May Publication News

• Victoria Law School's David Parker, Andrew Clarke, Angelo Veljanovski and Marc Posthouwer have had a book published : 'Law Principles and Practice - Corporate Law' (Palgrave MacMillan)
• Brianna Newland (School of International Business) has, together with Pamm Kellett (Deakin University) an article published in this month's edition of Managing Leisure magazine, titled 'Exploring new models of elite sport delivery: the case of triathlon in the USA and Australia'
• Can virtual classrooms work? How do teachers and students experience an online learning environment? These are the kind of questions examined by School of Accounting and Finance Researcher Kathy Michael in a recently published paper, Virtual Classroom: Reflection of Online Learning. Kathy investigated a pilot trial of the e-learning program Elluminate Live! in five units at VU, with the aim of gauging students and teachers' experiences of the interactive online system.
• Dr Nick Sciulli, from the School of Accounting and Finance, has collaborated with Dr. Giulio Greco and Professor Giuseppe D’Onza from Italy's University of Pisa to investigate what motivates Victorian and Tuscan local councils to introduce sustainability reporting. While not legally required to do so, many councils in both Victoria and Tuscany produce sustainability reports voluntarily, either as discrete documents or incorporated into annual reports. Read more on Local Council Sustainability Reporting: Victoria versus Tuscany at the VU website

Accounting, Finance and Investment Student Society Q&A

Students at the AFISS Q&A chat with a presenter at the event

The Accounting, Finance and Investment Student Society (AFISS) hosted an industry Q&A night for their members earlier this month, and the evening was a great success. The 50 plus students in attendance gained valuable insights into the day-to-day dealings of professionals in the Accounting and Finance industries, and heard first-hand what employers are looking for in graduates.

Attendees learnt from the business leaders things such as the hardest interview questions they like to ask, the skills in which they look for when they hire and other valuable hints which indeed was of great value for us students in daunting times ahead. The guest speakers included an Executive Manager from CBA, a Planner and Development Coach from AMP and the CFO of Next Digital.

AFISS will be holding more events in the same vein next semester. If you are a professional in the Accounting and Finance industry and would like speak at a future event, please contact Katherine Pham at AFISS@students.vu.edu.au

VU Academic takes a role on the International stage

The School of Management and Information Systems' Dr Colin Higgins has been elected to the executive of the International Association of Business & Society (IABS). IABS is the largest group of business and society academics in the world.
IABS publishes the ‘Business & Society’ journal and has over 300 members in over 20 countries from more than 100 universities.
Dr Higgins will organise and host the IABS Annual Conference in Australia in 2014, and go on to become the President of IABS in 2015. This is the first time the Presidency and annual conference will be outside the USA and Europe.

VU shines at CIMA Global Challenge

L-R: Jenni Truong, Elaine Bie, Head of School Russell Craig,
Mentor Dr Jayce Naidoo, Rafael Paguio, Cathy Gong, Nancy Jiafan

CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is the world’s largest professional body of management accountants. Four VU students participated in this year's 'CIMA global business challenge' competition. Participants prepare and present relevant, well considered recommendations and solutions to a fictitious business scenario.

The VU team were made up of Jenni Truong(Team leader), Cathy Gong, Nancy Jiafan and Elaine Bie, with Dr. Jayce Naidoo their mentor. It was a great opportunity for the students to showcase their talents in business management, and they excelled in the challenge of the competition.

The first round involves several teams from universities from all over Australia competing to reach the top four. The four teams then compete at the national finals, where the winning team is sent to represent Australia at the international finals in Sri Lanka.

Although our students did not qualify, they submitted a very strong entry. We'd like to commend the VU team for their participation and dedication to the quality report submitted. They've done the School of Accounting and Finance, and VU, proud!

China’s best at Victoria Law School

A VU PhD student has been awarded for his academic and research achievements by the Chinese Government. The award, conferred by the China Scholarship Council, is to honour the academic merit and research achievements of Chinese students studying abroad. To be eligible for the award, the students must be enrolled in a PhD degree, be under the age of 40, at least in the second year of their study and not receiving any direct finance support from the Chinese government.

Yongqiang Li, a PhD student from Victoria Law School, is 2nd VU PhD studentto recieve the award since its inauguration of this award in 2003.

In 2011, supervised by Professor Anona Armstrong and Professor Andrew Clarke, I co-published a research report, 3 journal articles and more than a dozen conference papers, including one paper published in Economics Letters. Read more about Yongqiang Li's win at the VU website.

