Featured Publications of Lingnan Researchers

China, Taiwan, and international sporting events : Face-off in cross-strait relations
Author : Marcus P. CHU
Type : Book
Published Year : 2022
Publisher : Routledge Taylor & Francis
ISBN : 9780367760588
Chu explores the politics behind Taiwanese cities’ pursuit of international sporting events, and the Chinese authorities’ strategic measures in handling the relations with Taiwan since the 1990s.
It is assumed that the Chinese authorities constantly oppose Taiwanese cities’ application for, and boycott their subsequent holding of, international sporting events. Doing so would obstruct Taiwan’s capacity to raise its visibility and influence in world society, and defend the One-China principle. In fact, the role of China in Taiwan’s pursuit of international sporting events is not invariably as a fatal obstructer, but sometimes a neutral bystander or even an enthusiastic supporter. Chu examines the reasons behind this phenomenon. Reviewing the 18 Taiwanese bidding attempts and four hosting projects, he argues that China’s inconsistent response is determined by the ups and downs of Cross-Strait political ties. As a result, this book provides insight into the nexus between sports and politics in the context of China-Taiwan rivalry.

ICT in English language education : Bridging the teaching-learning divide in South Asia
Authors : Preet Pankaj HIRADHAR; Atanu BHATTACHARYA
Type : Book
Published Year : 2022
Publisher : Springer Singapore
ISBN : 9789811690044; 9789811690068
DOI : 10.1007/978-981-16-9005-1
Is the first book to explore technology-enabled English language education in South Asia.Brings together the theory and practice of using technology in language education. Offers a valuable asset for language educators in the South Asian context.

Prof. HIRADHAR, Preet Pankaj
Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of English
About the author

An exploratory study of women learners’ identity and investment in learning English in the United Arab Emirates
Author : Neil HUNT
Type : Book Chapter
Published Date : Mar 2022
Source : English Language and General Studies Education in the United Arab Emirates : Theoretical, Empirical and Practical Perspectives
Publisher : Springer Singapore
ISBN : 9789811688874
DOI : 10.1007/978-981-16-8888-1_17
The United Arab Emirates' economic growth ensures that education to tertiary level is free to all Emirati nationals. The influx of expatriate workers with Dubai's emergence as a tourist destination and centre for global trade has contributed to the positioning of English as a lingua franca and marginalisation of Arabic. This study examines the influences and attitudes towards English in female Emirati students studying on a Bachelor of Education. Data was collected through student journals, which was then analysed into thematically. Comments were drawn from each theme to construct questions which were then presented to focus groups. Results point to complex factors influencing participants' identities and reasons for investment in English. Factors that appear to be contradictory can be reconciled by viewing them as being founded on participants' Islamic faith, leading to investment in English on participants' own terms, and students' appropriation of English for their own purposes.

Prof. HUNT, Neil David
Associate Head and Asst Professor of Teaching, Centre for English and Additional Languages
About the author

Barriers to an effective voucher programme for community-based aged care : A professional perspective
Author : Wing Shan KAN
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Ageing and Society
DOI : 10.1017/S0144686X22000502
Long-term care for older people is increasingly turning to consumer-directed approaches. As a case in point, the Hong Kong Government recently implemented a new voucher programme for community-based aged care based on a consumer-directed approach: the Community Care Service Voucher for the Elderly (CCSV). The objectives of this study were to explore the lived experience of professional workers vis-à-vis the new programme and to identify barriers to effective voucher use by older people in Hong Kong. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with 16 professionals who had primary responsibility for the voucher programme for community-based aged care. The interview guide covered five main areas: (a) professional's perception and experience on the voucher programme; (b) the decision-making process around the voucher programme; (c) personal capacities of older people; (d) family support and social networks; and (e) institutional support. Findings indicate several barriers to effective use of the CCSV including: lack of self-awareness of service needs, lower education level, poor health condition, lack of financial resources, lack of family support, inadequate family involvement in decision-making, lack of peer and professional support, lack of available services and poor service accessibility. Suggestions for strengthening the voucher programme include institution of a case management model and public education. Different factors or elements are required to facilitate older people to make sound and informed choices, and a case manager can assist in combining different resources and forms of support towards effective use of the CCSV.

