DR MEENA CHAVAN Bcom, Mcom, PhD (International Entrepreneurship/Business),SFHEA

Research Expertise: International Entrepreneurship,International Business /Management, Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management, Cross-Cultural & Intercultural Management, Diversity Management,Experiential & Engaged Education & Application of Technology, AI and Gaming solutions to Business and Education.

Meena holds the position of a Senior Lecturer, Program Director Master of International Business at the Macquarie Business School. Prior to academia, she worked as a Merger & Acquisition auditor with KPMG and Ernst & Young. She has a BCom degree majoring in Accounting and Auditing and Business Management, an MCom degree majoring in Advanced Accounting and Auditing and Business Administration, a PhD in International Entrepreneurship/Business and she is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Her Ph.D. dissertation is an empirical resource-based study exploring international migrant entrepreneurs in Australia. This research has produced the first Australian model for Ethnic Migrant Business Creation - "The Productive Diversity Model", which measures the value of a multicultural migrant workforce to bolster "International Business" and export earnings through links to their country of origin.

Focussed in the discipline of International Management/ Business & Entrepreneurship, Meena is an ardent and dedicated broad-spectrum Business/Management Researcher. The hallmark of her scholarship strategy is applying multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives to understand and explain broader business issues so that it complements and exemplifies her highly integrated practice and outlines her participation in industry-based research, grants and teaching.

She publishes in the areas of International Entrepreneurship, International Business/Management/ Business/Cross Cultural management,Experiential L&T and on the Emerging market of India and digital technology. Her research involves understanding the unique aspects of the institutional and cultural contexts on firm strategies. She conducts research on global themes that impact multinational corporations and small business : Internationalisation strategies, relational capability building, emerging markets, social enterprises and sustainability, inequality, urbanization strategy, benchmarking, institutional distance, intercultural interaction and migration to name a few. Her work focuses on the interplay of macro, micro and meso factors in Internationational Business.

She is an interculturalist and a Fellow member of the 'Intercultural Academy of Intercultural Research'. Within this stream, Dr. Chavan’s focus has been on developing intercultural competence and cross-cultural leadership development, building intercultural capacity, developing strategies for inclusion and diversity, intercultural conflict management in multinational corporations, conscious decision-making for improving cross-cultural competency in diverse workplaces and enhancing the employment opportunities of people from culturally, sexual and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and people with a disability. She is the recipient of the best paper award for her paper “Diversity makes good business” at the 50th International Council for Small Business conference in Washington.

Her research has been published in top-tier ranked journals such as Habitat International, International Journal of Intercultural Relations,Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Australasian Journal of Information Systems,International Migration, Health & Social Care in the Community,European Business Review.

She is an advocate of experiential learning and adopts an experiential teaching style. Her innovative approach to teaching has earned her a Vice Chancellors citation for sustained leadership in experiential and work integrated learning approaches for the transformation of students into employable graduates with strong social and community value. She is passionate about curriculum design through digital technology for the 21st century, as she believes that the style of teaching and learning for the Zee generation is far from similar to the learning styles of the baby boomers.

She has demonstrated excellence in her record of successful supervision of HDR students with a track record of timely and publishable completions. She has supervised 8 PhD students and more than 15 Hons students and 10 Masters Theses to date. She is the  recipient of five consecutive Best Paper Awards at distinguished conferences as follows: AoM (2017), EURAM (2016), ANZAM (2015), IHRM (2015) and ICSB (2005).
Dr Chavan has been a regular contributor to the media on topical issues on India Australia Trade Relations, Indian Mining firms in Australia, Migrant Business and Management of Diversity. Her opinion pieces have been featured by the Chronicle- Magazine, The Asian Miner Magazine, CPA Publication, Queensland Multicultural office Publication.

She currently serves as the Associate Editor Journal of International Education in Business and on the editorial board of the European Journal of International Management, Journal of Business Ethics Education and the Journal of Global Marketing journal . She has worked on research projects on Migrant Employment and Women Entrepreneurs with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Global Labour Organisation on Indian labor and mobility studies. Meena is a member of the Centre for workforce futures research group and the Macquarie ageing and aged care research network (MAACRN) at Macquarie University which provides an important platform for researchers in diversity management, ethics and migration in the business context, bringing together academics, the business community, and representatives from government. 

HDR SUPERVISION AND COMPLETIONS

PhD theses supervised to completion as Principal Supervisor at MQ

1. Sandra Hartl. (2020)(Submitted). Cross-cultural conflict management in transnational corporations.

2. Ashna A. Chandra  Analysis of the international business practices of small and medium enterprises in developing and least-developing nations (Fiji).

3. Rene Abel, Cotutelle student. (2017). Organizational ambidexterity in German, Australian and Indian firms: Inter- and intra-organizational networks. Associate Supervisor: Prof. Indre Maurer, Gottingen University, Germany.

4. Dominik Chahabadi, Cotutelle student. (2016). The Internationalisation Strategies of German Renewable Energy Firms into Developing and Emerging Markets. Associate Supervisor: Prof. Indre Maurer, Gottingen University, Germany.

5. Somayeh Alizadeh, MQRES PhD Scholarship. (2015). Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC) in Healthcare System and the effects of ICC on Patients' Satisfaction and Medical Providers' Performance. Associate Supervisor: Prof. Lucy Taksa.

6. Choon Hwa Lim. (2014). The role of culture in the structured selection interview process. Associate Supervisor: Prof. Lucy Taksa.

HONOURS THESES: SOME SAMPLES OF SUPERVISED HONS THESES TO COMPLETION AS PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR (MORE THAN 10 SUPERVISED)

1. Jürgen Astl. (2012). Productivity, efficiency and growth of the renewable energy sector: A cross country study.
2. Sudeep Bhale. (2010). Social entrepreneurship regional growth & sustainability in India.
3. Hsin-Hsin Lu. (2005). A best-practice model for expatriate management: Taiwan.
4. Anna Henrikson. (2004). Australian and Swedish companies doing business in East and South East Asia: The gap between sales and investments.

CURRENT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISION OF HDR STUDENTS

1. Ankit Surana, MRes Year II. (Projected: 2023). Internationalisation of tech/digital entrepreneurs: A network perspective Continuation into PhD awarded  MQRES PhD Scholarship 2021

2. Athira Bahuleyan PhD. (Projected: 2022). Australian university spinoffs: Challenges and growth strategy.

3.Swati Awana: Circular startups - Inhibitors