Business, commerce and management

“

I really like the atmosphere at Flinders. Studying and balancing life is stressful enough to begin with, but the staff and students here are friendly and relaxed, which allows me to concentrate on succeeding and excelling in my degree."

Andrew Kinyua, Bachelor of Commerce

Learn more about our MBA program

Learn more about our Bachelor of Business (online)

Be future-focused

We recognise careers are evolving and the workplace of the future will look very different from today.

We’ll prepare you for graduate success by providing you with the personal enterprise skills necessary to enhance your creativity, embrace innovation, and think like an entrepreneur. You’ll gain an understanding of the forces of disruption, using new technology and business models to succeed in the industries of today, and challenge the industries of tomorrow.

NVI’s new suite of innovation and enterprise topics is provided and supported by Temple University’s Fox School of Business, a U.S. top ten business school for entrepreneurship (Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine, 2016). You can complete a business degree specialising in innovation and enterprise, or add these cutting-edge electives to any degree.

Ground breaking research

Working lives set to be transformed

Professor John Spoehr's research shows about 40% of work tasks are likely to change in next decade.

When are apps worth paying for?

Dr Lara Stocchi has led a project examining the factors that make one app succeed over another.

Solving the resources curse

Dr Thanh Le is examining why developing countries with the most resources are often the poorest.

Key teaching strengths

Professor John Spoehr

Professor John Spoehr is Director of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute at Flinders University.

Professor Spoehr has over 25 years’ experience as a social and economic researcher, and currently leads a multi-disciplinary team focusing on industry and workplace transformation in the context of technological change and innovation.

Professor Spoehr has found a new ‘home’ at Flinders at Tonsley campus, the $120 million advanced technology and research building that offers a new direction for engineering, business and work in the 21st century. This campus has become the home of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute, created by Professor Spoehr to build bridges between disciplines and identify new frameworks for industrial development.

Dr Lara Stocchi

Dr Lara Stocchi is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Flinders Business.

Dr Stocchi held positions at Loughborough University (UK), an Nottingham University (UK), Università Carlo Cattaneo LIUC (Italy) and the University of South Australia.

She is an experienced researcher in two key marketing fields: consumer buying behaviour and consumer memory. In the area of consumer buying behaviour, she has experience in modelling and anticipating patterns in purchases for different contexts (e.g. Fast Moving Consumer Goods, as well as services). In the area of consumer memory, she has done research in modelling memory associations towards products and brands, as well as examined the cognitive processes that characterise information retrieval.

Other areas of research interest include marketing education, digital marketing (consumer perceptions of mobile applications), branding and the measurement of brand performance, and advertising effectiveness.

Dr Thanh Le

Dr Thanh Le is Senior Lecturer in Economics at Flinders Business.

Dr Thanh Le joined Flinders Business in 2016 from School of Economics at The University of Queensland. His research areas include:

economic theory
macroeconomic theory
applied economics
applied macroeconomics
economic development and growth
time-series analysis and forecasting

Dr Ashok Manoharan

Dr Ashokkumar Manoharan is a Lecturer at Flinders Business.

Dr Manoharan has an interdisciplinary background. He completed his PhD from University of South Australia in 2015. He was awarded Australia Postgraduate Award (APA) scholarship from Australian Commonwealth Government and Top Up scholarship from University of South Australia. His thesis explored the relationship between organisational culture, diversity management and organisational effectiveness in the context of Australian hotels.

Dr Manoharan has valuable overseas experience in teaching, training and consultancy . He has taught various management courses (Strategic Management, People Organisation and Leadership, Research for Business Decision Making) at postgraduate and undergraduate level in Australia and India. He also has an extensive industry experience in training call centre employees in Australia and providing consultancy for hospitality firms.

Dr Joanne Earl

Dr Joanne Earl is MBA Program Director at Flinders University.

Dr Earl joined Flinders Business in January 2016 as an Associate Professor after 9 years in the School of Psychology at UNSW. She is a Registered Psychologist, and a member of the Australian Psychological Society.

She is passionate about making retirement a positive experience for all Australians. Her program of research focuses on promoting retirement planning for workers at both the individual and organizational level along with identifying predictors of retirement adjustment for retirees. She regularly appears in the press and on radio talking about her research.

You will find her LinkedIn profile and hear her speaking about the application of psychological research findings to retirement planning on YouTube.

Dr Philip Palmer

Dr Philip Palmer has completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) with Honours and a PhD in Accounting.

He has served as first year coordinator and coordinator of the Accounting and Finance Undergraduate and Masters programs at Flinders. He has written a number of journal articles, conference papers and presentations as well as supervising a number of PhD students.

Dr Palmer has extensive finance industry experience, having worked in a bank for 14 years and as a commercial banking analyst for much of this time before joining Flinders, giving him an in-depth industry understanding.

Dr Palmer’s research interests are financial reporting in not for profit entities, international accounting standards and Financial Reporting more generally.

Anne Gleeson

Anne Gleeson brings insights from her diverse accounting career to her role as a lecturer in Business and Accounting at Flinders University.

Ms Gleeson worked as a Management Accountant, Commercial Manager and Finance Manager in private industry over the course of a decade before moving into academia.

She has taught a wide range of economics, accounting and finance topics at undergraduate and postgraduate level over more than 15 years and has been responsible for developing teaching materials which are now used in a wide range of contexts.

