UABR Article Archive

Football franchise the Wellington Phoenix owes much of its success to tech-savvy fan community the Yellow Fever, say Alex Natelli and David Pauleen. The broader lesson: there is no substitute for genuine enthusiasm amongst consumers.

Principles of governance evolve as organisations grow, say Judith McMorland and Ljiljana Erakovic, who chart the changes in a New Zealand not-for-profit. They argue that having a conceptual framework can give organisations insights into the process.

Roy Smollan takes a fresh look at what resistance is, who resists, why they do so and how organisations can better handle opposition to change.

Paul Hoskin argues that even in recession, environmentally sound practices are necessary throughout the supply chain in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit future global climate change. Why should New Zealand businesses care? Because doing so improves economic performance, offers competitive advantage and satisfies customer demands.

Popular micro-blogging website Twitter has the potential to significantly affect business thanks to some unique attributes that set it apart from other social networking sites, says Amardeep Virk.

Geoff White contemplated issues that were all in a day’s work for him: a global economy spiralling into serious recession, competitive challenges for the fair trade dollar, and a balancing act between commercial business principles and social mission. White considered expanding Christchurch-based Trade Aid into Australia and restructuring company ownership to give its economically disadvantaged trading partners a stake in the company, despite these issues. Can Trade Aid’s global leadership in social value creation be continued despite the expected dramatic drop in retail spending?

Online competitions are a cheap and useful tool for businesses to gain information about potential customers. Organisations using online competitions, however, must comply with a number of legal requirements; two such requirements are the Privacy Act 1993 and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 (the Spam Act). In a study conducted in 2009, 40 competitions were analysed for their compliance with these Acts. Th e results of the study demonstrate considerable non-compliance as well as some misunderstanding of the requirements of these Acts. Th is article, in addition to explaining the law, provides best practice guidelines for organisations running such competitions.

The growing Indian economy holds huge opportunity for New Zealand business, both as a market and a low-cost production base. There are several key sectors where India’s pressing needs can be met by New Zealand’s distinct competitive advantages. To realise this opportunity for increased international business, New Zealand firms need to find market entry modes that balance resource commitment and risk with the need for control and appropriation.

The foundations of New Zealand’s business landscape are built on successful family businesses such as the Todd Corporation, Fletcher Building, Quality Bakers, Barfoot and Thompson, Resene Paints, Sleepyhead, Michael Hill Jeweller, and Corban Wines, to name a few. Considering the decades that these businesses span, it is safe to say that family businesses are by no means a recent phenomenon. However, family business consultation and academic research is1. This lack of specialised focus is surprising considering that family businesses dominate the global economic scene, comprising approximately 70% of businesses worldwide and 60% of New Zealand firms.

Sustainable development means very different things to different people. But the diverse definitions and understandings of the term among the business community and business sustainability advisors may surprise even the most seasoned of sustainability advocates. This diversity of understanding does bring with it some dangers. As sustainable development rapidly goes mainstream in New Zealand, promoters of the concept to business should be concerned that it does not become so variously and loosely defined and ‘practised’ as to be meaningless. That said, a greater knowledge of sustainable development, and its many perspectives, will strengthen the sustainable development movement, protecting it, for example, from the fraudulent claims of businesses that purport to practice sustainable development, while in fact pursuing unsustainable practices.

The value investing approach has been adopted by some highly successful investors. This research finds that a consistently superior return can be achieved from value investing in low Price-to-Earnings stocks. This cannot be explained by conventional risk measures and may indicate a mispricing phenomenon in the New Zealand market.

With a growing Chile-New Zealand economic relationship, the Chilean tourism market offers some attractive opportunities to New Zealand companies. This study finds several operators who believe that experience in New Zealand can give them a competitive advantage in this market.

Bruce McIntyre, founder of this iconic NZ company, has weathered many challenges: a turbulent marketplace; a reluctant move off-shore; rapidly changing consumer demand. A unique culture and a focus on design have proven critical for survival. But who will take Macpac on to its next chapter?

According to Dr. Douglas Lambert, Supply Chain Management goes way beyond logistics and transport – it is about building the right relationships and extending the boundaries of the organisation to partner with customer and supplier networks.

Trade Associations are well established but have remained low profile despite growing interest in business networks. A recent study found many associations to be very active, making valuable contributions to members, industry and public good.

The impact of “big-box” retail on small communities is widely thought to be negative. This research finds a complex and often positive relationship that is influenced by ethnic and historical contexts.

Recent New Zealand based research reveals new dynamics between management and leadership and offers promise for new thinking and innovation in terms of leadership development and organisational performance.

The New Zealand Accounting profession has a history of ineffective strategies for addressing its auditors’ “liability crisis”. This article resolves a dilemma that has prevented the adoption of disclaimers of liability, and advocates their use as an effective strategy with benefits for both the profession and the public.

Over four generations, the Sparrow family have grown the oldest privately owned fashion retailer in the Southern Hemisphere into a successful entrepreneurial business. The journey has involved meeting the challenges of a changing marketplace and balancing the promise of opportunity with the weight of responsibility.

