Business Commons^™

Building Up A Culture Of Respect, Siow-Heng Ong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recently, we have become more acutely aware of a variety of undesirable workplace circumstances and practices in Singapore. personal time; discriminatory workplace practices against members of various categories of minority groups; and bias against women staff.

The Sun Is Rising In The East: Dual-Class Shares And The Competitive Landscape Of Technological Industries In Asia, Hao Liang, Tran Bao Phuong Nguyen, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There has recently been a relaxation of listing regulations to accommodate and attract firms going public with dual-class shares (DCS), notably in Asia. We examine the value implications of DCS adoption by employing an event study around a regulatory change allowing DCS listings in Hong Kong. We find negative market reactions around these regulatory discussions for firms already listed in Hong Kong, especially for firms in technology (tech) sectors. However, the market reaction turned positive for tech firms during Hong Kong’s first DCS listing. We identify two distinct channels that influenced shareholders’ perspectives on DCS: the competition channel, which dominated …

Bringing Excitement To Empirical Business Ethics Research: Thoughts On The Future Of Business Ethics, Mayowa T. Babalola, Matthijs Bal, Charles H. Cho, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Omrane Guedhami, Hao Liang, Greg Shailer, Suzanne Van Gils

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors-in-chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialog around the theme Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research (inspired by the title of the commentary by Babalola and van Gils). These editors, considering the diversity of empirical approaches in business ethics, envisage a future in which quantitative business ethics research is more bold and innovative, as well as reflexive about its techniques, and dialog between quantitative …

What Machines Can't Do (Yet) In Real Work Settings, Thomas H. Davenport, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

AI systems may perform well in the research lab or under highly controlled application settings, but they still needed human help in the types of real world work settings we researched for a new book, Working With AI: Real Stories of Human-Machine Collaboration. Human workers were very much in evidence across our 30 case studies. In this article, we use those examples to illustrate our list of AI-enabled activities that still require human assistance. These are activities where organizations need to continue to invest in human capital, and where practitioners can expect job continuity for the immediate future

Multi-Functional Job Roles To Support Operations In A Multi-Faceted Jewel Enabled By Ai And Digital Transformation, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this story, we highlight the way in which the use of AI enabled support systems, together with work process digital transformation and innovative approaches to job redesign, have combined to dramatically change the nature of the work of the front-line service staff who protect and support the facility and visitors at the world’s most iconic airport mall and lifestyle destination.

Investigating Accessibility Challenges And Opportunities For Users With Low Vision Disabilities In Customer-To-Customer (C2c) Marketplaces, Bektur Ryskeldiev, Kotaro Hara, Mariko Kobayashi, Koki Kusano

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Inaccessible e-commerce websites and mobile applications exclude people with visual impairments (PVI) from online shopping. Customer-to-customer (C2C) marketplaces, a form of e-commerce where trading happens not between businesses and customers but between customers, could pose a unique set of challenges in the interactions that the platform brings about. Through online questionnaire and remote interviews, we investigate problems experienced by people with low vision disabilities in common C2C scenarios. Our study with low vision participants (N = 12) reveal both previously known general accessibility issues (e.g., web and mobile interface accessibility) and C2C specific accessibility issues (e.g., inability to confirm item …

Field Experiments In Operations Management, Yang Gao, Meng Li, Shujing Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While the field experiment is a powerful and well-established method to investigate causal relationships, operations management (OM) has embraced this methodology only in recent years. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the existing OM literature leveraging field experiments and serves as a one-stop guide for future application of field experiments in the OM area. We start by recapping the characteristics that distinguish field experiments from other common types of experiments and organizing the relevant OM studies by topic. Corresponding to the commonly overlooked issues in field experiment-based OM studies, we then provide a detailed roadmap, ranging from experimental design …

Toward Personalized Answer Generation In E-Commerce Via Multi-Perspective Preference Modeling, Yang Deng, Yaliang Li, Wenxuan Zhang, Bolin Ding, Wai Lam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recently, Product Question Answering (PQA) on E-Commerce platforms has attracted increasing attention as it can act as an intelligent online shopping assistant and improve the customer shopping experience. Its key function, automatic answer generation for product-related questions, has been studied by aiming to generate content-preserving while question-related answers. However, an important characteristic of PQA, i.e., personalization, is neglected by existing methods. It is insufficient to provide the same “completely summarized” answer to all customers, since many customers are more willing to see personalized answers with customized information only for themselves, by taking into consideration their own preferences toward product aspects …

