Business Commons^™

An Exploratory Study Of How To Navigate Brand Management And Improve Sales Performance Through Control Policies, Pavuth Sriaranyakul

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of alcohol and tobacco control policies on sales performance when two central elements of marketing, communication and promotion programs, are significantly restricted. The study took place in Thailand, which has some of the strongest tobacco control regulations in the world, along with moderately strong alcohol control regulations. Under these regulations, tobacco firms operate in a dark market, with near-total regulatory prohibition on advertising, promotion, and even the display of their products. Alcohol firms operate in a less restrictive or “grey” market, as they face restrictions on advertising and promotion content, …

China’S Belt And Road Initiative And Asean’S Maritime Cluster, Hans-Dieter Evers, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper centres around China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and makes a case for further examining the possible effects of the complementary ‘Maritime Silk Road’ on Southeast Asia’s maritime clusters with reference to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Port development with “Chinese engagement” from Port Klang in Malaysia to Sri Lanka to Gwadar in Pakistan to some Gulf state ports to Piraeus in Greece provides a string of valuable pearls in the form of harbours from which adjoining areas can be serviced through feeder vessels or railway lines by Chinese government-linked companies. Whether China’s heavy investments in land and maritime …

The Transformation Of Globe Telecom, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula, Philip Zerrillo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Redefining telecommunications in the Philippines. Globe Telecom—a major telecommunications service provider in the Philippines—had a long, pioneering history in the communications business. Incorporated in 1935, it was the first international wireless communications company connecting the Philippines to the rest of the world.

Dual-Class Shares In Singapore – Where Ideology Meets Pragmatism, Pey Woan Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article seeks to understand the rationale for and potential implications of the introduction of dual class shares (DCS) in Singapore. It does so by first considering the theoretical as well as evidential arguments for and against the use of DCS, followed by a survey on the reception (or otherwise) of such structures in four common law jurisdictions with vibrant capital markets, viz., Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong. It observes that the chief argument cited by business founders to justify the use of DCS structures is the desire to enhance a firm’s long-term profitability by shielding …

Komida: Making Microfinance Digital In Indonesia, Adrian Yeow, Wee Kiat Lim

CMP Research

This case chronicles specific background, challenges, and actions taken by an Indonesian microfinancing institution (MFI) as it was implementing a digital mobile system to replace its current manual processes used in its field office operations. From a high level perspective, it describes the challenges faced by an organization that was attempting to implement a new digital initiative but constrained by its resource-scarce, institutionally, and culturally bound environment. At the same time, it highlights that this digital initiative was a critical part of its overall plan for addressing industry demands, increasing competitive pressures, and internal process issues. The case study thus …

Doing Business In Myanmar: Dressing Up The Bride, Ma Cherry Trivedi

Asian Management Insights

Dressing up the bride.

As one of the untapped frontiers of newly emerging markets, Myanmar is rich in natural resources, underpopulated but with growing purchasing power, and an easy place to do business. From the outside, the country is very inviting, and there is considerable interest in doing business in Myanmar today. But internally, we have several pockets of obstacles.

Flipping A Course On Entrepreneurial Leadership In Ethnic Chinese Business: A Mobile Learning Perspective, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This exploratory article reflects on the teaching experiences for a course on “Entrepreneurial Leadership in Ethnic Chinese Business” at the Singapore Management University (SMU). It was categorised as a mobile learning course with reference to the flipped classroom model, learner mobility, and user-generated content outside the classroom. We examine three examples of mobile learning projects which were assigned to students so that they would be able to internalise key course objectives such as gaining an appreciation of the structure, functions, and cultural uniqueness of traditional small Chinese business organisations in Singapore. The paper also addresses some of the challenges faced …

Cultural Transformation In The Digital World, Singapore Management University

Research Collection of Office of Executive Education

The context of businesses across the world is fast changing – more specifically, Digitalisation has had a growing and increasingly disruptive impact across industry sectors and regions. Companies in the APAC region, like many others across the world, are grappling with the digital wave and its implications for their own structures, strategies and people. It appears that many are struggling to cope with the phenomenon, only a few have been able to embrace it fully, and almost none have been able to get ahead of it, proactively. Although much has been written and said about Digitalisation in the Asian context, …

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2018: Q3 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. This is the CSISG’s twelfth year of measurement.

