Business

Project 

Are you passionate about AI’s potential? If so, the Strategy and Innovation team at the Business School want you for a special summer project. You will explore how AI-powered personas (digital ‘humans’ drawing upon large language models) can be used to foster entrepreneurial skills spanning financing, market validation, and product development.

Role

– Use common AI tools to craft and test coaching personas.
– Influence the use of AI in entrepreneurial coaching.
– Share your insights to improve user-AI interactions in entrepreneurial contexts.

Benefits
– Gain experience in customising generative AI—a skill future employers seek.
– Opportunity to work alongside academics to influence entrepreneurial education

Requirements
– A passion for experimenting with AI tools like Copilot, ChatGPT and Soul Machines (no need for advanced AI development experience).
– A curious mind eager to explore AI's educational applications.

Embark on a summer of innovation and help us shape the future.

This hands-on experience will not only allow successful students to harness the power of AI tools, enhancing their technical acumen, but it will also offer them a unique opportunity to contribute a student voice to how we develop such applications. This role will allow the student to delve into the practicalities of AI tools without the need for advanced programming skills.

Project 

Group work is integral to university life, often presenting rewarding experiences and frustrating challenges. This project explores how different student group formation methods impact group dynamics, satisfaction, and academic outcomes in postgraduate courses at the University of Auckland. By studying approaches like random assignment, self-selection, and instructor-assigned groups, we seek to identify the most effective strategies for fostering successful group interactions and improving academic performance.

Role

Students will participate in individual interviews and focus groups to share their experiences, while lecturers will provide insights into their methods and conflict resolution strategies. Additionally, we will analyse grades, peer evaluations, self-evaluations, and process logs to assess group performance. The findings will help enhance group work practices, offering valuable recommendations for students and educators.

Join us in contributing to this important research and gaining experience conducting systematic literature reviews and qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Benefits

This scholarship will allow the student to experience a comprehensive research project firsthand. They will play a vital role in completing a systematic literature review and analysing the first round of qualitative and quantitative data, including interview and focus group data, peer review data, and survey responses. They will use various analytical tools, such as SPSS, NVivo, Leximancer, and citation managers like Mendeley or Endnote, gaining proficiency in these applications.

Project 

Revenue growth at international airports is primarily driven by the dual demand from airlines and passengers. Airlines contribute to aeronautical revenue, while passengers enhance non-aeronautical revenues through commercial activities like retail and leasing, which typically comprise 40% to 60% of total revenue at major airports.

Regional airports, however, often face stagnant passenger numbers, limiting revenue diversification and increasing reliance on aeronautical charges. Airports must satisfy diverse stakeholders, including airlines and passengers, navigating complex interdependencies. Regional airports, compared to larger hubs, lack bargaining power and face unique challenges. Future research should explore how regional airports can manage revenue streams and balance the pressures of maintaining airline and passenger satisfaction amid stagnant growth prospects.

Role

The student will identify, critically evaluate, and synthesise key findings from the literature. This task is an excellent opportunity to enhance students’ research skills and understanding of revenue management in the airport industry.

Benefits

The student will not only improve their capabilities in literature analysis but will also learn advanced techniques such as meta-analysis.

Project 

Cultural heritage represents the legacy of human civilisations and validates our identities as nations, communities, families, and individuals. Each community's unique heritage and collective memory are irreplaceable and lay a foundation from past to future. However, in some countries, e.g. in New Zealand, some aspects of cultural history have been impacted by colonialism and underrepresentation.

It requires decolonising to identify and distinguish indigenous narratives. One way to integrate local narratives is 'crowdsourcing', which involves using digital platforms to harness 'wisdom of people' to solve problems and generate knowledge.

Cultural heritage crowdsourcing includes inviting people to correct or enhance collections through tagging, transcribing, translating, etc. This research will explore crowdsourcing initiatives to decolonise history in New Zealand and abroad. We will address agency of crowdsourcing and its implications for stakeholders and communities.

Benefits

Participating in this project will help you gain skills in literature reviewing, qualitative data collection, analysis and synthesis.

