software developers to devise strategies to support micro businesses. Findings from this research are applicable to micro businesses throughout New Zealand and more globally and will benefit other small businesses outside of the micro definition, both locally and globally.Publication Open Access Relationship investment and local corruption environment: Evidence from China(John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2023-12) Li, Zhaohua; Pan, XWe examine how firms interact with government officials within a corruption environment. Using corruption convictions to measure the extent of political corruption at the province level and a sample of Chinese listed firms, we find that firms located in more corrupt provinces invest more in building connections than firms located in less corrupt provinces. These results are robust to the instrumental variable approach, adjacent province matching, propensity score matching and alternative measurement of political corruption. We also show that the effect of political corruption is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), smaller firms, firms with financial constraints and firms without political connections. Additionally, we find that those firms that invest more on connection building are less likely to restate financial reports and have lower financial statement comparability. Overall, the evidence from China is consistent with the political connection view that firms respond to political corruption by investing in relationship building, which contrasts with the evidence from the US.Publication Restricted Remuneration. It affects employees motivation to work and their commitment to work: A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Post Graduate Diploma in Commerce at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 1990) Poplawski, MarekThis study initially examines theories of motivation that have been applied to world in recent times. Following this examination, the study looks at the ways some of these theories have been applied in a work situation, by studying a small timber firm in Christchurch. The case study showed that each worker in the small timber firm was motivated to work in a different way : i) For the three 'workers' in the firm, the main motivation to work was money; yet other motivators, such as the bonus payment scheme, company t-shirts and sweat-shirts, and increased responsibilities, also act as strong motivators. Some of these were separate to each employee, and were found to be very influential in making each employee work harder. ii) The production manager was not motivated to work primarily by money. He claims that as long as he is able to meet his financial commitments he will be content with what he is being paid. However, other factors in the work environment are important in the motivation of this employee. The challenge of the job, the creativity he is able to apply to the job and the large responsibilities this employee has, are major factors in motivating this man. iii) The owner/operator cares strongly about the fate of this organisation. For this reason he is interested in money as a means of keeping this business running. Part of the motivating force behind this man is the success of his business. He wants to be perceived as a 'successful businessman'. Money in terms of profit is an important goal motivating the owner. He is very proud to be part of this organisation and is extremely glad that he chose this type of firm to operate. Despite this he does not feel totally loyal to the organisation. The main motivating force behind this man is the life style that he is able to live by owning his own business. The flexibility that this affords him is important. The owner/operator is also motivated by the success of his employees. He wants to improve their skills so they can move on to better jobs and lead better lives. Being able to influence the future success of these people, is also a strong motivator. The owner/operator is able to apply different motivating techniques to each worker. These apply to specific things that motivate each employee. The result of applying different motivational techniques to each individual has been that total production is well above that expected from 'normal' employees under 'normal' conditions. It would be expected that in larger firms, such as a national organisations (eg Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the New Zealand Post Office), employers would be unable to apply strategies that appeal to individual workers. Instead 'theories' are likely to be applied that appeal to the majority. The result of this is often dissatisfaction, low worker motivation and low commitment In terms of the ability to motivate individual staff members and promote commitment to the firm, small organisations have a great advantage over large organisations. This study also examines the predictors and outcomes of organisational commitment using Porter's Organisational Commitment questionnaire to survey employees of a small timber firm. The results showed that significant predictors that could be used to assess commitment included absenteeism, desire to remain in the firm, intention to remain in the firm, education, and awareness of the economic situation. Other factors influencing commitment to the firm were aspects of the job itself, fellow workmates, promotional opportunities, supervision and pay.Publication Embargo The relationship between team structure and technological advancement in Formula One : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Commerce and Management at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2023) Thomas, Anisha AndrewFormula One is renowned for its global reach, technological advancements, and the skill required to compete at the highest level. While the sport has historically been associated with innovation and the evolution of technology, there is a growing concern that Formula One has become more conservative and risk-averse in recent years, with regulations limiting true innovation. Additionally, financial pressures have shifted the focus towards incremental evolution rather than groundbreaking innovations, leading to a lack of diversity in engine manufacturers and a concentration of power among a few dominant teams. This thesis aims to investigate the role of team structure in determining the level of technological innovation or evolution pursued by Formula One teams. It explores the hypothesis that Entrepreneurial teams are more likely to drive Innovation, while corporate teams tend to focus on evolutionary changes within the sport. By analysing