Dr. KAN, Wing Shan Wing
Research Assistant Professor, Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies
About the author

Centred worlds, personal identity and imagination
Author : Andrea SAUCHELLI
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Theoria
DOI : 10.1111/theo.12407
The Centred View offers an account of the connection between imagination and possibility that combines the centred world framework with some allegedly appealing intuitions regarding our persistence over time. In particular, Dilip Ninan suggests that the Centred View has the theoretical advantage of respecting our intuitions about cases of personal identity in certain imaginative scenarios while also being compatible with physicalism. Unfortunately, the Centred View faces a series of serious objections and should ultimately be rejected.

Prof. SAUCHELLI, Andrea
Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies), Office of the Faculty of Arts
Head and Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
About the author

Conservation and cultural intersections within Hong Kong's snake soup industry
Authors : Félix LANDRY YUAN; Chung Tai YEUNG; Tracey-leigh PRIGGE; Pauline C. DUFOUR; Yik-Hei SUNG; Caroline DINGLE; Timothy C. BONEBRAKE
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Oryx
DOI : 10.1017/S0030605321001630
Snake soup continues to be an iconic tradition in Cantonese culture. Yet little is known about the relationship between snake soup consumption in Hong Kong, wild snake populations, and the communities depending on this tradition for their livelihoods. We applied an interdisciplinary approach including interviews with shopkeepers and genetic analyses of snake meat samples to determine the species consumed in Hong Kong, their source locations, and shopkeepers’ views on the future of the industry. We genetically identified the common rat snake Ptyas mucosa, widely distributed throughout East and Southeast Asia, and the Javan spitting cobra Naja sputatrix, endemic to Indonesia, as the species most commonly consumed, which was consistent with interview responses. According to interviews, snakes had mostly been imported from mainland China in the past, but now tend to be sourced from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. Interviews also revealed a pessimistic outlook on the continuation of this tradition because of various factors, including a lasting yet misinformed association of snakes with the 2002–2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and China's ensuing ban on the consumption of terrestrial wildlife, Hong Kong's snake soup industry will probably continue to rely on Southeast Asian sources to persist. Given the cultural and conservation issues surrounding this tradition, further research on the economic, ecological and social consequences of snake consumption is needed to examine the broader implications of snake soup and similar industries in the region.

Does an employee-experienced crisis help or hinder creativity? An integration of threat-rigidity and implicit theories
Authors : Inseong JEONG; Yaping GONG; Bijuan ZHONG
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : Apr 2022
Source : Journal of Management
DOI : 10.1177/01492063221082537
Although a crisis provides room for creativity, organizations often suffer from creativity deficits in such a situation. Indeed, threat-rigidity theory suggests that an employee-experienced crisis may hinder employee creativity. An interesting but unresolved question is thus, “When does an employee-experienced crisis stifle or stimulate creativity, and how?” Embedding our study in a person-in-situation creativity research stream, we introduce employee-experienced crisis, defined as the impact an employee experiences from crisis event(s) in a team, and examine its interaction with implicit theories (i.e., a fixed vs. a growth mindset) in employee creativity. We hypothesize that an employee-experienced crisis stifles employee creativity via increased job anxiety when the individual possesses a strong fixed mindset. In contrast, the same phenomenon stimulates creativity via enhanced creative process engagement when the individual has a strong growth mindset. In Study 1, we collected multisource, time-lagged field data from 506 employees working in 107 research and development (R&D) teams. The results supported our hypotheses. To further explore how the moderating effects of mindsets occur, we conducted Study 2, another multisource, time-lagged field study of 260 employees in 40 R&D teams. We found that the moderating effects of implicit theories are mediated by goal orientations (i.e., implicit theories are more distal moderators, and goal orientations are more proximal moderators). Overall, we provide an integrative account of when and how an employee-experienced crisis hinders or helps employee creativity.

Effects of student engagement in peer feedback on writing performance in higher education
Authors : Xinquan JIN; Qiang JIANG; Weiyan XIONG; Yanan FENG; Wei ZHAO
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Interactive Learning Environments
DOI : 10.1080/10494820.2022.2081209
Writing has been recognized as a core competency for postgraduate students. However, improving writing performance, particularly for first-year postgraduate students, remains an important and challenging task. This study aimed to explore the effects of student engagement in peer feedback on writing performance from cognitive, affective and behavioral perspectives. Specifically, the participants were 88 postgraduate students. With the support of an online writing and peer review system (Peerceptiv), participants were asked to write an essay, engage in the peer feedback process, and revise their essays. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were utilized to analyze data on the quality of participants’ essays, peer feedback procedures, and interviews. Results showed that cognitive engagement, affective engagement, and behavioral engagement were significantly associated with postgraduate students’ writing performance. The analysis indicated that the helpfulness of provided comments was the strongest predictor of writing performance, followed by suggestion, integration, and positive affective engagement. These findings highlight the significance of student engagement in peer feedback to improve writing performance in higher education. Recommendations for future research on quality improvement in writing performance are suggested based on the findings.

