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Articles 5401 - 5430 of 5956

Full-Text Articles in Business

Ownership And The Internationalization Of Small Firms, Gerard George, Johan Wiklund, Shaker A. Zahra Apr 2005

Ownership And The Internationalization Of Small Firms, Gerard George, Johan Wiklund, Shaker A. Zahra

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in international markets. This study argues that the ownership structures of SMEs influence their proclivity to take risks and expand the scale and scope of their internationalization efforts. Data from 889 Swedish SMEs reveal that internal owners (CEOs and other senior executives) tend to be risk averse and have a lower proclivity to increase scale and scope of internationalization than external owners (venture capitalists and institutional investors). The results provide interesting insights into the behavioral change of executives regarding the scale and scope of internationalization in the presence of external ownership.


The Impact Of Ownership Structure On Wage Intensity In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan, Parthiban David Apr 2005

The Impact Of Ownership Structure On Wage Intensity In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan, Parthiban David

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The authors studied the effect of ownership structure on human capital investments as indicated by wage intensity, defined as the ratio of expenditure on employee wages to sales, in a sample of 996 Japanese manufacturing firms during their economic recession of 1998-2002. They found that domestic shareholders, with interests beyond financial considerations, enhance wage intensity, especially when performance is low, and thereby safeguard human capital investments. Foreign shareholders with sole interest in financial returns have an opposite effect; they reduce wage intensity when firm performance is low.


Information Systems Project Abandonment: A Stakeholder Analysis, Gary Shan Chi Pan Apr 2005

Information Systems Project Abandonment: A Stakeholder Analysis, Gary Shan Chi Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This case study reports on the experience of an organization in Singapore in implementing and eventually abandoning an electronic procurement project. By means of a stakeholder analysis, it examines stakeholders’ roles in the organization's decision to abandon the software project. This study uses Freeman's stakeholder analytical framework (Freeman, R. (1984). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Massachusetts: Pitman) to interpret data and develop four major findings. By providing a better understanding of project stakeholders’ perceptions, expectations and interrelationships during project development, this study presents researchers with a project abandonment evaluation framework that is enhanced with a stakeholder perspective. The lessons learned …


Walverine: A Walrasian Trading Agent, Shih-Fen Cheng, Evan Leung, Kevin M. Lochner, Kevin O'Malley, Daniel M. Reeves, Julian L. Schvartzman, Michael P. Wellman Apr 2005

Walverine: A Walrasian Trading Agent, Shih-Fen Cheng, Evan Leung, Kevin M. Lochner, Kevin O'Malley, Daniel M. Reeves, Julian L. Schvartzman, Michael P. Wellman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

TAC-02 was the third in a series of Trading Agent Competition events fostering research in automating trading strategies by showcasing alternate approaches in an open-invitation market game. TAC presents a challenging travel-shopping scenario where agents must satisfy client preferences for complementary and substitutable goods by interacting through a variety of market types. Michigan's entry, Walverine, bases its decisions on a competitive (Walrasian) analysis of the TAC travel economy. Using this Walrasian model, we construct a decision-theoretic formulation of the optimal bidding problem, which Walverine solves in each round of bidding for each good. Walverine's optimal bidding approach, as well as …


On ‘‘Investment Decisions In The Theory Of Finance: Some Antinomies And Inconsistencies’’, Bert De Reyck Mar 2005

On ‘‘Investment Decisions In The Theory Of Finance: Some Antinomies And Inconsistencies’’, Bert De Reyck

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the paper “Investment Decisions in the Theory of Finance: Some antinomies and inconsistencies”, Magni [Eur. J. Operat. Res. 137 (2002) 206] shows that using the net present value rule for making investment decisions can lead to inconsistencies and antinomies. The author claims that the so-called equivalent-risk tenet of finance, whereby an investor needs to compare an investment opportunity with an asset of equivalent risk, is impossible to implement. In this paper, we show that the main thesis of this paper is incorrect, and that finance theory, when applied correctly, can be used to value investment projects by comparing assets …


Vicious And Virtuous Circles In The Management Of Knowledge: The Case Of Infosys Technologies, Raghu Garud, Arun Kumaraswamy Mar 2005

Vicious And Virtuous Circles In The Management Of Knowledge: The Case Of Infosys Technologies, Raghu Garud, Arun Kumaraswamy

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We adopt a systems perspective to explore the challenges that organizations face in harnessing knowledge. Such a perspective draws attention to mutually causal processes that have the potential to generate both vicious and virtuous circles. Based on a longitudinal study at Infosys Technologies, we conclude that knowledge management involves more than just the sponsorship of initiatives at and across different organizational levels. It also involves an active process of steering around and out of vicious circles that will inevitably emerge.


