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The UWA Business School's Dean's Best Paper Prize has been jointly awarded to Winthrop Professor Ken Clements, Winthrop Professor Sharon Parker and Winthrop Professor John Watson.

Awarded for papers published in 2012, the Business School Dean's "Best Publication Prize" recognises research excellence in the form of published research.

Dean of the UWA Business School, Winthrop Professor Phil Dolan, congratulated the winners and all Business School faculty on an outstanding year for research.

"In 2012, the federal government's Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative gave UWA a score of five out of five in the discipline sub-grouping of Business and Management, which equates to ‘well above world standard,'" he said.

"This reflects the high quality of research across the School, and the quality of thought leadership that we are providing both locally and internationally."

Winthrop Professor Clements' paper, " Quality, quantity, spending and prices ," co-authored with UWA PhD student Grace Gao, was published in the European Economic Review .

The paper looks at changes in the consumption basket, and how the rates of luxury and necessity goods alter with changes in income. The paper uses International Comparison Program data for more than 100 countries and finds that, on average, the consumption of quality goods increases with income, but at a slower rate than the increase in income. This is attributed to luxuries being relatively more expensive in richer countries, and necessities relatively cheaper.

Winthrop Professor Parker's paper, " Understanding Individual Compassion in Organizations: The Role of Appraisals and Psychological Flexibility ," published in the Academy of Management Review , was co-authored with The Australian National University's Paul Atkins.

The paper argues that to enhance compassion in organisations, the processes by which compassion can be enhanced in individuals must be understood. It goes on to develop an expanded model of compassionate responding and suggests that training in psychological flexibility could help increase organisational compassion.

Winthrop Professor Watson's paper, " Gender Differences in Firm Performance: Evidence from New Ventures in the United States ," was co-authored with Alicia Robb and published in the Journal of Business Venturing . The paper examined more than 4,000 new ventures in the United States for factors including four-year closure rates; return on assets; and a risk-adjusted measure. Contradicting previous studies, the researchers found that female-owned new ventures were equally as successful as male-owned businesses.

Media references

Karen Della Torre (UWA Business School)                         (+61 8) 6488 8538
Verity Chia (UWA Business School)                                   (+61 8) 6488 1346