Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nonprofits As Socially Responsible Actors: Neoliberalism, Institutional Structures, And Empowerment In The United Nations Global Compact, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations have become prominent participants in a global organizational responsibility movement. This trend of nonprofit responsibility is puzzling because nonprofits are presumably already dedicated to the pursuit of collective well-being objectives. This article examines the nonprofit responsibility movement from a cultural perspective, whereby broader cultural changes at the level of international organizations have constructed nonprofit entities as empowered and socially responsible actors. Using the case of the United Nations Global Compact, a global framework for corporate social responsibility, the author shows how (1) the construction of cultural meanings of autonomy and decentralization in the neoliberal context, (2) …

A Global Experiment On Motivating Social Distancing During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicole Legate, Thuy-Vy Nguyen, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. …

Twitter Demonstrates Why Poison Pills Are Bad For Shareholders, Mark Humphery-Jenner

Perspectives@SMU

Twitter’s poison pill appears to be an attempt to entrench the board rather than delivering shareholder value, writes UNSW Business School's Mark Humphery-Jenner

Revisiting The One-Minute Paper: Personal Reflections, Student Engagement And Assessing The Assessment, Rebecca Pappert Maniates

Research Collection Library

The one-minute paper (OMP) is a popular one-shot session assessment which often consists of asking two questions: 1 . What is the most important thing you learned today? 2 . What questions do you still have? Although simple, each question has a purpose. The first is broad, focusing on the importance of concepts learned (Chizmar & Ostrosky, 1998), and promotes active learning and reflection (Stead, 2005). The second assesses the progress of the learning process and where support is still needed (Chizmar & Ostrosky, 1998).Although studies show the OMP is effective when assessing student knowledge before and after one-shot sessions …

Downscaling Of Physical Risks For Climate Scenario Design, Enrico Biffis, Shuai Wang

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Southeast Asia is arguably one of the areas most vulnerable to natural disasters due to its dense population, coastal urbanization, and rainfall variability driven by the local monsoon systems. In this report, we focus on the impact of global warming in the region along four climate dimensions: temperature, precipitation, wind speed and coastal surge. The latter represents the surge of water from the ocean in excess of astronomical tides. Our objective is to downscale the outputs of global climate models to temporal and spatial resolutions of interest to market participants wishing to quantify climate risk vulnerability via climate stress testing …

Trust Building Within And Across Cultures: A Study Of Guinea, Xiushun Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the development of African economy and the increasing Chinese MNCs operating in Africa, there is a need to have a better understanding of the trust relationships between Chinese expatriates and African HCNs in the organizational environment. We adopt both qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand the trust relationships between Chinese supervisors, Guinea supervisors and Guinea subordinates in a Chinese MNC’s subsidiary in Guinea, compare the difference within culture and across culture, and examine how the interpersonal trust and the trust in the organization affect employees’ job performance. In study 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Chinese supervisors, 20 …

Immersivepov: Filming How-To Videos With A Head-Mounted 360° Action Camera, Kevin Huang, Jiannan Li, Maurício Sousa, Tovi Grossman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

How-to videos are often shot using camera angles that may not be optimal for learning motor tasks, with a prevalent use of third-person perspective. We present immersivePOV, an approach to film how-to videos from an immersive first-person perspective using a head-mounted 360° action camera. immersivePOV how-to videos can be viewed in a Virtual Reality headset, giving the viewer an eye-level viewpoint with three Degrees of Freedom. We evaluated our approach with two everyday motor tasks against a baseline first-person perspective and a third-person perspective. In a between-subjects study, participants were assigned to watch the task videos and then replicate the …

Food Insecurity Mediates The Relationship Between Poverty And Mental Health, Tania Nagpaul, Dalvin Jit Kaur Sidhu, Jinwen Chen

Lien Centre for Social Innovation: Research

Poverty and food insecurity have been related to lower cognitive functioning and psychological distress. However, how these interrelated concepts interact with each other remains unexamined. We examine how food insecurity mediates the relationship between a) poverty and cognitive capacity, and b) poverty and psychological distress. Four hundred and nineteen adults participated in a cross-sectional survey on household food insecurity. Mediation analysis revealed that the indirect effects of poverty on both cognitive capacity and psychological distress via food insecurity were significant. Future interventions aiming to alleviate poverty and improving mental health, can therefore consider including food security strategies as a potential …

The Effects Of The Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate On Parents’ Labor Market Outcomes, Kim, Koh Kanghyock

