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This chapter explores the theorising practices of successful researchers in higher education. The biographical case studies use teaching and learning as their focus to provide four succinct accounts of how the researcher’s thinking around their signature concepts evolved over time. They analyse the narrative that surrounds these signature concepts to understand what successful researchers do with their ideas to maximise their symbolic capital in the higher education research field. The researcher’s experiences of theorising highlight the contextual factors that have influenced them as they tried to explain how they achieved the outcomes of their research. The chapter concludes with an overview of the beneficial strategies used in these four cases, so potential researchers can appreciate the approaches to theorising that are compatible with higher education research traditions.

The purpose of this study is to examine variables explaining students’ positive and negative experiences of groupwork and connect country of residence with the perception of generic skills development and self‐reported satisfaction with groupwork. It also aims to examine the effect of prior training in groups from the perspective of Australian and Non‐Australian permanent residency Business students.

Respondents were 389 undergraduate and postgraduate Business students at an Australian metropolitan university. A path model was developed and analysed using partial least squares modeling.

Students’ country of residence had a significant influence on reporting of generic skill development and experience of groupwork. Self‐reported improvement in generic skills after groupwork assessment was associated with reporting of fewer negative and more positive aspects of working in groups.

The findings were limited by using data collected from students enrolled in one undergraduate and one postgraduate subject at the conclusion of a group assignment from one university. Future research should test the model by extending it to other universities and non‐Business units. Future research should rely on a longitudinal design, where the survey is carried out at the beginning and the end of the group assessment.

It is important to ensure both domestic and international students acquire generic skills through groupwork and that prior training in groupwork takes place before group assessments.

The study provides empirical evidence supporting the incorporation of generic skill teaching into academic practice prior to assigning groupwork to students.

This paper presents a new constructivist model of knowledge development in a case study that illustrates how a group of postgraduate students defined and evaluated effective postgraduate supervision. This new model is based on “personal construct theory” and “repertory grid technology” which is combined with interviews and group discussion. It is argued that this approach leads to a more meaningful interpretation of results and facilitates formative evaluation and professional development of supervisors. In this case study we discuss details of our evaluation method and its benefits and limitations. We explain how this approach enables both supervisors and students to participate actively in research and development activities, to develop their own constructs or theories of effective supervision, and to communicate their suggestions for improvement. Further applications of this constructivist model to postgraduate supervision practice and to research in higher education are suggested.

This study aims to provide an empirically informed view on the auditing profession’s readiness to embrace “disruptive” technologies. Relying on evidence from Big 4 employees in Italy, this study examines the factors that motivate auditors to use blockchain technology (BT).

To this aim, this study uses an integrated theoretical frame merging the third version of the technology acceptance model (TAM3) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The analytical model is based on an application of the structural equation modelling with partial least square estimation on data gathered through a Likert-based questionnaire.

The findings reveal that the main predictors of auditors’ intention to use blockchain are performance expectancy and social influence. Moreover, auditors’ effort expectancy in relation to this technology implementation and use appears to be a reasonably reliable predictor.

This paper contributes an evidence-based view to the discussion on the impact of automation and disruptive information and communication technologies, on the roles of accounting and auditing professionals. It uses a novel approach to analysis by integrating TAM3 and UTAUT within its theoretical model. It complements and extends the field of studies on technology acceptance by offering fresh insights into auditors’ perceptions. Finally, the paper highlights practical implications for business leaders aiming to use the advantages of BT in audit firms.

The historical study aims to trace moves towards professionalising university teaching in the era of post‐war expansion in higher education using the University of Auckland, New Zealand, as the specific case study.

The historical analysis draws from published papers and original documents chronicling the state of teaching abilities in New Zealand in the late 1950s and 1960s and also draws from the University of Auckland's own archives.

University teaching by the early 1970s was no longer a private matter. Facing greater accountability from the New Zealand government and university students over the quality of teaching, New Zealand universities responded by creating professional development units to enhance the teaching capabilities of their academic staff.

This case study adds to the emerging histories of higher education academic and staff development units in Australasia and the United Kingdom. It demonstrates the growing realisation amongst academics, students and policy makers in the 1960s that lecturers could not be entirely left to their own devices given the potential harm poor teaching could have on student performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the actions of the accounting profession, the state, universities, and academics have inhibited the development of South African accounting research.

A multiple history approach using traditional archival material and oral history is used.

Since the late nineteenth-century, a network of human and non-human actors has ensured that accounting education in South Africa retained a technical focus. By prescribing and detailing the accounting syllabuses required for university accreditation, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and its predecessors exercise direct control over accounting education. As a result, little appetite exists for a discipline based on academic enquiry or engagement with international scholars. While the SAICA claims to support accounting research, this support is conditional on its meeting the professional body’s particular view of scholarship.

The limitations associated with this research are that it focusses on one particular professional body in one jurisdiction. The South African situation provides a cautionary tale of how universities, particularly those in developing countries, should take care not to abdicate their responsibilities for the setting of syllabi or course content to professional bodies. Accounting academics, particularly those in a developing country currently experiencing major social, political, and economic problems, are in a prime position to engage in research that will benefit society as a whole.

Although actor network theory has been used in accounting research and in particular to explain accounting knowledge creation, the use of this particular theoretical lens to examine the construction of professional knowledge is limited. This study draws on Callon’s (1986) four moments to explain how various human actors including the accounting profession, the state, universities, and accounting academics, along with non-human actors such as accreditation, regulation, and transformation, have brought about South African academic disengagement with the discipline.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether an undergraduate business program that rapidly introduced sustainable development into its curriculum, without an overall curriculum revision, was effective in terms of student engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and what factors were most important for deepening student interest.

This study used a pre-test/post-test design at one academic institution, in several different core courses, offered multiple times over three years, to assess the effectiveness of the curriculum approach taken.

Including a significant, SDG-focused assignment in an existing business course increased student learning about the SDGs, student curiosity about the SDGs and students’ feelings of competence to advance the SDGs after graduation. Having a faculty member who can make a strong business case for the SDGs increased student commitment to the goals. These positive outcomes were consistent across business school majors and were not specific to particular courses or faculty.

Data in this study were collected at the course level and did not contain information to identify unique students across the pre- and post-tests. Given the long timeline for curriculum change at the institutional level, these findings provide a way forward for business schools and business school faculty who desire to react quickly to bring these topics into management education.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use survey data collected over multiple semesters to test whether course-level interventions increase student engagement and interest in the SDGs.