Impact Stories

New research by Professor Roni Michaely and other co-authors shows that while Socially Responsible Investment Funds are good at picking firms that adopt such behaviours, they do not inspire those firms to further improve their performance.

While some criticises that traditional ETFs are too passive in reflecting market signals, research from Dr. Shiyang Huang, Associate Professor in Finance, HKU Business School and his team shows that Industry ETFs are able to hedge the industry and play a great role in improving market efficiency in the US market. The Industry ETF was proven as a positive financial innovation for both investors and the market and therefore should be encouraged by regulators.

HKU Business School Professor James K.S. Kung has recently won the Royal Economic Society Prize for the best article published in The Economic Journal in 2020. His paper, “Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China's Civil Examination System”, co-authored with Dr. Chicheng Ma and Dr. Ting Chen, examines the long-term consequences of China’s millennium-long civil examination system for human capital or educational outcomes.

On Thursday, January 21, the online dialogue between Mr. Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of Blackstone, and Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School, attracted over 500 attendees from around the world. As an event kicking off the School’s 20th Anniversary celebration, the dialogue between two masterminds perfectly aligns with the School’s commitment to engaging globally impactful academic and business leaders in cultivating thought leadership and inspiring our young leaders. During the event, the two speakers discussed insightful topics ranging from management skills to global economic prospects.

The majority of fledgling businesses fly straight into the unforgiving rule of natural selection – only the fittest and strongest survive. In terms of start-ups, the rule is even more merciless. What can start-ups do to succeed in this brutal environment? Professor David Tse, Stelux Professor of Marketing and Director of the Contemporary Marketing Centre at the HKU Business School, believes Breakthrough Innovation (BI) is an effective strategy for success. Simply put, BI fosters strategies that help service new and under-served markets.

Public services touch every aspect of the lives of people around the world. These millions of service users also have opinions, both good and bad, on the quality of the public services they access. But how often are they asked about these opinions? And do these opinions help create changes and improvements to the services?

Though Asia has been the world’s fastest-growing region for decades, until recently there were limited case studies that referenced Asian business and economic topics, as most case studies were produced in Europe and North America. The Asia Case Research Centre (ACRC) was founded in 1997 to redress this imbalance and cater to unmet demand. ACRC has produced numerous Asia-based cases focusing on global sourcing, business ethics and many other topics aimed at academics, national and international institutions, and organisations of all sizes.