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine the labor market impacts of the Affordable Care Act dependent mandate (ACA-DM), which has significantly increased dependent children's health insurance coverage through parents’ employer-sponsored health benefits. Using data from the American Community Survey, we find that the ACA-DM reduced parents’ annual wages by about $2,600. However, the probability of employment and working hours only decreased marginally. The back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that the magnitude of the estimated wage impact is similar to the increased insurance premium of a family plan due to the ACA-DM. These findings imply that a deadweight loss associated with the expansion of dependent health coverage …

Estimating Stranded Coal Assets In China's Power Sector, Weirong Zhang, Mengjia Ren, Junjie Kang, Yiou Zhou, Jiahai Yuan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

China has suffered overcapacity in coal power since 2016. With growing electricity demand and an economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, China faces a dilemma between easing restrictive policies for short-term growth in coal-fired power production and keeping restrictions in place for long-term sustainability. In this paper, we measure the risks faced by China's coal power units to become stranded in the next decade and estimate the associated economic costs for different shareholders. By implementing restrictive policies on coal power expansion, China can avoid 90% of stranded coal assets by 2025.

Why Commonality Persists?, Chyng Wen Tee, Raja Velu, Zhaoque Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We show that order flows do not exhibit predictive power on asset returns, and their relationships have been static over time. We use a reduced-rank regression formulation to model both returns and the order flows as endogenous variables, and use investors' sentiment and attention as exogenous factors. We provide empiricalevidence to demonstrate that cross-sectional commonality in attention (sentiment) is linearly (nonlinearly) associated with both returns and order flows at the intraday level, while the sentiment and attentionmeasures themselves exhibit a nonlinear mutual relationship, thus revealing the multi-dimensional aspect of the commonality relationship.

Culture And Firms, Zhihui Gu, Hao Liang, Hanyu Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study how societal culture shapes business activities and corporate behavior by leveraging data on the locations of Confucian schools in Ancient China. The number of historic Confucian schools surrounding a current firm’s location proxies for the firm’s exposure to Confucianism, the dominant culture in China over the last two thou- sand years, and is immune to the subjectivity and selection problems of most culture measures. We find systematic differences in corporate behavior across regions based on their varying exposure to Confucianism. Listed companies more exposed Confucianism make greater social contributions, provide greater employee protection, and have higher entertainment expenses, …

The Gatt/Wto Welfare Effects: 1950–2015, Pao-Li Chang, Wei Jin, Kefang Yao

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates the welfare effects of GATT/WTO-induced reductions in tariffs, vari-able and fixed trade costs, based on identified direct effects of membership indicators on trade flows via nonparametric matching estimations. The identification does not require the use of tariff data, which permits a comprehensive evaluation of the welfare impact of GATT/WTO for a long panel since its inception (1950–2015) of as many as 180 economies. The results indicate substantial (but highly dispersed) welfare gains across members of different development stages and increasing welfare losses of nonmembers in later decades by staying outside the system. An extensive set of robustness …

Housing Wealth Shocks, Home Equity Withdrawal, And The Claiming Of Social Security Retirement Benefits, Naqun Huang, Li Jing, Amanda Ross

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the impact of changes in house prices on when eligible individuals start receiving Social Security benefits. If house prices increase, financially constrained households may draw upon the additional home equity to finance expenses and delay receipt of Social Security in order to have increased lifetime monthly benefits. To address concerns that house price changes are correlated with unobserved local demand shocks, we use a control function approach and employ two different instrumental variables. We find that individuals delay Social Security claiming when house prices increase during the housing boom. The probability of claiming within two years after …

Essays On Information Diffusion And Stock Market Efficiency & Analyst Style, Zuben Jin

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The dissertation consists of three chapters on information diffusion and stock market efficiency and analyst style. The first chapter examines the asset pricing implications of investors’ inattention to non-obvious firm relatedness hidden in earnings calls. This chapter documents that the overlap in attention allocation over various business aspects serves as a time-sensitive proxy for firm relatedness. By employing the unsupervised topic modelling methodology, I characterize the attention allocation of earnings conference call participants (executives, investors and analysts) over topics discussed. I construct a novel cross-firm topic similarity measure that captures difficultto-observe and time-varying firm relatedness compared with existing peer-firm classification …

Organizational Factors That Facilitate Collective Social Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study, Kesarwani Nimisha

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This research aims to contribute to the literature on collective social entrepreneurship (CSE) by exploring and examining the organizational factors that facilitate and motivate participation in CSE. Data were collected through an interview with the founder of a cooperative, and a survey, wherein respondents presented their expectations of a collective, their motivation to join, and the resources they deem important.

