Staff profile

Dr Richard Pech

Associate Professor

Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

La Trobe Business School
Department of Management

Graduate School of Management, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD (Massey, NZ), MBA, Dip.Bus.Stud.

Membership of professional Associations

RNSA (Research Network for a Secure Australia). IHS (Institute for Human Security)

Area of study

Management

Brief Profile

Dr Pech has undertaken research and consulting services for a variety of organisations in the areas of leadership training, process and product innovation, strategic redirection, restructuring, and change management. Some of these client organisations have included Singapore Airlines, PNG Office of Civil Aviation, Garuda Airlines, the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Police, Abu Dhabi Forensic Evidence Dept, Saudi Arabia Forensic Evidence Dept., members of the Australian optometry industry, and a number of multinational as well as Australian engineering firms, including EarthTech, MWHGlobal, and Southeast Water. 

Dr Pech has authored two books on business strategy and innovation. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Handbook of Business Strategy and a reviewer for four international journals. He has received the following awards:

Literati 2006 ‘Highly Commended Award’ for the article, ‘The increasing cost of corporate governance: decision speed bumps for managers,’ published in Corporate Governance, Volume 6, Issue 2, 2006, co-authored with Dr Chris Durden.  

Literati 2005 ‘Outstanding Paper Award’ for the article “Where the decision-makers went wrong: from capitalism to cannibalism”for the journal Corporate Governance. 2004. Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 65-75. Co-authored with Prof G. Durden.  

Literati 2004 ‘Highly Commended Award’ for the article “Memetics and innovation: Profit through balanced meme management”, published in the European Journal of Innovation Management. 2003, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 111-117.

Dr Pech teaches in the areas of entrepreneurship, business improvement, corporate venturing, and research methods. He also supervises a number of PhD students in areas related to his own research interests.

Research interests

Managerial psychology and decision science

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Teaching Units

Research Methods

Business Improvement

Entrepreneurial Business Planning

Corporate Venturing

Consulting

Business Restructuring

Recent Publications

 

 PhD theses supervised to completion

 

Dr Greg Stamboulidis (2009). An Investigation into Australian Family Firms: A Darwinian Explanation for Entrepreneurial Survival and Success.

 

Dr Bret Slade (2010). Why do organisations resist change? A diagnostic and explanatory framework integrating structuration, memetics, and semiotics.

 

Dr Ummi Salwa Ahmad Bustamam (2011). Growth strategies among small and medium enterprises: Malay entrepreneurial cases.

 

Dr Hanan Al Mazrouei (2012) The evaluation of non-United Arab Emirates Nationals' adjustment to leading in UAE organisations.

 

Dr Ian Bell (2012) The application of the concept of sustainability in the formulation and execution of organisational strategy.

 

PhD theses supervised to completion and awarded with Distinction

 

Dr Frank Lattuch (2011). A management diagnostic approach for assessing innovation capabilities: Empirical evidence from three German family firms.

 

Dr Mike Turner (2011). An investigation into entrepreneurship in the transition economies of Mongolia and Vietnam and the complexities of conducting research in culturally different countries.

 

BOOKS AUTHORED 

  • Pech, R.J. (2009), Entrepreneurial courage, audacity, and genius, Pearson Education, Sydney, Australia. 
  • Pech, R.J. (2002), Making waves: Innovation in business, Pearson Education/Prentice Hall, Auckland, New Zealand
  • Pech, R.J., Pech, R.M. and Tweed, D.M. (2000), Business manoeuvre warfare: Managerial styles and strategies for the twenty-first century, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, New Zealand

