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Full-Text Articles in Business

Driving Business Performance: Why Marketers Need A Multi-Disciplinary Approach, Knowledge@Smu May 2010

Driving Business Performance: Why Marketers Need A Multi-Disciplinary Approach, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Much has been said about Apple's 'magical' ability to command a following for almost anything that they sell (right down to the cables and power adapter). However, few people understand – much less appreciate – the science behind such 'magic'. Some might say that Apple produces some of the most original products. These people forget that Apple did not invent laptops, MP3 players, smart phones or tablet computers. Is it clever marketing then? Perhaps so, but "marketing", as understood in its traditional sense, would not offer the full picture. According to Rajendra K. Srivastava, Provost and Deputy President for Academic …


Lean Thinking: A Case For 'Rubber Band' Organisations, Knowledge@Smu May 2010

Lean Thinking: A Case For 'Rubber Band' Organisations, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

During bad economic times, the knee-jerk reaction of most organisations is to stay lean. This usually involves cutting financial costs, trimming headcount and renegotiating wages; unfortunately, all short-lived means of trimming the fat. What organisations should do if they want to keep lean is to look within. Many a time, inefficiencies along internal processes chalk up resources that could have gone towards increasing productivity. Organisations that refuse to examine these issues create not only excessive costs, but they also breed a culture where there is no pressure to improve – much like a dangling rubber band, according to John S. …


Hot Seats And Seat Warmers: The Hunt For Directors Of Quality, Knowledge@Smu May 2010

Hot Seats And Seat Warmers: The Hunt For Directors Of Quality, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Is it humanly possible for a person to hold more than five directorships? Why are there so few female directors in Singapore? Are we short of qualified directors? How can regulations help maintain standards? These were some of the questions that confronted a panel of seasoned directors speaking at the graduation ceremony of a certification programme for directors; issues that have seen heated debates in Singapore of late. This follows recent reports that an unusually high percentage of directors sit on many different boards, leading to questions of their ability to fully discharge their responsibilities as directors.


To Inspire Social Change, Talk And Transfer Knowledge, Knowledge@Smu May 2010

To Inspire Social Change, Talk And Transfer Knowledge, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

It often takes courage, not to mention, a thick skin, to challenge tried traditions and social norms. Not only do social entrepreneurs have to convince people to move away from their comfort zones, they have to inspire and assure them that the hassles of adapting to change will be of good worth. Lives will be inconvenienced, and not everyone will appreciate the efforts of even the most well-intentioned “change maker”. Powerful bureaucrats may also view social entrepreneurs as troublemakers. Yet, despite much adversity, success stories exist. Three accomplished regional social entrepreneurs shared their accounts at a recent panel discussion.


Audit Office Size, Audit Quality And Audit Pricing, Jong-Hag Choi, Francis Kim, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang May 2010

Audit Office Size, Audit Quality And Audit Pricing, Jong-Hag Choi, Francis Kim, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a large sample of U.S. audit client firms over the period 2000-2005, this paper investigates whether and how the size of a local practice office within an audit firm (henceforth, office size) is a significant, engagement-specific factor determining audit quality and audit fees over and beyond audit firm size at the national level and auditor industry leadership at the city or office level. For our empirical tests, audit quality is measured by unsigned abnormal accruals, and the office size is measured in two different ways: one based on the number of audit clients in each office and the other …


Perception Of The Risks And Benefits Of Bt Eggplant By Indian Farmers, Mark Chong May 2010

Perception Of The Risks And Benefits Of Bt Eggplant By Indian Farmers, Mark Chong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Several researchers most notably Lennart Sjoberg and his colleagues have proposed that the moral aspects of risk provide a better explanation of risk perception than the psychometric paradigm or Cultural Theory, neither of which accounts for moral concerns. This study is possibly the first to assess empirically the perception of the risks and benefits of a transgenic food crop transgenic Bt ( Bacillus thuringiensis ) eggplant by farmers in a developing country such as India. It also aims to assess if the moral aspects of risk figure in Indian farmers' perception of Bt eggplant and if economic benefits outweigh perceived …


Developing Virtual Worlds: The Interplay Of Design, Communities And Rationality, F. Ted Tschang, Jordi Comas May 2010

Developing Virtual Worlds: The Interplay Of Design, Communities And Rationality, F. Ted Tschang, Jordi Comas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the evolution of virtual worlds from the developer's perspective. What are the motivations of developers? What are the specific challenges of the governance of user-generated content? User-created virtual worlds may be characterized according to their degree of design or emergence. On one end is the 'the designer as god' perspective and on the other is the unforeseeable and perpetually emergent 'user creativity.' Utilizing a theoretically derived sample of virtual worlds, we illustrate how governance is more complex as designers contend with three major issues. In general, across all three worlds, developers had to come to grips with …


