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Insider trading, workplace safety, Indigenous employment, and mergers and acquisitions are the focus of new research to receive funding in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) grants.

Researchers from The University of Western Australia's Business School received over $1 million worth of funding for seven new projects from ARC's Discovery Project, Linkage Project and Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) schemes.

Professor Millie Chang, Associate Professor Gillian Yeo, Winthrop Professor David Day, Winthrop Professor Cristina Gibson, Winthrop Professor Izan and Winthrop Professor Ray da Silva Rosa are all part of research teams to receive Discovery Project grants, while teams including Winthrop Professor Jill Sweeney and Winthrop Professor Cristina Gibson received Linkage Project grants. Dr Elisa Birch was successful in gaining a Discovery Early Career Research Award.

Insider trading will be the focus of Professor Millie Chang's research project, ‘Share trading by corporate insiders: effects and implications.' Together with Professor Iain Watson from The University of Queensland, Professor Chang will examine trading by corporate insiders in Australian firms with the aim of providing corporate regulators with analysis of firms' disclosure practices and the effect of non-disclosure of insider trades on transparency in the market and investor confidence.

Finding ways in which leaders can encourage employees to work towards and meet safety goals will be the aim of research conducted by Associate Professor Gillian Yeo, Winthrop Professor David Day and Winthrop Professor Cristina Gibson, and the School of Psychology's Winthrop Professor Mark Griffin. The project will investigate how leaders align complex individual goals to develop adaptive safety capability: the capacity of organisations to successfully modify safety systems in the midst of change.

In related research, Associate Professor Gillian Yeo will work with a team of researchers based at The University of Queensland to investigate how people manage competing goals, such as productivity and safety, in a dynamic environment. The results will improve understanding of human motivation and have implications for military, industrial and commercial settings.

How beneficial to shareholders are schemes of arrangement? Winthrop Professor Izan and Winthrop Professor Ray da Silva Rosa, along with University of Technology, Sydney's Associate Professor Martin Bugeja, will examine the use of schemes of arrangement in acquisitions. The results of the project will indicate whether reforms are needed to Australian takeover legislation to create a level playing field between takeover bids and schemes.

In one Linkage project, Winthrop Professor Jill Sweeney will work with a team based at The University of Adelaide to analyse perceptions of the value of financial planning advice. The project aims to help government and industry develop better strategies to encourage those who can benefit from financial advice to recognise and gain value from the service.

Work teams will be the focus of a second Linkage project in which Winthrop Professor Cristina Gibson will work with a team based at The University of New South Wales to understand team learning across diverse settings. The project will examine ways of mitigating contextual challenges to result in sustained organisational performance and
employee wellbeing.

Dr Elisa Birch's Discovery Early Career Research Award project is titled ‘New household economics and the earnings and labour supply of Indigenous Australians.' By linking individuals' labour market outcomes with those of their family members and studying career progress, the project provides new insights into the factors that determine labour supply and earnings for Indigenous Australians. It will also offer a foundation for recommendations for overcoming Indigenous Australians' labour market disadvantages

All seven research projects will run from 2012 to 2014.

More information on research at the UWA Business School can be found at www.business.uwa.edu.au/research .

Media references

Heather Merritt
Director, External Relations
UWA Business School
T: +618 6488 8171
M: 0419 950 027
E: [email protected]

Verity Chia
Communications Officer
UWA Business School
T: +618 6488 1346
E: [email protected]