It was found that organizational factors, initialled as RRSI (relevance, resources, likelihood of success and innovativeness) which if met, have a reasonable chance of attracting participation in organizations pursuing CSE. These organizational factors had different appeal to stakeholders, based on …

Information Acquisition And Market Friction, Bo Sang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

My dissertation consists of three papers related to information diversity, acquisition, and asymmetry. One part of the dissertation explores the implications of interactions among different market participants and subsequent price efficiency in the stock market. The empirical findings indicate the information diversity between individuals and institutional investors, as well as an important channel for retail investors to obtain useful information – through insider filings. The remaining part investigates the information asymmetry between issuers and naive investors in the cryptocurrency market. In Chapter 2, I aggregate trading signals from hedge funds and retail investors, in order to examine their information diversity …

Innovation Strategies In Chinese Smes: An Examination Of The Role Of Family Ownership, And The Social Identity And Regulatory Focus Of Ceos, Tiejiong Fan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the reform and opening up, China’s family enterprises have developed rapidly and some family enterprises have entered the period of intergenerational inheritance which may experience some organizational turbulence and face great uncertainty. Meanwhile, more and more CEOs of Chinese enterprises realize that innovation has become the driving force for the transformation and upgrading of SMEs. So, during the intergenerational inheritance and afterwards, whether CEOs of family enterprises make the same decision on innovation strategy as CEOs of non-family enterprises? Whether the second generation CEOs of family enterprises make the same decision on innovation strategy as the founders of family …

Developing Social Entrepreneurial Intention: An Intervention Study In Thailand, Kanyaporn Skutalakul

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Social entrepreneurs are key players that could potentially create new initiatives and long-term solutions for our world to sustain the predicted forthcoming crises of overconsumption. Our world needs both kinds of entrepreneurship, both social and business, to collaboratively stimulate growth in a more balanced manner; however, the creation of social entrepreneurs at a higher rate of success and diffusion remains a challenge. This research proposed a number of new antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) that were suggested by an exploratory study. The research was conducted in the context of Thailand and was designed to investigate the effects of different …

Predicting Success And Failure Factors Of Thai Start-Ups: An Empirical Study Of Start-Up Success And Its Determinants In Thailand, Ajjaree Limpamont

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Innovation is crucial to economic growth in both developed and emerging countries across the world. Its benefits creates impact on individuals, corporate and government stakeholders in improving quality of lives, increasing income levels and boost up economics. While innovations are important, where, and how they are best conceived of, managed, executed, and brought to the society has been of great debate and has attracted a great deal of scholarly inquiry. There have been numerous research findings discussing the wisdom and impact of each of these pathways. While the business start-up is an effective organizational form for harnessing resources and creating …

Low-Cost Thermohygrometers To Assess Thermal Comfort In The Built Environment: A Laboratory Evaluation Of Their Measurement Performance, Francesco Salamone, Giorgia Chinazzo, Ludovico Danza, Clayton Miller, Sergio Sibilio, Massimiliano Masullo

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

A thermohygrometer is an instrument that is able to measure relative humidity and air temperature, which are two of the fundamental parameters to estimate human thermal comfort. To date, the market offers small and low-cost solutions for this instrument, providing the opportunity to bring electronics closer to the end-user and contributing to the proliferation of a variety of applications and open-source projects. One of the most critical aspects of using low-cost instruments is their measurement reliability. This study aims to determine the measurement performance of seven low-cost thermohygrometers throughout a 10-fold repeatability test in a climatic chamber with air temperatures …

Important To Me And My Society: How Culture Influences The Roles Of Personal Values And Perceived Group Values In Environmental Engagements Via Collectivistic Orientation, Tengjiao Huang, Angela K. Y. Leung, Kimin Eom, Kam Pong Tam

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite extensive works examining the influence of personal values on environmental engagements, scarce research has examined the influence of group values that are perceived as important in the society. To address this lacuna and recent calls for more cross-cultural environmental research, we investigated whether and how culture, via collectivistic orientation, influences the roles of personal values and perceived group values, namely egoistic and biospheric values, in motivating environmental engagements in a Western (the U.S.; N = 469) and an Asian (Singapore; N = 410) country. To highlight a few findings, the study showed that personal values and perceived group values …