The Effects Of Ownership And Capital Structure On Board Composition And Strategic Diversification In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan Mar 2005

The Effects Of Ownership And Capital Structure On Board Composition And Strategic Diversification In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The board of directors plays an important role in solving the agency problem between shareholders and management. This paper investigates the relationships between ownership and board structure with the diversification strategy of large Japanese firms. The results show that corporate nominee directors are associated with lower levels of product diversification of their investee firms. This suggests that nominee directors in large Japanese corporations see themselves representing specific interests and therefore investors should pay attention to board composition in order to assess the level of protection they can expect to receive. Even without any apparent agency problem with management, there remains …


Corporate Divestitures And Spinoffs In Singapore, Francis Koh, Winston T. H. Koh, Benedict S. K. Koh Mar 2005

Corporate Divestitures And Spinoffs In Singapore, Francis Koh, Winston T. H. Koh, Benedict S. K. Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper discusses the different forms of corporate divestitures, the motives for this corporate activity, and the empirical findings about their economic outcomes. A sample of corporate divestitures is also used to identify the main motivations in the Singapore context. We conclude that divestitures are carried out to achieve operational efficiency and gain incremental profitability and liquidity. Using share price data around the event-dates, we show that announcements of divestitures generally lead to significant increases in the returns of the parent company. The positive abnormal returns are related to the relative size of the divestitures and the computed accounting gains. …


Assessment Centers In Belgium: The Results Of A Study On Their Validity And Fairness, Filip Lievens, Etienne Van Keer, Morel De Witte Mar 2005

Assessment Centers In Belgium: The Results Of A Study On Their Validity And Fairness, Filip Lievens, Etienne Van Keer, Morel De Witte

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In Belgium, assessment centers have grown in popularity. Despite this growing popularity, the validity of these selection and development methods has not been examined in Belgium. Therefore, this study examines the predictive validity and fairness of an assessment center of a large bank. The sample consisted of 252 middle level managers. Results revealed that the assessment center provides a valid prediction of success in higher managerial positions. With respect to fairness, this assessment center also scores well. Virtually no significant differences between men and women and between Flemish and French speaking Belgians are found. These positive results might be explained …


Do We Stand On Common Ground? A Threat Appraisal Model For Terror Alerts Issued By The Department Of Homeland Security, Augustine Pang, Yan Jin, Glen T. Cameron Mar 2005

Do We Stand On Common Ground? A Threat Appraisal Model For Terror Alerts Issued By The Department Of Homeland Security, Augustine Pang, Yan Jin, Glen T. Cameron

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Having developed a threat appraisal model to examine the fabric and faces of threat, and how it can becommunicated, the authors empirically test the model on an ongoing issue, the issuance of terror alerts bythe Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on how threat is appraised by DHS, and the conservativeand liberal audiences. Findings showed a shared view by the DHS and the conservative audiences whilethe liberal audiences thought otherwise. Though there appear to be consensus in threat communication,more internal consistency within DHS is needed to optimize its effectiveness.


The Performance Of Value And Growth Portfolios In East Asia Before The Asian Financial Crisis, David K. Ding, Jia-Leng Chua, Thomas A. Fetherston Mar 2005

The Performance Of Value And Growth Portfolios In East Asia Before The Asian Financial Crisis, David K. Ding, Jia-Leng Chua, Thomas A. Fetherston

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine value and growth portfolios in seven East Asian countries just before the onslaught of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. The value premiums in these countries, except in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Thailand, are found to be mainly positive. After controlling for firm size, risk, liquidity, and growth potential, we find higher returns among value stocks with a small firm size and low growth potential in Hong Kong and Malaysia. In Japan and Singapore, higher returns are found in growth portfolios with a small firm size and low growth potential. Growth stocks in Taiwan with a small firm size, and …


Competing At The Frontier: The Changing Role Of Technology Policy In Singapore's Economic Strategy, Winston T. H. Koh, Poh Kam Wong Mar 2005

Competing At The Frontier: The Changing Role Of Technology Policy In Singapore's Economic Strategy, Winston T. H. Koh, Poh Kam Wong

Research Collection School Of Economics

For an economy competing at the global frontier, an innovation-based growth strategy requires a well-developed technological infrastructure, a set of capabilities-focused technology policies, as well as an institutional environment that stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper examines the role played by science and technology policy in an economy's transition to an innovation-based growth strategy. We discuss the challenges governments face as they restructure economic institutions to deepen R&D capabilities and encourage technology creation. We review Singapore's experience in this regard and assess its ongoing efforts to remake itself to compete at the global frontier.


