An unexpected death in an apartment can cause a 20% drop in the property’s sale price and further impact those on the same floor, in the same block, and on the same estate, according to HKUST’s Utpal Bhattacharya and colleagues. Focusing on Hong Kong’s real estate market, the authors show that such “haunted houses” can have a sustained negative impact on the ... Read More

Agriculture is central to the economies of developing countries. Central to agriculture, in turn, are smallholder farmers, who traditionally sold their produce locally. Today, however, they have access to far larger, more distant markets, thanks to the Internet and the electronic platforms it has enabled. The problem for farmers, according to HKUST’s Ying-Ju ... Read More

The interest rate charged on business loans, known as the discount rate, affects stock prices. This is particularly important, given the fast rate increases by the Federal Reserve this year. However, traditional methods of calculating its impact are not sophisticated enough, according to HKUST’s Zhanhui Chen. To address this limitation, the researcher ... Read More

Financial analysts are crucial information intermediaries in capital markets. Their consensus earnings estimates are widely used to assess firm performance. Given the market influence of financial analysts, managers have an incentive to issue earnings guidance to help analysts update their earnings expectations. Firms commonly issue earnings guidance at the ... Read More

Dynamic capability refers to an organization’s ability to purposefully create, extend, or modify its resource base. Within this framework, core competencies must be used to modify short-term competitive positions with the aim of building a longer-term competitive advantage. In the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs) that produce or deliver services ... Read More

Concerns about data privacy on the Internet are growing exponentially, in line with the advancement of Internet technologies such as data mining and personalized marketing. Against this backdrop, Weiyin Hong and James Y. L. Thong of HKUST, working with a colleague, provide a timely and comprehensive review of the factors influencing online data privacy ... Read More

Social media platforms are investing millions in fighting “fake news,” but little is known about how effective their strategies are, say HKUST’s LEE Dong Won and colleagues. Offering much-needed guidance in today’s era of disinformation, the authors shed new light on the propagation of false and misleading news, identifying how it spreads and, critically ... Read More

Network effects are commonly seen among people engaging in social interactions, and come about from the “payoff externality”, where someone’s payoff depends on both their own actions and the actions of others. For example, an individual is more likely to adopt a program or application if their friends and colleagues already use it. Because network effects ... Read More

More and more organizations are turning to social media to reach as many potential customers as possible, yet few marketing campaigns truly “go viral.” This is largely due to the immense amount of content competing for attention in social networks. Even if users see a particular campaign, they may pay no attention to it, due to the overabundance of ... Read More

With a wealth of products and services at our fingertips in the modern marketplace, online reviews have become an invaluable source of information for consumers. This is especially true for “experience goods” such as a haircut or a hotel stay, whose true quality cannot be determined before purchase. Many retailers post user-generated product reviews online ... Read More