Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Asia’S Legal Tiger, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

The growing globalisation of Singapore’s legal profession presents both opportunities and challenges, says Professor Goh Yihan.

See his books:

• Singapore Chronicles: Law;
• Singapore Law: 50 years in the making

The Might Of Millennials, Christopher Cheok

Social Space

Throughout history, young people have been the energy and driving force of change in society. Today, that is all the more true. With the prevalence of social media, youth and young adults have the unique ability to infl uence others, and to a greater extent than parents or schools can. Since they are able to shape attitudes and values so greatly, it is important to empower youth with the necessary knowledge and tools to be a force for good, and to make positive contributions to society. Young people have shown their ability to create change and broad awareness of social …

Youth And Social Media: Power To Empower?, Sujith Kumar Prankumar

Social Space

Much has been written on social media and how it has positively revolutionised communication and information transmission. The infl uence of social media is indubitable—it reaches anyone with an Internet connection, no matter their geographic location or socioeconomic status. This means information that was previously out of reach for isolated and less well-off communities is now accessible by more people than ever before. For example, University College London’s “Why We Post” social media anthropology project—conducted by nine researchers in nine different communities over 15 months—found that communities that have traditionally received comparatively lower levels of schooling now have access to …

The Young And Restless: Re-Examining Media Portrayals Of Youth, Shee Siew Ying

Social Space

From TV programmes, to newspapers, books and magazines, traditional media’s depictions of youth have tended to dwell on either sides of two extremes: hapless victims or violent perpetrators.

Hot Topics And Happenings In Social Innovation, Florian Parzhuber

Social Space

WALK THE TALK Do you take your ability to speak, sing or swallow for granted? For individuals with speech impediments, simple actions like taking a sip of tea or saying hello can be diffi cult, or even impossible. However, speech therapy can help strengthen the muscles responsible for making sounds and swallowing, and equips affected persons with strategies to improve verbal communication, and to make eating and drinking safer. To combat Cambodia’s lack of speech therapy and therapists, Australia-born Weh Yeoh founded OIC Cambodia, a charity dedicated to making speech therapy available to the local people. Himself a professionally trained …

Collective Philanthropy: The Strength Of Giving Together, Rob John

Social Space

Giving to charity has never been a solitary activity in any culture. People have joined together to give for millennia. In Asia, clan associations, religious groups or just friends have enjoyed the benefits of giving as a group. But there appears to be a renaissance of collective giving with the advent of more organised, strategic and outcome-focused philanthropy. At the Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP) where I am presently based, our research team’s curiosity about giving circles was first piqued when investigating the nature of innovation in Asian philanthropy in 2012.1 In that study, we reported several …

Good Reads: Best Books For Social Entrepreneurs And Changemakers, Jay Boolkin

Social Space

Just as professional athletes mould their bodies into lean, mean performance machines, so too is there a need for social entrepreneurs to get their brains in shape. In fact, research shows that the brain works like a muscle which grows and gets stronger as you learn—and one of the best ways to boost one’s brainpower is by reading. So if you’re an aspiring changemaker, what are some titles to add to your book list? JAY BOOLKIN reviews the literature and narrows it down to just eleven.

Investing In Impact: A Perspective On Social Impact Bonds, Rashika Ranchan

Social Space

Innovation is inherently risky: even if not all interventions work, social impact bonds can help to accelerate the rate of learning about which approaches work better than others.

The Macro Behind Microfinance: Cambodia's Financial Inclusion Success Story, Jonathan Chang

Social Space

Financial inclusion refers to the delivery of affordable financial services to disadvantaged and low-income segments of society. However, as it also involves striking a fine balance between managing businesses’ credit risks and improving customers’ access to credit, different countries have made varied progress in their financial inclusion efforts. To date, across both developed and developing nations, SMEs and individuals still struggle in the face of limited access to adequate financing. Yet there is one country that has made considerable strides in this area: judging from the tremendous success of its microfinance sector, Cambodia seems to have found the sweet spot …

Scaling Impact Investing Through Innovative Finance: A Focus On Women's Livelihoods, Durreen Shahnaz

Social Space

I embarked on a journey from the first steps of my career to utilise finance to do good for the world. This journey has now turned into a global movement that is taking the world by a storm, known as impact investing or social finance.

Giving Economic Data A Voice, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Su Liangjun is developing new techniques in econometrics to provide a more realistic understanding of the economy.

See the papers:

• Testing homogeneity in panel data models with interactive fixed effects
• Identifying latent structures in panel data
• Shrinkage estimation of dynamic panel data models with interactive fixed effects

The Race Against Time, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Tse Yiu Kuen is developing econometric models that can provide us with a clearer picture of global markets.

See the papers:

• Estimation of high-frequency volatility: An autoregressive conditional duration approach
• Intraday periodicity adjustments of transaction duration and their effects on high-frequency volatility estimation;
• Intraday value-at-risk: An asymmetric autoregressive conditional duration approach

The Blame Game, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

When parties outsource duties to independent contractors who then carry out the work negligently, is the hiring party also responsible? Professor Low Kee Yang believes so.

