Finding Purpose In Higher Education: Insights From The Distinctive Career Of Professor Rajani Naidoo, Howard Thomas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The author explores Professor Rajani Naidoo’s inspiring journey in higher education, marked by advocacy, leadership, and a commitment to social justice. Born in apartheid South Africa, Rajani’s formative experiences with inequality shaped her lifelong dedication to equity in education. Her academic path took her to the University of Bath, where she directed the International Centre for Higher Education Management, emphasising interdisciplinary research and ethical leadership. Now Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Exeter, she drives cultural change and inclusivity. Rajani’s work challenges competitive norms, advocates global collaboration, and envisions universities as agents of societal good. Her story exemplifies purpose-driven academic …

An Empirical Test Of Auction Efficiency: Evidence From Mbs Auctions Of The Federal Reserve, Pietro Bonadi, Ali Hortacsu, Zhaogang Song

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

PurposeWe estimate the marginal cost curve of each dealer in each auction, based on structural models of the multiunit discriminatory-price auction.Design/methodology/approachAuction theory has ambiguous implications regarding the relative performance of three formats of multiunit auctions: uniform-price, discriminatory-price and Vickrey auctions. We evaluate the performance of these three auction formats using bid-level data of the Federal Reserve’s purchase auctions of agency MBS from June 2014 through November 2014.FindingsOur results suggest that neither uniform-price nor Vickrey auctions outperform discriminatory-price auctions in terms of the total expenditure. However, Vickrey auctions outperform discriminatory-price auctions in terms of efficiency, with the efficiency gain around 0.74% …

Regulating Adaptive Medical Artificial Intelligence: Can Less Oversight Lead To Greater Compliance?, Jiayi Lai, Liang Xu, Xin Fang, Tinglong Dai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

As of June 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 950 medical artificial intelligence (AI) devices. The current regulatory framework freezes AI algorithms after approval, requiring new submissions for updates to ensure compliance with Good Machine Learning Practices (GMLP). This approach imposes a significant administrative burden, while hindering the ability of AI algorithms to learn from new data. To address these challenges, the FDA has explored a novel pathway known as Predetermined Change Control Plans (PCCP), allowing developers to outline future changes during initial submissions and exempting approved changes from regulatory review. Yet, the impact of this …

Making An Impact While ‘Muddling Through’: Conversations With Anne Tsui, Anne Tsui, Howard Thomas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article chronicles the inspiring journey of Anne Tsui, a leading management scholar and advocate for responsible research. Born in China and educated in the U.S., Tsui overcame challenges to pursue a transformative academic career. Her contributions span three phases: pioneering organisational behaviour and HR research in the U.S., advancing Chinese and international management at HKUST, and championing the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) initiative. Guided by her vision of research serving society, Tsui emphasises inclusivity, sustainability, and humanity in business education and research. Her story exemplifies resilience, compassion, and purpose in advancing meaningful academic impact.

Dispositional Optimism, Sleep, And Trait Affective Mediators: A Latent Variable Approach, Nicole Ruiying Chen, Nadyanna Binte Mohamed Majeed, Adalia Yin Hui Goh, Paye Shin Koh, Jonathan Louis Jie Sheng Chia, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Dispositional optimism has been shown to be associated with better sleep. However, most existing studies rely on subjective assessments of sleep, which may not align with objective assessments of sleep. Additionally, research investigating the mechanisms underlying the association between optimism and sleep is lacking. Moreover, the confounding role of possible content overlap in measures relevant to the constructs of interest has been neglected. To address these gaps, we utilised latent variable analysis and investigated the mediating role of depression and trait anxiety across two large-scale studies (total N = 2312), with objective sleep measures included in Study 2. In Study …

From Sustainable Agriculture To Sustainable Agrifood Systems: A Comparative Review Of Alternative Models, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper reviews, compares, and critically evaluates two broad groups of sustainable agriculture models: “sustainable agriculture” and “sustainable agrifood systems”. The “sustainable agriculture” models—comprising organic farming, regenerative agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, carbon-capture agriculture, and nature-based solutions—focus primarily on improving ecological sustainability through farm-level practices. These models emphasize reducing external, industrial inputs, enhancing biodiversity, and promoting climate resilience, relying on technological and market-based solutions to address environmental concerns. On the other hand, the “sustainable agrifood systems” models—agroecology, alternative food networks, and permaculture—offer more ambitious visions of systemic transformation. These approaches not only seek to implement environmentally sound practices but also aim to …