You will gain practical knowledge of the research process, including qualitative research techniques and tools. Additionally, you will enhance your analytical thinking, synthesis, and research writing skills, essential for pursuing a research degree or working in research-focused environments. Second, you will learn about unique perspectives of community engagement through crowdsourcing and the decolonisation of cultural heritage.

Project 

This project will examine the impact of retaining target CEOs on M&A performance and whether past and current connections between the acquirer and the target firm enhance or mitigate this impact. Additionally, this project will explore these effects for different types of mergers.

Role

The student will be responsible for extending the current dataset and conducting data analysis. They will contribute to the research participating in weekly or fortnightly meetings with the research team. These meetings will involve discussions on work progress, economic hypotheses, research designs, and empirical findings.

Skills learned

Through this experience, the student will become familiar with US data in the area of corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions, gaining a holistic understanding of data processing and analysis for academic research.

Project 

Are you interested in learning more about expatriates and how they interact with their local colleagues? This project would be a perfect fit for you!

Expatriates are individuals who are temporarily working in a country other than their own. Moving to a new country gives expatriates the opportunity to immerse themselves in a new culture, experience different ways of life and to meet new people. Being an expatriate is thus a great way to learn more about the world.

But being an expatriate is not easy… In the workplace, expatriates often have to interact with local colleagues, who may differ from them, in terms of culture, nationality, ethnicity, linguistics, and other demographic characteristics, which may make the interaction quite challenging.

Role

In this project, we examine how expatriates interact with their local colleagues. In particular, we look at the knowledge that expatriates share with their local colleagues and we try to identify the types of knowledge that they share with each other.

Project 

This project aims to develop a Generative AI (GenAI) tool to enhance student project experience and team collaboration in higher education. By leveraging AI agents that simulate successful team roles and provide mentorship, the project seeks to address challenges in team dynamics and project management through multi-agentic automation.

Role

Specifically, each student could be working with a small team of agents, while collaborating among their human peers in a project at the same time. The tool will also use personality modelling and sentiment analysis to offer personalised support and improve coordination among students. This innovative approach aims to boost student engagement and success in project-based courses through technology-enhanced learning.

Project 

In an era of heightened geopolitical tensions, multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly susceptible to evolving intergovernmental relations and need to address subtle challenges to maintain their business legitimacy. Existing research has underscored the green strategies of MNEs being an enabler for them to avoid legitimacy violations in the global markets, such as adopting renewable materials, fostering green innovation, and other environmental practices. Some studies found that MNEs can leverage the reporting of their green practices to escape their on cage - reducing the liability of foreignness, origin, and outsidership. Some explored the CSR decoupling in MNEs, while others adopted multiple lenses to consider the interaction between politics, environments, and ethics, to study the green practices of MNEs. Despite the extensive literature examining the MNEs'efforts in green transformation, the evidence is mixed and there is a need to reconcile the conflicting findings through a meta-analysis.

Project 

Gamification refers to the application of game design elements and mechanisms in non-game contexts. It holds significant potential for business success by enhancing customer acquisition, engagement, loyalty, and retention.

Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), known for their flexibility, agility, and close customer relationships, could leverage gamification as a business strategy, given their need to implement innovative solutions to stay competitive. However, despite its potential, there is a lack of consensus in the literature on the role of gamification in SMEs, as most studies have focused on large firms.

Role

This project aims to address this knowledge gap by exploring the connection between gamification and SME operations. We will draw insights from both academic literature and real-life business cases to understand how gamification can contribute to the success of SMEs. In doing so, we will develop valuable implications for research and practice.

Project 

Our project investigates individuals' perceptions and ethical concerns about Artificial Intelligence (AI). As AI technology becomes increasingly accessible, its potential for misuse raises significant ethical concerns. We conduct empirical studies to explore how people perceive and respond to AI and highlight the key societal impacts of these technologies.

By examining individuals' responses and attitudes towards AI, we aim to inform better design practices and raise awareness about the ethical implications of AI. Our research highlights the importance of responsible AI development and efforts to create more ethical and transparent AI systems. We believe understanding the balance between innovation and ethics in AI is critical to shaping a future where technology benefits society responsibly.

