List of Summer Scholarships available: 2014/15

Please email the top three projects your area of study and degree, qualifies you forto b.finau@auckland.ac.nz

with a filled out Student Undertaking formbefore the deadline of Monday, 20 th October, 5pm.

Do not bother emailing, if you are ineligible(as per the rules of the Student guide to Summer Research Scholarships .)

We will make judgements based upon your study, your grades, any working relationship you mayhave with an academic and this email.

If successful, we will contact you.Good luck.

Empirical study on the prevalence of unfair contract terms in New Zealand online consumer contracts

Project description: This research will look at prevalence of unfair contract terms in New Zealand in online consumer contracts, ie contracts used by New Zealand e-traders that are supplying goods or services to consumers. Currently New Zealand has no law regulating the use of unfair contract terms; that will change, however, on 17 March 2015 when the unfair contract terms law (“UCTL”) comes into force. Australia has had an unfair contract terms law in place for 4 years and New Zealand’s UCTL is modelled on the Australian law, albeit there are some significant differences. The UCTL was enacted despite there being no empirical evidence of the prevalence of unfair contract terms in New Zealand; evidence from Australia was used to justify the introduction of the UCTL. The goal of this project is to determine whether unfair contract terms are being used by New Zealand e-traders. A broad range of industries will be looked at including telecommunication companies, airlines, rental vehicles and other e-traders. The research will also provide useful data for the Commerce Commission (the only body that will be able to challenge a term as being an unfair contract term under the UCTL) when it looks at enforcing the UCTL. The anticipated output will be an article on the prevalence of unfair contract terms in New Zealand. Equally, or even more importantly, the project will be vital for later work in this area as it will provide the base line of terms prior to the introduction of the UCTL. This baseline will allow us to assess at a later date whether the e-traders in this project and others in the same industries have changed their contracts to meet the UCTL’s requirements. (This would also provide the data for a more theoretical journal article on the impact of regulatory change.)

Role of Research Assistant: The student would locate the contracts of e-traders and analyse them to assess whether they contain unfair contract terms. This work will assist the student in honing their analytical skills. Once the analysis has taken place the student will work with the researcher to produce an article, this will assist the student in his or her writing skills and will result in he or she being a co-author of a journal article.

The Effect of Tax Policy on Corporate Capital Structure of International and Domestic Firms: Evidence from New Zealand

Project description: We propose to examine if NZ subsidiaries of offshore companies adopt different capital structure decisions (debt to equity ratios) compared to NZ domiciled and tax resident companies. This study is of interest for the following reasons: First, the introduction of dividend imputation in 1987 is expected to eliminate the bias against equity in a firm’s capital structure. However, imputation credits primarily benefit NZ tax resident investors. Thus, we would expect NZ domiciled firms to have a more conservative capital structure (greater proportion of equity) compared to NZ subsidiaries of offshore firms, which are owned predominantly by offshore investors. Second, we will seek to track if the introduction of the supplementary dividend tax regime, which provides partial “imputation” type benefits to offshore investors, has resulted in changes to the capital structure decision of NZ subsidiaries of offshore firms. Third, the Inland Revenue Department has imposed over time stricter thin capitalisation rules, which are intended to mitigate the tax minimisation practices of tax resident companies that belong to an international group. Therefore, reductions in debt financing for these companies are expected following these international tax policy changes. We will seek to analyse if / how these stricter rules on thin capitalisation may have impacted the capital structure decision of NZ subsidiaries of offshore firms. Overall the results of our study should be of interest to policy makers, the IRD and Government.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role would be as follows: Update the database on the Deloitte top NZ 100 companies for the period 2008 to current date. Collect data relevant to capital structure for NZ listed companies. Where applicable collect data on capital structure of the parent company of offshore subsidiaries. Under supervision assist in data analysis. Assist in write up of paper – the target Journal would be “New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy”.

On the development of financial literacy: what is financial ‘fitness’, ‘health’ and ‘well-being’?

Project description: The goal of the study is to develop a framework and provide common understanding around the words often used to define and explore financial fitness, financial health and wellbeing. The possibility of the use of a balanced scorecard to assess financial health will be investigated, after narrowing the scope of the balanced scorecard to suit the desired outcome. The methods of this research will involve a comprehensive literature review of financial literacy, health and communication literature. The study will move from qualitative to quantities methods over time once a theoretical framework is developed. The anticipated outputs of the study are a literature review and questionnaire design which will provide the background and foundation for a research paper and also outline a further project for an Honours, Masters Research topic or PhD topic, depending on scope.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will work on the project under supervision. The student will predominately work on preparing a literature review. The student will also help develop a research questionnaire and speak with other researchers in the field to gain insights to the theoretical background of this research area. The value of these roles will enable the student to gain essential skills to undertake research at the post graduate level from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

An exploration of agency costs and ownership structure in the New Zealand dairy farming industry

Project description: The goal of the study is to conduct an empirical investigation of how agency costs and ownership structure are related in dairy farming in New Zealand. New Zealand provides an excellent landscape to examine agency cost theory given the high concentration of owner occupied dairy farms, farm manager operated dairy farms and 50/50 share milking structures. The methods of this research will involve a literature review of agency and ownership structure and data collection from dairy-based research institutions, for example, Fonterra, DiaryNZ, and Statistics New Zealand. The anticipated outputs of the study is to obtain panel data from dairy farms in New Zealand and also the completion for a research proposal which will include the research question, literature review, data and methodology of this topic. If quality data can be collected over the period of the study the student may use this to form their Master’s thesis.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will work on the project under supervision. The student will predominately work on data collection and contact people in the dairy industry. The student will also help develop a literature review and design the research methodology for the research paper. The student will gain valuable insight to the research process from idea generation to data collection then to analysis and reporting of results.