Creative Industries Debate: Unfinished Business: Labour, Management, And The Creative Industries, Stefano Harney May 2010

Creative Industries Debate: Unfinished Business: Labour, Management, And The Creative Industries, Stefano Harney

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In what follows I am going to argue that the rise of the creative industries has in general been understood too narrowly. This narrow understanding has had implications for the way that a politics of management and labour in the creative industries has been framed and contained, and it has held back an analysis of class struggle in the creative industries. To elaborate an understanding of labour in the creative industries I am going to revisit some insights related to the development of British cultural studies, and try to link these insights to what Stuart Hall calls the conditions of …


Applying Knowledge Management In University Research, Benjamin Loh, Ai-Chee Tang, Thomas Menkhoff, Hans-Dieter Evers May 2010

Applying Knowledge Management In University Research, Benjamin Loh, Ai-Chee Tang, Thomas Menkhoff, Hans-Dieter Evers

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the knowledge-based economy, universities are encountering dramatic changes. Their missions and functions are ‘pragmatized’ because of emerging new players and competing markets for knowledge production, the availability of higher education to a wider range of social classes and age groups, as well as the assimilation of information technology into the university environment. The dynamics and conduct of university research, in particular, has correspondingly become more sensitive to industry collaboration opportunities, commercial exploitation, and is increasingly transdisciplinary. This paper argues that knowledge management (KM) practices and tools can support universities in addressing these demands. Institutions of higher education can benefit …


Collective Investments For Pension Savings: Lessons From Singapore's Central Provident Fund Scheme, Benedict S. Koh, Olivia S. Mitchell, Joelle H. Y. Fong May 2010

Collective Investments For Pension Savings: Lessons From Singapore's Central Provident Fund Scheme, Benedict S. Koh, Olivia S. Mitchell, Joelle H. Y. Fong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Singapore's mandatory national defined contribution pension system permits participants to invest their retirement savings in a wide range of investment instruments if they wish, rather than leaving their savings in Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts to earn interest rates by default. This article asks whether workers seeking to earn higher returns can expect to do better than the CPF-managed default, by moving their money into professionally managed unit trusts. We use historical data to investigate whether fund managers possess superior stock picking and market timing skills, as well as whether they exhibit persistence in performance and offer diversification benefits to …


Portfolio Selection Under Distributional Uncertainty: A Relative Robust Cvar In Portfolio Management, Dashan Huang, Shushang Zhu, Frank Fabozzi, Masao Fukushima May 2010

Portfolio Selection Under Distributional Uncertainty: A Relative Robust Cvar In Portfolio Management, Dashan Huang, Shushang Zhu, Frank Fabozzi, Masao Fukushima

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Robust optimization, one of the most popular topics in the field of optimization and control since the late 1990s, deals with an optimization problem involving uncertain parameters. In this paper, we consider the relative robust conditional value-at-risk portfolio selection problem where the underlying probability distribution of portfolio return is only known to belong to a certain set. Our approach not only takes into account the worst-case scenarios of the uncertain distribution, but also pays attention to the best possible decision with respect to each realization of the distribution. We also illustrate how to construct a robust portfolio with multiple experts …


Innovative Entrepreneurs Workbook, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu May 2010

Innovative Entrepreneurs Workbook, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The workbook provides a step by step approach to identifying innovation opportunities and the key aspects of Innovation development


Structural And Informal Knowledge Acquisition And Dissemination In Organisational Learning: An Exploratory Analysis, Siu Loon Hoe May 2010

Structural And Informal Knowledge Acquisition And Dissemination In Organisational Learning: An Exploratory Analysis, Siu Loon Hoe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

PurposeThe topic of organizational learning is populated with many theories and models; many relate to the enduring organizational learning framework consisting of knowledge acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge use. However, most of the research either emphasizes structural knowledge acquisition and dissemination as a composite construct, or focuses solely on the structural aspect of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. The primary objective of this study is to develop and test a model of organizational learning that incorporates both structural and informal knowledge acquisition and dissemination and as separate processes. The predictors of these processes are also proposedDesign/methodology/approachA model of organizational learning that …


Comment On Degenova's "Management Of Quality": Flight Of The Unfixed, Stefano Harney May 2010

Comment On Degenova's "Management Of Quality": Flight Of The Unfixed, Stefano Harney

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Nick DeGenova’s study does more than expose the poverty of intersectionality—that sociological theory that posits the importance of considering race, class, and gender and sexuality together as they interact with each other as independent variables. It allows us to move from the most common and least correct criticism of intersectionality, that it is a theory that contains class within a functionalist sociological universe, to a much bolder contention. The contention is this: class contains. It is class that contains the surplus, the commons, of race, gender and sexuality. It is class that tames. This is because class is the category …


Hey That's Mine! The Nature Of Territorial Behavior In Organizations, Graham Brown, Sandra L. Robinson May 2010

Hey That's Mine! The Nature Of Territorial Behavior In Organizations, Graham Brown, Sandra L. Robinson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.


