Professor Ralf Zurbrugg

Professor Ralf Zurbrugg
 Position Chair in Finance and Business Analytics
 Org Unit Adelaide Business School
 Email ralf.zurbrugg@adelaide.edu.au
 Telephone 831 35535
 Location Floor/Room 12 ,  Nexus 10 ,   North Terrace

  • Biography/ Background

    Academic Profile

    Ralf Zurbrugg is the Deputy Dean of the Adelaide Business School as well as its Associate Head of Research and Discipline Leader for Business Analytics. Ralf has held a number of administrative appointments within the University including as Dean of the Business School and Head of School of Accounting and Finance, as well as serving on academic board. While Ralf has a special interest in Sustainable Finance, much of his research is inter-disciplinary, spanning across multiple research areas. Ralf also serves on the editorial board of several academic journals, is the academic director of the International Centre for Financial Services  and has appeared on television and been regularly quoted in national newspapers over the years.

    Industry and Community Engagement

    Ralf is passionate about advancing financial education and literacy, especially for underrepresented and marginalized groups. He is currently a Chief Investigator at the UNSW-UoA Defence Trailblazer, focused on a program examining ways to improve University-Industry research collaboration and IP commercialization, particularly in the defence sector. Ralf also serves on VC and fund advisory boards with a focus on sustainable finance.

    Ralf also has a substantitive track record in working with a wide range of parties, ranging from assisting Indigeneous communities with financial investments to working with government departments, industry bodies and private companies. He has collaborated with the Financial Services Council of Australia, the Australian Taxation Office, ANZ Bank, Vanguard, Apostle Funds Management, ABP Pension Fund (Netherlands), Pearl Insurance (U.K.), Swiss RE:, the Self-Managed Superannuation Fund Association, HomeStart, CPA Australia, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Department of Treasury and Finance, The Dieri Aboriginal Corporation, The World Bank Group, Chartered Financial Analysts Institute (Singapore) and the Shenzen Provincial Government (China) to name a few. 

    Impact

    As an example of the impactful research Ralf has been part of, please read a case study here on Homeownership Affordability. Also, learn more about the impact Ralf's research has had on the Self-Managed Superannuation Funds industry here.

  • Qualifications

    After graduating with a degree in monetary economics from the London School of Economics, Ralf completed a Masters and then a PhD in financial econometrics from Manchester Business School. Ralf also holds a Graduate Diploma in Higher Education Studies from the University of New South Wales.

  • Teaching Interests

    Ralf is involved in providing expert finance and investment education to members of company and investment boards, particularly in the not-for-profit sector & Indigeneous corporations. 

    At University, Ralf teaches Managerial Finance and Business Analytics to MBA students while overseeing the Business Analytics programs offered by the Business School.

     

  • Research Interests

    As a researcher, Ralf's interests span the breadth of the business field, publishing in accounting, finance, management and marketing journals. He also researches housing markets (with a particular interest in housing sustainability and affordability) and develops computational intelligence applications for the financial markets.

    Current projects that Ralf is working on include:

    • Climate Change and Sustainable Finance
      • Watch Ralf talk about one of his research works on Greenwashing at faculti.net
      • Impact of climate change on insurance contracts (with the Department of Agriculture, Water and the  Environment)
        • Co-Winner of the 2022 Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Award for Innovation and Excellence in Climate Action for this work
      • Just Transitions and Stewardship (with the Electric Vehicle Council and Battery Stewardship Council) 
      • Australian Research Council grant focused on how to detect if firms are carbonwashing
    • Indigenous Financing
      • Ralf works with Aborginal Corporations to support their investment strategies.
    • Adoption of Artificial Intelligence
      •  The impact of AI on firm performance.   
    • Top Management Team Performance
      • What characteristics of TMT members make a good team?

     

     

  • Research Funding

    Ralf has held multiple Category 1 grants, including several ARC Discovery and Linkage grants, plus regularly engages in contract research for industry.

     

    Research Grants & Contract Research 

    ABP Pension Fund. Development of Evolutionary Computation Processes to aid in Stock Selection Picking, with Thuy To, Martin Schmidt, Zbigniew Michalewicz, , 2005-07.

    Financial Services Council. Reporting Methods for Superannuation Performance, with C. Cheong, 2008. 

    ARC-Linkage, Survival of Australia's Family Farms: Capital Raising and Credit Access, with Stringer, R and Canil J. Partner: ANZ Bank, 2009-2013.

    HomeStart Finance. Examination of the Impact of HomeStart loans on the South Australian Mortgage Market, with Mihaylov, G. 2010-2013.

    ARC-Discovery, The Implications for Greying Australia of International Property Market Inter-Linkages, with Gerlach, R. and Wilson, P., 2010-2011.

    ARC-Discovery, Computational Intelligence Methods for Financial Applications, with Z Michalewicz, 2010-2012.

    ARC-Linkage, The Adequacy and Sustainability of Self-Managed Superannuation Funds: Governance, Performance, Asset Allocation, Fee Structure and Compliance, with Yawson, A. and Tretola, J., Partner: SMSFA, 2010-2013. 

    ARC-Linkage, Funding our future: perceptions of the value of financial planning advice, with C Plewa, J Sweeney, and Michayluk, D., Partner: Financial Services Council, 2012-2015.

    HomeStart Finance. Do HomeStart Loans improve homeownership rates in South Australia?, with G. Mihaylov, 2016-2017.

