Summer Research Projects

Project duration and delivery

Six weeks full time hours (36 hours per week). 
It is preferable if the student can meet face-to-face at least initially. Remote working can be negotiated. 

Project overview and significance of the study

Following the pandemic, many organizations continue to offer employees the flexibility to decide where and when they work. Hybrid work, where a person works some of the time from an office / workplace and some of the time from home, works well for some employees but brings challenges for others. This project involves analysing data from our industry partner to investigate the impact of hybrid work on work characteristics, trust, diversity and inclusion. The scope of work will likely involve literature reviews, statistical analysis, feedback reports or presentations to the industry partner, and contribute to future project planning (e.g., ethics applications).

Expected outcomes and deliverables

This placement will give the student the opportunity to develop knowledge around work design, trust, diversity, and inclusion. The student will also develop data analysis and interpretation skills, as well as other research skills such as literature searching and reviewing. The student will develop both written and verbal communication skills, including how to communicate findings to industry, through report writing and summarising results and findings. 

Suitable for:

This project would be ideal for applicants with a background in psychology, especially Masters and Honours students. 

Primary Supervisors

Dr Caroline Knight

Further information

If you would like more information, please contact Caroline Knight: caroline.knight@business.uq.edu.au

Project duration and delivery

Six weeks, 36 hours per week. St Lucia, with hybrid/remote working arrangements possible.

Project overview and significance of the study

This study investigates how organizations address societal concerns regarding modern slavery in supply chains and operations. Modern slavery includes multiple forms of people exploitation such as forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking. It is explicitly addressed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8, target 8.7. (United Nations, 2015). Given its importance, the trend of mandatory reporting on modern slavery risks is on the rise worldwide. Prior research has concentrated on high-risk sectors like manufacturing, revealing limited adherence to the transparency criteria.

Centered on the Australian Modern Slavery Act (2018), this project assesses evolving disclosures in under-researched vulnerable sectors like hospitality and tourism-related transport. The research aims to uncover textual and visual narratives vis-à-vis organizational effectiveness in addressing the risks, thus contributing to the literature on social and environmental accounting. 

Given that accounting for modern slavery is an area of growing concern globally, participation in this research offers the applicant the opportunity to contribute to an impactful research project with practical implications for the industry. 

Expected outcomes and deliverables

The selected applicant will strengthen her/his data collection and qualitative analysis and interpretation skills, critical reasoning, ability to work independently, and knowledge of human rights and modern slavery. The student will also have the opportunity to familiarise her/himself with analytical software such as MAXQDA.

The applicant will work closely with the supervisor to gather the documentation and test and refine the qualitative coding framework (a system that consistently categorizes information) through literature review and coding a sample of documents. Upon the performance and demonstrated results, the applicant may have an opportunity to engage in a publication from this research in the later stages of the project.

Suitable for:

This project is open to applications from students with a background in business, communication, accounting, tourism, and hospitality. We are looking for 4th-year undergraduate or 2nd-year post-graduate students who are familiar with research methods and have an interest in human rights or the social responsibilities of organizations.

To engage in qualitative content analysis, prospective candidates should have strong organizational skills and meticulous attention to detail for capturing subtle nuances and variations in statements. Additionally, they should exhibit adaptability to modify the analysis approach and the willingness to revise the analysis if required.

Primary Supervisors

Dr Mireia Guix

Further information

If you would like more information, please contact Dr Mireia Guix: m.guix@uq.edu.au

Project duration and delivery

The project duration is six weeks. Applicants will be required to work on the project for 20-36 hours per week.
 
The successful applicant will be required to meet face-to-face with the primary supervisor at the beginning of the project and may be required to hold interviews and focus groups at the St Lucia campus. Some of the work (e.g., a literature review and ethics application) can be completed remotely. 

Project overview and significance of the study

There is evidence that the percentage of Research Higher Degree (RHD) candidates in Australia who identify as having a disability is increasing, yet few researchers have explored their lived experiences in the higher education system. The studies that do exist are small and typically do not capture the experiences of candidates studying outside of the UK, Europe and the United States.

The current project focuses on understanding how disabled RHD candidates in Australia and New Zealand navigate their candidature. The specific research questions are:

1. What are the major challenges that disabled RHD candidates encounter during their scholarly journey?
2. How do these challenges impact their mental health and wellbeing?
3. How can universities better support disabled RHD candidates? What policies and practices need to be put in place to facilitate candidate wellbeing and academic success?

