Exchange | Home
Spring 2016
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Research is giving a voice to Australians living on the streets, in shelters, couch-surfing and in other forms of unstable housing. And, it’s busting some serious myths.
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The HILDA Survey has revealed some startling trends affecting the health and well-being of Australians.
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From building a tax evasion case against prohibition gangster Al Capone in the 1920s, verifying former American football player O.J Simpson's net worth in the late 1990s, to English singer-songwriter Sir Paul McCartney's divorce settlement and the highly publicised Enron scandal in 2001, the people and teams uncovering these acts of financial misconduct by "white collar" criminals are known as Forensic Accountants.
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Economic wellbeing is no longer improving and household wealth has remained static, according to the latest HILDA stat report.
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Remaking a cult classic — a marketing dream or the rocky road to mediocrity?
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There is increasing use of opt-in regulation to encourage environmental protection at minimal cost to economic growth, particularly in developing countries. But, how do we determine which programs are effective? Are carbon credits more than hot air?
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Fintech companies, usually start-ups, bypass cumbersome bureaucracies to provide seamless real-time links between consumers and service providers.
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Effective climate change policy gives investors and business the confidence to invest.
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Since last issue of Exchange, the Centre for Workplace Leadership released the initial findings of its major research project, the Study of Australian Leadership (SAL).
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“One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination.” — John C. Maxwell
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If you’re not thinking mobile-first at a minimum; you’re not future-thinking for your business
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...unless you live in Melbourne, according to Bachelor of Commerce student Jake Edwards.
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A new app focused on preventative health interventions takes on osteoarthritis.
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The face of global economy is fast changing; change in China is causing a ripple effect across the oceans.
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Consumption and tax revenue in a legalised environment
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In an increasingly competitive start-up environment, how do you set yourself up for success?
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Autumn 2016
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A unique collaboration between scientists and accountants will help business go green.
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The only uncertainty surrounding an impending recession in Australia is when it will happen. How we prepare now will map the future of our economic sustainability.
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University meets industry in a partnership to identify and accelerate future leaders.
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New research supports the use of school-based intervention programs to reduce delinquency among teenage boys, decreasing their propensity to choose crime as an alternative career path to education.
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Women’s human potential is being tapped on the cheap, or in the developing world simply denied as they come second in the fight for education.
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Australia has a long way to go before all employees are equally able to follow career and family goals.
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It has been argued that the ‘pink for girls, trucks for boys’ toy sloganeers reinforce gender stereotypes and inequality, and can ultimately contribute to issues as serious as domestic violence. Cordelia Fine finds out what the research tells us.
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Melbourne Foundation for Business and Economics Dinner 2016.
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Textbook theory meets real-world business problems in the Australian Undergraduate Business Case Competition (AUBCC). Bachelor of Commerce student, Laura Foo was at the most recent event, held in Sydney, to watch problems tackled, leadership lessons learned, and global networks hatched.
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Powerful CEOs can manipulate performance targets to undermine corporate reforms designed to rein in excessive CEO compensation.
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The 2015 Outlook conference delivered thought-provoking debate on the key issues facing Australia today.
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Social media has blurred the already fine line between work and personal lives. In an ‘always on’ world is privacy a thing of the past?
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The largest survey of Australian business leadership in 20 years reveals that only 57 per cent of workplaces are achieving their profit targets. The Study of Australian Leadership (SAL) also found that executive managers are over-confident in their leadership ability.
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Can a medical treatment affect the lives of people who do not have the disease? Research on the indirect effects of AIDS treatment in Malawi suggests that this is the case.
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Managing and developing human resources is pivotal to the success of any modern organisation, and its development as an industry in its own right is increasingly acknowledged by local and global players alike. So if HR has such a prominent role to play, how should those pursuing a career in the sector prepare? I interview three of our alumni to find out more.
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The market has always had lit and dark elements, which serve equally important and valuable roles, but technology has changed how the two interact.
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Complex, fractured, expensive... but micro-economic changes to our health system could boost value and save lives.
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With ever-growing numbers of Australians locked out of the housing market, research identifies three key factors that determine housing affordability. But what can we do about it?