Assessing The Effects Of Post-Crisis Regulatory Reforms On Liquidity In The Singapore Government Securities And Mas Bills Market, John M. Sequeira

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The FSB initiated in 2017 an evaluation of the effects of post-crisis regulatory reforms, by developing a framework to assess whether the reforms are achieving their intended outcomes and identify any material unintended consequences. In tandem, MAS established an evaluation framework, which covers four broad impact areas, comprising FIs, financial markets, financial end-users and the broader financial landscape. Internationally, there have been particular concerns over whether post-crisis reforms may have impaired liquidity conditions in specific financial markets. We provide an assessment of the effects of the reforms on liquidity in a key market in Singapore, the SGS and MAS bills …

Strategic Sequential Bidding For Government Land Auction Sales – Evidence From Singapore, Sumit Agarwal, Jing Li, Ernie Teo, Alan Cheong

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the extent to which equilibrium auction prices are pushed up sequentially due to strategic bidding behaviors in government land auction sales. Using a unique dataset that covers the universe of tendering prices submitted by all developers for all residential land auction sales in Singapore, we find that a tenderer’s bids are significantly higher where there was a previous land parcel sold within two years and located within four kilometers. The elevated price margin decreases with time and geographic distance. Tracking sequential bids submitted by same developers over time, we find that the incumbent winner of a previous …

Labour Research Conference 2018: Upskilling Of Mature Workers, Stephen Hoskins, Luca Facchinello

Research Collection School Of Economics

Many developed countries are approaching an era of ageing population due to an increase in longevity and decrease in fertility rates. Singapore is no exception, having one of the fastest ageing populations in Asia, which is driven by low fertility rates and the third longest life expectancy in the world. The number of elderly citizens, defined as those aged 65 and above, is expected to triple to 900,000 by 2030, making up about 28% of the total population in Singapore (Population SG, 2016). This changing population age profile, combined with a competitive labour market, means it makes business sense to …

Don’S Column: Singapore Corporate Tax Rate: Is It Really A Flat Rate?, Teng Aun Khoo, Clement Tan Kai Guan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

As there is only one corporate tax rate (CTR) in Singapore, it may appear that the Singapore CTR is a single flat rate, currently 17%. However, after taking into account the availability of the partial tax exemption (PTE)scheme, the start-up tax exemption (SUTE) scheme and the corporate income tax rebate (CITR) in Singapore, all of which have an effect of lowering a company’s tax payable, the seemingly flat Singapore CTR is not what it seems to be. Instead, it translates to various progressive tax rates for different tiers of normal chargeable income (NCI).

Build Your Own Nest: Singapore's First Study On Matched Savings Schemes For Lower Income, Older Women, David Chan, Benedict S. K. Koh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Matched Savings Scheme is a research study, commissioned by the International Longevity Centre – Singapore (ILC – Singapore) of the Tsao Foundation and funded by the Tote Board, found that a monthly matched savings scheme is effective in sustaining the retirement savings behaviour among a group of 377 elderly women from low-income households over the study period of 18 months. The research, conducted by principal investigator psychology professor David Chan and co-investigator finance professor Benedict Koh, used an experimental design and longitudinal tracking to examine the effects that different factors of a matched savings scheme have on the participants’ decision …