National Venture Competition And Technopreneurship Development In Malaysia, Wee Liang Tan, Karl Egge, Osman Mohamed May 2010

National Venture Competition And Technopreneurship Development In Malaysia, Wee Liang Tan, Karl Egge, Osman Mohamed

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the global slowdown, there is a revived interest in entrepreneurship development particularly in new startups based on technology. Many countries see this as a basis for future growth and competitiveness. To encourage technology-based entrepreneurship, also called technopreneurship, business plan competitions could be one strategy. Typically one finds business plan competitions either for members of a region of a country (e.g.,SW Pennsylvania); or, as an extension of University programs in business and entrepreneurship (e.g., MIT). Certainly such competitions can generate and exploit interest in entrepreneurship. In Malaysia, beginning in 2001, a business plan competition with a difference has been established. …


Selective Intervention And Economic Re-Engineering: Lessons Form Singapore's Parks In Indonesia And India, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong May 2010

Selective Intervention And Economic Re-Engineering: Lessons Form Singapore's Parks In Indonesia And India, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.


Extending Economic Boundaries: A Note On Singapore's Gambit In Indonesia And India, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong May 2010

Extending Economic Boundaries: A Note On Singapore's Gambit In Indonesia And India, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.


Emotion Management In Radical Change: A Preliminary Study Of Earthquake Power Restoration, Taieb Hafsi, Xu Liang, Wenjing Lin, Kangxiong Yu, Li Yan May 2010

Emotion Management In Radical Change: A Preliminary Study Of Earthquake Power Restoration, Taieb Hafsi, Xu Liang, Wenjing Lin, Kangxiong Yu, Li Yan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper studies leaders’ emotion capacity as a strategic response to unexpected radical changes, forced by a social and natural crisis. We propose that empathy is a critical strategic management tool enhancing management effectiveness. We also provide insights of the dynamics between decision making process and emotion management.


Is Regime Switching In Stock Returns Important In Portfolio Decisions?, Jun Tu May 2010

Is Regime Switching In Stock Returns Important In Portfolio Decisions?, Jun Tu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The stock market displays regime switching between upturns and downturns. This paper provides a Bayesian framework for making portfolio decisions that takes this regime switching into account, together with asset pricing model uncertainty and parameter uncertainty. The findings reveal that the economic value of accounting for regimes is substantially independent of whether or not model and parameter uncertainties are incorporated: the certainty-equivalent losses associated with ignoring regime switching are generally above 2% per year and can be as high as 10%. These results suggest that the more realistic regime switching model is fundamentally different from the commonly used single-state model, …


Gathering Behavioral Samples Through A Computerized And Standardized Assessment Center Exercise Yes, It Is Possible, Filip Lievens, Etienne Van Keer, Ellen Volckaert May 2010

Gathering Behavioral Samples Through A Computerized And Standardized Assessment Center Exercise Yes, It Is Possible, Filip Lievens, Etienne Van Keer, Ellen Volckaert

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although computerization and standardization might make assessment center (AC) exercises easier to administer and score, drawbacks are that most of such exercises have a static and multiple-choice format. This study reports on the development and initial validation of a computerized and standardized AC exercise that simulates key managerial tasks. This AC exercise capitalizes not only on the benefits of computerization and standardization (efficiency and cost savings) but at the same time aims to avoid their usual drawbacks (lower response fidelity and interactivity). The composite exercise score was significantly related to several criteria of interest and had incremental validity beyond cognitive …


Lack Of Consensus Among Competency Ratings Of The Same Occupation: Noise Or Substance?, Filip Lievens, Juan I. Sanchez, Dave Bartram, Anna Brown May 2010

Lack Of Consensus Among Competency Ratings Of The Same Occupation: Noise Or Substance?, Filip Lievens, Juan I. Sanchez, Dave Bartram, Anna Brown

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although rating differences among incumbents of the same occupation have traditionally been viewed as error variance in the work analysis domain, such differences might often capture substantive discrepancies in how incumbents approach their work. This study draws from job crafting, creativity, and role theories to uncover situational factors (i.e., occupational activities, context, and complexity) related to differences among competency ratings of the same occupation. The sample consisted of 192 incumbents from 64 occupations. Results showed that 25% of the variance associated with differences in competency ratings of the same occupation was related to the complexity, the context, and primarily the …


Open Innovation In Platform Competition, Mei Lin May 2010

Open Innovation In Platform Competition, Mei Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We examine the competition between a proprietary platform and an open platform,where each platform holds a two-sided market consisted of app developers and users.The open platform cultivates an innovative environment by inviting public efforts todevelop the platform itself and permitting distribution of apps outside of its own appmarket; the proprietary platform restricts apps sales solely within its app market. Weuse a game theoretic model to capture this competitive phenomenon and analyze theimpact of growth of the open source community on the platform competition. We foundthat growth of the open community mitigates the platform rivalry, and balances the developernetwork sizes on …


