Academic in Focus 

BNHCRC grant awarded to improve the Retention and Engagement of Volunteers in Emergency Service Agencies

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Jones for winning a Grant from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC (BNHCRC) for a project worth $1.07 million. The Project is titled “Improving the Retention and Engagement of Volunteers in Emergency Service Agencies” and co-researched with Associate Professor Andrew Sense from the University of Wollongong and Mr David Rae from the NSW State Emergency Service.

The Australian Government announced a new Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC) will be established from 1 July 2013 the mission is to build on the work of the existing Bushfire CRC and expand research efforts into other natural hazards. Vital research to support the development of cohesive, evidence-based policies, strategies and tools to build a disaster resilient Australia will be undertaken by The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.

The CRC will use funding to provide a long-term research base that directly supports our emergency services as they work to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.

It is the aim of this project to provide grounded research that will guide emergency organisations in their management of volunteers, so that they are better able to maintain and sustain optimal levels of support and care to their communities. Given challenging operating environments and declining volunteer participation, research of this nature is both timely and essential.

Outcomes of this three-year research project will address four core volunteer issues:

1. Volunteer Retention beyond the initial training period will result in a more even distribution of training resources to meet a larger variety of training needs.
2. Increases in skills acquisition will lead to more effective emergency management and response.
3. A larger volunteer core will result in more even task distribution, permitting a better work-life balance, and reducing obligation-driven task allocation for qualified volunteers.
4. Higher retention will increase return on investment, relieving budgetary constraints, and returning value to the community.

Dr Melanie Randle named 2012 ANZMAC Emerging Researcher of the Year

Congratulations to IIBSoR's Dr Melanie Randle who has been awarded the 2012 ANZMAC Emerging Researcher of the Year Award by the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC). This is an annual award for an early career researcher judged to have made the most significant contribution to knowledge in marketing through research of high standing.

Melanie is an incredibly deserving winner of this award. She has a strong publication track record and her research has had real impact in industry (benefitting foster care organisations who do not have the resources for an R&D department).

Melanie is a competent and supportive HDR supervisor, she works well in teams with colleagues from within her discipline, colleagues from other disciplines and industry partners. And she is the first ever recipient of an ARC DECRA fellowship in marketing.

Well done, Melanie!

ARC grant success for Commerce academic

Congratulations to Prof. Tim Coltman and his IIBSoR colleauge, A/Prof. Rajeev Sharma, on their success in the 2013 Discovery Project round.

Their project "Do intentions predict health-related behaviours? Implications of method bias for the design of public health promotion programs" will receive funding of $392,068 over the next three years.

Each year millions of dollars are expended on public health initiatives to encourage healthier lifestyle behaviours, such as diet, exercise, smoking and sun-protection. This project will investigate the cumulative empirical evidence to evaluate the validity of the theories that purport to explain why people behave the way they do.

Academic's monopoly research interest sparks international media coverage

George Mickhail from the School of Accounting and Finance was recently interviewed by an international business daily newspaper from Egypt called "Alalam Alyoum" (or The World Today), and the interview was published in Egypt on Monday 10 September 2012. The interview was based on George's recent analysis of the big 4 audit firms global monopoly and in particular bank audits monopoly in Egypt.

George called for regulatory reforms to the supervisory role of the Central Bank in Egypt given its questionable role in "allotting" bank audits to the same "select few" audit firms for many years. It is clear that there is a need to reform the financial sector from the remnants of the corrupt Mubarak regime, which is a priority for the new Egyptian government and a step in the right direction towards a more equitable redistribution of wealth in a country that suffered from crony capitalism for the last 30 years.

The research is part of ongoing research collaboration with the accounting profession in Egypt and the Middle East.

Innovative researcher awarded outstanding awards

Congratulations to IIBSoR's Professor John Rossiter on receiving yet another award for his innovative theory of social science measurement. The European Journal of Marketing recently announced its 2012 Awards for Excellence, with Prof Rossiter's paper "Marketing measurement revolution: the C-OAR-SE method and why it must replace psychometrics" winning the Outstanding Paper Award for 2011.

For more information click here.

In the paper highly content-valid measures are absolutely necessary for proper tests of theories and hypotheses, and for obtaining trustworthy findings in marketing. New measures in marketing are created by using a psychometric approach based on Churchill’s “scale development” procedure, and Prof Rossiter's paper aims to compare and contrast Churchill’s procedure with his own content-validity approach to measurement, called C-OAR-SE.

John was also recently awarded the “2012 Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact”, given annually to papers published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM) that have made long term impact on the field of marketing. Prof. Rossiter’s paper, "The C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development in marketing" was published in the journal in 2002. The award is assessed by an international panel of experts and is based mainly on citations during the 10 years following publication.

The School of Accounting and Finance gains a new a well-known international scholar in critical accounting and moral philosophy as accounting staff member

The School of Accounting and Finance has a new accounting staff member, Professor Ed Arrington from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Professor Arrington is a well-known international scholar in critical accounting and moral philosophy. He is currently serves on the editorial boards of several top ranked journals in his field including Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Accounting Forum, and the Journal of Asia-Pacific Business.

He has a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in psychology from The University of Southern Mississippi in 1972, he received his Master of Arts with a major in American Literature from The University of Southern Mississippi in 1974 and his Doctor of Business Administration with a major in accounting and a minor in cognitive psychology from The Florida State University in 1980.

Prof. Arrington’s academic appointments include Professor and Chair of Accounting at the University of Strathclyde; Professor of Accounting at Louisiana State University; Associate Professor of Accounting at The University of Iowa; Associate Professor of Accounting at Florida State University; and Assistant Professor of Accounting, Arizona State University. Prof. Arrington’s interests are in critical social theory and its relation to accounting and organizations as well as theories of language in the context of commerce and culture, and will bring a wealth of expertise in research to the School, Faculty and university.

New Doctor wins Medal of Research on Development

Congratulations to Dr Zhiming Cheng from the School of Economics for being awarded the Medal of Research on Development (with a prize of $10,000) in the theme of 'Urban Externalities (Contagious Disease, Congestion and Crime) and Urban Poverty' for his paper titled ‘Layoffs and Urban Poverty in the State-owned Enterprise Communities in Shaanxi Province, China’. Dr Cheng presented his paper at the GDN 13th Annual Global Development Conference at Central European University, Budapest where he won first prize in the category.

The Global Development Awards and Medals Competition (AMC) is a unique competition for promoting research on development and scaling up innovative projects. Launched in 2000 with the support of the Government of Japan, this competition seeks to unearth new talent and support innovative ideas on development. Nearly 7,200 researchers representing more than 100 countries throughout the developing and transition world have applied for this competition to date. The competition received 800 submissions in 2011.

Hosted by GDN, the 13th Annual Global Development Conference was held in Budapest, Hungary on 16-18 June, 2012 and titled ‘Urbanization and Development: Delving Deeper into the Nexus’. With 350 participants from all over the world, the conference was an opportunity for the exchange of ideas on the important topic with internationally renowned researchers, representatives of national and international organizations and sponsors of research.

Dr Cheng’s paper analyses the perception and hardship suffered by the urban Chinese and looks to find effective policies that would pull back people to their communities. It specifically examines urban poverty in China’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) communities where there exists a large concentration of laid- off workers. Dr. Cheng strongly implies that the official Minimum Living Standard Scheme (MLSS) as a monetary measure of wellbeing has not yet been able to provide sufficient support for the poor, as a subjective poverty line approach shows that the MLSS undermines the needs of poor households.