Asian Studies Commons^™

Towards An Understanding Of Chinese Business Networks In Asia-Pacific: The Singapore Case, Thomas Menkhoff, Chalmers Labig

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The embeddedness of entrepreneurs in local, regional or global business networks based on kinship, clanship, territorial or ethnic ties and solidarities has often been cited as characteristic of the Chinese business community in Southeast Asia. Qualitative interviews with Singaporean Chinese merchant-exporters were conducted in order to examine this thesis and shed light on the various "guanxi bases" of their international trading networks. The findings suggest that there is a strong tendency among these Singaporean entrepreneurs towards external commercial transactions with "outsiders" and "friends" rather than with "kin" whether by blood, marriage, or ascription. Kinship reciprocity may curb the autonomy and …

Strategic Types And Performances Of Small Firms In Korea, Youngbae Kim, Young Rok Choi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Youngbae Kim is an assistant professor of management and policy in the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, South Korea and Youngrok Choi is a researcher in the nuclear policy division of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon, Korea. This study attempts to identify the patterns of strategic behaviour of small firms in Korea in conjunction with their performance. Based on the data from 79 small firms across four industries, the results reveal that there appear to be four common strategic attributes cost efficiency, innovative differentiation, marketing differentiation, and asset parsimony and five strategic types of firms …

Managing Risk In Information Technology Project: A Case Study Of Tradenet, Boon Siong Neo, Kwong Sin Leong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The development and implementation of IT (Information Technology) projects are plagued with problems of cost and time overruns, technical inadequacy, inability to meet user requirements, lack of utilization and failure to achieve anticipated benefits. These problems occur to some projects and not to others because 1) IT projects have different profiles of risk, and 2) IT projects risks have been managed more or less effectively. This paper synthesizes the literature into four classes of risks and applies it to evaluate TradeNet, an EDI-based trading system implemented in Singapore in 1989. Through a case study of TradeNet, we derived a typology …

An Examination Of The Antecedents Of Subjective Career Success Among A Managerial Sample In Singapore, Samuel Aryee, Yue Wah Chay, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Antecedents of subjective career success are examined using data obtained with a questionnaire instrument from managerial employees in Singapore. The choice of antecedents was informed by recent calls to place research on career issues in the context of an individual's life roles. Confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL VII) was used to examine the one-factor and three-factor models hypothesized to underlie the subjective career success data. The results revealed a 3-factor model to have adequate fit statistics - financial and hierarchical success, and career satisfaction. The antecedent sets of human capital, work values, family and structural or work variables accounted for over …

The Vehicle Quota System In Singapore: An Assessment, Winston T. H. Koh, David K. C. Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper reviews the developments since the vehicle quota system was introduced in Singapore in May 1990. We discuss the bidding strategies for the certificates of entitlement (COE) under both the transferable and nontransferable auctions, as well as the equity of the present system and the desirability of transferable COEs. We argue that the COE auction should be made discriminatory and propose an alternative system of COE auction that we feel is both equitable and at the same time politically acceptable. We also survey developments in market competition in the car industry.

An Eclectic Approach To Turning Points In Migration, Eng Fong Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The eclectic approach to migration transition presented in this article emphasizes that a country's net migration position evolves as it develops, but in ways that reflect its initial economic and sociocultural conditions and subsequent policies and economic progress. Not one but several turning points exist, influenced by economic factors such as level of development, wage differentials, and trade and investment ties, as well as social and institutional factors such as a nation's homogeneity and its migration policies. To exemplify, the migration experiences of various Asia-Pacific countries are compared.

