Business Commons^™

Local Tax Incentives And Behavior Of Foreign Enterprises: Evidence From A Large Developing Country, Jing Xing, Wei Cui, Xi Qi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We analyze how profit reporting and investment behavior of foreign enterprises respond to local tax incentives in China, a large developing country. Using firm-level data between 2000 and 2013 from China’s industrial enterprise survey, we first provide strong evidence for tax competition among Chinese cities (especially cities within the same province) over the average effective income tax rate. We then find that, despite stringent capital controls, both reported pre-tax profits and investment of foreign firms respond strongly to local tax incentives, suggesting that subnational tax competition in China is oriented towards both mobile profits and real resources.

Assessing The Validity Of Emotional Intelligence Measures, Christopher T. H. Miners, Stéphane Cote, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We describe an approach that enables a more complete evaluation of the validity of emotional intelligence measures. We argue that a source of evidence for validity is often overlooked by researchers and test developers, namely, evidence based on response processes. This evidence can be obtained through (a) a definition of the ability, (b) a description of the mental processes that operate when a person uses the ability, (c) the development of a theory of response behaviour that links variation in the construct with variation on the responses to the items of a measure, and (d) a test of the theory …

Utilization Of Csr To Build Organizations’ Corporate Image In Asia: Need For An Integrative Approach, Augustine Pang, May O. Lwin, Chrystal Shu-Min Ng, Ying-Kai Ong, Shannon Rose Wing-Ching Chau, Kristle Poh-Sim Yeow

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been found to be a strong predictor of a favorable corporate image [Gray, 1986. Managing the corporate image: The key to public trust. London: Quorum Books]. Websites have become an essential communication platform [Dawkins, 2004. Corporate responsibility: The communication challenge. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), 108–119]. This study aims to investigate how CSR can be used in enhancing organizational corporate image. Content analyses of 150 corporate websites of organizations in Asia headquartered in Singapore were conducted, followed by in-depth interviews with public relations (PR) practitioners to examine the motivations behind their CSR engagement. Findings showed …

Short Sellers And Corporate Disclosure, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, T. Luo, Heng Yue

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine how short sellers affect corporate disclosures using a natural experiment. From May2005 to July 2007, the SEC implemented a pilot program by randomly selecting one third ofRussell 3000 stocks and removing the short sale price tests for these stocks (referred to as pilotfirms), leading to lower short-selling constraint, without changing the requirement for other firms(referred to as control firms). We compare the change in corporate disclosures between the pilotfirms and the control firms during this period. We find that compared to the control firms, thepilot firms are more likely to issue good news management forecasts without changing theissuance …

The Effect Of Ssap 101 On Loss Provisioning By Property-Casualty Insurers, Jiang Cheng, Travis K. Chow, Tzu-Ting Lin, Tee Yong Jeffrey Ng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines whether the adoption of the Statement of Statutory AccountingPrinciples (SSAP) 101, a new accounting standard that significantly limits management’sdiscretion in both the recognition and measurement of tax contingencies, affects the lossprovisions of property-casualty (PC) insurers. We find that PC insurers significantly reducetheir loss provisions after SSAP 101 adoption, particularly those with greater ex anteexposure to SSAP 101, consistent with reduced incentives to establish loss reserves for taxpurposes. Additionally, PC insurers with greater exposure to SSAP 101 show increasedearnings persistence and decreased returns on asset volatility, suggesting improved insurertransparency and an improved overall risk profile via tax avoidance …

Essays In Commodities And Freight Markets, Nelson Yap

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Chapter 1: Structural Changes in Functional Curves: Estimation and Testing

Abstract: This paper considers the estimation and testing of structural changes in functional curves that occurs at an unknown date. The functional principal component analysis is applied to the random functional curves, decomposing them into interpretable simple latent functions and random scalars. We model the random scalars using a simple autoregressive model and test for a change in parameters that occur at an unknown date. This method is applied to the crude oil futures market to estimate and date possible structural breaks during OPEC announcement periods from 1984 to 2017.