The widespread adoption of personal productivity technologies has blurred the boundaries between work and private life. Laptops, mobile communications devices and networks have become ubiquitous but their effect on our work and lives have not been broadly explored. Research on the use and impact of these technologies identifies some important organisational and personal management issues and offers some guidelines for managing “any time, any place” employees.

Preparing high-potential managers to make the leap to the Executive team is a challenge for most organizations. As the desire for leadership depth and strategic thinking intensifies globally, the need for clear development pathways and visible commitment to people development becomes even more imperative. Kevin Morris offers some frameworks for understanding the mindset that can take managers to the next level, and the development environment that executive teams should strive to create.

Since Bruce Farr started designing yachts in the late 1960’s the industry has seen a great deal of change. He reflects on how changes in technology continue to reshape the boating industry, the challenges of growing an organization, and the role of competition and cooperation in the design community. Whilst he misses aspects of the “old days”, he predicts a future with an even greater focus on technology.

‘No 8 Wire’ for today’s world, the biology of success, and an entrepreneur’s journey.

Product design is recognised as one way in which small scale local manufacturers can compete against imports produced in countries with lower costs structures and less demanding regulatory frameworks. However, true strategic advantage can be gained by applying the concept of design more broadly across a business. Research with furniture manufacturers explores the impact of design interventions on business performance.

John Allen, CEO of New Zealand Post Group and Co-Chair of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum shares his thoughts about the future of the trading relationship between New Zealand and Australia. This is an exited version of his speech at the Dean's Distinguished Speaker Series at The University of Auckland Business School.

Export year encourages businesses to fly the flag for New Zealand beyond our shores. With 40 percent of buying decisions being based on country of origin, creating a national brand for New Zealand is an important part of this. Warren Mearns explains some of the complexities of branding and what these mean for creating a compelling country of origin brand.

CASE STUDY: A new feature in this issue, we will publish case studies about New Zealand organisations and people, written by our faculty for teaching purposes. The piece includes reflections on the story by a practitioner and an academic.

Emerging trends and issues in business and research … Facilitating organisational change, sustainabilty and new Japanese business models

Important steps in the innovation process often come from a greater understanding of the past.

Information and communications technology have spawned a level of connectivity that is the life blood of contemporary business. Constant connection with others brings many benefits and enables the knowledge economy, but it also presents some challenges. Steering a successful knowledge economy means being able to connect and disconnect simultaneously.

Having friends at work is almost universally considered to be a "good thing". However, this study uncovers some aspect of workplace freindships, such as maintenance difficulty, dual role tension, boundary violations and distraction from work, that can create difficulties for employees and their organisation.

Electronic health record systems (EHRs) have the potential to enhance health provider decision-making and ultimately the quality of health care received by patients. A study of GP computer use raises some key issues for health providers seeking to implement integrated EHRs.

A study of New Zealand auditors shows that many perceive that they conduct audits under serious time constraints. To deal with these constraints they often resort to dysfunctional measures. Some solutions are suggested for overcoming the impact of this behaviour on the quality of audits and the welfare of audit staff.

With an ageing workforce, discrimination against older workers is also on the rise. So how are New Zealand employers choosing job candidates – and why?

International diversification as a response to poor performance may not be always effective.

Igor Filatotchev, Professor of International Strategic Management at Kings College London, talks about the importance of context and complementary practices to ensure corporate goverance delivers maximum value to organisations.

The lack of specific laws governing franchising in New Zealand is limiting opportunities for franchisors and franchises. The time has come for the lawmakers to make franchising a level playing field.

The development of an accounting standard for intangible assets has taken a long time, and it has been controversial. To understand the problems involved, it is necessary to look at the nature of assets and the special case of intangibles.

The outgoing CEO of Westpac, Ann Sherry, spoke recently at the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series at The University of Auckland Business School. As she returns to her native Australia, Sherry reflected on her four years in New Zealand. This is an adapted and edited version of her speech.

A recent discussion paper, instigated by commercial photographers, challenges the law relating to copyright and the commissioning of creative works.

Biofuels study.

Entrepreneurship

Neuro-biology of leadership.

Corporate believability

The 2006 MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year.

Terrorism, global diseases and computer viruses are just some of the new types of threats that are emerging in the global business environment. Pete Enderwick suggests a focus on strategy rather than risk management might be the most effective way to deal with these.

The future of customer relationship management will be based on new metrics and reward structures that align sales representatives' effort with corporate goals.

A systematic approach to demonstrating accountability may help NPOs meet the increasing demands of both donors and government. Here, a evaluation potential tool is presented and discussed.

In his role as a corporate legal adviser, Andrew Harmos is a keen observer of the Kiwi business psyche. In this interview, he talks about his industry and shares his concerns about foreign ownership and levels of saving.

Understanding how an organisation's appetite for stability and change matches its environment may be the key to finding the sustainability zone - the balance that will enable the organisation to survive and thrive.