Follow-up survey for Growing New Zealand Businesses (GNZB)

Project description: The aim of the GNZB project is to investigate growth and innovation patterns of New Zealand SMEs. A key part of the project is survey data from about 1900 NZ SMEs. This application is for the work on a follow-up survey relating to this project. The goal is to create a longitudinal dataset that allows to test strategic choices of NZ SMEs on time lagged dependent variables. Using longitudinal datasets is a standard in well ranked journals and for solid policy advice. The encouraging response rate to the first survey (almost 20%) provides an outstanding opportunity to create a longitudinal dataset that will yield more robust insights into the growth and internationalisation behaviour of NZ SMEs. As an outcome of this summer scholarship, we anticipate that the survey responses to the follow-up survey will have been entered and that some initial analysis on key questions will be completed. In the longer run, we hope that the dataset will yield further academic publications as well as enable us to continue to contribute to ongoing policy debates. Preparation for the survey is well under way. The sampling frame for the follow up survey has been prepared and the survey instrument is about to be piloted. Funding for the cost of conducting the survey will be provided by NZAI. This application is to support the researchers in creating the database and to provide an interesting opportunity for development to a student.

Role of Research Assistant: Under my supervision, the student will be involved in managing the incoming survey responses, data entry and intimal analysis using SPSS and STATA. During this project, the student would be gaining valuable skills in working with data and a good insight into the process of designing and conducting quantitative research. Moreover, the student will also learn basic skills in data management and data analysis. Building these skills will provide a good foundation for their postgraduate work.

Commercial Contracts Text

Project description: We are writing a student text on the New Zealand Law of Commercial Contracts. We have almost completed the book but it does need substantial editing and some updating. It is intended to be used to aid teaching of a COMLAW paper and to be specifically adapted to the material in that course and the way it is presented to students. We intend publishing the book through UniServices and online as part of a multi-pronged initiative to facilitate deep learning in this subject. However, we see the online service as the second part of this project.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role would be to help: in preparing the manuscript for electronic formatting, in locating and summarising cases decided after the manuscript was last updated, in devising problems and multi-choice questions that can be used for in-class assessment and, generally, in providing suggestions from a recent graduate/near graduate perspective.

Unfair Contract Terms Research

Project description: In 2015 new legislation will come into force in New Zealand dealing with unfair terms in contracts. This follows legislation in the UK a good number of years ago now along with a comparable EC Directive and Regulations passed in the UK to put the requirements of the EC Directive into force in the UK. There is also similar legislation in Australia. We have been studying these developments for a number of years in order better to understand public conceptions of unfairness in standard form contracts and to map out a more precise theoretical basis for the legislation outlined above. We would wish the results of this research to be published in a top ranked peer-reviewed journal and to form the basis of a public seminar at the University of Auckland at which will be present a Dean’s Distinguished Speaker, Prof. Howells from Hong Kong City Law School. Prof. Howells is a world leader in this area and has extensive knowledge of European thinking on the subject.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role would be to complete a literature review of travaux preparatoire and to assist, where appropriate, with qualitative coding of data.

Award Giving in Organisations

Project description: Two academics have completed an empirical study understanding in how development and implementation of innovation awards were used in strategizing in a professional service firm. The paper wrote was from an ‘A’ journal was rejected with reviewer feedback saying there were two main ideas that should be divided into two more focussed papers. An MIB professor provided additional comments to help develop the two main ideas and one of the areas identified as requiring more work was the notion around award giving in organisations. Used to recognize, provide incentive or compensation (Frey, 2007), and celebrate achievement, innovation awards can shift individuals’ attention towards, or away from, activities that are of strategic importance to the firm (Frey, 2006; Wilford, 2007). However, “there is relatively little empirical evidence on the results or impacts of innovation awards, and whether those who receive them continue to innovate, or whether others are motivated to innovate themselves” (Rosenblatt, 2011, p. 217). The goal is this project is to develop the main idea about award giving and re-position it as a complete paper focused on the intended and unintended consequences of award giving over time for submission to Human Relations. We want to submit the revised version of the paper to the International Symposium on Process Organization Studies since our papers fit well with their 2015 and papers presented there regularly feed into Human Relations. Submissions for the symposium are due 31st January, 2015, so we actively seek a student who can complete at least 120 hours before the Christmas break.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role is to: identify all papers in the Management and Organisation/organization Studies (MOS) journals that address awarding giving. Starting with A* and A journals, then working through the B journals; import them into Zotero bibliographic software; read and categorise each paper by the theory/ used to explain award-giving as an organisational or individual (behavioural) phenomena or the context; summarise the themes within the categories in 1-2 pages from theme and a 1-2 page summary on the context studies.

Regulation of state owned enterprises (SOEs) under trade agreements

Project description: State ownership of business enterprises has long been a controversial and ideologically charged issue, as the partial privatisation of New Zealand electricity generators over the last year showed. Where enterprises compete in international markets there has long been a concern that state ownership may distort competition and have an advantage over privately owned enterprises. The increasing number of Chinese SOEs in the Fortune 500 and the cross-border activities of Russian SOEs such as Gazprom in Europe have renewed interest in strengthening the international regulation of SOEs. The WTO contains fairly limited rules on the conduct of SOEs. These date back to the formation of the GATT in 1947. Other trade agreements have contained more extensive rules. In ongoing trade negotiations, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, some countries have sought to negotiate stronger disciplines on SOEs. The negotiations have been controversial. It is hoped that the research will identify: (1) the extent to which the conduct of SOEs are subject of specific rules in trade agreements; (2) the extent and circumstances in which SOEs have advantages over other enterprises; (3) what, if any, specific rules should govern the conduct SOEs to address concerns that SOEs have unfair advantages in competition with others enterprises.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will work with the researcher to develop a paper which answers these questions. A consequence of this will be the potential for significant development in the student’s: (1) understanding of international trade agreements, in particular the regulation of SOEs; (2) appreciation of the extent to which SOEs may behave differently to other enterprises when they operate in international markets; and (3) research and writing skills.

