Digital Commons Network^™

Restore Your Sense Of Control — Despite The Pandemic, Eric M. Anicich, Trevor A. Foulk, Merrick R. Osborne, Jake Gale, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought unprecedented levels of personal and professional upheaval upon many employees. It may irrevocably transform how we work, communicate, eat, shop, date, and travel. Clearly, these are not “normal” times. And yet, society continues to move forward.

Learning From Digital Failures? The Effectiveness Of Firms’ Divestiture And Management Turnover Responses To Data Breaches, Gui-Deng Say, Gurneeta Vasudeva

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine whether firms learn from digital technology failures in the form of data breach events, based on the effectiveness of their failure responses. We argue that firms experiencing such technological failures interpret them broadly as organizational problems, and undertake unrelated divestitures and top management turnover to achieve better standardization and to remove dysfunctional routines. We test our hypotheses on unrelated subsidiary divestitures and chief technology officer (CTO) turnovers undertaken by 8,760 publicly traded U.S. firms that were at risk of experiencing data breaches in- volving the loss of personally identifiable information during the period 2005–2016. We find that data …

Leveraging Digital Technology To Transform Accounting Function: Case Study Of A Sme, Gary Pan, Benjamin Lee

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Digital transformation is taking hold of the processes and systems in accounting at a rapid pace and in a drastic way. With its emphasis on data and analysis, accounting entity is well suited to reap the benefits digital technologies have to offer. With the rapid infusion of digital technologies in accounting entity, the accounting literature has been calling for more empirical studies to examine the way accounting function leverages digital technology to enhance its analytical capabilities so as to obtain deeper business insights. This paper conducts an empirical study to examine the process of a SME's accounting function leveraging data …

Do Firms Adapt To Climate Change? Evidence From Establishment-Level Data, Frank Weikai Li, Yupeng Lin, Zuben Jin, Zilong Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines firms’ adaptation to long-term changes in climatic conditions. Using detailed information of establishments owned by U.S. public firms from 1990 to 2012, we show that higher abnormal temperatures over the previous five years in a county lead to a significant reduction in local employment and the number of establishments. Further tests suggest that the decline in employment and establishments is largely due to a decline in local consumer demand rather than lower labor productivity. We also find that firms more likely take adaptive actions when their managers are more likely to believe in, or are concerned about, …

Optimising Performance: How Jungian Alchemy Informs Organisational Transformation, Nadja Alexander, Michelle Lebaron

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this paper we explore the alchemical possibilities of aesthetics in transforming organizational performance. We ground our discussion in an exploration of how four alchemical elements – earth, water, air and fire – identified in the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, can catalyse transformation. Inspired by Jung, we examine how these elements help us to better build awareness – of ourselves, of others in teams and work groups, and of untapped potential in organizational contexts. By developing greater awareness of aesthetics and their alchemical potential, leaders can better navigate the emergent and complex workings of organizational transformation processes, whether …

Performance Management: Quo Vadis?, Filip Lievens, Philipp Schapers, Christoph N. Herde

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Traditionally performance management has been described as a powerful tool in Human Resource Management (HRM) because it has potentially a wide array of application possibilities for various HR topics. However, the reality in practice is different. Various surveys reported that more than 90 percent of the performance management systems are unsuccessful. Further studies have shown that up to 75% of staff feel that their organization’s performance management system does not help them to improve their performance and is largely a waste of time (e.g., Capelli & Tavis, 2016; Pulakos, 2009). Economic analyses of the return on investment (as compared to …

Political Ideology Of The Board And Ceo Dismissal Following Financial Misconduct, Uisung Park, Warren Boeker, David Gomulya

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Why do some boards refuse to take serious action against CEOs who have committed financial misconduct? Past work has directed attention to the antecedents of misconduct while largely overlooking this question. The relatively few studies to examine it have typically revolved around the capacity of boards to take action, or their relationships to their CEOs. This study instead examines how the beliefs and values held by board members can influence their actions following financial misconduct. Focusing on political ideology, we argue and find that politically conservative boards are more likely to respond by dismissing the CEO than are liberal boards. …