Share-Price-Changes-Volume Relation On The Singapore Equity Market, David K. C. Lee, Mohamed Ariff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A critical review of the literature on security-price-changes-volume research suggests that the published studies in the United States and one each in Hong Kong and Japan have largely ignored the impacts on the results from autocorrelation, non-normality of distributions, heteroscedasticity and non-linear functional forms. Therefore, the reported findings are not robust. In testing for this relation from a small sample of continuously traded shares in the Singapore share market, we find that consistent results may not be obtained because of violations of basic test conditions. A task that remains is an application of alternative test models with data transformation using …

Auctions For Transferable Objects: Theory And Evidence From The Vehicle Quota System In Singapore, David K. C. Lee, Winston T. H. Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper studies the hypothesis that auctions with resale markets result in higher prices. The vehicle quota system introduced in Singapore in May 1990 provides the setting. The Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) necessary to purchase new cars were initially transferable for all quota categories. After October 1991, COEs for four major categories became non-transferable. Our results indicate that while the conversion to non-transferability eliminated speculation, it has also intensified competition among car distributors. Auctions for non-transferable COEs in fact led to higher COE prices in three of the four categories.

Rhetorical Vision Of Men And Women Managers In Singapore, Jean S. K. Lee, Hwee Hoon Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Findings from a content analysis of newspaper articles are reported to uncover the rhetorical visions of men and women managers portrayed by the media in Singapore and to unfold the inherent conflicting forces that women managers face. The vision of women managers that was portrayed by the press emphasized the dilemmas and role conflicts that the women managers face, whereas the vision emphasized for the men managers was their managerial abilities. The study also uncovered that the success of the women managers relied on a support system that consisted of a male mentor, a supportive husband, and a mother or …

Xinyong Or How To Trust Trust? Chinese Non-Contractual Business Relations And Social Structure :The Singapore Case, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

One key for an understanding of Chinese economic behaviour in Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia is tmst - a term which has not been thoroughly dealt with in contemporary studies. With reference to the Chinese business community in Chinese-dominated Singapore and sociological concepts of trust, the article aims at analyzing the different levels of meaning of the trust mechanism (Chinese: xinyong) which is seen as essential lubricant in Chinese personalistic and non-contractual business relations. But trust in itself is no guarantee of cooperative behaviour. To enable interpersonal trust as precommitment and basis of local or international trading networks and commercial …

Auditing Practices In Singapore, See Liang Foo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The accounting profession in Singapore plays an important part in the country's economy because it ensures foreign investors' confidence that their investments are audited by competent, independent, and credible auditors. The emergence of joint stock companies in Singapore was made possible by the Indian Joint Stock Companies Act of 1857. The Act requires every company to maintain proper accounting and other records which will explain sufficiently the transactions and financial position of the company and to enable true and fair profit and loss account and balance-sheet and any documents required to be attached thereto to be prepared from time to …

Technology Exports From A Small, Very Open Nic: The Case Of Singapore, Eng Fong Pang, Hal Hill

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the nature, composition and determinants of Singapore's early stage technology exports. The pattern of these exports reflects the quite unique mix of policy and institutional features in Singapore's environment - remarkably high growth, very open economy, rapid structural change, particularly intense economic relations with neighboring Southeast Asian nations, and a pervasive and paternalistic state role. The bases of Singapore's comparative advantage in these service exports are identified, and some general implications from its experience are analyzed.

The Determination Of Audit Fees: Analysis In The Singapore Context, Lay Chin Low, Pearl Hock Neo Tan, Hian Chye Koh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Presents information on a study which addressed the issue of audit fees determination in the audit services market in Singapore. Research design and methodology; Contributions and limitations of audit models; Conclusions.

An Economic Analysis Of Fertility, Market Participation And Marriage Behaviour In Recent Japan, David K. C. Lee, Chin Lee Gan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This is the 1st attempt in modelling fertility, labor force participation and marriage rate using Japanese data. The authors use Butz and Ward's model and extend it to a simultaneous equation system as in the case of Winegarden. Although the estimates obtained by Full Information Maximum Likelihood and Three Stage Least Squares of the model are statistically significant, some of the signs of the estimates are not consistent to a priori predictions. The crux of the model is that an increase in the wages of men has an unambiguous positive effect on fertility, whereas an increase in wages of women …

Voting Behaviour In Singapore: A Preliminary Investigation From A Multi-Attribute Attitudinal Perspective, S. M. Leong, Chin Tiong Tan, K. C. Wong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The multi-attribute attitude model is employed to study voter behaviour in Singapore. Specifically, a set of beliefs of the personal attributes of political candidates considered important to voters was examined. Results indicated that such beliefs did predict voters' affective evaluation and intention to vote for a typical political candidate reasonably well. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research provided.