As part of the inaugural New Zealand Leadership Week, three scholars debated the meaning of contemporary leadership, and the challenge of developing leaders. This is an edited version of the debate.

The transition to reporting business combinations under NZ IFRS should not be too traumatic, but the longer term prospect of converging standards could mean fundamental changes in how control is defined and which entities should be consolidated.

Trends and emerging issues in business and research.

Emerging trends in Open Innovation, Family Business and Supply Chain Management

Given New Zealand's isolation, a trading supply chain is of critical importance to our future. To understand the worldwide trends, the shipping industry is a good place to start.

Marketing should be viewed as a process that encompasses all of the facets of an organisation that are involved in making and fulfilling its promises to customers.

Moving staff across cultures sounds glamorous—but research suggests it’s difficult for employers and employees to establish win-win situations. The secret, it appears, is managing expectations and ensuring all parties are open to new perspectives and change.

Fostering organisational innovation presents a paradox: the anti-social behaviour of the individuals who generate ideas can often be detrimental to the positive team climate that is needed to nurture and implement those ideas.

How do successful firms manage to meet or exceed customer expectations? The lens of promise making, promise keeping, promise enabling and promise realisation sheds light on how firms can improve their ability to create and deliver value.

The introduction of international financial reporting standards brings dramatic changes to the way deferred tax must be accounted for. NZ IAS 12, Income Taxes, provides the new guidelines for this.

The development of intellectual capital has assumed ever greater strategic importance in organisational thinking. A New Zealand-based case study illustrates the role of social capital in enabling people in a virtual environment to develop and use distributed intellectual capital.

Going mobile: The future of health information systems

How do age, race, ethnicity and gender affect employment opportunties? Research identified differential “ethnic penalties” for Chinese and Indian applicants. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

One of the major changes brought about by the introduction of international financial reporting standards is the consideration of how entities should account for “payments” that are tied in some way to share values. IFRS-2, Share-based Payment, deals with this.

Industry clusters are a complex web of knowledge, relationships and resources. As a basis for understanding the potential value within the cluster, this research uses Porter’s framework to build a multisector map of the Nelson seafood industry.

Enterprise systems implementation choices are some of the most critical IT decisions an organisation encounters. In New Zealand organisations, is this an anarchical or political process, as sometimes portrayed in the media?

Globalisation brings more opportunities for businesses, but also more competition. So how can small countries find their way in a networked world?

ICEHOUSE chairman David Irving and chief executive Andy Hamilton meet hundreds of business people striving to grow their ventures across international waters. Recently, they invited a venerated group of entrepreneurs—and one lonesome business commentator—to share their wisdom over lunch about the current and future state of exporting. Here’s an edited transcript of what happened.

A national strategy may not be simple to specify nor easy to implement, but a sustained search for it will change the inward-looking focus to questions of how, where and why to gain advantages over other countries.

Beginning in 2006, SBS will offer a Postgraduate Diploma and a Masters degree in Bioscience Enterprise—a collaborative programme between the Schools of Business, Law and Biological Sciences.

Emerging trends in Project Management, Strategy and Property

Jaques’ Levels of Work model has practical application for managers seeking to understand and work with organisational complexities, especially in organisations undergoing change.

Brian Blake, the CEO of DB Breweries, shares his thoughts about leading a corporation in the modern age. Among other things, he says, it is about creating a culture where people can realise their full potential and where that potential can be harnessed to achieve the company's vision.

Social entrepreneurship is at an exciting stage of academic infancy, and the challenge for is to turn a practitioner-led pursuit into a more rigorous and objective discipline. The first step is building a simple definition that creates focus and increases understanding.

After 33 years with BP, the global energy company, New Zealander John Buchanan recently retired from his role as CFO. He reflects on leading global change, his experience as a non-executive director of several global companies, and the impact of increased regulation on corporate governance.

The issue of transfer pricing has long been a source of managerial concern and frustration for multinational corporations, and has led to a variety of approaches to being adopted. In this article, the methods chosen by firms in New Zealand and their reasons are reviewed.

The new century ushers in a NZ economy that is already looking a lot different from the old. Substantial broadening of the income generation base via the export services sector has diversified international exposures and spread risks through time. But what are the other implications?

The Accounting Standards Review Board's decision to adopt IFRS has significant impact on financial reporting standards. This article reviews the implications, and briefly considers the transition to full application of IFRS in 2007.

Visiting professor Jana Matthews has visited New Zealand frequently since 1982, and works with business owners and managers to build understanding about sustainable growth companies. She shares the insights from her research in the U.S., and reviews the programmes she is developing locally.

ICEHOUSE-based Nexus6 and its asthma management system

Sparking start-ups: Business plan competition bridges the divide between academia and commerce. Otago OIL: building businesses the Otago way. Promises, promises: It's one thing to promise great value, and another thing to deliver. Coding the future: Digital enterprise centre adds new dimension to technological know-how. Befitting the bottom line: Study puts to rest 30 years debate on the economic benefits of social responsibility.

