Business Commons^™

Lee Kong Chian School Of Business Year In Review 2018-2019, Singapore Management University

SMU Corporate Reports

It’s been my privilege and honour to serve as your Dean for the past five years. As I complete five years, it offers an opportunity to reflect on our collective accomplishments to becoming a leading business school in Asia. I am delighted to report that the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) has continued its trajectory of growth and impact. Whether it is in our programmes, in our research, or in our engagement with industry, LKCSB shines brighter than ever.

A Theories-In-Use Approach To Building Marketing Theory, Valarie A. Zeithaml, Bernard J. Jaworski, Ajay K. Kohli, Kapil R. Tuli, Wolfgang Ulaga, Gerald Zaltman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article’s objective is to inspire and provide guidance on the development of marketing knowledge based on the theories-in-use (TIU) approach. The authors begin with a description of the TIU approach and compare it with other inductive and deductive research approaches. The benefits of engaging in TIU-based research are discussed, including the development of novel organic marketing theories and the opportunity to cocreate relevant marketing knowledge with practitioners. Next, they review criteria for selecting research questions that are particularly well-suited for examination with TIU-based research. This is followed by detailed suggestions for TIU research: focusing on developing new constructs, theoretical …

The Role Of Endogenous And Exogenous Risk In Fdi Entry Choices, Peter J. Buckley, Liang Chen, L. Jeremy Clegg, Hinrich Voss

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

FDI research has presented consistent evidence that firm experience moderates the effect of risk on entry in a new foreign market. This conclusion is contested by recent research. By revisiting the conceptualisation of risk by economists and behaviourists, we show that the proposed learning mechanism only applies to endogenous risk, not exogenous risk. As assessing endogenous risk involves self-evaluation of risk-reducing capability, it is posited that firms have differential tendencies to take such risks even when experience and ownership are accounted for. We find both observed and unobserved variations in firms' responses to endogenous risk, as opposed to exogenous risk.

Using Online Tutorials To Teach The Accounting Cycle, Tracey Chunqi Zhang, Lay Chin Low, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The accounting cycle is an important yet difficult topic for introductory financial accounting students to learn. These students often lack the business context to understand the accounting cycle and find the traditional teaching approach dry. This problem motivates the authors to examine whether a blended learning approach via online tutorials can improve students’ perceived knowledge of the accounting cycle for the undergraduate introductory financial accounting course. The authors developed four innovative online tutorials with a coherent storyline to enable students to learn the accounting cycle and to supplement in-class learning. To test the effectiveness of online tutorials, an independent survey …

Cross-Industry Information Sharing And Analyst Performance, Allen Huang, An-Ping Lin, Amy Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study shows that analyst research benefits from the sharing of information about economically connected industries among colleagues. Measuring the intensity of potential information sharing with the level of economic connection between an analyst’s industry and her colleagues’ industries, we find that it is positively correlated with an analyst’s earnings forecast accuracy, stock recommendation profitability, coverage breadth, and report frequency after controlling for other determinants including broker or analyst fixed effects. We also find that analysts are more likely to issue reports when highly connected colleagues produce information. We show that sharing information with colleagues covering downstream (upstream) industries benefits …

Performance Of Cross-Border Acquisitions: Evidence From China, Yuanyuan Fan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in China has increased dramatically in recent years. Under China’s “go global” strategy, Chinese firms are devoting more capital and time to developing their overseas business. Cross-border M&As make up a large proportion of these activities. Therefore, it is crucial to determine what factors affect the performance of cross-border acquisitions.

Previous studies show that the acquirers’ post-merger performance is affected by various factors. Those papers mainly focus on domestic M&As. However, cross-border M&As also have unique features. In this study, I focus on Chinese cross-border acquisitions and the factors that affect the …

Information Externalities And Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence From A Major Customer’S Earnings Announcement, Young Jun Cho, Yongtae Kim, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between information externalities along the supply chain and voluntary disclosure. Information transfers from a major customer's earnings announcement (EA) can substitute for its supplier's disclosure. Conversely, if the customer's EA increases uncertainties regarding the supplier's future prospects, it can increase the demand for disclosure. After controlling for information incorporated in supplier returns, we find that the supplier is more likely to issue earnings guidance after the customer's EA when the EA news deviates more from the market's expectation. The positive effect of the customer's news on earnings guidance is weaker when common investors, supply-chain analysts, or …

Do Overall Dimension Ratings From Assessment Centres Show External Construct-Related Validity, Andreja Wirz, Klaus G. Melchers, Martin Kleinmann, Filip Lievens, Hubert Annen, Urs Blum, Pia V. Ingold

