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Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dept Tourism, Sport & Hot Mgmt, Griffith Business School, Organisations are required to develop a unique brand as well as meaningful and emotional relationships with their consumers to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. An increasing number of organisations sponsor charity sport events to assist in achieving these objectives. Charity sport event (CSE) managers and representatives of the sponsor would benefit from the development of an authentic sponsorship program as consumers may form negative attitudes towards corporate partners who partner with an event for overly commercial reasons. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, this research examined how CSE managers and sponsors can create sponsorship programs that promote the sponsor’s brand in an authentic manner. Secondly, this research investigated how CSE sponsorship programs facilitate the development of meaningful and emotional relationships between CSE participants and sponsors. Three research questions were advanced. The research questions were addressed through an explanatory sequential mixed method research design consisting of three studies. The MS Moonlight Walk is an annual CSE that supports people living with MS and represents the research context of this thesis. The research adopted organisational identification theory and service-dominant logic (S-D logic) as theoretical frameworks. According to organisational identification theory, consumers identify and form emotional relationships with brands, which they perceive as meaningful and distinct. Consequently, Study 1 and Study 2 were guided by organisational identification theory. Study 1 examined how sponsoring a CSE can assist the sponsor to develop meaningful and emotional relationships with event participants. Data were collected from MS Moonlight Walk 2018 participants through pre- and post-event questionnaires. The ii results indicated that event participants were unable to answer the questions included in the questionnaire prior to and after the event

Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Griffith Business School, Griffith Business School, The potential for professional financial planning to benefit Australians economically, financially and psychologically is recognised by government. Financially, these benefits include increased savings, faster debt reduction, appropriate levels of insurance and less reliance on social security and a more financially literate society. Psychologically, the benefits include peace of mind that comes from an individual being confident in financial matters and better prepared for life changing events. However, despite 20 years of regulatory reform, the deficiencies in the quality of financial planning advice remain the focus of government and industry attention. Primarily, the concerns stem from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission findings that too often financial advice failed the client by not communicating how the advice was appropriate nor fill a knowledge gap sufficient to enable the client to make an informed decision. The exceptions, on the other hand, showed advisers that focussed on teaching and coaching were perceived as offering a higher degree of recognised financial and psychological client benefits. In response, some financial planning practices have shifted from the traditional six step advice model to a financial coaching approach and others have adopted a hybrid approach; by blending both traditional and financial coaching approaches. Whilst the attainment of the client’s financial goals are central to each approach, typically the traditional financial advice approach is paternalistic and focusses on optimising returns via portfolio product sales whereas, financial coaching is distinguished by its collaborative, educational approach and focusses on optimising financial behaviour.

Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Griffith Business School, Griffith Business School, There is increasing interest in social and environmental issues throughout the world, especially in developed countries, where governments, organizations, and society well recognise the impact of business activities on the environment and society. Consequently, companies have potentially no alternative but to behave in a responsible manner, socially and environmentally, and to prove this by disclosing information about their related conduct. In this regard, banks play two important roles: first, as providers of social and environmental information in much the same manner as nonfinancial companies; and second, as providers of finance, by encouraging—if not obliging—bank customers to consider society and the environment in their bank-financed projects. Banks fulfil the latter role by requiring social and environmental information from companies when making lending decisions. Only a few Libyan studies have examined social and environmental issues in relation to economic activity, and these have generally revealed low levels of disclosure practice by organisations, including banks, in these areas. In addition, many changes have taken place in the Libyan economy and banking sector in recent years, including the establishment of a market exchange; decreased government participation in economic activities; and increased growth of the private sector that results, especially in the banking sector, with the entrance of foreign investors. These changes have placed a new emphasis on bank operations and the participation of banks in the Libyan economy. Thus, studying Libyan banks, in terms of their role in the environment and society, has attracted growing interest. As such, the core objective of this thesis has been to investigate the position of Libyan banks in relation to social and environmental issues and disclosure by considering their dual role as both providers and users of such information.

Accounting education is critical and any improvements in tertiary education of accounting students should result in better prepared graduates entering the profession. This study evaluates accounting students’ learning styles and the interaction of learning styles and teaching methodologies during degree programmes. Nine classes of accounting students (648 students) spread across four years and two degree programmes were evaluated. Students self-evaluated their learning style, pre-instruction. They were then subject to two separate teaching techniques (one active and one passive) in each course. Learning styles were then re-assessed and teaching techniques evaluated. Accounting students displayed a preference for passive learning, even those far advanced in their degrees. Furthermore, when learning styles matched teaching methods used, usefulness was assessed as high but when learning styles and teaching methods differed, usefulness deteriorated. Overall, the teaching methods were deemed more effective by active rather than passive learners. The implications are significant. To maximise educational benefit for the accounting profession, student learning styles should be assessed before designing appropriate teaching methodologies. This has resource implications which would have to be considered.

Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith Business School, Accounting standards permit management to use its discretion in determining how certain components of earnings are classified, or where they are reported in the financial statements. Prior to 2001, Australian accounting standards required companies to separately classify and report any unusually large items of income and expense as “abnormal items” to distinguish such items from “normal” earnings. In the U.S. such items are referred to as “special items” or “unusual items”. The term “abnormal items” was subsequently removed from the accounting standards, a move in part driven by the perception of regulators and shareholder interest groups that companies were opportunistically classifying items as abnormal to enhance the reported earnings before abnormal items in order to meet earnings benchmarks. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether earnings were classified as abnormal to manage earnings. The U.S. evidence on special items suggests managers opportunistically classify such items to enhance reported “normal” earnings and that special items are associated with classification shifting for the purpose of meeting or beating earnings benchmarks. McVay (2006) found that U.S. firms opportunistically shift expenses from “core” expenses by reporting them as special items. Some limited evidence of Australian companies engaging in earnings management by opportunistically classifying normal earnings items as abnormal was provided by Cameron (1998) and Cameron and Gallery (2001). This thesis extends prior research to examine whether Australian companies used abnormal items to manage earnings to meet earnings benchmarks. The predictions in this thesis are based on U.S. research findings that special items are asymmetric with a bias to negative special items and that special items are used to: manage the change in earnings from the prior year, reduce the current year’s earnings levels, minimise earnings or “take a bath”, and avoid reporting losses and earnings fore