Essay On Asset Pricing, Fei Gao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

We uncover a novel stock return predictor from the options market, the volume-weighted strike-spot price ratio (VWKS) across all traded option contracts. High (low) VWKS indicates that the mass of options volume on an underlying stock centers at the out-of-the-money region of call (put) options. Empirically, VWKS has positive and robust predictive ability for underlying returns after controlling for a long list of variables including known return predictors from the options market, stock illiquidity, and past stock returns, and has more persistent and stronger predictive power for stocks with higher information asymmetry and arbitrage costs. We also find that VWKS …

Three Essays On Corporate Finance, Mengyao Kang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation has three essays in corporate finance. In the first chapter, We investigate whether a CEO’s experience with mergers matter when her firm becomes a takeover target? We find that shareholders receive higher premiums when their CEO has experience. The evidence suggests this is due to learning rather than innate skills or selection. Consistent with superior negotiation of salient features of takeover offers, experienced target CEOs obtain either safer cash payments or higher premiums as the fraction of cash in the offer decreases. These benefits do not come at the cost of other contractual concessions or inefficiencies in takeover …

Examining Outcomes Of Marketing Actions From Customer, Investor, And Operational Perspectives, Leon Gim Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation examines the impact of three distinct marketing actions from three different perspectives, i.e., customer, investor, and operational. Specifically, the first essay examines investors’ evaluation of firms’ price-increase preannouncements, thereby responding to recent calls for exploring investors’ evaluation of a firm’s pricing actions which have been predominantly examined from consumers’ perspective. The second essay adopts an operations lens to present the first empirical examination about the impact of customer satisfaction on the future costs of selling and producing for a firm. The essay, therefore, is of direct importance to CEOs as they consider costs as their top priority. In …

Three Essays On Corporate Finance, Yuan Zhuang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

My dissertation aims to better understand managers and financial analysts’ behavior, incentives, and constraints, as well as their impacts on firm decisions and financial markets. In Chapter 1, I show that peer firms play an important role in determining U.S. corporate cash saving decisions. Using an instrument variable identification strategy, I find that one standard deviation change in peer firms average cash savings leads to a 2.63% same-direction change in firm’s own cash savings, which exceeds the marginal effects of many previously identified determinants. The economic implications of such peer effects are large, which can significantly alter cash savings in …

Essays On The Determinants Of Success Of Crowdfunding Projects, Yee Heng Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Crowdfunding is a method of raising funds to support a venture, typically by raising small amounts from a large number of investors (backers or patrons). This whole process is conducted on an online platform that facilitates interactions between project creators and potential contributors. We explore in the dissertation, the determinants of the success of crowdfunding projects. The first essay, using data from Kickstarter (the leading crowdfunding platform), explores how backers to a project are interconnected with other backers through their backing of common projects thus forming an implicit backer network. We find that backers that are in central positions within …

Corporate In-House Human Capital Investment In Tax Planning, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, Travis K. 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, there is little empirical evidence on how corporate in-house taxdepartments are associated with tax planning and compliance outcomes. Using handcollected data on corporate tax employees in S&P1500 firms over the period 2009-2014, wefind that in-house tax planning investments lead to greater tax avoidance, in-house taxcompliance investments lead to lower tax risk, while general tax investments achieve bothgoals. We obtain the same inferences when controlling for endogeneity or using changespecifications. We also find that the effects of in-house tax investments are …

Advertising And Disclosure: Do Firms Time Advertising During Disclosure Periods?, Yin Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a large sample of monthly advertising data, I examine whether U.S. firms use advertisingstrategically during disclosure periods. I find that firms schedule some advertising to appeararound their SEC 10-K, 10-Q filings and around their earnings announcements, consistent withadvertising being used to increase visibility and attract investor attention during disclosureperiods. This effect is stronger for firms reporting good news, for firms with high individualinvestor ownership, for firms in the retail industry, and for young firms. In addition, firmsincrease their advertising through media with broad target audiences and through business-toconsumer media around their disclosures (i.e. SEC 10-K, 10-Q filings and earningsannouncements). …

The Globalisation Of Tax Good Governance, Christiana Panayi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This is a unique era where the international tax community, most vocally represented by developed countries mainly through the OECD/G20 is engaged in a global fight against tax evasion/avoidance. It is thought that lack of tax cooperation increases the risk of cross-border tax evasion and avoidance. Apart from the traditional notions of cooperation/assistance and exchange of information commonly viewed as instrumental in the fight against tax evasion/avoidance, another concept has emerged – that of good tax governance or tax good governance or fiscal good governance.

Notwithstanding the uncertainties surrounding tax good governance, it is acquiring increasing importance and institutional backing, …

The Business Of Business Schools, Kai Peters, Howard Thomas, Richard Raymond Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The authors suggest that while much has been written about business schools from historical and critical perspectives not enough has emerged from an additional viewpoint – the lens of the business of business schools.