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There have been repeated calls for an external construct validation approach to advance our understanding of the construct-related validity of assessment centre dimension ratings beyond existing internal construct-related validity findings. Following an external construct validation approach, we examined whether linking assessment centre overall dimension ratings to ratings of the same dimensions that stem from sources external to the assessment centre provides evidence for construct-related validity of assessment centre ratings. We used data from one laboratory assessment centre sample and two field samples. External ratings of the same dimensions stemmed from assessees, assessees’ supervisors, and customers. Results converged across all three …

Soliciting Resources From Others: An Integrative Review, Jia Hui Lim, Kenneth Tai, Peter A. Bamberger, Elizabeth W. Morrison

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Resource seeking, or the act of asking others for things that can help one attain one’s goals, is an important behavior within organizations due to the increasingly dynamic nature of work that demands collaboration and coordination among employees. Over the past two decades, there has been growing research in the organizational sciences on four types of resource seeking behaviors: feedback-, information-, advice-, and help-seeking. However, research on these four behaviors has existed in separate silos. We argue that there is value in recognizing that these behaviors reflect a common higher order construct (resource seeking), and in integrating the findings across …

Editors' Comments: Is Corporate Social Responsibility Research Undertheorized?, Heli Wang, Cristina Gibson, Udo Zander

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has brought about both progress and controversy. Under the banner of CSR, we have made progress in addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges, yet corporations still struggle to figure out where, how, and when to devote their social efforts, and doubts abound as to whether corporate efforts are truly in the public’s best interest. Scholarly interest in CSR research has also flourished. As a pervasive topic in the business literature, CSR is being addressed not only in the management field but also in the domains of economics, finance, marketing, operations, …

Publishing In Management: Exhilaration, Bafflement And Frustration, Mike Wright, David J. Ketchen, Timothy Adrian Robert Clark

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Scholars find the journal publishing process exhilarating, baffling and frustrating in equal measure. The professional joy and excitement of receiving an acceptance letter following a long drawn-out process inwhich you have diligently responded to successive rounds of reviewers’ comments is probably only matched by a letter awarding a research grant. Contrast this to the sense of dejection and distress that accompanies a rejection letter. This is further exacerbated if the reviewers’ comments and decision appear to be harsh and if they make little sense. It is even more disappointing if the paper appears to have beenprogressing through different rounds of …

The Invisible Hand Of Evolutionary Psychology: The Importance Of Kinship In First-Generation Family Firms, Xiaodong Yu, Laura Stanley, Yuping Li, Kimberly A. Eddleston, Franz W. Kellermanns

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While previous studies focus on differences between family and nonfamily firms regarding CEO selection and executive compensation, this study investigates differences among family firms with different types of kinship ties. We find that, compared with family firms with close kinship ties, those with distant kinship ties are more likely to appoint a nonfamily CEO and to pay nonfamily executives lower salaries. This relationship is moderated by firm performance and family ownership. Based on evolutionary psychology, we propose that family firms with close versus distant kinships have different motivation levels to preserve socioemotional wealth.

I Don’T Want To Go Back: Examining The Return To Physical Workspaces During Covid-19, Zihan Liu, Drake Van Egdom, Rhona Flin, Omolola Adepoju, Ramanari Krishnamoorti

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Objective: We study employee perspectives on return to physical workspaces to ultimately inform employers' and policy makers' decision making around the return to work during COVID-19. Methods: We tested the three-component conceptual model using survey data collected in the United States in May 2020 from samples of energy workers (N = 333). Results: Women, non-Caucasians, and employees living in multi-generational households were less willing to return. Concerns about childcare were negatively related to willingness to return, whereas organizational strategies for mitigating COVID-19 transmission at work were positively related to willingness to return. COVID-19 infections in an employees' network were also …

The Relevance Of Non-Financial Key Performance Indicators, Bingxu Fang, Partha Mohanram, Dushyant Vyas

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The limitations of financials statements in assessing firm performance have long been known to the academic and practitioner accounting communities. Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in the frequency and scope of non-financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) disclosed by companies and used by market participants. In this study, we investigate the relevance of various voluntarily reported non-financial KPIs. We find that KPIs are positively associated with future profitability, sales growth, and current stock returns; however, the stock market underreacts to the information embedded in KPIs for firms operating in opaque information environments.

