April 2, 2023

School of Business Quarterly update April 2023

Feature story

The School of Business and the UN SDGs

Our vision is to have a positive impact in our local and international communities as an Australian business school committed to responsible and sustainable practices. Academic staff in all our disciplines are undertaking high quality research in many different areas related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as well as incorporating the SDGs in our teaching, as Associate Professor Belinda Gibbons explains.

The SDGs give us a shared framework where everyone in the School can see how their research, teaching and collaborations contribute to our communities, planet and economies. Although seemingly independent goals, the biosphere, societal and economic challenges of our time are interrelated, complex and require intersectoral, multistakeholder and collaborative responses – which is exactly what our School is striving to achieve.

Committed to SDG 4, Quality Education, as part of all curriculum reviews, the School of Business is baselining their curriculum SDG mapping across all courses. All subjects across each discipline are being analysed for SDG content, assessment, and learning outcomes with the purpose to ensure that we have deep, meaningful and sustained engagement with the SDGs across all of our courses.

Strong areas of SDG coverage for the School cut across SDG 5, Gender Equity ; SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth; SDG 9, Industry Innovation and Infrastructure; SDG 10, Reduced Inequalities; SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production alongside SDG 16, Peace Justice and Strong Institutions and SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals which has seen the School engage with Be Slavery Free, St Johns Ambulance, Healthy Cities Illawarra, Good360, the Leadership Illawarra Program, and Owners Corporation Network alongside numerous University collaborations.

The School is also strong in SDG coverage across research centres and projects including SDG 3, Good Health & Wellbeing; SDG 6, Clean Water & Sanitation; SDG 7, Affordable & Clean Energy; SDG 11, Sustainable Cities & Communities; SDG 13, Climate Action; SDG 14, Life Below Water and SDG 15, Life on Land.

The SDGs promote a culture of co-design and collaboration between governments, industry, universities and civil society in tackling critical challenges of our time. The Global Goals align with our values as a Business School, can help us have further global collaborative conversations and to make a difference in all our communities. This is what we are here for!

Research with impact

The Blue Futures Translational Research Initiative

Associate Professor Tillmann Boehme, who is a co-founder of the Blue Futures Translational Research Initiative, is working collaboratively with Joonga, an Aboriginal non-for- profit organisation based in Narooma (Walbunja Country) on the South Coast of New South Wales. This project is funded by the Australian Research Council, the University of Washington Ocean Nexus program and the NSW Department of Primary Industries. The Blue Futures Team (Associate Professor Michelle Voyer, Associate Professor Tillmann Boehme, Makrita Solitei, Freya Croft) supports the organisation with sea country planning, value stream design and business development to create jobs and career opportunities for the Aboriginal community on Walbunja Country. Together, we are exploring how Indigenous models of doing business can provide both a stable platform for sustainable coastal and marine operation and a source of competitive advantage, achieving this via translation of best practices and the establishing of collaborative networks. The latest Blue Futures team grant from the NSW Department of Primary and Industry aims to assist kelp farmers with socio-economic impact studies for State Significant Development applications.

Community perspectives on Corded Blinds Research Project

Associate Professor Michael Mehmet worked on a recent research project, "Behaviour Change Campaign to Reduce Risks from Corded Window Blinds," which aimed to explore community perspectives on corded blinds and develop an effective behaviour change campaign to reduce their associated risks. Using qualitative approaches, we identified a critical need to raise awareness of the dangers of corded window blinds and to promote alternative, safer window covering options. The next stage will see experimental message-testing of ideas to ensure our work directly impacts families and communities across the country by reducing the risks associated with corded window blinds.

Asylum-seeker research

Recent work by Dr Erin Twyford and Dr Farzana Tanima (University of Wollongong) and Dr Sendirella George (Victoria University of Wellington) published in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal examined the inherent racialisation in asylum seeker policies within Australian offshore detention centres (Twyford et al. 2022). This work utilised Critical Race Theory (CRT) to posit new forms of accounts – namely counter-accounts (counter to the official accounts given by the government) – as counter-stories to re- centre the voices of asylum seekers in studies about them.

This work was recently Highly Commended for the Mary Parker Follett Award, placing this work in the top three ‘Most Outstanding Papers’ for the journal in 2022.