Event-Based Allocation Of Airline Check-In Counters: A Simple Dynamic Optimization Method Supported By Empirical Data, Mahmut Parlar, Brian Rodrigues, Sharafali Moosa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper studies the real-life problem of dynamically optimizing the number of airport check-in counters to allocate for a single flight. The main feature of our work is the use of empirical data collected at the Singapore Changi Airport, which drives the dynamic optimization model of a parallel queues system. We propose an event-based dynamic programming model that simplifies considerably the optimization analysis even for large-scale problems with 700+ booked passengers. We investigate the following research questions: (a) For a particular flight, what is the optimal number of counters the system should open with and what is the corresponding optimal …

Board Independence As A Panacea To Tunnelling? An Empirical Study Of Related Party Transactions In Hong Kong And Singapore, Christopher C. H. Chen, Wai Yee Wan, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this article, we examine a general question: is the legal transplantation of corporate governance rule effective in curtailing agency costs? Entering into the 21st century, we have seen reforms of corporate governance standards in the Far East since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, including in Hong Kong and Singapore. These reforms built on the Anglo-American model of corporate governance in the UK and US supported by broad academic literature of connecting better corporate governance with firm value and identifying the association of tunneling or wrongdoings with poor corporate governance practices. The idea is also to provide more checks-and-balances …

Warrants And Their Underlying Stocks: Microstructure Evidence From An Emerging Market, Charlie Charoenwong, David K. Ding, Nuttawat Visaltanachoti

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The Stock Exchange of Thailand provides an ideal platform for comparing the trading characteristics of warrants and their underlying stocks since both of them trade in the same market under identical trading rules. If their patterns diverge significantly, it may be possible for an astute trader to devise profitable arbitrage strategies during the life of the warrants. We find that both their patterns are downward-sloping for spreads, U-shaped for flow toxicity, volatility, depth concentration, and trading volume; and upward-sloping for depth and market order flow ratio. This implies that trading under identical market structures leads to similar trading characteristics. We …

Asian Relevance, Global Impact: Asian Management Research Entering A New Era, Daphne W. Yiu, Long W. Lam, Ajai Gaur, Seung-Hyun Lee, Chi-Sum Wong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In 1998, the Asia Pacific Journal of Management (APJM) was formally affiliated with Asia Academy of Management (AAOM), the official affiliate of the Academy of Management, with the mission to “encourage contextualized management research with Asian relevance towards contribution to global scholarship” (Lau, 2007: 401). According to Peng (2007), APJM has become a highly reputable and the most prestigious journal in Asian management research. To date, APJM has published over 1,000 articles with a five-year average journal Impact Factor of 2.647 (as of 2018).

Talent Management Strategy As A Catalyst At Singapore Management University (Smu) Libraries, Gulcin Cribb, Rajendra Munoo

Research Collection Library

With almost no natural resources, Singapore’s knowledge-based economy is dependent on its talent. The government has been advocating the critical importance of on-going upskilling of its citizens to become a smart nation in an increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world. Its recent SkillsFuture agenda was launched in 2016 to provide Singaporeans with the opportunities to develop their fullest potential throughout life. Universities are expected to support this initiative and provide industry specific education to build a competitive workforce that is based on a tripartite collaboration between government, industry and universities. Singapore Management University (SMU) too, has responded and …

Tax Knowledge Diffusion Through Individual Auditor Network Ties: Evidence From China, Chee Yeow Lim, Terry Shevlin, Kun Wang, Yanping Xu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates whether network ties via sharing the same individual auditor influences the diffusion of tax avoidance knowledge. We find that firms with greater connection to low-tax firms through audit partners have lower effective tax rates (ETRs), consistent with tax avoidance knowledge being shared among firms through individual auditor network. The influence of audit network ties on tax avoidance at focal firms is stronger when partners’ tenure in low-tax firms is longer, and when partners have social connection with the top executives of focal firms. In addition, audit fees of focal firms with auditor network ties to low-tax firms …

The Social Capital-Control Nexus: Lessons From Implementation Of Accounting Control Systems In Two Chinese Organizations, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