Financial Vulnerability And The Reproduction Of Disadvantage In Economic Exchanges, Tianyu He, Rellie Derfler-Rozin, Marko Pitesa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Integrative value generation through negotiated business deals is a fundamental way in which organizations and economic systems attain economic benefits. It is also an important way in which individuals can improve their financial situation. We propose that individuals most in need of improving their financial standing, those in a financially vulnerable situation, are least likely to reap the benefits of integrative value generation. We theorize that financial vulnerability induces a more zero-sum construal of success, or a view that success for one person must come at another person’s success. A more zero-sum construal of success, in turn, hampers negotiators’ ability …

Managing Clinic Variability With Same-Day Scheduling, Intervention For No-Shows, And Seasonal Capacity Adjustments, Kum Khiong Yang, Tugba Cayirli

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates demand and capacity strategiesfor managing clinic variability. These include (i) same-day scheduling tocontrol random walk-ins, (ii) no-show intervention, where the clinic callsadvance-booked patients a day before to identify and release canceled slots tosame-day patients, and (iii) adjustments to daily number of appointments foradvance-booked patients to match seasonal variations in same-day demand. Thesestrategies are tested over the individual-block/fixed-interval (IBFI) and theDome appointment rules. The resulting appointment systems are tested underscenarios with different levels of same-day demand, demand seasonality,no-shows and cost ratios. The goal is to minimize the weighted sum of patients’wait time and physician’s idle-time and overtime. Our …

Sell-Side Analysts' Benchmarks, Ohad Kadan, Leonardo Madureira, Rong Wang, Tzachi Zach

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Sell-side analysts employ different benchmarks when defining their recommendations. A buy for some brokers means the stock is expected to outperform its industry, while for other brokers it means the stock is expected to outperform the market, or some return threshold. We show that these stated benchmarks have implications for the distribution of recommendations, price reactions to recommendations, and the investment value of recommendations. We conclude that, depending on the question, academics may need to account for the benchmarks when studying analysts’ outputs, and investors may find the benchmarks beneficial in interpreting analysts’ advice.

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 …

Potential Pilot Problems: Treatment Spillovers In Financial Regulatory Experiments, Ekkehart Boehmer, Charles Jones, Xiaoyan Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In analyzing regulatory experiments, a fundamental assumption is that the control group is unaffected. However, in many settings, this assumption may not hold. Generally, the total effect of a regulatory change consists of direct and indirect effects, but the standard difference-in-difference approach measures only direct effects. We apply our methods to the 2007 repeal of the uptick rule by the SEC. The indirect effects are substantial, because unlike the 2005 partial repeal, total repeal enables aggressive portfolio shorting. In particular, we find that short sellers become much more aggressive across the board, and shorting activity increases, even in control stocks …

Privacy At Work: A Review And A Research Agenda For A Contested Terrain, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Laurel H. Teo, Reeshad S. Dalal

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Privacy in the workplace is a pivotal concern for employees and employers. Employees expect to be in control of the personal information and access they provide to the organization. Employers, however, expect extensive information regarding their employees as well as extensive access to employees’ presence. The chasm between these two often competing expectations has been magnified by regulatory and technological trends. We begin the review by integrating viewpoints from multiple disciplines to disentangle definitions of privacy and to delineate the privacy contexts of information privacy and work environment privacy. We then identify the key stakeholders of privacy in the workplace …

Within-Person Job Performance Variability Over Short Timeframes: Theory, Empirical Research, And Practice, Reeshad S. Dalal, Balca Alaybek, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We begin by charting the evolution of the dominant perspective on job performance from one that viewed performance as static to one that viewed it as dynamic over long timeframes (e.g., months, years, decades) to one that views it as dynamic over not just long but also short timeframes (e.g., minutes, hours, days, weeks)—and that accordingly emphasizes the within-person level of analysis. The remainder of the article is devoted to the newer, short-timeframe research on within-person variability in job performance. We emphasize personality states and affective states as motivational antecedents. We provide accessible reviews of relevant theories and highlight the …

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. …

The Topicality Of The Learning Organization: Is The Concept Still Relevant Today?, Siu Loon Hoe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This chapter introduces the current level of interest in the learning organization and usefulness of the concept at the present time. It reviews authors who have recently and explicitly commented on the topicality of the learning organization, offers a qualitative content analysis of recent journal publications on learning organizations justifying the need for the concept, and uses quantitative research using print media indicators and Google Trends to identify the number of publications related to the learning organization over time. The results suggest that while the level of interest in the learning organization among scientific researchers has grown, the level of …

Business Analytics/Business Intelligence And It Infrastructure : Impact On Organizational Agility, Xiaofeng Chen, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This is an empirical research investigating the impact of business analytics (BA) and business intelligence (BI) use, IT infrastructure flexibility, and their interactions on organizational agility. Synthesizing the systems theory and awareness-motivation-capability framework, the authors propose that BA-Use, IT infrastructure flexibility, and their interactions significantly influence organizational agility. The results show the significant association of BA use and IT infrastructure flexibility with organizational agility. The results also suggest that BA use may demand corporations to build a more flexible IT infrastructure. However, the data does not reveal the proposed interaction between the two drivers of organizational agility.

