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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

It's All Right To Be Wrong, Sometimes, Seow Hon Tan May 2005

It's All Right To Be Wrong, Sometimes, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Racist comments made by some youths have spawned many reactions from Singaporeans. This presents another interesting issue: Do these reactions themselves evince the kind of intolerance of a diversity of opinions which they are attacking? When and how can we differ without being intolerant and disrespectful?

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Subethnische Dimensionen Des Veraenderungsmanagements In Asiatischen Klein- Und Mittelunternehmen: Trends In Singapur, Ulrike Badibanga, Thomas Menkhoff May 2005

Subethnische Dimensionen Des Veraenderungsmanagements In Asiatischen Klein- Und Mittelunternehmen: Trends In Singapur, Ulrike Badibanga, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Against the background of a rapidly changing business environment, the article examines the organisational change management behavior of the owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore. The analysis of survey data is aimed at ascertain whether there are any differences between Chinese and English-educated small (Chinese) businessmen in terms of Change Management (CM), a dichotomy which is of great historical and politico-cultural significance in Singapore. The survey data show that there are indeed differences between the subgroups (e.g. with regard to the initiation of a more participatory people management style) but these variations turned out to be far less …

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Non-Market Leadership Experience And Labor Market Success: Evidence From Military Rank, Myoung-Jae Lee, Chun Seng Yip May 2005

Non-Market Leadership Experience And Labor Market Success: Evidence From Military Rank, Myoung-Jae Lee, Chun Seng Yip

Research Collection School Of Economics

There has been much recent interest in the effects of pre and non-market skills on future labor market outcomes. This paper examines one such effect: the effect on future wages of military leadership experience among Vietnam generation American men. We study rank, not just veteran status. We argue that rank is a good measure of pre-market leadership skills because of the clear military hierarchy and the primarily youth experience of Vietnam service. Two sources of selection bias are accounted for: non-random military entry and eventual rank attained. We apply a modified 2-stage parametric sample selection method. The rank premia on …

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It's All Right To Be Wrong, Sometimes, Seow Hon Tan May 2005

It's All Right To Be Wrong, Sometimes, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Racist comments made by some youths have spawned many reactions from Singaporeans. This presents another interesting issue: Do these reactions themselves evince the kind of intolerance of a diversity of opinions which they are attacking? When and how can we differ without being intolerant and disrespectful?

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Spatial Orientation Strategies In Morris-Type Virtual Water Task For Humans, Janos Kallai, Tamas Makany, Kazmer Karadi, William J. Jacobs Apr 2005

Spatial Orientation Strategies In Morris-Type Virtual Water Task For Humans, Janos Kallai, Tamas Makany, Kazmer Karadi, William J. Jacobs

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The present study characterized frequent motion patterns (search strategies) that occurred during spatial navigation in a virtual maze. The research focused on identifying and characterizing some search strategies, the temporal progression of strategy-use, and their role in spatial performance. Participants were 112 undergraduate students (42 males and 70 females). We identified three search strategies that predicted spatial performance. Enfilading refers to an approach-withdrawal pattern of active exploration near a target location. Thigmotaxis refers to a search strategy that involves continuous contact with the circular wall of the maze. Visual scan involves active visual exploration while the subject remains in a …

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The Impact Of Ownership Structure On Wage Intensity In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan, Parthiban David Apr 2005

The Impact Of Ownership Structure On Wage Intensity In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan, Parthiban David

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The authors studied the effect of ownership structure on human capital investments as indicated by wage intensity, defined as the ratio of expenditure on employee wages to sales, in a sample of 996 Japanese manufacturing firms during their economic recession of 1998-2002. They found that domestic shareholders, with interests beyond financial considerations, enhance wage intensity, especially when performance is low, and thereby safeguard human capital investments. Foreign shareholders with sole interest in financial returns have an opposite effect; they reduce wage intensity when firm performance is low.

