Research Espresso | Jun 2021 Issue 09

09 Jun 2021 ISSUE

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09 Jun 2021 ISSUE

Contents 02 Research Insight The Art of $POWFSTBUJPO in the Workplace

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News Two HKBU business scholars 06 listed amongst world’s top 2% researchers

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HKBU Economics team releases research report on “Mainland Immigrants in Hong Kong: Dynamic Changes in Socioeconomic Status”

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Research Excellence

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Upcoming Events

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/ Research Insight

Research Insight

Jun 2021 Issue 09 / 3

The Art of

Conversation in the Workplace

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/ Research Insight

B

roaching an issue with your boss calls for preparation at the best of times — even more so when expressing concerns or making suggestions about something important. Thoughtful communication requires putting your opinion forward in a way that will be well received, whether it’s having the awkward conversation about a team member not pulling their weight or procedural errors.

Two studies explore whether employees are more likely to express opinions publicly when they view an issue to be important, as opposed to having a one-on-one chat. They investigate how communication is affected when a manager seems to be open and in a good mood.

If you’ve ever considered the opportune moment to bring up management issues, the weekly board meeting may be prime time to maximise chances of a

favourable outcome. Your boss is likely to respond in a way that makes them seem likeable if you bring this up in front of other staff. The more benefit an employee stands to receive, the more likely they are to bring it up in public.

This tactic is not without cons though, as voicing opinions publicly may be construed as threatening, evoking defensiveness from an employer. The team member could unwittingly create the impression that they challenge authority, and risk being stigmatised as a troublemaker. In contrast, those seen to have the social sensitivity to take the private approach may be favoured for helping bosses ‘save face’.

The studies also touch upon whether speaking up in a public setting is more effective in achieving the desired outcome. Results show that employees are

Jun 2021 Issue 09 /

hesitant to speak up in front of colleagues, despite it being an effective way to get their boss’ attention. For an employee to bring up a topic publicly, they need to believe that the benefits of having the conversation outweigh the risk of bringing it up in the first place. Being confident that your boss is not only open-minded, but also in a good mood trumps

all other factors. It’s the combination that makes us feel safe and comfortable enough to have the discussion.

Perhaps the lesson here may be less about how to get to what you want from your boss, but rather how to be a better manager. Employers should be able to read subtle cues of team members, and recognise that issues voiced in a public way carry a lot of weight. If leadership effectiveness is measured by proactive employees, then providing a safe space to speak up and maintaining emotional balance at work is key!

Dr. Erica Xu

Prof. Xu Huang

Assistant Professor Department of Management

Chair Professor Department of Management

Xu, E., Huang, X., Ouyang, K., Liu, W., & Hu, S. (2020). Tactics of speaking up: The roles of issue importance, perceived managerial openness, and managers' positive mood. Human Resource Management, 59(3), 255-269.

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/ News

News Two HKBU business scholars listed amongst

world’s top 2% researchers

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n a list produced by Stanford University naming the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists, two scholars from the HKBU School of Business, Prof. Christy Cheung, Professor of the Department of Finance and Decision Sciences, and Prof. Xu Huang, Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies) and Chair Professor of the Department of Management, were listed in the elite grouping.

The list features the 159,648 scientists whose work is most frequently cited by other authors around the globe, making them the most influential scientific researchers in the world. It is based on journal rankings and their associated citation indexes. The full inventory can be found here.

Prof. Christy Cheung Professor

Department of Finance and Decision Sciences

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Prof. Cheung is a multi-award winning technology use and well-being, social media, data analytics and IS security. She has been conferred the title “RGC Senior Research Fellow” in the Research Grants Council (RGC) Senior Research Fellow Scheme in 2020. Having an impressive track record of scholarly work published in grade A journals, she is also the been President of the Association for Information Systems (AIS)-Hong Kong Chapter since 2017.

Prof. Huang is an internationally-recognised academic who is often invited by prestigious universities and corporates around the world to present his research. With a broad range of research expertise and interests across multiple areas, he has published representative papers in key areas including leadership, cross-cultural management, workplace creativity and interpersonal interactions.