Ms Gleeson has helped develop the CPA accreditation course’s Global Strategy and Leadership and has conducted research into aspects of sustainable Indigenous economic development. Her current research interests are in improving teaching and learning in higher education, building international competencies in higher education students, pre-requisite skills for higher education skills and efficacy of different teaching and learning practices. She also researches professional skill development in students and early career accountants.

She has completed a Master of Business Administration and is a Certified Practicing Accountant.

Dr Rong Zhu

Dr Rong Zhu completed a Bachelor of Economics before coming to Australia and completing a PhD in Economics.

His research interests include labour economics, health economics and applied econometrics.

In 2011 Dr Zhu began working in research roles with the National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS) at Flinders University. Together with team members in NILS, he has worked on an ARC Discovery Project and projects commissioned by the Australian Council of Learned Academies Secretariat, Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, Commonwealth Grants Commission, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Fair Work Commission, National Centre of Vocational Education Research and NSW Department of Education and Communities.

He has written 17 journal articles and 9 government reports. In 2016 he became a lecturer with the Flinders Business School.

Enquire about studying with Flinders Business

How to apply

Be career-ready

As part of your degree, you can build skills and networks through a work placement or industry project to gain the real world experience you need when you graduate.

The ability to test their knowledge and develop their workplace skills by working with real companies is critically important not just to get a job, but also to learn problem-solving skills relevant to the future.

As part of your Flinders Business degree, you will have the opportunity to spend part of your study time with industry, applying your new knowledge and testing yourself in real world situations. This will help you build skills and professional networks that you can immediately put to good use when you graduate.

Work integrated learning

Listen to Kyle discuss his work placement at McDonald's

Mark Thomson talks more about industry projects at PwC Adelaide

“

I enjoyed my industry placement at BankSA. It helped me develop professionally and personally. The program I created during my placement is currently in the process of being rolled out and I cannot wait to see the impact it will have. University has taught me that if I want to learn and grow, I need to push myself and get out of my comfort zone.

Marithe Solis Bachelor of Commerce (Advanced Leadership and Accounting/Finance)

“

Graduate jobs often require experience in the industry, my work placement in marketing at McDonald’s gave me the opportunity to make lasting connections and work across different projects. It prepared me for my future career by giving me insights into the industry and the opportunity to apply my studies in a practical scenario. I loved getting a ‘taste’ for the fast food industry and I hope to gain employment in a position that allows me to be creative, visionary and innovative.

Kyle Miecinski Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and Bachelor of Commerece (Finance) student

“

The MBA program at Flinders gave me the ability to position myself for the next step in my career. The exposure and foundational knowledge across a wide range of business topics will allow me to move forward quickly in my field. The teaching linked theoretical concepts to real world examples that made the course interesting and relatable. Undertaking a health stream within my program has given me the opportunity to consolidate and grow my level of understanding into topics that are relevant to my current role and any future career change.

Alex McKenzie Master of Business Administration (Health)

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I am from Darwin and chose to move to Adelaide because Flinders had such a good reputation. As part of my Business course I went on the Indonesia Study Tour in 2015 where we traveled through remote Indonesia including Jogjakarta and Jakarta learning international business topics at the University of Indonesia. I also lived in Florida for 6 months at University of South Florida and it was the highlight of my course. A Bachelor of Business is so broad it relates to many different industry sectors, it has been invaluable to my career so far and has launched me into my role as a consultant in recruitment.

Eloise Nicholson Bachelor of Business (Marketing) student

“

My placement with BT Financial Group gave me practical, real-world experience working in the financial services industry whilst providing insights into career development avenues beyond graduation. The variety of placement experiences offered was vast – from pure accountancy positions, to project management and business improvement roles. I was able to put theoretical knowledge in to practice, gaining a better understanding of which career paths are available to me, and how to pursue my career objectives. In Australia the employment opportunities available to individuals are as much dependent upon practical experience and industry contacts as academic success, I feel the industry placement has prepared me well for my future career.

Philip Eate Master of Accounting student

Graduate success stories

Kyle Miecinski now works at the SANFL as a Corporate Partnerships graduate

Ashir Jilani now works as a Project Analyst at Statewide Super.

Host organisations

Flinders Business partners with more than 100 industry hosts. As part of your degree, you could have the opportunity to do work placement at one of the Big Four accounting firms, internationally recognised FMCG brands, South Australian government departments, and large banking and finance institutions.

Examples of host organisations

How to apply

Be your own boss

Are you a budding entrepreneur who wants to make an idea a reality?

Venture Dorm is a practical and intense 12-week entrepreneurship education program offered to Flinders Business students through the New Venture Institute (NVI).

By pairing students with local business mentors, it provides an educational environment for people who want to learn how entrepreneurs build new ventures and then create one themselves.

New Venture Institute (NVI)

NVI is the centre of innovation and entrepreneurship at Flinders. Through their programs and activities they inspire, connect and educate future generations of entrepreneurs and innovators.

The aim of the Venture Dorm program is to find a viable business model for a start-up idea and develop it within 12 weeks. The program is an experiential process that includes:

Guided one-on-one each week by experienced individuals
Opportunities to test your start-up concept in the real world
Learn key entrepreneurship principles such as Lean Startup, Customer Development and the Business Model Canvas.

The program will help you develop the mindset and skills to survive and thrive in the rollercoaster world of new venture creation, providing skills you can use for the rest of your life.

Learn more about NVI.

NVI's lifetime impact (as of June 2017)