Press Release

The Faculty saw a new wave of joiners between July 2019 to January 2020, bringing their talent and energy to the team. Let’s learn more about these distinguished scholars and experts in their respective fields.

Professor Zhixi WAN
Professor
(Innovation and Information Management) 

With research focusing on supply and value chain management, Professor Wan investigates how firms at different positions of value chains adjust their resources, technological, and operational capabilities to new trends of globalisation and localisation. Other areas of interest include marketplace operations and AI applications, taking the perspective of marketplace operating firms such as ride-hailing platforms. A key question arises: how can the theories and methods of market design improve transactional and operational efficiencies and better serve marketplace users? These two streams of research share themes of joint optimisation of operational processes with economic processes, and both seek to combine theoretic modelling with data and AI techniques.

“Never forget the goal when choosing a route. Along the route, be brave in trial and errors, and constantly update the toolbox.”

Dr. Derrald STICE
Associate Professor (Accounting and Law)

Accounting is a broad discipline. Basically, almost any information coming out of a firm can be considered accounting. The crucial element is how to use this information in the capital markets and improving the quality of that information. Accounting information used in bank loan and public bond contracts is another area of interest for Dr. Stice.

“Find something that interests you and that you are excited to be a part of and don’t be afraid to take risks.”

Dr. Yanhui WU
Associate Professor (Economics)

An applied economist with research focus in media economics and organisational economics, Dr. Yanhui Wu examines the determinants of media bias, the effect of information diffusion in the media on economic activities, and the consequence of political control of information flow. He also investigates how organisational design and the provision of incentives inside firms affect the efficiency of production, innovation and creativity, and the returns to talent. Dr. Wu works with data scientists to develop new big data machine-learning methods that can be applied to a wide range of social science disciplines.

“Cultivate a good taste for knowledge. Extend yourself intellectually through learning what initially frightens you.”

Dr. Thomas MAURER
Associate Professor (Finance)

International finance is the major interest of Dr. Maurer among a wide range of topics he covers. Foreign exchange (FX) markets are the largest asset markets with an average daily trading volume of more than USD 5 trillion, exceeding the tenfold the trading volume of US stocks. FX investors earn high average returns and the currency carry trade significantly outperforms stock markets. Moreover, it is common practice among international firms to hedge exchange rate risk exposures. Finally, central banks’ decisions to intervene in a FX markets have far-reaching consequences. Unfortunately, FX market risks are not well understood, and traditional asset pricing models cannot capture important empirical facts. Dr. Maurer‘s work helps to quantify and understand these risks.

“Do what you are interested in, not what others expect of you.”

Dr. Xing HU
Associate Professor
(Innovation and Information Management)

Dr. Hu explores how new business models, customer behaviour, and incentive issues challenge firms’ management of operational capacity — including limited inventory, production or service capacity. This enthusiasm was ignited by successful applications of revenue management tools in airline and retailing industries via mathematical and economic models to develop operational strategies (such as dynamic pricing, capacity allocation rules, and incentive systems) to help firms increase capacity usage efficiency and hence revenue. Recent projects focus on developing theoretical framework for data-driven solutions, for example, learning-by-doing approaches to improve pricing and inventory in context of online retailing and ride-sharing.

“Success is about adapting to change and innovation.”

Dr. Zhongwen FAN
Assistant Professor (Accounting and Law)

Dr. Fan’s current research focuses on the economic determinants of earnings quality and voluntary disclosure, including which corporate governance mechanisms are effective in curtailing managers’ earnings and management behaviours, and whether firms can issue capital expenditure forecasts to reduce contracting costs with their debtholders. Other topics of interest include how blockchain recordkeeping system can benefit stakeholders. These areas are of fundamental importance for understanding accounting phenomena and recent technology advances in recordkeeping.

“Stay curious and keep learning both inside and outside the classroom.”

Dr. Lin QIU
Assistant Professor (Accounting and Law)

Dr. Qiu is fascinated by the role boards of directors play in corporate governance. The rapid rise in CEO pay over the past few decades has fuelled an intensive debate on fiduciary duty rules and safeguarding shareholders’ interests. Recent regulatory initiatives such as “Say on Pay” and the Dodd-Frank Act aim to reinvigorate fiduciary duty rules and put shareholders back in control. Dr. Qiu seeks to explore the consequences of imperfect rules and effects of the recent attempts at establishing more binding regimes on social welfare.

“Find your passion and work hard. Acquire skills that are difficult to get outside school.”

Dr. Xiang FANG
Assistant Professor (Finance) 

International finance and asset pricing are Dr. Fang’s main areas of interest, including exchange rates, international asset prices and capital flows, and the role of global banks. In a globalised world with substantial amount of international trade and investment, institutions such as global banks are playing a growing role. Though active developments have been made in recent years on these topics, there is a big gap between the supply and demand of our knowledge.

“Update your knowledge. After all, the world is changing rapidly, and knowledge turns out of date at the same speed.”

Dr. Qingchen WANG
Assistant Professor
(Innovation and Information Management)

Designing machine learning techniques can help solve challenging business problems. Recent breakthroughs in machine learning have led to advances on highly challenging problems such as image recognition and machine translation, but little have trickled down to the business domain. In Dr. Wang’s work, breakthroughs are leveraged and applied to business problems with the goal of improving overall business efficiency.

“Focus on building skills and knowledge on a topic of interest and work to become an expert.”