 Environment Social Governance (ESG) – Sharing our expertise

Over a very beautiful sunrise, a panel of colleagues from across the School of Business shared plenty of food for thought with CPA members at their Illawarra Branch Breakfast Event with an interdisciplinary conversation on ESG. The topics within ESG are far-reaching and so rather than have one person present a particular lens, Associate Professor Belinda Gibbons facilitated a conversation on some of the highly topical ESG conversations taking place today, including financial investing, reporting, frameworks and engagement with Professor Millie Chang and Dr Abdullah Al Mamun, the world of energy regulation with Professor David Johnstone, women’s empowerment with Dr Farzana Tanima, and the urgently needed conversation on climate action with Professor Troy Heffernan. Engagement in the room was high with great questions and many follow-on conversations. We look forward to working more with industry as partners in the future on these critical topics.

Teaching that makes a difference

To kickstart the Autumn session 2023, OCTAL Award nominee Dr Beo Thai welcomed students in his subject MARK217 Consumer Behaviour with an Online Meet and Greet on Thursday, 2 March, 2023. Over 50 students attended the interactive live session. Beo is known among his colleagues as an enthusiastic and tech-savvy educator. To maximise student engagement, he constantly finds innovative ways to deliver interactive classes to inspire his students to learn more.

Global connections 

Visit to Sophia University

While on Special Study Program leave recently, Dr Oriana Price visited Tokyo and partner institution, Sophia University. This opportunity to meet with colleagues at as well as talk to Sophia students heading to Australia to undertake semester exchange in Autumn and Spring 2023 was a great way to strengthen our relationship.

 UOW Management studies expert receives peer-reviewed journal dedication

The peer-reviewed Sri Lanka Journal of Management Studies (SLJMS), published by the Faculty of Management Studies, the Open University of Sri Lanka has dedicated Volume 4 Issue 1 to Dr. Ananda Wickramasinghe for his contribution to education and the country.

 Research Seminar at the Comilla University

Dr Abdullah Al-Mamun was invited as a keynote speaker to the Comilla University, Bangladesh on 8 January, 2023. Abdullah’s two hour research seminar was attended by more than 100 final year students and early career academics from the Faculty of Business Studies. Both students and academics benefited from the seminar, which was reflected in their interest in future collaboration. The event was featured in multiple local newspapers including Daily Roposhi Bangla, Comillar Kagol and Campus News.

To have his camera and content (e.g., sharing screens, Moodle site, PDF document, picture, GIF, etc.) appear on the same screen, Beo uses the Mmhmm app. This is a presentation app that takes webcam feed and layers it on top of presentation slides, making virtual meetings visually more appealing. Teachers and students can use mmhmm Premium for one year for free.

For several years, Beo has also used Padlet to promote peer- to-peer learning in his subjects' Moodle sites. It is a collaborative app to make and share content (e.g., comments, photos, links, etc.) with others. It functions like a "virtual wall", allowing students to engage via comments, votes, or likes. See how Padlet can also be used.

Course developments 

New Major in Sustainable Business

The School of Business is excited to introduce a new major in Sustainable Business in the Bachelor of Business. The timely introduction of this new major brings together new and existing subjects with a focus on sustainability in order to better promote the School’s mission and our expertise in sustainable business practices. Sustainable business is increasingly popular for both our domestic and international students. The proposal is expected to be particularly attractive as an option for students undertaking a double major as well as cross-faculty students.

The benefits to students in undertaking this new major are both intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic benefit is that this major will address current concerns of students who want to do something better for the world and to have purpose in their career.

The extrinsic benefit is the huge number of employment opportunities available now and in the future as new regulations and guidelines are imposed on all sectors including public and private sector organisations, with notable opportunities for small businesses and start-ups.

New Graduate Certificate in Analytics of Medical Imaging Data

The new Graduate Certificate in Analytics of Medical Imaging Data  is designed to equip medical imaging professionals with specialist data analytics skills. The volume of imaging data collected through medical imaging technologies nowadays is difficult to manage in a timely manner without the use of advanced analytics tools and techniques. Developed in collaboration with the Medical Imaging Service of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD), NSW Health, Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI) and the University of Wollongong, the new program will enable students to deal effectively with large volumes of medical imaging data and thereby improve diagnosis and treatment. Students completing the Graduate Certificate in Analytics of Medical Imaging Data will also be awarded an industry certification, the SAS Academic Specialisation in Medical Imaging Data Analytics. This new Graduate Certificate is an excellent example of how we can use our expertise in collaboration with our partners to co-design an innovative program to meet community needs.

