Digital Commons Network^™

Revisiting Sentiment Analysis For Software Engineering In The Era Of Large Language Models, Ting Zhang, Ivana Clairine Irsan, Thung Ferdian, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Software development involves collaborative interactions where stakeholders express opinions across various platforms. Recognizing the sentiments conveyed in these interactions is crucial for the effective development and ongoing maintenance of software systems. For software products, analyzing the sentiment of user feedback, e.g., reviews, comments, and forum posts can provide valuable insights into user satisfaction and areas for improvement. This can guide the development of future updates and features. However, accurately identifying sentiments in software engineering datasets remains challenging.This study investigates bigger large language models (bLLMs) in addressing the labeled data shortage that hampers fine-tuned smaller large language models (sLLMs) in software …

Backdoor Token Unlearning: Exposing And Defending Backdoors In Pretrained Language Models, Peihai Jiang, Xixiang Lyu, Yige Li, Jing Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Supervised fine-tuning has become the predominant method for adapting large pretrained models to downstream tasks. However, recent studies have revealed that these models are vulnerable to backdoor attacks, where even a small number of malicious samples can successfully embed backdoor triggers into the model. While most existing defense methods focus on post-training backdoor defense, efficiently defending against backdoor attacks during training phase remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, we propose a novel defense method called Backdoor Token Unlearning (BTU), which proactively detects and neutralizes trigger tokens during the training stage. Our work is based on two key findings: 1) …

Sticky Information Technology Investment: Theory And Empirical Evidence, Peng Liang, Hasan Cavusoglu, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This article provides a new way of thinking about managerial discretion in information technology (IT) investment decisions. We delve into the existence, antecedents, and consequences of sticky IT investment behavior, an understudied managerial deliberate resource commitment decision in response to changes in sales. Guided by downsizing theory, we initially theorize and find that IT investments exhibit stickiness: IT investments move downward less for sales decreases than they move upward for equivalent increases. Then drawing upon agency theory, adjustment costs theory, and managerial expectations theory—which influence managers’ motivation for downsizing—we predict and demonstrate that managers’ empire-building incentives, their avoidance of adjustment …

Understanding The Oss Communities Of Deep Learning Frameworks: A Comparative Case Study Of Pytorch And Tensorflow, Yunqi Chen, Zhiyuan Wan, Yifei Zhuang, Ning Liu, David Lo, Xiaohu Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the past two decades, deep learning has received tremendous success in developing software systems across various domains. Deep learning frameworks have been proposed to facilitate the development of such software systems, among which, PyTorch and TensorFlow stand out as notable examples. Considerable attention focuses on exploring software engineering practices and addressing diverse technical aspects in developing and deploying deep learning frameworks and software systems. Despite these efforts, little is known about the open source software communities involved in the development of deep learning frameworks. In this article, we perform a comparative investigation into the open source software communities of …

Deepvmunprotect: Neural Network-Based Recovery Of Vm‑Protected Android Apps For Semantics‑Aware Malware Detection, Xin Zhao, Mu Zhang, Xiaopeng Ke, Yu Pan, Yue Duan, Sheng Zhong, Fengyuan Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The emerging virtual machine-based Android packers render existing unpacking techniques ineffective. The state-of-the-art unpacker falls short because it relies on unreliable heuristics and manually crafted semantic models. Hence, it cannot precisely recover app semantics necessary for malware detection. In this paper, we propose DeepVMUnProtect, a deep learning-based approach to automatically and accurately capture the semantics of VM-packed code, so as to facilitate semantic-based Android malware classification. Experiments have shown that DeepVMUnProtect outperforms the state-of-the-art tool on recovering opcode semantics in Qihoo(58.3%), Baidu(47.5%) and NMMP (58.8%) respectively, and can enable semantics-aware malware detection which prior work fails to do.

