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The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several chinks in the armour of public health infrastructure across the world. However, the impact of the pandemic has been assessed primarily from the perspective of the 'privileged' members of society. The experiences of the 'other' world inhabited by the marginalised communities, who have had their livelihoods crushed under the weight of the pandemic, have been scarcely documented. As thousands of migrant workers were more scared of death caused by hunger rather than the disease itself, the various steps taken by different countries to curb community transmission have unveiled the ugly side of these measures. For example, as several states such as the US, the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India/Bharat imposed lockdowns, border closures, quarantines, inter alia, the most vulnerable section of the human population has been the migrant workers, especially those individuals who were employed in the unorganised sector. Thus, the global health crisis has unravelled deep-rooted deficiencies, racial biases, and an overall lack of concern and empathy for the lesser privileged, apart from the growing socio-economic divide between the rich and the poor. This research paper aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant workers in the informal sector by exploring the measures imposed by the US, the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and India/Bharat and analyse how their fundamental rights, including the right to development, were compromised. Through this paper, the author provides a five-point strategic framework that can be adopted globally to prevent such instances in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs empirical data in three major Asian real estate markets - Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, from 2001 to 2021, to study the leverage strategies of two related types of real estate companies – real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate operating companies (REOCs). The business model of the former must adhere to a real-estate-focused investment strategy while the latter undertakes a whole range of real estate development activities including land acquisition, financial feasibility analysis, construction, investment and asset management to redevelopment and disposal, and are not subject to the REIT rules with respect to tax transparency, earning distribution, real estate holding and leverage limit. We find that REOCs use 18.96% more debt than REITs after controlling for the agency and market risks, dividend yields, and property sector, country, and year fixed effects of firms; dividend payout has no effect on the leverage strategies; and high tax ratio increases the debt usage of REOCs relative to REITs. We also analyze the liquidation costs and business uniqueness effects. We find real estate value to total firm value ratio, as a proxy of liquidation cost, has negative effects on debt ratios for both real estate firms. Due to their uniqueness, REOCs with a high concentration of rental revenue stream are more vulnerable to liquidation risks, and thus more likely to have lower debt ratio. REITs however tend to have higher debt usage as rental incomes enhance cash-flow liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: A significant percentage of online consumers place consecutive orders within a short duration. To reduce the total order arrangement cost, an online retailer may consolidate consecutive orders from the same consumer. We investigate how long the retailer should hold the consumer's orders before sending them to a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for processing. In this order-holding problem, we optimize the holding time to balance the total order arrangement cost and the potential delay in delivery. Methodology/results: We model the order-holding problem as a Markov decision process. We show that the optimal order-holding decisions follow a threshold-type policy that is straightforward to implement: Hold any pending orders if the holding time is within a threshold or send them to the 3PL otherwise. Whenever the consumer places a new order, the holding time is reset, and the threshold is updated based on a cumulative set of the past consecutive orders in the consumer's shopping journey. Using a consumer's sequential decision model, we personalize the threshold by finding its closed-form expression in the consumer's order features. We determine the model's coefficients and evaluate the threshold-type policy using the data of the 2020 MSOM Data Driven Research Challenge. Extensive numerical experiments suggest that the personalized threshold-type policy outperforms two commonly used benchmarks by having fewer order arrangements or shorter holding times. Furthermore, personalizing the order-holding decisions is significantly more valuable for "enterprise" customers. Managerial implications: Our research suggests a higher threshold for consumers who are more likely to place consecutive orders within a short duration. The consumers' demographic information has a significant effect on the threshold. Specifically, the threshold is higher for "plus" consumers, female consumers, and consumers in the age group of 16–25 years. The threshold for tier 1 cities is lower than that for tier 2 to tier 4 cities but higher than that for tier 5 cities. History: This paper has been accepted as part of the 2020 MSOM Data Driven Challenge. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71931009, 72201237, and 72231009], the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [Grants 15501920 and 15501221], the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund [Tier 1, Grant RG17/21; Tier 2, Grant MOE2019-T2-1-045], the Association of South-East Asian Nations Business Research Initiative Grant [Grant G17C20421], and the Neptune Orient Lines [Fellowship NOL21RP04]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.1201. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the rapid urban expansion and the burgeoning number of landfill sites, managing water infiltration in these areas has become a critical challenge, especially in cities like Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Singapore where traditional cover materials such as silt, clayey gravel, and sand are scarce. A three-layer (silt/gravelly sand/clay) capillary barrier cover system has been proposed to address this issue in humid climates. As an alternative to scarce traditional materials, using local soils and construction waste (CW) for this system presents a viable solution. However, the real-world performance of this adapted three-layer system, constructed with local soils and CW under natural rainfall conditions, remains to be fully evaluated. This paper presents a field test evaluating the water infiltration behavior of a three-layer capillary barrier landfill cover system under natural conditions. The tri-layered system is comprised of a 0.6 m loose local unscreened soil layer, covered by a 0.4 m CW layer and topped by a 0.8 m heavily compacted local screened soil layer. Monitoring findings reveal that, during the wet season, infiltration through the top two layers was staved off until the third rainfall, after which these layers retained moisture until 15 September 2016. The fluctuation in pore water pressure in the topmost layers showed each rainfall was contingent not only on the day's precipitation but also the hydraulic state. Beyond the hydraulic state's influence, a deeper tensiometer showed resulted in a diminished correlation between the surge in pore water pressure and daily rainfall. This declining correlation with depth can be