Business Commons^™

From Bus Uncle To Botdistrikt, Abhilash Murthy

Perspectives@SMU

How Abhilash Murthy turned a fun project into a successful chatbot company

Covid-19 Pandemic And Opportunities For Digitalisation Of Smes, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Perspectives@SMU

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about disruptions in all sectors of economy. With lockdown being implemented in most of the countries around the world, it has necessitated changes in the business models of SMEs. A glaring area of business opportunity focuses on online business. For instance, retailers who do not yet have an online presence or have not been paying much attention to conducting sales online were caught off-guard during the circuit breaker period which has resulted in decreased footfall and plummeting sales in most physical stores. Therefore, having an online retail presence has become critical for businesses, as they …

Growing Startups In Asia, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Localisation matters, but would-be startup founders should focus on customer needs rather than being fixated on being the next unicorn

How Is Fintech Helping Digital Entrepreneurs In Developing Communities?, Carmen Leong

Perspectives@SMU

FinTech is playing an important role in helping digital entrepreneurs tap into growth opportunities in Indonesia's developing communities, according to UNSW Business School research

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2020: Full Year Overview, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. The fourth quarter results mark the end of measurement for CSISG 2020. Singapore’s 2020 national score was computed using the data collected during these four quarters.

Haptic Heritage And The Paradox Of Provenance Within Singapore's Cottage Food Businesses, Orlando Woods, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper offers a “more-than-representational” understanding of how heritage value is reproduced by cottage food businesses in Singapore. It advances the notion of haptic heritage to highlight the importance of touch and feel in inculcating food with a sense of heritage value. Haptic heritage is reproduced through the physical handling of ingredients in ways that contribute to more “authentic” products. However, it also foregrounds food production processes that are more tactile, time-consuming and thus unscalable than their automated counterparts. Accordingly, the reproduction of haptic heritage is becoming increasingly unviable in Singapore’s competitive economic landscape. These ideas are explored through a …

Regional Economic Impacts Of China's High-Speed Rail Development And Its Institutional Challenges, Hankun Zhao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This article studies the impact of connecting to high-speed rail (HSR) network on regional development and the replication and sustainability of China’s GIUR system, aiming to summarize the experience of China’s HSR, which can provide several policy references for developing countries. This article conducts two research: (1) explore the impact of connecting to HSR network on the urban industrial structure, urban creativity and urban-rural income gap of cities in different regions and cities with heterogeneous locations along the HSR lines in the long and short term; (2) explore the advantages and disadvantages of the Government-Industry-University-Research (GIUR) system in the process …

Can We Classify Cashless Payment Solution Implementations At The Country Level?, Dennis Ng, Robert J. Kauffman, Paul Robert Griffin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This research commentary proposes a 3-D implementation classification framework to assist service providers and business leaders in understanding the kinds of contexts in which more or less successful cashless payment solutions are observed at point-of-sale (PoS) settings. Three constructs characterize the framework: the digitalization of the local implementation environment; the relative novelty of a given payment technology solution in a country at a specific point in time; and the development status of the country’s national infrastructure. The framework is motivated by a need to support cross-country research in this domain. We analyze eight country mini-cases based on an eight-facet (2 …

Introduction To The Special Issue On “Grassroots And Inclusive Innovations: Conceptualizing Synergies And Complementarities”, Wee Liang Tan, Partha Gangopadhyay, Oscar Hauptman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This special issue was initiated in 2016 by the three co-editors with a “Call for Papers” (Gangopadhyay et al., 2016). After significant delays starting with co-editors’ health and other personal issues, and ending with the COVID-19 Pandemic, the task of finalizing the special issue is reaching conclusion and it is time to take stock of the intellectual content. The objective of this introduction is to enable the audience to make easier sense when perusing the papers selected in a broader context, guided by conceptual framing.

Partnership Management Can Enhance Universities’ Project-Based Learning, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

With project-based learning, students find cross-disciplinary solutions to realworld problems. Articulated goals and continuous feedback ensure this a win-win exercise for industry and academia.

Investment Decisions And Trading Behavior Of Institutional And Retail Investors, Antonia Kirilova

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of three studies in the areas of empirical asset pricing, market microstructure, and behavioral finance. I study the trading behavior and portfolio choices of institutions and retail investors in the equity and derivatives markets. Examining the ways in which different market participants make investment decisions allows us to understand their role in shaping financial market dynamics. This is important in order to know how to structure markets for enhanced market efficiency, and to protect less sophisticated investors through better policies and regulations. Although there is a considerable amount of literature disputing the ability of retail investors and …

Digital Exploration Alliances, Anurag Vij

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Digital disruption has impacted every industry and the spending on digital transformation technologies and services worldwide is estimated to reach USD 2.3 trillion by 2023 (Statista, 2021). Reflecting the increasing importance of digital transformation, many firms are entering into strategic alliances that feature traditional industry leaders and digital technology leaders. Little research, however, examines these digital exploration alliances in a systematic way. Accordingly, this dissertation synthesizes extant literature with a theories-in-use approach to conduct depth interviews with 26 managers, with a collective 797 years of experience, to offer a parsimonious definition of digital exploration alliances (DEA) and outlines the similarities …

