Australian Journal of Management

Auctions are increasingly being considered as a mechanism for allocating conservation contracts to private landowners. This interest is based on the widely held belief that competitive bidding helps minimize information rents. This study constructs an agent-based model to evaluate the long-term performance of conservation auctions under settings where bidders are allowed to learn from previous outcomes. The results clearly indicate that the efficiency benefits of one-shot auctions are quickly eroded under dynamic settings. Furthermore, the auction mechanism is not found to be superior to fixed payment schemes except when the latter involve the use of high prices.

It is often argued that managers representing shareholders' interests tend to undertake risky projects because equity resembles a call option on a firm's assets. However, this conclusion is not generally true when bankruptcy risk is explicitly modelled. This paper compares the relative strength of the agency cost and the bankruptcy risk in determining managerial choice of cash-flow volatility in a continuous-time framework. Assume the existing debt has covenants which preclude additional borrowing and that bankruptcy is triggered when the cash balance hits zero, I show that for low levels of debt, shareholders prefer to minimize cash-flow volatility I also work out the critical face value of the debt above which shareholders are risk-seeking rather than risk-avoiding In short, bankruptcy costs being borne by equity mitigates shareholders' desire for risk.

The research program described focuses on identifying the role of organisational culture, as reflected in workplace systems and practices, and employee and group attitudes in the outcomes of interactions among dissimilar parties. A systematic, theory-testing approach underlies the program, which aims to both develop and validate the diversity openness construct. The Perceived Dissimilarity-Openness Moderator Model developed from the research asserts that the affective, cognitive and behavioural consequences of diversity depend in part upon the perception of difference and subsequent quality and magnitude of the response to the perceived dissimilarity. When individuals or social systems (groups or organisations) are diversity-closed, outcomes are predicted to be less positive than when they are diversity-open.

Pooled time-series, cross-sectional data on 110 Australian companies over the period 1992–1998 is employed to examine whether the trademarked variant of residual income known as economic value-added (EVA®) is more highly associated with stock returns than other commonly-used accounting-based measures. These other measures of internal and external performance include earnings, net cash flow and residual income. Three alternative formulations for pooling data are also employed in the analysis, namely, the common-effects, fixed-effects and random-effects models, with the fixed-effects approach found to be the most empirically appropriate. Relative information content tests reveal returns to be more closely associated with EVA® than residual income, earnings and net cash flow, respectively. An analysis of the components of EVA® confirms that the GAAP-related adjustments most closely associated with EVA® are significant at the margin in explaining stock returns.

This study takes a direct approach to determine management motivation for the use of financial derivatives. We survey a sample of Australian firms on attitudes to derivative use and financial risk management. Management views are sought on the importance of a series of theoretical reasons for using derivatives. Generally, we find that managers are focused on the broad reduction of risk and volatility of cash flows and earnings in using derivatives. Specific issues such as reducing bankruptcy costs, debt levels and taxation are not considered as important. A further interesting result from this research is that even though firms may use derivatives they may not necessarily hedge all of their annual exposures across different financial risks. This helps explain the inconsistency of results in many empirical studies on the determinants of derivative use.

This study examines the relationship between top management turnover (i.e. investment directors) and investment performance for actively managed Australian funds. This issue is significant given the importance of executive management in the implementation of the institution's investment strategy, the sizeable assets under their control, as well as the overall success and profitability of the funds management operation. In addition, investors, asset consultants, managed-fund ratings agencies and the financial media devote significant resources to the scrutiny of performance, the organisational activities, leadership and human capital of investment management firms. Accordingly, this study examines the impact of performance and fund-flow activity on top management turnover in both the pre-and-post replacement period. The research documents that turnover of underperforming investment managers results in significantly higher performance in the post-replacement period, while turnover coinciding with outperforming managers delivers investors significantly lower returns. The evidence also identifies significant changes in portfolio risk associated with managerial turnover. Finally, this research documents that underperforming investment managers exhibit significantly lower fund flows prior to replacement.

A short questionnaire, the Flexible Work Options Questionnaire (FWOQ), was developed to measure workers' attitudes to the use of flexible work options (FWOs) such as flexible hours and part-time work. The questionnaire was used with two groups of employees, 344 public service personnel, and 212 non-academic staff from a regional university. In Study 1, the FWOQ was shown to have moderate reliability and to consist of two factors: I, Work/family Balance, and II, Barriers. The Barriers factor did not emerge as a single factor in Study 2. Work/family Balance issues were stronger predictors of the use of FWOs than Barriers. These results were explained in terms of compromises that parents make in order to achieve family/work balance. Further development was suggested to refine the Barriers subscales and to investigate gender differences.

Important financial risks facing the airline industry include interest-rate, currency and fuel-price risk. This paper estimates the exposure to these risks within the airline industry of Australia and New Zealand, using both linear and non-linear specifications, for a variety of horizon lengths. Evidence for exposure, both symmetric and asymmetric, tends to strengthen as the return horizon is lengthened. Exposure to these financial risks is largely unchanged by the terrorist attacks and the collapse of a major competitor in September 2001.