Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Smu Establishes Fruitful Collaborations With Six Leading Chinese Partner Universities, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Leading a senior delegation from 18-23 November 2017, SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer visited six partner universities in Shanghai and Beijing. The trip culminated in productive meetings with the leaders of these reputable Chinese universities and the signing of a number of partnership agreements that would strengthen the links of SMU and its schools with their Chinese counterparts. The universities are: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, China University of Political Science and Law.

Between Equal Rights: Primitive Accumulation And Capital's Violence, Onur Ulas Ince

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper attempts to elaborate a political theory of capital’s violence. Recent analyses haveadopted Karl Marx’s notion of the “primitive accumulation of capital” for investigating theforcible methods by which the conditions of capital accumulation are reproduced in the present.I argue that the analytic function accorded to primitive accumulation can be better performedby a pair of new concepts: “capital-positing violence” and “capital-preserving violence.” Irefine the conceptual core primitive accumulation (coercive capitalization of social relations ofproduction) by focusing on the role of colonial violence in the history of capitalism, which Ithen elucidate with reference to Carl Schmitt’s account of European colonial expansion …

What Influence Gratitude? The Effects Of Type Of Benefactor, Sense Of Entitlement And Downward Counterfactual Thought, Chou Chuen Yu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Research has shown that gratitude towards a benefactor positively predicts subjective well-being and other outcomes such as reciprocity and helping behaviours. However, previous research has not examined whether this effect is consistent or will differ across benefactor type (i.e., individual versus group). Research has also not examined the potential effects of accompanying thoughts related to the benefit assessment. Through two experimental studies, the hypotheses that gratitude towards benefactor is lower for group benefactor as compared to individual benefactor, that self-entitlement thoughts and downward counterfactual thoughts will have main effects on gratitude as well as moderate the effect of benefactor type …

Adaptive Mating Memory: Attractiveness And Contextual Effect On The Remembering And Misremembering Of Potential Mates’ Faces, Peter Kay Chai Tay

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Research on adaptive memory demonstrates that words and objects are remembered better if they are evaluated in relation to their survival or reproductive fitness value. Using the error management theory as a framework to elucidate memory biases emerging from adaptive costs and benefits, the present research examined if memory is enhanced for faces of potential mates (i.e., opposite sex individuals) in an ancestral context when the facial attractiveness and the observer’s short-term mating motive were also considered (i.e., Adaptive mating memory). In two studies, participant read scenarios depicting survival threats, mating, or modern environment, and were told to rate a …

Innovations In Asia: Selected Case Studies, Institute Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This book is a compilation of seven case studies written by faculty and staff of Singapore Management University (SMU) and has been edited in conjunction with the inaugural Asia Pacific Innovation Forum organised by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) and hosted by SMU in December 2014. These cases have been carefully selected to illustrate the various challenges inherent in creating entrepreneurial and business innovations.

The first five cases are related to start-ups by experienced professionals and students. Jayashree is an excellent case that shows how an individual with very little education was able to design and implement …

Multinationals In Emerging Markets: A Test Case Of The Banking Industry In India, Havovi Joshi

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Multinational firms play a significant role in the world economy, accounting for over 30% of the world stock market value. In the past decade or two, these firms have demonstrated a renewed wave of interest in the Emerging Asian markets. This is not surprising, given the attractive demographics, growing middle class and leapfrogging technology of these markets. But the optimism of these western firms heading eastward often gets quickly subdued by the realisation that these emerging Asian markets are far more complex—or at the very least, different—than western ones. They are more volatile, there is frequently a lack of institutional …

Smu School Of Social Sciences Celebrates 10 Years Of Holistic Education And Excellence, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Originally established in July 2002 as the School of Economics and Social Sciences, SMU School of Social Sciences (SoSS) expanded to be a separate entity on its own in 2007 and is the first school in Singapore to offer multi-disciplinary education. Beginning with a pioneer batch of 76 Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSocSc) students in 2004, SoSS is now home to more than 972 BSocSc students in 2017. With just two faculty members in 2003, the School now boasts a diverse group of 40 full-time faculty members across the fields of Social Sciences – Psychology Political Science and Sociology, and …

Policy Analytics For Environmental Sustainability: Household Hazardous Waste And Water Impacts Of Carbon Pollution Standards, Kustini

