Professor Alison Parkes

Faculty: School Independent
Position: Executive Dean
Contact: aparkes@mit.edu.au
Campus: MIT Wide
Google Scholar/LinkedIn: profile

Bio

Professor Alison Parkes is a distinguished academic leader with extensive experience in higher education and professional consultancy. As of February 2025, she serves as the Executive Dean at Melbourne Institute of Technology, bringing her expertise to enhance the institution's academic programs and strategic direction. Prior to this role, Professor Parkes was the Dean at RMIT University from February 2020 to February 2025, where she successfully developed and integrated multidisciplinary programs in Accounting, Business Analytics, and Information Systems.

Her global perspective, gained from working in Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia, enriches her understanding of diverse educational and business environments. Known for her commitment to academic excellence, Professor Parkes has designed and delivered executive education programs for international clients. Notably, she led a significant Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) sponsored project, collaborating with senior government officials to redesign the Ministry of Finance's finance systems in Iraq.

A prolific researcher and author, Professor Parkes has secured over $700,000 in competitive research grants and published numerous influential works, including a leading textbook on Accounting Information Systems. Her research primarily focuses on the theme of reliance on technology, applying a theoretical lens of task-technology-individual fit.

Before transitioning to academia, Professor Parkes held various accounting roles in audit, tax, and corporate reporting with PwC and Rio Tinto. She advanced into technology-focused positions, culminating as Project Director for Financial Systems at Queensland Rail, where she managed a large-scale SAP implementation and the conversion of financial systems from cash to accrual accounting.

Professor Parkes' diverse experience across academia and industry underscores her dedication to enhancing educational practices and financial systems on a global scale.

Qualifications

University of Melbourne
  • PhD (2001 - 2008)
Massey University
  • MBS(Hons) (1998 - 2000)
University of Wollongong
  • BCom (1982 - 1987)

Teaching

none

Experience & Research

Melbourne Institute of Technology
  • Executive Dean (Feb 2025 - Present)
RMIT University
  • Professor/Dean (Feb 2020 - Feb 2025)
La Trobe University
  • Head of Department, Accounting & Data Analytics (Jan 2018 - Mar 2019)
  • Associate Professor (Jan 2017 - Mar 2019)
Taylor's Business School
  • Associate Professor / Director MBA (Feb 2015 - Dec 2016)
University of Melbourne
  • Senior Lecturer (Jan 2001 - Jan 2015)

Publications

  • Parkes, A. (2017). The effect of individual and task characteristics on decision aid reliance. Behaviour & Information Technology, 36(2), 165–177.
  • Kurnia, S., Constantinidis, D., Parkes, A., & Seddon, P. B. (2017). Is there a prescription for strategic IT decisions? Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 7(1), 1–8.
  • Kurnia, S., Constantinidis, D., Parkes, A., Tamm, T., & Seddon, P. (2017). A preliminary testing of the strategic IT decision-making model. In Information and Communication Technologies for Development: 14th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference (pp. 1–14).
  • Moniruzzaman, M., Kurnia, S., Parkes, A., & Maynard, S. B. (2016). Business intelligence and supply chain agility. arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.03511.
  • Parkes, A., Considine, B., Blount, Y., & Olesen, K. (2016). Accounting information systems. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Parkes, A. (2016). A critical success factors model for business process implementation. Taylor’s Business Review, 6, 15–37.
  • Parkes, A., & Milton, S. (2015). Online activity and electoral outcomes. Communication, Politics & Culture, 48(1), 18–34.
  • Tamm, T., Seddon, P. B., Parkes, A., & Kurnia, S. (2014). A model of strategic IT decision-making processes. In Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Information Systems.
  • Pesina, J., Beaumont, T. J., & Parkes, A. (2014). In-house creation of video in higher education: A worthwhile endeavor. International Journal of Learning and Media, 4(3–4).
  • Parkes, A. (2013). The effect of task–individual–technology fit on user attitude and performance: An experimental investigation. Decision Support Systems, 54(2), 997–1009.
  • Parkes, A., & Milton, S. (2013). Brand power: Social media and electoral outcomes. In Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems.
  • Considine, B., Parkes, A., Olesen, K., Blount, Y., & Speer, D. (2012). Accounting information systems: Understanding business processes. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Parkes, A. (2012). Persuasive decision support: Improving reliance on decision aids. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 4(3), 2.
  • Parkes, A., & Davern, M. (2011). A challenging success: A process audit perspective on change. Business Process Management Journal, 17(6), 876–897.
  • Davern, M., & Parkes, A. (2010). Incommensurability in design science: Which comes first—theory or artefact? In Information Systems Foundations (p. 75).
  • Parkes, A. (2010). Designing effective decision support using decisional guidance.
  • Parkes, A. (2009). Persuasive decision support: Improving reliance on decision support systems.
  • Parkes, A. (2008). Task, complexity, decisional guidance and decision aid reliance.
  • Davern, M. & Parkes, A. (2008). User behavior and decision making: The role of decisional guidance in decision support.
  • Pan, G., & Parkes, A. (2006). Successfully turning around a failing e-procurement project: Lessons from a UK Borough Council.
  • Parkes, A. (2004). A case study of workflow implementation success factors.
  • Parkes, A. (2002). Critical success factors in workflow implementation. In Proceedings of the 6th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems.
  • Parkes, A. (2000). Is a picture worth a thousand words? The use of non-text items in information systems research. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 8(1).