David Gonski, chancellor of the University of New South Wales, sees his leadership strength as an ability to bring people together. But he notes that different people have different leadership skills and different qualities are needed at different times. Although his career has taken him to the pinnacle of business and to key roles for government and cultural organisations, Gonski has never lost sight of the need for personal modesty and respect for others. Or, as it emerges in this...

New research from the Australian School of Business reveals a clear link between flexible work practices and better business results. The study, led by associate professor Julie Cogin, establishes incentives to deploy work-family support (WFS) programs as a source of competitive advantage, particularly to enhance customer-related outcomes. But the business case for WFS demands a genuine engagement with the concept in a receptive corporate culture. A high masculine orientation among...

Australia's federal Opposition intends to repeal carbon pricing laws if it wins this year's election. Yet, when it last held power in 2007, it introduced legislation requiring sizeable polluters to disclose the level of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Affected organisations have increasingly sought to verify their emissions figures and energy data, creating a niche market in GHG assurance. It's a field that's growing globally. So how is a quality provider selected? Researchers...

David Gonski, chancellor of the University of New South Wales, sees his leadership strength as an ability to bring people together. But he notes that different people have different leadership skills and different qualities are needed at different times. Although his career has taken him to the pinnacle of business and to key roles for government and cultural organisations, Gonski has never lost sight of the need for personal modesty and respect for others. Or, as it emerges in this...

Global growth in e-commerce is impressive, particularly in Asian countries where online shopping figures can astound. On a single day in 2012, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com rang up more than US$3 billion in sales. This year, China's e-commerce market is expected to become the world's largest. Felix Tan, from the Australian School of Business, says developed nations can learn from this striking success. Chinese e-commerce operators take a holistic view of business and gain an...

Climate change is a complex problem. Even bright minds become confused when simultaneously presented with consequences that are potentially catastrophic and the feeling that there’s nothing they can do about it. But there are ways of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it's how we think about global warming that seems to be impeding action. John Sterman, a professor of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael J. Crouch Visiting Professor at the...

According to Alana Maurushat from the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of New South Wales, computers are the weapon of choice for industrial espionage and hacking incidents are more widespread than reported. The European Commission estimates the worldwide damage to business from cyber crime at US$1 trillion annually. Governments across the globe are stepping up efforts to strengthen cyber security, but will it be enough? Maurushat urges increased public awareness,...

Climate change is a complex problem. Even bright minds become confused when simultaneously presented with consequences that are potentially catastrophic and the feeling that there’s nothing they can do about it. But there are ways of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and it's how we think about global warming that seems to be impeding action. John Sterman, a professor of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael J. Crouch Visiting Professor at the...

With trends that seem counter-intuitive, predicting the take-up of private health insurance can be tricky. People with private insurance are less likely to be in poor health and have fewer long-term health conditions than those who rely on the public system. But there are methods for modelling choice behaviours and policy-makers would do well to employ them, argues Michael Keane, an economics professor at the Australian School of Business. Attempts to control hospital waiting times...

In a study of particular relevance to managers, Andreas Ortmann, a professor of experimental and behavioural economics at the Australian School of Business, has found that people at the lower end of the competence spectrum in any environment tend to over-estimate their talents in comparison to those around them. They are over-confident and unaware of it, a potentially disastrous combination in team leaders. But Ortmann says that with the right feedback, all but the least competent...

The collapse of a number of financial planning firms in recent years has dented consumer confidence in financial advisers, but changes are afoot. The government has tackled conflicts of interest with its Future of Financial Advice reforms and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has proposed a national exam as an industry qualification. Moves to lift educational requirements for financial planners had already been signalled by the industry. This year, the Australian School of...

The sustainability of an organisation, particularly in times of economic turmoil, is often seen as directly related to its ability to innovate and implement change. But how organisations perceive and react to failure – their failure orientation – is also integral to ongoing viability. According to Australian School of Business associate professor Gavin Schwarz, firms that recognise failure as a stabilising force and as a legitimate aspect of organisational survival will find this...

The global popularity of mobile phones is being harnessed in the delivery of healthcare services (mHealth) to remote locations with scarce resources. In Bangladesh, mHealth is used for communicating with patients and doctors, delivering expert advice, collecting information in public health campaigns, even self-testing by patients. Pradeep Ray, a professor of information technology at the Australian School of Business, says Bangladesh is leading the world in providing mHealth-based...