The Effects Of Decimalization On Return Volatility Components, Serial Correlation And Trading Costs, Yan He, Chunchi Wu Mar 2005

The Effects Of Decimalization On Return Volatility Components, Serial Correlation And Trading Costs, Yan He, Chunchi Wu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the composition of return volatility, serial correlation, and trading costs before and after decimalization on the New York Stock Exchange. We decompose the variance of price changes into components associated with public news, rounding errors, and market-making frictions. We find that when stocks move from a fractional to a decimal trading system, the variance components due to market-making frictions and rounding errors decline significantly, whereas the component due to public news remains unchanged. The serial correlation of price changes weakens substantially after decimalization. The uninformed component of bid-ask spreads decreases significantly whereas the informed component has no significant …


Is Stellar Hedge Fund Performance For Real?, Robert Kosowski, Narayan Y. Naik, Melvyn Teo Feb 2005

Is Stellar Hedge Fund Performance For Real?, Robert Kosowski, Narayan Y. Naik, Melvyn Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We apply a robust bootstrap to evaluate the performance of a large universe of hedge funds. Our bootstrap estimates indicate that the performance of the top hedge funds cannot be attributed to chance alone. This is true even after adjusting for back fill bias, serial correlation, and structural breaks. Also, we find that hedge fund alpha differences persist over three year horizons. However, an investment strategy designed around this will run into difficulties as the persistence is often confined to small funds that are effectively closed to new inflows. Moreover, Bayesian estimates suggest that standard alphas may be overestimated by …


Managing Learning Resources For Consecutive Product Generations, Lieven Demeester, Mei Qi Feb 2005

Managing Learning Resources For Consecutive Product Generations, Lieven Demeester, Mei Qi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we study how a firm should allocate its learning resources when it is concurrently producing two consecutive generations of one product. We define learning resources as scarce firm-specific resources that a firm allocates towards the improvement of the cost, quality or timeliness of its existing products and processes. We use empirically tested models for demand substitution and learning curves to formulate this problem, and we present our results as propositions with regard to the optimal time at which a firm should direct all its learning resources to the newer product generation, depending on the substitution rate of …


K-Center Problems With Minimum Coverage, Andrew Lim, Brian Rodrigues, Fan Wang, Zhou Xu Feb 2005

K-Center Problems With Minimum Coverage, Andrew Lim, Brian Rodrigues, Fan Wang, Zhou Xu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this work, we study an extension of the k-center facility location problem, where centers are required to service a minimum of clients. This problem is motivated by requirements to balance the workload of centers while allowing each center to cater to a spread of clients. We study three variants of this problem, all of which are shown to be -hard. In-approximation hardness and approximation algorithms with factors equal or close to the best lower bounds are provided. Generalizations, including vertex costs and vertex weights, are also studied.


Statistical Arbitrage And Market Efficiency: Enhanced Theory, Robust Tests And Further Applications, Robert A. Jarrow, Melvyn Teo, Yiu Kuen Tse, Mitch Warachka Feb 2005

Statistical Arbitrage And Market Efficiency: Enhanced Theory, Robust Tests And Further Applications, Robert A. Jarrow, Melvyn Teo, Yiu Kuen Tse, Mitch Warachka

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Statistical arbitrage enables tests of market efficiency which circumvent the joint-hypotheses dilemma. This paper makes several contributions to the statistical arbitrage framework. First, we enlarge the set of statistical arbitrage opportunities in Hogan, Jarrow, Teo, and Warachka (2004) to avoid penalizing incremental trading profits with positive deviations from their expected value. Second, we provide a statistical methodology to remedy the lack of consistency and statistical power in their Bonferroni approach. In addition, this procedure allows for autocorrelation and non-normality in trading profits. Third, we apply our tests to a wide range of trading strategies based on stock momentum, stock value, …


Older Workers: Untapped Assets For Creating Value, Knowledge@Smu Feb 2005

Older Workers: Untapped Assets For Creating Value, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