Rethinking The Regulatory Sandbox For Financial Innovation: An Assessment Of The Uk And Singapore, Christopher Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

After the UK launched the first regulatory sandbox regime in 2016, the approach was quickly transplanted to numerous other countries as a means of promoting innovation, improving competition and enhancing financial inclusion. However, it remains unclear whether the approach can effectively achieve the relevant policy goals and thus justify the differential regulatory treatment. This chapter provides a broad overview of the regulatory sandbox regime and examines its potential benefits and problems. The chapter then provides some empirical evidence by analyzing the sandboxes awarded in the UK and Singapore between 2016 and 2018 with the aim of identifying what the businesses …

Female Transnational Entrepreneurs (Ftes): A Case Study Of Korean American Female Entrepreneurs In Silicon Valley, June Y. Lee, Jane Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Increasingly, studies of entrepreneurship and migration have examined the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in revitalising and diversifying the economy of the host society. Further, recent transnational skilled entrepreneurs have been understood as being much more mobile in building international networks and collaborations between their home and host societies. These studies have tended to focus on the technically oriented entrepreneurs and to produce a single grand narrative about a particular migrant group that transfers knowledge and becomes a technical pioneer in their home society. This article scrutinises a group of first-generation Korean American female transnational entrepreneurs (FTEs) living in Silicon Valley …

Optimal Design And Ownership Structures Of Innovative Retail Payment Systems, Zhiling Guo, Dan Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In response to the Fintech trend, an ongoing debate in the banking industry is how to design the new-generation interbank retail payment and settlement system. We propose a two-stage analytical model that takes into account the value-risk tradeoff in the new payment system design, as well as banks’ participation incentives and adoption timing decisions. We find that, as the system base value increases, banks tend to synchronize their investment and adoption decisions. When the system base value is low and banks are heterogeneous, bank association ownership maximizes social welfare. When both the system base value and bank heterogeneity are moderate, …

Long-Term Index Fund Ownership And Stock Returns, Ekkehart Boehmer, Wanshan Song, Ashish Tiwari, Zhe Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the implications of stock ownership by index funds for shareholder value. Consistent with recent findings that stock ownership by passive funds contributes to improved governance, we document a strong positive relation between the duration of passive fund holdings and subsequent stock performance. This positive relation is more pronounced for firms with recent poor performance, and for smaller firms and firms with higher allocation weights in passive funds’ portfolios. Our results support the view that index funds, although passive in their investment decisions, successfully contribute to long-term value creation by actively engaging with firms on matters of governance.

Of Promoting Networking And Protecting Privacy: Effects Of Defaults And Regulatory Focus On Social Media Users’ Preference Settings, Hichang Cho, Sungjong Roh, Byungho Park

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Privacy research has debated whether privacy decision-making is determined by users' stable preferences (i.e., individual traits), privacy calculus (i.e., cost-benefit analysis), or “responses on the spot” that vary across contexts. This study focuses on two factors—default setting as a contextual factor and regulatory focus as an individual difference factor—and examines the degree to which these factors affect social media users' decision-making when using privacy preference settings in a fictitious social networking site. The results, based on two experimental studies (study 1, n = 414; study 2, n = 213), show that default settings significantly affect users' privacy preferences, such that …

An Analysis Of Open Innovation Determinants: The Case Study Of Singapore Based Family Owned Enterprises, Annie Koh, Esther Kong, Giuseppe Timperio

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Family businesses play an important role in the growth of global economy, and while they are arguably perceived as a conservative form of organization with high risk aversion and reluctance to change, counterintuitive empirical evidence show that they are most effective in ideation and commercialization of innovation projects. In the current business environment of rapid change in work patterns, fast adoption of enabling technologies for seamless collaborations across industry and geography, along with intense competition and high uncertainty, enterprises have no choice but to maximize returns on innovation investments. Therefore, they are increasingly dependent on an ecosystem-based approach to innovation …