    EU Centre for Global Affairs. Signature research project on corporate governance in Asia, with D Boehe, 2015-2019.

    CPA Australia. Best Practice Governance in the Not-For-Profit Sector, with Coram, P., Kent, P and Yawson, A. 2019-2020.

    SuperConcepts. SMSF Profile Review, with G. Mihaylov. 2019

    Shenzhen Government Innovation Plan Grant. The application of artificial intelligence in financial portfolio management, with Ghandar, A. 2019-2020.

    Electric Vehicle Council and Battery Stewardship Council. Automotive Product Stewardship, with Dodd, T., Hoffmann, A. and Cheong, C. 2022.

    Self-Managed Superannuation Funds Association. Understanding Self-Managed Super Fund Performance, with Mihaylov, G. 2023.

    Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. Climate Change, Crop Insurance Participation and Moral Hazard, with Canil, J. and Mihaylov, G. 2022-2023.

    The World Bank. Ukraine Damage Needs Assessment, with Khomyn, M. 2023-2024.

    Defence Trailblazer. Priority Cultural Transformation Initiative, with Dodd, T., Prior, D. and Mihaylov, G. 2024-2026. 

    ARC-Discovery, Increasing confidence in Australian carbon disclosures, with Canil, J., Cheong, C., Dodd, T. and Liu, C., 2024-2026.

    National Indigenous Australians Agency, Sustainable Financial Management Capacity Building, with The Dieri Aboriginal Corporation, Obaydin, I. and Mihaylov, G., 2025-2028.

  • Publications

     

    Academic Publications

    Ralf has published in leading Financial Times (FT-50) business journals and other outlets, across a number of academic disciplines.

    In finance, this includes Review of Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance and Journal of Banking and Finance. 

    In marketing, this includes Journal of Marketing and European Journal of Marketing.

    In machine learning, this includes IEEE Transactions in Evolutionary Computation and International Journal of Forecasting. 

    In real estate and housing, this includes Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics and Urban Studies. 

    In insurance, this includes Journal of Risk and Insurance and Geneva Papers in Risk and Insurance.

     

    Selected Recent Publications

    A., Hoffmann, C. Cheong, C., HL. Phan & Zurbruegg, R. (2024). So, Sue Me...If You Can! How Legal Changes Diminishing Managers' Risk of Being Held Liable by Shareholders Affect Firms' Likelihood to Recall Products. Journal of Marketing. ABDC A*

    Obaydin, I., Xu, L. and Zurbruegg, R. (2024). The Unintended Cost of Data Breach Notification Laws: Evidence from Managerial Bad News Hoarding. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. ABDC A*

    Nguyen, T.M.L., Cheong, C., Truong, C. & Zurbruegg, R. (2023). Experience of a Job Loss and Analysts' Subsequent Performance. European Accounting Review. ABDC A*

    Wasi, Md, Pham, T., & Zurbruegg, R. (2022). The impact of sovereign rating downgrades on systemic risk: An analysis of the sovereign ceiling policy. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. ABDC A*

    Obaydin, I., Zurbruegg, R., Hossain, M. N., Adhikari, B. K., & Elnahas, A. (2021). Shareholder litigation rights and stock price crash risk. Journal of Corporate Finance. ABDC A*

    Cheong, C. S., Hoffmann, A. O. I., & Zurbruegg, R. (2021). Tarred with the Same Brush? Advertising Share of Voice and Stock Price Synchronicity. Journal of Marketing. ABDC A*

    Obaydin, I., Zurbruegg, R., Brockman, P., & Richardson, G. (2021). The relative number of anti-takeover provisions and the market for corporate control. Journal of Financial Research. ABDC A

    Xu, L., Yu, C. -F. J., & Zurbruegg, R. (2020). The benefit of being a local leader: Evidence from firm-specific stock price crash risk. Journal of Corporate Finance. ABDC A*

    Phan, H. L., & Zurbruegg, R. (2020). The time-to-maturity pattern of futures price sensitivity to news. Journal of Futures Markets. ABDC A

    Liu, C., Cheong, C. S., & Zurbruegg, R. (2020). Rhetoric, Reality, and Reputation: Do CSR and Political Lobbying Protect Shareholder Wealth against Environmental Lawsuits?. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. ABDC A*

    Jaroenjitrkam, A., Yu, C. -F. J., & Zurbruegg, R. (2019). Does market power discipline CEO power? An agency perspective. European Financial Management. ABDC A

    Tan, G., Cheong, C., & Zurbruegg, R. (2019). National culture and individual trading behavior. Journal of Banking and Finance. ABDC A*

    Luo, J., Xu, L., & Zurbruegg, R. (2017). The impact of housing wealth on stock liquidity. Review of Finance. ABDC A*

  • Media Expertise
    CategoriesEconomics & Finance, Real Estate
    ExpertiseFinance, Hedge Funds, Investment Banking

The information in this directory is provided to support the academic, administrative and business activities of the University of Adelaide. To facilitate these activities, entries in the University Phone Directory are not limited to University employees. The use of information provided here for any other purpose, including the sending of unsolicited commercial material via email or any other electronic format, is strictly prohibited. The University reserves the right to recover all costs incurred in the event of breach of this policy.

Entry last updated: Friday, 9 May 2025

To link to this page, please use the following URL:  https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/ralf.zurbrugg