Our research strengths

Research strengths in the University of Adelaide Business School spans a range of disciplinary areas. New research initiatives are driven from within the school and specialist academics and researchers also cooperate with industry and other areas of the University to deliver research output.

Currently, the University of Adelaide Business School has undertaken some research initiatives that has real life and commercial impact.

Accounting & Information Systems | Banking, Property & Finance | Business Law & Taxation |
Management | International Business | Marketing

Accounting and Information Systems

Research in accounting and information systems covers a diverse area: professional ethics, auditing, budgetary planning and control, financial accounting, financial disclosure and segment reporting, management accounting, not-for-profit management and accounting, public sector management and accounting, family business, and accounting and gender, education, history and regulation.

Research in family business is conducted by the accounting and information systems discipline in cooperation with the management discipline. Family owned and managed businesses dominate the private sector landscape and there are multiple perspectives to be considered: owners, managers, shareholders, employees, board members, advisers and customers. The current research areas of the Family Business Education & Research Group (FBERG) include succession and transition, international growth strategies, and governance structures.

Banking, Property and Finance

The banking, finance and property discipline supports excellence in financial research and education with particular emphasis on strengthening relationships between faculty, students and finance professionals. The discipline aims to enhance collaboration across the University and has business practitioners with interest in banking, corporate finance and financial markets. The synergies fostered by the group facilitates the exchange of finance knowledge, and place the University of Adelaide Business School as one of the top academic bodies in the field of finance.

The finance group combines research productivity with teaching quality. By facilitating innovative curriculum, research and interactions with practitioners, finance plays a vital role in encouraging dialogue and fresh-thinking among corporate leaders, and helps prepare both students and finance leaders for the challenges facing the global economy. Finance staff have extensive overseas experience and have worked for business, governments and international agencies, ensuring up-to-date and leading-edge research interests. Our academics regularly present at seminars and research conferences in Australia and overseas. We host a large number of visiting academics from all over the world.

The discipline hosts the International Centre for Financial Services (ICFS), a research and executive training centre that draws on staff expertise across the Schools of Economics, Law and Education. ICFS aims to develop industry and government grants, industry contract research, as well as supporting doctoral students within the financial services industry.

Business Law and Taxation

Business Law academic staff and their research areas are listed below and their respective staff homepages contain further information, such as publications.

Management

In line with the University's focus on research excellence, the management discipline within the University of Adelaide Business School has a culture of encouraging research to enhance its teaching and align itself with its GO8 counterparts and international partners.

There is an increasing need for research into organisations as they grapple with increased complexity, an unrelenting pace of operations, diversity of employee base and challenges from the global marketplace. Research undertaken by members of the management discipline recognises the imperative for people in our organisations to interact in a way that optimises the effectiveness of communication to ensure the development and maintenance of sustainable and ethical organisations. Research is focused in the following key areas: strategy, sustainability, human resource management, organisational behaviour, family business and SMEs, and teaching and learning.

Complementing the University's objective in building links with the business community, the management discipline currently has members on the SA Government's Business Development Council's Family Business Sub-committee, the Family Business Australia National Education Sub-committee and the Family Firm Institute, the peak international body for family business advisors, educators and researchers.

The management discipline attracts a number of visiting scholars to complement the teaching of its undergraduate and postgraduate programs and particularly to broaden the options for Summer school offerings. The most recent visitors have been Professor Ercan Tirtiroglu in the area of Operations Management and Professor David Buchanan in the area of Organisational Behaviour and Change Management.

Research in family business is conducted by the Management discipline in conjunction with Accounting and Information Systems. Family owned and managed businesses dominate the private sector and there are multiple perspectives to be considered: owners, managers, shareholders, employees, board members, advisers and customers. Current research areas of the Family Business Education & Research Group (FBERG) include succession and transition, international growth strategies, and governance structures.