Researcher Marc Orlitzky reviews his award-winning research on the relationship between corporate social initiatives and the bottom line. New Zealand companies have been slow to adopt triple bottom line reporting. So are they missing out on strategic opportunities?

When companies crash into liquidation they often leave behind a string of disgruntled unsecured creditors—who often assume that limited liability means that there is little prospect of recovery from those who operate the company. However, directors may sometimes be made responsible for losses suffered.

A significant number of New Zealanders never return home from their OE, chasing the opportunities offered by larger economies. Researchers from Massey University initiated a programme to understand more about the motivations of individuals who move in and out of the country. Their initial research, presented in this article, explored why a sample of 2,200 New Zealanders are currently choosing to stay abroad.

As the number of foreign-owned enterprises increases in New Zealand, what are the implications for the economy? Researchers have investigated the phenomenon from two perspectives: the parent-affiliate relationship, and how international companies ultimately impact local industries.

Voluntary Environmental Programmes (VEPs) are activities that businesses undertake, beyond what's legally mandated, to improve their environmental performance. This research provides a local and international context for the development of VEPs, and offers suggestions for companies that are serious about having more than simply a clean-green image.

In a post-Enron world, the policies for auditors are increasingly being dissected. The NZX has changed its listing requirements, and The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICANZ) has held an inquiry into the issue. Very little seems to be known about the shareholder perspective. This survey presents new insights about the differing viewpoints of auditors, directors, and shareholders.

In a speech he presented for the University of Auckland Business School, the CEO of Fonterra outlined the company’s changing circumstances and strategic direction. The company has global market power, but will it be hindered or helped by its co-operative governance model?

Having taken Orion Systems from ground zero to its status as an international provider of healthcare IT systems, Ian McCrae reflects on the company’s decade of growth, the lessons learned, and his aspirations for the future.

People in every business contribute valuable ideas, but how many inspirations are successfully commercialised? According to Peter Lee, a robust development system requires rigorous discipline and a market-oriented perspective. In this article, he outlines his experiences and some innovation fundamentals.

New Zealand's seafood industry plays an increasingly vital role in the economy. In addition to supporting 26,000 jobs throughout the country, exports have tripled in the past 20 years from around $500 million to $1.4 billion, with the industry forecasting growth to reach $2 billion by 2010. "A large part of this increase in value", explains Dr. ManukaHenare, "can be attributed to innovative value-added products and processes, including the development and rapid expansion of new aquaculture activities". Henare, Associate Dean for Maori & Pacific Development at the University of Auckland Business School and Director of the Mira Szászy Research Centre for Maori & Pacific Economic Development, is managing a research project to understand how innovation and growth occurs in the seafood sector.

Steve Barnett, based at the University of Auckland's Tamaki campus, is a Senior Tutor in the Bachelor of Business Information Management (BBIM). He's also actively involved in a scheme that will provide a range of businesses with a home at the campus. "The key", he says, "is establishing collaborative relationships, firstly across our disciplines but also with companies and industries". These on-site industry partnerships will create clusters for identifying and launching research projects.

With the aim of building connections between the university and the corporate sector, a long-running course in the University of Auckland Business School's Department of Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM) has connected hundreds of students with industry. The course, which was pioneered in 1986 by Associate Professor Dr. Lech Janczewski, is now called Information Systems Project INFOSYS 340, and involves students in an intensive companyoriented IT-related project.

The recent Gateway to China Trade Summit presented a forum to learn more about the business opportunities with China, a rapidly developing nation of 1.3 billion consumers. The conference was further recognition of China's status as a free market economy, and was hosted by several organisations, including the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the New Zealand Asia Institute (NZAI). The forum brought together a multitude of political, diplomatic and business experts.

Biowiz, a wide-ranging initiative to develop entrepreneurs and scientists in the biotechnology industry, provides school and university students with early opportunities to experience the industry. Funded by the Enterprise Skills and Culture Activities Funds of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Biowiz was established to ensure the country develops skilled leaders in the ever-changing fi elds of bio-sciences and bio-technologies.

Research to develop a framework for building management capability in SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in New Zealand is underway. The project is being conducted for the Ministry of Economic Development through the SME Research Centre at Massey University, Wellington. Dr Marie Wilson, Associate Professor in the Department of Management & Employment Relations at the University of Auckland Business School, is involved in the project and sees it as critical to learning more about the local context for management.

The New Zealand Leadership Institute, a national initiative to enhance the understanding of leadership and ensure the country has talented and skilled leaders, is currently developing a Future Leaders Programme. The 18-month programme will be focused on developing the leadership potential of young leaders, and it will take a holistic approach to leadership development. The participants build an awareness of themselves as leaders, how they relate to others and how they behave as leaders within different contexts. The multifaceted programme will incorporate diverse learning experiences including capability assessment, reflective practice, group activities, forums with established leaders, the discussion of theory, and active projects in the community. In addition to face-to-face workshops, there will be virtual forums and self-directed learning. The programme challenges each participant to create development initiatives specific to them, within the supportive environment provided by the Institute.