attributed to the capillary effect and the reduced permeability of the screened soil layer. Rainfall patterns significantly affect percolation, with the combination of a short-duration, intense rainfall and prolonged weak rainfall resulting in a marked increase in percolation. In the foundational screened soil layer, the pore water pressure remained relatively low, with the cumulative percolation over six months (June to December) registering approximately 10 mm. These findings suggest a promising performance of the three-layer capillary barrier cover system, integrating local soils and CW, in the year of the study conducted in a humid environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borrower hardship, while a critical issue, is not often addressed by consumer protection frameworks across the Asia–Pacific. The widespread use of payment holidays during the COVID-19 crisis provides a significant case study on the importance of having borrower hardship provisions as a consumer protection tool. This paper compares the pre-pandemic availability of payment holidays in three Asia–Pacific jurisdictions: Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It evaluates their existing legislative frameworks, as well as regulatory and industry guidelines on borrower hardship, and contrasts this with their use of payment holidays during the pandemic. Where there were existing industry guidelines on borrower hardship, lenders were able to spearhead an industry-wide approach towards payment relief without regulatory intervention by governments. Beyond the pandemic, the paper argues that self-regulation has potential for protecting borrower interests by standardising the scope of, and the procedure for, obtaining hardship relief. It argues that there is a need for a greater prevalence of industry codes of conducts governing lenders' approach towards borrower hardship across the Asia–Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sector innovation is crucial for smart city development. This paper compares progress in Singapore and Hong Kong (HK). Although similarly competitive in many areas, SG is ahead of HK in rankings. Why does this disparity exist? What forms of public sector innovation are crucial for smart city development? This paper answers these questions for policy-makers by examining the role of public sector innovation in driving smart city developments, and underscores the importance of research and development within the public sector. ABSTRACT Since the 2000s, Hong Kong (HK) and Singapore (SG) have been working to reinvent themselves as smart cities. Despite their similarities, SG has consistently ranked ahead of HK on several smart city indices. To explain this gap, the smart city initiatives of both cities were categorized using a six-factor typology of public sector innovation. Further analysis indicated that SG was ahead of HK because its government has been more aggressive in funding and fostering innovation. This paper suggests that a government's financial support for public sector innovation, as well as its ability to redirect resources within the public sector and get citizens involved, will catalyse transformational efforts into a smart city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the emergence of the new global educational governance characterized by 1) global educational reform movement, 2) the active participation of the international organizations in global educational policy making, and 3) the emerging performative culture. Against this background, this article contextualizes the East Asian Educational Model (Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong) and its operation mechanism by appropriating the Confucian habitus and educational harmonization. Then this study compares the EAEM, the high performing educational system, and the representative global fourth-way countries by interrogating the underling binary—new orientalism vs. reciprocal learning. Finally, this paper draws some implications by learning from these different educational systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at metro station clustering based on passenger flow data. Compared with existing clustering methods that only use boarding or alighting data of each station separately, we focus on higher granularity origin-destination (O-D) path flow data, and provide more flexible and insightful clustering results. In particular, we regard the metro system as a network, with each station as a node. The real-time passenger flows over time between different O-D paths serve as directed edges between nodes. Compared with traditional networks, our edges are temporal curves, and can be regarded as functional data. For this functional data-edged graph, we are the first to develop a novel community detection approach for node clustering. Our method is based on functional factorization. First a dual time-warped sparse nonnegative functional factorization is proposed for extracting patterns of the functional edges. Then the passenger flow of each O-D path can be regarded as a linear combination of different extracted passenger flow patterns. Based on it, we construct a multi-view directed and weighted network, where each view represents one particular pattern, and the factorization coefficient of each O-D path on this pattern is treated as the weight of this directed edge in this particular view. Then a novel community detection algorithm based on nonnegative matrix tri-factorization is constructed according to the topological structure of the multi-view network. The fusion of different views can be either subjectively determined or objectively learnt in a data-driven way, which gives flexibility of the clustering algorithm to emphasize on different travel patterns. Two real datasets of Singapore and Hong Kong metro systems are used to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A general right to equality is a common feature of written constitutions around the world. Interesting questions arise when one seeks to apply such rights to discrete executive acts. The subject of such acts has necessarily been singled out from a multitude of possibilities for the purposes of the act. To determine whether a differentiation has occurred such that like cases have not been treated alike, to what or whom should this subject be compared? The question of how one selects the proper comparator becomes especially significant when one notes that whether the equal protection guarantee is triggered at all depends on the answer to this question. This paper will study how courts in Hong Kong and Singapore have addressed these difficulties. It argues that three categories of approaches can be discerned in these jurisdictions: class-focused, policy-focused, and justification-focused approaches. It critically evaluates each approach, argues in favour of a justification-focused approach to constitutional equal protection in the context of discrete executive acts, and explores the implications of such an approach for the proper relationship between constitutional equality and administrative law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to capture the sentiment derived from routine financial news and outlines the impact of the media content on the main index futures contracts of Hong Kong and Singapore. News factors are generated from routine financial news, but pessimistic market sentiment factors are more prevalent. High pessimistic news factors predict lower returns for the same day, and the returns start to reverse two days after the news for Hong Kong and Singapore markets. The finding is consistent with the sentiment theory. There is a significant reversal in returns, and the reversal in returns offsets the initial changes