Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Why The Workplace Chameleon Is A Paradox For Diversity And Inclusion, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Do employees need to be like chameleons to survive certain corporate cultures, despite the best efforts of diversity and inclusion initiatives?

Secure Self-Checkout Kiosks Using Alma Api With Two-Factor Authentication, Ron Bulaon

Research Collection Library

Self-checkout kiosks have become a staple feature of many modern and digitized libraries. These devices are used by library patrons for self-service item loans. Most implementations are not new, in fact many of these systems are simple, straight forward and work as intended. But behind this useful technology, there is a security concern on authentication that has to be addressed.

In my proposed presentation, I will discuss the risk factors of self-checkout kiosks and propose a solution using Alma APIs. I will address the technical shortcomings of the current implementations, compared to the proposed solution, and where the weakest link …

Up Close And Personal With Mr Sundar Selvam: Hitting Zero Targets, Sundar Selvam

Oral History Collection

He might not be one you would have come across on campus. And not one you might read much about in SMU news or in the limelight for its achievements, preferring to remain in the background. But look around the SMU campus and you will see the fruits of his work and that of his team. Meet Sundar, SMU’s Vice-President for Campus Infrastructure and Services. Since January 2015, he has been at the forefront of driving SMU’s own sustainability journey which has resulted in several “firsts”. This interview was published in the August edition of SMU CIRCLE.

Celebrating A Milestone: 20th Anniversary Achievement Highlights [School Of Accountancy], Singapore Management University

SMU Corporate Reports

The book “Celebrating a Milestone 20^th Anniversary Achievement Highlights” was published in August 2021 to commemorate SoA’s 20^th Anniversary as well as the 15^th Anniversary of the Master of Professional Accounting Programme. The book documents the achievements and key milestones in SoA’s history.

Different Strokes For Different Folks: Long Memory And Roughness, Shuping Shi, Jun Yu

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series

The log realized volatility of financial assets is often modeled as an autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average model (ARFIMA) process, denoted by ARFIMA(p, d, q), with p = 1 and q = 0. Two conflicting results have been found in the literature regarding the dynamics. One stream shows that the data series has a long memory (i.e., the fractional parameter d > 0) with strong mean reversion (i.e., the autoregressive coefficient |α1| ≈ 0). The other stream suggests that the volatil-ity is rough (i.e., d < 0) with highly persistent dynamic (i.e., α1 → 1). To consolidate the findings, this paper first examines the finite sample properties of alternative estimation methods employed in the literature for the ARFIMA(1, d, 0) model and then applies the outperforming techniques to a wide range of financial assets. The candidate methods include two parametric maximum likeli-hood (ML) methods (the maximum time-domain modified profile likelihood (MPL) and maximum frequency-domain likelihood) and two semiparametric methods (the local Whittle method and log periodogram estimation method). The two parametric methods work well across all parameter set-tings, with the MPL method outperforming. In contrast, the two semiparametric methods have a very large upward bias for d and an equally large downward bias for α1 when α1 is close to unity. The poor performance of the semiparametric methods in the presence of a highly persistent dynamic might lead to a false conclusion of long memory. In the empirical applications, we find that the log realized volatilities of exchange rate futures over the past decade have a long memory, where the point estimate of d is between 0.4 and 0.5 and the estimate of α1 is near zero. For other finan-cial assets considered (including stock indices and industry indices), we find that they have rough volatility, with the point estimate of d being negative and the point estimates of α1 close to unity.

Efficient Bilateral Trade Via Two-Stage Mechanisms Under One-Sided Asymmetric Information, Takashi Kunimoto, Cuiling Zhang

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series

This paper considers a bilateral-trade model with one-sided asymmetric information in which one agent (seller) initially owns an indivisible object and is fully informed of its value, while the other agent (buyer) intends to obtain the object whose value is unknown to himself. As Jehiel and Pauzner (2006) show that no mechanisms can generally result in efficient, voluntary bilateral trades, we aim to overturn this impossibility result by employing two-stage mechanisms (Mezzetti (2004)) in which first, the outcome (e.g., allocation of the goods) is determined, then the agents observe their own outcome-decision payoffs, and finally, transfers are made. We show …

Gp3: Gaussian Process Path Planning For Reliable Shortest Path In Transportation Networks, Hongliang Guo, Xuejie Hou, Zhiguang Cao, Jie Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper investigates the reliable shortest path (RSP) problem in Gaussian process (GP) regulated transportation networks. Specifically, the RSP problem that we are targeting at is to minimize the (weighted) linear combination of mean and standard deviation of the path's travel time. With the reasonable assumption that the travel times of the underlying transportation network follow a multi-variate Gaussian distribution, we propose a Gaussian process path planning (GP3) algorithm to calculate the a priori optimal path as the RSP solution. With a series of equivalent RSP problem transformations, we are able to reach a polynomial time complexity algorithm with guaranteed …