Prof. XIONG, Weiyan
Research Assistant Professor, School of Graduate Studies
Core Centre Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies
About the author

Emotional labor: A two-wave longitudinal person-centered approach
Authors : Nathan NGUYEN; Francis CHEUNG; Florence STINGLHAMBER
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : Feb 2022
Source : International Journal of Stress Management
DOI : 10.1037/str0000232
To date, scholars advocate adopting a person-centered approach in the study of emotional labor since it gives a more realistic representation of the use of emotional regulation strategies. More importantly, a crucial yet under-explored issue is the understanding of the stability of latent profiles of emotional labor over time. Accordingly, this research aimed to investigate the stability of these profiles, based on workers’ use of surface acting and deep acting, over 3 months. We also analyzed the role of organizational dehumanization, positive affectivity, and negative affectivity in the prediction of profile membership as well as the relationships between these profiles and several job-related outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intentions). Latent profile analyses conducted on a sample of 425 employees revealed five latent profiles of emotional labor that were stable over time. Latent profile transition analyses indicated that most of the employees remained in their initial profile. Organizational dehumanization and negative affectivity, but not positive affectivity, predicted profile membership. Finally, we corroborated that surface actors were related to the worst outcomes, while deep actors were associated with the most adaptive outcomes. As such, these findings provide further evidence to adopt a person-centered approach to the study of emotional labor.

Prof. CHEUNG, Yue Lok Francis
Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies), Office of the Faculty of Social Sciences
Associate Professor, Department of Applied Psychology
Programme Director of the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) Business Psychology Programme, Department of Applied Psychology
About the author

Enjoying the fruit of development? Working conditions and the earnings of low-skilled internal migrants in China across two decades (1993–2015)
Authors : Julia Shu-Huah WANG; Jing LIN; Ngai PUN
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
DOI : 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2074380
China’s unprecedented economic growth in recent decades can largely be attributed to millions of migrant labourers that made China the ‘world’s factory’. It is well documented, however, that migrant labourers experience discrimination in the labour market. Despite China’s phenomenal economic growth, few studies have investigated whether the working conditions of low-skilled migrants have improved. In this study, we ask: in the past two decades, have disparities in working conditions and earnings between low-skilled rural-to-urban migrant workers and their urban counterparts decreased? We contrast the working conditions and earnings between migrants and urban residents who lack a high school degree and age 18–55 years using panel data, the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1993–2015), and individual fixed effects models to account for selection problems. Findings indicate that over a span of twenty years migrants and urban residents had similar trends in employment and earned incomes, but migrants’ weekly working hours and tendency to work more than legal work hours increased more than urban residents’. Working longer without earning more suggests persistent social inequality in Chinese society in general and deeper injustice among migrant workers.

Prof. PUN, Ngai
Director, Centre for Cultural Research and Development
Head and Chair Professor of Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural Studies
About the author

How are employers represented in and affected by the policymaking of in-work benefits? Policy stakeholders’ views in Hong Kong
Author : Tat Chor AU-YEUNG
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Journal of Poverty and Social Justice
DOI : 10.1332/175982721X16497618415259
Based on an employer-focused political economy framework, this qualitative study investigates how employers are represented in and affected by the policymaking of in-work benefits (IWBs), given employers’ political status and labour market conditions. Respondents addressed the importance of employers’ tacit support of the wage subsidies funded by the government. Arguably, it was considered that IWBs did not have a direct impact on wages, but they subsidised employers as a constraint against the minimum wage, boosted the workforce’s availability, and reduced recruitment costs for employers. This research substantiates the understanding of IWBs by integrating the perspectives of policy stakeholders and expands IWBs’ case studies in an authoritarian context.

