Specifics of Childrens Understanding of the Earth Free Essay Example, 1750 words

In addition to the biological and environmental factors affecting child development, their age is the manner in which questions of the study are posed. The exact nature of questions as they are presented to a child may have an effect on how that child perceives the physical phenomenon and how they are then able to apply conceptual ideas to explain that phenomenon. One of the most basic divisions on how questions are posed to study participants is whether the question is open ended or close ended. Either type of question has its advantages and disadvantages and may have an effect on how the child s responses are formulated and rated. While one might anticipate that open-ended questions would allow the child the greatest leeway in their answers and offer the greatest insight into the participant s level of scientific consistency, this is not always the case. For example, a recently composed questionnaire was created that contained 40 open ended questions. This survey was easy to create and implement, but experienced difficulties once the participants had completed it. In particular, the respondents provided a large amount of extraneous information that was difficult and time-consuming for the researchers to sift through and the responses themselves were often difficult to quantify for comparison (Henning, 2009). We will write a custom essay sample on Specifics of Childrens' Understanding of the Earth or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now These issues illustrate how, while they allow participants greater leeway in providing information to the facilitator, open-ended questions can prove problematic in analysis and quantification once the data has been collected, problematic for scientific research. In turn, forced-choice or close ended questions are nearly the opposite of open ended questions in their advantages and disadvantages. The first significant difference is that these questions can be more difficult and time consuming to write than their open ended cousins. Care must be given to the selection of choices offered by each question, specifically to not clutter the selection with highly unlikely options, to arrange the choices in an appropriate manner that does not unduly influence the selection process, and to include all commonly selected choices as options.

Comparison of Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop...

Comparison of Because I Could Not Stop for Death and A Time Past Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop For Death recounts the narrators final ride and how she is accompanied by a chivalrous Death. In the poem, the narrator describes major landmarks that have made an impact on her life, as well as provides a description of her final resting place. Likewise, in A Time Past, Denise Levertov looks back at her life, noting how the changes that have occurred to set of stairs parallel the changes that have taken place in her life. In both poems, Dickinson and Levertov write about change, memory, and death and establish a somber, yet reminiscent tone in their poetry. In Because I Could Not Stop For Death, the narrator describes how she is accompanied by Death, who is described as a gentleman caller. The narrator notes, Because I could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for me.../We slowly drove, he knew no hast/And I had put away/My labor, and my leisure too,/For his civility (Dickinso n lines 1-2, 5-8). Through this description, the narrator is able to establish a somber, yet accepting tone in which she does not feel that she has to fight death, but rather accept it as a part of life. Through the narrative of the poem, the narrator is able to demonstrate change through the different landmarks that she passes on her journey. In the poem, change is emphasized through the anaphora that is used to describe the carriages journey. For instance, the narrator notes

Corporate Governance Australian Securities and Investment Commission

Question: Discuss about the case study Corporate Governance for Australian Securities and Investment Commission. Answer: Introduction: In the context of Australia, Public companies are commonly enlisted to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). As mentioned by Gibson and Brown (2012), these enlisted companies are the subject of broad and strict directives and they are subjected under the regulations of Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). However, in most of the recent cases it has been found that the CEOs or other managerial authorities are not satisfying the legal or ethical cravings of the organization. Here, the cases of Enron, HIH, One.Tel Ltd and many other companies can be discussed. In most of the cases, the CEOs have found guilty of ethical behaviour and lack of control of the Board of directors over them has led the companies to corporate failures. In the cases like Harris Scarfe Ltd. it has been found that the CEO was incapable and indecisive to work in favor of the company. On the other hand, in case of Parmalat, fraudulent account handling has criminalized the management. In such a cont ext, these public listed companies need to focus on the corporate governance and compliance to the ASIC norms. Purpose: From the above discussion, it can be said that the corporations need to focus on creating a better ethical and responsible environment within the company. Hence, it is needed for them to delineate the authorities between the BOD and the CEO. Moreover, to uphold good corporate governance the corporations need to take some strategic steps. Discussion: As discussed by Tricker (2015), aboard of directorscan be identified as body of nominated or selected members who in cooperation supervise or administer the activities of an organization or a profit making company. On the other hand, a CEO can be identified