Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Shock Mobilities During Moments Of Acute Uncertainty, Biao Xiang, William L. Allen, Shahram Khosravi, Helene Neveu Kringelbach, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Karen Anne S. Liao, Cuellar Jorge E., Lamea Momen, Priya Deshingkar, Mukta And Naik

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The COVID-19 pandemic and interventions addressing it raise important questions about human mobility that have geopolitical implications. This forum uses mobility and immobility during the pandemic as lenses onto the ways that routinised state power reacts to acute uncertainties, as well as how these reactions impact politics and societies. Specifically, we propose the concept of "shock mobility" as migratory routines radically reconfigured: emergency flights from epicentres, mass repatriations, lockdowns, quarantines. Patterns of shock mobility and immobility are not new categories of movement, but rather are significant alterations to the timing, duration, intensity, and relations among existing movements. Many of these …

Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey 2022, Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore Management University undertook the fifth wave of the Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey (PCSS) with 2,020 Singapore residents providing responses to the survey from July to October 2022, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2022 wave of the PCSS continued to reflect an overall satisfaction with public cleanliness in Singapore, similar to the last PCSS in 2021. Majority of survey respondents (92%) were satisfied with the cleanliness of public spaces that they had recently visited, with no change from 2021. Satisfaction with the cleanliness of food outlets saw the largest decrease (by 2.1%) among all location types, to 82.7%. Nevertheless, …

Insights Into Accuracy Of Social Scientists' Forecasts Of Societal Change, Igor Grossma, Andree Hartanto, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Et Al See Comments For Full List Of Authors

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on social media, and gender-career and racial bias. Following provision of historical trend data on the domain, social scientists submitted pre-registered monthly forecasts for a year (Tournament 1; N=86 teams/359 forecasts), with an opportunity to update forecasts based on new data six months later (Tournament 2; N=120 teams/546 forecasts). Benchmarking forecasting accuracy revealed that social …

The Dialectics Of Leadership Identity Construction: Case Studies From Indigenous Women Leaders, Mariana De Santibanes, Sonia M. Ospina, Seulki Lee, Angela Santamaria, Michelle Marie Evans, Dunen Muelas, Nazareth Guerrero

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Challenging oversimplified models, the leader identity literature calls for new perspectives of leadership identity construction (LIC). Using a collective leadership lens and narrative methods, this collaborative study explores how Indigenous women’s leadership identities develop within a contest for power and voice. Observations, interviews, and micro-ethnographies helped identify how history, community dynamics and cultural contradictions influence LIC. We find the LIC process to unfold as a dialectical spiral, informed by contradictions experienced when enacting social identities in various spheres of influence. This highlights the intersectionality of salient identities when theorizing LIC, and suggests that minoritized leaders can resignify and ultimately, capitalize …

Imprinting-Like Effects Of Early Adolescent Music, Jiayu Fu, Lynn K. L. Tan, Norman P. Li, Xiao Tian Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research examines the hypothesis that music experienced during puberty in early adolescence imprints on individuals to promote the pursuit of friendships and mating. We conducted an online survey with samples from the United States and China (Study 1) and a within-subject experiment (Study 2). Results suggest that most songs and poems identified as “favorites” were learned during early adolescence. Furthermore, compared with recently acquired songs and poems, those from early adolescence reminded participants more about friendship and induced more emotional reactions. In the Chinese sample, the shared preference for similar songs from early adolescence increased friendliness perception. Music from …

International Academic Or Citizen Scholar?: Singaporean Returnees In The Global City, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Jue Wang, Meng-Hsuan Chou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research on return migration has tended to focus their analyses on two imagined places: a host country where they used to live, and an origin country where they must reintegrate after a long period of being away. This paper reveals how spaces within the city can undermine the reintegration of former migrants seeking to reestablish themselves in their home countries. Based on in-depth interviews with 25 Singaporean academics, we discuss how the priorities of globally oriented universities can impact the reintegration of highly skilled returnees within their home city. Specifically, this paper reveals how returnees face the challenge of negotiating …

Arousing Motives Or Eliciting Stories? On The Role Of Pictures In A Picture–Story Exercise, Philipp Schäpers, Stefan Krumm, Filip Lievens, Nikola Stenzel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Picture–story exercises (PSE) form a popular measurement approach that has been widely used for the assessment of implicit motives. However, current theorizing offers two diverging perspectives on the role of pictures in PSEs: either to elicit stories or to arouse motives. In the current study, we tested these perspectives in an experimental design. We administered a PSE either with or without pictures. Results from N = 281 participants revealed that the experimental manipulation had a medium to large effect for the affiliation and power motive domains, but no effect for the achievement motive domain. We conclude that the herein chosen …

The Effect Of Social Skills On Analyst Performance, Cong Cong Li, An-Ping Lin, Hai Lu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Social skills are important but difficult to measure. So far, few empirical studies have examined the effect of social skills on the performance of professionals. Using the number of LinkedIn connections as a proxy for social skills, we investigate the effect of financial analysts' social skills on their performance. We use multiple ways to validate the measure of social skills and show that analysts with better social skills produce more accurate earnings forecasts and that their stock recommendations elicit stronger market reactions. Furthermore, these socially skilled analysts are more likely to be voted as All-Star Analysts. This study provides the …