One common theme of Accounting Control System project failure centers on inadequate or inappropriate enactment of effective controls during project implementation. As Accounting Control Systems projects are viewed by many as a social process involving managing relationships among multiple stakeholders with diverse backgrounds and capabilities, there is a growing number of IS researchers that have utilized the social capital theory to examine the enactment of clan control during system implementation. Despite the growing interests, relatively little is known about the relationships between social capital and the formal as well as informal controls. Also, the moderating impact of social capital attributes …

Esg And Corporate Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence From China's Listed Power Generation Companies, Changhong Zhao, Yu Guo, Jiahai Yuan, Mengya Wu, Daiyu Li, Yiou Zhou, Jiangang Kang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nowadays, listed companies around the world are shifting from short-term goals of maximizing profits to long-term sustainable environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. People have come to realize that ESG has become an important source of the corporate risk and may affect the company's financial performance and profitability. Recent research shows that good ESG performance could improve the financial performance in some countries. Yet, the question of how does ESG affect financial performance has not been thoroughly discussed and studied in China. In this article, we study China's listed power generation groups to explore the relationship between ESG performance and …

Government Intervention In Corporate Crises: An Asian Perspective, Augustine Pang, Paige Pei-Hua Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Governments are expected to intervene in national crises like natural disasters (Rosenthal & Kouzmin, 1997). Less clear are corporate crises. In recent years, there have been several corporate crises in Asia where governments have intervened to restore confidence. The paper seeks to examine the roles and extent of Asian governmental intervention in corporate crises, particularly it examines the impact Asian governments – described as paternalistic (Shin & Sin, 2012) – have on corporate crises. Five high profile Asian corporate crises were analyzed through Winkler’s (1977) Theory of Corporatism. Impact was analyzed through Boin and ’t Hart’s (2010) nine crisis response …

Foreign Direct Investment, A Movement Toward Investors' Centricity, A Behavioral Perspective, Jimmy Wee Teck Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation proposal studies the determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a frontier economy from the behavioral perspective of a manager. There are many determinants used in determining a Foreign Direct Investment. These determinants range from economic, social, institutional, technology, organization, and commercial down to cultural distance. The objective of this research is not to duplicate the methodologies of many quantitative research studies that have been conducted, in which many economists use quantitative analysis of several years of data to determine the many factors that correlate with levels of FDI. The behavioral aspect of a manager’s decision is noticeably …

International Energy Geopolitics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Overview of international energy geopolitical trends. Emphasizes the importance of the Persian Gulf, South China Sea, East China Sea, Russia, and the Arctic to U.S. and international economic and strategic developments. Stresses the continuing importance of fossil fuels in domestic and international energy consumption, the variety of energy sources being used by various global regions, the potential for military conflict over access to natural resources, and how emerging energy leaders will determine global energy, environmental, and international security developments.

Limits On Chinese Graduate Student Visas May Protect Us Intellectual Property But Drive Away Talent, Jack Marr

International Business Program

Some Chinese students studying STEM-related fields may not be staying in the U.S. as long as they’d planned. The Trump administration announced on May 29 that it may limit some graduate students’ visas to one year.

Creating A Customer-Centred Brand, Amira Geneid

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

Amira Geneid of Zahara discusses how the brand listens to their community to deliver beyond expectations. Zahara is a halal cosmetics line based in Singapore

Designing Small Successes, Edwin Low

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

Edwin Low of Supermama talks about how he’s built his team and the differences between Singaporean and Japanese customers

Foreword [June 2018, Issue 2], Neeta Lachmandas

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

In this issue, we speak to 10 small business owners representing a myriad of sectors about their experience and insight into growing their business in Singapore and the region, as well as their approach to customer satisfaction and service excellence.

Selling Service In Retail, Sharon Wong

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

Sharon Wong of Motherswork speaks about expanding to China and building brand loyalty with customers and staff.