See the papers:

• Non-delegable duty of care: Woodland v Swimming Teachers Association and beyond
• Non-delegable duty after Tiong Aik

More Power To Youth: 6 Ted Talks To Empower Young Minds, Jay Boolkin

Social Space

Youth empowerment refers to young people embodying their agency and capacity to make decisions and implement changes in their own lives and in wider society. At its core, it is rooted in the attitudes, cultures and structures that young people participate in within society. When youth acquire the authority and ability to envision, map, execute, critique and challenge their reality, it opens up opportunities to change the world as we know it. The materialisation of youth empowerment can lead to unparalleled social benefi ts, including reduced unemployment, poverty eradication, THE SHORT LIST More Power To Youth 6 TED Talks to …

Your Burning Changemaking Questions - Answered, Jiezhen Wu

Social Space

To be or not to be? That may (or may not) be your question. In ASK ME ANYTHING, readers write in with their social innovation queries, and the Social Space team finds a changemaker to answer them. In this issue, we pose these inquiries to JIEZHEN WU of THE HIDDEN GOOD.

Youth And Volunteerism: What Gives?, Emma Glendinning

Social Space

As a volunteer, I’m one of many in the world. Data from Figure 1—a survey about volunteering among a number of OECD countries—shows that at least one-fi fth of the population in many countries engages in volunteer activities.1 Though Figure 1 does not provide details on the amount of time spent volunteering—or indeed if this volunteering is one-off or recurring—we see that volunteering rates in Australia, Canada and the United States stand out for being particularly high, whereas those in Italy, Spain and Sweden are remarkably lower than the OECD average.2

A Quick Guide To Social Change Buzzwords, Jay Boolkin

Social Space

Social Impact, Intrapreneurship, Benefit Corporation, Shared Value— these are just a few of the many buzzwords that get thrown around in the social arena. But what do these terms mean and how do we apply them? JAY BOOLKIN of socialgoodstuff.com has come up with a handy guide that demystifies the myriad jargon and fanfare surrounding social change.

Sofi 101: Understanding Social Finance, Christian Petroske, Florian Parzhuber, Haneol Jeong, John Kinsella, Maaya Murakami, Mitchell Laferriere, Remi Cordelle

Social Space

What is social finance? Rachel Kalbfleisch of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) defines it as a collection of approaches to managing money that create value for society or the environment, often while producing a financial return,1 while the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing calls it “an approach to managing money to solve societal challenges”.2 In other words, social finance is a movement that covers various ways of using finance—via socially responsible investments, micro-loans, community investments, and so on—to achieve a social or environmental impact. Who is involved in this process? While charities, socially driven businesses and governments all work …

Venturing Into Venture Philanthrophy, Martina Mettgenberg-Lemière, Kevin Teo

Social Space

Grantmakers and social investors (funders) are successful only to the extent whereby their grantee or investee organisations— collectively known as social purpose organisations (SPOs)— achieve sustainable social impact. More often than not, we hear of SPOs caught in the daily grind of responding to urgent beneficiary needs, and not having the opportunity to introduce more effective practices. The foundation for sustainable social impact arises through engagement from grantmakers and social investors in capacity-building and impact assessment of the SPOs. Capacity-building and impact assessment are two key venture philanthropy (VP) practices. In the last year, the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) …

Research@Smu: Connecting The Dots, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

The word “Management” in the name of our university was carefully and deliberately chosen to address the needs of institutions and decisionmakers across all segments of society: business enterprises and the private sector, government and the public sector, and civil society and the people sector. Unless you are already familiar with the breadth and depth of research output from Singapore Management University (SMU), you would naturally assume that we were a “management” university that was focusing exclusively on business – in essence, a large business school. The reality is quite different.

Through this book, you will gain a more complete …

Building Gender-Inclusive Workplaces In Singapore: A Practical Guide For Companies And Human Resource Practitioners, Benjamin Tien Yong Wong, Gillian Pei Wen Loy, Claris Wan Xin Teo

Student Publications

We are a team of students from the Singapore Management University (“SMU”) Diversity Leadership Development Programme and SMU Women’s Connections. We believe that all employees are valuable members of many organisations that operate in Singapore. Companies can therefore harness the potential of stronger teams by ensuring that all employees feel safe, valued and included - regardless of one’s gender. In 2014, Singapore saw more women than men enter tertiary educational institutions. Despite this progress made, a study conducted in 2015 found that women were part of only 9.1 per cent of SGX- listed boards, with almost half of these boards …

Speaking The "Millingo": Decoding The Lingo Of Millennials, Pingxuan Chye

Social Space

Does “Squad’s OOTD on fleek, seriously goals!” have you straining your eyes and stifling a groan as you try to decipher millennials’ penchant for strange, new words? Alongside a host of creative new vocabulary, millennials— generally referring to those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s—are an assortment of unique traits such as progressiveness, empathy and increasing awareness of social issues that plague not just the community around them, but also the world they live in. Inadvertently, these characteristics are reflected in the popular terms they use. However, this can seem like endless pit of lingo for the uninitiated …