“No More Uncle” And Gender-Neutral Marketing, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

How Asian men’s beauty care is shaping conception of masculinity and gender-neutral marketing

Artificial Intelligence And Human Employment, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

AI will replace humans in repetitive tasks. Greater value can be created when it augments and complements the jobs people do

A Study On The Ore Grade, Operating Costs And Investment Value Of Iron Ore Miners Amid China's "Dual Carbon" Policy, Shunyi Yao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the growing demand for steel in significant economies, iron ore remains a vital investment in the long run. Although many iron ore miners have recently generated significant returns for investors, some have not performed well financially. The existing literature does not provide an integrated theoretical framework to explain this problem. The study examines the mechanisms determining the investment value of iron ore miners when China establishes carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals ("Dual Carbon" policy). Further, based on the findings, this study also proposes investment strategies for iron ore miners in the future, which also has a high practical …

A Study On The Mechanisms Of Shareholders’ Equity Adjustment In Bankruptcy Reorganization Of Listed Companies, Yongliang Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, amid cyclical macroeconomic fluctuations, national economic slowdown, economic restructuring, and over-expansion of some enterprises, a number of listed companies have faced serious debt and operational challenges, many of which are worthy of keeping afloat. From June 1, 2007 when the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People’s Republic of China came into effect, up to the end of 2021, a total of 93 listed companies in China have gone through bankruptcy reorganization, one of the major means to save the listed companies in distress.

The bankruptcy reorganization of listed companies, by its nature, is a process of game …

Singapore Public Sector Ai Applications Emphasizing Public Engagement: Six Examples, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This article provides an overview of six examples of public sector AI applications in Singapore that illustrate different ways of enhancing engagement with the public. These applications demonstrate ways of enhancing engagement with the public by providing greater accessibility to government services (access anywhere, anytime) and speedier responses to public processes and feedback. Some applications make it substantially easier for members of the public to do things or make choices, while others reduce waiting time, either across an entire public infrastructure, or for an individual transaction. Some provide highly individualized coaching to guide a person through the process of doing …

Secure Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet Supporting Stealth Address, Xin Yin, Zhen Liu, Guomin Yang, Guoxing Chen, Haojin Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the past decade, cryptocurrency has been undergoing a rapid development. Digital wallet, as the tool to store and manage the cryptographic keys, is the primary entrance for the public to access cryptocurrency assets. Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet (HDW), proposed in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 32 (BIP32), has attracted much attention and been widely used in the community, due to its virtues such as easy backup/recovery, convenient cold-address management, and supporting trust-less audits and applications in hierarchical organizations. While HDW allows the wallet owner to generate and manage his keys conveniently, Stealth Address (SA) allows a payer to generate fresh address (i.e., …

Trusting The Stock Market: Further Evidence From Ipos Around The World, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using an international sample of IPO firms from 36 countries and a country-level index for societal trust, we find strong evidence that societal trust is negatively associated with the degree of IPO underpricing. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that the effect of societal trust in reducing IPO underpricing is more pronounced when the information environment is less transparent, when the stock market environment is less robust, and when legal institutions are weaker, settings where the effect of trust is likely to be more salient. Our study contributes to and extends the literature by providing strong evidence that an informal institution …

Insider Trading Restrictions And Real Earnings Management: International Evidence, Jiwei Wang, Yuanto Kusnadi, Jiwei Wang, Yujie Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the implications of insider trading restrictions on firms’ real activities earnings management in an international setting. Using a sample of 28 countries over the period from 1992 to 2007, we find evidence that is supportive of the substitution hypothesis, in that managers have incentives to substitute accruals earnings management for real activities earnings management. This effect is found to be more pronounced for firms in countries with more restrictive insider trading regulation. Our result is robust to alternative measures of real activities earnings man- agement and insider trading restrictions, alternative sub-samples, alternative regression specifi- cations, and controlling for …