Failures Of Flexibility: How Perceived Control Motivates The Individualization Of Work-Life Conflict, Alison T. Wynn, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Firms have increasingly used flexibility policies to facilitate work-life balance, yet existing research shows that employees are stigmatized for using these seemingly beneficial policies. In this article, the authors identify perceived control, that is, the sense of control employees feel they have over managing their work-life conflicts, as a key factor in their avoidance of flexibility policies. Through 50 in-depth interviews with management consultants from five firms, the authors find that employees frame managing their work-life conflicts as a test of their professional skills, emphasize their “natural” suitability for the consulting industry, use choice rhetoric to reframe oppressive work demands …

Change Management Can Be Simple And Complex, Lalit Jagtiani

Asian Management Insights

The success of any intervention is achieved by winning over the support of staff and aligning team members who are driven by different professional agendas.

That Could Have Been Me: Director Deaths, Mortality Salience And Ceo Prosocial Behavior, Guoli Chen, Craig Crossland, Sterling Huang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Mortality salience—the awareness of the inevitability of death—is often traumatic. However, it can also be associated with a range of positive, self-transcendent cognitive responses, such as a greater desire to help others, contribute to society, and make a more meaningful contribution in one’s life and career. In this study, we provide evidence of a link between chief executive officer (CEO) mortality salience—triggered by the death of a director at the same firm—and a subsequent increase in firm-level prosocial behavior or corporate social responsibility (CSR). We further show that this core relationship is amplified in situations where the death of the …

Making It Work As A Working Mother: The Role Of Paradox Mindset In Positive Appraisal Of Working Motherhood Tensions, Tengjiao Huang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

A prolific body of research on work-family interface documents the simultaneous, yet conflictual demands women face in fulfilling their roles as a career woman and a mother. However, little is known about how women cope with these contradictory tensions associated with working motherhood. This is important as many working women may decide to postpone motherhood to avoid the accompanying tensions. In this light, the current research leverages on the burgeoning literature on paradox management to investigate the role of a paradox mindset in positively appraising tensions to motivate dual career-motherhood endeavors. In positively appraising career-motherhood tensions, a paradox mindset is …

New Perspectives On M&A Research, Zhefei Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Corporate acquisition is among the most important strategic tools wielded by managers to achieve competitive advantage. Acquisition may create strategic values for the acquirer by gaining market power through industry consolidation, diversifying into rapidly growing industries, entering into emerging markets, and most importantly by combining unique valuable resources from acquirer and target. Despite the many appealing aspects of the motive for acquisition, however, meta-analytical studies suggest that though highly beneficial for the target firm’s shareholders, acquisition on average destroys acquirer shareholder values. to understand the determinants of acquisition performance success, it becomes imperative to study the antecedents as well as …

Toward A Typology Of Organizational Creativity, Gilbert Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Both researchers and practitioners realize the importance of organizational creativity as a source of competitive advantage and long-term organizational success. Although, research on organizational creativity abounds, many researchers and practitioners view organizational creativity as a unidimensional construct. This narrow view of creativity limit our understanding on how organizations generate creative ideas to compete in the market. This paper examines organizational creativity using a two-by-two matrix along 2 dimensions: Thinking Approach (Analytical versus Intuitive) and Problem Type (Bounded versus Unbounded). According to the framework, there are four types of organizational creativity: (1) Imaginative Creativity (application of intuitive approach to unbounded problem); …

Can Algorithms Help Us Decide Who To Trust?, David De Cremer, Jack Mcguire, Yorck Hesselbarth, Ke M Mai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms is increasing within organizations to manage business processes, hire employees, and automate routine organizational decision making. This comes as no surprise, since the application of simple linear algorithms have been shown to outperform human judgment in the accuracy of many administrative tasks. A 2017 Accenture survey also revealed that 85% of executives want to invest more extensively in AI-related technologies over the next three years.

The Stigma That Keeps Consultants From Using Flex Time, Alison T. Wynn, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Part-time options at McKinsey & Company. Mass Career Customization and 3-4-5 travelschedules at Deloitte. Predictable Time Off at Boston Consulting Group.