Increasing Energy Acces In Southeast Asia Through Social Enterprises, Haneol Jeong

Social Space

The 21st century has seen cars go driverless and virtual reality become a reality—yet one fact remains: one in seven people still do not have access to electricity.1 In an age where more people have access to mobile phones than toilets,2 electricity has become as vital a necessity as clean water. To address this issue, social enterprises such as M-KOPA and Sunlabob have pioneered efforts to provide renewable energy for off-grid communities, and yielded innovative energy alternatives and financing solutions. Southeast Asia, however, remains a largely untapped market, with approximately 19 per cent of its population still without access to …

The Eu As A Global Actor In Reforming The International Investment Regime In Light Of Sustainable Development, Stefanie Schacherer

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The international investment law regime is undergoing a process of reform. The guiding paradigm of this reform is the principle of sustainable development. The EU, through its exclusive competence over foreign direct investment, has become a significant actor on the stage of international investment law governance. According to recent statements of the EU institutions, the EU seeks to shape its policy to be consistent with the principle of sustainable development. In more concrete terms this means that EU investment law making shall be consistent with core labour standards, environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources as well as with …

Ownership And Identities Of The Largest Shareholders And Dividend Policy: Evidence From Vietnam, Trien Vinh Le, Trang Huyen Le

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates the relationship between the level of shareholdings and identities of the largest shareholders, and cash dividend policy. The study is conducted with a sample of 180 firms listed on Vietnam stock exchange markets from 2009 to 2013. The fixed effect model is employed to analyze the balanced panel data. The results show that the higher the level of holdings by the largest shareholders, the lower the dividend payout. Moreover, companies with the State and Foreign investors as the largest shareholders have higher dividend payout ratio than companies with local investors and managers as the largest shareholders. The …

Funding Challenges Of Voluntary Welfare Organizations In Singapore's Disability Sector, Joo Lay Isabel Sim, Lye Chye Alfred Loh, Siu Loon Hoe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Singapore government has spent considerable amount of resources in recent years to build new social service capabilities. This exploratory study examines the funding challenges faced by Voluntary Welfare Organizations (VWOs) operating in the disability sector. An analysis of the financial statements of 39 VWOs shows that large VWOs receive the highest proportion of government support as compared to medium and small VWOs. The latter being more dependent on donations. Interviews were conducted with five VWOs and two government funders to gather their views on developing a sustainable funding model. While the government funders provide a high level of financial …

Discovering Historic Traffic-Tolerant Paths In Road Networks, Pui Hang Li, Man Lung Yiu, Kyriakos Mouratidis

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Historic traffic information is valuable in transportation analysis and planning, e.g., evaluating the reliability of routes for representative source-destination pairs. Also, it can be utilized to provide efficient and effective route-search services. In view of these applications, we propose the k traffic-tolerant paths (TTP) problem on road networks, which takes a source-destination pair and historic traffic information as input, and returns k paths that minimize the aggregate (historic) travel time. Unlike the shortest path problem, the TTP problem has a combinatorial search space that renders the optimal solution expensive to find. First, we propose an exact algorithm with effective pruning …

Sensor-Driven Detection Of Social Isolation In Community-Dwelling Elderly, W K P Neranjana Nadee Rodrigo Goonawardene, Xiaoping Toh, Hwee-Pink Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ageing-in-place, the ability to age holistically in the community, is increasingly gaining recognition as a solution to address resource limitations in the elderly care sector. Effective elderly care models require a personalised and all-encompassing approach to caregiving. In this regard, sensor technologies have gained attention as an effective means to monitor the wellbeing of elderly living alone. In this study, we seek to investigate the potential of non-intrusive sensor systems to detect socially isolated community dwelling elderly. Using a mixed method approach, our results showed that sensor-derived features such as going-out behavior, daytime napping and time spent in the living …

The Making Of A Successful Analytics Master Degree Program: Experiences And Lessons Drawn For A Young And Small Asian University, Michelle L. F. Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Singapore Management University’s School of Information Systems is a young school within a young and small university in Asia. Being young and small, establishing a successful analytics master degree program required extensive landscape research, assessment of its own strengths and weaknesses, having a committed team, and having a clear vision to meet the ever-changing needs of the industry. The Master of IT in Business (Analytics) program, established since 2011, has grown from an annual intake of 16 to 128 students in six years. This article attempts to describe the design process, challenges faced, decisions made, and the key actions taken, …

Remembering 1965: Indonesian Cinema And The 'Battle For History', Espena Darlene Machell

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Using four films to probe the transformations in Indonesia’s historical memory, this paper examines how the Indonesian society remembers, interrogates, and comes to terms with one of their nation’s most traumatic episodes: the widespread communist purge that followed the failed coup on 30 September 1965. It also demonstrates how they reflect various perspectives on the 1965 killings that are—to an extent—part of the “Battle of History” (van Klinken 2001) in postSuharto Indonesia, wherein different historiographic traditions introduce new actors, reveal the nuances, and challenge longstanding dominant understandings of 1965.