Growth And Resilience During Covid-19: Research On The Impact Of The Pandemic On Older Adults In Singapore, Centre For Research On Successful Ageing

ROSA Research Briefs

It has been a year since the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA) was established in place of the Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing (CREA). While it was a year full of challenges (least of all the COVID-19 pandemic), the team at ROSA adapted and worked hard to overcome these challenges, and we are grateful for the opportunity to share this annual report that presents a snapshot into the centre’s work to better understand the ‘ageing Singaporean’. Much of the work that has been done in the first year has been focused on establishing a good …

Skbi Big 5 Survey 2021 August, Singapore Management University

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

The latest survey results convey an upshift in growth projections of the five largest economies in aggregate accompanied by higher inflation, especially this year and to a lesser extent next year. The aggregate “Big5” median real GDP growth projections for 2021 and 2022 were raised to 6.7% (up in US, CN and EA but down in IN and JP) and 4.9% (all except US), respectively. The overall “Big5” median CPI inflation forecasts were nudged up to 2.6% (higher in US, IN and EA but lower in CN) and 2.4% (in US, IN and EA some), respectively, for this year and …

Tokyo 2020: A Tale Of Two Cities, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan, who was a team manager at the 2002 Busan Asian Games and 2004 Athens Olympics, discussed the Olympics Tokyo 2020 and how it showed indomitable human spirit amid the pandemic. Assoc Prof Tan also discussed and explored how Singapore can develop sustainable pathways that would enable our athletes to continue having competitive sporting careers into their late 20s and 30s.

An Improved Learnable Evolution Model For Solving Multi-Objective Vehicle Routing Problem With Stochastic Demand, Yunyun Niu, Detian Kong, Rong Wen, Zhiguang Cao, Jianhua Xiao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The multi-objective vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand (MO-VRPSD) is much harder to tackle than other traditional vehicle routing problems (VRPs), due to the uncertainty in customer demands and potentially conflicted objectives. In this paper, we present an improved multi-objective learnable evolution model (IMOLEM) to solve MO-VRPSD with three objectives of travel distance, driver remuneration and number of vehicles. In our method, a machine learning algorithm, i.e., decision tree, is exploited to help find and guide the desirable direction of evolution process. To cope with the key issue of "route failure" caused due to stochastic customer demands, we propose a …

Psychology And The Threat Of Contagion: Feeling Vulnerable To A Disease Moderates The Link Between Xenophobic Thoughts And Support For Ingroup-Protective Actions, Heejung S. Kim, Kimin Eom, Roxie Chuang, David K. Sherman

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The widespread threat of contagious disease disrupts not only everyday life but also psychological experience. Building on findings regarding xenophobic responses to contagious diseases, this research investigates how perceived vulnerability to a disease moderates the psychological link between people’s xenophobic thoughts and support for ingroup-protective actions. Three datasets collected during the time of Ebola (N = 867) and COVID-19 (Ns = 992 and 926) measured perceived disease risk, group-serving biases (i.e., xenophobic thoughts), and support for restrictive travel policies (i.e., ingroup-protective actions). Using correlational and quasi-experimental analyses, results indicated that for people who perceive greater disease risk, the association between …

A Critical Review On The Moderating Role Of Contextual Factors In The Associations Between Video Gaming And Well-Being, Andree Hartanto, Verity Yu Qing Lua, Frosch Yi Xuan Quek, Jose C. Yong, Matthew H. S. Ng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The appeal of video gaming has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. In view of its increasing popularity, lay people and researchers alike have taken an interest in the psychological consequences of video gaming. However, there seems to be a paradox associated with the effect of video gaming on gamers' well-being—namely, while most video game players cite “fun” as their motivation to play video games, video games continue to hold a notorious reputation among some researchers for being detrimental to mental health and emotional well-being as measured by indicators such as happiness, perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. We suggest …

Dispositional Optimism As A Buffer Against Emotional Reactivity To Daily Stressors: A Daily Diary Approach, Nadyanna Majeed, Jacinth J. X. Tan, William Tov, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The current research examined if dispositional optimism buffers against the negative influences of daily stressors on affective experiences, using a daily diary study of two large and nationally-drawn samples of American adults (N = 2,349). Optimism, exposure to daily stressors, and daily positive and negative affect were assessed over eight days. Multilevel modelling revealed that optimism significantly attenuated the associations between daily stressor exposure and negative affect reactivity even after controlling for demographic factors, subjective physical health, and socioeconomic status. However, in a similar analysis, the inclusion of socioeconomic variables fully accounted for the moderating effect of optimism on stress …

Social Mindfulness And Prosociality Vary Across The Globe, Niels J. Van Doesum, Ryan O. Murphy, Marcello Gallucci, E. Aharonov-Majar, U. Athenstaedt, Wing Tung Au, Liying Bai, R. Bohm, I. Bovina, N.R. Buchan, Xiao-Ping Chen, K.B. Dumont, J.B. Englemann, ..., Li, Norman P.