Meta-Analysis Of Employee Downsizing Research

Project description: This project aims to provide the foundations for a meta-analysis of the employee downsizing research that, together with a mentor, have reviewed qualitatively and subsequently published in the Journal of Management and 2 book chapters. Based on our review of the extant literature, no meta-analysis of the employee downsizing research has been undertaken to date. Thus, it is expected that output from this project will be well-received for presentation in a major conference (Academy of Management or Academy of International Business) in 2016 and possibly, for publication in A/A* journals such as Journal of Management.

Role of Research Assistant: Student will be tasked to code studies that have been identified in my previous paper/book chapters into a database that will become the basis of the meta-analysis for the study. At the onset, the student will be given an overview of the meta-analysis methodology. Together with the practical experience of developing the database for meta-analysis, the student will have a good preview of meta-analysis as a statistical tool that can become part of their statistical tool kit for use in their future research project/dissertation.

Privacy in Employment Disputes: a Comparative Survey / Survey on Privacy Awareness

Project description: There are two projects. The intersection of privacy and employment law provides a valuable field for study. Anecdotal evidence suggests that complaints concerning privacy often arise in the context of disputes between employers and employees. For example there have been instances of employers accessing employee’s Facebook accounts and employees being disciplined for statements made on Facebook and other social media. Disputes have also arisen over the appropriateness of using work e-mail for employee’s private communications. However, there has not been any systematic study as to such disputes. Furthermore, because such disputes can be litigated in both the employment tribunal/courts and through complaints to the Privacy Commissioner/Human Rights Review Tribunal, it is unclear whether a consistent approach has been taken to such issues. Project 1 is to find and catalogue all case law concerning privacy issues from the employment court and also to do the same for all employment-related disputes before the privacy tribunal. Project 2 is to help us administer an online survey on privacy awareness to business students over summer school and analyse the results. The study aims to assess the extent to which Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s extraordinary revelations, beginning in 2013, have impacted attitudes and behaviour of young people in New Zealand. The study is part of a cross-national study on the privacy awareness of young people and hopes to replicate surveys already conducted in Japan and Spain. Project 2 requires an ethics application which we are in the process of applying for. Anticipated outputs include a publication in a peer-reviewed law journal (such as the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly or Canterbury Law Review) and potentially a conference paper as well. Previous summer research scholarship projects we have supervised have been published in peer-reviewed law journals as well as specialist ones and disseminated at conferences.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role would be to find, catalogue and analyse the privacy cases through the databases. The student will prepare spread sheets compiled from them from which comparisons and trends can be identified. Together with the student we will both critically assess and compare the cases in order to identify trends and noteworthy examples. Project 2 will likewise require the student to prepare spreadsheets from which analysis maybe undertaken. The student will benefit by learning to find and use primary sources of data as a foundation for scholarship and benefit by observing how we make use of the data to formulate a coherent argument and plan and write the intended article. Collateral benefits might include acquiring privacy expertise which might be useful in future employment.

A Guide to New Zealand Contract Law (planned textbook)

Project description In New Zealand, we have two standard textbooks on contract law. An Introduction to Contract Law (Thompson Reuters, 2012) is mainly for Commerce students; and Law of Contract in New Zealand (Lexisnexis, 2012) is mainly for Law students. We are not satisfied with the quality of the first book, and have been so for a long time, although we prescribe it as the textbook because there is no alternative. We have been planning to write a textbook on New Zealand Contract Law with Emeritus Professor John Carter of the University of Sydney. Carter is an internationally recognised authority on contract law and has published numerous books, including textbooks for Law and Commerce students in Australia. It goes without saying that the project requires a huge amount of time and effort, which is the reason why nobody in the Department has attempted to write a textbook despite dissatisfaction with the current one.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s job is to read the two current textbooks and search and collect all the cases and literature/articles, particularly New Zealand cases/articles, used in the textbooks. The job is certainly not as mechanical as it may sound. The student will gain significant research skills and knowledge by actually doing the search. At the end, the student will be familiar with and able to use all major legal databases, whether open source or subscribed, or whether New Zealand or overseas. If the student is diligent, he/she will most probably be better at searching legal databases and information than almost all legal academics at the end of the job. Besides, the student will gain considerable knowledge not taught or not easily taught in class: the distinction between official and unofficial law reports; the hierarchy of courts in various common law jurisdictions; the different styles of judgments and so on.

An analysis of stakeholder views on the International Integrated Reporting Framework