Skills learned

Students will gain hands-on experience conducting comprehensive literature research, preparing and validating research instruments, recruiting study participants, administering surveys and experiments, and performing statistical analysis using statistical packages.

Benefits

This experience will help students develop advanced research skills transferable to their projects. They will become proficient with essential research tools and gain exposure to key issues in AI, enhancing their career prospects, particularly in a global context. Given the growing interest in AI, this experience will be invaluable for those aiming to work at the forefront of AI innovation and ethics.

Project 

Carbon emissions and carbon leakage are pivotal challenges in the global fight against climate change. Carbon leakage occurs when efforts to reduce emissions in one country inadvertently cause an increase in emissions in another, there by undermining global climate goals.

Role

This project aims to address these challenges. By systematically reviewing existing literature, the project will identify gaps in the application of input-output analysis methodologies in New Zealand. It will explore how these analyses can be employed to understand and quantify carbon emissions and leakage, considering New Zealand's unique economic and environmental context.

The findings will offer valuable insights into the country's carbon footprint and its global impact, essential for informing sustainable policy decisions and strategies.

Ideal student

This project lays the groundwork for future empirical research and is an excellent opportunity for students passionate about sustainability, economics, and data analysis.

Project 

Policies triggered by the RBNZ ACT 1989 induced a swift and substantial inflation reduction. However, the unemployment rate soared from 4% to over 11% immediately afterward. This was in line with the original Phillips curve, which did not consider inflation expectations.

Role

Our research applies the standard macroeconomic model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply, incorporating the expectation-augmented Phillips curve.

Aims

We aim to answer two key questions: Did a flawed economic theory or its misapplication lead to this catastrophic macroeconomic outcome? What could have been a more prudent macroeconomic policy to achieve a similar decrease in the inflation rate without a significant increase in the unemployment rate?

Skills Learned

The student will be trained in the theoretical modelling of inflation in a general equilibrium setup, and will use this knowledge to organise relevant data and conduct econometric tests of competing hypotheses, aligning with alternative specifications of the theoretical model to address these questions.

Project 

Data on the development and growth of the NZ entrepreneurial ecosystem is sparse. Despite the existence of an early-stage capital market since 2002 with the establishment of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund (NZVIF), little is known about the 270+ companies that have received government backed investment either through their venture capital funds of funds model or direct early-stage seed capital.

Role

We are in partnership with New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP formally NZVIF), who are providing the raw data for this project and building on research discussions with Professor Colin Mason who recently visited the MIB department. This project will provide a longitudinal analysis of NZGCP(NZVIF) investee companies from 2002-2023 to determine a collective profiling of companies who generated total or partial losses; breakeven or a percentage rate of return, as well as insights into the nature of their exit (harvest sale, liquidation, PO etc.) and subsequent tangible and intangible returns not only to investors but the eco-system more broadly.

Ideal student

This project will require a self-motivated and enthusiastic student who has research interests in entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ecosystems more broadly. Using NZGCP data the student will be required to organise the raw data (for up to 300 companies over the period 2002-2023) in such a way it can then be easily analysed and presented via tables and figures. Further secondary research may then be conducted on 2-3 case study companies by way of archival data, press releases, reports and other materials.

Project 

Ideal Student

Are you interested in the burgeoning space industry, and firms such as Space X and Rocket Lab? And do you get excited by words like asteroid mining, mega-constellations and space data analytics? If so, this summer scholarship might be for you.

While no pre-requisite knowledge is required to be considered for this project, we are looking for a student who is enthusiastic about deep-tech industries.

Role

You will play a crucial role in enhancing our understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship in the space industry by identifying, collating, and analysing blog posts and other resources. You will work alongside experienced academics and adopt rigorous methods to better understand a burgeoning industry and the mechanism and dynamics that drive its emergence and development.

This will not only foster your understanding of the space sector—and its employment opportunities—but also insights into the complex dynamics behind innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) in high-tech industries.

Project 

The agritech sector—organisations driving sustainable agricultural innovations—is pivotal for addressing global challenges like hunger, industry growth, and environmental conservation. This project investigates how anchor organisations, established institutions such as universities, research centres, large profit-making firms, or government agencies support entrepreneurial activity by providing resources, expertise, and connections to other ecosystem participants.