On October 29, 2003, the New Zealand Stock Exchange implemented changes to its listing rules regarding corporate governance regulation. It is now mandatory for listed companies to have a minimum of two independent directors on the board or to ensure that independent directors make up one-third of the board, whichever is greater. These changes are part of a global reform of corporate governance regulation that has taken place as a result of the recent financial scandals that have rocked the United States economy.

The speed of change in business is fast, too fast and getting faster. You know this; you feel the turbulence. Global interconnectedness, ubiquitous information, changing workforce dynamics and attitudes, moral and ethical issues and the rising importance of social capital have brought about a new and intensified period of change. This change is unrelenting, resulting in a prevalent concern about a lack of leadership to overcome this challenge. In this context, it is important not to reinforce the tempting notion that leadership is a romantic simplicity. There will be no dramatic arrival of an apocryphal knight on a white horse to rescue any business from its leadership predicament. Leadership is complex and if we are to develop more effective leadership in business, then we need to take the time to reflect on and understand leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of the relationships between boards and management in New Zealand. The paper is part of a larger study that considers corporate governance practice in two different types of industries: traditional and hi-tech. Here we present our findings from companies that belong to traditional industries. We place particular emphasis on the internal workings and dynamics of the boards in these industries, thereby moving beyond the structural debate about ?gwho should be on the board??h We believe this addresses the question of ?ghow should boards govern the corporations??h by looking directly at their functional contribution. In addition, this charges the board with the central responsibility of governing the corporation, and managers with managing it.

Will real estate agents find that their jobs are slowly, but surely, taken over by systems and services provided on the internet? While information technology has yet to make much impact on the real estate industry, we suggest a fundamental transformation is just around the corner. How will the real estate industry be transformed by the ever-increasing power of information technology? Will real estate agents find that their jobs are slowly, but surely, taken over by systems and services provided on the internet? Or will they find that the power of IT enables them to do their job even more effectively?

Authors are also increasingly aware that new technologies may infringe their moral rights since it is easy to misattribute or not attribute digital works and subject them to derogatory treatment.

The proliferation of organic foodstuffs within the food industry has received worldwide attention. However, detailed research that explores why consumers purchase organic food is still lacking. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study, both academic and managerial.

As values become embedded in organisational behaviours, the platform is established to deliver real value to customers and to the community.

Strong support for amendments to existing securities market laws result from an examination of transactions disclosed by corporate insiders.

Just how ready are New Zealand businesses? Results show that, on average, companies are developing the capabilities for success in the digital economy.

Is it possible for an organization to recognise and reap the benefits of both? Perhaps the answer lies in understanding what constitutes best practice, how it is determined, where pitfalls may lie in implementing it, and whether it can be applied in support of innovation.

It is paradoxical that while openness to international experience is well incorporated in the New Zealand psyche at an individual level, an insular attitude often prevails at the enterprise level. This is particularly true for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By any standards, the involvement of New Zealand SMEs in international markets is limited.

The University of Auckland Business School is taking an important step toward building an interactive learning community for New Zealand business people and students with the launch of its Business Case Centre in October 2003, will produce and distribute case studies about a variety of businesses and organisations. The case studies will be available online to business educators and managers. The goal is to establish a library of studies that document important milestones in the operations and management of New Zealand organisations.

Success factors and problems New Zealand companies should be aware of as they seek to enter the developing Asian markets.

Running a benchmark over some of New Zealand's earliest triple bottom line reports at a time when many organisations look set to begin issuing such reports.

“The genius of the common law derives from its capacity to adapt the principles of past decisions, by analogical reasoning, to the resolution of entirely new and unforeseen problems. When the new problem is as novel, complex and global as that presented by the internet in this appeal, a greater sense of legal imagination may be required than is ordinarily called for. Yet the question remains whether it can be provided, conformably with established law and with the limited functions of a court under the Australian constitution to develop and re-express the law.”

Why do some customers carefully contemplate leaving their service providers ?Esuch as doctors, banks, internet service providers ?Ebut then decide to stay? This occurrence could be compared with marriage. Often people stay in a marriage even though they have considered (many) alternatives. These people may be deeply unhappy or simply feel the need to break free from a relationship where they feel constrained. The same is often true in business relationships; sometimes customers stay with companies even though they feel they may be better off elsewhere. This article looks at why New Zealanders stay with their service providers, even though they have seriously considered switching. We undertook 24 in-depth interviews and then surveyed more than 340 consumers to discover these reasons and their importance. This research investigates why these potential switchers stay. What makes a customer step back from the brink and which of these “staying?Ereasons are the most important ?Ethese are the questions that drive this research. Ultimately, what we want to know is why don’t customers file for divorce?

Recent reports from government and from local economic development organisations, such as the Auckland Regional Economic Development Strategy group, have highlighted decreasing economic performance in New Zealand. Businesses are urged to become more innovative and ambitious and to grow dynamic firms that will lift the country's export performance and provide challenging, rewarding jobs to stop the flow of talent from our shores (AREDS, 2002; Glass and Choy, 2001).

