Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Singapore Management University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 4591 - 4620 of 6939

Full-Text Articles in Business

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Poverty, Technology, Microfinance And Development, Robert J. Kauffman, Frederick J. Riggins Sep 2012

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Poverty, Technology, Microfinance And Development, Robert J. Kauffman, Frederick J. Riggins

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A consistent expectation on the part of public policy-makers, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been that information and communications technologies (ICTs) will be a driver of economic growth and social development for the people away from poverty in the nations that harness them effectively. As this process proceeds around the world in the presence of dramatic technical progress, poverty nevertheless continues to be a difficult and grinding social problem to combat. In spite of the promised changes, the reality is that today there are greater population pressures, continuing inertial forces for economic stagnation, unstable social conditions and regional strife, …

Go to article

A Computational Analysis Of Bundle Trading Markets Design For Distributed Resource Allocation, Zhiling Guo, Gary J. Koehler, Andrew B. Whinston Sep 2012

A Computational Analysis Of Bundle Trading Markets Design For Distributed Resource Allocation, Zhiling Guo, Gary J. Koehler, Andrew B. Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online auction markets play increasingly important roles for resource allocations in distributed systems. This paper builds upon a market-based framework presented by Guo et al. (Guo, Z., G. J. Koehler, A. B. Whinston. 2007. A market-based optimization algorithm for distributed systems. Management Sci. 53(8) 1345–1458), where a distributed system optimization problem is solved by self-interested agents iteratively trading bundled resources in a double auction market run by a dealer. We extend this approach to a dynamic, asynchronous Internet market environment and investigate how various market design factors including dealer inventory policies, market communication patterns, and agent learning strategies affect the …

Go to article

Bridging The Gap: An Exploratory Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility Among Smes In Singapore, Mui Hean Lee, Angela Ka Mak, A. Pang Aug 2012

Bridging The Gap: An Exploratory Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility Among Smes In Singapore, Mui Hean Lee, Angela Ka Mak, A. Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) among small-medium enterprises (SME) is an overlookedarea, despite the latter’s emerging prominence as an economic player. To provide a comprehensiveanalysis of the CSR landscape among Singapore SMEs, a triangulation of 15 in-depth interviews anda self-administered Web survey was conducted among 113 senior executives from top 500 SingaporeSMEs (27.2% response). Key findings include (a) moderate awareness but low comprehension ofCSR; (b) engagement relevance to immediate stakeholders; (c) individual values, stakeholderrelationships, and governmental influences as main drivers; and (d) lack of various resources askey barriers. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Go to article

Niche-Seeking In Influence Maximization With Adversary, Long Foong Liow, Shih-Fen Cheng, Hoong Chuin Lau Aug 2012

Niche-Seeking In Influence Maximization With Adversary, Long Foong Liow, Shih-Fen Cheng, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In hotly contested product categories dominated by a few powerful firms, it is quite common for weaker or late entrants to focus only on particular segments of the whole market. The rationale for such strategy is intuitive: to avoid direct confrontation with heavy-weight firms, and to concentrate in segments where these weaker firms have comparative advantages. In marketing, this is what people called “go niche or go home". The niche-building strategy may rely on “homophily", which implies that consumers in a particular market segment might possess certain set of attributes that cause them to appreciate certain products better (in other …

Go to article

Cloud Computing: A Paradigm Shift, Poh Sun Seow Aug 2012

Cloud Computing: A Paradigm Shift, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Research has shown that investment in IT is a key driver of productivity improvement in the accountancy sector. IT enables accounting firms to increase their productivity by automating tasks and enhancing collaboration within the firm and with their clients. Cloud computing has generated much interest from the business and IT communities these days as an emerging technology to increase productivity.

Go to article

Change Management: The People Dimension, Gary Pan Aug 2012

Change Management: The People Dimension, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Many accounting professionals believe it is important to raise productivity in the accounting sector. A recent survey conducted by the Institute of Management Accountants (2011), however, highlighted that raising productivity, while a very important topic, can be a daunting challenge. Therefore, the urgent issue facing the accounting sector is to address the critical concern of how accounting professionals can be more productive?