Role

While we know much about how these anchor organisations support entrepreneurial activity, we know little about how they act collaboratively and coordinate their efforts through business accelerators. We know even less about how those interactions function when profit-driven giants are scarce, and member-owned businesses (cooperatives) predominate.

Join my team to explore how anchor organisations like Zespri, LIC, and Balance Agri-Nutrients, among others, work with business accelerators and other anchor organisations to build better insights to support the entrepreneurial ecosystems around Agritech in Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Project 

We will utilise an already-collected comprehensive Chinese equity market dataset, as well as an innovative concept heat index that captures investor attention by the Chinese investors. Our data set spans more than past 10 years for the now more than 5,000 Chinese A-share stocks.

Role

By studying the concept heat index, we will be able to test hypotheses related to the relationship between investor attention and stock price momentum/reversal patterns. Since we have multiple (~500) concepts, we will be able to produce a meaningful portfolio comprised of multiple concept-index stock portfolios. We can then backtest the performance of these portfolios and better understand how investor attention compounds into asset prices in the form of concept investing.

Project 

Join a summer research project focused on climate change, business sustainability, and country-level resilience.

Role

You will be guided through the initial steps of a systematic literature review and data preparation. You will compile data from diverse sources, assess its quality against certain criteria, and synthesize findings to understand how businesses adapt to climate impacts.

Skills learned and ideal student

This project offers experience in literature review methods and data analysis, guided by an experienced researcher. The project is ideal for students eager to develop research skills and contribute to solutions for climate resilience and sustainable business practices. Candidates that suit this role well are passionate about sustainability, climate policy, and international business.

Project 

Electricity markets solve a complex allocation problem: electricity is not storable, demand is uncertain, and production involves dynamic cost considerations and engineering constraints. The New Zealand wholesale electricity market attempts to solve this complex allocation problem by using an indicative price and quantity discovery mechanism.

Role

Can such a market mechanism provide useful information? How much information can we gather, and can it help us better understand electricity market participants' behaviour? Can we go as far as to test for evidence of market power or possibly abuse of market power?

Project 

AI tools such as ChatGPT offer significant opportunities to enhance teaching and learning while offering equal opportunities for their misuse. Students can easily misuse Generative AI (GAI) tools in a learning environment in ways that do not help them to genuinely learn. Although GAI tools have the potential to transform education, harnessing these benefits is challenging. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning “Comprehension” is the second level of learning after “Remembering”. Comprehension refers to an individual being able to have a basic understanding of the subject matter. GAI tools allow a student to complete the task at hand without gaining any meaningful comprehension of their own.

Role

The student could have interacted with the GAI tool in a much more meaningful way that enhances their learning, such as requesting an explanation or an application of the topic. This project will inform and build on previous summer research, which has generated a peer reviewed publication in a top tier IS conference proceedings.

Project 

We aim to establish an Indigenous Executive Education intensive programme in the rohe of Taranaki. The retreat-style programme would be offered to those in senior governance and management positions.

Aims

The overall aims are to showcase the Taranaki region and Māori business to the world, upskill local talent, and promote international connections.

This summer project will scope and outline the state of current Indigenous executive education programmes. This research will help in understanding the market landscape, evaluating opportunities, and setting the groundwork for strategic decision-making and competitive analysis.

The Māori economy has a long and thriving history making a considerable contribution to the Aotearoa New Zealand economy. Currently valued at around $70billion, it looks to create wellbeing across multiple dimensions: spiritual, environmental, social as well as financial. As such, the holistic and relational approach of Indigenous business has many learnings to offer at national and global levels.

Role and skill learned

The successful applicant will be responsible for conducting initial desk research and producing the report identified above. The student will learn how to develop a referencing system/database through the creation and maintenance of a Zotero library (or other citation/information manager). The project will assist in developing the student’s ability to construct a research trail of primary and secondary sources, and also conduct a detailed competitive analysis. This is an opportunity to build research relationships, learn research skills and develop content knowledge for your future studies.

