Associate Professor David Tweed BAgrSc, DipAcc, DipBusStud, MBA, PhD

For two years as MBA Director I led the strategic development of the Executive MBA degree and oversaw its operational delivery nationwide.  I helped secure AACSB re-accreditation, led AMBA re-accreditation for the MBA programme achieving Massey’s best ever result, worked with the School of Aviation to successfully conclude the delivery of our MBA to a cohort of students from Qatar Airways, and implemented a wide range of improvements to the programme and its delivery.  Achieved a significant improvement in financial performance year on year delivering  an increase in bottom-line operating profit.

For four years I led the Executive Education portfolio in the Massey Business School.  Our applied programmes included offerings in strategy, planning, governance, and leadership.  During that time we worked in support of boards and senior management to improve governance, strategy, solve difficult problems, and improve business models that build value and bottom line profitability.  We also engaged in advocacy, mediation, facilitation, and ongoing management coaching.  Cornerstone clients included New Zealand’s largest company and, in partnership with The Treasury, directors on the boards of many of New Zealand’s State-owned Enterprises.  I continue to lead a governance development initiative with Fonterra.

My business and consulting experience is in the areas of strategic planning, governance, business development planning, and management coaching. I served eight years on the board of MASH, an NGO in the health sector employing more than 100 staff.  I have two current governance roles as an independent director.

Professional affiliations and memberships include the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants (CA college), the Institute of Management NZ, the Australia and NZ Academy of Management, the Academy of Management (USA), and the Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute (NZ) for which I was a national council member for two years.

My PhD investigated business performance measurement and business failure, incorporates longitudinal data spanning seven years, and won a best thesis award.  Part of PhD investigates the notion that failure rates are high for small enterprises; a common conclusion in the extant scholarship and an idea that appears to be informed by good quality research conducted over a long period of time.  Unfortunately prior scholarship on the subject has often failed to establish a strong empirical basis for the conclusions reached, and yet the papers are well written and quote many highly-regarded sources.   The high failure rate assumption is perpetuated through poor knowledge discovery processes that sit behind strong academic and scholarly traditions.  An important question arising from this work is whether wider scholarly activity and conclusions are being undermined by the same dynamic.

Research grants include $675,000 to undertake a three-year study to investigate technology uptake in small manufacturing businesses and $474,500 to study new economy companies in biotechnology, IT and video imaging over a four year period.