Cultural Contexts Differentially Shape Parents’ Loneliness And Wellbeing During The Empty Nest Period, Andree Hartanto, Lester Wei Xiang Sim, Davelle Jing Yi Lee, Naydanna M. Majeed, Jose C. Yong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The coming decades will see a substantial increase in the population of older adults, accompanied by significant demographic and family structure changes worldwide. As a result, the empty nest period—the postparental phase in parents’ lives when their children have left home and they are no longer engaged in childrearing—is becoming an increasingly common experience in Western and Asian cultures. The current theoretical review examines the psychological consequences of the empty nest period on loneliness and well-being across cultures, emphasizing the impact of cultural factors on these experiences. By synthesizing research from Western and Asian contexts, we explore two primary theoretical …

What Have Corporations Got To Do With It? A Political Economy Approach To Organizations And Climate Change, Annika Rieger

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Ecological issues are often seen as only one of the many “problems” societies face today, even though they go deep and affect everything – from physical disruption and displacement to perhaps more subtle long-term changes in temperature, flora, and fauna that alter the face of the planet and the norms of everyday life. As a result of this view, the study of the environment has been siloed into the realm of “environmental sciences” with a few “environmental fill-in-the-social-science-blank” subfields scattered about. This is not to say that only “environmental” problems are important, but that across all disciplines and subfields, greater …

Ai And Data Science For Public Policy, Kenneth Benoit

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Artificial intelligence (AI) and data science are reshaping public policy by enabling more data-driven, predictive, and responsive governance, while at the same time producing profound changes in knowledge production and education in the social and policy sciences. These advancements come with ethical and epistemological challenges surrounding issues of bias, transparency, privacy, and accountability. This special issue explores the opportunities and risks of integrating AI into public policy, offering theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses to help policymakers navigate these complexities. The contributions explore how AI can enhance decision-making in areas such as healthcare, justice, and public services, while emphasising the need …

The Promise And Perils Of Debtor-In-Possession Financing: Lessons From The United States, Kenneth Ayotte, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The ability of viable but financially distressed firms to obtain new financing to keep operating and pursuing value-creating projects is one of the most critical aspects for a successful reorganisation. Unfortunately, when a company becomes insolvent, lenders are rationally skeptical to extend credit. To address this problem, the United States Bankruptcy Code adopted a system, known as debtor-in-possession (‘DIP’) financing, that seeks to encourage lenders to extend credit to financially distressed firms.[1] This is done by providing DIP lenders with different forms of priority that may include a new lien, a junior lien, a senior lien, an administrative expense priority, …

Law-Aware Autonomous Driving, Yang Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Autonomous driving systems (ADSs) necessitate comprehensive testing prior to deployment in Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). High-fidelity simulators are crucial for this testing, as they can replicate a wide range of scenarios, including those that are difficult or dangerous to recreate in real-world conditions. While previous approaches have demonstrated that test cases can be generated automatically, they often focus on weak oracles (e.g., reaching the destination without collisions) and fail to assess whether the journey was conducted safely and in compliance with some complex property specifications such as traffic laws. In this dissertation, beyond assessing basic properties like energy consumption and proximity …

Does The Monitoring Effectiveness Improve After Busy Independent Directors Become Less Busy? — A Quasi-Experiment From China, Hui Gao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The importance of independent directors is well-recognized both in academic literature and among regulators. This dissertation leverages the introduction of the Management Measures for Independent Directors of Listed Companies (hereafter the Measures) in China, which reduces the maximum allowable concurrent directorships from five to three, to investigate whether fewer directorships allow independent directors to devote more time and attention to enhancing their monitoring effectiveness.

Prior literature offers mixed findings on the impact of busy independent directors on corporate governance and firm value, with no clear consensus on whether multiple directorships affect their oversight capabilities. Analyzing data on independent directors’ votes …

Beyond Borders, Beyond Boundaries: How Globalization Affects Real Estate Prices, Ritu Mehlawat

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In this comprehensive study, we aim to investigate the impact of Globalisation on house prices globally. Our analysis spans annual data from 42 countries, including OECD and some Non-OECD countries, from 1991 to 2021. Our research underscores the role of Globalisation in shaping house prices, with distinct impacts contingent on the type of Globalisation. Financial globalisation, which primarily encompasses capital flow coupled with enabling regulatory environment, is one of the drivers of house price increases. Conversely, Interpersonal, and Informational globalisation, which mainly involves the physical or virtual proximity of people supported by favourable conditions, has a negative effect on house …

Towards Trustworthy Recommendation Systems: Beyond Collaborative Filtering, Zhongzhou Liu, Zhongzhou

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Recommendation systems have been widely deployed in various scenarios and applications, such as e-commerce, social media, and streaming services. Recommendation systems have significantly influenced how we interact with various items in a wide range of platforms. They help users discover their preferred items and provide efficient and enjoyable experiences. They also help item providers and platforms to quickly find their potential customers, thus increasing the total revenue and user engagement.