Project 

Relative to present day, future Sea-Level Rise (SLR) climate change scenarios estimate that up to 200,000 people and 140,00 buildings (residential, commercial, industrial, etc) with a replacement value of $43b are exposed to coastal flooding and inundation at +1.2 m SLR (Paulik et al. 2019).

Current property values do not sufficiently account for these future risks and are likely overvalued because of this. If risk attitude of prospective buyers changes, this can result in a significant price correction in the property market. Changes in the values can be from direct physical damage to buildings or perceived risks of future events. Beyond immediate devaluation of assets held by individuals, the increased severity and frequency of weather events may result in mortgage and insurance retreat as lenders re-evaluate stability of their coastal loan portfolios and insurers face rising claims from owners of damaged properties.

Role

This project will analyse characteristics of people, built assets and mortgages to identify vulnerability of coastal neighbourhoods to risks of insurance and mortgage retreat.

The student researcher will assist with processing of identified datasets and survey of current literature. Under the guidance of supervisors, the student will analyse secondary (existing) datasets within data management applications (e.g. Excel, SPSS) to identify trends and patterns using basic visualisation tools such as frequency tables, cross tabulation, and graphs.

Skills learned

In addition, the student will develop data processing and database management skills essential in their future postgraduate study. If the student wishes to extend their set of skills, they will have an opportunity to gain experience in visualising patterns with mapping of spatial and attribute data in GIS (geographic information systems) applications such as Google Maps or QGIS (optional).

SLR poses a real threat to coastal lifestyle around the world, involvement in this project is a unique opportunity to contribute to our understanding of climate change impacts on people and places where we live, work and play.

Project 

Parenting in the digital age is affected due to the pervasive influence of emerging technologies and disruptions in children's lives. The digital age presents a double-edged sword; while technology offers immense educational and social opportunities, it also introduces health, emotional and safety risks for children. As digital becomes ubiquitous, parents struggle with novel complexities that impact their children's well-being, development, and safety.

Role

In the age of AI, uncertainties and challenges are growing. This research will explore the challenges, implications and opportunities for parents in an AI-augmented digital environment to support their child's development.

Skills learned

Working with us will give you a unique opportunity to gain experience as a research team member. Working on our project will enable you to gain new skills in using various data management and analysis tools. You will apply your knowledge in literature reviewing, data analysis and synthesis, leading to future modelling to understand digital parenting.

This scholarship will allow a student to experience a research project first-hand. The individual, dependent on their skills, will support two different streams of research by first assisting with the classification of the results of an extensive literature search to identify and confirm research gaps in digital resources and solutions for parents.

Secondly, they will survey the online resources and solutions for digital parenting augmented by AI (e.g. websites, apps, online games) to accumulate coverage, opportunities, and practice gaps. In doing so, this individual will have the opportunity to understand the practicalities of the research process (qualitative research techniques and tools) and will increase their ability for analytical thinking, synthesis and research writing skills, all of which are vital preparation for a research degree or working in research-based environments.

Project 

Almost three-quarters of lifelong healthcare costs occur in the last three years of life. Although most healthcare in old age is necessary, many older people/Kaumātua and their families/whānau would decline certain health interventions to live their last days peacefully in their own homes.

Role

This project will explore how costing data can be used to support decision-making related to improving the health service experiences of older people/kaumātua. It will also examine the healthcare costs of alternative end-of-life health interventions.

Role

This project will use cost-benefit analysis and healthcare costing literature to support the analysis of hospital end-of-life costs. Hospital costing data will be analysed to generate patient-level costs for those in their last year of life. The findings of this project will be used to develop a costing framework for supporting healthcare decision-making by older people/Kaumātua and their families/whānau, as well as healthcare professionals.

Project 

Does the world of wine investing look appealing? Before the arrival of the Internet, auctioneers relied on books to show the prices of wine investments. This project will enlarge the world’s largest database of wine auction transactions to use this to gain a better understanding of why wine prices move over time.

Role

The student will help digitize data from books (e.g. Wine Price File) and match it with existing wine transactions from Dr. Gertjan Verdickt. Subsequently, the student will see whether more data is available before the 1980s to extend the dataset even more.