JOURNAL ARTICLES PUBLISHED

  •  Zhao, W., Turner, M., Pech, R.J. (2010), Confucian DNA: The Replication of Traditional Philosophical Traits and Characteristics in Chinese Entrepreneurs – A Shandong Province Survey and Analysis, Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, 6, 1, pp. 21-38.
  • Pech, R.J. and Stamboulidis, J. (2010), How strategies of deception facilitate business growth, Journal of Business Strategy, 31, 6, pp. 37-45.
  • Pech, R.J. (2010), Seaworks boss makes his point with a chainsaw, Human Resource Management International Digest, 18, 1, pp. 8-10.
  • Pech, R.J. (2009), Delegating and devolving power: a case study of engaged employees, Journal of Business Strategy, 30, 1, pp. 27-32.
  • Pech, R., and Slade, B. (2007) Organisational Sociopaths: Rarely Challenged, Often Promoted, Why? Scoiety and Business Review, 2(3), pp254-269.
  • Pech, R. and Coate, P. (2007) Interview with Richard Pech: Interview by Patricia Coate, Business Strategy Series, 8(1), pp8-13.
  • Pech, R.J. (2006), "Stress response mechanisms: from single cells to multinational organizations", Dose-Response, August, 4, 3, (e-journal) http://www.dose-response.com/
  • Smith, S. and Pech, R.J. (2006), “A template for commercialising science and facilitating innovation: A case study of Victoria, Australia”, European Journal of Innovation Management, 9, 3, pp. 279-299.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2006), “Religious fundamentalism and terrorism: Why do they do it and what do they want?” Foresight: Journal of Future Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 8, 1, pp. 8-20.
  • Durden, C.H. and Pech, R.J. (2006), “The increasing cost of corporate governance: Decision speed-bumps for managers”, Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 6, 2, pp. 84-95.
  • Pech, R.J. and Cameron, A.F. (2006), "An entrepreneurial decision process model describing opportunity recognition". European Journal of Innovation Management, 9, 1, pp. 61-78.
  • Pech, R.J. and Oakley, K.E. (2005), " Hormesis: An evolutionary 'predict and prepare' survival mechanism", Leadership and Organization Development Journal, pp. 673-687.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2005), "Employee disengagement: Is there evidence of a growing problem?", 2006 Handbook of Business Strategy, 7, 1, pp. 21-25.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2005), "Imitative terrorism: A Diagnostic framework for identifying catalysts and designing interventions", Foresight: Journal of Future Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 7, 2, pp. 47-60.
  • Pech, R.M., Pech, R.J., Wei, D. and Shi, H. (2005), "Innovation through acquisition: The Jiangsu Little Swan Group Company in the People's Replic of China", European Journal of Innovation Management, pp. 107-119.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Business maneuver: Exploiting speed and surprise as key elements for defense and attack, Handbook of Business Strategy 2005, 6(1), 35-42.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Manoeuvre theory: Business mission analysis process for high intensity conflict, Management Decision, 42(8), 987-1000.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Memetic engineering: A framework for organisational diagnosis and development, The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 25,5, 452-465.
  • Pech, R.J. and Durden, G. (2004) Where the decision-makers went wrong: From capitalism to cannibalism, Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 4(1), 65-75.
  • McGregor, J., Tweed, D. and Pech, R. (2004), Human capital in the new economy: Devil's bargain? Journal of Intellectual Capital, 5(1), 153-164.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2003), "Asymmetric competition: Decision processes shaping the future", Management Decision, 41, 9, pp. 883-892.
  • Cameron, A. and Pech, R.J. (2003), "Manawatu knitting mills: A management buy-out opportunity", Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, 9, 2, pp 30-37.
  • Pech, R.J. (2003), "Memes and cognitive hardwiring: Why are some memes more successful than others?" European Journal of Innovation Management, 6, 3, pp. 173-181.
  • Pech, R.J. (2003), "Inhibiting imitative terrorism through memetic engineering", Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 11, 2, pp 61-66.
  • Pech, R.J. (2003), "Memetics and innovation: Profit through balanced meme management", European Journal of Innovation Management, 6, 2, pp. 111-117.
  • Pech, R.J. (2003), "Developing a leadership knowledge architecture: A cognitive approach", The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 24, 1, pp. 32-42.
  • Pech, R.J. and Durden, G. (2003), "Manoeuvre warfare: A new paradigm for business decision making", Management Decision, 41, 2, pp. 168-179.
  • Pech, R.J. (2001), "Termites, group behaviour and the loss of innovation: Conformity rules!" Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16, 7, Nov. pp. 559-574.