Agility In Responding To Disruptive Digital Innovation: Case Study Of An Sme, Calvin M. L. Chan, Say Yen Teoh, Adrian Yeow, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Disruptive digital innovation (DDI) often creates hypercompetitive market environment that forces firms to be agile to survive and remain competitive. Whereas most studies have focused on larger firms' effort to be agile, few have looked at how small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) respond to DDI. The study attempts to answer the research question of how SMEs achieve agility to respond to DDI. Drawing on a case study of an innovative SME, our study develops a framework on agility based on the processes of mitigating organizational rigidity, developing innovative capabilities, and balancing the tension of organizational ambidexterity. Specifically, our findings show …

Gamification Of Enterprise Systems, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, B. Eschenbrenner, C. Claybaugh, P. Koob

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Enterprise systems have become an integral part of an organization’s operations. However, they also pose many challenges to organizations from the perspective of implementation, user training, as well as use and acceptance. Without effective usage, enterprise systems may not be able to provide the strategic or competitive advantages that organizations desire. Therefore, organizations mayconsider gamification to enhance training, acceptance, and usage. We discuss the various ways in whichenterprise system challenges can be addressed through the lens of gamification and present a frameworkforgamificationofenterprisesystems. Theframeworkiscomprisedofbasicprinciplesand key design elements of gamification, as well as their application to enterprise systems. The specific principles of …

Dominant Coalitions Directing Acquisitions: Different Decision Makers, Different Decisions, Cyndi Man Zhang, Henrich R. Greve

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Coalitions are important in organizational decision making, but the question of how coalitions are built and make decisions in response to firm performance is still not sufficiently explored. In this study, we develop and test theory on how potential coalitions are built through shared experience and recruitment of allies. When organizations respond to performance relative to aspiration levels, either as problemistic search following low performance or opportunity exploration following high performance, members form coalitions to influence decisions. We develop theory of coalition formation that builds on upper echelons theory and the theory of dominant coalitions to predict how past experience …

An Exploratory Comparative Study Of Experts And Generalists As Change Management Leaders In Non-Core Areas Of Organizations, Steven Glenn Burton

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Large-scale organizational change is a necessary undertaking critical to the ongoing success of most firms. Despite the necessity of such change, it is also an undertaking that fails at approximately twice the rate that it succeeds. Prior work on change leadership primarily looks at characteristics of the individual leader and does not differentiate on areas of the organization where change will be occurring. The work conducted in this research compares categories of change leaders and looks at change within a specific area of a firm, its non-core business area.

This exploratory research compared core-area technical experts to generalists as change …

Quest For Relevance: Whither The Asean Charter In Shaping A Shared Regional Identity And Values, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Promulgated in 2007, the Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reaffirms ASEAN’s longstanding policy of non-interference in member-states’ internal affairs and the retention of consultation and consensus as fundamental tenets of decision-making in ASEAN. This essay considers the role of soft law in the interpretation and development of the ASEAN Charter. It also considers whether the Charter will help ASEAN achieve integration as well as promote democracy, human rights and development in an immensely diverse region comprising half a billion people. The essay argues that although the Charter is a binding legal instrument, the text enables a …

Organizational Change In The Artificial Intelligence Age – The Case Of Marketing And Sales, Yin Yang, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, machine learning, and automation are revolutionizing the field of marketing and sales. Although the field of sales and marketing has been impacted by advanced technologies continuously, the impact of AI on sales and marketing field is expected to be transformational and revolutionary. The main threats pose by AI are job losses and upheaval of the society as a result (Siau, 2018; Siau and Wang, 2018). A report published in February 2016 by Citibank in partnership with the University of Oxford predicted that 47% of US jobs are at risk of automation. In UK, it is 35%. …

Towards A Dynamic Theory Of Enacted Complexity, Kenneth T. Goh, Brian T. Pentland

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To develop new theory about the dynamics of enacted ask complexity, we analyze 15-months of field data from a video game development project consisting of observations, interviews, and an archival analysis of 2,428 tasks to present a novel way of conceptualizing and visualizing the complexity of emergent processual phenomena.

