In this project, I explore the application of labour market information (e.g., financial analyst turnover, corporate accounts’ career paths, the revolving door practice of regulator, etc.) in topics related to financial accounting. For example, I use an innovative dataset of lower-level employee profiles from a large professional social network to examine the turnover of lower-level accounting employees in financial misconduct. Specifically, I examine two research questions: (1) whether accounting employees proactively leave before financial misconduct is revealed; (2) whether accounting employees who do not proactively leave are punished in the labour market after financial misconduct is revealed. In another working paper, my co-author and I assemble a comprehensive dataset of individual characteristics (e.g., SEC-affiliation, educational background, gender) of lawyers based on LinkedIn and other public sources. We examine the impact of SEC-affiliated lawyers on the SEC comment letter process and shed light on the concern that former SEC employees may continue to influence the agency even after they leave.

Funded by a grant from the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation, this is a follow-on from a pilot project funded by the NUS Business School HSS Seed Fund. This 2-year project commenced in July 2018 and will be carried out in collaboration with Tsinghua University. Recent public policy focus on university-industry collaboration has created a tension between the core university mission of university research and the “third mission” of contributing economic value and societal impact. This study frames the debate in the context of Stokes’ quadrant model, which postulates two motivations for scientific research: (a) furthering fundamental scientific understanding, and (b) addressing user problems. Using data on NUS, Tsinghua and Stanford University faculty members, the project examines the links between scientific motivation of individual researchers and the technology commercialization outcomes achieved. Comparative analysis between NUS and Tsinghua will examine the role of heterogeneous institutional structures. A proposed focal research area is talent mobility as a source of academic entrepreneurship, and how research motivation influences this relationship.

This research comprises two separate streams. The first stream aims to develop models and analytical methods to improve healthcare delivery and inform health policy. Specific topics include developing optimal payment schedules to incentivize adherence to tuberculosis treatment, developing propensity score-based methods of causally estimating medication effects using observational data, and estimating the economic cost of physician burnout. The second stream aims to investigate issues around supply chain efficiency, with a particular focus on modern supply chain models empowered by digital technology. Specific topics include understanding the role of sequential product concealment and revelation in assortment planning, understanding the role that digitally-enabled supply chain intermediators play in the context of an agricultural supply chain operating in a developing economy, and understanding the role that a digitally-enabled on-demand workforce can play in last-mile delivery operations.

While social media has expanded the size and reach of social networks, people paradoxically feel less connected with the friends and acquaintances they communicate with online. This occurs because, compared to face-to-face communication, digital communication is relatively impoverished and lacks the same level of richness, immediacy, and feeling of presence. To investigate the differences between the virtual world and the physical world, this research protocol will examine the unique properties of digital media that affects how people think, feel, and behave.

The frontlines of quantitative marketing have progressed rapidly along both empirical and analytical dimensions. The former is now riding the wave of big data provided generously by consumers and the advancement of technology, and oftentimes concerns itself with the “how much” question. My specialization in the latter, known as analytical or game theoretic modelling, advances our understanding of counterintuitive – hence interesting – and increasingly relevant marketing phenomenon through tackling the “why” and “how” questions. Let me provide a few examples. Why do firms, who are intense rivals in a market, sometimes collaborate with each other to take on a weaker rival in another market? How is it that horizontal rivals form an R&D alliance, knowing that there will be downstream product market implications? What type of alliance structures are more stable, and why is that the case? Why do certain retailing practices, which may seem odd at first glance (e.g., a dominant retailer like Walmart delegating important marketing decisions to a manufacturer like P&G,) actually work in practice? And why do certain practices by sales force managers (e.g., performance posting) work under certain circumstances, but not others? The above are examples of marketing phenomena that I am currently examining. Together with other related questions, these form the cornerstones of my research program. The work of an analytical modeller revolves around elements such as robustness and parsimony. These are also elements that practitioners appreciate – a better understanding of “competitive strategy in marketing” will yield useful managerial implications.