Project description The goal of this project is to explore stakeholder views on the proposed International Integrated Reporting Framework to understand that impact of those views on the framework’s development. These stakeholder views were expressed in public submissions to the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). The International Integrated Reporting Framework represents a significant change in how businesses publicly report on their performance. Traditional financial reporting has increasingly been viewed as inadequate in addressing wider stakeholder concerns and in providing useful information on how businesses create value. In response to these concerns, the IIRC has developed its framework to provide “…a concise communication about how an organization’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of its external environment, lead to the creation of value in the short, medium and long term.” (IIRC, 2014). This study seeks to understand how stakeholders view the proposed framework, and to determine the extent to which those views are reflected in the final framework released in 2013. The research method used is a content analysis of publicly available submissions to the IIRC and the technical working papers released by the IIRC during the process of developing the framework. These data will be systematically reviewed to identify the key themes related to public reporting of business performance. Anticipated outputs of the project are a thematic analysis of stakeholder views and the IIRC’s response to those views; conclusions about the key issues for stakeholders and the extent to which the final framework responds to those issues; and a summary of the issues raised by different types of stakeholders. The output of this research will form the basis of a working paper we will develop on stakeholder views on the International Integrated Reporting Framework. There have been few studies on Integrated Reporting to date given its relative newness. However, it has the potential to transform how businesses report performance and, as such, there is a high degree of interest in the topic. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the paper will have a good chance of being published in a top accounting journal.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will be responsible for collecting all the data, conducting the content analysis (systematic review of submissions and reports), and documenting their methods and results. In doing so, it will offer them an opportunity to develop skills in qualitative analysis. They will be closely guided during the initial theorisation to ensure their thematic analysis is rigorously performed.

Conceptualising brand relationships as company image and relationship experience

Project description: While service brands are conceptualised as being both the company’s presented brand and the customer’s relationship experience, most research to date has supported the central role of the latter over the former in creating customer value and developing loyalty. In contrast, one recent publication supports the interaction between the two in a way that the former (company’s presented brand) moderates the impact of the latter customer’s relationship experience) on value creation and loyalty development. This paper has supported the effect based on contextual effects (i.e. advertising spending- and labour-intensity), whereas this study aims to explore this effect by understanding as to what aspects of company image and relationship experience lead to the emergence of their interaction.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will help us synthesise the current literature with regard to the different company image and relationship experience conceptualisations and develop conditional hypotheses for their interaction. This piece of research may help the student in further developing conceptual skills that will be required during Masters years.

Typical effect sizes in leadership: A meta-analytic review

Project description: Heuristics (rules of thumb) are frequently used in the social sciences to characterize effect sizes with descriptors such as "small", "medium "and large". In the business literature these effect size heuristics are attributed most often to one of several editions of books authored by the statistician Cohen (cf. 1988, 1990, 1992). However applying these heuristics to any domain of the social science literature (e.g. leadership) or any sub-domain (e.g. leader-member exchange) may be problematic for at least three reasons. First, heuristics (rules of thumb) are typically not rigorously or comprehensively determined and thus may be biased by researcher interests. Second, limitations of computational power up until the late 1970’s limited the nature of study questions (e.g. use of controls, testing for partial effects, assessing model fit) and thus many of the existing heuristics may not hold up under more rigorous assumptions. Third, by applying heuristics developed in one domain, or subdomain, to seeming related domains (e.g. leader member exchange to transformational leadership) there is a risk of committing an ecological fallacy by assuming the characteristics of effect sizes in one domain can be applied heuristically to another. The proposed study seeks to identify, through meta-analysis, appropriate effect size heuristics for the leadership domain broadly defined, and multiple sub-domains therein, over a common time period. The sub-domains will be classified according to a recently published leadership research typology (Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Cogliser and Mahoney, 2010). Meta-analysis, the analysis and synthesis of independent studies, is a useful technique for synthesizing the results of various studies findings (Antonakis, Schriesheim, Donovan, Gopalakrishna-Pillai, Pellegrini, & Rossomme, 2008). In addition to the functionality of aggregating studies, meta-analysis is a powerful technique for reconciling diverse or conflicting finding in a population of studies through moderator analyses (Sagie & Koslowsky, 1993). The steps in the present study will be to: 1) Conduct a mega-analysis -- the entire domain over the selected time period; 2) Conduct meta-analysis -- each subdomain over the same time period as the mega-analysis using consistent judgment calls; 3) Compare across sub-domains to characterize a sub-domain as typically being high-medium-low relative to the larger (leadership) domain; 4) Compare within sub-domains to characterize the effect size of an individual study as high-medium-low within its sub-domain. The range of secondary studies for the meta-analysis will be all empirical leadership studies in The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, and Journal of International Business Studies over the fifteen year period 2000-2014. In addition to obtaining effect sizes for leadership outcome variables articles will be coded for a number of characteristics variables including theoretical basis, method used to determine effect size, for nature of the dependent variable, level of the leader, type of organization, country of sample origin. Targeted outlet(s) for the research include the seven sourced journals listed above with the 4* journals targeted first.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will conduct a limited leadership literature search to update an existing literature review. However most of the student time will be given to coding studies identified in the initial literature search. Through the project the student will gain an understanding of the differences between a quantitative and qualitative study; an understanding of best practices in the reporting of empirical research; an appreciation for the broad range of theoretical lenses applied in the study of leadership; and an understanding of how the meta-analytic technique can be brought to bear on consolidating a literature and in exploring for moderators and mediators within a body of research. The experience should strongly enhance the student’s appreciation for quantitative research. The student will also gain an appreciation for the extensive attention to detail, as well as the necessity of making judgment calls, in conducting meta-analytic research.

Developing a Māoritanga alogrithm: A li terature review

Project description: We are developing an algorithm as a Human Development Index (HDI) and tool for evaluating the Māori economy. The proposed ‘Māoritanga Algorithm’ is a process, plus a set of rules, to be followed in calculating well-beings in Māori terms. This will be the first MDI (Māori Development Index) with Māori-value based data at its core, where Māoritanga is quantified by spiritual capital + ecological capital + kinship capital + economic capital. This tool for evaluating the well-being of Māoritanga, and thereby the well-being of Māori, will allow a more holistic measure of well-being and productivity than GDP, and may have broader application for other Indigenous peoples. The currently embryonic algorithm has emerged organically through my previous research and will be developed out and tested during my sabbatical in 2015. This research application is to obtain funding for a summer student to conduct an expansive literature review on Māori and other Indigenous well-beings and economics, and present their findings as an annotated bibliography.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will be required to: Scope relevant literature to inform the research proposal by searching databases and relevant data sources available in the University of Auckland Library and appropriate Government archives. Collate relevant literature, code sources according to research themes, and organise a systematic filing system for easy retrieval of these, utilising Endnote or a similar citation manager. Consult researchers who specialise in the area for further information and input into research and evaluation proposal.