as the chairperson of the board. As discussed by McCahery et al. (2016), CEO is the highest executive liable for the maneuver and administration of a company. The prescribed role and responsibilities of the Board of directors: Foundation of the vision, mission and values of the company: As discussed by Erkens et al. (2016), the members of the board of directors should determine the companys vision and mission. As they are the supervisors of the management and operation of the company, they need to set the path for the members of the organization. As opined by Solomon (2014), the board of directors needs to have a better control over the corporate entities in the context of corporate failures. Hence, it is needed for the directors to determine and ingrain the values of the company among the members. The corporations are accountable to the stakeholders, hence, it is the responsibility of the board of directors to review the company goals and determine the company policies (Dean et al. 2014). According to the Legitimacy theory, the companies need to ensure that they are operating within the standards of existing society (Rezaee and Kedia 2012). Hence, the directors need to focus on laying down the values and vision of the company according to the societal norms. It is important to include non-executive directors to the board. As he/she is not liable to the management, he/she can be more independent regarding their decision and choices. The number of them must be significant. It will make the board more independent from the management. Recruit, supervise, retain, and evaluate: As opined by Christensen et al. (2015), Recruiting, supervising, retaining, evaluating and compensating the CEO or general manager are probably the most important functions of the board of directors. Within the framework of corporate governance, it is important to hire the right persons for the posts like CEO, CFO, President and many more. As discussed by Solomon (2014), in most of the cases, corporate failure has usually been attributed to behavioral factors such as exuberance, greediness and hubris in economic boom and consequences in taking of excessive risk by companies. Hence, it is important for the Board of Directors to identify the right persons and recruit them. Setting of strategy and structure of the company: As discussed by Hamilton and Micklethwait (2016), it is important for the directors to evaluate the opportunities and threats to the business operation and outline the pragmatic strategies. The directors need to prevent insolvent trading. They need to be informed of the financial status of the company. They have a statutory power to restrict insolvent trading and they are personally liable to the debts during insolvency. According to the Australian Accounting Standards (AASB), the directors are also liable to prepare the financial reports (Gibson and Brown 2012). Delegate to management: The board needs to allocate the roles; monitor, and evaluate the implementation of the strategies. They need to exercise effective internal control. In performing this task, the board needs to communicate with the senior management. Accountability to the shareholders: The board needs to ensure a proper communication and information channel back and forth with the shareholders. They need to take account of the interest of the shareholders. The board must maintain a good will with the shareholders (Anderson 2014). Other roles: The board needs to align, compensate and monitor the key executives and the board members in with the company shareholders. They need to ensure transparent and formal board nomination and election procedure. The board needs to look after the disclosure and communication procedure (Dean et al. 2014). In this context, the distinct roles of each member can be identified as following: The independent directors: They will be consulted for the issues placed before the board mainly the financial issues of the corporation. The CEO: He will be accountable for the management issues. The CFO: He will be in charge of the financial management. An executive director: He will be in charge of the risk management committee. Other members will also be there in the board. A non-executive director: He will be in charge of the audit committee. Other members should be non executive too. An executive director: He will be the charge of the appointment committee. The CEO also can be a part of the committee. On the other hand, the responsibilities of a CEO can be designated as bellow: Financial, Tax, Risk and Facilities Management: To be particular, a CEO needs to lay down the budget of the company for the boards approval. He needs to manage financial issues in accordance to the company laws and governmental regulations. Community Relations and HRM: It is one of the major duties of the CEO to present the company mission and vision in a positive manner to the society. He must be a personality who is capable enough to deliver his jobs and make his employees deliver their tasks. As mentioned by Solomon (2014), the CEO needs to promote the corporate culture that upholds ethical observance, support individual uprightness, and fulfils societal and ecological responsibility. Board Administration and Support: It is also important for the CEOs to maintain operations and management of the Board by providing recommendations and informing the members the organizational data and facts. He is also responsible for implementing the strategies developed by the board. He needs to prepare and administer the realization of key corporate policies (McCahery et al. 2012). The service: The CEO needs to investigate the design, promotion, delivery and quality products and services of the company. The CEO needs to ensure that the concerned managers are rightly administering the routine business dealings of the company and risk management can be performed when needed (Christensen et al. 