The BSI team came together for a fun and educational afternoon recently, learning about each other's knowledge of international food and cooking skills with a pot-luck lunch on the Nathan campus. Dishes included Singaporean chicken curry, vegetarian biryani, Indonesian beef rendang, gulab jamun, dumplings, watermelon salad, vegan lasagne and more.

A new study is underway to explore the benefits of robotic technologies for enhancing wellbeing,  independence, and quality of life of older adults from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. An expert team, led by Associate Professor Gloria Ge and Associate Professor Stephanie Schleimer has successfully completed the first trial of the study at Gold Coast. 

A team of academics have created an online educational resource “ENTERPRISE + STEM” to help girls imagine their potential futures through educational materials and showcasing talented women who have turned their passion for STEM into enterprising careers. Associate Professor Naomi Birdthistle, along with colleagues from Swinburne University and the University of Tasmania, has recently completed a year-long research project funded by the Invergowrie Foundation in Melbourne, Victoria.

Recently, a novel coronavirus pneumonia (2019–nCoV) outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China, rapidly spreading first to the whole country, and then globally, causing widespread concern. On 31 December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission released a report stating that 27 cases of pneumonia had occurred in Wuhan. These pneumonia patients were associated with the Wuhan South China seafood market and, according to the initial analysis, the disease was viral pneumonia.

Since beginning the Griffith University intergerational care project in 2017, the interest in intergenerational programs has grown immensely and there is a ground swell with building momentum within child care and aged care sectors, governments and among the general community. Program Lead, Professor Anneke Fitzgerald stated that one of the questions most commonly asked while conducting the research was: “How do we get an intergenerational program up and running in our service?”

Rural women from a range of backgrounds aspire to start and grow enterprises but face socio-cultural barriers to success. Associate Professor Naomi Birdthistle from the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation has joined colleagues in a research project to identify promising ways forward to overcome these barriers. 

A group of 10 women entrepreneurs from across India completed an intensive week-long bootcamp as part of Griffith University’s program titled ‘Going Global – Enhancing the Intercultural Business Capabilities of Queensland and Indian Women Entrepreneurs’, led by Dr Dhara Shah and Professor Michelle Barker.

Startup accelerators are fixed-term, cohort-based programs that include seed investment, networking opportunities, mentoring, educational components, and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day to accelerate growth. Accelerator programs have become one of the most powerful and valuable resources for entrepreneurs seeking to learn rapidly, build powerful networks, raise capital, build their startups… and do it at speed and scale.

At the recent Australasian Business Ethics Network (ABEN), Clare Burns, PhD candidate and sessional academic in the Department was awarded an ABEN-Ecstra grant to research ethical decision making in financial markets. The grant allocation was competitive and underwent international peer review.

A new report launched in Canberra last month, written by PhD Candidate, BSI Rebecca McNaught, Dr Wesley Morgan,  Sally Baker, Fulori Manoa and Jope Tarai argues that the Australian Government’s push to finance infrastructure in the Pacific must ensure positive and lasting development outcomes. Pictured above is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade panel which focused on ‘NGOs and Civil Society’ at the ANU Australasian AID Conference 2020 including two co-authors, Sally Baker (far left) and Rebecca McNaught, (far right).

We spend a lot of time talking of the need for innovation within workplaces... but before innovation can be implemented, creativity needs to occur. BSI PhD candidate and sessional lecturer, Clare Burns talks  with Dr Cathryn Lloyd, founder of Maverick Minds, to discuss managing creativity  in organisations - it can be a reality - even for people who insist they are not the creative or innovative type.

Many people work towards their dream of creating and steering their own company but few achieve that only a few short years after graduating, and then look to expand internationally. Griffith University Masters of International Business graduate Jacob Hansen Karaduman proves it is indeed possible, and hopes to inspire others to follow his footsteps. He has shaken up the Scandinavian loan industry as co-founder and director of fin-tech company Enklare, which now employs around 150 people.

Visiting the construction site of the first Australian purpose-built intergenerational care facility in Wellington in New South Wales was on the agenda for Professor Anneke Fitzgerald and Dr Katrina Radford from the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation who delivered a workshop on intergenerational care to members of the aged care facility.

The International Scholarship Collaboration (ISC) program was a joint effort by Griffith University and Australia Award Indonesia, aimed at building collaboration between Indonesian education scholarship providers, as well as enhancing international partnerships with Australian education providers. The program ran from September 2019 to February 2020, with pre-course, on-course, and post-course elements. 

Associate Professor Naomi Birdthistle recently delivered a course on Business Consulting in the Global Economy to students at Aalto University-Mikkeli campus. The focus of the course was on the nature and role of business consulting, along with specific issues common to business consulting. It is an applied course in which students act as ​consultants for businesses that may have an international focus and have identified a ​problem or opportunity that needs solving. 

Dr Amanda Daly attended STAMP 2020 in Suva, Fiji to learn more about Pacific culture and the Australia-Fiji relationship. Topics includes partner collaboration; local logistics; risk and safety; cultural engagement; and working in the Pacific.

Associate Professor Tapan Sarker recently facilitated a workshop on sustainability and systems thinking in for the Postgraduate Program in Management at the Management Development Institute, Murshidabad after presenting a session on research identity and impact pathway at the 13th Indus Business Academy international conference "Markcon 2020" at Bengaluru, India.