The outcome of voluntary administrations in New Zealand

Project description: Voluntary Administration is the corporate rescue regime introduced into New Zealand on 1 November 2007. The objectives of voluntary administration are twofold: either to save as much of a financially distressed business as possible or, if that is not possible, to at least achieve a better return to stakeholders on the closing down of the business than would occur under the alternative legal procedure of an immediate liquidation of the business. This project would be an empirical study into the use of the VA procedure since its introduction into New Zealand seven years ago. The objective would be to try to identify the extent to which the procedure has been genuinely used in an attempt to rescue a business and the extent to which it has been used as a de facto way of closing down a business. It would also attempt to identify how successful rescue attempts have been. Have businesses actually been saved or has the process just delayed the inevitable and ultimately led to the business being closed down? It would also attempt to identify differences in the Australian practice and the New Zealand practice, in particular why the procedure appears to be more popular in Australia and whether there are any impediments to its use in NZ. The student would research available statistics on the use of voluntary administration in NZ and Australia. The student would seek to identify those NZ businesses that had at least initially attempted to use the procedure to save a business and identify how many of those were ultimately successful. We anticipate the research would lead to one or two articles being published in the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly and possibly an Australian journal.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will carry out the empirical research and will work with the researcher to identify the implications of the study for New Zealand’s business rescue regime. This will enhance the student’s research and writing skills and may lead to a suitable dissertation topic for the student.

Provable Debts in Insolvency Proceedings

Project description: The meaning of “provable debt” is crucial in formal insolvency proceedings. In particular it defines: (1) The maximum claim that a creditor has against an insolvent’s estate; and (2) the voting power that creditors have at meetings called in relation to the insolvent. Despite the importance of the term, there is remarkable uncertainty as to what it means in certain common situations. Areas of particular contention include: Where the debt is disputed; Where the debt is contingent e.g. a guarantee; Where the quantum of the debt is uncertain e.g. tort claims; “Long tail” liabilities e.g. claims against companies in respect of “leaky” homes; Whether the definition is different depending upon the context in which it arises. It is my preliminary view that much of the uncertainty has arisen from: (1) Judges analysing the issues on an ad-hoc, rather than a principle basis; and (2) Judges failing to take into account the historical context in which previous cases were decided. The aim of the research is carry out a detailed investigation into the above issues, taking into account materials from a variety of relevant jurisdictions. The technique will be doctrinal/comparative and historical. As a minimum, the anticipated outputs are: (1) Publication of an article in a high quality refereed academic journal concerning disputed and uncertain claims; (2) Publication of a more descriptive article in a PBRF-qualifying practitioners’ journal concerning the law generally.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will carry out research, under my direction, in relation to the above issues. It is also anticipated that the student may co-author the second article referred to above. It is anticipated that the student will gain the following from the project: Research and writing skills; A detailed knowledge of an area of law that is highly relevant to lawyers and accountants; A good understanding of insolvency principles and processes.

Exemplary case studies in business and management

Project description: We wrote a book entitled “Qualitative Research in Business and Management” in 2009. This book includes examples of exemplary qualitative case studies from all the business disciplines. Given the success of the first and second editions, the Publisher has asked us to write a third edition. One important task in writing this second edition is that we need to gather new exemplary case studies, assess their suitability for inclusion in the second edition, and write up a short summary of each case. Hence, the goals are to produce a research output (a book). The method involves the student doing library research to identify the best qualitative case studies from the top journals in a variety of business disciplines for inclusion in the book. The student will then write a short executive summary of the relevant cases. Most likely we will need to do some further editing, but a selection of these cases will be published.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role will be to gather relevant materials (library research), select which materials are the best (fit for purpose), and then write-up a short executive summary of each case. Hence the value to their development will be as follows: Improve their library research skills; Improve their ability to identify excellent qualitative research published in first tier journals; Improve their writing skills; Acknowledgement of their name (and of the help of the business school) in the acknowledgements page

Systematic review of innovation in professional service firms

Project description: Two projects trying to understand the role of innovation in professional service firms. One of the claims that are made is that innovation is poorly understood. This is a claim co-authors and we have made too. When we look more closely, we can see that generally scholars writing about the phenomena of innovation in professional service firms, theorising it in other ways; as a matter of organizational change or as a matter of knowledge work or as a matter of introducing new value propositions or making research and development investments. Furthermore, we are starting to see some new papers theorising different aspects of innovation in professional services. Based on this observation we are no longer sure that a poor understanding of innovation in PSFs can be made, but neither can we say where a better understanding has (or is) developing. The goal this project is to undertake a systematic review of innovation in professional service firms. As a systemic review it will enable us to check our hunches and guide the refinement of the current two projects. A secondary outcome is the development of a systematic review paper that will be of interest to scholars who study innovation and those who study professional service firms.

Role of Research Assistant: develop a search string to search multiple databases. The key challenges here are identifying subject terms and key words that cover innovation (e.g. new product development, service innovation, services innovation), run the search string in databases that cover the Management and Organisation/organization Studies (MOS) journals, document the number of papers found on each database, removing duplicatesimport them into Zotero bibliographic software, read and categorise each paper by the way the year published, place of publication, how innovation is treated (theoretical versus contextual, central versus peripheral), and if theoretical, what theory is used. Summarise the themes within the categories in 2-3 pages from theme and a 2-3 page summary on the context studies.

