Adelaide Business School International Activities: November 2024 - February 2025

The Adelaide Business School has been involved in many recent international activities. Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening in this space - including study tours, conferences, research collaboration, and more!

Student Mobility

1. E-Challenge bootcamp for students from Indonesia

In November-December 2024, ThincLab hosted 30 recipients of the Indonesian International Student Mobility Award – Entrepreneurship. They completed a 6-week e-Challenge bootcamp that challenged how they think about the world, develop ideas, find problems, and then create solutions. And yes – they also had an opportunity to see koalas and pet wallabies!

ThincLab won funding for this project from the Indonesian Directorate General of Higher Education and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

2. Finance and Business Analytics students at the McGill International Portfolio Challenge in Canada

In November 2024 two Finance and Business Analytics student teams participated in the The McGill International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC) hosted by McGill University in Motreal, Canada. Since its inception in 2017, MIPC has evolved into a highly respected international event, drawing top student teams from universities across the globe. The competition challenges participants to tackle the most pressing issues faced by institutional investors, with a focus on designing innovative portfolio strategies that address complex societal challenges while meeting the needs of diverse stakeholders. This year, the competition saw the participation of 99 teams from 17 countries across 6 continents.

Both teams (Ayush Negi, Duong Nguyen, Aabhas Basnet, Oliver Neate, Tri Duc Le, Inho Chung, Ruwangi Mahanamahewa, and Zhi Thao Lee) reached the semi-finals. Ayush Negi won the Best Speaker award in the semi-finalist pool.

3. Business School students win 3^rd prize at the 12^th  Annual Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition in Vermont, USA

In January 2025, our Business School team (Caroline Anna Nankivell, Simmonette Duggin, and  Benjamin Brooks Lewis), coached by Associate Professor Chris Graves, won 3^rd prize at the 12^th  Annual Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition in Vermont, USA.  This competition prepares participants to understand the critical issues that are unique to the family enterprises by applying the knowledge and expertise they have developed in the classroom to solve complex family business cases. Given the calibre of the students who compete in this competition, this is such a great outcome achieved by the students and the university!

4. “New York, New York” study tour

In January-February 2025, students from the Adelaide Business School engaged in an unforgettable study tour to New York City. Led by Dr Lisa Powell and Ms Tania Turner, this was the fourth New York Study Tour, and each received outstanding acclaim.

This year’s tour comprised 20 ambitious undergraduate ABS students spending two weeks ‘living and working’ in the iconic financial capital of New York City. While on Tour, they tackled a challenging New York-based case study centred on sustainability in the food industry. Their research involved gaining valuable insights from industry experts such as Eleni Watts (Associate Partner, Strategy & Sustainability, McKinsey and Company, New York), Andrew Stone (Chief Brand & Culture Officer, Bluestone Lane) Neil Yeoh (Founder and CEO, OnePointFive) and George De Feis (Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Stockton University). They also networked with corporate leaders and specialists at prestigious events held by the American Australian Association and the CFA Society New York’s 11^th Annual Sustainable Investing Symposium. They enriched their cultural and contextual knowledge for the case through visits to NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, United Nations Headquarters and Farm One.

On the last day of the tour, students presented their innovative case solutions to a panel of experts (Zoran Pupovac, Director of Construction and Development, Cedar Street Creative; Emily Gang, Director of Customer Experience, Audicus, NY; and Neil Yeoh, Founder and CEO, OnePointFive). Their immersion in the exciting city of New York provided students with a rare opportunity for hands-on learning and industry engagement at the highest level! 

5. Executive MBA Study Tour

In January 2025, Mrs Lorraine Caruso, Associate Professor Matt Mount, and Ms Jacqui Stockley led an Executive MBA cohort on a 9-day tour to eleven businesses and business schools in Boston and New York. As an elective in the Executive MBA Program, the course is designed around experiential learning through attendance in business boardrooms for industry presentations, interviews of industry executives, and in-country research around the business environment in which the businesses are located.

Across the 9 days, student ambassadors were appointed to take responsibility for a site visit, including the site brief, agenda, and leadership of the class. This included preparation through prior research of the organisation, initial questions developed to present to the guest speaker, briefing meeting to prepare the cohort in advance of the site visit, and organisation of the group for the journey and on arrival to the site. A class debrief on the key learnings from the site visit was also facilitated by the assigned student ambassadors post each event to share and embed the learning.

In Boston the tour included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, The Daily Catch, Harvard Innovation Labs, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School.

In New York City the tour included the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, American Australian Association, Cammisa Markel Immigration Lawyers, Josh America, and McKinsey and Company.

Amongst many highlights, the Faculty of ABLE and the Adelaide Business School hosted a wonderful evening in the Murdoch Centre of the American Australian Association where we were fortunate to be joined by the new President of AAA, Steven Marshall. Following a panel discussion around the theme of global business perspectives in 2025, our student cohorts, alumni, and industry friends and hosts enjoyed connecting over drinks and canapes overlooking the most magnificent view of Manhattan.

