Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Project Planning With Alternative Technologies In Uncertain Environments, Stefan Creemers, Bert De Reyck, Roel Leus

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate project scheduling with stochastic activity durations to maximize the expected net present value. Individual activities also carry a risk of failure, which can cause the overall project to fail. In the project planning literature, such technological uncertainty is typically ignored and project plans are developed only for scenarios in which the project succeeds. To mitigate the risk that an activity’s failure jeopardizes the entire project, more than one alternative may exist for reaching the project’s objectives. We propose a model that incorporates both the risk of activity failure and the possible pursuit of alternative technologies. We find optimal …

Tunneling Through Non-Operational Fund Occupancy: An Investigation Based On Officially Identified Activities, Guohua Jiang, Pingui Rao, Heng Yue

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this paper, we investigate the problem of controlling shareholder Non-Operational Fund Occupancy (NOFO) in China, where controlling shareholders directly take funds away from listed firms without matching business transactions. The NOFO problem was an evident and widely used tunneling activity in China and was identified by the securities market regulators. Unlike previous literature that used indirect measures of tunneling, we directly collect the actual amounts of NOFO from mandated disclosures and utilize this direct measure of tunneling in a series of empirical tests. First, we examine and find that various mechanisms such as ownership structure, corporate governance and institutional …

Transforming Wealth Management Through Technology, Vineet Malhotra

Asian Management Insights

Wealth managers can see the potential benefits of rapidly evolving mobile technology and are taking steps to significantly enhance interaction with their clients and transform the way information is presented and shared.

Leveraging Market-Based Assets To De-Risk The Firm's Operations, Rajendra Kumar Srivastava

Asian Management Insights

In times of uncertainty and volatility,the active management of marketbasedassets, such as brands andchannel relationships, take on a newsignificance in managing risk.

Geography Of Firms And Propagation Of Local Economic Shocks, Gennaro Bernile, George Korniotis, Alok Kumar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study shows that the geographical distribution of publicly-traded firms generates an economic network that links the economic environments of all U.S. states. Using a novel measure of economic linkages among publicly-traded firms, we build a state-level network of economic connections and show that local economic shocks propagate through this geographical network. Specifically, for each state, we identify U.S. states that are economically relevant for firms headquartered in that state and show that economic conditions in economically relevant states predict the economic environment in the headquarter state. These results do not merely reflect the impact of omitted common national shocks. …

Moving Forward With Echoes From The Past, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

A company’s history can build a corporate identity and branding, as well as overcome a crisis

Duopolistic Competition Under Risk Aversion And Uncertainty, Michail Chronopoulos, Bert De Reyck, Afzal Siddiqui

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A monopolist typically defers entry into an industry as both price uncertainty and the level of risk aversion increase. By contrast, the presence of a rival typically hastens entry under risk neutrality. Here, we examine these two opposing effects in a duopoly setting. We demonstrate that the value of a firm and its entry decision behave differently with risk aversion and uncertainty depending on the type of competition. Interestingly, if the leader’s role is defined endogenously, then higher uncertainty makes her relatively better off, whereas with the roles exogenously defined, the impact of uncertainty is ambiguous.

Surviving Beyond A Third Generation, Andreas Raharso

Asian Management Insights

Family-owned businesses’ continued survival is unsure. Research indicates the most likely cause is their pursuit of professionalisation.

Sourcing Hub, Anupam Agrawal, Luk N. Van Wassenhove, Arnoud De Meyer

Asian Management Insights

Managing the suppliers of your suppliers may be a lot of work, but there is plenty of value in unlocking the supply chain.

Protecting Minority Shareowners’ Interests, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Understand what rights you are giving away when approving a general mandate request.

A Matter Of Trust, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Business is trusted more than government, but both need the other to become more trustworthy.

Making Money From Mobile Phone Service At Sea, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

It takes expertise and talent to build a new business; it takes capital and speed to maximise returns.

Strategic Use Of Analytics Can Boost Business, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

The key lies not in the quantity of data used but in using the right data and doing a trial run.

Big Pharma Is Hurt, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Cutting down R&D inefficiency and restoring the trust of investors and consumers are key to curing the industry’s ills.

Leading With Character, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Procter & Gamble’s former CEO speaks about taking responsibility and acting quickly to succeed.

An Indian Healthcare Company’S Foray Onto The World Stage, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Fortis Healthcare expanded from one hospital to over 70 in a dozen years. It is now consolidating to focus on what it does best: saving lives.