Subsidiary Governance And Corporate Tax Planning: The Effect Of Parent-Subsidiary Common Directors And Offficers, Xin Wang, Yongxin Xu, Liandong Zhang, Gaoping Zheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Top executives of the parent company often take positions as the directors and officers (D&Os) of subsidiaries. These parent-subsidiary common D&Os have better access to subsidiary information and can exert more influence over subsidiary operations. Therefore they can better identify tax-planning opportunities and coordinate tax arrangements. Using the mandatory disclosure of top executives' subsidiary positions for Chinese listed firms, we find that effective income tax rate is lower for firms with common D&Os. The tax-saving effect is stronger for firms with more intangible assets and with related-party transactions involving subsidiaries. The effect is also stronger when common D&Os have positions …

Innovation Culture Assessment: An Exploratory Diagnosis Of A Taiwanese Manufacturing Company, Yong Keong Tay

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The purpose of this research study is to better understand how manufacturing firms in Asia are trying to make innovation work and the challenges they are facing in creating and capturing new value. Based on a real-life case study of a medium-sized OEM lock manufacturer in Taiwan (“3ST”), the study sheds light on key building blocks of a robust corporate innovation culture with focus on ‘Values’, ‘Behaviours’, ‘Climate’, ‘Resources’, ‘Processes’, and ‘Success’, using a valid and reliable diagnostic innovation culture framework developed by Rao & Weintraub (2013).

Besides the identification of critical gaps in 3ST’s innovation culture based on Rao …

A Study On The Impact Of Technological Innovation Attributes On Listing Success Rate And Post-Listing Performance, Yijun Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

"Key and core technology" enterprises form the backbone of great powers. China’s STAR Market (technological innovation board) is committed to implementing strategies that will lead to technological innovation-driven sustainable development and strengthen the country by building a secure and independent industrial chain that can support the development of cutting-edge technology. From the outset, the STAR Market put forward clear requirements for "key and core technology" enterprises. The technological innovation attributes of the enterprises listed on the STAR Market are the most essential core characteristics, but a question arises as to how best to evaluate their technological innovation attributes. Are these …

Nudging Social Online Referrals: Evidence From A Randomized Field Experiment, Qian Zeng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the rise of social commerce platforms and customer engagement in online products and services, firms are focusing their attention on effective social online referral program to encourage customers’ online referral behaviors to grow their customer base. Hence, how to influence customers to participate in online referral is a matter of the utmost importance to firms. However, little empirical research has examined the impact of online referral program on customers’ online referral on social commerce platform. To close this research gap, this dissertation investigates the effectiveness of digital nudging for consumers’ social online referral on social commerce platforms.

Working with …

Research On A Suitable Upstream Traceability Model For The Natural Rubber Supply Chain In Thailand, Specifically For Rib-Smoke-Sheet (Rss), Beh Kok Fong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Traceability is the first step to gain visibility in the supply chain and can be used to meet different purposes. Similar to other agriculture crops, the natural rubber industry faces reputational damage due to deforestation, land grab, loss of biodiversity and non-compliance with environmental standards occurring in the upstream. The introduction of new social and environmental regulations accelerates the need for traceability. Reflecting on the importance of environmental and social considerations, this industry is looking at traceability to identify the historical trends leading to the present sustainability state and any ongoing sustainability risks in the upstream to enable downstream users …

Strategic Disclosure And Debt Covenant Violation, Thomas Bourveau, Derrald Stice, Rencheng Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines how managers change their forecasting behavior as a debt covenant violation approaches. Using a sample of firms that disclose a debt covenant violation (DCV) in their financial statements, we find that management forecasts are more optimistic in the period leading up to a DCV, and this result is not driven by managers’ unintentional forecast bias. Additionally, we find that managers who are more optimistic in their forecasts also take on more risk and increase dividend payouts before violations, consistent with managers strategically using earnings forecasts to justify their activities favorable to shareholders but likely to be curtailed …

Social Attention In Realistic Work Environments, Theodore Charles Masters-Waage

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Social attention – the process by which individuals select which aspect of the social world to mentally process – is a key antecedent to all organisational behaviour in groups. This central role of attention has long been appreciated by organisational theorists, but our understanding of this core cognitive process has been hampered by a lack of empirical evidence. To create a method through which organisational scholars can study social attention, this dissertation combines cognitive science measures of attention with recent innovations from social and applied psychology using virtual reality to study naturalistic social behaviour (Chapter 1). This method is then …

Private Market Impact Investing Firms: Ownership Structure And Investment Style, Theodor Florian Cojoianu, Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Yanan Lin

