Dr Samuel Johnson, the celebrated 18th century British writer, is famously quoted as saying, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." While the seriousness of his words has been the subject of some debate down the centuries, the broader question of to what degree creativity comes from within, or is driven by external rewards, has long been an ... Read More

Accounting errors are a commonly acknowledged phenomenon. A 2007 Wall Street Journal report found about 10 per cent of public companies in the US issued financial restatements to address errors, and it is likely many more errors did not get corrected. Yet despite this magnitude, there has been little empirical testing of the effect of errors on firm ... Read More

Whether it is believing in something lucky, like a four-leaf clover, or in bad omens such as breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder, superstition exists around the world. In Chinese culture, for example, the number ‘8’ is believed to be lucky, whereas the number ‘4’ is unlucky. This is because in Mandarin, the pronunciation of ‘8’ sounds like ‘good ... Read More

Marketers are not only keen to get consumers discussing the brands they're promoting, ideally they’d like them to connect and identify with the products on a personal level. But does the mode – written or spoken – consumers use for communicating their thoughts and feelings about a brand, influence how connected they feel to it afterwards? In their recent ... Read More

Retail products such as food items and pharmaceuticals are perishable. For them, matching supply with uncertain demand is a challenge. Retailers sometimes run out of stock, which leads to revenue loss, and they sometimes have to throw away items that have passed their expiration dates. It was found that four main supermarkets in Hong Kong discard ... Read More

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been one of the most successful product innovations in the finance industry. Among their attractions is the potential to help individual investors attain theoretically-sound portfolios – those that are well-diversified and low-cost. Since the first ETF was launched in 1990, their numbers have mushroomed such that the assets ... Read More

When a big fish in the IT sector swallows a relative minnow, it can often seem that too much has been paid and too little gained by the buyer. But, given the major players didn’t become major players by making economically dumb decisions, are there some less obvious benefits to these transactions? In their study, Professor Hui Kai Lung from HKUST Business ... Read More

When a firm discloses important corporate information, analysts are usually right on their tail with reports about what was said. A new study has confirmed that these reports serve a valuable function for investors because they interpret, flesh out and confirm managers’ statements. The study, by Allen Huang, Reuven Lehavy, Amy Zang and Rong Zheng, used an ... Read More

Customer mistreatment towards customer service employees is a problem both for the employee and the organisation. There is substantial evidence that it leads to employee burn-out, emotional distress and absenteeism. Changing such customer behaviour is difficult if not impossible. But new research shows that companies may be able to help their employees cope ... Read More

When firms announce they will repurchase shares, the market tends to see this as good news and responds positively – even though there is no requirement on the firm to actually repurchase. In fact, a number of firms never do so. So why does the market react as it does? Researchers Utpal Bhattacharya and Stacey Jacobsen think they have an answer: the ... Read More