Research On The Impact Of Factors For Successful Digital Transformation On Performance: A Case Study Of The Clothing Industry, Xiaoyun Qian

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, enterprises in the clothing industry have experiencedvarying degrees of performance decline, primarily influenced bymacroeconomic cyclical factors and intrinsic industry issues. Firstly, under the influence of macroeconomic cycles, the clothing industry has demonstratedstrong cyclical characteristics. Since 2019, weakened global macroeconomic conditions have negatively impacted both clothing exports and domestic sales, coupled with a slowdown in China's macroeconomic growth, puttingsignificant pressure on the overall growth of the clothing sector. Secondly, the industry faces several internal challenges, including rising labor costs, severe supply-demand mismatches, overcapacity on the production side, and longinventory cycles. Digital transformation has emerged as an important optionfor …

An Analysis Of Unstructured Marketing Data To Aid Online Platforms, Qingli Zeng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As digital platforms increasingly rely on unstructured data such as images, audio, and video to engage users, understanding how these sensory elements influence consumer behavior has become essential. This dissertation investigates the role of visual and auditory cues in shaping user engagement and decision-making in digital environments. Specifically, it examines how image distinctiveness and vocal tone characteristics affect consumer attention, interaction, and commitment across different online contexts.

The first essay explores the impact of image distinctiveness on consumer search behavior within a Southeast Asian real estate platform. Grounded in the Theory of Visual Attention (TVA), this study develops a novel …

The One Generates All Things: Founder Competencies And Firm Performance In Chinese Semiconductor Enterprises, Aiyang Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The semiconductor industry originated in the United States in the 1940s and serves as the cornerstone of the modern information technology industry. Semiconductors, hailed as the "grain of industry", are of utmost significance to China, a country that builds its foundation on manufacturing. With the escalation of China's industrial upgrading and global competition, a large number of semiconductor enterprises have been established in China in recent years.

Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, this paper commences from the literature on founder research in entrepreneurship studies, and in conjunction with small-sample interviews, proposes the "521" model for observing Chinese semiconductor enterprise …

The Influence Of Venture Capitalists’ Value-Added Service On Capital Financing Outcome: A Research On Chinese Biotech Startups, Hao-Yu Huang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

China’s biotechnology sector has undergone rapid evolution, driven by government policy, capital market reform, and growing global demand for pharmaceutical innovation. Venture capitalists (VCs) have played an increasingly pivotal role not only as financiers but also as strategic partners offering value-added services (VAS). These interventions include operational mentorship, regulatory navigation, talent pipeline facilitation, and strategic repositioning. However, the extent to which such non-financial support influences financing outcomes across startup development stages remains underexplored—particularly in the context of China's unique institutional and industrial environment.

This dissertation examines how VC post-investment interventions affect the financing success of biotech startups in China. Drawing …

Research On Inheritance And Innovation Of Chinese Time - Honored Brands On Brand Attachment, Jiangbo Yin

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Balancing inheritance and innovation to achieve brand revitalization is a pressing practical issue for both academia and industry. This study adopts a dual perspective of enterprises and consumers, selecting the Cantonese cuisine time-honored brand "Tao Tao Ju" as the research subject, and employs a mixed-methods combining qualitative and quantitative research to explore the mechanism on inheritance and innovation of Chinese time-honored brands on brand attachment.

Study 1 utilizes grounded theory to construct a multidimensional structure of inheritance and innovation of Chinese time-honored brands: inheritance dimensions include product and service inheritance, brand spirit inheritance, and historical and cultural inheritance; innovation dimensions …

Exploring Intelligent Manufacturing: How Artificial Intelligence Affects Productivity And Labor Demand At The Enterprise Level, Jie Gu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Manufacturing is a cornerstone of national economic health and social stability, yet it faces challenges such as declining profits, rising labor costs, and an aging workforce. In China, the manufacturing sector is undergoing a critical transformation, driven by technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI) and the push for intelligent manufacturing. This study explores how AI revitalizes the manufacturing sector by enhancing enterprise productivity and reshaping labor demand, with a focus on quality inspection processes. Using a leading bearing factory as a case study, the research employs econometric models, A/B testing, and interviews to quantify AI’s impact on production efficiency, costs, …

