As social media become more pervasive, forming an ever larger part of our everyday lives, it is only natural that they should begin to impact our careers. In the first study of its kind, HKUST’s Yanzhen Chen and colleagues set out to discover whether creating a personal “brand” on social media can improve executives’ performance in the job market. “We ... Read More

Peers and trend-setters have a powerful say in what products we decide to buy, particularly on online social media platforms. Naturally, this means that firms must consider the influence of network connections on purchase behaviors when designing pricing strategies. In doing so, they must consider when consumers decide to buy a new product—some consumers ... Read More

HKUST’s Danqing Wang and co-researchers claim that political term, which they define as “the tenure of an official at a certain level on the career ladder,” can influence the incentives of newly appointed government officials and their efforts to achieve the state’s foreign direct investment (FDI) goals. In a novel study that sheds light on intra-country FDI ... Read More

Social media posts about potential mergers and acquisitions (M&As) can significantly predict the likelihood of M&A success, say HKUST researcher Charles Hsu and colleagues. Social media message boards give China’s 50 million small investors a voice, which they are using to express their opinions on acquisition activity. This study establishes an influential ... Read More

Real business cycle (RBC) models describe how firms make investment and labour decisions. They assume that technological shocks and changes in productivity are the primary drivers of macroeconomic fluctuations. However, these models generally fall short of explaining how choices made within firms—which might modify external shocks—might affect macroeconomic ... Read More

Lowering prices and offering discounts might be a sure-fire way for firms to attract consumers, but these tactics also cause huge fluctuations in competition intensity, with potentially serious implications for asset prices and returns. Surprisingly, however, this key issue has been neglected in asset pricing research. In a pioneering study, HKUST’s ... Read More

Social networks are a good example of the complexity of human relationships, where a person’s daily life decisions are regularly affected by the choices of their friends. This challenges extensive research on the economics of networks, in which individual activities have global impacts on the activities of others. In short, the externalities of network ... Read More

In China, start-ups with high-profile leaders are at risk of becoming victims of government expropriation, HKUST’s Jiatao Li and colleagues have found. This effect is particularly pronounced in areas where income inequality is high, and the legal system is underdeveloped. However, the authors find that entrepreneurs can protect themselves by establishing ... Read More

Counterfeiting costs companies as much as US$600 billion a year, and the situation is rapidly becoming worse. How does counterfeiting affect global supply chains, and how can it best be combated? These were the questions explored by Man Yu and Ki Ling Cheung of HKUST and their colleague—with rather surprising results. They found that the threat of ... Read More

Television advertising plays a crucial role in shaping consumer behavior. It may also have a major influence on investment decisions, according to a novel study by HKUST’s Alminas Žaldokas and his colleague Jūra Liaukonytė from Cornell University. Their analysis of investor behavior revealed an increased interest in a company’s financial records immediately ... Read More