The days when an executive could look forward to a leisurely retirement out on the golf course are over, thanks to a possible looming job shortage, a graying population, low savings rates and an insecure Social Security system. The impact of these factors on both workers and companies was the subject of the Symposium on Older Workers, co-sponsored recently by the AARP Global Aging Program along with Wharton's Center for Human Resources and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research. Speakers included AARP CEO William D. Novelli, Olivia Mitchell, executive director of Wharton's Pension Research Council, and Thomas Dowd, a …


Situational Judgment Tests And Their Predictiveness Of College Students' Success: The Influence Of Faking, Helga Peeters, Filip Lievens Feb 2005

Situational Judgment Tests And Their Predictiveness Of College Students' Success: The Influence Of Faking, Helga Peeters, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There is increasing interest in using situational judgment tests (SJTs) to supplement traditional student admission procedures. An important unexplored issue is whether students can intentionally distort or fake their responses on SJTs. This study examined the fakability of an SJT of college students' performance. Two hundred ninety-three psychology students completed a cognitive test, a personality measure, and an SJT. Only for the SJT, the students were assigned to either an honest or a fake condition. The scores of students in the fake condition were significantly higher than those of students in the honest condition (d = .89). Furthermore, faking had …


Investing In Real Estate: Mortgage Financing Practices And Optimal Holding Period, Winston T. H. Koh, Edward H. K. Ng Feb 2005

Investing In Real Estate: Mortgage Financing Practices And Optimal Holding Period, Winston T. H. Koh, Edward H. K. Ng

Research Collection School Of Economics

Real estate investments are typically characterized by high degrees of leverage and long loan tenures. In perfect capital markets, leverage has no impact on the investment decision apart from tax considerations. However, the mortgage financing market is imperfect in many countries. In the presence of market imperfections, an optimal holding period exists for real property investments. We provide a simple rule to calculate the optimal holding period is to compare the required rate of return with the leveraged rate of return on equity.


Disproportionate Ownership Structure And Ipo Long-Run Performance Of Non-Soes In China, Xiaoming Wang, Jerry Cao, Jinghua Tang, Gary Gang Tian Feb 2005

Disproportionate Ownership Structure And Ipo Long-Run Performance Of Non-Soes In China, Xiaoming Wang, Jerry Cao, Jinghua Tang, Gary Gang Tian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the relationship between ownership structures and IPO long-run performance of non-SOEs in China. Although non-SOEs underperform the market in general after IPO but the poor performance is mainly caused by the IPOs with ownership control wedge. Non-SOEs with one share one vote structure outperform those with control-ownership wedge by 30% for three years post-IPO performance in adjusted buy-and-hold returns. Non-SOEs with control-ownership wedge have higher frequency of undertaking value-destroying related party transactions. These findings suggest that non-SOEs need to improve corporate governance such as disproportionate ownership structure to better safeguard the interest of long-run shareholders.


As The Bpo Business Grows, There's A Greater Focus On Metrics And Measurement, Knowledge@Smu Jan 2005

As The Bpo Business Grows, There's A Greater Focus On Metrics And Measurement, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Until recently, many CEOs were grappling with issues such as whether to send back-office operations offshore to third-party providers of business process outsourcing (BPO) services, or to perform such operations in their own offshore captive centers. Today, as more and more firms move toward hybrid models of offshore outsourcing, they are looking at new management techniques, such as "virtual prowling," according to experts at Wharton and consulting firm A.T. Kearney.


Selecting Employees For Global Assignments: Can Assessment Centers Measure Cultural Intelligence?, Michael M. Harris, Filip Lievens Jan 2005

Selecting Employees For Global Assignments: Can Assessment Centers Measure Cultural Intelligence?, Michael M. Harris, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Our field is replete with attempts to measure and predict a variety of behaviors in the workplace, including task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive activity, to name but a few. One of the most recent types of behavior that organizations would like to predict is the ability to interact effectively with culturally-dissimilar others. Known by various names, including cultural intelligence or cultural adaptability, there is relatively little research as of yet regarding this topic. Nevertheless, given the growing recognition that the workplace increasingly operates in a global fashion, there is reason to believe that the literature regarding this topic will expand. …


The Perceptions Of Students Outside The United States On Cases Versus Lectures, G.W. Kester, R.A. Dean, David K. Ding, S.A. Hoover, M. Skully Jan 2005

