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Since all policies address problems, they necessarily include implicit or explicit constructions of these problems. This paper explores how child maltreatment has been constructed in New Zealand's child protection policies. It questions the underlying assumptions of this problem construction and seeks to shed light on what has been omitted. Utilizing a qualitative content analysis of eight key policy documents, this study reveals the construction of child maltreatment has been dominated primarily by a child-centric, risk-focused approach. This approach assigns blame and shifts responsibilities onto parents and families. In addition, the vulnerability discourse and social investment approach underpinning this perspective have allowed important structural factors, such as poverty and inequality, to remain unaddressed. This paper also highlights the one-dimensional focus on the lower social class to control future liabilities. We suggest that the harm inflicted by corporations on children's well-being is another form of child exploitation currently omitted from the problem construction. We suggest that child abuse should be defined and understood in policy as harm to children's well-being and argue that the state should prevent and mitigate harm by addressing structural forces of the problem as well as protecting children against corporate harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a case study from which a framework for the purposeful building of knowledge communities by means of social media is formulated. Design/methodology/approach: The approach first takes the form of a literature review. Based on a review of literature as well as on various data sets and surveys within the case study organisation, a social media tool is developed and implemented as a platform to build a knowledge community. Findings: That there is a need for more information by means of practical experimentation in the current literature. In addition to this, eight steering points for constructing a framework of best practice in the purposeful creation of knowledge communities are submitted. Research limitations/implications: The above-mentioned points are still undergoing field evaluation and further analytics is been undertaken. Originality/value: The paper provides detail into a social media campaign. Further corporations will be able to build on the findings to construct a framework for the purposeful creation of communities facilitated by social media technologies. (Contains 4 figures.)

In recent years, multinational food and drink corporations and their marketing practices have been blamed for the global childhood obesity 'crisis'. Unsurprisingly, these corporations have been quick to refute these claims and now position themselves as 'part of the solution' to childhood obesity. In this paper, I examine how and why corporations fund, devise and/or implement 'healthy lifestyles education' programmes in schools. By using a critical ethnographic research approach alongside Foucault's notion of governmentality, I interrogate what those with the 'will to govern' (such as corporations) wanted to happen (e.g. fight obesity, change marketing practices and increase consumption), but also what actually happened when these corporatised education programmes met their intended targets in three New Zealand primary schools. I critically examine these programmes by focusing on the ways in which three technologies of consumption--product placement, transforming children into marketers and sponsorship--attempt to govern children to be lifelong consumers of the corporate brand image and their allegedly 'healthy' corporate products. Although students were not necessarily naïve and easily coerced into becoming mindless consumers of corporate products, students and their teachers readily accepted that sponsorship, product placement and marketing in schools were normal, natural, necessary and mostly harmless. Healthy lifestyles education programmes represent a new 'brand' of health, health education and corporation. The child-citizen is governed to become the child-consumer. Corporations' anxieties about being blamed for childhood obesity are fused with technologies of 'healthy consumption': the consumption of corporate products, corporate philanthropy, the corporate brand and corporate 'education'.

Purpose: Meat processing companies have the potential to raise farm and sector productivity by directly working with farmers. This study assesses how commercial companies can undertake the roles of innovation intermediaries to increase productivity in New Zealand's sheep and beef sector. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a case study approach from the red meat sector in New Zealand. The case study included the development of a trial agricultural extension system established by staff from meat processing companies acting as innovation intermediaries, providing opportunities for skill development and knowledge transfer for farmers. From the case study, a framework is developed which illustrates how company staff can undertake the role of an innovation intermediary. Findings: (1) Meat processing company staff are able to successfully undertake the role of an innovation intermediary; (2) flexibility is necessary, as staff undertook each of the functions to different degrees depending on their existing skills and knowledge of agricultural extension and the time available within their current job; and (3) adaptability is important, as staff adapted the project to meet the needs of both farmers and their employer. Practical implications: Balancing commercial and extension roles is challenging. The framework could assist companies to clarify how individual company staff could successfully undertake specific roles. Theoretical implications: This paper discusses factors influencing which innovation intermediary roles and functions are optimally undertaken by staff within or outside a meat processing company. Originality/value: Analysing the role of an innovation intermediary from the perspective of meat processing company staff balancing their extension and commercial role.

The release of "The New Zealand Curriculum" causes us to rethink the aims of education. Dr Cavanagh offers an alternative set of aims to the vision outlined in the Ministry of Education document, which is based, at least in part, on socialisation into the corporate industrial world. Dr Cavanagh's position is focused on putting relationships at the centre of who and what we are as schools. He believes if we create a culture of care in schools, students will be happy and flourish. As a result, the two major domains of schooling will be joined together-- student behaviour and teacher pedagogy. This emphasis will help students and teachers to build their capacity to solve problems non-violently by learning how to build healthy relationships and heal broken relationships.