Staff spotlights 

Award for Excellence

Congratulations to Dr Abdullah Al Mamun who was given the CPA Illawarra’s President’s Award for Achievement in Academia! Dr Al Mamun has been very proactive in ensuring our students are aware of relevant professional activities which enable them to network and progress their careers.

'Find Your Research Passion’ Workshops

The marketing discipline has begun their ‘Find Your Research Passion’ workshops, which are designed to help participants identify their research passions, develop a clear research direction and how to channel that passion into a compelling research proposal. The workshop covers key topics such as identifying research gaps and opportunities, developing research questions, choosing appropriate research methods, and designing a feasible research plan. Ultimately the research workshops aim to lead to more focused and productive research (including obtaining commercial research and grants), as well as greater job satisfaction and career fulfillment. Additionally, since workshops are run in clusters of 3-5 participants, they provide a supportive environment where staff can connect, fostering a sense of community and support that can last long after the workshops have ended.

Seminar: Why should we care about researching practice?

On 27 March, Professor Stephen Kemmis, Professor Emeritus of Federation University and of Charles Sturt University, Australia led a seminar, co-hosted by Dr Oriana Price, aimed at inspiring researchers and students to reflect on how people can and do transform the world through transforming their practices and the practice architectures that shape them. Practice-based research, with a focus on the Theory of Practice Architectures (TPA), was discussed as a theoretical approach to investigate, understand and transform practice. Insights and examples about how TPA may be applied to field work and analysis in various contexts were presented, followed by a Q&A session. Participants were highly engaged in this very timely seminar.

 Welcoming new colleagues!

• Dr Omar Al Manaseer
• Dr Mike Dinh
• Ryan Dizon
• Dr Md Afnan Hossein
• Dr Gayithri Kuruppu
• Brendan Lyon
• Ha Nguyen
• Mustafa Muhammadu Theseem
• Dr Hui-Ling Wang
• Dr Sarah Wang

We look forward to seeing all of you on campus!

 Farewelling Faculty members 

Sincere thanks to colleagues who have left UOW in late 2022/early 2023. We thank the following for their service to the School, Faculty and University and wish them well in their future endeavours:

• Mrs Margaret Brown
• Dr Siliva Mendolia
• Dr Sue Slowikowski
• Dr Steve Tulig
• Dr Marco Amaral Féris

We were deeply saddened by the sudden death of our highly regarded colleague, Dr Kankesu Jayanthakumaran. A tribute will follow in a later newsletter.

Alumni highlights

A leader in financial analysis

Ding Guisheng holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and international trade and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Wollongong. He is committed to innovative research into financial analysis. One of his most important recent achievements is the Investment Risk Prediction System Based on Random Forest and LSTM Model V1.0 which predicts the risk with investor portfolios and valuates future risk of these portfolios. The model resolves issues of poor reliability and low accuracy of investment portfolios and assists with decision making. Having won the 2021 Outstanding Inventions in Science and Technology Innovation in the Financial Analysis Industry and the Pioneers of Science and Technology Innovation in Financial Analysis Industry in the “14th Five-Year Plan” issued by the Chinese Scientists Forum, Ding Guisheng has become one of the most influential leaders in the Chinese finance industry.

 UOW alumna appointed as Scalare Partners CEO

Carolyn Breeze, a UOW Business/Commerce and Marketing graduate, has been appointed as CEO of Scalare Partners, a company which helps start-ups succeed by connecting them with investors and high calibre advisers. With over 20 years of experience in telecommunications, technology, eCommerce, and fintech, she has received numerous accolades for her work, including CEO Magazine's IT and Telecommunications Executive of the Year in 2018, Business Insider's top 21 Women in Fintech, and the Advocate for Women award at the 2019 Woman in Payments Symposium. Most recently, Carolyn was recognized as Fintech Leader of the Year at the 2021 Woman in Finance Awards Prior to her successful engagement as CEO of Scalare Partners, she was Chief Commercial Officer at Zepto. She had also held many senior positions at GoCardless, PayPal, Braintree and eBay. She is passionate about empowering organisations to drive inclusion and equality through technology and accessibility.

School of Business: Vision and mission