Class(Ify)Ing Christianity In Singapore: Tracing The Interlinked Spaces Of Privilege And Position, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how two facets of identity – religion and class – are performed, (re)produced and negotiated within the spaces of the Christian school, home and church in Singapore. We show how the social structuring of one space can inform and influence the structuring of another. Spaces of Christianity in Singapore tend to be mutually reinforcing, strengthening the linkages between religion and class, and in particular reifying the position of Christianity as a religion of the privileged classes. However, the ways in which Christian spaces are reified can become problematic when space is in fact shared with less privileged …

Wealth Accumulation By Hypogamy In Own And Parental Education In China, Cheng Cheng, Yang Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objective: This study examines how household wealth accumulation varies by different types of hypogamy on the basis of couples' own and parental education. Background: Educational hypogamy (wives having more education than their husbands) is increasingly relevant in many societies, given the reversal of the gender gap in education. Prior research has studied how marital sorting on couples' own education shapes their individual earnings trajectories. Few have examined the implications of marital sorting on parental education for family-level economic well-being. Method: Using data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multilevel growth curve models, this study examined how household wealth …

Natural Disasters And Domestic Violence?: A Study Of The 2015 Nepal Earthquake, Arpita Khanna, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

This study estimates the impact of exposure to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake on intimate partner violence with two rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys data. Using differences-in-differences estimation, we find that exposure to the earthquake lead to a statistically and economically significant increase in intimate partner violence in the urban areas but not in the rural areas. This is possibly due to an increase in the stress felt by the earthquake victims. We also offer some evidence that the impact heterogeneity between the urban and rural areas is attributable to the differences in the reconstruction processes and assistance provided.

The Grid Bootstrap For Continuous Time Models, Yiu Lim Lui, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article proposes the new grid bootstrap to construct confidence intervals (CI) for the persistence parameter in a class of continuous-time models. It is different from the standard grid bootstrap of Hansen in dealing with the initial condition. The asymptotic validity of the CI is discussed under the in-fill scheme. The modified grid bootstrap leads to uniform inferences on the persistence parameter. Its improvement over in-fill asymptotics is achieved by expanding the coefficient-based statistic around its in-fill asymptotic distribution that is non-pivotal and depends on the initial condition. Monte Carlo studies show that the modified grid bootstrap performs better than …

The Torrens System In Singapore: 75 Years From Conception To Commencement, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article tells the story of how the Torrens system of land titles registration came to be adopted in Singapore. From conception to commencement, the entire process took over 75 years, far longer than any other law reform the country has experienced. Particular attention is paid to why the Australian model was preferred despite the significant influence of English law in colonial Singapore. Although as with anything, much of what happened could be attributed to chance, a great deal can be learned from this story, which details the socio-economic and political forces that have shaped the law into what it …

Aestheticized Temples, Rationalized Affects: Sacred Modernities And The Micro-Regulation Of Hinduism In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper develops the idea of “sacred modernities” to explore how the state- led regulation of religion shapes religious communities and religious subjects therein. Sacred modernities define the ways in which sacredness is understood and engaged with under conditions of secular modernity, and in particular, how sacredness is experienced within a context of micro-regulated religious space. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical examination of how Singapore’s Hindu community engages with the idea of sacredness in and through the temple. By contrasting the experiences of Singaporean and non-Singaporean Hindus, we argue that Singapore’s temples offer an aestheticized experience of the …

Situational Factors Shape Moral Judgments In The Trolley Dilemma In Eastern, Southern, And Western Countries In A Culturally Diverse Sample, Bence Bago, Andree Hartanto, Lucas E. Tiong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychological and situational factors (for example, the intent of the agent or the presence of physical contact between the agent and the victim) can play an important role in moral dilemma judgements (for example, the trolley problem). Our knowledge is limited concerning both the universality of these effects outside the United …

Anticipated Guilt And Anti-Littering Civic Engagement In An Extended Norm Activation Model, Sonny Rosenthal, Max S. C. Yu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The norm activation model typically concerns behaviors individuals perform to avoid contributing to an environmental problem, which recent research characterized as self-managing behaviors. That research also accounted for behaviors focused on the actions of others, which it labeled other-managing behaviors, finding such behaviors are uniquely related to community attachment and anticipated shame/embarrassment. The current study accounts additionally for civic engagement, which it conceptualizes as a “sibling” of other-managing behaviors. Structural equation modeling of data from a national survey of Singapore residents (N = 949) showed that anticipated shame/embarrassment is related to other managing behavior (β = 0.10) and civic engagement …