Real-World Large-Scale Iot Systems For Community Eldercare: A Comparative Study On System Dependability, Hwee-Pink Tan, Austin Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The paradigm of aging-in-place — where the elderly live and age in their own homes, independently and safely, with care provided by the community — is compelling, especially in societies that face both shortages in institutionalized eldercare resources, and rapidly-aging populations. Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, particularly in-home monitoring solutions, are commercially available, and can be a fundamental enabler of smart community eldercare, if they are dependable. In this paper, we present our findings on system performance of solutions from two vendors, which we have deployed at scale for technology-enabled community care. In particular, we highlight the importance of quantifying actual system …

Real-Time Inbound Marketing: A Use Case For Digital Banking, Alan Megargel, Venky Shankararaman, Srinivas K. Reddy

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the years banks have been strategically using digital technologies to help transform various aspects of their business. In recent times, this strategy has evolved into one of digital augmentation of the bank’s processes, products and channels. This allows for reaching out to customers and partners through digital platforms, for example; the addition of mobile apps for customers to access and perform service transactions. Marketing continues to play a major role in supporting the expansion of business and increasing revenue for the bank. Marketing has evolved from mass direct targeting to more personalised, face-to-face and real-time targeting. In the digital …

Mapletree Real Estate Programme Established At Smu Through S$3 Million Endowed Gift; Smu To Offer Specialisation In Real Estate Investment And Finance From August 2018, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Mapletree Investments (“Mapletree”) and Singapore Management University (“SMU”) are pleased to jointly announce the launch of a multi-faceted Mapletree Real Estate Programme (“Programme”). The Programme, which is a first of its kind, aims to equip students with the necessary knowledge and cross-disciplinary skills to navigate the growing real estate sector in Singapore and globally.

The Mapletree Real Estate Programme has been made possible by a generous endowed gift of S$3 million from Mapletree to SMU. With a 1:1 government matching, the total sum of S$6 million will go towards the establishment of the Mapletree Professorship in Real Estate, Mapletree Awards, …

New Approaches To Selection System Design In Healthcare: The Practical And Theoretical Relevance Of A Modular Approach, Filip Lievens, Jan Corstjens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This chapter presents a modular approach to healthcare selection system design. Contrary to the traditional holistic view on selection procedures, a modular approach highlights the components underlying selection procedures. Our framework identifies seven key design components of selection procedures (The stimulus format, contextualization, stimulus presentation consistency, the response format, response evaluation consistency, information source, and instructions) and reviews studies in the healthcare selection literature that compared the effect of these components on key selection outcomes. A modular approach allows (1) gaining insights into how the different components underlying selection procedures affect selection outcomes and (2) drawing conceptual similarities between components …

When Corporate Social Responsibility Motivates Employee Citizenship Behavior: The Sensitizing Role Of Task Significance, Madeline Ong, David M. Mayer, P. Tost Leigh, Ned Wellman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Scholars have proposed that organizations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts are often positively associated with employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and have invoked identity-based mechanisms to explain this relationship. Complementing these perspectives, we develop a CSR sensitivity framework that explains how task significance, a micro-level job characteristic, can sensitize employees to their organizations’ macro-level CSR efforts, thereby strengthening the association between CSR and OCB. Across three field studies, we find that CSR and task significance interact to predict OCB, such that an organization’s CSR is more positively associated with OCB among employees who report higher task significance than among those …

The Social Amplification Of Haze-Related Risks On The Internet, Mark Chong, Murphy Choy

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study explores the implications of the digital network society for public health communication and management through an empirical study on communication related to the transboundary haze crisis in Singapore. Using the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), the authors applied sentiment and thematic analysis on haze-related posts on an online discussion forum (HardwareZone) and a social networking site (Facebook), as well as to haze-related articles in The Straits Times (a newspaper). The study shows that the medium matters in social amplification of risk: Facebook had an effect on the amplification of emotions while HardwareZone and Straits Times …

China's "Mercantilist" Government Subsidies, The Cost Of Debt And Firm Performance, Chu Yeong Lim, Jiwei Wang, Cheng (Colin) Zeng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

China has been adopting a “mercantilist” policy by lavishing massive government subsidies on Chinese firms. Using hand-collected subsidy data on Chinese listed companies, we find that firms receiving more subsidies tend to have a lower cost of debt. However, such firms fail to have superior financial performance. Instead, firms with more subsidies tend to be overstaffed, which demonstrates higher social performance. These results are mainly driven by non-tax-based subsidies rather than tax-based subsidies. Overall, our results suggest that the Chinese government uses non-tax-based subsidies to achieve its social policy objectives at the expense of firms’ profitability.