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The University of Melbourne’s new online corporate finance specialisation overcomes geographical, social and economic barriers to make quality business school education available to everyone.
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Spring 2015
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From flap-back sunhats to world-changing sombreros came an innovative travel business looking to save the planet one trip at a time.
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Recent advances in information technology are expected to transform electricity markets worldwide, and research from the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne suggests customers who are informed about their energy use can save up to $50 on their electricity bill. This translates to a reduction of 212.40kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air per household each year.
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Australia's largest household survey has revealed that the circumstances in which we grow up significantly impact our future income and wealth potential. Our parents' educational attainment and occupation, family makeup, and the age at which we move out of the family home—as well as immigrant status and age of migration—are key indicators of future income and wealth potential.
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The world of investment banking may seem foreign, even forbidding, to outsiders. Yet it is highly attractive to Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) graduates like Rannia Al-Salihi, and many alumni like Wayne Kent and Matt Wilson have built highly successful careers in the field. I speak with them to find out more about about the path that led them to investment banking, an industry that seems to require endless perseverance, long hours, and talent beyond measure. All three agree that mentoring and being mentored, multi-disciplinary talent, and an aptitude for client service are vital in this intensive yet highly rewarding field.
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Tax concessions
for small businessIn its May 2015 budget, the Commonwealth Government announced a number of tax concessions for small business. On the assumption that many small business operators are swing voters, the concessions were judged politically attractive, with bipartisan support. However, for an economy struggling to boost lagging productivity, tax concessions that drive employment and investment for just one segment of the business sector will result in significant costs to the Australian economy.
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Traversing disciplinary boundaries to advance our understanding of financial decision making.
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Financial literacy levels in Australia are relatively low, yet Australians are increasingly forced to take more responsibility for their financial futures, in particular planning for retirement. Ongoing research is attempting to determine the best way to improve financial decision-making and long term behavioural outcomes. One promising avenue is early intervention to improve awareness and understanding of financial matters among young people, aimed at bringing about sustained behavioural change.
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As homelessness in Australia continues to rise, long term intervention strategies are required to combat the consistent churning in and out of homelessness that many front line organisations regard as one of their biggest challenges.
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The Melbourne Institute is actively engaged in partnerships to address such issues and concerns as those raised in Journeys Home. Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI) is a pilot programme designed by the Sacred Heart Mission to provide intensive support to break the cycle of chronic homelessness.
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Running a business and being your own boss sounds great but the road to success can be rocky. In the increasingly crowded world of business start-ups, how can budding entrepreneurs make themselves stand out from the crowd and achieve bottom line results?
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Melbourne has a thriving entrepreneurial community, with a powerful combination of scientific research, high tech design and manufacturing, and innovative thinkers. Australia’s newest and most advanced entrepreneurship training, located at the centre of Parkville’s investigative hub, builds on this long ingrained pedigree.
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“I won’t ever forget the agony of waiting for the first sale—it was excruciating,” says Founding Director of redballoon.com.au and Shark on Network TEN’s business reality program, Shark Tank Australia, Naomi Simson.
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The future of work is a major strategic issue facing governments, corporations and communities. Developments are occurring at a rapid pace, and are far reaching. Automation and intuitive technologies are making many jobs and occupations that have been around for years obsolete, and creating new jobs that just a few years ago seemed alien, as well as transforming many existing jobs in unexpected ways. Technology presents amazing possibilities to free us from the drudgery of repetitive work tasks and challenges our perceptions of skilled and meaningful work. It is both exciting and scary.
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In 1995 the Karpin Report delivered comprehensive insight into Australia's workplace leadership and provided recommendations on how to best develop business leaders. The report recognised the need for a robust 'enterprise culture' and spoke of 'leadership competencies' beyond traditional management. Twenty years on, how are we going?
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Diversity has become the new buzz word in business, but what does it really mean? Dr Jesse Olsen from the Centre for Workplace Leadership argues that there are significant differences in how organisations realise and manage diversity, and not all approaches are founded in fairness and equality.