The majority of existing recommendation systems merely focus on the matching between users and items, aiming for higher recommendation accuracy. Collaborative filtering is regarded as one of the most successful …

Contactless And Scalable Approaches For Human Health And Performance Sensing, Ngoc Doan Thu Tran

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Human health and performance sensing has been extensively studied, from physiology to mental health and movement analytics. However, typical approaches rely on invasive and contact sensors or require professional practitioners, limiting their scalability. For example, the gold standard for measuring heart rate is through an electrocardiogram (ECG), which requires multiple probes attached to the skin and is impractical for individuals with skin issues. Additionally, it typically needs to be performed in a hospital setting under the supervision of a trained cardiac physiologist. Depression detection often relies on the expertise of psychologists or psychiatrists. However, there is a shortage of these …

Food Computing: Domain Adaptation And Causal Inference, Qing Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation addresses two challenges in food computing: food recognition and food image-to-recipe retrieval. The main research ideas are: (1) leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) to augment food image representations to mitigate the combined challenges of domain gaps and data imbalance in fine-grained food recognition; (2) proposing a causal-theory inspired cross-modal representation learning formulation for reducing the bias caused by the emphasis on certain ingredients for cross-modal recipe retrieval; and (3) extending the framework to incorporate multiple confounding factors, particularly ingredients and cooking actions, allows for more comprehensive modeling of the food image-torecipe retrieval problem.

We first explore the challenges …

Optimal Har Inference, Liyu Dou

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper addresses the problem of deriving heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust (HAR) inference for a scalar parameter of interest, under the assumption of a known upper bound on data persistence. Finite-sample optimal tests are derived within the Gaussian location model, revealing that robustness-efficiency tradeoffs are primarily determined by the maximal persistence. With a suitable adjustment to the critical value, the equal-weighted cosine (EWC) test emerges as nearly optimal, wherein the long-run variance is estimated through projections onto q type II cosines. This approach establishes a direct link between the choice of q and persistence assumptions, accompanied by adjustments to the …

A Practical Guide To Driving Financial Inclusion Through Cbdcs, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Welcome back to our blog series exploring the potential that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) hold to positively impact individuals that are currently unserved or underserved by financial systems globally. Together with Professor Wang, we first delved into the challenges and opportunities of driving financial inclusion, and how CBDCs could serve as an important mechanism in ensuring that no one is excluded from financial services – or our increasingly digital economies and societies. In our second blog we then examined how CBDCs can be intentionally designed to drive financial inclusion. In this third and final piece, Professor Wang offers a …

Getting On Board With Incentivising Esg, Shai Ganu

Asian Management Insights

What gets rewarded gets measured and done. Shai Ganu, Managing Director and Global Leader of the Executive Compensation and Board Advisory business at WTW, discusses the increasing adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics in structuring executive compensation. He explores how incorporating ESG goals into incentive plans drives accountability and aligns leadership performance with long-term sustainability objectives.

China In The Unclos And Bbnj Negotiations, Yesterday Once More?, Nengye Liu, Shirley V. Scott

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper compares China’s stance during the UNCLOS negotiations – the starting point of contemporary law of the sea, with its engagement in the latest development of BBNJ negotiations. It answers the question, how does China participate in these two important rules-making processes of the international law of the sea? By identifying salient positions China took in each set of lengthy negotiations and explaining the reasons behind, the paper also aims to reflect what a rising China may bring to the international legal maritime order in the foreseeable future. The first part of this paper, on the nature of China’s …

Strategic Cross-Subsidization In Healthcare Capitation Programs: Evidence From Medicare Advantage, Zhaowei She, Turgay Ayer, Bilal Gokpinar, Danny R. Hughesd

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: : This study identifies a resource misallocation problem in Medicare Advantage (MA), the United States' largest healthcare capitation program, which may result in discrepancies between patients' health status and the healthcare resources allocated to them. Methodology/results: : Utilizing a large commercial insurance database with claims from more than 2 million MA enrollees, this research investigates the allocation of MA capitation payments. By exploiting an exogenous policy shock on MA capitation payments through a difference-in-difference design, we find empirical evidence of an illegal practice known as "cross-subsidization." This practice involves MA health plans strategically reallocating portions of the capitation …

Addressing Governance Challenges Of Digitalisation And Sustainability: The Case Of Central Bank Digital Currency, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Digitalisation and environmental sustainability are widely discussed topics. However, their nexus remains underexplored and can pose significant challenges for governments and industries alike. The environmental implications of digitalisation are becoming increasingly pertinent with the advent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their inherent energy consumption and production of e-waste. On the other hand, digitalisation could potentially support sustainability efforts. This begs the question of how systems of governance, such as regulatory frameworks and internal organisational governance, should harmonise digitalisation and sustainability goals. Such harmonisation entails ensuring that digitalisation processes are environmentally responsible while exploring how the application and features …

Punishing Individuals Who Complied With Intolerably Unjust 'Laws' In Predecessor Regimes, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Suppose a 'law' required individuals to report neighbours of a certain race for extermination. If individuals complied with such a 'law' to avoid the penal sanction of a death sentence, should a tribunal involved in the process of transitional justice in a successor regime punish them? Radbruch suggests that intolerably unjust 'laws' are not legally valid. According to Radbruch's Formula, reporting the neighbour would not be justified by law. The logical implication of this Formula is that the act of reporting was, in substance, abetment to murder (or possibly, genocide). Yet, punishing individuals who complied with the purported 'law' in …

Sustainable Development Principles And The Global South In The Context Of Planetary Change, Michelle Lim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The principle of sustainable development is thus a part of modern international law by reason not only of its inescapable logical necessity, but also by reason of its wide and general acceptance by the global community.