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Policy analytics are essential in supporting more informed policy-making in environmental management. This dissertation employs a fusion of machine methods and explanatory empiricism that involves data analytics, math programming, optimization, econometrics, geospatial and spatiotemporal analysis, and other approaches for assessing and evaluating current and future environmental policies.
Essay 1 discusses household informedness and its impact on the collection and recycling of household hazardous waste (HHW). Household informedness is the degree to which households have the necessary information to make utility-maximizing decisions about the handling of their waste. Such informedness seems to be influenced by HHW public education and environmental quality …

Effect Of A Ubiquitous Moral Cue On Ethical Leadership, Moral Disengagement And Goal Difficulty: Real-World Outcomes Of A Novel Behavioural Intervention By Mobile Application Technology, Boon Heon Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Firms invest significant resources in their ethical infrastructure to influence the ethical decision-making of employees. The advent of mobile technology has extended the frontier of interventions that may discourage unethical behaviour, through the use of ubiquitously-present mobile-based moral cues. I conducted a prospective, randomized field experiment, to study how a ubiquitous moral cue may positively enhance ethical decision-making. Sales professionals working in a pharmaceutical firm in China were assigned randomly by teams to either receive, or not, a mobile application from their firm’s compliance department. Over six months, participants completed three cross-sectional surveys, and were randomly monitored by an independent …

Managing Judges Mathematically: An Empirical Study Of The Medical Malpractice Litigations In Shanghai, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The post-Mao China has been increasingly managed mathematically, not the least in its judicial system. In this paper, I looked into some of the mathematical indicators used to judge the performance of judges in this nation, and ascertained their effects on the judicial decisions on medical malpractices in Shanghai. The findings of this paper support the previous study that qualitatively identified the judicial responses to such a quantified evaluation system. Underlying the effect of performance indicators is the Chinese judiciary’s bending toward populist pressure. Essentially, therefore, this paper serves to place in perspective the judicial populism well documented in the …

Reassessing The Trade-Development Nexus In International Economic Law: The Paradigm Shift In Asia-Pacific Regionalism, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article reassesses the trade-development nexus in international economic law and provides the first examination of the approach to realize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through regional integration. It argues that the emerging New Regional Economic Order in the multi-polar system will fortify the coalition of the developing countries in structuring the legalization of pro-development trade policy. For decades, the misconceived concept of special and differential treatment has ignored the reality of the North-South Grand Bargain and disconnected the World Trade Organization from its development objectives. The development crisis of the Doha Round requires a feasible “Plan B” for …

Non-Delegable Duty After Tiong Aik, Kee Yang Low, Ian Hao Ran Mah

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The subject of non-delegable duty has troubled courts for some time. The recent UKSC decision in Woodland v STA has clarified the law somewhat. In the recent decision MCST No. 3322 v Tiong Aik, the Singapore Court of Appeal endorsed the UK position and made clarifications on the Singapore position. This article examines the Singapore position as expressed by the SGCA.

Impacts Of Migration On Households In The Dry Zone, Myanmar, Bussarawan Puk Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The study analyzes data from the 2017 Dry Zone Migration Impact Survey to examine the impacts of migration on households in migration‐source areas (Mandalay and Magway Regions). The report describes characteristics and patterns of migration and examines effects on material wellbeing and livelihoods experienced by migrant‐sending households, including needs of dependent children, disabled and elderly household members. Based on the empirical findings, the report also discusses how policy and support can be enhanced to increase the positive impacts of migration on migrant‐sending households and to address its negative consequences.

Big Data In Social And Psychological Science: Theoretical And Methodological Issues, Lin Qiu, Sarah Hian May Chan, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Big data presents unprecedented opportunities to understand human behavior on a large scale. It has been increasingly used in social and psychological research to reveal individual differences and group dynamics. There are a few theoretical and methodological challenges in big data research that require attention. In this paper, we highlight four issues, namely data-driven versus theory-driven approaches, measurement validity, multi-level longitudinal analysis, and data integration. They represent common problems that social scientists often face in using big data. We present examples of these problems and propose possible solutions.

Asian Extremes: Experience And Exchange In The Development Of Meteorological Knowledge C. 1840-1930, Fiona Williamson, Clive Wilkinson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

On 29 July 1939, the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was off the northern entrance of the Formosa Strait, approximately 25⁰N, 121⁰E. The ship’s meteorological officer was formulating the current synoptic weather situation, which included a typhoon to the south or south-east of Formosa with a second typhoon much further east in about 144⁰E. It might be expected that in 1939, the existence and position of a typhoon could be corroborated easily by contemporary ‘experts’ situated nearby. However ‘The utmost confusion prevailed’ noted the officer ‘among the experts at Zikawei, Manila & Hong Kong today …I think there is no doubt …