Covid Time: How Quarantine Affects Feelings Of Elapsed Time, Minju Han, Guy Voichek, Gal Zauberman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The lockdowns imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly upended people's lives and daily structure. In this survey of 1,506 Americans conducted in June 2020, we test how quarantine affects feelings of elapsed time (the subjective temporal distance from an event). We find that feelings of elapsed time are determined either by how people spent their time in quarantine or by how much time since an event was spent in quarantine, depending on whether people are still in quarantine at the time of evaluation. Specifically, whether people quarantined alone and the extent to which they maintained a temporal structure …

Liquidity Constraints, Consumption, And Debt Repayment: Evidence From Macroprudential Policy In Turkey, Sumit Agarwal, Muris Hadzic, Changcheng Song, Yildirim Yildiray

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using account-level credit card data from a large Turkish bank, we study the impact of a unique credit card policy that increases minimum payment on consumption and debt repayment. We show that the policy reduces credit card spending and debt, boosts existing debt repayment, and reduces credit card delinquency. The credit card debt of affected consumers falls on average by 50% two years into the policy’s implementation. An increase in minimum payment has a stronger effect than does a decrease of a similar magnitude. We build a benchmark life cycle model with soft liquidity constraint to explain the reduction in …

Durations Of Dockless E-Scooter Trips Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Austin, Tx: An Analysis Using Hazard-Based Duration Models, Amin Azimian, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The pandemic arising from the 2019 coronavirus disease has significantly affected all facets of human life across the world, including economies and transportation systems, thereby changing people’s travel behaviors. This research was aimed at exploring the relationship between socio-economic factors and e-scooter trip durations before and during the pandemic. We developed a hazard-based duration approach and estimated multiple spatial and non-spatial models on the basis of 2019 and 2020 dockless e-scooter data collected from the City of Austin’s Open Data Portal. The results indicated an overall increase in e-scooter trip durations after the pandemic. Moreover, analysis of variables revealed potential …

Revisiting Tocqueville's American Woman, Christine Dunn Henderson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper revisits Tocqueville’s famous portrait of the American female, which begins with assertions of her equality to males but ends with her self-cloistering in the domestic sphere. Taking a cue from Tocqueville’s extended sketch of the “faded” pioneer wife in “A Fortnight in the Wilderness” and drawing connections to Tocqueville’s criticisms of the division of industrial labor, I argue that the American girl’s ostensibly free choice to remove herself from public life is not an act of freedom. Rather, it is a manifestation of a particular type of unfreedom that reveals underappreciated connections between the two great dangers about …

What Is Well-Being?, William Tov, Smu Office Of Research

Research@SMU Infographics

Well-being refers to all the ways one can evaluate and experience life positively. SMU Associate Professor of Psychology William Tov and his collaborators identified eight key findings about well-being and reviewed the evidence from research in psychology and a variety of other disciplines.

Academic Libraries In An Open Access And Ai First World – An Attempt To Peer Into The Future, Aaron Tay

Research Collection Library

Technology is rapidly advancing, and AI is becoming more sophisticated everyday, But what is even more exciting is that academic libraries are going to be impacted even more. Why is that? It's because even the most advanced algorithm will not work without data to train on.

Concerns Over The Cost Of Living Among Older Adults In Singapore, Rachel Ngu, Micah Tan, Paulin T. Straughan, Seonghoon Kim, William Tov, Grace Cheong, Xiaoyan Zhang

ROSA Research Briefs

A post-National Day Rally survey conducted in August 2022 found that the rising cost of living and health-related issues were ranked among the top concerns of Singaporeans (Baharudin, 2022). This comes as no surprise as global crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, has resulted in global and domestic inflation (Gov.sg, 2022). In May 2022, Singapore reported a 13-year high core inflation of 3.6% (Channel News Asia, 2022), while in September 2022, Singapore’s core inflation had risen to 5.3% (Ang, 2022). Additionally, the government announced that Singapore residents will see a goods and services tax (GST) …

Hedging Cryptos With Bitcoin Futures, Francis Liu, Natalie Packham, Meng-Jou Lu, Wolfgang Karl Haerdle

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

The introduction of derivatives on Bitcoin enables investors to hedge risk exposures in cryptocurrencies. Because of volatility swings and jumps in cryptocurrency prices, the traditional variance-based approach to obtain hedge ratios may not be suitable for hedgers. In this work, we consider two extensions of the traditional approach: first, different dependence structures are modelled by different copulae, such as the Gaussian, Student-t, Normal Inverse Gaussian and Archimedean copulae; second, different risk measures, such as value-at-risk, expected shortfall and spectral risk measures are employed to find the optimal hedge ratio. Extensive out-of-sample tests using the data from the time …