2015). A number of cases can be cited as examples of corporate failures due to the lack of valuing good corporate governance in the investment decision-making models of the companies. Research and findings: If a review on the case of the American energy production company Enron can be done, the importance of good governance can be noticed vividly. The collapse of the company was a result violation of number corporate principles. As mentioned by Soltani (2014), the existence of off-balance sheet liabilities hidden in Special Purpose Entities (SPE) was used to move financing off-balance sheet and avoid consolidation of the SPE. Moreover, Enron boosted its reported income from allegedly laissez-faire transactions. The SPE also allowed the company to increase its reported cash flow. On the other hand, the key personalities of the company found guilty of ethical degradation. As mentioned by Smith (2015), the Chairman Ken Lay, CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andrew Fastow were found guilty of fraud. The CEO ware found following the senior executives blindly and avoided any review of the company proceedings. In addition, the company was following poor internal controls that led to accounting malpractices. The auditor Arthur Andersen was also ineffective and criminal and fraudulent proceedings led to the companys collapse (Lessambo 2014). On the other hand, in the case of One.Tel Ltd. in Australia, an excessive risk taking, poor costing, credit administration, and dominant management led the company to corporate failure (Anderson 2014). Whereas, in the case of Harris Scarfe Ltd. the issue was with the bad administration and fraudulent account handling and exposure irregularities for more than six years (Smith 2015). In addition, in the case of HIH, the company was led to failure due to deception by directly manipulating the accounting records, failed management, and ignorance of the shareholders rights. As discussed by Hamilton and Micklethwait (2016), the same thing happened in the case of Parmalat in 2003. The company tasted failure due to absence of power and autonomy of the non-executive directors, over dominating management, poor accounting and lack of internal control. As mentioned by Anderson (2014), the company was also a victim of insider trading and undisclosed related party transactions of senior corporate officers. However, if a review on the success stories can be done, it can be noticed that following a good corporate governance practice has helped the companies to obtain a better investment return as well as public acceptance. In the case of theCoca-ColaCompany, strengthening the board and management accountability, establishing Corporate Governance Guidelines, regular reviews of the corporate culture, establishing charters for all the board committees helped the company to develop good corporate governance (McCahery et al. 23016). Establishment of Codes of Business Conduct, disseminating the information regarding the method of reporting apprehensions about the organization and its public policy, helped the company to attain a huge rage of investor return, public trust and company eminence. However, from the above stated discussion it can be said that the companies need to follow some strategies to uplift their good corporate governance practices and increase their rate of investor return. Recommendations: The companies need to build a strong and competent BOD: As opined by Solomon (2014), it is important for the companies to uphold a strategy of electing the board members by the shareowners. Thus, it will ensure the maintenance of the interest of the shareholders and the long-term health and overall success of the business and its financial strength. The board should be comprised of the members, who are competent, decisive and possess strong ethics and integrity, diverse backgrounds and skill sets. As discussed by Rezaee and Kedia (2012), the majority of the directors must be independent. It will ensure unbiased judgment. Moreover, it is also important to educate the directors and make them familiar with the business, respective roles and the boards expectations. A regular review of the board mandates and assessment of the directors performance is also needed. As opined by Balkaran (2013), the corporations must develop an engaged Board where directors ask questions and challenge management and don't just "rubber-stamp" management's recommendations. Distinct roles of the management and executives: Clearly written mandates for each executive and typical committee (audit, compensation and others) need to be maintained. As described by Kandukuri et al. (2015), role descriptions for the board members, the CEO and executives should be preserved. Integrity and ethical dealing: It can be identified as one of the major principles of good corporate governance. As opined by Denis (2016), the corporations need to implement a conflict of interest policy and a code of business conduct. A structured procedure to report and treat disobedience, and a Whistleblower policy should also be maintained. Moreover, the management needs to ensure that the directors would abstain from voting over the issues in which they have an interest. Evaluation: The board has to ensure that the fees will attract the suitable candidates but it will not limit the director's autonomy or fulfillment of his job roles. Establishing a performance target for the executives including the CEO and evaluating it and tie compensation to performance is also needed. Risk management: The corporations must look into the issues of risks potential to be faced. These can be financial, reputational, industry-related, operational, environmental or legal. As discussed by Tricker (2015), lack of independence leads to risk taking behavior. The board need to establish strategic leadership for the organizations risk tolerance. A clear framework for managing