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found, but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one's location in the world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across 31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables, greater …

To Stay Or Not To Stay? A Clash Of Arbitration And Insolvency Regimes, Darius Chan, Sidharrth B Rajagopal

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the wake of the global Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a rise in creditorinitiated winding-up proceedings is likely to be impending in coming years (See e.g., RCMA Asia Pte. Ltd. v. Sun Electric Power Pte. Ltd. [2020] SGHC 205). At the same time, geopolitical developments, such as the scale and ambition of Belt & Road Initiative projects, have raised questions over the issue of debt sustainability. Given the prevalence of arbitration clauses in modern international commercial and project agreements, the interplay and relationship between insolvency and dispute resolution, and especially arbitration, requires careful attention. While the intersections between the …

First Among Equals: The First Place Effect And Political Promotion In Multi-Member Plurality Elections, Dean C. Dulay, Laurence Go

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We study the impact of rank-based decision-making in a multi-member plurality electoral system by examining the decisions of Philippine legislative councilors to run for and win higher office. By focusing on multi-member plurality elections, we identify the effect of rank amongst politicians that hold the same office and received a similar number of votes. To identify the causal effect of rank, we conduct a close-elections RD at the village, municipality, and province levels. Our main result is the first place effect: incumbent first placers are 5–9% (1–4%) more likely to run (win) in future elections than incumbent second placers. …

Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey 2021, Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore Management University undertook the fourth wave of the Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey (PCSS) with 2,007 Singapore resident respondents providing responses to the survey from February 2021 to May 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 wave of the PCSS continued to reflect the overall satisfaction with public cleanliness in Singapore, similar to the last PCSS in 2019. Majority of survey respondents (92%) were satisfied with the cleanliness of public spaces that they had recently visited, a 1% decrease from the findings in 2019.

There was a substantial drop in satisfaction with the cleanliness of food outlets, with a …

A Reconsideration Of Equal Protection And Executive Action In Singapore, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In Syed Suhail bin Syed Zin v Attorney-General, the Singapore Court of Appeal reconsidered how Article 12(1), the equal protection provision in Singapore’s Constitution, should apply to executive actions. Departing from the established ‘deliberate and arbitrary’ test, the Court of Appeal proposed to first consider whether the relevant persons were ‘equally situated’ and subject to differential treatment. If so, this treatment had to be justified by legitimate reasons. This note argues that while the rejection of the ‘deliberate and arbitrary’ test ought to be welcomed, this approach risks returning to an emphasis on classes in equal protection analysis – an …

Monetary Policy Surprises, Stock Returns, And Financial And Liquidity Constraints, In An Exchange Rate Monetary Policy System, John M. Sequeira

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the impact of monetary policy surprises on the stock price behaviour of a small developed economy, whose monetary policy is based on the exchange rate. We find that monetary policy surprises associated with all contractionary policy levers and a neutral policy lever, have a consistently significant and negative impact on stock returns. In comparison, only monetary policy surprises associated with a downward re-centering policy lever, has a significantly positive effect on stock returns. Using a recalibrated classification system, we also find that monetary policy surprises differ across sectors of the economy. Our results show how monetary policy …

Case Study: National Library Board Singapore: Delivering Cost-Effective Service Excellence Through Innovation And People, Jochen Wirtz, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The National Library Board (NLB) Singapore is a statutory board that managed to become a serial innovator. Its globally leading innovations in the library context include shelf-reading robots, and even entirely self-service libraries. NLB’s consistent focus on excellent service delivery reinforced its commitment to innovation. Key levers were effective strategic leadership, a smart innovation strategy that made heavy use of technology — such as app-delivered self-service technologies, crowdsourcing, and robotics — as well as a people-centric staff culture. NLB managed to co-create attractive libraries of the future together with different types of community members, such as volunteers and corporations, ushering …

Accounting And Finance Lessons In The Time Of Covid-19 – Views From The Pacific Basin, Kuan Yong David Ding, Julie Harrison, Martien Lubberink, Chris Van Staden

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to create the worst economic recession in our lifetime and generate “enormous damage to our health, jobs, and well-being” (OECD, 2020). This special issue focuses on the lessons for accounting and finance policy-makers, practitioners, and academics as a result of the social and economic turmoil that arose in the immediate period following the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic (WHO, 2020). Governments responded to support businesses and economies using various policy tools to support markets, businesses and individuals impacted by the pandemic. It is timely to consider the extent to which policymakers and standard-setters …