The collapse of a number of financial planning firms in recent years has dented consumer confidence in financial advisers, but changes are afoot. The government has tackled conflicts of interest with its Future of Financial Advice reforms and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has proposed a national exam as an industry qualification. Moves to lift educational requirements for financial planners had already been signalled by the industry. This year, the Australian...

According to Larry Dwyer from the Australian School of Business, the recent lean years for Australian tourism can be seen as Dutch Disease, a term coined during the 1970s when the discovery of gas deposits in The Netherlands led to an appreciation of the domestic currency at the expense of other local industries. Growth is returning to Australian tourism with more visitors coming from China than from the traditional market of Britain and resumed interest from the US. But Dwyer notes...

Dan Levinthal is a professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Michael Crouch Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Australian School of Business where he will be giving a series of talks on innovation and the experimenting organisation. Levinthal says that companies seeking to foster new possibilities need a mix of discipline and some element of tolerance for at least partial failure. It is about balancing exploration and exploitation....

With declining revenues and competition from online resources and social media, traditional newspapers and even digital news sites are in transition, according to new research from the Australian School of Business. The forms that news sources will take in the future is as yet unknown, but the ability to track user trends online will certainly shape their evolution and the survival of conventional newspapers is not assured. Local papers and specialist sites are expected to survive, but ...

Dan Levinthal is a professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Michael Crouch Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Australian School of Business where he will be giving a series of talks on innovation and the experimenting organisation. Levinthal says that companies seeking to foster new possibilities need a mix of discipline and some element of tolerance for at least partial failure. It is about balancing exploration and exploitation....

What does it take to be innovative in a changing global economy? That was a key question posed at the 35th-anniversary conference of the Australian Graduate School of Management. A highlight of the conference was three business leaders – Gerhard Vorster, chief strategy officer at Deloitte Australia and Asia Pacific; Andrew Stevens, managing director of IBM Australia and New Zealand; and George Frazis, CEO of St George Banking Group - sharing their insights into embracing the challenges...

The Australian government plans to link its fixed-priced system for tackling climate change to the emissions trading scheme (ETS) of the European Union (EU). Meanwhile, the Europeans are wondering whether a straight and predictable carbon tax such as Australia's would not have been more efficient for them in the first place. The EU's floating carbon price has fallen to levels where it's more profitable for some businesses to keep polluting than to invest in green technology and it's ...

What entrepreneur wouldn't dream of turning a single store into a thriving chain of outlets? Few succeed, but someone who has is Catherine Harris, chair of Harris Farm Markets. With her husband David as CEO, Catherine co-founded the business in 1972 with a small fruit and vegetable shop in the western Sydney suburb of Villawood. It has since grown into an operation with a chain of 22 stores and three butchers across the state of New South Wales and more than 1000 employees. Harris Farm...

Bold and creative maverick leaders tend to deliver great innovations and breakthroughs. At the same time, they are highly disruptive, disturbing to work for and, by nature, definitely not team players. In business, it seems we can’t live with them and can’t live without them, as many who encountered Apple founder, Steve Jobs, have attested. New research from the Australian School of Business delves into the personality traits and risk-taking behaviour of mavericks and finds the case for...

Corporate risk management has traditionally focused on mitigating the impact of external factors over which a company has no control. But what about internal factors? Australian School of Business professor Lex Donaldson has developed Organisational Portfolio Analysis (OPA), a new approach that identifies the risks within a company's individual business units and reveals how their fluctuations interact with overall company risk and performance. OPA can deliver fresh insights into the...

What entrepreneur wouldn't dream of turning a single store into a thriving chain of outlets? Few succeed, but someone who has is Catherine Harris, chair of Harris Farm Markets. With her husband David as CEO, Catherine co-founded the business in 1972 with a small fruit and vegetable shop in the western Sydney suburb of Villawood. It has since grown into an operation with a chain of 22 stores and three butchers across the state of New South Wales and more than 1000 employees. Harris Farm...

The hundreds of festivals staged in Australia every year generate significant revenue, not just for organisers and performers, but for the wider economy. They also play an important cultural role in bringing communities together. Discovering how successful festivals work and ways the experience can be improved - and with that profits - has become an exercise for academic minds. Australian School of Business lecturer Jenny (Jiyeon) Lee has been researching crowd loyalty and says that...