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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the extent of shareholder engagement and satisfaction with corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of a Chinese-owned company compared to an Australian-owned company in the Australian mining industry. The study is motivated by the speed, extent and nature of Chinese foreign direct investment in Australia, the resulting negative social attitudes and the impact on the perceptions of a report’s credibility. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a survey of 202 minority shareholders of two Australian mining companies, one has a Chinese majority shareholder and the other an Australian majority shareholder. The responses highlight users’ comparative perceptions of corporate motivations for reporting, the level of perceived shareholder power over reporting decisions and the resulting propensity to read CSR reports. Findings The authors found that, contrary to decision-usefulness theory, which posits that users will read CSR reports only if they are deemed to be reliable, that perceptions of poor credibility and poor CSR performance actually result in a higher propensity to read the reports. This suggests that the minority shareholders of the Chinese acquired firm are using reports to monitor the level of corporate accountability. Originality/value The findings have implications for firms operating in politically or socially sensitive industries that are likely to use CSR reporting as a legitimising strategy. The paper also provides guidance to regulators in the provision of information, which is meaningful to minority shareholders.

Coal samples from HMAV Bounty were analysed using standard techniques to shed light on their provenance. Petrographic analysis indicated they were Carboniferous, with high vitrinite and liptinite content and a mean random reflectance of vitrinite of 0.99%. Palynological analysis indicated the samples were derived from the Middle Coal Measures, Westphalian B. Combining coal rank (vitrinite reflectance), age, knowledge of seam distributions and coalfield history indicates the most like source to be the Durham Coalfield, possibly the Hutton or Low Main Seams. These coals were mined along the valley of the Weir in the latter part of the 18th century.

As a result of enhanced performance and mission requirements for Navy ships, ship design has dramatically increased the use of higher strength, lightweight steels and various local reinforcements, e.g., deck inserts, ring stiffeners, etc., in foundation designs to satisfy the design requirements for supporting machinery, consoles, and weapon systems among others. In additional to operational loading requirements, most of these foundations must also be designed to satisfy shock, vibration and other combat system requirements. While the same piece of equipment may be used in other ship contracts, the foundations are uniquely designed and require a separate analysis and drawing package. Computer modeling and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) have helped reduce the labor required to analyze foundations, but the high number of “unique” foundations as well as changes which necessitate a new analysis still create a large workload for engineers. This is further compounded by increased costs in production due to greater numbers of unique parts and materials that must be marked, stored, and retrieved later for fabrication. This goal of this project was to determine the cost-savings potential of leveraging past foundations work in designing, analyzing, and drawing foundations in the future. By the project’s conclusion Ingalls will have created a database for rapid access to previously-generated foundation information, the framework of which will be publicly available for all shipyards to populate with their own foundation information.

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