Research Activity

Retirement Savings Decisions of Australian Workers: A Long-term Study of Public Sector and Industry Fund Members

Associate Professor Marilyn Clark-Murphy and Dr Paul Gerrans (Dr Craig Speelman, ECU - CSESS)
ECU Industry Collaboration

As the population ages, demands on government to fund retirement incomes increases. As the government attempts to increase individuals’ responsibility for their retirement savings, many individuals are becoming more disengaged from the process. This project aims to discover the factors underlying individuals’ investment choices and will assist in educating employees about investment options. The research team is working with UniSuper, Superannuation Trust of Australia, Government Employees Superannuation Board of WA and Health Employees Superannuation Trust of Australia to investigate the choices made and the factors which influence these decisions. The team has access to data for over 1 million Australian employees across a very broad range of industries and job classifications.

Modelling Stock Market Liquidity in Australia and Asia Pacific

Professor David Allen (Professor Michael McAleer UWA, Dr Shelton Peiris University of Sydney)
ARC Linkage

Undertaken in conjunction with the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia-Pacific, this project involves extensive investigation of the impact of trading on market prices in Australian and Asian markets using high frequency real time transaction data and the recently developed Autoregressive Conditional Duration Model. A major concern for investors trading in the securities market is whether the process of trading serves to move prices against them – in effect buying could potentially increase prices whilst selling could potentially decrease prices. This project aims to investigate the mechanics of the determination of security price formation, and shed light on key issues such as the factors determining the behaviour of prices and the incorporation of new information into prices. The project could have practical importance to all stock market investors as a clearer understanding of how the price impact of a trade varies according to time of day and market conditions will give them a clearer indication of the optimum time and conditions under which to trade.

Extending Leadership and Learning: Improving the effectiveness of new learning technology for culture change and improved regional business performance

Dr Llandis Barratt-Pugh
ARC Linkage

Working with BankWest, this project aims to address the challenge faced by businesses in regard to developing leadership capabilities through new learning technologies, especially those businesses that have operations that cross interstate or international boundaries. The project investigates how to maximize the effectiveness of new technology in training and learning with specific emphasis on cultural change interventions to improve business effectiveness in remote locations.

Smart Training in Small Business: An Older Person’s Perspective

Dr Beverley Webster, Professor Beth Walker, Julia Turner.
ECU Industry Collaboration

The Australian population is ageing and a current government strategy is to minimize the economic impact of the retirement of a significant number of baby boomers by encouraging older workers to stay in the mainstream workforce longer. Flexible work arrangements may not be available to this sector of the workforce, one alternative is self employment, especially in one of the many new service related industries. The survival and growth of small business is more likely to occur where owners have a strong managerial skill set or have participated in skills development and training. This project aims to develop a framework of training needs for older small business owners and establish how these differ from other sectors of the business population.

Smart Business Incubators: The Australian Context and the Development of a Best Practice Model to Assist Business Services

Professor Janice Burn, Professor Beth Walker, Dr Beverley Webster
ECU Industry Collaboration

Approximately 96% of business in Australia are Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s), which contribute to approximately 30% of GDP and have created 70% of employment growth over the past 10 years.”Business incubators should be facilitating the creation and growth of start-up companies and should also be evaluated in terms of the economic outcomes. New business creation is a key factor in the economic and social factors of all economies, especially at the local level where businesses have the ability to create new jobs and open the way to new innovation and enterprise underpinning the transition to a knowledge economy. This project, in conjunction with the newly established Joondalup Business Incubator, aims to develop benchmarks to assess business incubators as successful in facilitating business development and growth, including setting criteria for selecting business incubator tenants, selecting managers, graduating tenants and providing services during incubation.

Collaborative Commerce for SMEs in Regional Knowledge Networks

Professor Janice Burn, Professor Craig Standing, Professor Beth Walker, Dr Shirley Bode.
ARC Linkage

This project focuses on C-Commerce (collaborative commerce) for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The project is supported by the Cities of Wanneroo, Swan and the South West Metropolitan Region, covering approximately 15,000 SMEs in both rural and metropolitan areas. The project aims to discover the drivers for SMEs to adopt C-Commerce, how SMEs can gain value from knowledge networks, and the strategies that will be effective for future entrepreneurship and innovation in ccommerce for SMEs.