Prof. AU YEUNG, Tat Chor
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Policy
About the author

Integration of blockchain and network softwarization for space-air-ground-sea integrated networks
Authors : Hong-Ning DAI; Yulei WU; Muhammad IMRAN; Nidal NASSER
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : IEEE Internet of Things Magazine
DOI : 10.1109/IOTM.004.2100098
Space-air-ground-sea integrated networks (SAGSINs) are promising to offer ubiquitous Internet services across the globe while confronting research challenges such as security vulnerabilities, privacy leakage concerns, and difficulty in resource sharing. On one hand, emerging network slicing and network softwarization technologies can fulfill diverse requirements with the provision of various services on top of heterogeneous SAGSIN hardware and software resources. On the other hand, blockchain and smart contracts can compensate for network slicing and softwarization to offer secure and automatic network services. This article presents an investigation on the convergence of blockchains with network slicing and network softwarization technologies for SAGSINs from the perspectives of network management and brokerage services of SAGSINs. In contrast to existing studies, this article is the first to incorporate blockchains into network slicing and network softwarization dedicated for SAGSINs. This article starts with a summary of key characteristics and challenges of SAGSINs. Then a review of network slicing and network softwarization is given in the context of SAGSINs. This article next presents an integrated framework of network slicing, network softwarization, and blockchain for SAGSINs. Moreover, this article outlines a set of open issues and research challenges that would be useful to guide future research in this area.

Prof. DAI, Hongning Henry
Associate Professor, Department of Computing and Decision Sciences
About the author

Intra-industry information transfer in emerging markets: Evidence from China
Authors : Keqi TAM; Beibei LIU; Sonia WONG; Rita YIP
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : Apr 2022
Source : Journal of Banking and Finance
DOI : 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2022.106518
This study examines intra-industry information transfer in the emerging market of China, where financial and market institutions are underdeveloped and the majority of investors are inexperienced individual investors. In an analysis of the management earnings forecasts of publicly listed firms, we find that investors in China transfer information between peer firms, with a stronger transfer when earnings forecasts are more accurate and credible, and when the investors of non-announcing firms are more sophisticated. We also find that the non–market-based resource allocation and entry restrictions in China discourage intra-industry information transfer between firms. Overall, our results suggest that intra-industry information transfer in China is constrained by institutional barriers. Reforms aimed at removing these barriers can help enhance these markets’ stock price efficiency. Our results provide policy implications to other emerging markets with institutional environments similar to China.

Policy background for the Greater Bay Area development in South China
Authors : Genghua HUANG; Ka Wai TAM
Type : Book Chapter
Published Year : 2022
Source : Cities and Social Governance Reforms : Greater Bay Area Development Experiences
Publisher : Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ISBN : 9789811695308
DOI : 10.1007/978-981-16-9531-5_2
The Chinese authority intends to create a world-class city-cluster in Southern China, which includes 11 cities surrounding the Pearl River Delta area and has become known as Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The state’s plan for the GBA is to strengthen the cooperation and maximize synergies among the cities based on their common cultural roots, similar customs, and geographical proximity.

Prof. HUANG, Genghua
Research Assistant Professor, School of Graduate Studies
Research Assistant Professor, Institute of Policy Studies
About the author

Pursuing dreams in an Asian global city: Does host language proficiency matter for Asian minorities?
Authors : Jin JIANG; Hon-Kwong LUI
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Urban Studies
DOI : 10.1177/00420980221092873
Asians who are not attracted by western culture may pursue their dreams in an Asian global city. While most people in Asia do not use English to communicate in their daily life, past literature on international migration focuses on English-speaking countries. This study uses Hong Kong (branded an Asian global city) as a case study to examine whether mastery of a native language (Cantonese) and/or English, a dominant non-native language in the commercial sector, determines the economic success of Asian migrants. Contrary to the general expectation of the importance of the native language, this study finds that a mastery of English and the official language of China (Putonghua) instead of Cantonese generates higher earnings for Asian minorities. The language advantages for earnings are mediated by the attainment of high-paid occupations. This study suggests that immigrants’ assimilation in a host society is not just a local problem but relates to the global and regional contextual factors of the city.