Objective: Professional sport occupies a prominent cultural position in societies across the globe and commercial organisations make use of this to promote their products. The present scoping review explores existing academic literature on the relationship between professional sports clubs and food and drink marketing and considers how this relationship may impact upon the public's health.Design: The scoping review searched six databases. Experts were also consulted. Records written in languages other than English were excluded. We also excluded records relating to mega events (e.g. Olympics, Football World Cup) and alcohol marketing, because of the attention already given to these.Setting: Professional sports clubs.Results: We identified 18 166 titles, reviewed 163 abstracts and read twenty-six full texts. We included six papers in the review. Four were from Australia and New Zealand. The Australasian literature focused largely on the marketing of foods and beverages to children and the potential impact on consumption. Single papers from researchers in Turkey and the USA were identified. The Turkish paper analysed shirt sponsorship in football leagues internationally and showed food and beverage (including alcohol) companies were the most common sponsors. The US paper examined a mixed reaction to a football team named after an energy drink.Conclusions: Commercial relationships between professional sports clubs and Big Food corporations have largely eluded scrutiny in much of the world. The current review highlights the lack of public health research on these relationships. Research exploring the interdependent commercial practices of food and drink companies and professional sports clubs is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact that the relationship between a corporation's board and treasury staff has on foreign exchange hedging policy. Using survey evidence from New Zealand non-financial firms, we find that firms with a more powerful board, more staff, and larger exposures are more likely to have a treasury policy. In addition, firms with a more powerful board are less likely to use options to hedge their exposure. Finally, the majority of firms change hedging decisions based on financial forecasts despite the evidence that these are of no value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, there has been a great deal of attention paid to the notion of corporate sustainability, which has variously been defined as meaning the incorporation of social, environmental, economic, and cultural concerns into corporate strategy. Therefore, corporations, particularly those that have global presence, are required to commit to sustainability strategies and practice as a means of expressing their support and commitment to the notion. This study examines managers' actual sustainability perceptions and practices. The paper reports on an empirical study carried out in New Zealand in which 15 large companies were interviewed in 2009 about their sustainability strategy and practice. Results reveal that companies that participated in the study are keen to demonstrate that sustainability is integral to their policy and have various projects and initiatives to support their position and commitment. However, with lack of 'organised' stakeholder pressure on corporations in New Zealand to showcase their sustainability attributes, with very few exceptions, the question of what really motivates sustainability projects/initiatives is compelling. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces Perioperative Nurses College (PNC) awards given to people including the Booth Memorial Travel Award to author Kelly Burn, the Christina Ackland Award to editor Jean Koorey and an award of 1000 Australian dollars to author Kim Morgan for her paper "Briefing and Debriefing."