International Conferences

1. In November 2024, the Adelaide Business School hosted the 14th Australasian Business Ethics Network (ABEN) Conference. ABEN is associated with the Financial Times 50-listed Journal of Business Ethics (JBE). We welcomed 60 national and international guests from 11 countries. The conference included a professional development workshop for PhD students and early career researchers, a 'Conversation with JBE Editors' panel session, an industry lunch hosted by KPMG Australia in collaboration with the Governance Institute of Australia, and keynote presentations by Prof Gazi Islam, Prof Michelle Greenwood, Prof Charlotte Karam, Karin Geraghty FGIA FCG, and Andrew Reed. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for University staff and PhD students to engage with leading scholars in the field of management and business ethics.
    
2. In January 2025, Dean of Business Professor Noel Lindsay was invited by the Institute of Indian Science (IISc), the number 1 ranked Indian university, to give the keynote address and be a Valedictory guest-of-honour at IISc’s conference on “returnee entrepreneurship” with over 500 attendees. Noel’s keynote address focused on the essence of successful technology commercialisation; his Valedictory speech focused on the value of returnee entrepreneurs (residents of a country who become successful overseas and then return to their home country to give back by starting businesses and/or mentoring others back in their home countries).
    
3. In January 2025, Dr Rajeev Kamineni was an Invited Guest Speaker and chaired the Entrepreneurship Pitch session at the Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Conference, hosted by the University of Adelaide Flagship partner institution—Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India. He was also appointed to the executive of the Indian Academy of Management and facilitated a Doctoral Colloquium at the 10^th Indian Academy of Management conference at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, India.
    
4. In February 2025, Professor Paul Steffens chaired the 22nd annual conference of the Australasian Consortium for Entrepreneurship Research, which was held in Melbourne. Over five days, 172 delegates, 51% of them international, attended the doctoral consortium, paper development workshops, main conference, educator’s forum, and industry forum.

International Visitors

1. In November 2024, we hosted visiting scholar Frederique Bouwman from Maastricht University and Open University. She presented a research seminar titled "Cultural Anchors: Exploring the Link between CEO Long-Term Orientation and Environmental Performance." Her research investigates the relationship between CEO ancestry and corporate sustainability practices. While prior research reports differences in sustainability strategies between cultures, many external factors could drive this effect. To address this, she focuses on the long-term orientation of CEOs and finds that it is positively associated with improved environmental performance.
    
2. In January 2025, the Discipline of Accounting hosted a visit from Professor Vernon Richardson, a Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the G. William Chair in the Sam M Watson College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

Professor Richardson gave the plenary address at the Discipline of Accounting Research Day and provided valuable insights on research presentations by staff and HDR students throughout the day. He also presented a hybrid seminar on the use of analytics and AI in the classroom, with many participants joining on-line throughout Australia and New Zealand. In that presentation, titled “Who’s down for a revolution”, Professor Richardson tackled the changing knowledge expectations in the field of accounting and financial analysis, and how the use of AI in business education can effectively address these. Illustrative examples were also provided of how AI can be better utilised in the classroom to maximize students’ learning experience and development of skills in business analytics.

3. In February 2025, we hosted Professor Wayne Landsman from the University of North Carolina. His visit enriched the research atmosphere and contributed to the professional growth of our colleagues. During his stay, Wayne presented a paper titled "Critical Audit Matters, Financial Statement Uncertainty, and Financial Covenants." Additionally, he held individual meetings with colleagues from both Finance and Accounting to discuss research ideas and projects.
    
4. In February-March 2025, we are hosting Professor Renaud Lunardo from Kedge, a prestigious French Business School (AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS), as a visiting scholar. ‪Renaud Lunardo is a very productive and high-quality researcher who collaborates on joint research projects with our academics, Associate Professor Armando Corsi and Dr David Jaud.

International Research Collaboration Success

1. Finance and Business Analytics academic Xiaopeng Wei and his co-author Sanghyun Hong (Department of Economics and Finance, University of Canterbury) published a paper titled “Blockbuster or Bust? Silver Screen Effect and Stock Returns" in the prestigious Review of Finance, included in the Financial Times-50 journal list. The study introduces a novel mood metric - blockbuster movie releases - and investigates its correlation with stock market dynamics. The authors document a significant positive correlation between blockbuster movie releases and U.S. stock market returns in the subsequent week. This pattern remains robust across various robustness tests both in-sample and out-of-sample. The changes in weekly box office revenue and increased Internet searches for movie-related terms further affirm this relationship. Moreover, releases of blockbuster movies predict lower expected market volatility and risk aversion. The positive predictive effect on market returns is also evident in international markets.
    
2. Marketing/Wine Business academics Associate Professor Armando Corsi and Dr David Jaud collaborated with Renaud Lunardo (Kedge Business School, France), Camille Saintives (ESSCA, France) and Brad Rickards (Cornell University, USA) on a paper “Why and When Should Brands Turn Organic? A Twofold Market-Offering Perspective”, which was accepted for publication at the prestigious European Journal of Marketing. This journal is ranked A* on the Australian Business Deans Council journal ranking used by the best Business Schools worldwide.