entirely. The bad news factor does not seem to work as a proxy for trading costs. The sub-sample results are similar to the whole sample. We also find the significant impact of U.S. news sentiment on news factors, futures return, and open interests in both markets. Trading strategies based on bad news factors generate economically significant returns when trading costs are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with Singapore's Green Plan 2030, all companies listed in the SGX have recently been mandated to provide Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG"), especially climate-related, disclosures in their annual sustainability reports. Against this background, this paper investigates the central legal question that is faced by such companies when conducting sustainability reporting - what is the threshold at which a particular piece of ESG-related information is sufficiently "material", such that it needs to be disclosed to the public? By scrutinizing the existing disclosure framework in Singapore, this paper (1) argues that the prevailing legal test for "materiality" provides inadequate guidance for companies in the ESG context and (2) explains the potential legal consequences that could arise from haphazard sustainability reporting. To seek inspiration from overseas experience on this matter, this paper compares the sustainability reporting regimes adopted in the US, EU, and Hong Kong. As most stock exchanges are similarly undergoing a reformative period concerning ESG-related disclosures, it is observed that a fitting definition of "materiality" is usually absent, and a 'flexible' or 'voluntary' regulatory approach is generally adopted. However, this paper makes the case that Singapore should make a gradual shift towards enacting more concrete rules for regulating ESG-related disclosures. To facilitate this shift, three recommendations are proffered to refine the definition of "materiality" and improve the existing disclosure framework to suit the ESG context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of macroeconomic variables and firm-specific factors on corporate profitability in Singapore and Hong Kong before, during and after the global financial crisis. This paper uses the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments to examine the impact of macroeconomic and firm-specific factors on corporate profitability. The model includes firm-specific factors (firm size, leverage, liquidity, sales growth and previous year's profitability) and macroeconomic factors (real GDP growth and inflation rate). Corporate profitability is represented by ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q. Results from the pooled sample showed that past profitability, firm size and leverage have a strong relationship with firm performance. Our pooled sample results also showed that Hong Kong firms are more affected by macroeconomic factors during the global financial crisis than Singapore firms. Our study provides insights into the relationship between firm-specific factors, macroeconomic factors and firm performance under three different economic periods in two developed economies in the Asia-Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic linkages between macroeconomic factors and stock market developments in the economies of Hong Kong and Singapore are the subject of investigation in this paper. These city-states belong to the world's most globalised economies and are two of the world's four largest financial centres. In the crisis years, both these countries experienced a decline in GDP, faced the threat of deflation, and their foreign trade turnover decreased. The crisis also affected the financial sector. This paper aims to ascertain the impact of structural economic changes, namely the financial crisis, on the prosperity of these advanced economies. The basic characteristics of determinants of economic development and the analysis of the mutual relationships of selected macroeconomic indicators with the financial markets serve to meet the aim of this paper. The macroeconomic variables used in most research are GDP, the interest rate, the inflation rate, money supply and the unemployment rate. To test the dependence of these indicators, a regression model was constructed, and the period from 2005 to 2016 was chosen for observation. From the linear regression equation, it is obvious that the unemployment rate, the exchange rate and the interest rate have a prevailing negative effect on equity returns, in contrast to money supply, which has a prevailing positive effect. The Chow test confirms that the global financial crisis at the end of 2008 had a negative impact on the predictive ability of the chosen linear regression analysis in the long-term time horizon in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies of East Asian welfare regimes focus on similarities between social security schemes. In contrast, this paper explores cross-national variations in public–private pension mixes in six welfare states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Our research echoes the pension policy analysis of international organisations but takes a step forward with emphasis on the historical and institutional characteristics of the respective pension systems. The analysis identifies three institutional patterns. First, the statist pension system (Taiwan and China) primarily relies on public pensions to provide old-age security, with private pensions playing a rather minor role. Second, in the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) both public and private pensions work in parallel to ensure retirement income, though a clear security gap exists between workers in the formal and informal economies. Finally, the individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore) is characterised by genuine fully funded individual accounts, emphasising citizens' own responsibilities for ensuring old-age security. These three types of pension systems demonstrate distinct institutional characteristics and policy outcomes, illustrated by the juxtaposition of their institutional structures as well as by the comparison of key indicators collected from government reports and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics. The paper concludes with a theoretical reflection of East Asian pension policies and a diagnosis of the distinct challenges confronted by each of the various pension patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of related party transactions (RPTs) and types of RPTs (complex, simple and loan) on earnings quality in four East Asian countries: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Design/methodology/approach: RPTs and types of RPTs are measured using two approaches, magnitude and abnormal (magnitude change). Earnings quality is measured using proxies for accrual earnings management and identified as discretionary accruals (DAC) and performance matched discretional accruals (PMDAC). Findings: The results suggest that firms in these countries experience poor earnings quality when they are engaged in RPT. The effect of RPT-simple on earnings quality is more severe than RPT-complex. However, the presence of higher investor protection and stricter enforcement of regulations in countries like Singapore and Hong Kong reduce the negative impact of RPTs on earnings quality. Research limitations/implications: The results support the argument that the presence of controlling shareholders in East Asia is likely to lead to engagement with RPTs, which will increase the likelihood of firms' earnings manipulation via DAC. This study has two limitations. It only focuses on Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and the results may not be generalizable to other countries. Second, this study only measures the magnitude and abnormal RPTs based on the disclosures available in annual reports. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by examining the effect of RPTs and types of RPTs on earnings quality in four selected East Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, Asia has begun the race for economic supremacy at the global level. The so-called "Four Asian Tigers" are those countries which have continually experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the last half of century and comprise the high growth and income economies of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. These East Asian countries were largely considered as economic models since their growth rates of real per capita gross domestic product in the period 1960-1995 reached around 6% per year. As economic growth represents the outcome of specific issues, the paper aims to identify and present the main factors that contributed to the meteoric growth of the Asian Tigers by focusing on the economies of three of them, namely Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The methodological approach was based on a quantitative method. The paper argues that important lessons related to economic growth could be drawn from the valuable experience of these countries. Also, it identifies and presents some of the most important factors, such as the developmental state and the rapid industrialization, that highly contributed to their impressive economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ageing of populations is an unprecedented worldwide phenomenon that has created anxiety about labour and skill shortages in many developed countries. One way to address these concerns is to extend the working lives of seniors through appropriate retirement, retention and recruitment policies. This paper utilises official policy documentation and employment data to compare the policies, practices and predicaments of senior employment in Hong Kong and Singapore, two of developed Asia's most ageing economies. It finds that while labour force participation rates among Hong Kong seniors have declined since the early 1990s, older workers in Singapore remain largely confined to the secondary labour market. This paper examines why these trends are occurring and whether longer working lives will lead to greater opportunities for ‘active ageing’ in employment or, conversely, force older workers into a reserve army of labour to maintain their incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on transnational Higher Education governance has provided a thesis explaining how East Asian states have successfully selectively blended elements of globalisation in Higher Education with their pre-existing regulatory regimes. However, this paper argues that the thesis overlooks the significance of local politics in understanding the formulation of Higher Education policy, thus insufficiently acknowledging the indeterminacy that arises in the globalisation process. To address this argument, this paper examines the transnational Higher Education development in Singapore and Hong Kong and explains how political resistance and corresponding policy changes that emerged in these two societies help reconceptualise transnational Higher Education governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The East Asian experience in tackling COVID-19 has been highly praised, but this high-level generalisation neglects variation in pandemic response measures adopted across countries as well as the socio-political factors that shaped them. This paper compares the early pandemic response in Singapore and Hong Kong, two Asian city-states of similar sizes, a shared history of SARS, and advanced medical systems. Although both were able to contain the virus, they did so using two very different approaches. Drawing upon data from a cross-national, probability sample Internet survey conducted in May 2020 as well as media and mobility data, we argue that the different approaches were the result of the relative strength of civil society vs. the state at the outset of the outbreak. In protest-ridden Hong Kong, low governmental trust bolstered civil society, which focused on self-mobilisation and community mutual-help. In Singapore, a state-led response model that marginalised civil society brought early success but failed to stem an outbreak among its segregated migrant population. Our findings show that an active civil society is pivotal to effective outbreak response and that trust in government may not have been as important as a factor in these contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed the emergence and consolidation of new and established gay cities in East and Southeast Asia, in particular, the sexualisation of the Singapore city-state, the commerce-led boom of queer Bangkok, the rise of middle-class gay consumer cultures in Manila and Hong Kong, and the proliferation of underground LGBT scenes in Shanghai and Beijing. In the West, scholarships on urban gay centres such as San Francisco, New York and London focus on the paradigms of ethnicity (Sinfield, 1996), gentrification (Bell and Binnie, 2004) and creativity (Florida, 2002). Mapping the rise of commercial gay neighbourhoods by combining the history of ghettos and its post-closet geography of community villages, these studies chart a teleological model of sexual minority rights, group recognition and homonormative mainstream assimilation. Instead of defaulting to these specifically North American and European paradigms and debates, this paper attempts to formulate a different theoretical framework to understand the rise of the queer Asian city. Providing case studies on Singapore and Hong Kong, and deploying an interdisciplinary approach including critical creative industrial studies and cultural studies this paper examines the intersections across the practices of gay clusters, urban renewal and social movement. It asks: if queer Asian sexual cultures are characterised by disjunctive modernities, how do such modernities shape their spatial geographies and produce the material specificities of each city? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We focus on three locations in the Asia-Pacific region—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore. • We analyze the impact of variations in research and development (R&D) spending on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. • In each of the three cases, we compare and contrast the role of public and private R&D in boosting TFP growth as well as the pattern of causality between public and private R&D and the capacity of both types of R&D to generate economic spillovers. • We show that the impact of both private and public R&D varies across the three cases, with significant but limited outcomes for TFP growth in the case of Hong Kong, no significant growth in Shenzhen, but strong and positively significant growth in Singapore. In this paper, we focus on three locations in the Asia-Pacific region—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore—to analyse the impact of variations in research and development (R&D) spending on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. In each of the three cases, we compare and contrast the role of public and private R&D in boosting TFP growth as well as the pattern of causality involving public and private R&D and the capacity of both types of R&D to generate economic spillovers. Our results show that the impact of both public and private R&D varies across the three cases, with significant but limited outcomes for TFP growth in the case of Hong Kong, no significant growth in Shenzhen, but strong and positively significant growth in Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border partnerships are increasingly important for higher education in the twenty-first century. Drawing from the business sector's resource-based theory, this paper explores international partner selection among higher education institutions in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. According to resource-based theory, institutions may seek partners with specific technical capabilities, managerial capabilities or other intangible resources to access external knowledge and capabilities, develop internal resources and gain competitive advantage. Through document analysis and interviews, this investigation identified twelve attributes that influenced international partner selection for higher education institutions in these contexts. Eleven fit within resource-based theory's criteria areas of technical capabilities, managerial capabilities and intangible resources. These determined the attractiveness of potential partners. However, existing relationships, the twelfth attribute, wasoften the deciding factor of whether or not a partnership would move forward. Importantly, while contextual differences were observed, these attributes were present across contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban governance involves institutional rules that can be combined to serve aims of providing and delivering public welfare and services. Such combination can be achieved by engaging stakeholders holding respective resources and power into a rule-structured interaction to orient the collective outcome towards a more favourable end, while the conflicts among actors remain as the governance imperative in the urban renewal arena. This paper aims to elucidate against this background of urban renewal governance and consequences of its resource mobilization by comparing three high-density Asian cities from north to south: Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore all with a Chinese cultural background. The comparative study investigates the capacity of actors and implications of instrumental tools to mobilize non-state resources in different urban renewal governances. In particular, the assembly of, concession in, incentive for, and transfer of plot ratio, are further accentuated as the said manipulation by public authorities, private sectors, and the community. The findings identify the practical utilities rooted in the manipulation of plot ratios to fuel the redevelopment projects, and highlight that while the mobilization of non-state resources relieves the government deficit of service delivery, the value-laden governance approach and policy instruments for resource mobilization can also strengthen the unbalanced power relations between actors and have consequences on various aspects. As urban governance evolves in response to local and global pressures, the findings in this paper will shed light on the future of urban renewal governance. • A comparative study of urban renewal governances in terms of plot ratio regimes. • Utilities of plot ratio schemes conducive to redevelopment are identified. • Outcomes of urban renewal governances regarding plot ratio controls are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the unintended consequences of state language policy and planning (LPP) that adopt subtractive approaches on teachers' subsequent receptivity to policy fine-tuning. A comparative approach is adopted in this statistical study of two strategic contexts, where the influence of the world's two leading languages—English and Mandarin—manifests in the home language conversion patterns of ethnic Chinese teachers of Hong Kong and Singapore. The interplay among state, education, and family linguistic domains provides the framework to understand how teachers exercise agency underpinned by their sociolinguistic background (childhood home language—CHL) and home language conversion preference (home language as adult—HL). The results show that teacher CHL–HL conversion preferences underlie their response to state LPP initiatives and influence LPP outcomes in the education domain. The results are theorized in terms of the prevailing values in Hong Kong and Singapore that shape teacher agency, the unintended outcomes of subtractive LPP in education, and the probable outcomes on the linguistic vitality of local and dominant languages in Hong Kong, with the interplay between future subtractive LPP and teacher agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong and Singapore were former British colonies, have a predominant Chinese population and value. They began to develop quickly in the late 1960s, become financial hubs of the world in the 21st century. This paper reviews the tertiary education development of the two cities, particularly on the perspective of university rankings. It first elaborates about the emergence of university rankings, and the reason why it becomes a growing exercise, and who would be the benefactors of these exercises. Then it examines the performance of universities of the two cities in the international university ranking systems, makes a general assessment about the relative merits of the higher education systems in both cities. The paper requests ranking comparisons on the detailed items rather than just the sums, and argues that universities in the two cities are on par. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The evolution of re-exporting hubs, entrepôts, is explored in this paper by looking at trade patterns of merchandise re-exports over the last 20 years through three key economies (Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States), and their inter- and intra-regional linkages. The growth of re-exports of intermediate goods during this period suggests that these economies are playing an increasingly important role in global value chains (GVCs) by acting as hubs in regional supply chains. Findings also indicate that high volumes of intermediate goods that are re-exported appear in sectors in which GVCs have a strong presence, as in the case of semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth of a country shall be measured with the help of several macroeconomic aggregate. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gains at most significance while estimating the economic growth of any country. Liberalisation of trade practices and globalisation are considered to be a key component contributing to the economic growth in several economies. Several literatures also prove the same. This paper attempts to study the causal link between FDI inflows, imports, exports, trade openness and GDP in the selected developing economies. According to the World Investment Report 2019 published by UNCTAD China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil and India rank among the top 10 developing economies in terms of attracting high FDI inflows. For the purpose of the study the South Asian economies that is, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India have been considered. The results reveal a long run association among the variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes and tests a model of how firms acquire knowledge from their international joint venturing experience. Based on survey response from 73 Singapore and 89 Hong Kong firms with respect to their joint ventures set up in China, the results indicate that both overseeing effort and management involvement are significant channels of knowledge acquisition. The former channel is more important for firms with a great deal of operational experience in China and for parents of older joint ventures. This finding indicates that firms improve their skills of knowledge acquisition through learning-by-doing. Moreover, the strategic