Prof. Huang has published extensively in topApplied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Academy

Prof. Xu Huang Chair Professor

Department of Management

Associate Dean

(Research & Postgraduate Studies) School of Business

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/ News

HKBU Economics team releases research report on “Mainland Immigrants in Hong Kong: Dynamic Changes in Socioeconomic Status”

Jun 2021 Issue 09 /

T

he Department of Economics of the HKBU School of Business has recently completed a study on “Mainland Immigrants in Hong Kong: Dynamic Changes in Socioeconomic Status”. The study was sponsored by the Society for Community Organization (SoCO). A press conference was conducted on 9 June 2021 on HKBU campus.

The research findings show that Mainland immigrants ameliorate the effects of population ageing and boost economic transformation. “Misconceptions about Mainland immigrants are also found in Hong Kong. The fact is, there have been significant changes in the characteristics of Mainland immigrants in recent years, where both their incomes and education attainments have been substantially increased,” Prof. Cheng Yuk-shing, Head and Professor of the Department of Economics, who led the research team of the study, explained.

Dr. Hongliang Zhang, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at HKBU and a member of the research team, elaborated that the research utilised a 5% sample of the Census and By-Census microdata from 2001 to 2016. A novel method is used to investigate Mainland immigrants’ socioeconomic status after staying in Hong Kong for over seven years. The findings revealed that the incomes of Mainland immigrants are generally converging to those of the locally-born residents. Some of the findings from this project have not been uncovered in previous studies. For example, a large proportion of highly-educated immigrants that arrive in Hong Kong do not actually stay here, often leaving Hong Kong after a relatively short period of time. This suggest that the Hong Kong government should consider to formulating strategies to retain talent.

Prof. Cheng further indicated that, given the importance of Mainland immigrants to Hong Kong’s demographics and future labour supply, the Hong Kong government should fully consider their role when formulating policies on population and human resources.

More details are available in the report (written in Chinese, with an English executive summary).

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/ Research Excellence

Research Excellence

Career Concerns, Beijing Style International Economic Review https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12523

Prof. Kim-Sau Chung Professor Department of Economics

Does the market understand the ex ante risk of expropriation by controlling shareholders?

Journal of Corporate Finance

Prof. Aris Stouraitis Professor Department of Finance and Decision Sciences

Jun 2021 Issue 09 / 11

Informal Institutions, Entrepreneurs’ Political Participation, and Venture Internationalization Journal of International Business Studies https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-021-00402-9

Prof. Liqun Wei Professor Department of Management

Thy Neighbor’s Misfortune: Peer Effect on Consumption American Economic Journal: Economic Policy https://www.aeaweb.org/ articles?id=10.1257/pol.20170634

Dr Shirley Zou Assistant Professor Department of Finance and Decision Sciences

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/ Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events Economics

Centre for Business Analytics and the Digital Economy

2 July 2021 / 16:00 –17:30

8 July 2021 / 9:00 –10:30

Loan Guarantees, Bank Underwriting Policies, and Financial Fragility

Tokenomics: When Tokens Beat Equity

Prof. Elena CARLETTI Bocconi University

Prof. Katya MALINOVA McMaster University

14 July 2021 / 9:00 –10:30

26 August 2021 / 16:00-17:30

Why We Fight

Rise of the Central Bank Digital Currencies: Drivers, Approaches and Technologies

Prof. Christopher BLATTMAN University of Chicago

30 July 2021 / 16:00 –17:30 Liquidity Creation, Investment, and Growth Prof. Thorsten BECK City, University of London

6 August 2021 / 9:00 –10:30 Corporate Governance in the Presence of Active and Passive Delegated Investment Prof. Nadya MALENKO University of Michigan

Dr. Jon FROST Bank for International Settlements

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Research Espresso – Impactful Research Insights for Business!

The Research Espresso, a bimonthly e-publication covering everything you need to know about the latest research developments at the HKBU School of Business, focuses on four key areas: Research Insights (the main research topic of the month), Research Excellence (recognition of faculty members’ research achievements), News (research-related updates), and Seminars (sharing research skills and knowledge).

The idea is to provide business practitioners with the most recent research findings from the School's faculty. We want to build links between research and practice and to ensure that the School's research has business and societal impact.

Enjoy reading, and your feedback and input is always welcome!

https://bus.hkbu.edu.hk/ busd-external@hkbu.edu.hk