Go to article

Productivity, Return-On-Capital And Stock Price Performance, Andrew Lee, Tracey Zhang Aug 2012

Productivity, Return-On-Capital And Stock Price Performance, Andrew Lee, Tracey Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Productivity improvements in businesses are invariably championed as value-enhancing propositions. Whether the improvements are labour-related or asset-related, the value of a business is arguably enhanced when its employees are more productive, its assets are utilised more productively, and its operations are conducted more efficiently.

Go to article

Do Analysts Understand The Valuation Implications Of Accounting Conservatism When Forecasting Target Prices?, Jae Bum Kim, Alexander Nekrasov, Pervin K. Shroff, Andreas Simon Aug 2012

Do Analysts Understand The Valuation Implications Of Accounting Conservatism When Forecasting Target Prices?, Jae Bum Kim, Alexander Nekrasov, Pervin K. Shroff, Andreas Simon

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Conservatism in earnings does not have a direct impact on the present value of future cash flows. This paper examines whether financial analysts correctly undo the effect of accounting conservatism incorporated in their own earnings forecasts in arriving at their target price forecasts. Based on prior findings, we consider alternative valuation models/heuristics that may be used by analysts to estimate target prices, e.g. the forward P/E and the PEG ratio. Our evidence suggests that analysts fail to fully undo the effect of accounting conservatism embedded in their forecasts of earnings and earnings growth when estimating their target price forecasts. More …

Go to article

The Role Of A Non-Executive Director In Smes, Jiwei Wang Aug 2012

The Role Of A Non-Executive Director In Smes, Jiwei Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There are not many SMEs in Singapore which employ independent non-executive directors. SMU Associate Professor of Accounting Wang Jiwei advised that there are immense benefits that a non-executive director can bring to an SME as its business grows. These include the credibility that the person can bring to the management team, including the important and useful contacts, as well as different skill sets and experiences. “Understand your needs and then identify the right type of experienced individuals who possess the necessary expertise or business networks. There is a high possibility that your ‘perfect' non-executive director may be someone you already …

Go to article

The Role Of A Non-Executive Director In Smes, Jiwei Wang Aug 2012

The Role Of A Non-Executive Director In Smes, Jiwei Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There are not many SMEs in Singapore which employ independent non-executive directors. SMU Associate Professor of Accounting Wang Jiwei advised that there are immense benefits that a non-executive director can bring to an SME as its business grows. These include the credibility that the person can bring to the management team, including the important and useful contacts, as well as different skill sets and experiences. “Understand your needs and then identify the right type of experienced individuals who possess the necessary expertise or business networks. There is a high possibility that your ‘perfect' non-executive director may be someone you already …

Go to article

Does Earnings Quality Affect Information Asymmetry? Evidence From Trading Costs, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Hemang Desai, Kumar Venkataraman Aug 2012

Does Earnings Quality Affect Information Asymmetry? Evidence From Trading Costs, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Hemang Desai, Kumar Venkataraman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Information asymmetry in financial markets relates to the idea that one party to a transaction has better information than the other. Since financial reporting involves the transmission of value-relevant enterprise information, we investigate whether the quality of reported earnings can contribute to differentially informed financial market participants. Higher information asymmetry is costly as it increases the adverse selection risk for market participants and lowers liquidity. For a large sample of NYSE and NASDAQ firms, we show that (i) poor earnings quality is significantly and incrementally associated with higher information asymmetry, (ii) earnings quality disproportionately affects information asymmetry for firms with …

Go to article

Accounting And Productivity: Answering The Big Questions, Gary Pan, Themin Suwardy Aug 2012

Accounting And Productivity: Answering The Big Questions, Gary Pan, Themin Suwardy

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Executive Compensation And Horizon Incentives: An Empirical Investigation Of Corporate Cash Payout, Sheng Huang Aug 2012

Executive Compensation And Horizon Incentives: An Empirical Investigation Of Corporate Cash Payout, Sheng Huang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The recent financial crisis has renewed the interest in executives’ compensation-related horizon incentives. This paper examines how the short-termism in CEO compensation affects corporate cash payout through share repurchases using a new measure of compensation horizon incentive. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that firms buy back shares after poor stock performance, we find that CEOs with short compensation horizons are more likely to buy back shares after good performance. To bolster already high stock price, they have incentives to repurchase to boost up reported EPS towards analysts’ expectations, and to cater to investors with short investment horizons. This short-termism …

Go to article

Helping Hands, Gary Pan Aug 2012

Helping Hands, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

With economic uncertainty prevailing in recent years, Singapore is being confronted with the challenges of managing growing aging population, acute land and labour constraints and rising business operating costs. If left unchecked, these challenges may threaten Singapore’s economic well-being and consequently its status as a global and financial hub. To address these challenges, many believe productivity-driven growth can deliver sustainable and inclusive economic development and improve Singapore’s standard of living over time. The National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC), set up to spur Singapore to step up its efforts to boost skills and enterprise productivity, has identified the accountancy …

Go to article

Measuring Reporting Conservatism Using The Dichev-Tang (2008) Model, Jimmy Kiat Bee Lee Aug 2012

Measuring Reporting Conservatism Using The Dichev-Tang (2008) Model, Jimmy Kiat Bee Lee

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper provides a critical evaluation of an alternative measure of reporting conservatism introduced by Dichev and Tang (2008). Although there is substantial interest in research on accounting conservatism, there is no consensus among researchers on the most appropriate measure of conservatism in empirical studies. Dichev and Tang (2008) introduce a new measure of conservatism, which they believe to be a 'natural and practical measure of conservatism (p. 1441).' However, the econometric properties of this measure have not been fully evaluated, and previous studies have not provided evidence of this measure’s construct validity. Based on a parsimonious model of conservatism, …

Go to article

Banking On Productivity, Chu Yeong Lim Aug 2012

Banking On Productivity, Chu Yeong Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Streamlining processes and improving productivity in the accounting function has been identified as the single most important challenge in a survey of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) members conducted in 2011. This is despite the majority of members indicating that they have achieved significant long term productivity improvements. Some of the other challenges identified by the interviewees include managing change in a global environment, implementing an enterprise resource planning system and connecting finance to front office. Automation and investing in data analysis/ business intelligence tools are some of the tools used by the interviewees to improve productivity (IMA, 2011). …

Go to article

Productivity Measurements For Accounting Functions, Themin Suwardy Aug 2012

Productivity Measurements For Accounting Functions, Themin Suwardy

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The finance department is under pressure to enhance its own value contribution to the business, deliver high quality information and maintain effective controls. It is subject to the same continuing internal demands to reduce the cost of its own operations. To be more effi cient, be more productive. But many finance departments are in a quandary. They are unsure how to demonstrate whether they are delivering real value to the business and to what extent they meet best practice standards for world-class finance departments.

Go to article

Entrepreneurship, Professionalism, Leadership: A Framework And Measure For Understanding Boundaryless Careers, Kim-Yin Chan, Moon-Ho R. Ho, Oleksandr S. Chernyshenko, Olwen Bedford, Marilyn A. Uy, David M. Gomulya, Y. L. Sam, Wei Ming J. Phan Aug 2012

Entrepreneurship, Professionalism, Leadership: A Framework And Measure For Understanding Boundaryless Careers, Kim-Yin Chan, Moon-Ho R. Ho, Oleksandr S. Chernyshenko, Olwen Bedford, Marilyn A. Uy, David M. Gomulya, Y. L. Sam, Wei Ming J. Phan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a person-centered framework for conceptualizing subjective careers in an increasingly boundaryless work context. Specifically, we argue that entrepreneurship, professionalism, and leadership (EPL) can serve as three key dimensions of subjective career space. We relate this framework to earlier macro-level national and organizational career models proposed by Kanter (1989) and Schein (1978). Our empirical study involving 10,326 Singaporean university students demonstrated that entrepreneurial, professional, and leadership career aspirations (including motivations, efficacies, and intentions) can be measured independently, that these career dimensions are independent of vocational interests, and that they are to some degree viewed as competing career alternatives. We …

Go to article

Licensing Contracts: Control Rights And Options, Pascale Crama, Bert De Reyck, Niyazi Taneri Aug 2012

Licensing Contracts: Control Rights And Options, Pascale Crama, Bert De Reyck, Niyazi Taneri

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The rise of the open innovation paradigm creates the opportunity and need for research and development (R&D) collaborations. R&D collaboration, however, can be challenging to manage because of the high degree of technical and market uncertainty as well as the difficulty in measuring research effort. We investigate how the contracts between the innovating parties structure the R&D collaboration and jointly optimize the payment terms and launch control rights, to offer the correct incentives to the innovator and the marketer. We find that the nature of the impact of the research effort matters as milestone payments are not always effective in …

Go to article

Strength In Adversity: The Influence Of Psychological Capital On Job Search, Don J. Q. Chen, Vivien K. G. Lim Aug 2012

Strength In Adversity: The Influence Of Psychological Capital On Job Search, Don J. Q. Chen, Vivien K. G. Lim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examined the influence of psychological capital on job search among displaced employees. On the basis of a sample of 179 retrenched professionals, managers, executives, and technicians, we found that psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) was positively related with displaced employees' level of perceived employability, a coping resource. Perceived employability was positively related with problem-focused and symptom-focused coping strategies. Whereas problem-focused coping was positively related with preparatory and active job search, symptom-focused coping strategy was not. The relationship between psychological capital and preparatory and active job search was mediated by perceived employability and problem-focused coping. Implications of …

Go to article

Aiming For Average: The Effect Of Peer Standing On The Dynamic Process Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Kuan Yong David Ding, Christo Ferreira, Wongchoti Udomsak Aug 2012

Aiming For Average: The Effect Of Peer Standing On The Dynamic Process Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Kuan Yong David Ding, Christo Ferreira, Wongchoti Udomsak

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We evidence a non-linear relationship between firm value and corporate social responsibility, adding to the mixed evidence on this relationship. We show that corporate social responsibility exhibits a dynamic process, which is largely dependent on a firm’s industry, relative standing amongst peers and the distinction between responsible and irresponsible behavior. Surprisingly, we find that responsible behavior could sometimes destroy firm value, while irresponsible behavior could sometimes increase firm value. Endogeneity is mitigated through a novel process that allows us to keep constant the endogeneity inherent in this field, examining corporate social responsibility’s effect on firm value separately.

Go to article

Chameleonic Or Consistent? A Multilevel Investigation Of Emotional Labor Variability And Self-Monitoring, B. A. Scott, C. M. Barnes, David T. Wagner Aug 2012

Chameleonic Or Consistent? A Multilevel Investigation Of Emotional Labor Variability And Self-Monitoring, B. A. Scott, C. M. Barnes, David T. Wagner

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We introduce the concept of emotional labor variability, which captures individual differences in surface acting and deep acting fluctuations over time. In a multilevel study of 78 customer service employees who provided 522 matched daily surveys over a two-week period, employees who were more variable in their use of surface acting reported lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of work withdrawal. Selfmonitoring was positively associated with both the level and variability of surface acting, and the effects of surface acting variability on job satisfaction and work withdrawal were weaker when self-monitoring was high. The results for deep acting …

Go to article

(Hidden) Social Influences In Switching Mobile Service Platforms, Virpi K. Tuunainen, Tuure Tuunanen, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah Aug 2012

(Hidden) Social Influences In Switching Mobile Service Platforms, Virpi K. Tuunainen, Tuure Tuunanen, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

During the past few years, the mobile industry has gone through a radical change from business focusing on excellence in device manufacturing and supply chain management to ecosystems around successful focal players, such as Apple and Google, controlling these service platforms. In order to compete in this environment, these firms need to understand what makes a consumer switch between these mobile service platforms. To that end, we conducted an inductive qualitative study with university students from Finland and USA as subjects (142 altogether), delving into how and why consumers switch mobile phones, and what are the factors affecting their decisions. …

Go to article

Improving Ethics Education In Accounting: Lessons From Medicine And Law, Chunhui Liu, Lee J. Yao, Nan Hu Aug 2012

Improving Ethics Education In Accounting: Lessons From Medicine And Law, Chunhui Liu, Lee J. Yao, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The purpose of this paper is to offer accounting educators additional perspectives for ethics education by considering teaching approaches from medicine and law. It takes the form of literature review and argument. The paper finds that ethics education in accounting shows deficiencies in terms of code-bound content, less systematic formal training, less informal hands-on training, and less usage of partnering in comparison to ethics education in medicine and law, thereby producing students with higher moral cognitive capabilities. Based on these findings, the authors provide some recommendations for improvement.