Vice-President Weeramantry, Separate Opinion, Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary v Slovkia), 1997 ICJ Rep 7 (25 September), p 95.

A Review Of The 2023/24 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is the 10th annual review1 of Singapore’s performance in international moot court competitions.2 In the highest-tier or Grand Slam competitions,3 SMU won the International Criminal Court world championship for the 5th time (increasing its lead as the tournament record holder for the most world championships), won the Lachs Space Moot world championship in Milan after winning the regional title in Tokyo, and reached the Price world championship final in Oxford for a record 7th time. Other notable results include SMU winning the Refugee and Migration Moot in its debut, winning the Fletcher Insolvency Moot for a record 3rd time, …

Media Use, Interpersonal Communication, And Personal Relevance As External And Internal Representations Of Climate Change, Sonny Rosenthal, Pengya Ai

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Personal relevance is a key driver of individual climate action. It is also related to media use and interpersonal communication, which the current study examines from two perspectives. First, individuals may find climate change personally relevant because they experience it vicariously through the media and other information sources. Second, they may engage with climate change information because the issue is personally relevant. This study tested these models using structural equation modeling of online survey data from representative samples in Singapore (n = 1,997) and the United States (n = 2,009). Findings supported both models, albeit the first one more strongly. …

Human Sensors In The City Of Super Apps: Mobilizing People As Infrastructure For Smart City Development In Jakarta, Indonesia, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In this paper, we argue that contextual factors such as availability of infrastructure, socio-cultural characteristics of users, governance style, and the regulatory environment in global south cities creates opportunities for public and private sector actors to come up with innovative strategies to smart city development and the platformization of services. Despite different objectives, operationalization strategies, and expected outcomes between the public and private sectors, both sectors learn from one another to come up with innovative solutions for navigating contextual contingencies. Due to limited infrastructure and contextual diversities in global south cities, digital platforms require significant and specific forms of groundwork …

Chinatown, Part Five? ‘Capitalism With Asian Values’ In Vancouver: Commentary On Elvin Wyly’S ‘Regarding The Pain Of (Indigenous) Others, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In this commentary on Elvin Wyly’s ‘Regarding the Pain of (Indigenous) Others’, I comment on the absent ontology of Asian subjectivities in urban studies of neoliberal global cities. Wyly’s account of neoliberal Vancouver hellscapes frames racial formations and narratives of dispossession as formed by capital. Asian subjectivities, I argue in this commentary, are also flattened by narratives of capital into purely economic subjects, but what Wyly’s reading of Vancouver opens up, I also hope to show, is the possibility of tracing the complex life stories of Asian capitalist characters in Vancouver’s neoliberal hellscape. In this way, Wyly avoids the trap …

Mitigating Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Ageing Residential Buildings Using An Urban Digital Twin Dashboard, Pradeep Alva, Martín Mosteiro-Romero, Clayton Miller, Rudi Stouffs

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

With the increasing stock of ageing infrastructure and resource constraints in Singapore, related risks and carbon emissions can be mitigated through long-term resilience planning, automated building inspection, and effective maintenance. Sustainable actions are needed to maintain Singapore's ageing infrastructure. Hence, a state-of-the-art control and management system is required in the form of smart city digital tools. We introduce an Urban Digital Twin (UDT)—GHG App for decision-makers in Singapore's operational building greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation and decarbonisation initiatives. Based on multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), a Potential for Intervention (PFI) map was created to rejuvenate the building system. Decision-makers can use …

A Dynamic Urban Digital Twin Integrating Longitudinal Thermal Imagery For Microclimate Studies, Vasantha Ramani, Marcel Ignatius, Joie Lim, Filip Biljecki, Clayton Miller

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Recently, the concept of a digital twin for the built environment has received significant attention due to its potential benefits to urban planners, engineers, and designers. The development of tools that aid in integrating real-world physical systems with digital capabilities is essential for advancing digital twin technology. In this work, we present one such digital twin tool that integrates the longitudinal thermal envelope data of buildings on the campus of the National University of Singapore with a virtual 3D model. Thermal images of the buildings were captured using a neighborhood-scale infrared observatory for a few months. The temperature profile of …