secondary data and conducting statistical analysis, the study examines the historical progression of Formula One, ownership structures within the sport, and the evaluation of technological development encompassing both innovation and evolution. The analysis of the data reveals that radical innovations in Formula One were predominantly driven by Entrepreneurial teams in the early years of the sport. However, as corporate participation increased, revolutionary innovation diminished over time. This contradicts the conventional theory that suggests larger firms with greater capital investments are more successful. Corporate interests, risk aversion, cost control, and profitability concerns have led to stringent rules and regulations that restrict teams' ability to innovate. To reclaim its status as the pinnacle of motorsports, Formula One must shift its focus towards nurturing and supporting entrepreneurial organisations that drive innovation. By fostering an environment that empowers these entities, the sport can rejuvenate its reputation as a breeding ground for groundbreaking technological advancements. While this study provides valuable insights into the relationship between team structure and technological development in Formula One, further research using primary data collection methods and updated information is needed to explore additional linkages and relationships.Publication Open Access Three essays on CEO expertise power and bank strategic decisions : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University(Lincoln University, 2023) Ali, MaisamA CEO's expertise power is a combination of a CEO’s educational background, career path and experience, which influences the critical components of the bank task environment, e.g., bank diversification, bank lending and other financial services, thus, needing a close attention to investigate the CEO’s expertise power and bank key decisions. This thesis comprises three essays on a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) expertise power and bank strategic decisions using US commercial banks data from 1990-2020. The first essay examines the effect of a CEO’s expertise power on bank diversification. The results show that a CEO's expertise power is positively associated with bank diversification. Market competition and board composition (size and independence) positively moderate this relationship. The results also show that CEO delta and vega are the underlying mechanisms through which expertise power leads to higher diversification. I address endogeneity concerns using the two-stage least squares, Heckman estimation and the Differences-in-Differences approaches and check robustness in several ways. The second essay examines the effect of a CEO’s expertise power on bank lending growth. The result reveals that a CEO's expertise power is positively associated with bank loan growth. Further, the result shows that GDP growth, board size and gender diversity positively and financial crises negatively affect this relationship. In channel analyses, I find that bank opacity (information asymmetry) and CEO delta (CEO pay-performance sensitivity) are the underlying mechanisms through which the CEO’s expertise power is associated with loan growth. I address endogeneity concerns using the fixed effects, generalized method of moments (GMM) and Heckman's two-stage approaches. The third and final essay examines the effect of CEO expertise power on bank tax avoidance. The result shows that a CEO's expertise power is positively associated with bank tax avoidance. The result also finds that diversification and gender diversity negatively and board size and financial crises positively affect this relationship. In channel analyses, the result reveals that CEO delta and vega are the underlying mechanisms through which the CEO’s expertise power is associated with bank tax avoidance. I address endogeneity concerns using the fixed effects, generalized method of moments (GMM), Differences-in-Differences (DID) and Heckman's two-stage approaches. This study enhances the scope of upper echelon theory by examining the implications of CEO characteristics (expertise power) for bank diversification, loan growth and tax avoidance decisions. This study provides a new explanation for bank diversification, loan growth and tax avoidance that will be useful for policymakers in developing bank strategy for CEO appointment that affects bank decisions. This study has several managerial and practical implications. The findings show that expert CEOs are highly skilled managers who can efficiently manage bank risk and other challenges, such as financial crises, reduce bank information asymmetry that improves bank lending, improve bank risk management and performance that generate more cash flows. Thus, CEO expertise contributes to bank stability by making value enhancing decisions.Publication Open Access Enhancing students’ employability skills and experiential learning through integration of Xero software(University of New England, Armidale, 2021-11) Jones, G; Jones, H; Pensiero, D; Beattie, Claire; Gregory, S; Warburton, S; Schier, MIntroducing XERO Accounting software into a core accounting unit can have many benefits for students, including improving their professional skills and enhancing their employability. However, it is important that students gain knowledge and skills in all aspects of the software as well as understanding the accounting processes that underlie the software’s operations. This paper presents an overview of implementation of Xero software, in a core accounting course, at a regional university in Australia. Student numbers ranged from 24-63 across the semesters studied. We highlight and discuss the processes adopted to appropriately scaffold students’ learning and assessment. We assess the effectiveness of the intervention by observing student engagement with specially developed videos and measuring student results in associated assessment tasks over three offerings of the course. The provision of a suite of learning opportunities, (training and use of excel and Xero accounting software) translated to improved student outcomes on the technologyrelated assessment items. Few students who viewed the learning videos contacted the course teaching team for further assistance, suggesting the videos were an effective resource that provided enhanced learning opportunities for students. These findings provide advice and information regarding the issues associated with integrating accounting software for other teaching teams or institutions considering similar applications in their courses or programs.