'Small Profits': Strukturmerkmale Und Entwicklungsprobleme Der Urbanen Individualwirtschaft In Der Vr China, Wolfgang Jamann, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article intends to analyse recent structural patterns, development problems and the reasons for rehabilitation of the urban private economy in the People’s Republic of China since 1978. The authors start from the thesis that the so-called “private sector” in China is not comparable with its “out”-differentiated counterpart in Western industrial countries, but is interlaced, in a complex way, with informal, partly illegitimate activities, interpersonal relation-networks (“guanxi”) or economic transactions of state/collective factories. The article illustrates the subordinate situation of the individual labourers in terms of their political regulation by (sometimes restrictive) licence procedures, taxes and fees; resource supply problems …

Economic Relations Between Asean And Australia, Mohamed Ariff, Ross Garnaut, Hal Hill, Eng Fong Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Economic relations between the countries of ASEAN and Australia have developed rapidly in the past 25 years. All countries in the region share a powerful interest in the maintenance of a liberal international trading environment. There is also confineable scope for an expanded. mutually beneficial bilateral relationship if a range of barriers to commercial contact are removed. Public policy reforms, on a non-discriminatory basis are the key to such a relationship.

The Impact Of Cultural Patterns On Cognition And Intention In Singapore, Chin Tiong Tan, John U. Farley

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Ethnicity of models used in advertisements and the advertised product's country of origin are manipulated experimentally to study how attitudes toward advertising and products lead to behavioral intention. A sample of Singaporean students' traditional Eastern values about family and conformity are also examined. Patterns of results for three products are consistent with theoretical predictions of cognitive processes, and attitude-intention links appear stronger than do those in similar tests in the West. Culture has mixed effect.

Vertical Linkages And Multinational Enterprises In Developing Countries, Linda Y. C. Lim, Eng Fong Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many studies have concluded that multinational firms do not create significant technical and other vertical linkages in developing host countries. This case study of three multinational firms in the export-oriented electronics industry in Singapore shows that under certain conditions multinational firms can lead in creating local vertical linkages. It suggests that restrictive government policies to increase local purchases may not be necessary, effective or desirable in promoting local linkages by export-oriented multinational firms that respond primarily to international market conditions. The Singapore experience poinst to the importance of a healthy investment climate and rapid economic growth in encouraging multinational firms …

The Economic Status Of Malay Muslims In Singapore, Eng Fong Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In 1965 Singapore separated from Malaysia to become an independent secular state in a region of Islamic nations. It had then an estimated per capita income of S$ 1,600' and a population of 1.9 million people, a sixth of them Muslim. Today, after sixteen years of rapid economic progress, it has a per capita income of S$10,0002 and a population of 2.4 million people. Of the population aged ten and over in 1980, 324,000 or one-sixth are Muslim. Ninety per cent of the Muslims in Singapore are Malays, nine per cent are Indians and Pakistanis, and one per cent belong …

China's Nationalization Of Foreign Firms: The Politics Of Hostage Capitalism, 1949-57, Thomas N. Thompson

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

Change And Continuity In Singapore's Industrial Relations System, Eng Fong Pang, Thelma Kay

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The paper analyses the impact of the two major pieces of legislation enacted by the Singapore Parliament in 1968. It also examines their impact on the industrial relations system and the reaction of the unions and the employees to them. The paper further attempts to identify the forces that are likely to change the system in the near future.

Journey To Badakshan; With Report On Badakshan And Wakhan, Abdul Rahim

Books in English

Simla, F.D. Press, 1886.

64 pages genealogical tables 33 cm