The Role Of Historians In East Asia’S History Problem, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

At first glance, historians may not look like the best candidates for facilitating a resolution of the history problem. This is because historians have traditionally used the nation as a primary unit of analysis, helping to naturalize it as a primordial entity. They have also created professional associations and delimited their membership along national borders, consistent with the nationalist logic of self-determination; for example, when Japanese historians write about the history of Japan, they often talk among themselves without consulting with foreign historians who study Japan. This nationally bounded content focus and membership reinforces the logic of nationalism that divides …

Clogged Intermediation: Were Home Buyers Crowded Out?, Hyunsoo Choi, Hyun-Soo Choi, Jung-Eun Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Post-crisis policy interventions significantly increased the demand for mortgage refinancing, but could this surge in refinancing applications have crowded out the supply of credit to home buyers? In this paper, we examine two frictions that hamper financial intermediation and result in banks' substitution of home purchase loans for refinance loans: The risk capacity channel through which banks with limited risk appetites prefer safer loans over riskier loans, and the operating capacity channel through which banks with limited operating capacities prefer applications that require less screening time. We find that following the recent financial crisis, banks facing these capacity constraints indeed …

Partnerships, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Partnerships and tax—overview: The statutory definition of a partnership is the “relation which subsists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view of profit”. Those persons could be natural persons, or other legal entities such as companies or trustees. However, a registered company under the Companies Act (Cap. 50) (2006 Rev. Ed.) is not a partnership.

Motives Of Corporate Political Donations: Industry Regulation, Subjective Judgement And The Origins Of Pragmatic And Ideological Corporations, Nicholas M. Harrigan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What motivates corporate political action? Are corporations motivated by their own narrow economic self-interest; are they committed to pursuing larger class interests; or are corporations instruments for status groups to pursue their own agendas? Sociologists have been divided over this question for much of the last century. This paper introduces a novel case - that of Australia - and an extensive dataset of over 1,500 corporations and 7,500 directors. The paper attempts to understand the motives of corporate political action by examining patterns of corporate political donations. Using statistical modelling, supported by qualitative evidence, the paper argues that, in the …

Uncertain Skies: Forecasting Typhoons In Hong Kong Ca. 1874-1906, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the conceptualisation of «uncertainty» in late nineteenth- century meteorological thought. By investigating the story of meteorological forecasting in nineteenth and early twentieth century Hong Kong, it considers the changing ways in which forecasting was judged historically. In the early nineteenth century forecasting the weather was considered impossible. By the end of the century, it was confidently expected that the much improved understanding of weather patterns would lead to the ability to better predict them. During the intervening period «uncertainty» competed with «certainty» and «prediction» was mistaken for «predictability». The shift in perception was driven by various factors, …

Using Data Analytics For Discovering Library Resource Insights: Case From Singapore Management University, Ning Lu, Rui Song, Dina Li Gwek Heng, Swapna Gottipati, Aaron Tay

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Library resources are critical in supporting teaching, research and learning processes. Several universities have employed online platforms and infrastructure for enabling the online services to students, faculty and staff. To provide efficient services by understanding and predicting user needs libraries are looking into the area of data analytics. Library analytics in Singapore Management University is the project committed to provide an interface for data-intensive project collaboration, while supporting one of the library’s key pillars on its commitment to collaborate on initiatives with SMU Communities and external groups. In this paper, we study the transaction logs for user behavior analysis that …

Efficient Gate System Operations For A Multipurpose Port Using Simulation Optimization, Ketki Kulkarni, Trong Khiem Tran, Hai Wang, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Port capacity is determined by three major infrastructural resources namely, berths, yards and gates. Theadvertised capacity is constrained by the least of the capacities of the three resources. While a lot ofattention has been paid to optimizing berth and yard capacities, not much attention has been given toanalyzing the gate capacity. The gates are a key node between the land-side and sea-side operations in anocean-to-cities value chain. The gate system under consideration, located at an important port in an Asiancity, is a multi-class parallel queuing system with non-homogeneous Poisson arrivals. It is hard to obtaina closed form analytic approach for …

Multilingual Sentiment Analysis : From Formal To Informal And Scarce Resource Languages, Siaw Ling Lo, Erik Cambria, Raymond Chiong, David Cornforth

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The ability to analyse online user-generated content related to sentiments (e.g., thoughts and opinions) on products or policies has become a de-facto skillset for many companies and organisations. Besides the challenge of understanding formal textual content, it is also necessary to take into consideration the informal and mixed linguistic nature of online social media languages, which are often coupled with localised slang as a way to express ‘true’ feelings. Due to the multilingual nature of social media data, analysis based on a single official language may carry the risk of not capturing the overall sentiment of online content. While efforts …