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Effects Of Bilinguals' Controlled-Attention On Working Memory And Recognition, Hwajin Yang, Sujin Yang, Stephen J. Ceci, Qi Wang Apr 2005

Effects Of Bilinguals' Controlled-Attention On Working Memory And Recognition, Hwajin Yang, Sujin Yang, Stephen J. Ceci, Qi Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present study investigated whether bilinguals could show higher working memory (WM) capacity by controlling their attention well on an attention-impeded Stroop-span task while undergoing constant interference. Our research question sprang up from the two existing bodies of research in Cognitive Psychology as an effort to connect the two.

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Household Demand, Network Externality Effects And Intertemporal Price Discrimination, Winston T. H. Koh Mar 2005

Household Demand, Network Externality Effects And Intertemporal Price Discrimination, Winston T. H. Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the optimality of intertemporal price discrimination when network externality effects are present in the consumption of a durable good. We conduct our study in two settings. In a model with two household types, utilities are dependent on the cumulative proportion of households that have purchased the durable good. Next, in a model with a continuum of household types, we extend the analysis to the case where households consume both a durable good and a stream of non-durable goods. We show that in both settings, the presence of network externalities facilitates a sales strategy with intertemporal price discrimination.

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The Performance Of Value And Growth Portfolios In East Asia Before The Asian Financial Crisis, David K. Ding, Jia-Leng Chua, Thomas A. Fetherston Mar 2005

The Performance Of Value And Growth Portfolios In East Asia Before The Asian Financial Crisis, David K. Ding, Jia-Leng Chua, Thomas A. Fetherston

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine value and growth portfolios in seven East Asian countries just before the onslaught of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. The value premiums in these countries, except in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Thailand, are found to be mainly positive. After controlling for firm size, risk, liquidity, and growth potential, we find higher returns among value stocks with a small firm size and low growth potential in Hong Kong and Malaysia. In Japan and Singapore, higher returns are found in growth portfolios with a small firm size and low growth potential. Growth stocks in Taiwan with a small firm size, and …

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Do We Stand On Common Ground? A Threat Appraisal Model For Terror Alerts Issued By The Department Of Homeland Security, Augustine Pang, Yan Jin, Glen T. Cameron Mar 2005

Do We Stand On Common Ground? A Threat Appraisal Model For Terror Alerts Issued By The Department Of Homeland Security, Augustine Pang, Yan Jin, Glen T. Cameron

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Having developed a threat appraisal model to examine the fabric and faces of threat, and how it can becommunicated, the authors empirically test the model on an ongoing issue, the issuance of terror alerts bythe Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on how threat is appraised by DHS, and the conservativeand liberal audiences. Findings showed a shared view by the DHS and the conservative audiences whilethe liberal audiences thought otherwise. Though there appear to be consensus in threat communication,more internal consistency within DHS is needed to optimize its effectiveness.

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Assessment Centers In Belgium: The Results Of A Study On Their Validity And Fairness, Filip Lievens, Etienne Van Keer, Morel De Witte Mar 2005

Assessment Centers In Belgium: The Results Of A Study On Their Validity And Fairness, Filip Lievens, Etienne Van Keer, Morel De Witte

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In Belgium, assessment centers have grown in popularity. Despite this growing popularity, the validity of these selection and development methods has not been examined in Belgium. Therefore, this study examines the predictive validity and fairness of an assessment center of a large bank. The sample consisted of 252 middle level managers. Results revealed that the assessment center provides a valid prediction of success in higher managerial positions. With respect to fairness, this assessment center also scores well. Virtually no significant differences between men and women and between Flemish and French speaking Belgians are found. These positive results might be explained …

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Corporate Divestitures And Spinoffs In Singapore, Francis Koh, Winston T. H. Koh, Benedict S. K. Koh Mar 2005

Corporate Divestitures And Spinoffs In Singapore, Francis Koh, Winston T. H. Koh, Benedict S. K. Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper discusses the different forms of corporate divestitures, the motives for this corporate activity, and the empirical findings about their economic outcomes. A sample of corporate divestitures is also used to identify the main motivations in the Singapore context. We conclude that divestitures are carried out to achieve operational efficiency and gain incremental profitability and liquidity. Using share price data around the event-dates, we show that announcements of divestitures generally lead to significant increases in the returns of the parent company. The positive abnormal returns are related to the relative size of the divestitures and the computed accounting gains. …