Singaporean companies have successfully made the transition from a manufacturing- based economy to a service-based, technology-enabled ‘New Economy’. They are synchronized with the global business ecosystem and offer innovative products and services that are ahead of the curve. But, despite significant efforts to maintain competitive advantages and spur innovations, their productivity performance – in the aggregate – is rather lacklustre. This project aims to tackle the challenges posed by the New Economy from the perspective of the nexus between innovation and productivity. We have identified three main areas where the changes brought about by the New Economy have the greatest impact: supply chains, industrial policies, and labour markets — particularly, the development of human capital. Our empirical strategy is drawing on our team members’ track record of data collection (particularly survey data) and top-notch research within these areas. Our first aim is to develop and run a set of new dedicated surveys, developed by our team members, for Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region: 1.International Firm Localisation and Productivity (IFLP) for Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia 2.extension of World Management Survey (WMS) – currently covering over 20,000 firms in 35 developed and developing economies – to Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region 3.Singapore version of the Management and Organizational Practices/Uncertainty Survey (MOPS) Our second aim is to match this survey information with a variety of firm-level data sources collected under the project initiative and develop insightful research as described in detail in the individual study proposals. Our research focus – given the track record of the promoters and collaborators – is expected to result in at least 10 articles published in leading journals. Our first goal is to understand how technological changes affect the labour market and ultimately spill over on company productivity. Second, we focus on global value chains and supplier-customer linkages. Third, we explore the potentially corrective role of targeted industrial and financial policies. Fourth, we focus on the role of human capital in the new economy.

The 21st century has seen a marked expansion in efforts to regulate the supply and export flows of materials through the use of export restrictions around the globe. While most existing research focuses on the economics of export restrictions, no one looks at the impact of export restrictions on commodity producers’ supply chain decisions such as production quantity, capacity investment over time, and product’s availability under price fluctuations, etc… This research aims to shed light on the impact of different types of trade barriers on supply chains by examining (a) domestic consumer surplus (b) producer surplus, (c) producers’ investment decisions and (d) regulators’ policy choices.

This study investigates the effect of various feedback levels and feedback agents on students’ performance in project-based learning. While feedback is provided, there is no way to track or monitor how students are using the feedback. In addition, the nature and quality of the feedback provided are also unexplored. This study addresses the above issues by introducing three feedback levels (task, process and self-regulating) and two groups of feedback agents (academic and industry advisors) on students’ project performances to reduce the gap between actual and expected learning outcomes. The following two research questions form the basis for our study: How do the feedback levels affect the students’ industry project performance? To what extent do students use academic and industry advisors’ feedback to accomplish their project team report?

This project aims to generate new insights on the impact of major technological shifts on the maritime industry and maritime trade. The project is to be conducted in collaboration with MPA, the World Bank and NTU to provide a short, high-level report on this topic and will be announced at the “Maritime Outlook Forum” in Oct 2019

The project discusses key technological trends under Thrust 1 (Efficient intelligent world-class next-generation port) and Thrust 5 (Sustainable maritime environment and energy) of the Singapore Maritime R&D roadmap, and aims to understand the potential impact of these trends on the maritime industry and maritime trade in Singapore.

The technology trends include :
1.Manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing
2.e-commerce and impact on logistics and distribution patterns
3.Blockchain and its application to shipping documents and trade finance

In this project, we examine how the lay beliefs of parents’ impact the way they spend on their children. Some people, termed as entity theorists, hold a relatively fixed view of personal traits and characters and do not believe that they can change much over time. Others, named as incremental theorists, hold a malleable view and believe that their personal qualities are changeable. For parents with incremental theories, they are more likely to have a balancing strategy regarding how to choose the extra-curriculum activity for their children. If their children show characteristics such as being an extrovert, they would put their children in training programs that would instil qualities of an introvert in the children. In comparison, parents who hold an entity view about self-concept, are more likely to choose a training program that would be compatible with the revealed characters of their kids. We hypothesise that parents with an incremental theory, compared to those with entity theory, are more likely to balance their children’s characters and choose a training (education) program that is incompatible with their kids’ revealed characters.