Prof. LUI, Hon Kwong
Associate Vice-President (Projects), Office of the President
Professor, Department of Marketing and International Business
About the author

Quantitative multidimensional phenotypes improve genetic analysis of laterality traits
Authors : Judith SCHMITZ; Mo ZHENG; Kelvin F. H. LUI; Catherine MCBRIDE; Connie S.-H. HO; Silvia PARACCHINI
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : Feb 2022
Source : Translational Psychiatry
DOI : 10.1038/s41398-022-01834-z
Handedness is the most commonly investigated lateralised phenotype and is usually measured as a binary left/right category. Its links with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders prompted studies aimed at understanding the underlying genetics, while other measures and side preferences have been less studied. We investigated the heritability of hand, as well as foot, and eye preference by assessing parental effects (n ≤ 5028 family trios) and SNP-based heritability (SNP-h2, n ≤ 5931 children) in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). An independent twin cohort from Hong Kong (n = 358) was used to replicate results from structural equation modelling (SEM). Parental left-side preference increased the chance of an individual to be left-sided for the same trait, with stronger maternal than paternal effects for footedness. By regressing out the effects of sex, age, and ancestry, we transformed laterality categories into quantitative measures. The SNP-h2 for quantitative handedness and footedness was 0.21 and 0.23, respectively, which is higher than the SNP-h2 reported in larger genetic studies using binary handedness measures. The heritability of the quantitative measure of handedness increased (0.45) compared to a binary measure for writing hand (0.27) in the Hong Kong twins. Genomic and behavioural SEM identified a shared genetic factor contributing to handedness, footedness, and eyedness, but no independent effects on individual phenotypes. Our analysis demonstrates how quantitative multidimensional laterality phenotypes are better suited to capture the underlying genetics than binary traits.

Prof. LUI, Fai Hong
Research Assistant Professor, Wofoo Joseph Lee Consulting and Counselling Psychology Research Centre
About the author

Quest for roots: Trauma and heroism in Wu he’s Yusheng and Tang Shiang-Chu’s Yusheng: Seediq Bale
Author : Darryl STERK
Type : Book Chapter
Published Year : 2022
Source : The Musha Incident : A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial Taiwan
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN : 9780231552189
"Musha 1930", a chapter in Michael Berry's monograph A History of Pain : Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film, details how Taiwanese and Chinese nationalists have appropriated the pain of the Musha Incident, including both Mona Rudao's rebellion and the Japanese reprisal, for nation-building or profit. Numbers can give some sense of the magnitude of the pain. Of the 1,236 people living in the six rebellious Tgdaya villages before the attack that Mona Rudao led on an assembly of Japanese officials on October 27, 1930, only 298 survived the Japanese reprisal. The pain lingers, particularly in memories of the force relocation to a new village called Chuanzhong / Kawanakajima (川中島), which was renamed Qingliu (清流) after the war and is know as "Alang Gluban" to the Seedig people, in the concentration camp-like conditions that the survivors from the rebellious villagers endured there; and in the bad blood between the Tgdaya and the Toda as a result of the Toda collaboration during the reprisal, particularly during the Second Musha Incident, when Toda warriors were allowed to attack the defenseless Tgdaya rebels in two shelters.

Tariff diversity and FTA network
Authors : Jihwan DO; Jung HUR; Sung-Ha HWANG; Larry D. QIU
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Review of World Economics
DOI : 10.1007/s10290-022-00469-y
The number of free trade agreements (FTAs) has increased in the past few decades, and the cross-country variation of the most-favored-nation (MFN) tariffs has decreased. Motivated by these two facts, we study whether the reduced variance in cross-country MFN tariffs can help explain the expansion of FTAs. Using an oligopolistic trade model with the equilibrium concept of pairwise stable networks, we reveal the existence of a set of pairwise stable network equilibria, where the number of FTAs rises as tariffs become increasingly symmetrical. This finding contributes to theoretical FTA literature by showing that an incomplete FTA network can be supported as a pairwise stable network equilibrium.

Prof. QIU, Dongxiao Larry
Head and Sydney S. W. Leong Chair Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
Programme Director, Master of Science in International and Development Economics Programme, Department of Economics
Programme Director, Master of Science in International Banking and Finance Programme, Department of Economics
About the author

The impact of recommender systems and pricing strategies on brand competition and consumer search
Authors : CHi ZHOU; Mingming LENG; Zhibing LIU; Xin CUI; Jing YU
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : Mar 2022
Source : Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
DOI : 10.1016/j.elerap.2022.101144
As a type of internet and business intelligence technology, recommender systems have been widely adopted by store brands to improve brand competition and to affect consumers’ search behaviors in the e-commerce market. This paper studies the effects of recommender systems and pricing strategies on the competition between store brands and national brands and on consumers’ search behaviors. We develop game models without and with recommender systems and analyze the equilibrium solutions under uniform pricing and differential pricing strategies. The results show that the brand-preference consumers’ market share will affect the strategy choice of recommendation system and differential pricing for the store brand. When the store brand is recommended, the store brand should adopt the differential pricing strategy and the price of the store brand will exceed that of the national brand. Furthermore, we also find that when the brand-preference consumers’ market share is low and the reservation price difference is high, the store brand can gain the competitive advantage by improving recommendation strength. In addition, a recommender system attracts consumers by converting their search costs into the recommendation costs of the system.