Inference In Continuous Systems With Mildly Explosive Regressors, Ye Chen, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

New limit theory is developed for co-moving systems with explosive processes, connecting continuous and discrete time formulations. The theory uses double asymptotics with infill (as the sampling interval tends to zero) and large time span asymptotics. The limit theory explicitly involves initial conditions, allows for drift in the system, is provided for single and multiple explosive regressors, and is feasible to implement in practice. Simulations show that double asymptotics deliver a good approximation to the finite sample distribution, with both finite sample and asymptotic distributions showing sensitivity to initial conditions. The methods are implemented in the US real estate market …

Volatility Spillovers And Linkages In Asian Stock Markets, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

Diebold–Yilmaz spillover indexes are computed for weekly return volatilities based on daily benchmark stock indexes of the US, the UK, and 10 Asian countries. We found (i) the strengthening of overall volatility spillovers is not a temporary surge but persisted after the crisis; (ii) the susceptibility of individual Asian stock markets to inward volatility transfers is linked to its degree of openness; and (iii) the Asian bourses are becoming more important emitters of financial shocks since the crisis. Rolling regressions on volatility linkages reveal the relative dominance of the US over the Japanese and Chinese bourses, and the level of …

Identifying Latent Group Structures In Nonlinear Panels, Wuyi Wang, Liangjun Su

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a procedure to identify latent group structures in nonlinear panel data models where some regression coefficients are heterogeneous across groups but homogeneous within a group and the group number and membership are unknown. To identify the group structures, we consider the order statistics for the preliminary unconstrained consistent estimators of the regression coefficients and translate the problem of classification into the problem of break detection. Then we extend the sequential binary segmentation algorithm of Bai (1997) for break detection from the time series setup to the panel data framework. We demonstrate that our method is able to identify …

Cultural Preferences In International Trade: Evidence From The Globalization Of Korean Pop Culture, Pao-Li Chang, Iona Hyojung Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

The Korean pop culture (TVdramas and K-pop music) has grown immensely popular across the globe over thepast two decades. This paper analyzes its impacts on international trade. We compilea cross-country panel dataset of South Korea's TV show exports to over 150countries for the period of 1998{2014. These variations in exposure to Koreanpop cultures are used to identify changes in consumer preferences for Koreanmerchandise across time, countries, and products (at the HS 4-digit level).First, we find that more Korean TV show exports significantly increase Koreanexports of goods for women, while the effects are much smaller on men'smerchandise. This strongly supports the …

Bayesian Analysis Of Bubbles In Asset Prices, Andras Fulop, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

We develop a new asset price model where the dynamic structure of the asset price, after the fundamental value is removed, is subject to two different regimes. One regime reflects the normal period where the asset price divided by the dividend is assumed to follow a mean-reverting process around a stochastic long run mean. This latter is allowed to account for possible smooth structural change. The second regime reflects the bubble period with explosive behavior. Stochastic switches between two regimes and non-constant probabilities of exit from the bubble regime are both allowed. A Bayesian learning approach is employed to jointly …

Clogged Intermediation: Were Home Buyers Crowded Out?, Hyunsoo Choi, Hyun-Soo Choi, Jung-Eun Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Post-crisis policy interventions significantly increased the demand for mortgage refinancing, but could this surge in refinancing applications have crowded out the supply of credit to home buyers? In this paper, we examine two frictions that hamper financial intermediation and result in banks' substitution of home purchase loans for refinance loans: The risk capacity channel through which banks with limited risk appetites prefer safer loans over riskier loans, and the operating capacity channel through which banks with limited operating capacities prefer applications that require less screening time. We find that following the recent financial crisis, banks facing these capacity constraints indeed …

Inferring Social Media Users’ Demographics From Profile Pictures: A Face++ Analysis On Twitter Users, Soon-Gyo Jung, Jisun An, Haewoon Kwak, Joni Salminen, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this research, we evaluate the applicability of using facial recognition of social media account profile pictures to infer the demographic attributes of gender, race, and age of the account owners leveraging a commercial and well-known image service, specifically Face++. Our goal is to determine the feasibility of this approach for actual system implementation. Using a dataset of approximately 10,000 Twitter profile pictures, we use Face++ to classify this set of images for gender, race, and age. We determine that about 30% of these profile pictures contain identifiable images of people using the current state-of-the-art automated means. We then employ …