Analysis On Factors For The Success Of China's Industrial Parks -- "Crown Model" And Its Empirical Research, Ming Qiu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the reform and opening-up policy, China has systematically promoted the development and construction of economic and technological development zones, high-tech industrial development zones, and various types of industry-focused functional parks by drawing on successful international models and integrating them with China’s context. This has been carried out from the central government to local governments to foster the clustering of regional industries, facilitate industrial upgrading, drive large-scale employment, increase GDP, generate continuous tax revenue, and accelerate urbanization. These efforts have been pivotal in transforming local economies and enhancing China’s competitive advantage in the global market. The author, with 20 years …

Knowledge Judgment, Managerial Decision-Making, And Firm Performance: From The Perspective Of Entrepreneurial Spirit Reconfiguration In Second-Generation Family Businesses, Xinhua Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the reform and opening up, Chinese family businesses, as the main body of the private economy, have played a significant role in the development of the national economy. As the first - generation entrepreneurs are entering their later years, inter - generational succession has become an important issue. This doctoral thesis focuses on the dynamic reshaping process of the entrepreneurial spirit of the second - generation entrepreneurs in family businesses and explores how it affects the improvement of corporate performance. Based on the cutting - edge theories of Austrian economics, this study constructs a research framework of "knowledge judgment …

From Low Power To Action: Reappraising Powerlessness As An Opportunity Restores Agency, Tianyu He, Michael Schaerer, Trevor A. Foulk, Elizabeth B. Wolf, Winnie Y. Jiang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Agentic behaviors are a critical pathway to power in contemporary organizations. Paradoxically, employees who lack power are the least likely to think and act agentically—creating a self-perpetuating cycle of disadvantage. Existing research on facilitating employee agentic behaviors relies on structural solutions that are often out of reach for individual employees. Yet, anecdotal evidence suggests that this view may be incomplete, as some individuals seem to be able to overcome the challenges powerlessness poses without relying on external resources, control, or organizational change. Integrating research on powerlessness and cognitive reappraisal, the present research proposes that cognitively reappraising powerless situations as opportunities …

Private Reachability Queries On Structured Encrypted Temporal Bipartite Graphs, Yulin Wu, Lanxiang Chen, Gaolin Chen, Yi Mu, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A temporal bipartite graph is a graph model that incorporates time-related information into its edges, making it suitable for modeling real-world phenomena like disease outbreaks. However, this temporal information is often sensitive. To protect the privacy of graph data, researchers have explored various approaches to preserve privacy in graph queries, with reachability queries being popular and fundamental as they determine the possibility of reaching one node from others in a graph. While privacy-preserving reachability queries have been extensively studied, existing efforts often overlook the valuable attribute information present in both edges and nodes of the graphs. Moreover, reachability queries on …

Study On Sustainable Development Of Energy Innovation, Maoli Guo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Energy innovation and sustainable development play significant roles in the economic development and technological progress of a country. This paper first reviews the measurement methods of energy efficiency in existing literature, selects evaluation indicators based on the influencing factors of energy system performance, and proposes an energy efficiency evaluation method combining the Malmquist index and the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to evaluate and test the performance of energy sustainable development in each province of China from 2005 to 2021.

The study finds that, firstly, the energy efficiency in China has generally shown an upward trend, but there are significant …

Entrepreneurial Spirit And Firm Performance: An Empirical Study Based On Data From The Star Market​, Zhige Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Entrepreneurial spirit, as a vital production factor in contemporary society, plays a leading and guiding role throughout the entire life cycle of a business. In particular, entrepreneurial innovation spirit, a key element of entrepreneurial spirit, is a pivotal engine of economic and societal progress. This paper adopts an empirical research approach to analyze the correlation between entrepreneurial innovation spirit and firm outcome, delving into the impact of entrepreneurial innovation spirit on a firm's operational efficiency, profitability, solvency, and development capabilities. The findings provide theoretical support and practical guidance for enterprise management, ultimately contributing to the creation of greater corporate value …

Digital Twin Dynamics: Employee’S Willingness To Adopt Ai Digital-Twin In A Craftsmanship Environment, Seow Hoon Tee

