The incessant trend towards the internationalisation of the marketplace will continue to dominate the agendas of managers of Australia's manufacturing establishments as they approach the next millennium. Empirical studies of the determinants of the firm's export marketing behaviour have been quite prolific and internationally comprehensive (Aaby and Slater 1989) and the characteristics and attitudes of the firm's main decision makers are often posed as important explanatory variables. The current study also examines the significance of managerial characteristics, commitment and attitudes towards exporting behaviour, by concentrating on a sample of firms drawn from a single industry (food and beverage processors) and with similar size and locational characteristics (small-medium firms located in regional Victoria).

A logistic regression model with a binary dependent variable (ie current exporter vs non-exporter) and, initially, 19 independent variables was formulated and estimated. An optimal model utilising only six of the most significant, management-related variables was able to predict the probability of a firm being an exporter with an accuracy of over 90% . The importance of management's willingness to commit both its mind and its firm's resources to the export endeavour and its recognition of the importance of price competitiveness were significant discriminators of active export behaviour. Exporting managers were also found more likely to be tertiary educated and foreign language fluent but not necessarily any younger than their non-exporting counterparts.

Information Technology (IT) provides great scope for small business to gain benefits in terms of customer service, productivity, business growth, return on investment, profits and time based competitiveness. Yet these outcomes are not guaranteed. In this study of 80 small businesses in Victoria, which have been drawn into IT networks by larger organisations and invested in IT, factors which inhibit or promote gains are investigated. One important aspect is whether certain characteristics related to the small business manager show a relationship with ‘success’ or positive outcome indicators. Data analysis indicates that factors such as length of time using computers, accessibility of information and positive attitude towards IT change are associated with the extent to which business benefits are realised.

The recent Karpin Committee report once again focused attention on managerial skills and competencies, as it prognosticated on the skills and knowledge required by current and future Australian managers, and the kinds of educational experiences necessary to foster them. In doing so, the report made critical assumptions about the kinds of functions and behaviours that can be properly called ‘managerial’. Indeed, leadership is elevated as the conspicuous task of managers (leaders?). But is this what managers should be doing?

Closer examination of the Karpin model of ‘management’, in the broader context of the literature on management and managerial behaviour, shows that the Karpin view is narrow and partial — it ignores or devalues key managerial functions while promoting others. This is due, in part, to the fact that the committee's approach is devoid of any theoretical framework for designating particular behaviours as ‘managerial’. If the Karpin recommendations are to steer management education into the third millennium, the result will be, in turn, a narrow and partial educational experience.

This paper argues for an approach to management education driven, not by a populist vision of managers simply as entrepreneurial leaders, but by an appreciation of the necessarily broader range of managerial functions and the way in which they are integrated. It proposes such an approach, derived from management theory and elaborated in the context of Australia and the Asia-Pacific region in the 1990s and beyond.

In recent times, an increasing number of writers have noted the important contribution that the management competency movement is making to contemporary organisations. However, there is widespread evidence to suggest that a comprehensive framework for understanding managerial competencies has not yet been established in Australia. This paper reports the results of a survey on a sample of 234 managers drawn from private and public sector organisations into the perceived importance of 99 managerial competency elements. Findings indicate a substantial number of competency elements are perceived to be generic across occupations and situations, but they also indicate in some instances differing levels of importance attached to these competencies across hierarchical levels and between sectors. Evidence of a range of significant competency groupings is presented along with a proposed framework to interpret competency elements. Additionally, this study provides assistance in developing a platform for further research into the competency field.