A revolution has occurred in primary health care and general practice in New Zealand over the past decade. This revolution has been possible because of the direction various governments have taken as they have sought to improve the health of New Zealanders by making structural changes to the nation’s health care system. At the same time, there has been an acceptance by health care policy-makers that general practice and primary health care delivery are pivotal in an effective health care system. The revolution has taken place because general practitioners have accepted and risen to the challenge presented by these circumstances.

How it works and what it can do for New Zealand In a post-Bali essay on terrorist threats to the international “backpacker culture?E American journalist Michael Elliott recalls his younger days: “More than 30 years ago, I discovered Europe by hitchhiking around it each summer, sleeping on beaches and in cheap hostels, breezing into Barcelona on the back of a motorbike, watching French kids in Nimes cover the table with the ingredients of a fresh ratatouille, selling my blood in a clinic off Omonia Square in Athens for $8 ?Eenough for a few more days on the islands. I learned more from these trips than from years in school.?E(Elliott, 2002, p.27). So Elliot learned more wandering around Europe in the holidays than he did at college, did he? That should put a few professors in their place!

Call centres have been called the factories of the future?E but this perception is challenged by recent research involving three large New Zealand bank call centres and conducted in the Department of Management and International Business at Massey University in Albany. Most importantly, the thumbs up?Efor the call centres has come from staff ?Ecustomer service representatives (CSRs), who are at the forefront of the banks?Eservice-delivery strategies. Staff also have provisos, however, and bank managers can learn a lot from listening to workers speak through this research and through developments overseas as well, where a variety of call centre practices have shown what constitutes successful and unsuccessful employment strategies in call centre work.

If New Zealand is to achieve growth and innovation, we need to invest in people and ensure that everyone can participate, in a meaningful way, in our country’s development. For many years, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has advocated a “high-wage, high-skill, high-trust, quality-export economy”. The CTU has been an active participant in numerous leading-edge events such as the Knowledge Wave Conference and the Innovate NZ Conference. We support the Growing an Innovative New Zealand Framework and we have much in common with business representatives and other stakeholders who want to see New Zealand lift its sustainable growth rate...

Most organisations and individuals don't know what they know. Too often their left hand does not know what their right hand is doing. As a result, costly mistakes are repeated, good ideas are not used and money is frittered away

Change has become so pervasive in contemporary organisations that managers and leaders have come to value change in and of itself. But managing continuity can be more challenging than managing change

In this article the authors investigate the investment advisory practices of financial planners in New Zealand. How do personal financial planners measure up in their application of investment theory

Capital restructuring receives heightened attention when novel approaches are attempted. The implementation of targeted stocks by Fletcher Challenge met mixed reaction initially, followed by poor performance and then disassembly

This article discusses privacy concerns and examines the incidence of personal information gathered by websites and the sites' use of privacy statements. Businesses should be aware that consumers are looking for privacy protection

The article describes the structure of the system of self-regulation in the New Zealand advertising industry and examines the arguments for and against self-regulation.

Some of the management tools and techniques emanating predominantly from North America and used by financial officers to make investment decisions may not be suitable for use in New Zealand without modification.

Consultants specialising in organisational learning face a problem: clients may expect them to act in ways contrary to key principles of learning organisations. Researchers interviewed consultants specialising in organisational learing and explored how they handle this.

Chief executives' assessments of culture, leadership, organisational effectiveness and the external environment are significantly more positive than those of lower-level managers.

Is downsizing worthwhile? This paper reports on a study of the financial impact of New Zealand organisational downsizing from 1996 to 1999.

The recent Global Competitiveness Report was a timely reminder of the challenge ahead for New Zealand if it wants to achieve a successful transition to an innovation-driven economy. Public policy has to provide an internationally competitive business environment in which private sector enterprises can excel. Co-operation of all stakeholders in the domestic economy is required if we are to lift New Zealand's economic performance and its ranking on the international prosperity scale.

By international standards, New Zealand's record of corporate environmental reporting is dismal. The 1996 triennial KPMG survey on the subject placed New Zealand last of 13 OECD countries. New Zealand does not even feature in the latest 1999 survey. This article suggests how New Zealand companies can improve their environmental reporting record.

This special feature includes excerpts from the Catching the Knowledge Wave Conference which was charged with helping to create a national strategy to enable New Zealand's transition to a competitive knowledge society. Featured speeches include those by Michael Porter, David Teece, Sally Shelton-Colby, Don Brash, John Hood and Helen Clark.

This small-business case study illustrates the strategic management metaphor of the "boiled frog". The boiled frog represents the business that fails to respond appropriately to discontinuities in the business environment. This article looks at a small business‚ financial history and how a boiled frog crisis can occur. It examines the opinions of the business owners, employees, customers and suppliers and concludes with implications for small-business managers.