importance of the venture concerned, instead of the learning intent of the parent, is the driving force behind the allocation of resources to the two channels. This implies that firms mainly learn through managing their key joint ventures. Since a venture that provides novel and fruitful learning experience may not, and need not, be an operation of great strategic importance, this finding suggests the existence of learning myopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing policy attention to financial crimes, theoretical discussions about the policies that the state has pursued to deal with this problem have been lacking. This paper develops a theoretical framework to understand the politics of financial crimes. It argues that policy efforts against financial crimes pursued by the state can be explained with reference to the financialization of the global economy and the quest for global competitiveness. At the same time, these global forces are mediated by the dynamics of domestic politics, which determines the pace and the scope of financial regulation. This paper then applies this theoretical framework to explain the differences between Hong Kong and Singapore in their efforts to deal with financial crimes. The difference in terms of their regulatory thrusts in financial affairs relates to their divergent economic ideologies. The final part of this paper highlights the key challenges that Shanghai is facing in dealing with financial crimes with reference to the relevant historical experiences of Hong Kong and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the family-friendly policies developed in Sweden, the UK and Singapore and discuss the implications on family-friendly policies in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on policy documents of the three countries, to examine the welfare model, the service provisions and the outcomes of the family-friendly policies. Findings – In the study, the paper finds that considerable differences exist among the three countries in their conception of the role and responsibility of government in the reconciliation of family and work conflict. Strategies ranging from a high degree of intervention to minimal intervention are closely related to the social welfare regime of a country. Learning from the international experiences, it is important to link work and family policies in developing family-friendly policy in Hong Kong because work and family are not two separate worlds. Originality/value – Numerous studies have documented the effectiveness and impact of family-friendly policies in their own countries, but little has been done to compare the international experiences. The analysis contributes to offer a clear direction of developing family-friendly policy in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the impacts of time segment modeling approach for berth allocation and quay crane (QC) assignment on container terminal operations efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: The authors model the small time segment modeling approach, based on minutes, which can be a minute, 15 min, etc. Moreover, the authors divided the problem into three sub-problems and proposed a novel three-level genetic algorithm (3LGA) with QC shifting heuristics to deal with the problem. The objective function here is to minimize the total service time by using different time segments for comparison and analysis. Findings: First, the study shows that by reducing the time segment, the complexity of the problem increases dramatically. Traditional meta-heuristic, such as genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, etc., becomes not very promising. Second, the proposed 3LGA with QC shifting heuristics outperforms the traditional ones. In addition, by using a smaller time segment, the idling time of berth and QC can be reduced significantly. This greatly benefits the container terminal operations efficiency, and customer service level. Practical implications: Nowadays, transshipment becomes the main business to many container terminals, especially in Southeast Asia (e.g. Hong Kong and Singapore). In these terminals, vessel arrivals are usually very frequent with small handling volume and very short staying time, e.g. 1.5 h. Therefore, a traditional hourly based modeling approach may cause significant berth and QC idling, and consequently cannot meet their practical needs. In this connection, a small time segment modeling approach is requested by industrial practitioners. Originality/value: In the existing literature, berth allocation and QC assignment are usually in an hourly based approach. However, such modeling induces much idling time and consequently causes low utilization and poor service quality level. Therefore, a novel small time segment modeling approach is proposed with a novel optimization algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous construction productivity research focused on developing productivity measurement methods and quantifying the impact of influencing factors. However, the development of holistic strategies for productivity enhancement of a construction industry has received limited attention. This paper examines the nature of the constraints on productivity advancement and explores the rationale underpinning the productivity enhancement strategies at the industry level. The exploration was based on a systemic perspective taking contingency factors in the broad business environment into consideration. A comprehensive literature review used a political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) framework to reveal the major strategic themes of construction productivity enhancement. Building on the literature review, a multiple exploratory case study design was adopted to investigate the constraints and strategies within the construction industries of Singapore, Hong Kong, and the UK. The research design combines documentation, semistructured stakeholder interviews, and project site visits. The case study analyses led to a theoretical framework that conceptualizes the underlying structure of construction productivity enhancement strategies (CPESs) within the dynamic business environment of the industry. The findings contribute to a better theoretical understanding of the systemic nature of CPESs and provide specific guidance for formulating holistic strategies to enhance construction productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Singapore to two main host destinations: China and Hong Kong. It allows policy makers and researchers to understand the differences/similarities in the determinants of FDI from Singapore to a developing country, China, and a developed country, Hong Kong. Annual time series data covers the period 1994 to 2014 is used. Commonly used determinants, such as gross domestic product per capita of a host country, gross domestic product per capita of Singapore, real interest rate of a host country and trade openness of a host country are utilized to study Singapore's outward FDI (OFDI). Because the sample has only 21 observations, autoregressive distributed lag based bounds testing approach to cointegration developed by Pesaran, Shin & Smith (2001) is used to estimate cointegrating regression among these variables. This approach is an appropriate econometric estimation technique because the estimated long-run coefficients obtained from the reparameterization of an ARDL model are super-consistent even in small sample size. The main findings show that gross domestic product per capita of a host country attracts FDI from Singapore to each of these countries. It is also observed that higher interest rates in these two host countries attract Singapore's FDI. The degree of openness of China