The Perceptions Of Students Outside The United States On Cases Versus Lectures, G.W. Kester, R.A. Dean, David K. Ding, S.A. Hoover, M. Skully

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper reports the results of a survey of postgraduate students at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, the University of Melbourne in Australia, Monash University in Australia, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the National University of Ireland, Galway regarding their perceptions of cases versus lectures. The respondents to our survey to prefer lectures in introductory courses and cases when used to supplement lectures or used in advanced upper level courses. They agree that cases are an effective way to provide them with an organizational context that enhances their understanding of the subject matter and how it relates to …


Voluntary Decisions On Audit Committee Composition And Expertise And The Influence Of Board Of Director Characteristics: Further Evidence From Singapore, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh Jan 2005

Voluntary Decisions On Audit Committee Composition And Expertise And The Influence Of Board Of Director Characteristics: Further Evidence From Singapore, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Technology Competition And Optimal Investment Timing: A Real Options Perspective, Robert J. Kauffman, X. Li Jan 2005

Technology Competition And Optimal Investment Timing: A Real Options Perspective, Robert J. Kauffman, X. Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Companies often choose to defer irreversible investments to maintain valuable managerial flexibility in an uncertain world. For some technology-intensive projects, technology uncertainty plays a dominant role in affecting investment timing. This article analyzes the investment timing strategy for a firm that is deciding about whether to adopt one or the other of two incompatible and competing technologies.We develop a continuous-time stochastic model that aids in the determination of optimal timing for managerial adoption within the framework of real options theory. The model captures the elements of the decision-making process in such a way so as to provide managerial guidance in …


Partnering For Perfection: An Economics Perspective On B2b Electronic Market Strategic Alliances, Qizhi Dai, Robert J. Kauffman Jan 2005

Partnering For Perfection: An Economics Perspective On B2b Electronic Market Strategic Alliances, Qizhi Dai, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

New technological innovations have made it possible for new intermediaries to create value in business processes that involve the procurement of manufacturing and services supplies. Associated with these innovations is the emergence of business-to-business (B2B) electronic markets. These act as digital intermediaries that aim to reduce the transaction costs and mitigate the risks inherent in procurement. They improve buyers’ capabilities to search for attractive prices and also serve to increase the liquidity of sellers’ products. In this chapter, the authors explore the evolution of B2B e-market firms in terms of the strategies they employ to “perfect” their value propositions and …


Equity Incentives And Earnings Management, Qiang Cheng, Terry Warfield Jan 2005

Equity Incentives And Earnings Management, Qiang Cheng, Terry Warfield

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the link between managers' equity incentives—arising from stock-based compensation and stock ownership—and earnings management. We hypothesize that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to sell shares in the future and this motivates these managers to engage in earnings management to increase the value of the shares to be sold. Using stock-based compensation and stock ownership data over the 1993–2000 time period, we document that managers with high equity incentives sell more shares in subsequent periods. As expected, we find that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to report earnings that meet or just …


What Determines Residual Income?, Qiang Cheng Jan 2005

What Determines Residual Income?, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates the determinants of residual income scaled by book value of equity, i.e., abnormal return on equity (ROE), by analyzing the impact of value-creation (economic rents) and value-recording (conservative accounting) processes on abnormal ROE. I rely on economic theories to characterize economic rents and develop an empirical measure—the conservative accounting factor—to capture the effect of conservative accounting. As expected, industry abnormal ROE increases with industry concentration, industry-level barriers to entry, and industry conservative accounting factors. Also as expected, the difference between firm and industry abnormal ROE increases with market share, firm size, firm-level barriers to entry, and firm …


Regionalisation And Singapore's Transborder Industrialisation: A New Perspective On Suzhou Industrial Park, Xun Cai, Lu Gao, Caroline Yeoh Jan 2005

Regionalisation And Singapore's Transborder Industrialisation: A New Perspective On Suzhou Industrial Park, Xun Cai, Lu Gao, Caroline Yeoh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The dynamics of international economic competition have prompted governments to re-examine accustomed policies, and search for alternative strategies, in order to re-position their economies for the future. This paper takes a look at Singapore’s search for a competitive positioning in the global marketplace, and focuses on the city-state’s much-publicized, and controversial, flagship project in China, viz, the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). This strategic initiative is premised on the perceptions that Singapore’s positive reputation with multinational corporations, and ‘guanxi’ (or connections) with regional governments, will give the regional sites a strategic advantage in the competition for foreign investments. Earlier studies have …