Employee creativity is vital for organizational success, so sustaining it during a crisis—such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic—is essential. In a study with important implications for how organizations should react to crises to maintain employee creativity, HKUST researcher Yaping Gong and two colleagues show that an employee’s mindset and goal orientation ... Read More

Policymakers are deeply concerned about the impact of hiring workers from different locations on firm profitability and the substitution or complementarity of domestic and foreign workers. But assuming that these workers are interchangeable is a myth that may not lead to productive directives and policies for everyone involved. Despite the critical nature of ... Read More

Recent decades have seen extraordinary growth in cross-border debt financing as financial systems become more globally integrated and companies take advantage of foreign markets to share risk, increase liquidity, and obtain cheaper capital. In the first study to comprehensively identify corporate rating patterns for a broad set of international firms, HKUST ... Read More

Understanding the factors that drive stakeholders’ sense of fulfillment and satisfaction (known as their “utility”) can help businesses maintain good relationships. Traditionally, stakeholder utility was believed to be based merely on the direct benefits derived from the relationship. More recently, scholars have taken a more socialized perspective on how ... Read More

Research by the HKUST’s Charles Hsu shows that disclosures of non-GAAP earnings numbers are associated with a greater risk of stock price crashes. Working with international collaborators, Hsu found that non-GAAP disclosures enable managers to divert investors’ attention from bad news included in GAAP earnings. This mechanism, which is substitutive to ... Read More

In the early days of online retailing, many online retail platforms operated as “reselling channels”—purchasing goods from manufacturers and reselling them to consumers. Over time, some platforms (notably Amazon and JD) established “agency channels” (also known as “marketplace channels”) that allowed manufacturers to sell directly to consumers. Through their ... Read More

When consumers talk to each other, marketers listen. And when a product is portrayed as having human characteristics, consumers talk about it more favorably, say HKUST Jaideep Sengupta and colleagues. In a study with critical implications for marketers, communicators, and consumers, the authors show that portraying products as having human characteristics—in ... Read More

When consumers talk to each other, marketers listen. And when a product is portrayed as having human characteristics, consumers talk about it more favorably, say HKUST Jaideep Sengupta and colleagues. In a study with critical implications for marketers, communicators, and consumers, the authors show that portraying products as having human characteristics—in ... Read More

When confronted with a choice between a lettuce with a “best before” date falling in two days’ time and one in four days’ time, a supermarket customer will typically plump for the latter. This choice puts the product remaining on the shelf one step closer to a clearance sale, or even to the bin. “Waste is substantial in retailing,” note HKUST’s Qing Li and ... Read More

Among the inputs that executives rely on to run competitive organizations, a particular type resists classification: ideas. Companies need a steady supply of ideas, and they often turn to external venues for help. Say, for instance, a company is developing an advertising campaign that needs art and text to convey a targeted message. If the company lacks the ... Read More