Has the law adequately recognised the compromise reached between the parties to a letter of comfort? The author argues that letters of comfort cannot establish contractual obligation and that within a commercial context, such letters will rarely establish liability pursuant to the doctrine of estoppel. In non-commercial circumstances, however, legal liability pursuant to estoppel can be established. Legal liability can also be established under Section 9 of the Fair Trading Act 1986. Nevertheless, the majority of letters of comfort fall into the realm of non-binding statement of present intention.

Opportunities abound to improve the management and performance of business operations in New Zealand. An array of poor and superior examples of operations management is presented, along with a multi-stage framework, and tools and tips for improvement based on extensive consulting work. In wrestling with and applying these concepts, managers should be able to make significant performance gains in a host of areas - from supply-chain management to service quality.

This article draws on international research to develop a framework of straightforward measures that can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) succeed. The framework includes both financial and non-financial measures that can help SMEs gain greater access to finance, improve planning and better identify competitive advantage. The framework is tested in the national context through case studies of New Zealand SMEs.

Imputation credits are beneficial to shareholders only once they have been distributed. Typically, this is achieved by paying cash dividends. Companies that retain a large proportion of after-tax earnings for reinvestment, such as growth companies, will accumulate imputation credits. Shareholders can still benefit from accumulated tax credits if the company issues a taxable bonus issue. However, a change in the highest marginal tax rate to 39 per cent may eliminate taxable bonus issues as a key tool for delivering valuable imputation credits to shareholders.

Capital markets perform the task of pricing the future using current information. The task is especially daunting for companies with prospects for high growth far into the future. In an efficient capital market, security prices fluctuate randomly with the arrival of news. News about future growth can have tremendous leverage on share values since even small changes in expected growth can generate large changes in share values. This is especially the case for new economy technology companies with the greatest prospects for future growth.

Six key factors of fashion brand choice -- rational, product, cognitive, environmental, peer and cultural -- are identified through a series of focus groups. Understanding the interplay of these factors in conjunction with the purchase occasion allows fashion retailers increased understanding of how consumers select fashion brands and how store brands can influence the location and likelihood of purchase. Implications of the research are presented for both fashion retailers and general retailers who rely on strong brands for their bottom-line profits.

Six key factors of fashion brand choice -- rational, product, cognitive, environmental, peer and cultural -- are identified through a series of focus groups. Understanding the interplay of these factors in conjunction with the purchase occasion allows fashion retailers increased understanding of how consumers select fashion brands and how store brands can influence the location and likelihood of purchase. Implications of the research are presented for both fashion retailers and general retailers who rely on strong brands for their bottom-line profits.

The past few months have seen a build-up of scepticism about digital commerce and its viability as a sustainable model for doing business. Despite a short-term adjustment, the digital (or dot-com) phenomenon is here to stay. Forecasts of the level of digital commerce activity clearly show a rapid rate of growth worldwide and in the Asia-Pacific region over the foreseeable future. It is important to take a long-term perspective on the phenomenon of digital commerce to fully appreciate and prepare for a transformed economic future.

It is too soon to find convincing evidence of a "New Economy" even in the United States, let alone New Zealand. The author is sceptical about increasing calls for the government to guide economic and business development through hands-on involvement in technological sectors. Knowledge economy proponents suggest that if a business is not knowledge-based it is on a fast track to oblivion and that government economic policy must be geared to leading business down the knowledge economy path. Busy managers should take this with a grain of salt.

Although New Zealand has been a straggler in encouraging entrepreneurial activity, many other countries appear to be benefiting from economic development programmes spanning the past two decades or more. Learning how other countries have gone about establishing positive ground for entrepreneurial activity is thus long overdue. This article looks at several economic development initiatives in the United States for insights that might help.

Finding the right approach to management has become a never-ending quest for many managers. Feeding the confusion is the fact that the “latest and greatest” management tools and techniques inevitably go in and out of fashion. This article explores management techniques as fashion and presents empirical findings from a survey of New Zealand managers as to which information sources most influence their choice of management tools and techniques. A model of management fashion selection is also presented.

Service failure - when something goes wrong for a customer - has been attracting much attention. This paper presents a comprehensive model of the entire service failure process. Drawing on interviews with business banking customers, who have recently encountered a service failure, it shows that service recovery is only one of the reasons a customer may stay or leave a service organisation after a service failure.

Small developed countries face particular challenges in maintaining their economic viability, including high exposure to international trade and barriers to participating in high-tech industries. Nordic economies have succeeded better than New Zealand in building strong industries and maintaining high standards of living. This success has partly resulted from “shared trust” which, in essence, means that the default relationship between businesses is co-operative. The author raises doubts that shared trust exists in New Zealand.

Can two apparently conflicting approaches - the Theory of Constraints and activity-based costing - be combined to improve the financial and operational performance of businesses? The Theory of Constraints centres on improving throughput by focusing on bottlenecks or constraints in a system, and denies the need for product cost information. But studies show that refinement of product cost, particularly using activity-based costing, can improve the quality of decision making.