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The Effects Of Ownership And Capital Structure On Board Composition And Strategic Diversification In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan Mar 2005

The Effects Of Ownership And Capital Structure On Board Composition And Strategic Diversification In Japanese Corporations, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The board of directors plays an important role in solving the agency problem between shareholders and management. This paper investigates the relationships between ownership and board structure with the diversification strategy of large Japanese firms. The results show that corporate nominee directors are associated with lower levels of product diversification of their investee firms. This suggests that nominee directors in large Japanese corporations see themselves representing specific interests and therefore investors should pay attention to board composition in order to assess the level of protection they can expect to receive. Even without any apparent agency problem with management, there remains …

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Corruption Across Countries And Regions: Some Consequences Of Local Osmosis, Raaj Sah Mar 2005

Corruption Across Countries And Regions: Some Consequences Of Local Osmosis, Raaj Sah

Research Collection School Of Economics

Large and persistent differences in corruption across comparable countries is a challenging research issue. Even more intriguing are such differences across regions within the same country, because the typically considered socioeconomic and governance characteristics are generally more similar across such regions than across different countries. This paper's principal theme is that individuals’ perceptions of their environments are influenced by the realities that they have faced in the past; these perceptions affect their current and future actions; which in turn influence the current and future realities. An articulation and analysis of these dynamics yields significant observations concerning individuals’ behavior and societal …

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Competing At The Frontier: The Changing Role Of Technology Policy In Singapore's Economic Strategy, Winston T. H. Koh, Poh Kam Wong Mar 2005

Competing At The Frontier: The Changing Role Of Technology Policy In Singapore's Economic Strategy, Winston T. H. Koh, Poh Kam Wong

Research Collection School Of Economics

For an economy competing at the global frontier, an innovation-based growth strategy requires a well-developed technological infrastructure, a set of capabilities-focused technology policies, as well as an institutional environment that stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship. This paper examines the role played by science and technology policy in an economy's transition to an innovation-based growth strategy. We discuss the challenges governments face as they restructure economic institutions to deepen R&D capabilities and encourage technology creation. We review Singapore's experience in this regard and assess its ongoing efforts to remake itself to compete at the global frontier.

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Drift And Diffusion Function Specification For Short-Term Interest Rates, Myoung-Jae Lee, Wen Juan Li Mar 2005

Drift And Diffusion Function Specification For Short-Term Interest Rates, Myoung-Jae Lee, Wen Juan Li

Research Collection School Of Economics

Various stochastic differential equation models for short rates (rt) have been proposed, where the change (Δrt = rt−rt−1) is modeled as a sum of drift and diffusion terms depending on rt−1. These models, however, have some shortcomings. First, the same model may not apply to all countries. Second, the drift and diffusion may depend not only on rt−1 but also on further lags. Third, not just the own lagged rates, but also other countries' rates may matter. These questions are empirically analyzed for six major countries with the following findings. …

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Sustainable External Debt Levels: Estimates For Selected Asian Countries, Roberto S. Mariano, Delano Villanueva Mar 2005

Sustainable External Debt Levels: Estimates For Selected Asian Countries, Roberto S. Mariano, Delano Villanueva

Research Collection School Of Economics

High ratios of external debt to GDP in selected Asian countries have contributed to the initiation, propagation, and severity of the financial and economic crises in recent years, reflecting runaway fiscal deficits and excessive foreign borrowing by the private sector. Applying the formal framework proposed by Villanueva (2003) to a selected group of Asian countries, the research estimates the external debt thresholds beyond which further debt accumulation will have negative effects on growth and will become unsustainable. The framework is an extension of the standard neoclassical growth model that incorporates global capital markets. ‘Sustainability’ is measured in terms of the …

