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The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect differences in measured efficiency of foreign‐owned banks operating in Australia. The relevance of both comparative advantage theory and new trade theory to multinational banking in Australia will be tested.

A three stage research method is employed. First, estimates of foreign bank efficiency are drawn from a larger sample of domestic and foreign banks in Australia. Efficiency is estimated using parametric distance functions, applying several different specifications of inputs and outputs. Second, factor analysis is used to estimate a series of common factors drawn from the above theories. Third, general to specific modelling is used to determine which of the factors from the second stage determine differences in foreign bank efficiency.

Following clients (defensive expansion) was found to increase host nation efficiency, and new trade theory tended to, (but not conclusively), dominate comparative advantage theory. The limited global advantage hypothesis was found to apply for US bank revenue creation efficiency, but not for transformation of physical inputs into outputs. Banks from the UK and Japan were also found to display superior revenue creation efficiency. Competitor market share reduces host nation efficiency and positive parent bank attributes such as size, credit rating and profits are associated with lower host nation efficiency, as is home nation financial development.

This is the first study that has used a combination of factor analysis and general to specific modelling to study determinants of foreign bank efficiency in the host nation.

Spiritual topics emerge in executive leadership coaching. However, the scholarly literature has emphasized the performance development aspects of executive coaching (EC) more than the development of executives’ inner lives, although there is some evidence of practitioners addressing spiritual topics. Executive leaders have spiritual needs and executive coaches may be well positioned to address the intersection of the leaders’ work and spiritual lives, provided coaches observe skill boundaries and the limitations of the coaching context. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the merits of including spiritual development (SDev) in EC and how executive coaches can incorporate it in their practice.

EC, SDev and spiritual direction are compared, drawing attention to conflicting and complementary aspects of SDev applied in EC. Organizations’, clients’ and coaches’ likely concerns about such integration are explored and addressed. Suitable contexts, principles, a basic developmental framework and practical steps for executive coaches considering the inclusion of SDev in EC are proposed.

The paper provides coaches, consultants, executives and those charged with executive development with a foundational understanding of the role of SDev in EC.

A framework is provided for professionals involved in executive management development to address executive leaders’ spiritual needs through EC.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact on bank risk of portfolio diversification between traditional margin income and fee‐based income for banks operating in Australia.

Considering several performance variables, this analysis compares the benefits of diversification across different bank types relative to margin income and fee income. Further, regression analysis considers bank risk and revenue concentration.

This paper documents that fee‐based income is riskier than margin income but offers diversification benefits to bank shareholders. While improving bank risk‐return tradeoff, these benefits are of second order importance compared to the large negative impact of poor asset quality on shareholder returns.

These results have implications for all stakeholders in Australian banks. The results suggest that shareholders of banks will benefit from increased bank exposure to non‐interest income via diversification. From a regulatory perspective, diversification reduces the possibility of systemic risk, but caution must be offered with respect to banks pursuing absolute returns rather than monitoring risk‐return trade‐offs, and so exploiting the benefits of the implied guarantee offered by “too big to fail” However, shareholders should also monitor bank exposure to non interest income to ensure that they do not become over‐exposed to the point where the volatility effect outweighs the diversification benefits.

The results of this study suggest that Australian regulators should consider requiring increased disclosure of the composition of bank non‐interest income. Such disclosure would aid in understanding the changing nature of banking in Australia. Given the recent sub‐prime crisis in the USA and the role played by fee based income sourced from securitization, increased disclosure of the nature of bank non interest income is now of global importance. This disclosure is particularly germane within the context of the implementation of Basle II, with its increased emphasis upon market discipline, given that Stiroh found increased disclosure in this area is accompanied by improved market pricing for risk.

This chapter discusses how the special qualities of poetic language can inform new principles for organizational design. Appreciative inquiry makes extensive use of poetic language – of stories, metaphors, and imagery – to facilitate the discovery of high-point experiences and the articulation of desired future states. It is commonly believed that through this narrative mode of knowing, appreciative dialogue awakens the imaginative and relational possibilities for successful transformation of organizational systems. In a critique of current practice, the chapter suggests that the unleashed generative capacity for change is not fully utilized because of appreciative inquiry's reliance on logico-scientific discourse during its design conversations. This return to modernist managerial practice is unfortunate, if we accept the need for alternative ways of knowing and talking in our efforts to create more just and sustainable forms of organizing. In an attempt to renew existing thinking, the chapter explores the question of what becomes possible when we embrace the poetics, rather than the pragmatics, of organizational design. It describes four qualities of poetic language – imaginative, ambiguous, touching, and holistic – which may inspire the design of organizations that are both more daring and caring in character.

Outline the position of Workers’ compensation systems and the small role played by the state. Discusses the usual entitlement and details the five types of compensation benefit available to workers, medical care, funds to cover temporary disablement, permanent disability, vocational rehabilitation and death benefits. Provides details of the mandatory requirements for employer liability and states the procedures and responsibilities of employers when an injury occurs. Touches upon the return to work programme and safety programmes and recommends that employers take serious action towards prevention through safety training to reduce liabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of retail change in the UK grocery sector over the last 30 years.

In 1980, a press article by Richard Milner and Patience Wheatcroft attempted to anticipate retail change by 1984. Taking that as a template, the paper examines how retail did, in fact, change over a much longer timescale: with some unanticipated innovations in place even by 1984. Reference is made to academic research on grocery retailing in progress at the time and which has recently been revisited.

Although Milner and Wheatcroft tackled the modest task of looking ahead just four years, the content of their article is intriguingly reflective of the retail structure and systems of the UK at the time. Whilst some innovations were not anticipated, the broad themes of superstore power and market regulation still command attention 30 years on.

Through reconsidering 30 years of retail change, the paper highlights that with time how do you shop has come to pose at least as interesting a question as where do you shop.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that have influenced the use of implicit (naïve) techniques in property portfolio diversification evaluation in the Nigeria property market. This is necessitated by the need to look at the ways by which the property portfolio diversification evaluation practice in the market could be made to improve and adjust to ever changing global trends in this area.

The authors of this paper administered questionnaires, backed up with interviews, on 28 institutional property investors and 128 real estate practitioners in three locations (commercial nerve centres) of the country, namely, Lagos, Abuja and Port‐Harcourt metropolitan areas. Data were analysed with the use of frequency distribution, mean and standard deviation measures, relative importance index and Pearson Chi‐Square test.

The results of the study in this paper revealed, among others, that lack of time series data and the small size of many of the investors' portfolios in Nigeria encouraged the use of implicit analysis in their property portfolio evaluation techniques. The study also showed that investors and practitioners detest complex calculations and were using traditional evaluation techniques because they considered the methods as needing no pre‐requisite knowledge before they could be used.

The study in the paper concluded that there is the need for a restructuring of the Nigerian real estate education and portfolio evaluation practice and the use of a micro‐real estate specific data derived from local market information to develop property performance indices towards building up functional real estate indices at the regional and national levels.

This paper is a pioneering attempt at establishing the factors that influenced the use of implicit techniques in property portfolio diversification evaluation in emerging property markets like Nigeria.