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Impact investing and ESG investing are specific “ethical” investing types integrating social, environmental, and moral values with financial goals. Despite receiving heightened scholarly attention, the difference between impact and ESG investing is largely unexamined, and it is not clear how they differ from conventional investment. To explain the differences between ESG, impact, and conventional investing, this paper draws on a dataset of over 8000 private market investment (PMI) firms. It compares impact, ESG, and conventional investment across firm characteristics, investment preference, and ownership. Results show that impact investors are more likely to be owned by the government, focusing on agriculture, …

Corporate Shareholders In Singapore: Retail Shareholders, Effective Empowerment And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The Digital Revolution, Pearlie M. C. Koh, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Under Singapore’s companies legislation, shareholders are vested with significant powers, placing them in the position to play an important monitoring role. Although there are discernible corporate governance benefits to encouraging shareholders to take on a more participatory role, many have argued against shareholder empowerment. Indeed, it is often asserted that shareholders are ill-equipped to play any role in corporate governance for a variety of reasons, including the generally-held view that shareholders, in particular retail investors, are rationally apathetic. The situation is presumed to be exacerbated in Singapore’s “concentrated shareholding” corporate environment. In this research, we sought empirical data to assess …

Property In Whose Name? Intrahousehold Bargaining Over Homeownership In China, Jia Yu, Cheng Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous research typically examined homeownership inequality across individuals or households, overlooking the intrahousehold allocation of homeownership. Using couple-level data of the 2016 China Family Panel Studies, our study addresses the gap by examining the bargaining over homeownership between husbands and wives in China. Descriptive results reveal a large gender gap in homeownership: only about one-quarter of couples listed the wife as an owner on the Housing Ownership Certificate, whereas about 92% listed the husband. The gender gap in ownership, however, has narrowed among couples married after 2000. Multivariate analyses show that economic autonomy, relative resources, housing purchase conditions, and modernization …

Risk-Aware Procurement Optimization In A Global Technology Supply Chain, Jonathan Chase, Jingfeng Yang, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Supply chain disruption, from ‘Black Swan’ events like the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to more ordinary issues such as labour disputes and adverse weather conditions, can result in delays, missed orders, and financial loss for companies that deliver products globally. Developing a risk-tolerant procurement strategy that anticipates the logistical problems incurred by disruption involves both accurate quantification of risk and cost-effective decision-making. We develop a supplier-focused risk evaluation metric that constrains a procurement optimization model for a global technology company. Our solution offers practical risk tolerance and cost-effectiveness, accounting for a range of constraints that realistically …

The Impact Of Fear Of Losing Out (Folo) On College Students’ Performance Goal Orientations And Learning Strategies Insingapore, Haelim Choi, Chi-Ying Cheng, Sheila Xi Rui Wee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The current research investigated the influence of the Fear of Losing Out (FoLO) mindset on learning strategy via performance goal orientation and its interaction with social comparison amongst Singaporean college students. In Study 1, a positive relationship between FoLO and performance goal orientations (i.e., avoidance and approach) was found. Study 2 replicated this finding and further revealed a downstream effect of FoLO on surface learning via performance goal orientations. In addition, social comparison moderated the link between performance goal orientation and surface learning in the mediation model. Specifically, in downward social comparison conditions, FoLO facilitated high performance-avoidance goal orientation, which …

Broken Effects? How To Reduce False Positives In Panel Regressions, Xina Li, Phebo D. Wibbens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many published papers in the management field have used statistical methods that, according to the latest insights in econometrics, can lead to elevated rates of false positives: results that appear “significant, ” whereas they are not. The question is how problematic these less robust econometric analyses are in practice for management research. This paper presents simulations and an empirical replication to investigate two widespread but now largely discredited practices in panel data analysis: nonclustered standard errors and random effects (RE). The simulations indicate that these two practices can lead to strongly elevated rates of false positives in typical empirical settings …

Uncovering The Value Of Blockchain Applications In The World Of Finance, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This article discusses the benefits of using blockchain in the context of asset-backed security (ABS) issuance: reducing information asymmetry between issuers and investors, reducing yield spread of ABS, disciplining credit rating agencies, increasing the quality of underlying assets, and reducing issuers’ risk exposure. Such benefits should apply to other blockchain applications in the world of finance.