Managers Need To Be Less Controlling, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Being so can motivate employees better than material incentives.

Wired And Ready For Action, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Digital connectivity has changed the business model and will allow current vertical industries to hitch their value propositions and revenue streams to other firms' offerings.

Tracking-Error Models For Multiple Benchmarks: Theory And Empirical Performance, Yunchao Xu, Zhichao Zheng, Karthik Natarajan, Chung-Piaw Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a new multiple-benchmark tracking-error model for portfolio selection problem. The tracking error of a portfolio from a set of benchmark portfolios is defined as the difference between its return and the highest return from the set of benchmarks. We derive closedform solution of our portfolio strategy, whose main component is the sum of the benchmark portfolios weighted by their respective probabilities of attaining the highest return among the portfolios in the benchmark. These probabilities, also known as the persistency values, are less sensitive to estimation errors in the means and covariances. These features help to stabilize the computational …

Bridge Over Troubled Strategies, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

If strategy is the future of an organisation, implementation is its bridge. And successful implementation should be straightforward. But it isn’t. A new website has the answers...

Keys Of The Consumer Kingdom, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Putting a name to a face opened the door for marketers in the Philippines. An unexpected bonus was high employee engagement .

What Is The Maximum Predictability Permitted By Asset Pricing Models?, Dashan Huang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper investigates whether return predictability can be explained by existing asset pricing models. Using different assumptions, I develop two theoretical upper bounds on the R-square of the regression of stock returns on predictive variables. Empirically, I find that the predictive R-square is significantly larger than the upper bounds, implying that extant asset pricing models are incapable of explaining the degree of return predictability. The reason for this inconsistency is the low correlation between the excess returns and the state variables used in the discount factor. The finding of this paper suggests the development of new asset pricing models with …

The Business Case For Diversity, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Diversity may be a business necessity but it is not always easy to practise it ...

Business Of Analytics : Measuring Up In A Digital World, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Welcome to the digital world, where anyone who uses the internet is probably a statistic. The digitisation of our lives has generated an unprecedented surge of data prompting companies to pay big money for information to be collected, dissected and analysed so as to best reach their customers and make a sale. Not many, however, are aware of how to fully exploit opportunities in the new data-driven economy, says Joe Nguyen, Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at comScore, a global data and digital analytics firm.

Closing The Leadership Gap In Asia, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Emerging Asian markets – which are expected by the International Monetary Fund to grow by 8.5 percent in 2014 – are indispensable for any large firm with aggressive growth commitments. Although such projections may prove optimistic, companies still rely on Asia to compensate for under-performing mature markets. CEOs in Asia report that their targets for regional business units average 5 percent above the rate of regional economic growth — a target that can only be reached by capturing significant market share from the competition. Over-performing in hypercompetitive

Asian markets depends, in large part, on the quantity and quality of Asia …

Corporate Myths : Sourcing And Vendor Management In Asia Pacific, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Sourcing and vendor management need the urgent attention of senior management. The current uptick in poor and corrupt sourcing practices and weak governance provide a compelling reason.

Crafting A Career Out Of Beer, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Craft beers may be trendy, but making a profit on them can be challenging.

Do Short Sellers Front-Run Insider Sales?, Mozaffar Khan, Hai Lu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We study the behavior of short sellers as informed market participants and examine potential sources of their information. Using a newly available dataset with high-frequency short sales data, we find evidence of significant increases in short sales immediately prior to large insider sales, but not prior to small insider sales. We examine a number of explanations that the increase in short sales is driven by public information, either about the firm or about the impending insider sale. The evidence is inconsistent with these explanations, but is consistent with front-running facilitated by leaked information. The front-running appears to be concentrated in …

Sustainable Business Models: The Contribution Of Network Organization And Governance Modes, Sudhi Seshadri, Michael Ehret

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We provide a framework for the design of sustainable business models. While extant literature on business models focuses on unlocking positive externalities, we propose a business model framework that effectively addresses negative externalities. A taxonomy-based on transorganizational models and governance modes - classifies instruments that counsel behaviour patterns. Sustainability strategies that deal with externalities often merge instruments to manage multi-stakeholder responsibilities and exchanges. The framework draws upon three established research themes - network organizational models, governance modes, and instrumental stakeholder theory - to distinguish between six instrument classes. To illustrate its potential for analysis the paper compiles instruments within these …

The Intangibles Of M&A Deals, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

You have worked hard to buy over a company; you have to work harder now to avoid seeing its value disappear