Aotearoa Business and Economics Research Translation Competition 2024

Four Aotearoa business schools have led research translation competitions so far:

• 2014 to 2018: Massey University Business School has annually run research translation competition internally.
• 2019: The University of Auckland Business School ran a Business Research Translation Competition in the wider Tāmaki Makarau/Auckland region with the participation of the AUT Business School, Massey Business School, University of Auckland Business School, and Waikato Management School.
• 2020/2021: The University of Auckland Business School invited business and economics researchers from all eight business schools in the country to co-sponsor and participate in the first New Zealand Business Research Translation Competition: AUT Business School, Lincoln University Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce, Massey University Business School, Otago Business School, University of Canterbury Business School, University of Auckland Business School, Waikato Management School, and Wellington School of Business and Government.
• 2022: AUT - Auckland University of Technology led the New Zealand Business Research Translation Competition.
• 2023: The Competition, renamed to the ‘Aotearoa Business and Economics Research Translation Competition’, is led by the University of Auckland Business School.
• 2024:  The Aotearoa Business and Economics Research Translation Competition 2024 is led by the University of Canterbury Business School. This is the first time that the Competition is led by a university in the southland of New Zealand.

The Competition is open to research active academic staff currently employed in any of the eight business schools in New Zealand with a minimum appointment of 0.2 FTE. This includes Professional Teaching Fellows.

Register and submit your translated paper (750 words max.) aimed at a non-academic audience by no later than 5pm on 31 July 2024. The Preparation Guide below may be of help. The indicative maximum of 750 words includes text in tables, graphs, images, etc. Please remove any details of your translated paper that could reveal your identity as only anonymised entries will be presented to the judging panel.

Your selected journal article must have been published on or after 1 January 2021 and not yet have had extensive media exposure. If your journal article has more than one author, then please make sure that your co-author(s) is/are aware that you are entering the Competition.

A judging panel comprising business people and policymakers will review the submissions, focusing primarily on the entries’ appeal and usefulness to external stakeholders.

Entry papers submitted to the Competition will be assessed based on the following criteria:

1. The likely interest and value of the findings to the business/policy community: 60%

- Does it address a significant issue? (20%)

- How easily can a non-specialist understand the research? (20%)

- How easily can the research be applied to add value to a business or policymaker community? (20%)

2. Quality of the non-academic writing (40%)

Register now

The following questions that might assist you in writing your brief paper are taken from the Harvard Business Review Guidelines for Contributors.

1.       What is the central message of your article (the "aha")? What is important, useful, new, or counterintuitive about your idea? Why do practitioners need to know about it?

2.       How can your idea be applied in business today (the "so what")?

3.       For which kinds of companies/organisations would it work especially well? Why?

4.       What research have you conducted to support the argument in your article?

5.       On what previous work (either of your own or of others) does this idea build?

The winners of the Competition have been announced at the awards celebration on Friday 25 October 2024 in Christchurch.

The ceremony opened with a warm welcome from Lyndon Waaka (Kaiārahi Māori), followed by an inspiring keynote from UC Law graduate Steven Moe, partner at Parry Field Lawyers. Moe’s speech emphasized the transformative potential of research and the importance of storytelling in reaching diverse audiences. Following the keynote, award winners presented their impactful work, receiving their honors from the judges and Associate Professor Sarah Wright (Associate Dean of Research, UC Business School). The event concluded with a thought-provoking panel discussion featuring Associate Deans of Research from three New Zealand Business Schools (Professor Snejina Michailova from the University of Auckland, Professor Jarrod Haar from the Massey University, and Associate Nazmun Ratna from the Lincoln University), sharing insights on research impact.

The competition’s full list of awards and recipients are as followed:

Early career researcher:

Winner – Dr Kseniia Zahrai (Business School, University of Canterbury)
Either You Control Social Media or Social Media Controls You

Runner-up – Dr Nadeera Ranabahu (Business School, University of Canterbury)
A Catch-22? Financial Technology, Poverty, and Entrepreneurship

Māori/Pacific researcher:

Winner – Maulupeivao Dr Betty Ofe-Grant (Business School, AUT)

Inclusive HR Career Development Strategies for Samoans and Pacific Peoples Working in New Zealand

Runner up – Professor Jarrod Haar (Business School, Massey University)

All of One – One for All? Cultural Diversity Initiatives Benefit All Employees

Mid-career & senior researcher:

Winner - Dr Johnny Chan (Business School, University of Auckland)
Unmasking Online Hate: How AI Helps Spot Hidden Toxicity

Runner-up (Joint Acknowledgment)

Dr Ranjana Gupta (Business School, AUT)
Removing GST on fresh produce won’t help those most in need – a targeted approach works better

Dr Andreas Drechsler (Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington)
The Fractional Chief Information Officer – a novel means for small organisations to keep up with the digital age?

Congratulations to all winners and runners-up! Your dedication to advancing business research for real-world change is truly inspiring.

