NUS makes a big bang at Atlanta Meet

NUS was a shining star at the Academy of Management (AOM) Meeting this year, with a record number of faculty and students having papers accepted at the conference. Several faculty and students from NUS Business School also flew home with awards and award nominations, making NUS one of the most distinguished Asian universities at AOM this year. To showcase its excellent performance, the Business Policy (BP) and Management and Organisation (MNO) celebrated by organizing an inaugural NUS Party @ AOM to great success.

The Academy of Management Meeting is an annual conference that draws together scholars dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge about management and organizations. This year, the conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia, with 6,737 participants from 71 countries. A total of 65 faculty and graduate students represented NUS at this year’s meeting. This figure places NUS among the top 24 universities worldwide in terms of the number of participants and also makes it the only university in Asia with more than 30 representatives at AOM this year.

NUS also garnered several awards at this year’s Academy meeting. Visiting Professor at the Department of MNO, Professor Richard Arvey, was a co-winner of the Herbert Heneman Career Achievement Award, a prestigious award given to scholars with great contributions to the field of Human Resource Management over the years.

Dr David Wan, Assistant Professor and Deputy Head of Department (MNO), and his co-author, Dr Ong Chin Huat, who just recently graduated with a PhD in MNO from NUS Business School, were also awarded the Academy of Management Business Policy and Strategy Division’s Distinguished Paper Award. This award is given to the top 1% of scholarly paper submissions to the Business Policy and Strategy Division. This year, four other papers shared this honor.

NUS Business School has had a relatively strong presence at AOM in the last few years. The meeting this year is especially significant as we had the highest number of graduate students representing the university in the history of NUS’ participation at the AOM . This promising increase in participation is an indication of the progress in NUS’ research over the years.

To highlight NUS’ strong presence at the Academy and establish strong networks amongst all distinguished scholars in a fun and relaxing environment, NUS Business School held its inaugural NUS Party @ AOM at Atlanta Marriott Marquis, and some 400 scholars from around the world attended. This party not only serves to raise the profile of NUS, but is also a way to bring NUS to scholars around the world. Our traditional approach has been to host those who arrive on our doorstep and the small set of scholars we invite for job interviews. This party broadens our base tremendously and enhances our visibility in a cost-effective way.

Visibility within this community is essential for international rankings (these faculty provide evaluations), as well as for student recruiting at the MBA and PhD levels (these faculty write letters of recommendation, and suggest schools to students).

The success of the party puts NUS on the map of “great research + great parties to go to” at AOM and hopefully this will be a continuing tradition for NUS.

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Deanery for AY 2006-7

The dean announced the following appointments in the School management for the present academic year:

The heads of the five departments remain unchanged. Joining Professor Allaudeen Hameed in the Department of Finance & Accounting as Deputy Head for Accounting is Assoc Prof Alfred Loh.
Assoc Prof Mak Yuen Teen will continue as Director for the Centre for Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting, with Asst Prof Lan Luh Luh as its Deputy Director. The Saw Centre for Financial Studies will be headed by Assoc Prof Takeshi Yamada, and Assoc Prof James Ang will continue as Director for the Centre for e-Business.

Dean Earley also thanked the following faculty for their service to the School in AY2005-6:

• Assoc Prof Trevor Wilkins, Vice Dean of Finance and Administration
• Assoc Prof Lee Khai Sheang, Vice Dean of Graduate Studies
• Assoc Prof Takeshi Yamada, Academic Director of MBA Program
• Assoc Prof Peter Hwang, Academic Director of APEX-C Program
• Assoc Prof Chen Renbao, Academic Director of IMBA Program

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New deanery's goals for AY 2006-7

NUS Business Leads catches up with the new deanery on what they hope to accomplish in their 12-month term:

Associate Professor Ho Yew Kee, Vice Dean of Finance and Administration: “The expectation of today's university is that it is a well-managed enterprise and possesses all the effectiveness and efficiencies of a modern business. This is the challenge facing my office, namely, to manage the human and financial resources of the School such that it is an effective and efficient organisation that will support the School's mission and vision. We may need to re-engineer and re-look at the way we have been doing business and whether there is a better way to get things done?". Nonetheless, I am mindful that my office plays a support role and we exist to support the rest of the School. The motto I will like to have is: "We serve to accomplish our mission."

Associate Professor Kulwant Singh, Vice Dean of Graduate Studies: “NUS Business School has long been the regional leader in graduate business education, having been among the first to introduce full-time MBA and Executive MBA programs, both in English and Mandarin. Our MBA intakes for 2006 have been our largest and best ever. As a proud alumnus of the NUS MBA, I intend to work closely with my colleagues to help these students become our best alumni ever, and our partners in the growth and success of the NUS Business School.”

Associate Professor Quek Ser Aik, Vice Dean of undergraduate studies: “I feel that we need to work from our alumni backward to our admissions for BBA. If we can decide how we wish our alumni to be, then we can design a developmental process for BBA students among us, and thus further formulate a marketing strategy to attract the appropriate type of students to enjoy our developmental process. I shall also hope, with the help of everyone in our BBA Office, to be concentrating on BBA community life, including major emphasis on careers preparation for all students.”

Associate Professor Prem Shamdasni, Vice-Dean of Executive Education: "The Executive Education market comprising the Customized and Public Executive Development Programs has been experiencing strong growth in Asia-Pacific fueled by strong economic and market fundamentals led largely by China and India. Although there are many global and regional institutional players in this market, the NUS Business School with its long and reputable history in executive education is strategically positioned to be one of the leading providers with a unique blend of Western and Eastern business perspectives and management tools. My team and I at the Office of Executive Education and the Graduate Office are looking forward to another good year to grow our programs and establish a stronger NUS brand presence internationally."

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New staff from Business Policy

Dr Kim-Chi Wakefield Trinh has joined the Department of Business Policy since June. She completed her PhD in Management from Duke University and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Asian Studies from Cornell University. Her research focuses on developing an integrative framework of organizational memory and examining its performance benefits in different environments. Dr Trinh is Vietnamese American and she enjoys good food among friends.

Dr Kim Young-Choon joined the department in July 2006. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from Stanford University. His dissertation examined the rise of technology transfer programs and activities in American research universities. His research interests include understanding social and institutional contexts of organizational innovation and imitation. He is also interested in the evolution of organization and industry. His teaching interests include technological innovation, strategic management, and organization theory.

Dr Xu Hongwei is Assistant Professor of Business Policy. He received his PhD from Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on entrepreneurship, evolution of organizations and industries, and the social, political, and economic consequences of organizational diversity in the evolution process. He studied the financial risk propensity and motivations of entrepreneurs, and the boundary formation processes in emergent organizations. His dissertation examined how the diversity of organizational forms in a local community influences the activities of cultural entrepreneurship. His teaching interests include entrepreneurship, organization theory, and strategic management.

Dr Chu Junhong joined the Dept of Marketing on August 9, 2006.

Dr Chu received her PhD in Marketing from University of Chicago. Her research interests include structural modeling, classical and bayesian modeling, consumer and firm behavior, channel management, e-business, retail competition.

Dr Edmund Keung joined the Dept of Finance & Accounting on August 14, 2006.

Dr Keung received his PhD in Accounting from Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include financial accounting, capital markets research, analyst forecast and empirical audit pricing.

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