Dawne Martha Lamminmaki

A comparison of New Zealand and British product costing practices

The results of a mailed survey designed to compare product-costing practices employed by New Zealand (NZ) and United Kingdom (UK) manufacturing companies is reported. The studys main findings are that, when company size is removed as an explanatory factor, there appear to be few systematic differences in the product-costing practices of the two countries, although there is a suggestion of marginally less sophisticated product-costing practices in NZ. Widespread use of theoretically deficient costing practices in both countries adds to the growing evidence of a time lag between the theory and practice of management accounting.

Outsourcing in Australian hotels: a transaction cost economics perspective.

A triangulated field study and questionnaire survey methodology was applied to investigate antecedents of outsourcing activity in Australian hotels. The field study involved the conduct of semistructured interviews with 15 managers in large hotels. Subsequent to this, a survey questionnaire was mailed to 356 general managers in Australian hotels with 100 or more rooms. The survey yielded a return of 111 completed questionnaires. The study represents an examination of transaction cost economics (TCE), a partial investigation of agency theory, and other organizational factors that may influence hotel outsourcing. The study’s findings provide some support for TCE and provide insight into other factors that appear to be affecting Australian hotels’ propensity to outsource.

How Property Title Impacts Urban Consolidation: A Life Cycle Examination of Multi-title Developments

Continuing urbanisation is triggering an increase in multi-titled housing internationally. This trend has given rise to a substantial research interest in the social consequences of higher density living. Fewer enquiries have been directed to examining how property title subdivisions generate social issues in multi-titled housing. This is a significant gap in the literature, as the tensions inherent in multi-title developments have significant implications for individuals, developments and entire metropolitan areas. This article employs a life cycle framework to examine the profound operational and governance challenges that are associated with the fusion of private lot ownership with common property ownership. The article calls for a more explicit recognition of these challenges by academics, policymakers, practitioners and the broader community.

Benchmarking Hotel Capital Budgeting Practices to Practices Applied in Non-Hotel Companies

A survey was conducted to compare hotel capital budgeting practices employed within and outside the hotel sector. It was found that the propensity to inflate investment cash inflow projections outweighs the propensity to deflate cash inflow estimates, and the tendency to inflate projected cash inflows is less in the hotel industry. Hotels exhibit a lower level of development with respect to reviewing required rates of return and also applying postcompletion audits. Also, net present value and internal rate of return, which are based on discounting approaches, are used to a relatively low degree in the hotel industry, and more than half the hotels surveyed either exclusively use the payback method (36%) or use no financial investment appraisal method at all (17%). Consistent with prior findings in other industrial sectors, there appears to be a positive relationship between organizational size and use of financial investment appraisal techniques.

An investigation of the role played by frequency and uncertainty in hotel outsourcing decisions

This paper draws on Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theory (Coase; Williamson) to examine hotel outsourcing. The study focuses on the uncertainty and frequency attributes, two of three activities attributes that TCE theorists see as affecting the propensity to outsource. Qualitative data was collected by interviewing 15 senior managers in large hotels. While several observations made supported the frequency tenet of TCE, which holds that frequently and extensively conducted activities will be outsourced to a low extent, two specific departures were noted. These departures resulted in the proposition of an extension to the TCE frequency tenet. The TCE doctrine also holds that uncertain activities will be outsourced to a low extent. Again, although observations made supported this view, one specific observation that contradicted the theory was noted.

Preparing strata titled communities for climate change: an empirical examination

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to advance a set of recommendations concerned with enhancing residential strata title (ST) communities’ preparation for property management in a world of climate change (CC) and second, to examine the Australian ST community’s perceptions of the recommendations advanced. Design/methodology/approach – The study comprised three empirical phases: three meetings with an 11 person industry reference group, conduct of 18 exploratory interviews and also an on-line questionnaire survey. The survey was designed to gauge the relative merit of sixteen recommendations developed during the study’s exploratory interview phase. The survey was completed by 450 individuals representing a broad cross-section of ST stakeholders. Findings – The study’s findings are extensive. Amongst them it is notable that the survey respondents ranked procedures taken prior and during a ST building’s construction as more important CC management opportunities than steps and procedures i...