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Only during wartime has government debt in advanced economies been at a higher level than it is today. Seven years after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) many advanced economies have barely begun to recover, particularly in Europe where many countries are still dealing with high unemployment, deflationary tendencies and debt overhang. The favourable global environment has taken a turn for the worse, as commodity prices have declined and the strengthening US dollar has raised debt servicing burdens for many emerging markets. Thought leader in international macroeconomics and Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Finance System at Harvard Kennedy School, Professor Carmen Reinhart mapped the challenges for advanced and emerging markets towards global economic recovery in the 2015 David Finch Lecture at the University of Melbourne.
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With a growing population, projected to top 36 million by 2050, and one of the most expensive property markets in the world, is Australia in the midst of a housing affordability crisis?
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The Family BusinessAnywhere in the world, small and family business predominates, at least numerically. For all their limitations, families have always been the most reliable basis for pooling and managing capital in societies where property rights are insecure and/or bank finance difficult to secure. Only within the last 100 years have limited liability public companies taken over the commanding heights of Westernised economies.
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For some, referring to the family’s bread and butter is merely a turn of phrase, but for Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) alumna Wendy Yap, the meaning is literal. Taking the helm of her family’s US based real estate business at the tender age of 20, she met the challenge head on, fully aware that her lineage did not equate to guaranteed success. This persistence for continued innovation and drive, combined with practical experience and formal education, has underpinned the powerful businesswoman’s enduring success. Rising to the economic challenges of the nineties and the needs of the nation, Yap went on to create a household name in Sari Roti—PT Nippon Indosari Corpindo Tbk (sariroti.com)—now the largest massmarket producer of Japanese-style breads in Asia, excluding Japan.
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In the eight years after 2003, global prices, in real terms, for most energy and metals commodities and for some agricultural commodities, rose to their highest levels ever. Indonesian exports in inflation-adjusted US dollars more than quadrupled in value between 2003 and 2011 and the share of commodities in total exports rose from 52% to 68%. Indonesian average incomes grew strongly for a while, without a sustained focus on policies supporting economic growth.
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When will your next post go viral—or will it never?
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Many of us will have started taking first steps towards networking while at university, through social clubs and classroom projects. Often, these friendships endure and we find ourselves catching up with an old university mate at the odd social or business function.
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Melbourne Business Leaders raise $500,000 for EntrepreneurshipAlumni, friends, and strong community and industry partnerships play essential roles in helping us shape tomorrow’s leaders and contribute to the social and economic fabric of Australia and the region.
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Welcome to the first edition of the new magazine from the Faculty of Business and Economics – EXCHANGE. We are moving into an exciting phase of growth and development focused on enhancing our applied research outcomes, expanding our curriculum, and bolstering our connections with industry.
EXCHANGE presents important advances in research, teaching and practice at the Faculty, as well as expert commentary on pressing societal and economic issues, and profiles the alumni that are shaping the world of business and economics.
In this first issue we investigate corporate social responsibility in practice and our experts analyse the government's tax concession scheme for small business and the impact of Indonesia's resources boom. David Byrne and Leslie Martin explore how customers are saving money and the environment using smart meter data, and we investigate advances in teaching to improve financial literacy. Our cover story profiles ground-breaking research at the forefront of decision neuroscience; crossing disciplinary boundaries to shed new light of how we make financial decisions.
The Melbourne Institute has been powering economic and social insight for Australia for over fifty years. Here we profile new findings from the Institute on income, wellbeing and happiness in Australia, and explore how research can help end the cycle of homelessness.
The Centre of Workplace Leadership was established to advance management practices and workplaces. Peter Gahan explores what it will take to lead the future of work, and we consider the role of leadership and diversity management in creating positive workplaces.
Howard Dick analyses the tradition of Asian Family Business and we speak to Wendy Yap about her experience at the helm of Sari Roti, which she has grown to capture 90% of the bread market in Asia, excluding Japan.
As we prepare to launch our new Master of Entrepreneurship, we ask some successful alumni entrepreneurs for their top tips to make it in the world of start-up business.
- Professor Paul Kofman
Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics
Sidney Myer Chair of Commerce
- Professor Zeger Degraeve
Dean, Faculty of Business and Economics
Dean, Melbourne Business School