A big thank you to Professor Ekant Veer for wonderfully MC-ing the awards ceremony, and to Catherine Woods, Kellie-Ann Abraham, and Edmund Smith for their generous support.

• Early career researcher (PhD earned no longer than eight years ago)
• Mid-career and senior researcher
• Māori or Pacific researcher

In each category the winner award is $1,000 and the runner-up award is $500.

Māori and Pacific Researcher

Winners (joint acknowledgement):

• Professor Jarrod Haar, Massey University Business School

Are Bad CEOs Good for Firm Performance?

• Dr Betty Ofe-Grant, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Seven Strategies for Recruiting Pacific People as Research Participants in a post-Covid World

Early-Career Researcher

• Winner: Dr Alex Plum, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Youth Crime, Fatherhood, and the Role of Ethnicity

• Runner-up: Dr Yat Ming Ooi, University of Auckland Business School

Cracking the code: Unravelling how New Zealand's traditional industries commercialise technology

Mid-Career Researcher

• Winner: Associate Professor Yuri Seo, University of Auckland Business School

David and Goliath: Micro-Influencers versus Mega-Influencers

• Runner-up: Associate Professor William Cheung, University of Auckland Business School

Is upzoning a solution to housing affordability?

Senior/Established Researcher

Winners (joint acknowledgement):

• Dr Ranjana Gupta, Auckland University of Technology Business School

A taxation approach to reduce pollution in Auckland

• Dr Lisa Meehan, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Can a single concussion increase the risk of criminal behaviour?

Māori and Pacific Researcher

• Winner: Dr Anil Narayan, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Enhancing Pasifika Students Success in Accounting Education

Early Career Researcher

• Winner: Dr Lisa Callagher, Auckland University of Technology Business School

How do New Zealand’s agricultural cooperatives positively impact climate change?

• Runner-up: Dr Alex Plum, Auckland University of Technology Business School

A sobering picture: alcohol access and criminal behaviour among young Kiwis

Senior/Established Researcher

• Winner: Dr Joya Kemper, University of Canterbury Business School, and Dr Sam White, Lincon University

Food Fad or Future of Food? Flexitarianism and Young Adults’ Fight for Climate Autonomy

• Runner-up: Dr Mia Pham, Massey University Business School

Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Do Gender Differences Matter?

Māori and Pacific Researcher

• Winner: Dr Nimbus Staniland, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Indigenous and boundaryless careers: Cultural boundaries in the careers of Māori academics

Early Career Researcher

• Winner: Dr Jessica Vredenburg, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Brand activism: What, when, where and how - translating theory into practice

• Runner-up: Dr William Cheung, University of Auckland Business School

A sustainable housing ladder: The entry and exit affordability of shared-equity homeownership

Senior/Established Researcher

• Winner: Dr Lydia Cheung, Massey University Business School

An empirical analysis of the competition in print advertising among paid and free newspapers

• Runner-up: Dr Mathew Parackal, Otago University Business School

Dynamic transactional model: A framework for communicating via social media

Māori and Pacific Researcher

• Winner: Dr ‘Ilaisaane Fifita, University of Auckland Business School

The Role of Identity in Resisting Tobacco Smoking

Early Career Researcher

• Winner: Dr Daniel Tisch, University of Auckland Business School

Can we communicate more effectively to farmers about climate change?

Senior/Established Researcher

• 1st prize: Associate Professor Bevan Catley, Massey University Business School

Breaking the Badness: How to Successfully Manage a Complaint of Workplace Bullying

• 2nd prize: Professor Emeritus Kerr Inkson, University of Auckland Business School

Board Directors and the Swamp of Compliance

• 3rd prize: Associate Professor Rachel Morrison, Auckland University of Technology Business School

Gendered responses to open-plan offices: Objectification theory at work

• Indigenous and boundaryless careers: Cultural boundaries in the careers of Māori academics
• A sustainable housing ladder: The entry and exit affordability of shared-equity homeownership
• Brand Activism: What, when, where and how, translating theory into practice
• An empirical analysis of the competition in print advertising among paid and free newspapers
• A sobering picture: alcohol access and criminal behaviour among young Kiwis
• How do New Zealand’s agricultural cooperatives positively impact climate change? By getting farmers, managers and scientists in the same room
• Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Do Gender Differences Matter?
• Enhancing Pasifika Students Success in Accounting Education
• Cracking the code: Unravelling how New Zealand's traditional industries commercialise technology
• Youth Crime, Fatherhood and the Role of Ethnicity
• The Heterogeneous Impacts of Widespread Upzoning: Lessons from Auckland, New Zealand
• David and Goliath: Micro-Influencers versus Mega-Influencers
• Seven strategies for recruiting Pacific People as research participants in a post-Covid world
• Are Bad CEOs Good for Firm Performance?
• Can a single concussion increase the risk of criminal behaviour?
• A taxation approach to reduce pollution in Auckland