Negative customer brand engagement and value co-destruction

Project description: The phenomenon of engagement has become a topic of interest within marketing research and practice in recent years. To date, engagement has largely been explored and presented as a positive phenomenon, but evidence suggests that negative engagement is also occurring. While in the pre-internet era, behaviours such as complaining and negative word of mouth had limited reach, now the impact of customers’ online negative engagement can significantly damage the reputation of an organisation and the value of a brand. Based on previous research in an online context, a conceptual model for negative customer brand engagement has been proposed. This model highlights the important roles that perceived threat(s) to self and conflict resolution (linked to dissonance) have in the process of negative engagement. To enable further research in this area the proposed summer scholarship project has as its main goals: Completion of a comprehensive literature review (or updated literature review where applicable) of and around the following concepts: ‘negative engagement’, ‘value’, ‘co-destruction’ and ‘co-creation’ (including other synonymous and related concepts such as ‘co-production’). This project would result in an updated and extended literature review. Selection, preparation and computational analysis of online material which can be used to empirically test the current model of negative customer brand engagement. The project would also require an analysis of cases of negative customer brand engagement expressed online (e.g. blogs, social media sites) in terms of triggers, antecedents, processes, and consequences. This project would result in an extended data collection and analysis to confirm/develop the model.

Role of Research Assistant: The student’s role would be to conduct a literature review, explore and collect online data pertinent to the focus of this study, and learn to use computational analysis tools (e.g. NVivo, WordSmith and possibly Leximancer) to explore the data collected.

The International Experience involving Domestic Law Overriding Double Tax Agreements

Project description: A double tax agreement (DTA) has as one of its principal objectives the elimination or reduction of double taxation. Some of our domestic taxing rights may be allocated to our DTA treaty partners in a way which, upon reflection (or upon a change in law or tax policy), is not in New Zealand’s best interests. The OECD has a major project to reduce Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) which has a number of specific actions aimed at preventing or reducing international tax avoidance by multinational corporations. For example New Zealand may decide to introduce a special domestic anti-treaty shopping law such as that proposed by Canada in their 2014 budget. Such a law creates a domestic anti-treaty shopping rule and seeks to ensure that treaty benefits are provided only in respect of ordinary commercial transactions overriding the clear words of the DTA. In order to achieve the best outcome for New Zealand the domestic law may need to unilaterally override the New Zealand DTA network. This is something which is traditionally viewed as undesirable in an international law framework. This research is focused on the following aspects: an examination of the experience of overseas countries in unilaterally overriding the DTA obligations. In particular, have overseas jurisdictions been forced to terminate their DTA’s? Have there been other complaints or other actions taken against them? What is the international law consequence to a unilateral action of introducing domestic law that conflicts with a DTA? Does it make a difference if the reason for the domestic law change which overrides the treaty is one of the prevention of treaty abuse? What is the profile of termination (ie timeframe) under New Zealand’s 39 DTAs? The anticipated output is a publication in a high quality refereed tax journal that specialises in international tax.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will work with the researcher to develop a paper which answers these questions. A consequence of this will be the potential for significant development in the student's appreciation of: 1) the relationship between domestic law and international tax treaty law particularly relating to DTA’s, 2) an understanding of the way international tax policy is influenced by broader policy concerns, 3) research and writing skills.

Maori Identity and Economic Outcomes – the MMM-ICE/New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study Summer Internship

Project description: In 2009 we created the Multidimensional Measure of Māori Identity and Cultural Engagement (MMM-ICE) in response to a request from the Foundation of Youth Development (FYD) (http://www.fyd.org.nz/). At the time they were unable to find a measure that evaluated the efficacy of their programmes for ‘strengthening’ Māori identity. Since then the scale has been improved, empirically validated and administered to approximately 1500 people who identify as Māori. The tool can provide accurate data about the size and characteristics of the Maori population, differentiate ‘sub-groups’ of Māori and identify cohorts at risk of adverse outcomes in order to specify where resources need to be allocated for maximum improvement in their circumstances. We have had 10 published articles arise from this project and two are currently under review. Funded by Te Whare Kura we last year we sent out surveys to a nationwide sample of 9000 Māori and had 800 completed surveys returned. The surveys comprised the MMM-ICE scale and measures of over 100 health, psychological, cultural, social, economic and behavioural variables (including; sense of belongingness, social support, health, income and economic deprivation, political views, experiences of discrimination, financial related behaviour, health protective and health demoting behaviours). We can use this data to measure how Maori identity links to a wide variety of factors. In addition, the MMM-ICE research and survey is embedded in to the New Zealand Values and Attitudes Study and 1/3 of the respondents to this study have also completed the MMM-ICE. This application seeks funding to employ an RA to assist us with the data collation and input in required to progress these studies. At the present time we have a substantial amount of data which requires coding, input and also statistical analyses in order for the data to be amenable to publication. We can complete data analyses and paper preparation, however, we request a student to complete the administrative/data input component of the process. The studentship funding will enable us to prepare and process a substantial database of information for a relatively low cost as we already have all the data in our possession and simply require it to processed in a timely manner. The funds will be used to cover direct research expenditure on original research which will generate high quality PBRF eligible research outputs. We can be confident of this claim as we have a proven track record of conducting quality research on Māori identity and generating publications from our studies.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will be involved in data input and collation (managing survey data), coding qualitative data and examining survey responses in relation to economic and health outcomes for Maori. They will gain skills in data analysis, data entry and the management of national panel data. They will also have the opportunity to be involved in the preparation of reports for publication and the media. The role of the student is crucial. We are involved in other projects and, although we will have a role in the project as a supervisor and also will support in data collection, we are unable to complete all the data input and survey management ourselves. It is not necessary the student is Māori or familiar with Māori culture to complete this work as we will supervise them and help them collate and utilise their data. In saying that it would be helpful for a Maori or Pacific student to be involved as they may have more affinity with the qualitative data involved.