risks needed to be found and evaluated regularly. Moreover, as opined by Solomon (2014), the BOD should challenge management's assumptions and the adequacy of the company's risk management processes and procedures. Conclusion: Hence, it can be concluded that to ensure a better performance, the corporations need to focus on their management and operation pattern. The shareholders can be identified as the foundations of a public listed corporation. Hence, as discussed by various theories, it is important to follow a good corporate governance to earn their trust and uphold their interest. In the recent decades, a number of companies have faced disastrous corporate failures by disregarding the principles of corporate governance. Hence, the public listed corporations must concentrate to this and take the appropriate actions. References: Anderson, H., 2014. Pressing the right buttons: Australian case studies in the protection of employee entitlements against corporate insolvency.International Labour Review,153(1), pp.117-142. Balkaran, L., 2013. Auditing the Corporate Governance Effort in an Organization.EDPACS,48(4), pp.12-18. Christensen, J., Kent, P., Routledge, J. and Stewart, J., 2015. Do corporate governance recommendations improve the performance and accountability of small listed companies?.Accounting Finance,55(1), pp.133-164. Dean, G., Clarke, F. and Egan, M., 2014. Corporate capers, accounting and governance reform.Governance Directions,66(9), p.541. Denis, D.K., 2016. Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization.Forthcoming in the Financial Review. Erkens, D.H., Hung, M. and Matos, P., 2012. Corporate governance in the 20072008 financial crisis: Evidence from financial institutions worldwide.Journal of Corporate Finance,18(2), pp.389-411. Gibson, B. and Brown, D., 2012. ASIC'S expectations of directors.UNSWLJ,35, p.254. Hamilton, S. and Micklethwait, A., 2016.Greed and corporate failure: The lessons from recent disasters. Springer. Kandukuri, R.L., Memdani, L. and Babu, P.R., 2015. Effect of Corporate Governance on Firm PerformanceA Study of Selected Indian Listed Companies.Overlaps of Private Sector with Public Sector around the Globe (Research in Finance, Volume 31) Emerald Group Publishing Limited,31, pp.47-64. Lessambo, F.I., 2014. Corporate Governance, Accounting and Auditing Scandals. InThe International Corporate Governance System(pp. 244-263). Palgrave Macmillan UK. McCahery, J.A., Sautner, Z. and Starks, L.T., 2016. Behind the scenes: The corporate governance preferences of institutional investors.The Journal of Finance. Rezaee, Z. and Kedia, B.L., 2012. Role of corporate governance participants in preventing and detecting financial statement fraud.Journal of Forensic Investigative Accounting,4(2), pp.176-205. Smith, H., 2015. Australia's Company Law Watchdog: ASIC and Corporate Regulation. Solomon, J., 2014. Corporate Governance and Accountability. 4th Edition, Wiley, USA. Soltani, B., 2014. The anatomy of corporate fraud: A comparative analysis of high profile American and European corporate scandals.Journal of Business Ethics,120(2), pp.251-274. Tricker, B., 2015.Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices. Oxford University Press, USA.

Accounting Project The Banking Organization

Question: Describe about the Accounting Project for The Banking Organization. Answer: Introduction: The banking organization plays a very important role in economic development and financial system of any nation. Therefore, the estimation of its effectiveness is very crucial. This research proposal presents the comparative analysis of Australian and Canadian bank organizations economic performance. Throughout the past 2 decades, significant empirical and theoretical attention is being given on financial and economic performance and development. Banking organization has crucial impact on the urbanization and industrialization process of any country. Banking organization manipulates the economic performance through three important factors, which are: (1) increase rate in private savings (2) the improvement and effectiveness on the intermediary performance of finance (3) the development of social capital productivity. Generally, productivity growth is highly dependent on financial performance. Hence, if smooth performance of financial system is disturbed by financial crisis, it will h ave considerable negative effect on the banking organizations as well as economic performance of any country (Joshi et al. 2013). Australian banking organization consists of various banks operated under the Banking Act, 1959. Banking system in Australia is competitive, liquid and well-developed. At present, there are four major banks who are dominating the banking organization in Australia. They are: National Australia Bank, Commonwealth bank of Australia, Westpac banking Corporation and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. On the other hand, banking organization in Canada started through the establishment of Bank of Montreal in the year 1817. In day to day business, the banking organization in Canada, are divided into two major categories, such as: (1) five large national banks (2) smaller banks in second tier. Five major banks in Canada are: Toronto Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Some remarkable second tier banks are: Canadian Western Bank, Laurentine Bank, ATB Financial, HSBC Bank of Canada, Desjardins Group and Tangerine Bank (Grigoroudis, Tsitsiridi and Zopounidis 2013). Literature Review: Westpac Banking Corporation (Australia): Background: Westpac is Australias first bank. Westpac was founded in 1817 and known as Bank of New South Wales under the merger offered by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. It converted its name to Westpac Banking Corporation in October 1982 after the acquirement of Commercial Bank of Australia. They started their business with Joseph