influences the flows of Singapore's FDI to China positively, but not for Hong Kong. It is a surprise that this empirical study is unable to find evidence that gross domestic product per capita of Singapore has an influence on its own FDI outflows. The overall results reveal that the motives of multinational corporations (MNCs) from Singapore to invest abroad typically differ between developing and developed economies, depending upon their respective competitive advantages. In general, MNCs invest in more advanced economies, such as Hong Kong, due to its purchasing power and market potential. Same goes for the developing markets, such as China, that consists of cheaper labor and large market opportunities. For the developing economies, trade liberalization is proved to be the pull factor that attracts MNCs. The more open an economy, the greater the attraction it has to MNCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up the study of Tibet in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Tibet studies are defined through scholars working in universities in the specified countries/regions who have published works in which the Tibetans and the Tibetan areas of China are focal. The methodology is to analyse selected published works on Tibet as well as to interview selected scholars. The paper attempts to draw some characteristics of Tibet studies in the regions or countries specified, defined according to factors such as discipline, priority of language, area of interest, approach or political stand. It reaches no grand conclusions, but finds that the spectrum of Tibet studies in the places considered is fairly wide and, though not comparable with several other countries, the value is quite high in terms of quantity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is written out of a conviction that there is a need to explore issues occurring within the English language creative writing classroom vis-a-vis some of the conditions pertaining to contemporary literary scenes in Singapore and Hong Kong. In this paper, the authors' experience of learning and teaching in the creative writing classroom is a prism through which we explore issues pertaining to the pursuit of creative writing in these two Asian societies. The first part of the paper draws on the first author's experience of attending creative writing classes as an undergraduate in Singapore. It also looks at some of the works of the younger generation of writers in Singapore whose works emerged in the 1990s. The second part of the paper draws on the second author's experience as a student of creative writing in Hong Kong. It then looks at some of the issues germane to the literary scene in Hong Kong. The last portion of the paper then outlines the implications of the above for the teaching of creative writing in Singapore and Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in underpricing for initial public offerings (IPOs) brought to market in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. It intends to determine whether IPO pricing accuracy in Hong Kong is facilitated by the development and dissemination of pre-deal research. Design/methodology/approach – The study examines a broad sample of initial public offerings made between 2000 and 2004. The author conducts univariate and multivariate tests to assess the relationship between IPO underpricing and the dissemination of pre-deal research. Findings – The author finds that Hong Kong issues experience significantly less underpricing than issues listed in Singapore and the United States. The underpricing of Singapore IPOs, on average, is not significantly different from that of US new listings. Furthermore, the author finds underpricing experienced by Hong Kong issues after adoption of the 40-day post-IPO quiet period is significantly higher than underpricing in the pre-regulation period. Research limitations/implications – The results may not be generalizable to different countries. They do, however, appear to be robust in the three markets throughout the five-year sample period. Practical limitations/implications – To the extent that pre-deal research can enhance IPO pricing accuracy, the overall finding should be useful to regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore as they continue to evaluate the extent to which pre-deal research should be allowed and other IPO related policy making. Originality/value – The paper extends the IPO underpricing literature in a new direction and also documents a significant economic benefit to IPOs related to pre-deal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Sanctions Ordinance is the primary legal basis of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) for implementing the United Nations Security Council's resolutions. However, there are concerns that the Ordinance is potentially violating the separation of powers in its delegation of regulation-making authority to the executive. There are also criticisms against the expediency of the Ordinance as a mechanism lot enforcing Security Council sanctions. Against this background, this paper attempts to examine the separation of powers doctrine, its place in HKSAR's constitutional system and its relevance to the Ordinance. On the issue of expediency, this paper focuses on the scope and speed of implementing the sanctions, and the human rights and criminal justice pro blems it involves. For comparative purposes, references are to be made to the law of the USA, Canada and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the current globalisation and complexity of today’s business environment, there are increasing concerns on the role of business ethics. Using culture and religion as the determinants, this paper presents a cross-national study of attitudes toward business ethics among three countries: Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The results of this paper have shown the attitudes toward business ethics to be significantly different among the three countries. It was also found that respondents who practised their religion tend to consider themselves more ethically minded than those who do not. Additional findings on gender have also revealed significant differences between the males and females for respondents in Singapore and Australia. Males are generally considered more ethical than females across the three countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price discovery of real estate investment has been getting lots of attentions from researchers and it is generally believed that lagging errors exist in appraisal-based returns of commercial real estate investments, in comparison to other investment instruments traded in the stock market Due to fewer transactions in the commercial real estate market, it is reasonable to notice a difference in the handling of current market information. By introducing two study approaches along with a test case using Singapore's data, this paper explores the extent of lagging in Hong Kong's commercial (office)real estate values, in a State Space Model with Kalman filter. The findings first suggest that whether appraisal-based indices overstate or understate true values lies in the economy condition at the time. Then, commercial real estate values in Hong Kong are about three months behind the stock market property indices. Also, as indicated by the findings, data collection/selection bias may render a de-lagged index not as efficient as it is supposed to be. This paper provides a different perspective on price discovery and the process of de-lagging property values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the time-series behaviour of house prices for the four Asian markets, namely, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Taipei, by using structural time-series methodology. The paper assumes two types of trend models to characterise and compare the long-run movement of house prices. It also examines the cyclical pattern hidden in the series. The long-run trend rate in these markets ranged between approximately 1.6 and 3.2 per cent per annum. Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei have relatively higher figures, which could be expected in light of the rapidly growing economies. Surprisingly, their cyclical patterns were fairly similar, although causes of the cycles differed. The markets were found to have stochastic cycles of around one year, two to four years and seven to ten years, which were consistent with previous findings on real business cycles commonly observed internationally in other macroeconomic time series. However, the found stochastic nature suggests all these markets are not in a steady state and is still changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong and Singapore have been the leading cities for hosting MICE in Asia. Every year, thousands of events are held, both by local and international organizers, in Singapore and Hong Kong. Despite the significant economic contributions of MICE to a local economy, hospitality and tourism literature seldom analyzes Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of MICE promotion. The absence of published articles is particularly true in the context of virtual promotion. This paper reports on a study examining events promotion in the Web sites of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Singapore Tourism Board. The paper also analyzes the performance of the official Web sites in providing useful site selection information to event organizers and meeting planners. Empirical results of a content-based analysis indicate that the information provided by the Singaporean Web site is more comprehensive than its Hong Kong counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Land and buildings form a significant portion of the national wealth in most economies, but in Singapore and Hong Kong, two small city-states where land is scarce, real estate has an important role in the functioning of the whole economy. Transnational property and development companies are important players in Singapore and Hong Kong. They form an important part of the local stock market and have enjoyed considerable growth while providing substantial revenue for governments and wealth for individuals. Because of this important role, the paper redescribes Singapore and Hong Kong as property states, not rent-seeking economies as the term rent is usually used in discussing Asian capitalism. The importance of real estate, an immobile asset, is not only surprising in a global era defined in part by the mobility of capital, but also because in Singapore and Hong Kong land is publicly owned. The paper attempts to explain the anomaly by analysing the land allocation mechanisms in Singapore and Hong Kong. In spite of their similarities, real estate markets in Singapore and Hong Kong exhibit several differences, linked in turn to different policy options for their management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are naturally the center of attention when innovation and its geography are discussed. This paper seeks to elucidate the knowledge structures of the city innovation systems of Hong Kong and Singapore, and shed light on the performance of knowledge production, networks, and features in accordance with: (1) patent portfolios and fields of technology; (2) the patent landscape; and (3) the correlation map between fields and entities that produce patents. Findings indicate that private firms dominate the patenting landscape for the selected economies. Scientific activities performed by universities and public research institutions are converging with technological knowledge performed by firms. Hong Kong and Singapore sought to attain a co-evolution process for science-based industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The spectacular economic success of the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICS) of Asia since the 1960s, has led to the quest to identify other less developed countries which may be just about to become the next NICS of Asia. This paper examines the arguments for and against the view that there is a "second tier" of less developed countries which are about to join the ranks of the Asian NICS. While Malaysia and Thailand are generally thought to be the most likely candidates, this paper argues that one hitherto unrecognised contender. China, is likely to join these countries in achieving NIC status. This paper examines the question of whether there are likely to be more Newly Industrializing Countries (NICS) emerging over time, following in the footsteps of the original four in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan). While some writers suggest that several developing countries are about to achieve NIC status in the near future, others argue that world trading conditions have deteriorated to such an extent as to make this very unlikely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last two decades, the international auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's have been at the forefront of global art market expansion. Their world-wide footprints have enabled auction house specialists to engage with emerging artists and aspiring collectors, most notably in the developing economies of the Global South. By establishing their sales infrastructure in new locales ahead of the traditional mechanisms of primary market commercial galleries, the international auction houses have played a foundational role in the notional construction of new genres of art. However, branding alone is not sufficient to establish these new markets; the auction houses require a network of willing supporters to facilitate and drive marketplace supply and demand, be that trans-locational art market intermediaries, local governments, and/or regional auction businesses. This paper examines emerging art auction markets in three Global South case studies. It elucidates the strategic mechanisms and networks of international and regional art auction houses in the development of specific genres of contemporary art: Hong Kong and 'Chinese contemporary art', Singapore and 'Southeast Asian art', and Australia and 'Aboriginal art'. Through examination and comparison of these three markets, this paper draws on research conducted over the past decade to reveal an integral role played by art auctions in the expansion of broader contemporary art world infrastructure in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, accompanied by the massive increased urban population density and the compact built environment, the challenge lies in Asian metropolis has evoked the promotion of human health and well-being. This paper aims to deliver the authors’ intention to evaluate the performance of diverse site configuration in the field of urban open space under the tropical and subtropical Asian climatic conditions. The empirical study was conducted in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2015 by the approach of objective environment assessment and perceived health survey. The research findings postulated two paradigms in climate-adaptive design strategy: 1) the precise composition of urban canopy directly impacts the thermal comfort of urban open space; and 2) the comprehensive site configuration significantly influences the personal evaluation of health perception. Based on the above findings, a framework is conceptualized as an attempt to strengthen the climate-adaptive open space design strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]