International Business Research Group (IBRG)

Background

International Business established as a new Discipline now exists in the Business School, introduced in January 2011, with 4 staff, including Associate Professor Susan Freeman, Discipline Leader and Director – International Business Research Group (IBRG), Dr Olga Muzychenko,Dr Lisa Hewerdineand Dr Wahid Murad.

Purpose

The purpose of IBRG is to promote research, education and industry engagement in the field of international business. This initiative is in response to the growing recognition of the significant contribution that international business makes to national economies, their interdependence through trade and foreign investment, and the need for research and education that addresses issues faced by firms involved in international activities. For example, the Federal Government recently issued a policy statement, calling for greater emphasis on understanding Australia’s trade and investment potential in the Asia Pacific and East Asian region, in recognition of the dramatic growth in three big emerging markets (BEMs) – China, India and Indonesia.

The aim is for the University of Adelaide’s Business School to become recognised locally, nationally and internationally as a key contributor to international business research and education. IBRG’s objective to further the Business School’s links with the wider business community in South Australia is consistent with the University’s imperative to build and enhance links with the business community.

Research Focus

In the Global 21st Century, International Business has never been more relevant, especially in the emerging markets of China and India and remarkable developments in the Asia region.  The Business School has reinvigorated multiple aspects of its International Business discipline from its undergraduate pathway, through to the employment of Discipline Leader Associate Professor Susan Freemanwhose research and Ph.D. supervision focus is international business strategy including early accelerated internationalising smaller firms, international entrepreneurship, and emerging markets. 
Research and Ph.D., Masters (Research) and Honours supervision in the discipline of International Business covers a wide range of areas. The IBRG focuses on three broad multi-disciplinary areas with the following staff:

Internationalisation Process

Associate Professor Susan Freeman, Discipline Leader; Dr Olga Muzychenko and Dr Wahid Murad.

International Entrepreneurship

Associate Professor Susan Freeman, Discipline Leader and Dr Olga Muzychenko.

Globalisation and Trade

Associate Professor Susan Freeman, Discipline Leader; Dr Lisa Hewerdineand Dr Wahid Murad.
In detail, the three broad research fields for IBRG cover a range of specific multi-disciplinary topics including:

international business strategy, international entrepreneurship, family business/SMEs, international buyer-seller relationships, international human resource management, cross-cultural management, leadership, mergers and acquisitions, strategic management of international alliances and networks, organisational sustainability, ethics, and technology, knowledge transfer and innovation management.  The comparison of advanced and emerging and developing markets of East and South Asia are of particular interest given our geographic location, with specialisation also occurring in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Research and Ph.D., Masters (Research) and Honours supervision in the discipline of international business covers a wide range of areas: international business strategy, entrepreneurship, family business/SMEs, services internationalisation, international marketing, international buyer-seller relationships, international human resource management, leadership, mergers and acquisitions, strategic management of international alliances and networks, organisational sustainability, ethics, and technology, knowledge transfer and innovation management.

Marketing

The Marketing Discipline applies a range of theoretical perspectives and methodologies to undertake research that is at the forefront of Marketing Thinking.  Our research expertise and our drive to lead marketing thought, see us examining the many issues around Value Exchange and Value Co-Creation, as we push thinking to deliver insight and marketing knowledge.

Examples of research contexts in the discipline are

• Branding and Advertising
• Business Relationships and Business Networks
• Consumer Psychology
• Corporate social responsibility
• Experiential Marketing
• Financial Services
• Internal Marketing and Employer Branding
• Marketing Communication
• Service Employees
• Service Technologies
• Social Media
• Sponsorship
• Wine Marketing

The Discipline has been successful in obtaining Category 1 grant funding from the Australian Research Council-ARC (Corporate Social Responsibility and also another for Financial Planning Advice) and the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation –GWRDC (Country of Origin Effects, Virtual Communities, Consumer Choice and Supply Chain Decision Making).

Academic Staff and Research Areas:

Current PhD Students: