Business Commons^™

Network Effects, Word Of Mouth, And Entry Performance: A Study Of Digital Freemium Products, Noman Shaheer, Liang Chen, Jingtao Yi, Sali Li, Huiwen Su

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

International entry research rarely examines strategies affecting entry performance in a target country, largely due to data limitations in the traditional multinational enterprise setting. However, the emergence of digital business with trackable international performance data helps address this gap. We utilize digital freemium products as our research context to examine the effect of two major demand-side strategies associated with freemium products, network effects and word-of-mouth (WOM), on entry performance across different institutional environments. By analyzing 1,891 freemium games, we show that lower network readiness of a target country strengthens the impact of network effects on entry performance whereas higher network …

The Promise And Perils Of Smart (City) Bots As Educational Tools, Thomas Menkhoff, Siew Ning Kan, Shaohui Foong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Written from an educator’s perspective, the paper aims to examine the increasing use of chatbot technology capable of answering user queries in various fields such as commerce, public service delivery, urban areas, higher education etc. by simulating human conversation through text messages or voice commands. We analyse why smart bots have become popular technologies in the context smart cities; shed light on different types of bots (chatbots, large language models such as ChatGPT, flying bots); and explain how we use bots as teaching tool in an introductory AI for business course. A key argument putting forward is that smart bots …

Does Ceo Agreeableness Personality Mitigate Real Earnings Management?, Shan Liu, Xingying Wu, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite efforts to mitigate aggressive financial reporting, earnings management remains challenging to parties interested in inhibiting its dysfunctional effects. Using linguistic algorithms to assess CEO agreeableness personality from their unscripted texts in conference calls, we find that it is a determinant that mitigates a firm's real earnings management. Furthermore, such an effect is more pronounced when firms confront intensive market competition and financial distress and have weaker managerial entrenchment or when CEOs face stronger internal governance. Our findings persist even after we utilize several alternative real earnings management metrics and control other confounding personalities in prior earnings management studies. The …

Temporal Relational Graph Convolutional Network Approach To Financial Performance Prediction, Jeyaraman Brindha Priyadarshini, Bing Tian Dai, Yuan Fang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Accurately predicting financial entity performance remains a challenge due to the dynamic nature of financial markets and vast unstructured textual data. Financial knowledge graphs (FKGs) offer a structured representation for tackling this problem by representing complex financial relationships and concepts. However, constructing a comprehensive and accurate financial knowledge graph that captures the temporal dynamics of financial entities is non-trivial. We introduce FintechKG, a comprehensive financial knowledge graph developed through a three-dimensional information extraction process that incorporates commercial entities and temporal dimensions and uses a financial concept taxonomy that ensures financial domain entity and relationship extraction. We propose a temporal and …

Notes And Thoughts On Retrieving Historical Members Of The S&P 500 From Wrds, Lip Hwe Tee

Research Collection Library

Retrieving all historical members or constituents of the S&P 500 can be done using Python coding on the CRSP dataset through an API connection with WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), n.d. -f; WRDS, n.d. -e).

Machine Learning As Arbitrage: Can Economics Help Explain Ai?, Huahao Lu, Matthew Spiegel, Hong Zhang

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Machine learning algorithms have shown to be remarkably successful tools for predicting asset returns. However, the underlying economic mechanisms behind their performance remain unclear. This paper proposes a model-based dynamic arbitrage trading strategy that combines economic and statistical nonstationarity to demystify this black box. In predicting stock returns based on 153 firm characteristics (anomalies), our strategy ranks anomalies similarly to neural networks in the cross-section. Overall, it accounts for approximately 87.9 bps monthly alphas of the high-minus-low portfolios selected by neural networks in the time series. When unpublished anomalies and microcap stocks are excluded from trading, this strategy can fully …

The Impact Of Instrumental Attribution In Ai-Enabled Monitoring On Counterproductive Work Behavior, Qiang Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

AI-enabled monitoring tools are theoretically expected to suppress unethical employee behavior. However, in practice, employees may perceive such monitoring as being driven by leaders' instrumental motives, primarily focused on personal performance evaluation and self-interest. This perception can foster feelings of job insecurity and moral disengagement, ultimately leading to counterproductive work behavior (CWB), which includes unethical employee behavior and turnover. These outcomes may undermine the intended effectiveness of AI-enabled monitoring tools. This study aims to explore the impact of Instrumental Attribution in AIenabled Monitoring (IAAIM) on CWB, specifically focusing on unethical employee behavior and turnover, through both theoretical and empirical lenses. …

Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Value Co-Creation On Enterprise Performance: Empirical Evidence From China's Motorsport Culture Industry, Xiaodong Weng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

We are in an era of digital economy and enterprise change management. The application of digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Cloud Computing, and Big Data (collectively known as ABCD technologies) has increased the competition in the value chain and value network between customers and enterprises. Users can now intervene in product design, transaction, and feedback before, during, and after the process, breaking through the limitations of time and space. They leverage their low-cost advantage to draw attention, shifting from a traditional, unidirectional supply logic to a value co-creation logic. This influences both enterprises and customers to produce …

Big Data Analytics And Management Forecasting Behavior, Beng Wee Goh, Na Li, Tharindra Ranasinghe

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates whether the use of Big Data analytics by firms has a spillover effect on management forecasting behavior. Insights provided by Big Data could potentially improve firms’ ability to forecast earnings (supply channel) and investor demand for earnings information is likely higher for firms engaging in data analytics (demand channel). Using a text-based measure of firms’ commitments to and usage of Big Data analytics, we find that Big Data analytics usage is positively associated with the propensity to issue management earnings forecasts. Consistent with the “supply channel” explanation, we find that Big Data analytics usage is positively associated …

Does Voice Endorsement By Supervisors Enhance Or Constrain Voicer's Personal Initiative? Countervailing Effects Via Feeling Pride And Feeling Envied, Mingyun Huai, Xueqi Wen, Zihan Liu, Xingyu Wang, Wen-Dong Li, Mo Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While the previous research has examined antecedents of supervisors’ voice endorsement, it has generally overlooked its effects on voicers’ affective and behavioral reactions, probably because of the underlying assumption that supervisors’ voice endorsement is inherently beneficial and likely to encourage more proactive behaviors in the future. In this research, we offer a theoretical model of the double-edged effects of supervisors’ voice endorsement on voicers’ subsequent personal initiative. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and related research, we proposed that supervisors’ voice endorsement prompts two different cognitive appraisal processes in voicers that evoke two distinct emotional experiences—feeling pride and feeling envied—with countervailing …

Essays On Corporate Finance, Su Hee Yun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Chapter 1. The impact of ESG disasters on Green and Brown firms

I investigate the effect of a firm’s prior ESG reputation on the market impact of ESG incidents. I find that firms with a better ESG reputation, i.e., higher ESG ratings, experience less negative stock-market reactions and analysts' forecast revisions compared to firms with a poorer ESG reputation. But managers of Greener firms, when producing earnings guidance, do not forecast a lower impact of these incidents on future earnings. Similarly, actual decreases in future earnings following these incidents are not significantly different between Green and Brown firms. Altogether, the …

Cultural Tightness In Organizations: Investigating The Impact Of Formal And Informal Cultural Tightness On Employee Creativity, Roy Y. J. Chua, Na Zhao, Meng Han

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper delineates cultural tightness into formal versus informal aspects to depict the strength of norms and the extent of sanctions emanating from both formal and informal norms. Organizations with high formal cultural tightness regulate behaviors through explicit written norms and official sanctions, whereas those with high informal cultural tightness regulate behaviors through uncodified norms, collective beliefs, and informal social sanctions. Through a field study across 14 diverse companies in two countries (Malaysia and the Philippines) and two experiments involving participants from the United States, we found that perceived informal cultural tightness consistently exerts a more significant impact on stifling …

The Joint Statement On E-Commerce: Is This Glass Half Empty Or Half Full?, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On July 26, 2024, participants in the Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) on E-commerce released the “stabilised text” of the Agreement on Electronic Commerce (“the agreement”) after a marathon negotiation spanning more than five years. The process leading up to what is the first global agreement on e-commerce has been rife with surprises from beginning to end. The biggest initial surprise was China’s last-minute decision to join when the negotiation was launched in January 2019: China wanted to shape the rules from the inside and avoid the cold shoulder it faced when trying to join the Trade in Services Agreement negotiations …

Are Corporations Responding To Civil Society Pressure?: A Multilevel Analysis Of Corporate Emissions, Annika Rieger

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous research in the world-society tradition associates improvements in nation-level environmental outcomes with greater civil society integration. However, research in the world-systems tradition indicates these improvements depend on a nation’s position in the global political-economic hierarchy. To test whether these patterns are present at the organizational level, I estimate a multilevel model using corporate emissions data from the Carbon Disclosure Project and include interactions between world-system position and three measures of civil society integration: number of NGOs, proportion of corporations with climate-management incentives, and number of corporate UN Global Compact signatories. I find that the relationship between civil society pressure …

Analyzing Racial Disparities In The United States Homeownership: A Socio-Demographic Study Using Machine Learning, Arya Farahi, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

While increasing homeownership has been a focal point for policymakers in the United States, the distribution of access to homeownership opportunities across all families within the country has not been equitable. The complex relation between social factors and economic conditions has significantly shaped the journey toward homeownership. Of particular concern is the persistent disparity in homeownership rates among Black households in the United States. Effectively addressing these disparities within urban communities necessitates comprehensive policy interventions and social initiatives. However, the success of such endeavors hinges upon a comprehensive grasp of the underlying causes of these inequalities. Drawing upon machine learning …

The Link Between People's Social Perceptions Of Cultivated Meat Eaters And Their Acceptance Of Cultivated Meat, Xiaoyu Dai, Angela K. Y. Leung, Mark Chong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Low consumer acceptance emerges as one important barrier to the introduction of cultivated meat, a novel food which offers an opportunity for more sustainable and ethical meat production. Due to the motives for impression management and self-esteem, one factor that could contribute to people's acceptance of cultivated meat is their perceptions of other individuals who consume cultivated meat. In the current research, two online survey studies with 393 Singaporean undergraduate students and 401 American adults were conducted to explore the perceptions of cultivated meat eaters. In both studies, participants were randomly assigned to read one of three profiles that described …

Optimal Policies And Heuristics To Match Supply With Demand For Online Retailing, Qiyuan Deng, Xiaobo Li, Yun Fong Lim, Fang Liu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: We consider an online retailer selling multiple products to different zones over a finite horizon with multiple periods. At the start of the horizon, the retailer orders the products from a single supplier and stores them at multiple warehouses. The retailer determines the products’ order quantities and their storage quantities at each warehouse subject to its capacity constraint. At the end of each period, after random demands in the period are realized, the retailer chooses the retrieval quantities from each warehouse to fulfill the demands of each zone. The objective is to maximize the retailer’s expected profit over …

An Exponential Cone Programming Approach For Managing Electric Vehicle Charging, Li Chen, Long He, Yangfang (Helen) Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To support the rapid growth in global electric vehicle adoption, public charging of electric vehicles is crucial. We study the problem of an electric vehicle charging service provider, which faces (1) stochastic arrival of customers with distinctive arrival and departure times, and energy requirements as well as (2) a total electricity cost including demand charges, costs related to the highest per-period electricity used in a finite horizon. We formulate its problem of scheduling vehicle charging to minimize the expected total cost as a stochastic program (SP). As this SP is large-scale, we solve it using exponential cone program (ECP) approximations. …

The Effect Of Nationalism On Governance Choices In Cross-Border Collaborations, Gokhan Ertug, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Douglas Dow, Jesper Edman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine how nationalism influences governance choice in cross-border collaborations. While nationalism has historically been within the purview of political scientists, we demonstrate its relevance to management scholars by theorizing how nationalist attitudes and behaviors among decision-makers might shape strategic decisions about collaborations with foreign partners. Drawing on insights from the social psychology literature, we theorize how two attitudes commonly associated with nationalism, i.e., lower levels of trust and an unwillingness to work with foreigners, may increase decision-makers’ concerns about opportunistic behavior and invasiveness in cross-border collaborations. Integrating these insights into two key theories of governance choice, i.e., transaction cost …

The Downstream Impact Of Upstream Tariffs: Evidence From Investment Decisions In Supply Chains, Thorsten Martin, Clemens A. Otto

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study how US manufacturing firms' investment responds to tariff reductions in supplier industries. Our estimates, based on tariff reductions following multinational trade agreements, suggest that a hypothetical 10% reduction of all upstream tariffs would increase downstream investment by 4% to 6%. This estimate is not explained by decreasing uncertainty and stems from tariff reductions for homogeneous and low-R\&D inputs, consistent with the investment response resulting from cost reductions rather than superior foreign technology embodied in imported inputs. Evidence from an instrumental variable estimation using the sudden increase in Chinese import penetration suggests that import competition also increases downstream investment.

The Impact Of Managerial Myopia On Cybersecurity: Evidence From Data Breaches, Wen Chen, Xing Li, Haibin Wu, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a sample of U.S. firms for the period 2005–2017, we provide evidence that managerial myopic actions contribute to corporate cybersecurity risk. Specifically, we show that abnormal cuts in discretionary expenditures, our proxy for managerial myopia, are positively associated with the likelihood of data breaches. The association is largely driven by firms that appear to cut discretionary expenditures to meet short-term earnings targets. In addition, the association is stronger for firms with greater short-term equity incentives, higher earnings response coefficients, low levels of institutional block ownership, or large market shares. Finally, firms appear to increase discretionary expenditures upon the announcement …

A Regulatory Focus Theory Perspective On The Dynamics Between Action And Power, Shereen Fatimah, Hun Whee Lee, Lance D.. Ferris, Henry R. Young

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Building on the strong consensus that the experience of power motivates individuals to take action, prior research postulates a positively reinforcing cycle wherein taking action leads to power, which in turn leads to subsequent actions. Applying regulatory focus theory, we differentiate between promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented actions to develop a within-person theory of when and why promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented actions should relate to power, and vice-versa. Across two studies, we find that when employees engaged in promotive voice behaviors, they were more likely to experience a sense of power; this effect was amplified for employees with trait promotion focus. When employees …

Appointment Scheduling With Delay Tolerance Heterogeneity, Shuming Wang, Jun Li, Marcus Ang, Tsan Sheng Ng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this study, we investigate an appointment sequencing and scheduling problem with heterogeneous user delay tolerances under service-time uncertainty. We aim to capture the delay-tolerance effect with heterogeneity, in an operationally effective and computationally tractable fashion, for the appointment scheduling problem. To this end, we first propose a Tolerance-Aware Delay (TAD) index that incorporates explicitly the user-tolerance information in delay evaluation. We show that the TAD index enjoys decision-theoretical rationale in terms of Tolerance Sensitivity, Monotonicity, Convexity and Positive Homogeneity, which enables it to incorporate the frequency and intensity of delays over the tolerance in a coherent manner. Specifically, the …

From The Guest Editors: The Human Side Of The Future Of Work: Understanding The Role People Play In Shaping A Changing World, Jochen I. Menges, Lauren C. Howe, Erika Hall, Jon M. Jachimowicz, Sharon K. Parker, Riki Takeuchi, Abhijeet K. Vadera, Ashley Whillans, Susan K. Cohen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

For as long as there has been work, there has been a “future of work,” through humans’ ingenuity and drive to get things done easier, faster, and better. With the industrial revolution, efforts to shape a better future of work were dominated by improvements in machinery that soon led to fears that these machines might take away jobs from workers, enriching the rich and leaving the poor poorer (Allen, 2017). Later, John Maynard Keynes (1930) optimistically predicted technological unemployment (a net loss of jobs due to shifts in the nature of work outpacing the economy’s ability to redeploy talent) would …

Fintech Digital Transformation: Generative Ai, Humanoid Robots, Metaverse, Human-Ai Collaboration, And Industry 5.0, Yuxin Liu, Runyu Wang, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper discusses the transformative impact of emerging digital technologies on the digital transformation of the financial industry, focusing on integrating Generative AI (GenAI), humanoid robots, and the Metaverse within the framework of Industry 5.0. Industry 5.0 emphasizes a human-centric approach to technology, where human-AI collaboration plays a central role in reshaping financial services. By reviewing both academic research and practical applications, the paper highlights the current advancements in FinTech, particularly in AI technologies and the Metaverse, and their future potential, demonstrating how these innovations are driving growth, efficiency, and resilience in the financial sector. Further, the paper proposes a …

Low/No-Code And Traditional Code Integration In Digital Banking, Kim Siang Yeo, Alan @ Ali Madjelisi Megargel

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper seeks to combine the merits of Low/No-Code Programming (LNCP) with Traditional Programming (TP) systems to achieve true “agility” when creating banking infrastructure. While it is easy to fall prey to Shiny Object Syndrome in today’s dynamic and fast-paced banking technology world, it is not easy to pick out the right technology for today and tomorrow’s financial industry. Instead, LNCPs allow us to hedge all bets by equally lowering the technical entry barriers for each technology. The added integration of TP, when needed, also rounds out the faults related to sole LNCP use and provides any bank with a …

Financing Just Energy Transitions In Southeast Asia: Application Of The Just Transition Transaction To Indonesia, Vietnam, And Philippines, Abhinav Jindal, Gireesh Shrimali, Bharat Gangwani, Rajiv B. Lall

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

This paper investigates the applicability of the Just Transition Transaction (JTT), initially developed as a financial mechanism for South Africa's energy transition, to Southeast Asian (SEA) countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, which heavily rely on coal. Utilizing South Africa as a reference case study, we deconstruct the JTT and develop a novel framework of necessary and conducive features for evaluating its suitability for supporting a just energy transition in SEA. Our findings suggest that the JTT is well-suited for Indonesia and Vietnam but not as well suited for the Philippines. Recommendations for specific research avenues in estimating baselines …

Research On Digital Platform Capabilities And Entrepreneurship Empowerment Performance Of Science And Technology Industrial Parks, Jieyu Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In the era of the digital economy, industries are shifting toward platform-based and ecological trends, with industrial parks similarly adopting digital and platform-based patterns. The systematic planning, functional layout, and service efficiency of science and technology industrial parks (sci-tech industrial parks for short) are designed to address emerging industries’ spatial and organizational needs. This approach aims to create a system where digital transformation is employed as the mechanism and digital platforms empower entrepreneurial enterprises within these parks, fostering high-quality park development. However, despite efforts to build digital platforms for transforming into digital parks, many industrial parks have found their platform …

Buy Now Pay (Pain?) Later, Ed Dehaan, Jungbae Kim, Ben Lourie, Chenqi Zhu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

“Buy-now-pay-later” (BNPL) is a relatively unregulated FinTech innovation that provides consumers with easy access to credit for retail purchases. BNPL spending is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2025, but we know little about its effects. Using banking data for10.6 million U.S. consumers, we investigate the effects of BNPL on leading indicators of users’ financial health. We find that new BNPL users experience rapid increases in bank overdraft charges and credit card interest and fees compared with nonusers, consistent with BNPL facilitating overborrowing. An instrumental variable exploiting consumers’ pre-BNPL shopping habits bolsters our inferences. Our results inform regulatory investigations into …

Value Capture And Affordable Housing: Insights From Singapore, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

To explain the role of value capture in Singapore’s progress, I will first provide some background information on Singapore and its housing sector. I will then take you on a journey back to the 1960s to show how we established our present institutional arrangements for land and housing. I will next describe how housing policies have evolved over the past six decades in response to changing contexts. Finally, I will conclude with the fiscal implications of successful value capture. Where relevant, I will indicate how Singapore’s policies align with George’s views.