Purpose – This paper provides empirical support for the introduction of cash flow disclosure regulation issued by Australasian accounting bodies, AASB and NZICA (formerly NZSA), between 1987 and 1992. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis uses a long window event study format on a panel of 5,368 firm-year observations between 1996 and 2005. Findings – The cash flow disclosures required in the regulation are associated with significant abnormal return responses. These effects are robust to the inclusion of other factors linked to abnormal returns such as movements in profitability, size and leverage. We also find support for the proposition that the cash flow effects are conditioned on the quality of the firm, as proxied by q. The market is better and more easily informed with the information required under the revised reporting regime. Research limitations/implications – The analysis would have been improved with better access to pre-reform period data. Originality/value – There is no other study on Australasian markets which looks at the value impacts of cash flow information in relation to this regulatory change. Such a study has also never been done on New Zealand companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines sustainability as an emerging stimulus for corporate entrepreneurship in New Zealand publicly traded firms, using a process approach to sustainable corporate entrepreneurship. We find that many of the firms do not identify sustainability in their mission statement or in relationship to any product, process, strategy, or business model innovative initiative. Of those that do, there are varying degrees of inclusion and as such, sustainability does not seem to be widely or strategically considered a stimulus for corporate entrepreneurship by publicly held New-Zealand-based corporations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Tobacco companies have opposed the removal of tobacco retail displays, arguing this would compromise retailers' safety, increase retail crime, reduce retailers' income, impose additional costs and be inconvenient. These arguments have successfully delayed policy development in several jurisdictions. Methods In-depth interviews conducted with New Zealand retailers who had voluntarily removed tobacco from open display in their stores. Results Retailers who had removed tobacco displays did so primarily to reduce their security risk and found their stores had become less vulnerable to retail crime. They did not find removing displays costly or inconvenient nor had this decision significantly reduced their revenue. Conclusions Removing in-store tobacco displays may increase rather than decrease store safety. Our findings reveal that retailers' experiences differed in many ways from tobacco companies' predictions and suggest that industry arguments against display removal lack objective support and are self-serving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The requirements for listed corporations to disclose material tax-related information has been in the spotlight over the last few years in Australasia, especially in regard to the large banks that have a major presence on both sides of the Tasman. In this paper we examine how listed companies have made disclosures in their financial statements in relation to material tax disputes with the respective revenue authorities. We suggest that the more recent cooperative compliance agreement initiative may have a significant impact going forward. For the analysis we draw some common themes from the companies reviewed, including that companies will tend to make disclosures only after their tax positions have been challenged by the revenue authorities and they intend to dispute the revenue authority's approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of corporate governance practices of small cap companies have had on their financial performances. Previous studies have mainly examined governance practices of larger corporations. This analysis focuses on the governance variables that have been highlighted by the New Zealand Securities Commission (2004) governance principles and guidelines and also on the governance variables that are supported in the literature as providing an appropriate structure for the firm in the environment in which it operates. The data for 71 small cap companies listed in New Zealand over a five-year period from 2001 to 2005 was analysed. Pooled data, OLS and 2SLS regression techniques were used and Tobin's Q, ROA and OPINC were used as the dependent variables. The evidence does support the hypothesis that the existence of board independence and audit committee has enhanced firm financial performance, as measured by Tobin's Q. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User participation in IS development has become an established practice perceived to improve both the development process and its outcomes. Recently, however, Markus and Mao (2004) have highlighted the need to revisit user participation in light of the changing IS development environment. A survey of New Zealand organisations with 200 or more full-time employees was undertaken in order to obtain an updated assessment of the actual practice of user participation in IS development projects from the perspective of IS management. The results suggest that user participation continues to be a dominant aspect of IS development for IS managers. The paper provides empirical data on the common reasons for having users participate and the form and types of user activities in development. The responding IS managers perceived user participation to be beneficial to IS development in their recent IS projects, and many intended continuing or increasing their current levels of user participation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of workplace e‐learning programmes is to improve employee capabilities in order to enhance organisations' performance. However, notions of sustained performance in strategic management have moved from measures of production and profit to innovation and adaptation. We therefore suggest that the design and evaluation of e‐learning should also be consistent with the dynamic capabilities framework, which suggests that sustained superior performance results from an organisation's ongoing ability to alter operational routines in line with environmental requirements. With the intent of showing how e‐learning can be configured and evaluated to support the development of dynamic capabilities, we present findings of an exploratory qualitative study that examines e‐learning processes and evaluations in 12 New Zealand organisations. Our analysis reveals that organisations operating in more dynamic environments are likely to use e‐learning to support innovative and adaptive processes, and evaluate their e‐learning accordingly. This study's findings expand our overall understanding of the dynamic capabilities concept, and shows how e‐learning can be aligned to the achievement of more fluid objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the over-governance and board interference within companies in New Zealand. The conventional pattern of governance in New Zealand is based on a monthly board meeting, typically after the 20th of the month. He describes the demands posed by the monthly meeting cycle on the chief executive officer. He questions the need for board monthly meetings if the role of the board is strategic.

The article discusses the difference of government from governance in New Zealand. Topics covered include the proposed definitions of government and governance, the criteria for a good governance, and the dimensions of bad governance. Also mentioned are the political considerations for either good government or good governance in New Zealand and criticisms of the World Governance Indicators (WGI).

This study examines how professional associations respond to crisis situations. The theoretical concepts presented in a model of stakeholder saliency, developed by Mitchell et al. (1997), are applied in examining how the New Zealand Society of Accountants responded to a significant transgression situation. The embezzlement by John Graham, a chartered accountant, gave rise to significant pressure being brought to bear on the profession by various stakeholder groups. The Graham scandal is described using landmark transgression analysis (Nichols 1997). The stakeholder model is applied in identifying salient stakeholder groups, in describing their activities, and in analyzing the profession's response. The analysis identifies an unprecedented level of activity among the professional body's stakeholder groups and provides a framework useful in making sense of the New Zealand Society's actions as it attempted both to protect its reputation of acting in the public interest as well as serving the interests of its members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the rubbish removal business Junk2Go based in Auckland, New Zealand. Founder Dave Lewis is said to have learned the art of service delivery while working at the restaurant of Cunard's cruise ship, Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2). The role of MedRecruit chief executive officer (CEO) Sam Hazeldine as a business mentor for Lewis is discussed. Lewis says his company's success lies on its focus on providing an outstanding customer experience at all times.

The article examines changes to corporation law and financial services industry law in New Zealand since the Global Financial Crisis. Changes in laws on corporate governance are discussed. The establishment of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) agency to regulate securities markets is considered. A 2011 law on licensing of auditors is discussed. The Basel III international banking regulations are discussed.

Focuses on the X-factor, or how quickly New Zealand corporations adopt the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) computer language, as of June 2003. Importance of the X-factor in the global economy; Benefits of XBRL; Development and deployment of XBRL.

Reports on the critical issues facing New Zealand as discussed at the 2000 Future Sectors Conference. Continuing `brain drain'; Business immigration; Corporate decline; Technology uptake.