Prof. LENG, Mingming
Dean, Office of the Faculty of Business
Acting Director, Institute of Insurance and Risk Management
Professor, Department of Computing and Decision Sciences
About the author

The market distortion effects of mortgage tightening and transaction taxes: Evidence from Hong Kong residential resale market
Authors : Lok Sang HO; Mengna HU; Xiangdong WEI; Gary Wai Chung WONG
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : Apr 2022
Source : Pacific Economic Review
DOI : 10.1111/1468-0106.12389
By using transaction-level data, we study if two popular policies intended to cool an overheated housing market would serve their intended purposes. We found both mortgage tightening and Special Stamp Duties (SSD) actually led to higher starter home prices in Hong Kong. Mortgage tightening shifted the demand for bigger homes to that for smaller ones. The SSD that applies to resales within a specified period of the original purchase lowered turnover across the housing market. The decline in turnover is, as expected, sharpest for small flats, implying a dramatic shrinkage in second-hand supply of such homes, driving their prices up. We also found transactions bunching as many homes are held till the SSD is no longer applicable, indicating lock-in effects. Relative to those that are not subject to the SSD, the prices of properties subject to the levy are found to be lower by 6.8%.

Prof. HO, Lok Sang
Director and Research Professor, Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute
Director and Research Professor, China Economic Research Programme
About the author

Prof. WEI, Xiangdong
Honorary Director, Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute
Adjunct Professor, Department of Economics
About the author

Prof. WONG, Wai Chung Gary
Assistant Professor of Teaching, Department of Economics
About the author

The real effects of risk disclosures: Evidence from climate change reporting in 10-ks
Authors : Jeong-Bon KIM; Chong WANG; Feng WU
Type : Journal Article
Published Date : May 2022
Source : Review of Accounting Studies
DOI : 10.1007/s11142-022-09687-z
We examine the economic impacts of risk disclosures in accounting reports on the real decisions made by information senders (i.e., managers of the disclosing firms). In so doing, we exploit the SEC rule enacted in 2010 regarding climate change risk (CCR) reporting in 10-Ks as a quasi-natural experimental setting in which to apply a difference-in-differences analysis. We focus on CCR because of its vast influence on economic activities and the relative ease of identifying managerial behaviors related to climate change. Our results reveal that CCR-disclosing firms tend to engage more (less) in pro-environmental (anti-environmental) activities after the SEC 2010 rule. These real effects are more pronounced in firms that are under higher pressure from climate-minded external stakeholders and when firms’ businesses are more sensitive to climate change-related risks. We also find improved environmental performance in terms of reductions in the quantity, intensity, and cost of carbon emissions surrounding the SEC 2010 rule. Overall, our findings suggest that CCR disclosures alter corporate behaviors and help curb climate change.

The revival of management education in reform-era China
Author : Peter E. HAMILTON
Type : Book Chapter
Published Year : 2022
Source : Chinese Economic Statecraft from 1978 to 1989
Publisher : Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ISBN : 9789811692161
DOI : 10.1007/978-981-16-9217-8_5
This chapter analyzes the revival of management education in mainland China as a key aspect of the Reform Era. Reacting against the ideological excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese officials and academics first worked to restore “science” to the study and practice of management by re-training tens of thousands of mid-level managers across the CCP and state-owned enterprises. These efforts relied on transnational circulations of knowledge back and forth with the major capitalist economies of Europe and North America, which in turn required careful ideological re-calibrations and justifications. By the early 1990s, these processes evolved into leading universities such as Tsinghua and Fudan establishing American-style MBA programs in partnership with MIT Sloan. Through high-level academic exchanges largely funded by Hong Kong MIT alumni, this partnership transplanted whole courses, textbooks, and methodologies into Chinese management education and further accelerated China’s export-driven integration with global capitalism.