Melbourne Business School - Theses
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ItemManagement and investment companies: events leading up to the Espie Report and subsequent developments( 1986)On 22 May, 1984 seven Management and Investment Companies (MICs) were each granted a licence by the MIC Licensing Board (MICLB). The Licensed MICs were: Austech Ventures Limited; Australian Pacific Technology Limited; B. T. Innovation Limited; Hambro-Grantham Limited; Techniche Limited; Western Pacific Management Company Pty Limited; Westintech Innovation Corporation Limited. On 1 November, 1984 another three Licences were granted, one each to: Continental Venture Capital Limited; C P Ventures Limited; Samic Limited. Thus the Australian MIC-based Venture Capital Industry was launched. The MIC Venture Capital realisation in the late Industry grew from an increasing 1970s and early 1980s, in both government and business circles, that Australia's high technology sector had underperformed and was not competing with international rivals. Such a sector was seen to be a key element in the prospective creation of wealth for Australia by virtue of the potential for high employment and export earnings. (From Introduction)
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ItemEffects of physical environmental factors and individual differences on role stress, environmental stressors, workspace satisfaction and work behaviour of office employees( 1989)An integrative model of effects of office characteristics and individual differences on workspace satisfaction and work behaviour was developed and tested using survey data from 139 office employees working for four organisations. Workspace experiences, role stress, environmental stressors, and interpersonal interaction were treated as intermediary variables. The variables employed in this study were derived from previous research as well as self-developed, and were divided into seven group variables. The group labels and their respective variables are: (1) office characteristics: office openness, shared office, and number of people sharing; (2) individual differences: job level, organisation tenure, and Type-A behaviour pattern; (3) workspace experience: privacy and distraction; (4) role stress and environmental stressors: role ambiguity, role conflict, superior stressor, co-worker stressor, and physical stressor; (5) interpersonal interaction: attention, social relation, and listening; (6) workspace satisfaction; (7) work behaviour: task performance and friendliness.
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ItemThe role of modern portfolio theory in current portfolio management practice in Australia( 1983)The Australian securities market exists to channel savings and funds of individuals, companies and institutions into the hands of firms and governments who are in need of additional funds to finance their activities. Since these activities are at the core of the business community, the capital market is a vital factor in the health of the economy of this country. The financial institutions which provide the greater part of monies into the Australian securities market are: - Banks - Life Insurance Companies - Pension Funds - Cash Management Trusts. The task of the fund manager is to identify and value worthwhile enterprises in which to invest and in order for him to do this he needs to find acceptable, appropriate and objective criteria on which to base his judgements. These criteria generally revolve around a critical evaluation of the capital structure and dividend policy of a firm in relation to its valuation as a whole with a view to assessing its prospects for future growth and continued high dividend potential. The arguments of the theorists of the 1950's and 60's that with efficient financial markets without imperfections, the debt and dividend policies of firms were really of no consequence has not turned out to be the case. However these theories did have an impact on the thinking of the Fund Managers in the application of the techniques with which they were already familiar so that much of the work done since then has been directed at the identification of market imperfections and their likely effect on the valuation of firms. It was during the fifties that a development occurred which was considered at the time to be a major advance in the techniques available to Fund Managers to assist them in the placement and assessment of their performance in their portfolio management. This was the Markowitz Portfolio Theory which was later extended and refined by Sharpe, Treynor and Jensen. This theory in essence suggests that individual assets in a portfolio should not be judged on the merit of their performance on a short term basis but rather in relation to their marginal contribution to an overall portfolio of assets. Thus the overall risk of a portfolio of such assets is considerably reduced when a diversity of these assets has been selected. It is the Fund Managers' attitude to the utilisation of this tool as a result of a significant period of availability and experience within the financial community in Australia which is the subject of this report.
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ItemGeothermal energy feasibility study, Portland( 1988)This report investigates the technical, economic and market viability of distributing geothermal water for energy purposes in the town of Portland. The high quality of Portland's geothermal water enables existing low technology engineering practices in hot water distribution to be employed to supply geothermal energy to a potential market of approximately 130,000 GJ per year. The utilisation of geothermal energy is limited by the minimum winter usage of town water and the capacities of the existing geothermal water bores. It has been established that the Henty Park and Wyatt Street bores could supply up to approximately 600 domestic customers in addition to the existing geothermal customers and the potential surveyed commercial premises in or adjoining the central business district. However, economic evaluation of a geothermal energy distribution system to supply both domestic and commercial customers has shown such a system to be commercially unviable. The study has shown that it may be economically viable for commercial premises using diesel oil as an energy source to use geothermal energy. However, the commercial viability will depend on factors specific to the premises and assumptions on economic conditions likely to prevail. It is recommended that geothermal energy supply to existing commercial oil fuel customers be individually considered and that supply of geothermal energy to new commercial developments be pursued and assessed. Potential geothermal energy users identified in the study are: Portland Hospital Portland High School Portland Technical School Gordon Hotel