Hyde, who was their first employee. He used to receive an annual remuneration of 25 pounds along with weekly ration from Kings store. In the year 1821, they faced huge loss as the chief cashier of New South Wales absconded with half of their subscribed capital, out of which not a single penny was recoverable. The bank began their major expansion through the gold fever in 1851 when they found a prospect to set up buying agents for gold with regard to the requirement of merchants and miners. They had grown to 37 branches from a single branch in Sydney, by the year 1861. At present, Westpac has 5 divisions for serving near about 13 million customers. Their operating structu re and business are lined up with the need of their prime customers. (Strong, Cater-Steel and Lane 2014). Five key segments of Westpac are: Business bank: They are liable for customer service and sales of their agribusiness and commercial customer and small to medium enterprises. This division also helps the expertise in equipment and asset finance. Consumer bank: They are liable for service and sales of their Australian customer under Westpac. BT Financial Group of Australia: They manage the Australian insurance and wealth business. They are liable for management of the fund, distribution and manufacturing of investment, financial planning, private banking, broking and margin lending. Institutional bank of Westpac: They provides a wide range of financial deals to corporate, commercial, government and institutional customers, connected to New Zealand and Australia (Cummings and Durrani 2016). Westpac of New Zealand: They are accountable for service and sales of insurance, wealth, and banking products for business and institutional consumers around New Zealand. Other divisions of business of the group involves: Group Technology, Business and Customer Services, Core support and Treasury department (Islam, Jain and Thomson 2016). Bank of Montreal (Canada): Background: Bank of Montreal was founded in the year 1817 as a wide financial service provider in North America. They provides wide range services and products like investment banking, wealth management, retail banking to more than 12 million consumers. Bank of Montreal carry on their business through the operating groups like: Capital market of BMO, Wealth Management and Commercial and Personal banking. They serve the customers of Canada through the Bank of Montreal, Nesbitt Burns of BMO and Capital Markets of BMO. They help their clients to make money through offering the widest variety of financial services by a single point contact. Their experts from financial service segment always offer services to their customer around the whole enterprise, in case they need any kind of service (Allahrakha, Glasserman and Young 2015). Primary services provided by the Bank of Montreal are: Start plan for business: Under this plan, clients are offered to get banking plan for business with low-fee and no minimum monthly balance obligation. Builder 1 Plan for Business: Under this plan, customers are provided with a banking plan of business for a charge of $20 per month and with no minimum balance requirement for up to 35 transactions per month. Builder 2 Plan for Business: As per this plan, clients get banking plan for business for a monthly charge of $45, up to 70 dealings per month and with advanced electronic system for banking solutions (van Knippenberg 2016). Problem Statement: The main problem statement of this research proposal is to analyze the economic performance of Westpac Corporation Bank of Australia and Bank of Montreal from Canada and the types of services offered by these banks to their clients (Thomas, Silverman and Nelson 2015). Research question: Main questions of this research proposal are: What are the contributions of Westpac Banking Corporation in Australia? What are the contributions of Bank of Montreal in Canada? How these banks are contributing to the nations economic development? How these banks are providing services to their customers? Research design and Objectives: This research proposal is proposed to analyze the contribution of Westpac Corporation Bank and Bank of Montreal towards the economic development of Australia and Canada. The main objective of this research proposal is to find out how these banks are providing services to their client and the range of services provided to them (Creswell 2013). Research Hypothesis: The hypothesis of this research proposal is: H0: Economic performance of Westpac Corporation Bank of Australia is better H1: Economic performance of Bank of Montreal of Canada is better. Research methodology: The plan for research includes the way in which the research is required to be completed. This research proposal is about the comparative analysis of the economic performance of Westpac Corporation Bank of Australia and bank of Montreal of Canada. This research proposal involves Quantitative Secondary research. The quantitative secondary research involves collection of data from the official websites of Westpac Corporation Bank of Australia and Bank of Montreal of Canada. Analysis of data shall be based on the existing information available in their official website (Pickard 2012). Research Philosophy: There are three types of research philosophy. The first type of philosophy is known as realism philosophy. Human feelings and emotions are mainly taken into account in realism philosophy. The conclusions are drawn by taking into consideration the feelings and emotions. Positivism is the second type of research philosophy. In this case, the human feelings and emotions are not at all considered. The conclusions are drawn from collected information and figures. The third type of research philosophy, that is, interpretive research philosophy, considers both the human emotions and feelings along with collected data and figures. For example, when a research is carried out, the