Go to article

Improving Ethics Education In Accounting: Lessons From Medicine And Law, Chunhui Liu, Lee J. Yao, Nan Hu Aug 2012

Improving Ethics Education In Accounting: Lessons From Medicine And Law, Chunhui Liu, Lee J. Yao, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The purpose of this paper is to offer accounting educators additional perspectives for ethics education by considering teaching approaches from medicine and law. It takes the form of literature review and argument. The paper finds that ethics education in accounting shows deficiencies in terms of code-bound content, less systematic formal training, less informal hands-on training, and less usage of partnering in comparison to ethics education in medicine and law, thereby producing students with higher moral cognitive capabilities. Based on these findings, the authors provide some recommendations for improvement.

Go to article

Investment Timing For Mobile Payment Systems, Robert J. Kauffman, Jun Liu, Dan Ma Aug 2012

Investment Timing For Mobile Payment Systems, Robert J. Kauffman, Jun Liu, Dan Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The recent launch of Google Wallet has brought the issue of technology solutions in the mobile payment (m-payment) area to the forefront. In deciding whether and when to adopt m-payment technology, senior managers in banks are naturally concerned about uncertainties regarding future market conditions, technology standards, and consumer and merchant responses, especially their willingness to adopt. This study applies economic theory and modeling for decision-making under uncertainty to bank investments in mobile payment technology. We assess the projected benefits and costs of investment as a continuous-time stochastic process to determine optimal investment timing. We find that the value of waiting …

Go to article

The Pricing Model Of Cloud Computing Services, Jianhui Huang, Dan Ma Aug 2012

The Pricing Model Of Cloud Computing Services, Jianhui Huang, Dan Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cloud computing service providers offer computing resource as a utility and software as a service over network. Many believe that Cloud computing is making an industry-wise paradigm shift for IT use. Besides its technique issues, the business feature of Cloud computing attracts our interests. Specifically the practice of Amazon EC2 introduces an interesting pricing scheme. Amazon provides users with virtual computing instances as a combination of interruptible service (i.e., spot instance) and uninterruptible service (i.e., on-demand and reserved instance). Spot instance is charged at a per use price which is dynamically changing over time; users of spot instance face the …

Go to article

From Clickstreams To Searchstreams: Search Network Graph Evidence From A B2b E-Market, Mei Lin, M. F. Lin, Robert J. Kauffman Aug 2012

From Clickstreams To Searchstreams: Search Network Graph Evidence From A B2b E-Market, Mei Lin, M. F. Lin, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Consumers in e-commerce acquire information through search engines, yet to date there has been little empirical study on how users interact with the results produced by search engines. This is analogous to, but different from, the ever-expanding research on clickstreams, where users interact with static web pages. We propose a new network approach to analyzing search engine server log data. We call this searchstream data. We create graph representations based on the web pages that users traverse as they explore the search results that their use of search engines generates. We then analyze the graph-level properties of these search network …

Go to article

Hedonic Valuation Of Online Game Participation, Robert J. Kauffman, Kwansoo Kim, Byungjoon Yoo Aug 2012

Hedonic Valuation Of Online Game Participation, Robert J. Kauffman, Kwansoo Kim, Byungjoon Yoo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We use hedonic valuation to establish a basis for valuing the time a user participates in an online gaming community. We distinguish between utilitarian and hedonic value. Our application involves elements of both utilitarian and hedonic value, however, the latter is much more important. We use an extensive data set involving a massive multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) from Korea. We specify and test econometric models that reflect the appropriate empirical structure for the setting, based on information about the players and the activities they engage in. The results permit us to estimate the hedonic value in monetary terms for …

Go to article

Valuation Of Benchmark Provisions On It Services Contracts, Robert J. Kauffman, Ryan Sougstad Aug 2012

Valuation Of Benchmark Provisions On It Services Contracts, Robert J. Kauffman, Ryan Sougstad

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Information technology (IT) services are often subject to downward price pressures due to improvements in technology and business processes in a competitive market. When clients enter into IT services contracts, they are faced with the future risk that their services will be overpriced relative to the broader IT services market. To mitigate this risk, clients often add benchmark provisions, whereby a neutral third party assesses the prevailing market price for services. It will support fair price adjustments if the market prices are lower than the current prices. We model the decision to benchmark in order to provide managerial information on …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last