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Some Patterns Of Market Shares Of Brands Within And Across Product Categories, Rajeev Kohli, Raaj Sah Mar 2005

Some Patterns Of Market Shares Of Brands Within And Across Product Categories, Rajeev Kohli, Raaj Sah

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper: (i) reports an empirical regularity in the market shares of brands; (ii) presents a theoretical framework for understanding the observed regularity; (iii) adduces additional empirical consequences of the framework, which are some counterintuitive relationships among market shares of brands across different product categories; and (iv) presents empirical evidence for these consequences, thus providing additional support for the theoretical framework. Our cross-sectional data on market shares consists of 1171 brands in 91 product categories of foods and sporting goods sold in the US. If we assign a lower rank to a brand with a higher market share, then the …

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How Qualitative Research Really Counts, Kenneth Benoit Mar 2005

How Qualitative Research Really Counts, Kenneth Benoit

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The main point of this essay is straightforward: The distinction between quantitative and qualitative research, when applied to empirical political analysis, is exaggerated and largely artificial. In fact, most political scientists can happily perform valid and useful research without being concerned about where they stand on the quantitative-qualitative divide. Furthermore, qualitative characterizations are often easily converted into quantitative characterizations, and many qualitative characterizations are implicitly quantitative to begin with. Finally, qualitative characterizations of the empirical world are almost always more useful when converted into quantitative ones.

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No Vision? Youths Need Role Models, Seow Hon Tan Feb 2005

No Vision? Youths Need Role Models, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Much recent talk about the vision (or lack thereof) of our young people has revolved around a search for solutions in the form of programmes that give them an opportunity to broaden their minds and, it is hoped, develop their characters.

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100% Of Smu Grads Land Jobs Within Six Months Upon Graduation With More Than Half Offered Employment Even Before They Graduated, Singapore Management University Feb 2005

100% Of Smu Grads Land Jobs Within Six Months Upon Graduation With More Than Half Offered Employment Even Before They Graduated, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

No abstract provided.

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Older Workers: Untapped Assets For Creating Value, Knowledge@Smu Feb 2005

Older Workers: Untapped Assets For Creating Value, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

The days when an executive could look forward to a leisurely retirement out on the golf course are over, thanks to a possible looming job shortage, a graying population, low savings rates and an insecure Social Security system. The impact of these factors on both workers and companies was the subject of the Symposium on Older Workers, co-sponsored recently by the AARP Global Aging Program along with Wharton's Center for Human Resources and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research. Speakers included AARP CEO William D. Novelli, Olivia Mitchell, executive director of Wharton's Pension Research Council, and Thomas Dowd, a …

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Investing In Real Estate: Mortgage Financing Practices And Optimal Holding Period, Winston T. H. Koh, Edward H. K. Ng Feb 2005

Investing In Real Estate: Mortgage Financing Practices And Optimal Holding Period, Winston T. H. Koh, Edward H. K. Ng

Research Collection School Of Economics

Real estate investments are typically characterized by high degrees of leverage and long loan tenures. In perfect capital markets, leverage has no impact on the investment decision apart from tax considerations. However, the mortgage financing market is imperfect in many countries. In the presence of market imperfections, an optimal holding period exists for real property investments. We provide a simple rule to calculate the optimal holding period is to compare the required rate of return with the leveraged rate of return on equity.

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Disproportionate Ownership Structure And Ipo Long-Run Performance Of Non-Soes In China, Xiaoming Wang, Jerry Cao, Jinghua Tang, Gary Gang Tian Feb 2005

Disproportionate Ownership Structure And Ipo Long-Run Performance Of Non-Soes In China, Xiaoming Wang, Jerry Cao, Jinghua Tang, Gary Gang Tian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the relationship between ownership structures and IPO long-run performance of non-SOEs in China. Although non-SOEs underperform the market in general after IPO but the poor performance is mainly caused by the IPOs with ownership control wedge. Non-SOEs with one share one vote structure outperform those with control-ownership wedge by 30% for three years post-IPO performance in adjusted buy-and-hold returns. Non-SOEs with control-ownership wedge have higher frequency of undertaking value-destroying related party transactions. These findings suggest that non-SOEs need to improve corporate governance such as disproportionate ownership structure to better safeguard the interest of long-run shareholders.