Digital Strategies For Reshaping The Competitiveness Of Hopsca, Wafong Hoi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The digital transformation strategy has a profound impact on the commercial real estate industry in China. However, so far, research on digital innovation strategies in the business field predominantly surrounds the retailing and systematic research identifying the effect of digital strategies on HOPSCA and commercial operational service provider has yet to be conducted. On the issue of digital transformation strategies of HOPSCA, there is currently a lack of relevant empirical evidence in the fields of management and economics to quantitatively analyze its effects, and there is not readily available and reliable experience for reference in the business practices.

Based on …

How Do Monetary Incentives Influence Giving? An Empirical Investigation Of Matching Subsidies On Kiva, Zhiyuan Gao, Zhiling Guo, Qian Tang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Matching subsidies, through which third-party institutions provide a dollar-for-dollar match of private contributions made through selected campaigns, have served as effective tools to boost fundraising. We utilize a quasi-experiment on a prosocial crowdfunding platform to examine the effectiveness of matching subsidies in shaping funding outcomes and lender behaviors. Although matching subsidies offer matched loans competitive advantages over unmatched loans, we find that total private contributions made to both matched and unmatched loans increase compared to their prematching counterparts, suggesting a positive spillover effect on unmatched loans. However, matching subsidies lead to decreased private contributions made on the platform after a …

Farmers In Singapore? Collective Action Under Adverse Circumstances, Yu Fong Ho, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How can individuals with contrasting interests in a declining industry, at odds with the country’s identity, and facing an illiberal and sceptical government, band together to promote collective goals? This article addresses this question by examining Singapore’s Kranji Countryside Association, one of Singapore’s few civil society organisations to focus on community organising. To Association members, the material and time costs of organising were high, the odds of success were low and the material rewards of success were modest. The article evaluates two views that purport to explain collective action: the rational choice approach that focuses on selective incentives and the …

Introduction To The Special Issue On “Grassroots And Inclusive Innovations: Conceptualizing Synergies And Complementarities”, Wee Liang Tan, Partha Gangopadhyay, Oscar Hauptman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The paper provided a review of the state of the field of grassroots and inclusive innovations, suggested and proposed ways forward for research. It also provided a summary of the articles in the special issue and discussed their contributions. With the extant literature, and the modest contribution of the special issue, the paper postulates that grassroots innovation and inclusive innovation activities are complementary. One the one hand, the inclusive innovations actors and processes facilitate and accelerate grassroots innovation. On the other hand, the knowledge of local context and culture enables effective diffusion of external ideas. The paper also highlights the …

Corporate In-House Tax Departments, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, Travis Chow, Yanju Liu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In-house human capital tax investment is a significant input to a firm's tax decisions. Yet, due to the lack of data on corporate in-house tax departments, there is little empirical evidence on how tax departments are associated with tax planning and compliance outcomes. We expect the size of tax departments to be positively associated with the effectiveness of tax planning and compliance. Using hand-collected data on the number of corporate tax employees in S&P 1500 firms over the 2009–2014 period, we find that firms with larger tax departments are associated with lower and less volatile cash effective tax rates. Furthermore, …

Business Combinations Under Common Control (Part 1), Pearl Hock-Neo Tan, Chu Yeong Lim, Tracey Chunqi Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In a business combination under common control (BCUCC) the same party (or parties) ultimately controls the combining entities both before and after the business combination and this control is not transitory. BCUCC is not governed by any International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). The IASB is undertaking a research project in response to stakeholder feedback of the diversity in accounting practice and released a Discussion Paper (DP) in November 2020 that sets out the Board’s preliminary views on reporting requirements. Our paper contributes to the discussion by proposing a contextual approach in determining …

External Impetus, Co-Production And Grassroots Innovations: The Case Of An Innovation Involving A Language, Wee Liang Tan, Ghil'ad Zuckermann

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the field of innovation, three constructs co-exist in different research streams that are exploring disadvantaged communities - grassroots innovations, inclusive innovations and social innovations. In this paper we examine an innovation that involves language: the revival of a language among an Aboriginal tribal community in Australia. In our qualitative-conceptual analysis of the case, we uncover that a) the innovation appears at various stages of the language revival project to cut across the typologies of grassroots, inclusive and social innovations; b) complementarities in the three types of innovation contribute to project initiation, planning, and execution. Based on these findings, we …

Japanese Monetary Policy And Its Impact On Stock Market Implied Volatility During Pleasant And Unpleasant Weather, Marinela Adriana Finta

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate the effect of Japan’s Monetary Policy Meeting releases on the intraday dynamics of the Nikkei Stock Average Volatility Index and its futures during pleasant and unpleasant weather. We show that at the time of a monetary policy release when the temperature is pleasant, there is a significant decline in Japanese equities’ implied volatility and futures, which lasts for about 10 minutes and 5 minutes, respectively. This decline is longer and exhibits a greater variation when releases occur during cold days. Finally, we emphasize the achievable economic profits and losses, given the reaction of Nikkei VI futures to the …