Dynamic Lane Traffic Signal Control With Group Attention And Multi-Timescale Reinforcement Learning, Qize Jiang, Jingze Li, Weiwei Sun, Baihua Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traffic signal control has achieved significant success with the development of reinforcement learning. However, existing works mainly focus on intersections with normal lanes with fixed outgoing directions. It is noticed that some intersections actually implement dynamic lanes, in addition to normal lanes, to adjust the outgoing directions dynamically. Existing methods fail to coordinate the control of traffic signal and that of dynamic lanes effectively. In addition, they lack proper structures and learning algorithms to make full use of traffic flow prediction, which is essential to set the proper directions for dynamic lanes. Motivated by the ineffectiveness of existing approaches when …

Integrating Empirical Analysis Into Analytical Framework: An Integrated Model Structure For On-Demand Transportation, Yuliu Su, Ying Xu, Costas Courcoubetis, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

On-demand transportation services have been developing in an irresistible trend since their first launch in public. These services not only transform the urban mobility landscape, but also profoundly change individuals’ travel behavior. In this paper, we propose an integrated model structure which integrates empirical analysis into a discrete choice based analytical framework to investigate a heterogeneous population’s choices on ownership, usage and transportation mode with the presence of ride-hailing. Distinguished from traditional discrete choice models where individuals’ choices are only affected by exogenous variables and are independent of other individuals’ choices, our model extends to capture the endogeneity of supply …

The Psychology Behind Procrastination And How To Beat The Urge, Tina Li Yi Ng, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Work-from-home arrangements that came about because of the pandemic offer many opportunities to procrastinate

Tackling The Critical Question Of Schooling’S Ns Deferment After His Poor Tokyo Olympics Performance, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan, who was team manager of Singapore’s 2004 Athens Olympics national swim team, discussed the critical question of Singapore’s sporting icon Joseph Schooling’s National Service (NS) deferment after his subpar performance at the Tokyo Olympics. Joseph has been on long-term NS deferment since 2014. Assoc Prof Tan noted that what is at stake is the integrity of long-term deferment, and the precedent-setting decision calculus which would come under intense scrutiny.

Too Cynical To Reconnect: Cynicism Moderates The Effect Of Social Exclusion On Prosociality Through Empathy, Bryan K. C. Choy, Kimin Eom, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Extant findings are mixed on whether social exclusion impacts prosociality. We propose one factor that may underlie the mixed results: Cynicism. Specifically, cynicism may moderate the exclusion-prosociality link by influencing interpersonal empathy. Compared to less cynical individuals, we expected highly cynical individuals who were excluded to experience less empathy and, consequently, less prosocial behavior. Using an online ball-tossing game, participants were randomly assigned to an exclusion or inclusion condition. Consistent with our predictions, the effect of social exclusion on prosociality through empathy was contingent on cynicism, such that only less-cynical individuals responded to exclusion with greater empathy, which, in turn, …

When A Pandemic Disrupts The Export Of People, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Karen Anne S. Liao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Yasmin Ortiga and Karen Anne S. Liao conducted research supported by the SSRC on the dramatic disruptions that Filipino labor migrants experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the support (or lack thereof) of their plight by the Filipino state. Arguing that labor as well as commodity supply chains have been thrown in upheaval, the authors describe the limits of the Philippines’ labor export strategy. In particular, they focus on two sets of labor migrants—nurses unable to take jobs abroad, and repatriated cruise ship workers—for whom dignified work at home was unavailable. Ortiga and Liao conclude that treating …

Public Sentiment Is Everything: Host-Country Public Sentiment Toward Home Country And Acquisition Ownership During Institutional Transition, Daphne W. Yiu, William P. Wan, Kelly Xing Chen, Xiaocong Tian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Under strict scrutiny of public governance primed by international relation tensions, geopolitics, and the rise of social movements and public activism in the globalized economy, public sentiment is exerting increasing pressure on multinational corporations (MNCs). Utilizing the context of inward acquisition, a sensitive cross-border action that often triggers sentiment of host-country nationals, we theorize from the public sentiment perspective and the public thermostat analogy that foreign acquirers will adjust their ownership levels in target firms according to how they perceive to be acceptable and legitimate as expressed by host-country nationals' public sentiment toward their home country. Using a sample of …

Can Employers Justify Paying Workers Who Return To The Office More Than Those Who Work From Home?, Jared Nai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Employers have strong grounds to do so but should avoid differentiating for wrong reasons like presenteeism, Singapore Management University’s Jared Nai says.