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Singapore’s manufacturing sector, contributing 22% to the nation’s GDP, is undergoing a strategic transformation under the Manufacturing 2030 vision, which aims to increase sector value by 50%. However, a critical challenge emerges in the widening age gap among craftsmen, particularly between 30 and 50 years old, misaligning with succession planning efforts. As senior craftsmen approach retirement, the urgency to transfer specialized expertise significantly increases. In response, initiatives such as the National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2.0 and Industry 5.0 efforts by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) and Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) emphasize AI-driven solutions to enhance knowledge retention and …

Research On The Technology And Economy Of Intelligent Transformation Of Textile Enterprises, Hongxia Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The Chinese government has proposed to promote the high-end, intelligent and green development of manufacturing in the next step. The China Textile Industry Federation issued the “14th Five-Year Development Outline for the Textile Industry”, emphasizing accelerating the development of intelligent manufacturing system integrators in the textile field to achieve the transformation and upgrading of the industry. At present, the outstanding problems restricting the rapid development of intelligent manufacturing in China’s textile industry include: Imperfect evaluation indicators; The management system does not match; The reconstruction path is not clear.
This topic (1) constructs a big data policy co-word network through quantitative …

Research On The Influence Of The Quantity And Quality Of Young Talents On Regional Economic Development, Jinzhao Liu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study focuses on the critical impact of both the quantity and quality of young talent on regional, particularly urban, economic development in terms of pace and quality. The paper examines how educated and innovative youth serve as catalysts for economic progress, driving innovation and entrepreneurship in urban areas. Through an examination of economic growth theories and innovation-driven development models, the research employs a Cobb-Douglas production function for empirical analysis, revealing the significant positive influence of high-quality young populations on regional GDP growth.

Concurrently, case studies of Zhongguancun and Suzhou's textile industry demonstrate the transformative power of young talent in …

Designing Pull-Based Energy System Rules For Public Buildings: An Application Of Modularity, Lei Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Building energy systems, particularly Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, play a pivotal role in global sustainability efforts. Yet, traditional centralized HVAC systems continue to face major challenges: high energy consumption, significant operational costs, and limited adaptability to dynamic energy demands. These inefficiencies are compounded by the difficulty of integrating renewable energy sources into outdated system designs. As a result, substantial energy waste persists, posing obstacles to cost-effective, environmentally sustainable building operations.

This dissertation proposes a modular, pull-based energy framework to address these critical challenges. By combining the principles of modularity theory with demand-driven energy distribution, the framework enables …

Rome Was Not Built In A Day — Impact Of Market Agility And External Awareness On Iterative Innovation In Online Gaming Industry, Li Ming Gu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Despite the prosperity of online gaming industry in China, online gaming firms cannot ignore the survival crisis brought by fierce competition. It is quite common for game developers to face issues like low game survival rates and poor performance, with some games even failing upon launch. To address these challenges and gain competitive advantages, game developers accelerate iteration speed and continuously provide users with new content or services. Since most companies found they cannot meet their development needs through traditional innovation models, understanding how to achieve high performance through iterative innovation has become crucial for game developers. Innovation starts with …

Food Self-Sufficiency And Building-Integrated Urban Agriculture: Lessons From Singapore, Tomoki Fujii, Christoph Waibel, Xinyi Du, Zhongming Shi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Singapore aims to achieve 30 percent food self-sufficiency by 2030, known as the 30-by-30 target, and this paper reviews Singapore’s changing landscape for urban agriculture and its recent progress towards the 30-by-30 goal, highlighting key challenges such as land constraints, high production costs, and resource limitations. Building-integrated agriculture (BIA), which utilizes building surfaces such as rooftops, façades, and balconies for food production within urban environments, is examined as a potential way to increase self-sufficiency through a simulation. Despite the BIA’s potential, practical issues—including regulatory concerns and infrastructure limitations—must be addressed before it can be implemented at scale. Insights from Singapore’s …

Unpacking Singapore’S Leasehold Relativity Table: An Empirical And Legal Analysis, Koon Shing Kwong, Jing Rong Goh, Seng Wei, Edward Ti

Research Collection School Of Economics

In Singapore, most land is state-owned, with the state generally issuing leasehold estates via state leases of not more than 99 years1, depending on the intended land use. Naturally, the value of a leasehold estate, which erodes over time as the lease approaches the end of its term, is a key component of the premium charged for lease renewals, or the tax imposed for permission given in relation to a development that would increase the value of the land. By law, the state valuation of leasehold land is prescribed by a leasehold relativity table colloquially known as ‘Bala’s Curve’ or …