Watch The Vote: Avoiding Undesirable Zero-Sum Outcomes, Knowledge@Smu Apr 2010

Watch The Vote: Avoiding Undesirable Zero-Sum Outcomes, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Luxury watches often invoke a lot of debate amongst its aficionados. After the great lengths to which people go to, to collect, study, appraise and critique these mobile mechanical clocks, it is no surprise that they feel very strongly about their picks. Decisions made by prestigious bodies, such as the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie, are hence quite delicate. People's money, ego, and pride are at stake. So picking the winner that will keep the majority satisfied is crucial, yet quite difficult to do. Drawing comparisons to political election outcomes, SMU Economics professor Massimiliano Landi explores a new voting system to address …


Think Setting Up A Business Is Easy? Think Again!, Knowledge@Smu Apr 2010

Think Setting Up A Business Is Easy? Think Again!, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Entrepreneurship stories are like fairytales. The rags-to-riches stories of college dropouts turned successful multimillionaires provide many an overworked and underappreciated employee with idealism and inspiration: to ditch a life of conventions and to pursue one's passions. But don't be naïve, says Wong Hoong An, chief evangelist officer of the popular local food website, HungryGoWhere.com. There are too many questions to consider, such as 'Can you live with a pittance of a salary for years?' and 'Do you relish change, instability and volatility?'


Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2010: Q1 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu Apr 2010

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2010: Q1 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

Transiting to a quarterly release, the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) has completed its first round of measurement for the Retail and Info-Communications sectors. Annually, CSISG currently measures 8 key economic sectors of Singapore with company, sub-sector, and sector results of two economic sectors released each quarter. The national score for 2010 will be updated in January 2011. CSISG company scores are generated based on face-to-face interviews with companies’ customers after the consumption of their products and services. Company scores in a sub-sector are then aggregated up in proportion to their revenue contributions to derive each sub-sector score. Similarly, …


From Post-Its To Face-Bras: How 3m Puts Innovation Into Practice, Knowledge@Smu Apr 2010

From Post-Its To Face-Bras: How 3m Puts Innovation Into Practice, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Most people are familiar with the genesis of the Post-it, 3M's signature yellow sticky pad: an accidental outcome that followed the discovery of a non-permanent adhesive. While innovations as such might be viewed as a fluke – an invention that occurred by chance – it is helpful to note that certain environments and conditions can render an organisation more 'accident'-prone. Geoff Nicholson, the "father" of 3M's line of Post-it Note products and an advocate of "risky business" behaviours, shared his insights and observations at SMU recently.


Behind That 'Made-In-China' Label: A Shortcut, Short-Change, Save-Face Story, Knowledge@Smu Apr 2010

Behind That 'Made-In-China' Label: A Shortcut, Short-Change, Save-Face Story, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

China’s reputation as the world’s factory is not always matched with an equally positive reputation for the quality of its produce. Yet, the world’s consumers cannot seem to wean themselves off the economic giant's low cost products – neither can businesses. But do Chinese manufacturers really deserve the bad rep? Paul Midler, a Chinese-speaking American, shared his personal take at SMU recently, on what drives Chinese producers to do what they do, and how, he thinks, things can take a turn for the better.


Advertising Competition In Retail Markets, Kyle Bagwell, Gea M. Lee Apr 2010

Advertising Competition In Retail Markets, Kyle Bagwell, Gea M. Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider non-price advertising by retail firms that are privately informed as to their respective production costs. We construct an advertising equilibrium, in which informed consumers use an advertising search rule whereby they buy from the highest-advertising firm. Consumers are rational in using the advertising search rule, since the lowest-cost firm advertises the most and also selects the lowest price. Even though the advertising equilibrium facilitates productive effi ciency, we establish conditions under which firms enjoy higher expected profit when advertising is banned. Consumer welfare falls in this case, however. Under free entry, social surplus is higher when advertising is …


On The Relationship Between Analyst Reports And Corporate Disclosures: Exploring The Roles Of Information Discovery And Interpretation, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo Apr 2010

On The Relationship Between Analyst Reports And Corporate Disclosures: Exploring The Roles Of Information Discovery And Interpretation, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relationship between analyst research and corporate earnings announcements to explore the relative importance of information discovery versus interpretation of previously released information. Using equity market reaction to capture information content, we find that information discovery (interpretation) dominates in the week before (after) firms announce their earnings. In addition, we find that the interpretation role increases in importance with the difficulty of financial accounting information. Analysis of all weeks surrounding earnings announcements shows that the information discovery role is overall more important. We are able to reconcile this result with the opposite finding in Francis et al. (2002).