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Neither Proximity Nor Directionality: A Subjective Approach To Issue Voting, Riccardo Pelizzo Feb 2005

Neither Proximity Nor Directionality: A Subjective Approach To Issue Voting, Riccardo Pelizzo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Spatial theories of voting have provided one of the leading frameworks for the analysis of electoral competition and electoral behavior. Spatial theories assume that : (1) voters and parties have policy preferences, (2) these preferences can be represented by points in the policy space and (3) voters’ electoral choice is affected by the disposition of their own preferences and of those of political parties. For almost four decades proximity theory has been the most popular spatial theory of voting. Proximity theory suggested that voters value parties on the basis of how proximate they are to their own personal position. This …

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Report Of The Committee On Fare Review Mechanism, Sock Yong Phang Feb 2005

Report Of The Committee On Fare Review Mechanism, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Today, public transport fares are reviewed annually and adjustments, if any, are capped by the “CPI + X” formula, where CPI is the change in the Consumer Price Index over the previous year and X accounts for the net effect of wage changes after deducting productivity gains. For the period from 2001 to 2005, X was determined to be 1.5%. While this mechanism has worked well in keeping public transport fares affordable, the formula lacks transparency and is not easily understood by the general public. Commuters often question the need for the “X” element given that the public transport operators …

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Household Demand, Network Externality Effects And Intertemporal Price Discrimination, Winston T. H. Koh Feb 2005

Household Demand, Network Externality Effects And Intertemporal Price Discrimination, Winston T. H. Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the optimality of intertemporal price discrimination when network externality effects are present in the consumption of a durable good. We conduct our study in two settings. In a model with two household types, utilities are dependent on the cumulative proportion of households that have purchased the durable good. Next, in a model with a continuum of household types, we extend the analysis to the case where households consume both a durable good and a stream of non-durable goods. We show that in both settings, the presence of network externalities facilitates a sales strategy with intertemporal price discrimination. …

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Analysis Of Labor Participation Behavior Of Korean Women With Dynamic Probit And Conditional Logit, Myoung-Jae Lee, Yoon-Hee Tae Feb 2005

Analysis Of Labor Participation Behavior Of Korean Women With Dynamic Probit And Conditional Logit, Myoung-Jae Lee, Yoon-Hee Tae

Research Collection School Of Economics

We analyse the dynamic labour participation behaviour of Korean women. State dependence under unobserved heterogeneity is considered, where the heterogeneity may be unrelated, pseudo-related, or arbitrarily related to regressors. Three minor methodological contributions are made: interaction terms with lagged response are allowed in dynamic conditional logit; a three-stage algorithm for dynamic probit is proposed; and treating the initial response as fixed is shown to be ill-advised. The state dependence is about 0.6 × SD(error), higher for the married or junior college-educated, and lower for women in their twenties and thirties. While education increases participation, college education has negative effects for …

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Social And Cultural Geographies Of South-East Asia, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong, Lisa Law Feb 2005

Social And Cultural Geographies Of South-East Asia, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong, Lisa Law

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The paper is an overview of English language publications that discuss what might be considered 'social' and 'cultural' geographies in Southeast Asia over the past two decades. We have strategically chosen two major themes that help us shape the mass of material into digestible strands: (1) the politics of social and cultural change; and (2) constructing identities. The former addresses various politics: the politics of nationhood; the politics of national development; the politics of cultural sites; the politics of urban change; and the politics of the global-local.

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No Vision? Youths Need Role Models, Seow Hon Tan Feb 2005

No Vision? Youths Need Role Models, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Much recent talk about the vision (or lack thereof) of our young people has revolved around a search for solutions in the form of programmes that give them an opportunity to broaden their minds and, it is hoped, develop their characters.

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