Forward-Secure Hierarchical Delegable Signature For Smart Homes, Jianfei Sun, Guowen Xu, Yang Yang, Xuehuan Yang, Xiaoguo Li, Cong Wu, Zhen Liu, Guomin Yang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Aiming to provide people with great convenience and comfort, smart home systems have been deployed in thousands of homes. In this paper, we focus on handling the security and privacy issues in such a promising system by customizing a new cryptographic primitive to provide the following security guarantees: (1) fine-grained, privacy-preserving authorization for smart home users and integrity protection of communication contents; (2) flexible self-sovereign permission delegation; (3) forward security of previous messages. To our knowledge, no previous system has been designed to consider these three security and privacy requirements simultaneously. To tackle these challenges, we put forward the first-ever …

Reasons And Reasoning In Arbitral Awards, Eugene Thong, Yunwen Yvonne Guo

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

While the need for international arbitral awards to be supported by reasons appears self-evident, a closer analysis of relevant treaty and statutory provisions as well as tribunal practice reveals a surprising lack of consensus as to the extent to which arbitral awards should be reasoned. Through an analysis of the factors for and against reasoned awards and the reasons for the evolution towards reasoned awards in international arbitration, this article considers the practical implications of dispensing with such reasons and analyses what standard of reasoning is generally recommended in arbitral awards. It concludes with several broad principles on the recommended …

On/ In The Ground With Vietnamese Communists: The Cu Chi Tunnels In The Classroom, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Undergraduates often arrive in my classes convinced that great men, and a few exceptional women, are the ones who make history. Here, they think of power wielded by presidents, generals, and self-styled geniuses of strategy and diplomacy. (Henry Kissinger’s name invariably bubbles up in class discussions, like it or not.) Perhaps this happens elsewhere? In Singapore, this mindset likely takes root because the country’s record of benevolent authoritarianism underpins the legitimacy and influence of political elites. Equally, male citizens of Singapore perform compulsory military service before entering university and internalize, readily or grudgingly, that rank confers power—it is power—and that …

Imageinthat: Manipulating Images To Convey User Instructions To Robots, Karthik Mahadevan, Blaine Lewis, Jiannan Li, Bilge Mutlu, Anthony Tang, Tovi Grossman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Foundation models are rapidly improving the capability of robots in performing everyday tasks autonomously such as meal preparation, yet robots will still need to be instructed by humans due to model performance, the difficulty of capturing user preferences, and the need for user agency. Robots can be instructed using various methods---natural language conveys immediate instructions but can be abstract or ambiguous, whereas end-user programming supports longer-horizon tasks but interfaces face difficulties in capturing user intent. In this work, we propose using direct manipulation of images as an alternative paradigm to instruct robots, and introduce a specific instantiation called ImageInThat which …

Selecting Comparative Sets Of Reviews Across Multiple Items, Trung Hoang Le, Hady Wirawan Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While choosing among several products, users may look up reviews from each product they are considering. Due to the large number of reviews of products, selecting representative reviews from one product alone is already a challenging problem. In this work, we further aim to conduct review selection for multiple products simultaneously for comparative purposes. We formulate objective functions that synchronize the review selection and design efficient algorithms to optimize for the objective functions. To narrow down the potentially long list of comparison items into a shorter list of more similar items, we construct a graph representing items’ similarity and design …

Explainable Neural Networks With Guarantees: A Sparse Estimation Approach, Antoine Ledent, Peng Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Balancing predictive power and interpretability has long been a challenging research area, particularly in powerful yet complex models like neural networks, where nonlinearity obstructs direct interpretation. This paper introduces a novel approach to constructing an explainable neural network that harmonizes predictiveness and explainability. Our model is designed as a linear combination of a sparse set of jointly learned features, each derived from a different trainable function applied to a single 1-dimensional input feature. Leveraging the ability to learn arbitrarily complex relationships, our neural network architecture enables automatic selection of a sparse set of important features, with the final prediction being …