Expected outcomes and deliverables

The successful applicant will gain experience writing literature reviews, developing an ethics application, creating interview and focus group questions, participant recruitment, and (time permitting) qualitative data collection. The applicant may also have the opportunity to conduct preliminary qualitative data analysis. The outcomes of the project will include conference presentations and book chapter/journal articles.

Suitable for:

The student must have a high degree of professionalism and sensitivity. They must also have strong attention to detail, excellent time management skills and the ability to work on tasks with minimal supervision. Experience working with disabled people or lived experience of disability is desirable but not essential. Some knowledge of qualitative data collection methods would be helpful. 

Primary Supervisors

Dr Marissa Edwards

Further information

If you would like more information, please contact the primary supervisor with questions: m.edwards@business.uq.edu.au

Project duration and delivery

The applicant is expected to commit approximately 30 hours per week to the project. While this six-week project does not require the applicant to work on campus, a weekly meeting is scheduled with the supervisors to discuss progress.

Project overview and significance of the study

The research aims to investigate the impact of price partitioning and bundling strategies on consumer purchasing decisions within the food and beverages (F&B) industry. We conjecture that the diverse reactions to these strategies would be primarily attributable to customers' perceptions of pricing fairness.

Expected outcomes and deliverables

The applicant will acquire essential skills in literature review and experimental design by actively participating in the program. The participant will delve into comprehensive and critical review of literature on price partitioning and bundling strategies within the hospitality industry which subsequently to be used in developing an online experiment. At the end of the project, the student will be tasked with producing, at least, 4000-word report summarising the relevant literature and findings.  

Suitable for:

This project is open to students with backgrounds in hospitality and/or marketing, and a fundamental understanding of accounting. It is ideally suited for those enrolled in a master’s program.

Primary Supervisors

Dr Andy Lee and Dr Byungki Kim

Further information

If applicants would like further information, please contact the supervisors. 
Dr. Andy Lee (a.lee@business.uq.edu.au)
Dr. Byungki Kim (bk.kim@business.uq.edu.au) 

Project duration and delivery

• Duration: The project lasts 6 weeks. 
• Hours of engagement: 36/week, times are flexible and should be negotiated with the supervisor.
• Delivery mode: Flexible, but face-to-face training and weekly meetings are required. 
• Campus: St Lucia and online.

Project overview and significance of the study

Major crises such as the Global Financial Crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, and the Climate Crisis are usually understood as devastating for businesses, economies, and societies. However, there are numerous examples of businesses that have achieved extraordinarily high growth either despite or because of such crises. This Summer Research Project is part of a broader investigation into crises as external enablers of entrepreneurship, investigating specifically how and why some businesses manages to achieve extreme growth during crises while other do not. We collect rich digital trace data about the actions of few specific businesses before, during, and after major crises from a diverse range of sources, including news articles, press releases, company blogs, reports, and social media. We then extract incidents—empirical observations such as product release which can be attributed to a specific point in time—colligate events—theoretical constructs such as expanding into new market which explain incident sequences—and create rich case narratives. Based on iterative comparisons of narratives within and across the focal cases, the research will help build theory on successful crises responses of high-growth business ventures.

Expected outcomes and deliverables

The candidate will receive training from the supervisors and gain hands-on expertise in gathering and analysing qualitative data for business research.  Specifically, the candidate will learn how to collect (especially using UQ Library databases and web scraping, if possible) and manage qualitative data about businesses. The candidate will also learn how to qualitatively code data based on an established codebook as a first step of abstraction and deriving theoretically meaningful findings. Ultimately,  the candidate will be expected to produce rich data about at least one focal business and a modified codebook. 

Suitable for:

The project is open to Honours and Master students in any Business or Management program with a good degree of autonomy and ability to work independently. Ideally, the candidate will already have some experience with traditional qualitative research methods and/or with computational text analysis.

Primary Supervisors

Dr Karolina Mikolajewska-Zajac and Dr Frederik von Briel

Further information

Please contact Dr Karolina Mikolajewska-Zajac (k.mikolajewska@uq.edu.au) before submitting the application.