What Does It Take To Become A Partner At A Big 4 Accounting Firm? Insights From Singapore’S Experience, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Yang Hoong Pang, Kwong Sin Leong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Due to the shift in partner’s identity, there have been growing interests in understanding characteristics, skills and behaviours of accounting partners. Given that Big 4 Accounting firms are supposedly international accounting firms that are organized in similar structures, an interesting question of whether the same partner qualities can be applied in the Big 4 accounting firms for a non-western context such as Asia. As far as we know, no such study has been conducted in an Asian context. We argue this could be of great interest to the Big 4 Accounting firms as Asia is one of their fastest growing …

Temporal Trajectories Of Enacted Complexity In Creative Project Teams, Kenneth T. Goh, Brian T. Pentland

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With technologies to capture fine-grained measures of behavior now more ubiquitous, organizational researchers are now able to consider networks of actions performed by multiple actors as a unit of analysis. We apply the action network construct as a measure of enacted complexity. Because previous conceptualizations of complexity viewed the construct as a descriptive organizational property, capturing this property over time was a non-issue. But given the emergent nature of enacted complexity, questions about how complexity unfolds over time become meaningful. This paper thus examines how enacted complexity unfolds over time by investigating the temporal trajectory of actors and actions. We …

Teaching Internal Control Using A Student-Generated Video Project, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Educators consider the video learning approach an effective method to deliver educational content as compared to the traditional method of books and written materials. This paper presents a project that involves student-generated videos to learn internal control in an undergraduate accounting information systems course. We believe that this video learning approach is an engaging way for students to be self-directed learners in learning internal control and complements the written materials in the textbook. The survey results show that most of the respondents viewed the learning experience of the video project positively. The results also indicate that the video project helps …

Ai: Augmentation, More So Than Automation, Steven M. Miller

Asian Management Insights

The take-up of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled systems in organisations is expanding rapidly. Integrating AI-enabled automation with people into workplace processes and societal systems is a complex and evolving challenge. The articles takes a managerial perspective on how firms can effectively deploy human minds and intelligent machines in the workplace.

A Qualitative Research On Marketing And Sales In The Artificial Intelligence Age, Yin Yang, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The age of artificial intelligence is here! Artificial Intelligence, robotics, machine learning, and automation are impacting the field of marketing and sales in an unprecedented way. In this study, the qualitative research methodology will be used to better understand the revolution and evolution of marketing and sales field in the AI age. Multiple case studies will be performed in various marketing and sales units in different organizations. This research is of value to both academics and practitioners as it aims to provide a detailed analysis and documentation of the changes in marketing and sales functionalities and job markets as AI …

Purposeful Building Of Social Capital And The Adoption Of Essential Tools And Technologies In Impoverished Communities In The Philippines, Chon Phung Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Despite its popularity and a wide range of applications, social capital is a contested concept. There is also no agreement on whether social capital responds well to external interventions. Many scholars found no or, at most, mixed impacts that social capital can be purposefully developed. However, Burt and Ranchi (2007) and Janicik and Larrick (2005) provided compelling evidence that simple network training can significantly improve participants’ ability to see gaps in their network and develop social capital.

The manifestations of social capital are context-dependent and complex, and rarely map into a single discipline or methodology (Jones and Woolcock, 2007). Hence, …

Contextual Leadership: A Systematic Review Of How Contextual Factors Shape Leadership And Its Outcomes, Burak Oc

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With roots dating back to Fiedler’s (1978) contingency model, contextual leadership has been one of the most trending topics in leadership research over the last decade. However, although roughly 500 studies have examined the impact of context on leadership and its outcomes, there is neither a systematic approach to nor agreement regarding what constitutes the context for leadership. This is surprising, considering the central role that context plays in leadership: Leadership does not occur in a vacuum, but rather exists in a context where leaders function. This review article uses Johns’s (2006) categorical framework to fully portray the leadership context …

Risk Propensity In The Foreign Direct Investment Location Decision Of Emerging Multinationals, Peter J. Buckley, Liang Chen, L. Jeremy Clegg, Hinrich Voss

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A distinguishing feature of emerging economy multinationals is their apparent tolerance for host country institutional risk. Employing behavioral decision theory and quasi-experimental data, we find that managers' domestic experience satisfaction increases their relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk (legally protectable loss), but decreases their tendency to accept noncontrollable risk (e.g., political instability). In contrast, firms' potential slack reduces relative risk propensity regarding controllable risk, yet amplifies the tendency to take noncontrollable risk. We suggest that these counterbalancing effects might help explain prior ambiguous findings on the relationship between experience, slack, and FDI decisions. The study provides a new understanding of …