VU Staff are avid Conversationalists

The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector. It aims to provide a fact-based and editorially-independent forum, free of commercial or political bias. The Conversation has been widely reported in Australia and abroad, including articles in The Guardian, NYT, Harvard's Nieman Media Lab, Slashdot, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Times Higher Education Supplement. Read our staff contributions over at The Conversation

Management speak holds clues to deception

The language used by company CEOs and top-level management – particularly the tone and choice of words in financial reports – holds clues to possible deceptive conduct, according to research.

In a paper just published by the Journal of Business Ethics, Professor Russell Craig, Head of Victoria University's School of Accounting and Finance, and his colleagues Tony Mortensen (University of Canterbury) and Shefali Iyer (Deloitte, NZ), argue that reports and letters written by fraudulent company bosses contain distinctive linguistic tendencies. Read the rest of 'Management speak holds clues to deception' at the VU website

Banking on Climate Change

Banks should be made front and centre in government climate policy to promote corporate responsibility and encourage capital flow to alternative energy markets, according to research by a Victoria University academic.

Lecturer in Law and research associate to the Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Megan Bowman, said the banking industry made decisions with indirect climate consequences every day and was well placed to enroll other corporate actors in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts. Read the rest of this article at the VU Website.

Heritage, Sport, and Identity

Dr Leanne White (School of International Business) has published an article about one of Australia's greatest heritage and sporting moments. ‘Cathy Freeman and Australia’s Indigenous heritage: A new beginning for an old nation at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games’ and has been published in the International Journal of Heritage Studies.

The paper explores the interconnections between what was arguably Australia’s most significant sporting event (the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games), and Australia’s Indigenous culture and heritage. It also examines representations of heritage and identity at the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Games, and how these images were played out in wider discussions about the future of the Australian nation state.

As we count down the days until the 2012 Olympic Games in London, we may reflect on what was a significant moment for Australia. In many respects, the unique heritage and sporting moment examined in Leanne’s article suggestes a promising way in which Australia might be presented to the international community in the new millennium.

Emerald Literati Network 2012: Awards for Excellence

Two of our staff have received awards for excellence from the Emerald Literati Network. Every year Emerald invites each its journals' Editorial Teams to nominate what they believe has been that title’s Outstanding Paper and up to three Highly Commended Papers from the previous 12 months.

Dr Torgeir Watne (School of international Business) has had his article titled 'Children as Agents of Secondary Socialisation for their Parents', published in Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers, chosen as an Outstanding Paper Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012.

Professor Terrence Hallahan (School of Accounting and Finance)  has had his paper 'Women and Risk Tolerance in an Aging World', published in International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, chosen as a Highly Commended Award Winner.

Meet Our People - Helen Yang

Helen Yang

Helen Yang joined Victoria University in early 2007. Helen has brought to her role as an accounting academic, as an additional advantage, her knowledge of China, including: business and culture; education system; and language. Apart from her formal qualifications in accounting, Helen holds qualifications in education at master’s level. Helen has completed her CPA program with outstanding results for which she has received a number of awards. She is currently undertaking a PhD in accounting in which she is making strong progress.

Helen’s range of teaching experiences; teaching accounting in Australia and at Australian off-shore partner institutions in Asian-Pacific countries; as well as her previous teaching experience in China in cross cultural communication are relevant to her teaching and research activities. Helen teaches in the area of financial accounting. She consistently achieves positive overall student satisfaction ratings. As the Faculty's Offshore Program Coordinator in the Victoria University – Liaoning degree program since mid 2008, Helen has been further exposed to the issues of teaching and learning at offshore Chinese campuses. Helen’s teaching practice in delivering financial accounting to offshore Chinese students has been formally recognised by Victoria University as an exemplar in teaching and learning.

Helen’s research is focused on international accounting and corporate environmental reporting by Chinese companies, and transnational accounting education; an area which she has a number of international publications, and has been successful in a number external and internal research grants.

Read more about Helen’s recent publication, ‘Western concepts, Chinese context: A note on teaching accounting offshore’.

SIFE at VU - Making a Difference in the Community

Deepa Chand, President of VU's Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), gives us a report on their activities so far this year.

SIFE VU is a student organisation formed within the Faculty of Business and Law, part of the global SIFE network. SIFE’s mission is to empower the community through education. By joining SIFE, members develop skills and networks, and their affiliation with SIFE is positively acknowledged by employers.