What Is The Cost Of Transparency? Does It Outweigh The Benefits Obtained From Greater Transparency?, Viktoria Wöhrer

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Currently, the scope of tax transparency is increasing on a global level. Taxpayers and third parties have to provide more information to both tax authorities and the general public. Increasing transparency should hamper both tax evasion and tax avoidance. The tax transparency initiatives should contribute to providing tax administrations with useful information for assessing tax risks and specifically targeting those issues in an audit. Greater transparency does however not only contribute to the combat against tax avoidance and tax evasion but also involves an increased degree of data gathering, reporting and information exchange either from taxpayers to tax authorities or …

Objective Or Subjective – Anti-Treaty Shopping Policy In Select Asian Jurisdictions In The Post-Beps World, Andy Baik, Matthias Petutschnig

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

BEPS Action 6 proposes two distinct anti abuse measures to be incorporated into the OECD Model Convention and subsequently into the various bilateral tax treaties: A Limitation on Benefits (LoB) clause and Principal Purpose Test (PPT). While both anti abuse measures are new to the OECD Model Convention, various countries around the world have implemented either LoB or PPT clauses or both into their tax treaties. This paper analyses the treaty network of eight Asian / Pacific jurisdictions (Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan) with respect to the anti-abuse measures employed in these treaties. The majority of …

On Substitutability And Complementarity In Discrete Choice Models, Guiyun Feng, Xiaobo Li, Zizhuo Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we propose the concepts of substitutability and complementarity in discrete choice models. These concepts concern whether the choice probability of one alternative in a choice model increases or decreases with the utility of another alternative, and they play important roles in capturing certain practical choice patterns, such as the halo effect. We study conditions on discrete choice models that will lead to substitutability and complementarity. We also present ways of constructing choice models that exhibit complementary property.

Contextualizing Social Power Research Within Organizational Behavior, Michael Schaerer, Alice J. Lee, Adam D. Galinsky, Stefan Thau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although there has been tremendous scientific interest in social power, much of this recent research has relied on experiments in context-poor settings. However, organizations – a context in which power differences emerge naturally – are more complex and dynamic. The current review discusses whether and how defining organizational features at the intrapersonal level (multiple dimensions of hierarchy, dynamics over time, attentional demands), interpersonal level (interdependence, repeated interactions), and organizational level (accountability, culture, virtual work) moderate the effects of power. We also discuss ways to systematically incorporate organizational complexities into the study of social power and recommend fruitful avenues for future …

We’Re Less Likely To Collaborate In Bad Economic Times, Nina Sirola

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the fall of 1930, the U.S. economy was on a path to recovery following a contraction that occurred the year before. However, worries about the state of the economy, and the banking system in particular, prompted an increasing number of bank customers to attempt to withdraw their funds, an event known as a bank run. Because banks normally keep only a small proportion of deposits in cash, bank runs create a self-fulfilling prophecy such that initial concerns about banks’ possible insolvency ultimately cause insolvency. The bank run of 1930 resulted in the worst economic downturn in the modern history, …

Heads Will Roll! Routes To Effective Trust Repair In The Aftermath Of A Ceo Transgression, Donald L. Ferrin, Cecily D. Cooper, Kurt T. Dirks, Peter H. Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

CEO transgressions are a common storyline in today's business press. Such incidents result in the need to repair trust for both the CEO and the organisation that the CEO leads. Existing empirical research on trust repair has focused primarily on interpersonal trust, resulting in a body of knowledge that provides many insights to the errant CEO but few insights for those who aim to repair trust in the organisation. Since organisations also need to regain the trust of stakeholders after a CEO transgression, research on organisational trust repair is clearly warranted. Organisations have options for trust repair that are not …

When The Tables Are Turned: The Effects Of The 2016 Us Presidential Election On In-Group Favoritism And Out-Group Hostility, Burak Oc, Celia Moore, Michael R. Bashshur

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was a big surprise to many, as the majority of polls had predicted the opposite outcome. In this two-stage cross-sectional study, we focus on how Democrats and Republicans reacted to this electoral surprise and how these reactions might have influenced the way they allocated resources to each other in small groups. We find that, before the election, Republicans showed greater in-group favoritism than Democrats, who treated others equally, regardless of their political affiliation. We then show that Democrats experienced the election outcome as an ego shock and, in the week following the …

The Impact Of Advertising Share Of Voice On The Idiosyncratic Risk Of The Firm, Sungkyun Moon, Kapil R. Tuli, Anirban Mukherjee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Integrating literature in marketing, finance and accounting, this study examines the impact ofa firms’ advertising share of voice (ASOV) on investors’ uncertainty about its future financialperformance, i.e., firms’ idiosyncratic risk. Drawing on signaling theory, authors propose that ASOV serves as a signal for investors such that higher ASOV reduces idiosyncratic risk. Consistent with this argument, analysis of 2,777 publicly listed firms over a two-decade period (1995-2014) shows that ASOV has a significant negative effect on idiosyncratic risk.In addition, consistent with the argument that ASOV is a more credible signal when firmshave higher cash flows; authors find that the negative impact …