Imagine New Zealand as a company. Every New Zealander is a shareholder. Can we, as shareholders, easily agree on a vision? In this article, David Irving outlines his vision of an entrepreneurial country where achievements are encouraged, recognised and rewarded. The prosperous and successful are not the few, but the many. Economic prosperity contributes to social prosperity.

Managers around the world have embraced the notion of work teams as a means of increasing organisational productivity. The implementation of teams is complex, made even more so when the workforce is comprised of people from different cultures.

International joint ventures and cooperation are becoming the norm rather than the exception. Companies must change their national or even regional mindsets in order to go global. The author believes that, given the fast evolution of technologies, much tougher consumer demands, and huge capitalisation requirements for future global firms, the time has come for us to develop true partnerships and alliances within the APEC region.

Electronic commerce is revolutionising business practice. Firms are forming long-term strategic alliances on the basis of electronic commerce service delivery to their customers. But how should these alliances be managed? How can a firm manage its electronic commerce service offerings when essential parts of the service lie outside of the organisation’s boundaries? In this article, the authors suggest a new "dual approach" that requires integration of both the traditional, functional, management processes AND the strategic customer-oriented implications of the allied service brand.

There is little doubt that the biotechnology revolution will be just as important and far-reaching as the information technology revolution. In this thought-provoking article, Dr Jim Watson suggests that the universities, new small entrepreneurial companies like Genesis, and the business community in general should be working together to redefine the brain:business boundaries and foster new ways of combining scientific and commercial skills. He argues that we should be actively promoting opportunities growing from information technology and biology to create the largest business innovation centre in Australasia.

Every New Zealander knows about Kiwi ingenuity and the pivotal role that No. 8 wire plays in the national expression of our creativity. But in these days of market globalisation and technology proliferation, is Kiwi ingenuity enough? More specifically, is there a secret ingredient that allows small New Zealand manufacturers to compete and succeed internationally? In answering this question, the authors suggest that there are four distinct types of knowledge that interact to provide a balanced view of the developmental needs of highly competitive manufacturing companies.

New Zealand is one of many countries racing to develop new globally competitive technology industries. But we are doing only moderately well in this vitally important race. Countries such as Finland are performing much better and have developed highly successful information technology (IT) industries. This paper compares Finland and New Zealand to uncover those factors that impact on the development of a successful IT industry. The author identifies three major factors: the extent of government IT promotion, the level of private sector investment in research and development, and the existence of an education system that produces IT literate graduates.

Restructuring and downsizing continue apace. One casualty of the process is the company career. As employees realise that the old long-term relationships they had with their companies can no longer be relied on, they pursue employability rather than employment, and inter-company mobility becomes the norm. What are the implications for companies seeking a stable core, for human resource management looking for a committed workforce? The author suggests that our conventional views of organizations, jobs, careers, and human resources need to be turned on their heads as we consider enterprise in a quite new way

The Asian crisis has spotlighted efficiently functioning markets as a central policy issue. This paper discusses some key issues that are emerging as ‘competition policy’ becomes more prominent on international agendas. The paper also introduces some documented business, research and government perspectives on the competition policy area in APEC. These issues and perspectives are highly relevant to the role of competition and to the future conditions facing business in globalising markets.

Bank customer satisfaction is lower in New Zealand than in the US. What drives bank customer satisfaction and loyalty? How important are relationships in the New Zealand banking industry? How well do customers feel their complaints are handled? And why do they leave banks? The author found that price, relationships and value are all areas that customers consider important. New Zealand’s main banks need to improve their performance in those areas. The author also found that banks undertake little defection management - taking action when customers quit. This is another opportunity for banks to improve customer perceptions of their service. Mark Colgate’s recommendations will be useful not only to managers in the banking industry, but also to managers in other service industries.

In New Zealand, everyone knows that "OE" means overseas experience. Every year thousands of young New Zealanders go overseas for a year or more of travel and work. The tendency in New Zealand is to regard OE as a rite of passage for the young. But it can also be viewed as a source of competitive advantage for the travellers and their employers - indeed for the nation as a whole. The authors have studied the OE experiences of many New Zealanders and explain how this form of relatively unstructured travel can best be turned to the advantage of all parties.

Trade credit is the most important source of short-term finance for businesses – in many countries accounts payable is larger than bank debts. It is common practice in New Zealand for business concerns to exchange goods and services on "20th of the following month" credit terms. The financial advantage in ordering on the first of a month and receiving 50 days free credit appears obvious, but what is the true impact on business operations? This paper provides a brief overview of trade credit and trade credit terms, and evaluates the common New Zealand practice of "20th of the following month" trade credit terms. It is suggested that this practice has a remarkable impact on a business' operations and, ultimately, profitability. A number of alternative approaches for alleviating this impact are discussed.

In the 15 years since the Lange Government was elected and New Zealand opened up to the forces of globalisation, we have performed dismally, both economically and socially. Why is this the case? In this thought-provoking article, Hugh Fletcher suggests that we need a more balanced contest of ideas as to how New Zealand can prosper in a globalised economy. We must play the game substantially differently from the way we have been playing it for the last 15 years.