According to the Howard government and some 'small business' organisations, the changes made to Australian industrial relations arrangements by the 2005 'Work Choices' Act will be of particular importance to small and medium sized establishments (SMEs). Specifically, the dilution of the...

In recent years, a number of researchers have questioned the traditional notion of the producer as the sole generator of innovation in buyer seller relationships. Increasingly, innovation generation has been recognized as an outcome of interaction between a firm and various outside entities....

An increase in the credit rating on an organisation?s debt is generally perceived positively, as higher credit ratings are, in the main, associated with lower perceived volatility in the market value of the assets of the entity that has issued the debt. If banks price their assets to realise a...

The main objective of this thesis is to examine the extent of and the potential for Arab economic integration. It adds to the growing literature on the issue of economic integration by throwing the spotlight on several issues hitherto little considered in the existing literature. The thesis...

The paper argues that transformations in global media industry practices can be usefully indexed to the on-going trend to consolidation by ?big media?. This trend was influentially first described by Bagdikian who noted that 50 corporations in the US ?controlled more than half of all broadcast...

To date little empirical research has been undertaken into relationship atmosphere, yet the literature leads one to the conclusion that this is a key or central factor in developing the relationship between firms and in shaping the characteristics of that relationship over time.Given that the...

The paper examines industrial relations in the shipping industries of two Liberal Market Economies (LMEs), Australia and the United States and in two Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs), Germany and Denmark. Hall and Soskice?s (2001) theory of Liberal versus Coordinated market economies has been...

Purpose ? Aims to test Walton and McKersie?s theory on labour negotiations, specifically in the case of German car manufacturers. Design/methodology/approach ? The research is based on interviews with industrial actors in Germany?s car industry ? an empirical case study. Findings ? The article...

Purpose ? The purpose of this article is to identify the key factors that impede service quality delivery in the context of luxury hotels (four- and five-star properties) in Sydney, Australia. Design/methodology/approach ? The empirical dataset for this qualitative study was collected through 22...

As a learning theory, the continuous improvement (CI) discourse has benefited countless manufacturing enterprises to improve and adapt their methods of production. As one of the pillars of total quality management, it has generally included a range of dynamic concepts from high involvement...