Patent Box Regimes around the World

Project description: The ultimate aim of this research project is to identify the most abiding features of patent box regimes around the world. The stages of the project will be to identify, evaluate and compare those regimes that are currently in place globally. This is to be a stand-alone, general inquiry resulting in a substantial contribution to the global literature on tax law and innovation policy. The aim of Patent Box regimes is to provide a fiscal incentive for firms to retain and commercialise existing patents and to develop innovative patented products. They allow firms to apply a reduced income tax rate to profits attributable to qualifying patents, whether received as a royalty or embedded in the sales price of products. Some regimes also apply to other qualifying IP rights such as regulatory data protection (also called ‘data exclusivity’), supplementary protection certificates and plant variety rights. Other non-qualifying profits in these firms continue to be taxed at the main rate. The methodology of the research is a functional method of comparative legal analysis. Comparative law can be thought of as the study of similarities and differences between various legal systems, including judicial decisions, in relation to issues of common concern. Properly comparative propositions in their simplest form draw a relation between a number of objects and a certain quality, the tertium comparationis. A functional method also focuses on the effects of rules. There is one anticipated output: a full-length article in the British Tax Review (approximately 11,000 words), which is an A* Journal according to the current Dean’s list.

Role of Research Assistant: To identify those jurisdictions that have adopted a patent box regime and to provide data on relevant legislative provisions and any case law discussion concerning those regimes. The importance of this work to their development is that they will become familiar with the idea that tax law is increasingly being used as a form of regulation in an area of tax policy. They will also develop an understanding of an important tool for promoting innovation and sustainable economic growth. A legal analysis of patent box regimes situates the proposed research squarely within both the “Innovation and Value Creation” and “Productivity and Sustainability” strategic research themes of the Business School.

Alternatives to Patent Box and R&D Tax Incentive Regimes

Project description: The ultimate aim of this research project is to identify and evaluate those foreign tax regimes that seek to promote innovation and/or technical efficiency outside the more established pattern of R&D incentives and patent box regimes. This is to be a stand-alone, general inquiry resulting in a substantial contribution to the global literature on tax law and innovation policy. Patent box regimes incentivise firms to retain and commercialise existing patents and to develop innovative patented products by applying a reduced income tax rate to profits attributable to qualifying patents, whether received as a royalty or embedded in the sales price of products. R&D tax incentives encourage firms to invest in private sector scientific research and development by offering economic benefits over and above a simple deduction of the expense from the tax base. They generally take the form of credits, allowances (including accelerated capital depreciation) and payroll withholding tax reductions. There is one anticipated output: a full-length article in the British Tax Review (approximately 11,000 words), which is an A* Journal according to the current Dean’s list.

Role of Research Assistant: To identify any jurisdictions that have adopted some kind of unusual tax incentive and to provide data on the relevant legislative provisions and any case law discussion concerning those incentives. The importance of this work to their development is that they will become familiar with the idea that tax law is increasingly being used as a form of regulation in an area of tax policy. They will also develop an awareness of the extent to which tax systems can be used to promote innovation, which is the sine qua non of sustainable economic growth. This research sits squarely within both the “Innovation and Value Creation” and “Productivity and Sustainability” strategic research themes of the Business School.

Regulation of state owned enterprises (SOEs) under trade agreements

Project description: State ownership of business enterprises has long been a controversial and ideologically charged issue, as the partial privatisation of New Zealand electricity generators over the last year showed. Where enterprises compete in international markets there has long been a concern that state ownership may distort competition and have an advantage over privately owned enterprises. The increasing number of Chinese SOEs in the Fortune 500 and the cross-border activities of Russian SOEs such as Gazprom in Europe have renewed interest in strengthening the international regulation of SOEs. The WTO contains fairly limited rules on the conduct of SOEs. These date back to the formation of the GATT in 1947. Other trade agreements have contained more extensive rules. In ongoing trade negotiations, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, some countries have sought to negotiate stronger disciplines on SOEs. The negotiations have been controversial. It is hoped that the research will identify: (1) the extent to which the conduct of SOEs are subject of specific rules in trade agreements; (2) the extent and circumstances in which SOEs have advantages over other enterprises; (3) what, if any, specific rules should govern the conduct SOEs to address concerns that SOEs have unfair advantages in competition with others enterprises.

Role of Research Assistant: The student will work with the researcher to develop a paper which answers these questions. A consequence of this will be the potential for significant development in the student’s: (1) understanding of international trade agreements, in particular the regulation of SOEs; (2) appreciation of the extent to which SOEs may behave differently to other enterprises when they operate in international markets; and (3) research and writing skills.

The impact of language skills on successful transition into business studies at university

Project description: Nearly all students admitted to the university undertake a language screening test and about a third of business school students then undergo detailed diagnostic testing. The diagnostic test provides scores for listening, reading and writing and identifies the nature of any difficulties in each skill area. Although these tools are widely used their predictive validity is not established nor is the likely progression of students with different diagnostic profiles known. Goals: During 2014 the innovative learning team has been gathering data in an effort to better understand the impact of language skills on transition into the Business School. Our aim is to establish the validity of the tools and to identify the nature of language difficulties and capabilities that are associated with failure and success. Methods: Preliminary data analysis supports the common sense notion that language skills, as assessed by the screening tool are predictive of success with substantial differences in first year business course failure rates for students allocated to three levels of capability at screening. The proposed student project will extend this analysis and further explore the impact of language skills and demographic variables across first year business courses. The project will also examine the relative contributions of language dimensions and levels of listening, reading and writing to successful completion of first year courses. Outputs: The project will result in a conference paper and a publication in the transition pedagogy literature. A report will also be produced which will identify the ways in which student can be better served and supported across the school. Thus the project has both practical and research outcomes.