With over fifty passionate and motivated members, and with the assistance of our amazing Faculty Advisors, CaAtherine Meredith and George Comodromos, SIFE VU is currently involved in delivering four projects:

1. Greening VU
   Greening VU is the biggest SIFE VU project. Greening VU focuses on reducing paper coffee cups and bottled water on VU campuses, thus reducing their carbon footprint. Initially concentrated on the Footscray Park campus, Greening VU will encourage the VU community to switch to environmentally friendly alternatives such as reusable water bottles, keep cups and water filters.
   The Greening VU team is made up of 18 keen and enthusiastic students who are currently working on research and marketing strategies, including a three-minute promotional video. The Greening VU team aims to have a pilot run of the project by the 2012 SIFE National Conference and Competition in July.
2. Cooking at the Village
   ‘Cooking at the Village’ is targeted at the students residing at the Student Village in Maribyrnong. SIFE VU research has shown that students living away from home for the first time purchased fast food on a regular basis – an option that while convenient, is unhealthy and expensive. ‘Cooking at the Village’ was devised to equip students living away from home with basic cooking skills.
   A group of SIFE members partnered with the Student Village ResLife team to organise a series of on-site cooking classes held during semester 1, 2012. The classes have been very successful, with many participants expressing their great appreciation for them.
   ‘Cooking at the Village’ aims to teach recipes that are healthy, quick and easy, and budget friendly recipes, providing students with a lifelong skill in the process.
3. Australian Business Week 2012
   This year’s Australian Business Week (ABW) competition will be held at the City Flinders campus over four consecutive Saturdays, concluding on 2 June 2012, when the winners of the competition will be awarded.
   Teams of Victorian Year 10 and Year 11 students are competing across a variety of tasks, all centered on business management. SIFE VU will be assisting in running the Australian Business Week by mentoring the teams of high school students and facilitating group discussions regarding how to fulfill the requirements of the competition.
4. SIFE Warm Up
   We all know how cold Melbourne winters can be; just imagine if you didn’t have that knitted scarf and woollen coat to keep out the chill. What if all you had at night to keep you warm was a threadbare blanket instead of your favourite doona?
   The ‘SIFE Warm Up’ project was launched on Monday, 16 April with a knitting class. Participants brought along a pair of size 5 knitting needles and a ball of 8ply wool, and the SIFE Warm Up team showed them how to knit a scarf. In 2011, the project collected over 100 items for donation to a charity in the Western suburbs, who then distributed the items to families in need.  You can help SIFE Warm Up by donating scarves, knitted hats/beanies, blankets and jumpers of all sizes. Donations can be delivered to the Biz Help Office,  Footscray Park, level 3, room G347.

SIFE VU is eagerly working on these projects in preparation for the SIFE Australia National Conference and Competition that will be held at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne on the 11th, 12th and 13th of July.

During last year’s National Conference and Competition at the Hilton Sydney, where eight SIFE VU members proudly presented our 2011 projects, the SIFE VU team awarded the ‘Spirit of SIFE Award’ in recognition of the strength of our developing projects.

In 2012, SIFE VU is looking forward to the National Conference and Competition in July, where the above four projects will be presented, with the aim of winning the title of SIFE Australia National Champion.

Emerging Marketers 'How To Get That Marketing Job' event report

Emerging Marketers is a national special interest group initiative of the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI). Emerging Marketers provides opportunities for marketing students from tertiary institutions, recent marketing graduates and marketers with less than 5 years of experience to network and socialise.

Fabrice Baucherat, Rebecca Dalton, Melinda Wright & Steve Sammartino 

The most recent event held by Emerging Marketers (Victoria) was “How to Get That Marketing Job”. The event was hosted and co-sponsored by VU. Held at the Convention Centre, the event was a huge success with a total number of 95 registrations. The event aimed at providing students and young marketing professionals with an insight into what is required to establish a successful marketing career.

Dr Maxwell Winchester, (Snr Lecturer, and Post-Graduate Marketing Course Co-ordinator) opened the event and welcomed guests. Four senior marketing professionals shared their success story with the audience. Steve Sammartino, Director of Planning at GREY Group, emphasised 'owning your digital footprint' in order to differentiate yourself. Rebecca Dalton, Marketing Specialist at Telstra, spoke about the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Placement, Promotion), telling attendees that in each of their cases, they were in fact 'the Product'. Fabrice Baucherat, Marketing Manager at Dahlsens, stressed that Marketing is all about Sales, and the bottom dollar. Fabrice suggested that in interviews, applicants should assert that their main objective for the organisation is to increase revenue. Melinda Wright, Marketing Manager at Gloria Jean’s Coffees, highlighted the importance of attitude, passion, and at times 'getting your hands dirty'. Melinda was so impressed by the questions students put forward that she has engaged with the Centre for Work Integrated Learning and Teaching and is keen to explore the possibility of Business Integrated Learning for marketing students at VU.