Who Are The Most Inclined To Learn? Evidence From Chinese Multinationals' Internationalization In The European Union, Liang Chen, Yi Li, Di Fan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While it is widely recognised that an asset-augmenting rather than asset-exploiting strategy drives emerging multinationals' (EMNEs) internationalization, current research focuses on the motivations behind knowledge seeking FDI. What remains less clear is why latecomer firms can engage in learning in advanced countries. Conjoining the "Linkage-Leverage-Learning (LLL)" framework and knowledge seeking literature, this study shows how Chinese investment in the European Union reveals the preconditions for foreign knowledge sourcing. We follow a set-theoretic approach, utilizing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), to identify equifinal configurations of linkage and leverage conditions leading to high learning propensity of EMNEs. Our analysis extends the LLL …

Explainable Recommendation With Comparative Constraints On Product Aspects, Trung-Hoang Le, Hady W. Lauw

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To aid users in choice-making, explainable recommendation models seek to provide not only accurate recommendations but also accompanying explanations that help to make sense of those recommendations. Most of the previous approaches rely on evaluative explanations, assessing the quality of an individual item along some aspects of interest to the user. In this work, we are interested in comparative explanations, the less studied problem of assessing a recommended item in comparison to another reference item.

In particular, we propose to anchor reference items on the previously adopted items in a user's history. Not only do we aim at providing comparative …

Outsourcing Life Cycle Model For Financial Services In The Fintech Era, Tristan Lim, Patrick Thng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In today’s financial services landscape, staying ahead of the innovation curve and being disciplined at enhancing core service offerings entail careful resource planning. A well-structured outsourcing arrangement can go a long way towards enhancing long term organizational strategic growth. In the post-2014 FinTech era, (i) strategic management with an innovation focus and (ii) financial technology-associated risks, have brought about changes to outsourcing in the financial services industry. Presently, most outsourcing life cycle models in existing literature seek to provide comprehensive, yet industry-neutral guidelines lacking industry context and depth of coverage. A newly licensed financial institution deciding to embark on outsourcing …

Traceable Monero: Anonymous Cryptocurrency With Enhanced Accountability, Yannan Li, Guomin Yang, Wily Susilo, Yong Yu, Man Ho Au, Dongxi Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Monero provides a high level of anonymity for both users and their transactions. However, many criminal activities might be committed with the protection of anonymity in cryptocurrency transactions. Thus, user accountability (or traceability) is also important in Monero transactions, which is unfortunately lacking in the current literature. In this paper, we fill this gap by introducing a new cryptocurrency named Traceable Monero to balance the user anonymity and accountability. Our framework relies on a tracing authority, but is optimistic, in that it is only involved when investigations in certain transactions are required. We formalize the system model and security model …

Successful Startups: The Right Founder, Problem, And People, Ken Hsu

Perspectives@SMU

A lot hinges on communication, execution, and thinking like Chris Rock

Hong Kong Property Prices: Is There A 2047 Discount?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Research looks at whether property prices in Hong Kong have been affected by the coming end of ‘one country, two systems’ governance arrangement in 2047

What Tesla’S $1.5 Billion Bet On Bitcoin Means For Crypto Legitimacy, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Some significant issues need to be resolved before Tesla can accept Bitcoin as a legitimate method of payment, says UNSW Business School's Mark Humphery-Jenner

Skbi Big 5 Survey 2021 February, Singapore Management University

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

The latest survey results suggest that the five largest economies collectively is projected to snapback to almost 6% in 2021, a modest upgrade from the August median, following an unprecedented preliminary contraction of roughly 4% last year (in real GDP terms). The 2022 median growth forecast of slightly above 4.5%, while slower, is still respectable, outstripping its pre-COVID 10-year average pace by more than half a percentage point. The aggregate upgrade in 2021, however, obscures the lopsided nature and highly uneven contour of the ongoing recovery. The bulk of the upward revision to growth was mainly due to IN (to …

Disruptive Technologies And Digital Transformation Of The Financial Services Industry In Singapore: Regulatory Framework And Challenges Ahead, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper seeks to provide a general overview of the impact of new technologies in the financial services industry in Singapore. For that purpose, it starts by emphasizing that technology has always played an important role in the financial industry. However, new disruptive technologies, as well as the increasing use of data in the financial services industry, have created new challenges and opportunities for the financial sector. While Singapore has managed to address these challenges by adopting one of the quickest and most innovative and comprehensive responses probably observed internationally, financial markets –and particularly the fintech industry– are constantly evolving. …

Enabling Singapore's Youths To Adapt In An Era Of Climate Change, Thomas Menkhoff, Mark Chong, Benjamin Gan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Nudging them towards more eco-friendly behavioural habits is arguably a feasible approach to build greater climate resilience.