Smu Introduces Specialisation Tracks & Compulsory Law Capstone To Its Bachelor Of Laws & Juris Doctor Programmes To Nurture Future-Ready & Practice-Ready Graduates, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Singapore Management University (SMU) Yong Pung How School of Law (YPHSL) will allow interested law students to specialise and gain a higher level of proficiency in the practical and interdisciplinary areas of Corporate Transaction; Law and Technology; and Dispute Resolution via a new Tracks scheme; as well as require all law students to complete a Law Capstone Course before they graduate. The law school announced these enhancements to its Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Juris Doctor (JD) programmes following a recent review of its curriculum, which took into key consideration the impact of global trends on the legal sector. The …

Leading Law Schools In Australia, Hong Kong & Singapore Join Hands To Form Research Alliance On Law & Sustainability To Drive Research & Teaching In The Asia-Pacific Region, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Singapore Management University (SMU) Yong Pung How School of Law (YPHSL); Sydney Law School, University of Sydney (USyd); and Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), today announced the formation of the Asia-Pacific Research Alliance on Law and Sustainability, a first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, with an aim to drive law-focused research and teaching initiatives on achieving sustainability for this part of the world. The announcement was made at the inaugural Law and Sustainability Conference titled ‘Law in a hyperconnected world – joining the dots for a sustainable future’. Organised by SMU YPHSL, with the …

Creating The Capacity For Digital Government, Cheow Hoe Chan, Steven M. Miller

Asian Management Insights

This article explains how a well-thought-out data policy, supported by a tech stack and cloud infrastructure, an agile way of working, and coordinated whole-of-government leadership, are fundamental to successful government digital transformation efforts, as exemplified by the Singapore government’s digital journey. As part of explaining how to create the capacity for digital government, the main sections of this article cover:

• The origins of GovTech
• How thinking big, starting small and acting fast is a practical strategy for organisational learning
• The importance of horizontal platforms and other enablers of a horizontal approach
• Data architecture and policy
• “Shifting left” with internal technology …

Steering Steadily In The Post-Pandemic World, Chartsiri Sophopanich, Chin Tiong Tan

Asian Management Insights

Chartsiri Sophonpanich, President of Bangkok Bank, speaks with Tan Chin Tiong about the future of banking in Thailand and the region as the world slowly emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harnessing The Power Of Video Ads, Linyi Li

Asian Management Insights

In digital advertising, video ads as a top-of-funnel function have a longer-lasting efect than display and search ads on a consumer's consciousness.

The Social Well-Being Of Older Adults In Singapore, Micah Tan, Paulin T. Straughan, Grace Cheong, Wensi Lim

ROSA Research Briefs

The concept of social well-being has been of interest especially when studying older adult well-being given that problems of social isolation and loneliness are more prevalent and have greater consequences for older adults (Waite 2018). However, much is still to be understood about the social well-being of older adults with most research being conducted on social predictors of health, rather than on social well-being as a specific “component of health” (Waite 2018:100). As such, the current research brief provides a preliminary examination of social well-being among middle-aged and older adults in Singapore based on Keyes’ social well-being framework (Keyes 1998). …

Don't Try To Be A Superman, N. Edwin Widjornako

Asian Management Insights

N. Edwin Widjonarko, co-founder and Director of Technology of Xurya, speaks about his entrepreneurial journey in Indonesia’s solar power generation space.

Participatory Digital Futures, Mark Findlay, Sharanya Shanmugam

Asian Management Insights

How digital transformation can be made good for all.

Helping Asia’S Elderly To Become Digital Citizens, Wee-Kiat Lim

Asian Management Insights

This needs an urgent ‘whole-of-society’ approach.

Real Estate Assets: To Build Or Not To Build?, Chaik Ming Koh

Asian Management Insights

It’s about when, not whether.

Robowealth: Boosting Financial Inclusion In Thailand, Chiraphol N. Chiyachantana, David K. Ding, Pattarawan Mai Prasarnphanich, Chi Wei Chan

Asian Management Insights

Advanced fintech lowers barriers to investing.

Bike-Sharing Station Usage And The Surrounding Built Environments In Major Texas Cities, Louis G. Alcorn, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study analyzes the effect of different built environments on bike-share usage in nascent dock-based systems in three Texas cities. Past research offers little insight as to whether elements associated with higher bicycle usage in major cities affect ridership in secondary, developing bike-share markets within lower density American cities. In Austin and Houston, a positive relationship emerges between bike-share usage and proximity to high-comfort bicycle facilities. All three cities demonstrated surprisingly minimal relationship between bike-share usage and other proven drivers of bicycling activity in urban areas, which may result from system design for leisure- and recreation-based trips.

High-Dimensional Vars With Common Factors, Ke Miao, Peter C. B. Phillips, Liangjun Su

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies high-dimensional vector autoregressions (VARs) augmented with common factors that allow for strong cross-sectional dependence. Models of this type provide a convenient mechanism for accommodating the interconnectedness and temporal co-variability that are often present in large dimensional systems. We propose an ℓ1-nuclear-norm regularized estimator and derive the non-asymptotic upper bounds for the estimation errors as well as large sample asymptotics for the estimates. A singular value thresholding procedure is used to determine the correct number of factors with probability approaching one. Both the LASSO estimator and the conservative LASSO estimator are employed to improve estimation precision. The conservative …

Digitalisation Touches Everything, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

Digitalisation touches everything