part where an individual supports a particular cause or does not fall in the section of data collection, then a particular attitude of the people regarding the social cause falls under realism research philosophy. The chosen research philosophy for this research work is positivism research philosophy. The research will be carried out based on the collected data. The research is mainly based on secondary data. The emotions and feelings are not taken into account in this kind of research work (Robson and McCartan 2016). Gantt Chart: The Gantt Chart for this research proposal is given below: Week 1 Week 6 Week 8 Week 13 Week 14 Identification of research problem Literature review Data collection and analysis Conclusion and final presentation Final business research thesis due Figure: Gnatt Chart for the research proposal (Source: Created by Author) Research process: Research process is the way through which research is to be carried out. In the first week of the research, the research problem is required to be identified and the problem report of the research will be arranged. In week 6, literature review shall be completed. In week 8, collection and analysis of data shall be completed. Conclusion and final presentation shall be completed by week 13 and final business thesis is due for week 14 (O'Leary 2013). Data Collection: Secondary data collection for quantitative data will include data from the official website of Westpac Corporation Bank of Australia and Bank of Montreal of Canada. There are number of clients who use the services of these banks. The data can also be collected from the services provided by the bank to their clients (McMillan and Schumacher 2014). Research Strategy: The research strategy states the ways by which the research is being carried out. The research strategies can be of four different types qualitative research design, quantitative research design, logical theoretical research, participatory research and others. The qualitative research design refers to using secondary research. In the case of quantitative design, the primary data is being used. The primary data can be collected by the help of questionnaire. The logical research refers to drawing consequences from initial assumptions (Hair 2015). The participatory research refers to the research approaches used in social systems for studying. The research strategies used for this research work is Quantitative Secondary approach. The data is being collected regarding the economic performance of Westpac Corporation Bank of Australia and Bank of Montreal of Canada from the official website of these banks (Silverman 2013). Time Horizons: The time horizons refer to the time points from where the data is being calculated. The data can be collected over a single point of time or repeatedly over different points of time. When the data is being collected over a single point of time, then the design is referred to as cross sectional design. When the data of different variables are repeatedly collected in different points of time, then the design is known as longitudinal study design. The cross sectional study design is used for the purpose of this research. The study involves collection of data regarding the economic performance and service to clients by these banks. It also states the various types of services provided by the banks to their clients (Bell 2014). Expected Research Outcomes: The research proposal must give an apparent idea about the Economic performance of Westpac Corporation Bank, Australia and Bank of Montreal, Canada. The research proposal also gives a clear idea regarding the collection and analysis of dataset. The possible conclusions of the analysis shall also be stated in the proposal. The research proposal will help to analyse the economic performance of banks in Australia and Canada. References: Allahrakha, M., Glasserman, P. and Young, H.P., 2015. Systemic importance indicators for 33 US bank holding companies: an overview of recent data.OFR Brief, (15-01). Bell, J., 2014.Doing Your Research Project: A guide for first-time researchers. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Creswell, J.W., 2013.Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Cummings, J.R. and Durrani, K.J., 2016. Effect of the Basel Accord capital requirements on the loan-loss provisioning practices of Australian banks.Journal of Banking Finance,67, pp.23-36. Grigoroudis, E., Tsitsiridi, E. and Zopounidis, C., 2013. Linking customer satisfaction, employee appraisal, and business performance: an evaluation methodology in the banking sector.Annals of Operations Research,205(1), pp.5-27. Hair, J.F., 2015.Essentials of business research methods. ME Sharpe. Islam, M.A., Jain, A. and Thomson, D., 2016. Does the global reporting initiative influence sustainability disclosures in Asia-Pacific banks?.Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, pp.1-16. Joshi, M., Cahill, D., Sidhu, J. and Kansal, M., 2013. Intellectual capital and financial performance: an evaluation of the Australian financial sector.Journal of intellectual capital,14(2), pp.264-285. McMillan, J.H. and Schumacher, S., 2014.Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. Pearson Higher Ed. O'Leary, Z., 2013.The essential guide to doing your research project. Sage. Pickard, A., 2012.Research methods in information. Facet publishing. Robson, C. and McCartan, K., 2016.Real world research. John Wiley Sons. Silverman, D., 2013.Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook. SAGE Publications Limited. Strong, B., Cater-Steel, A. and Lane, M., 2014. Prudential risk management of IT sourcing strategies: a case study of an Australian bank. Thomas, J.R., Silverman, S. and Nelson, J., 2015.Research Methods in Physical Activity, 7E. Human kinetics. van Knippenberg, D., 2016. Making Sense of Who We Are.The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Identity, p.335.