Role of Research Assistant: The successful student will gain a comprehensive experience of the research process. They will assist with: A brief literature review, Regression analysis using SPSS, Writing a paper and a brief report, Presenting their results. The student will be well supported by the innovative learning team and all research will be supervised by the academic. The studentship would be suitable for an able student interested in undertaking quantitative research and keen on a research or a career in Human Resource Development or tertiary teaching.

T ec h n o l o g y M a n a g eme n t a n d t h e F u k us hi m a 1 D aii chi N uc l e a r P o w er Pl a n t Di saster

Project description: This project will focus on Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) management of the Fukushima 1 Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster, which occurred off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku in Japan in 2011. The nuclear plant, owned and operated by TEPCO, was hit by a tsunami that caused a meltdown of three of the plant’s six nuclear reactors. The resulting damages brought TEPCO, one of the five largest electric utility companies in the world, on the verge of bankruptcy. In closely working with collaborators in Japan and drawing on a wide range of archival data, the project’s goal is to explore some of TEPCO’s technology management practices (in particular pertaining to risk and asset management) before and during the disaster, and to investigate how those compare with the state of the art of the technology management literature. The expected outputs of this project are a case study and an article in Research Policy (ABDC Rank: A*).

Role of Research Assistant: The student would be fully involved in this research project and get the opportunity to closely work with us on this exciting topic. The focus of the student’s role would be chiefly twofold: (1) Collection, documentation and systematization of archival data (50% of the 400 hrs.). (2) Preliminary analysis of some historic and archival data (50% of the 400 hrs.). The benefits for the student are manifold: (1) She/he would gain in- depth insights into important parts of the research process, which would benefit her/him later. (2) She/he would do challenging and cutting-edge work in technology management research, under close guidance and commensurate with the level of expertise of an excellent undergraduate student. (3) The student will get the opportunity to participate in all meetings and conference calls pertaining to the project, which will also enable the student to build international links (e.g., with a collaborator in Japan).

Vulnerability and resilience of inventor communities

Project description: Communities of geographically dispersed inventors substantially contribute to innovation outcomes, which in some regions outweigh Research and Development (R&D) efforts by firms. While research has uncovered many benefits of the distributed nature of these communities, our understanding of their vulnerabilities remains limited. This research project seeks to address this important gap by investigating how these communities react to shocks in the form of sudden violations of their norms and legal rights, and how this in turn affects inventive efforts and innovation performance. The project will adopt a multidisciplinary lens, building primarily on conceptual insights from the literature on intellectual property and innovation studies. The settings for this research are software communities and maker communities using 3D printing technology, which are both susceptible to external and internal shocks (e.g., abuse by third parties, violation of licenses, fabrication of illegal products) and offer unique opportunities to create new datasets and theory. By using a mixed methods research strategy and employing both quantitative and qualitative research approaches, phenomena will be studied longitudinally and comparatively. Quantitative approaches include quasi-experiments; qualitative approaches include historical methods. In closely working with international experts on intellectual property law and digital fabrication (e.g., at the University of Cambridge), the project aims to advance theory on the socio-economic performance of inventor communities. The expected outputs of this project are two case studies and an article in Research Policy (ABDC Rank: A*).

Role of Research Assistant: The student will be fully involved in this research project and get the opportunity to closely work with us on this exciting topic. The focus of the student’s role is chiefly twofold: (1) Data cleansing (40% of the 400 hrs.), (2) Collection and documentation of archival data (30% of the 400 hrs.), (3) Preliminary analysis of some archival data (30% of the 400 hrs.). The benefits for the student are manifold: (1) She/he would gain in-depth insights into important parts of the research process, which would benefit her/him later. (2) She/he would do challenging and cutting-edge work in innovation research, under close guidance and commensurate with the level of expertise of an excellent undergraduate student. (3) The student will get the opportunity to participate in all meetings and conference calls pertaining to the project, which will also enable the student to build international links (e.g., with collaborators in Germany and the United Kingdom).

Leadtime Quotation and Pricing for Make-To-Order Industries

Project description: Many furniture stores offer the option for custom couches. For such couches, the customer will pick the style and fabric from a given set of options and then the couches will be manufactured to those specifications. Stores offer this option because it is not practical to offer all combinations of couch styles and fabrics ready-made. Often the manufacturing occurs locally (there are at least two such operations in Auckland) and the leadtime given to customers is simply the leadtime to process all orders ahead in the queue, rather than a leadtime to source materials (because wood and fabric is kept in stock). Traditionally, such leadtimes are on the order of months. Suppose a local custom furniture manufacturer would wish to add an express option to their portfolio. In this case, rather than just producing couches first-come-first-serve, as is usually done, the express orders would be given some sort of priority. Customers would, of course, pay extra for the express option. Would this be a good idea? Of course couches are far from the only application for this work, any make-to-order environment with capacity constraints faces the same issues. The goal of the project is to produce a model or set of models that evaluates the costs and benefits of adding an express option for these scenarios. We will also consider the question of offering a discount for long leadtimes and the value of dynamic versus static pricing. This project builds off existing research by the supervisor.

Role of Research Assistant: This project builds off work done in OPSMGT 752. The student will build the models and write up the results. The models will likely involve mostly simulation.