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Examines the dynamic relationships between stock markets in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand before, during and after the October 1997 crisis. Discusses linear and non‐linear Granger causality tests and applies both to stock market data for three time periods between Jan 1997 and Oct 1998. Presents the results, which suggest that Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia led the Asian crisis, Taiwan and Thailand followed but Japan played no part in spreading it. Considers consistency with other research and the implications for these stock exchanges, their regulators and future research.

The purpose of this paper is to use the case of an international luxury hotel chain in Hong Kong to illustrate general environmentally-friendly practices in housekeeping. Six in-depth interviews were conducted with the housekeeping department staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the Hotel’s environmental sustainability practices by analysing their benefits and limitations. Results reveal that all informants acknowledged the environmental sustainability strategies adopted by the Hotel, which can benefit stakeholders. Despite multiple green practices in hotel housekeeping, several strategies may not be as significant as expected with misaligned expectations from the management and the actual practices may create excessive workload for frontline room attendants with a lack of policy enforcement and supportive policies. Therefore, hotels should keep a mutual communication between the management and frontline employees prior to conducting environmentally- and employee-friendly practices. Given the labour-intensive nature of the hotel industry, the housekeeping department should ensure employment equality policy is in place with adequate environmentally friendly support for employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal for international business (IB) activities, leaving them pondering their next steps. The decreasing effectiveness of current vaccines to protect individuals against new variants have created uncertainty on how to respond to the new waves of the COVID-19 infection. This study aims to empirically assesses how IBs perceive the unfolding challenges in the supply chain due to the pandemic and the solutions.

The survey data is obtained from 166 logistics professionals in Hong Kong and India.

The results reveal that returns on investment, logistics, delays and imports are the most affected areas. The most often recommended solutions for supply chain management (SCM) include using local manufacturing capabilities, analytics and automation, offering better customer service, providing more effective transportation means, ensuring diligence around optimization and focusing on sustainability.

The findings of this study help to improve supply chain operations. This study also provides recommendations for changes to SCM in response to the new normal.

Bedroom Feng Shui practices have been criticized as myth over the years but in fact having its scientific origin that is not purely superstitious. This paper aims to examine whether the architects' design practice for bedroom interior arrangement is concurring with the recommended bedroom Feng Shui practices. The study has successfully interviewed 16 architects from diverse backgrounds to avoid bias, seeking their design perspectives in bedroom interior configuration. Subsequently, the interviewees submitted sketches of ideal bedroom layout based on their expertise, with pre-set requirements. Data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using mixed method approach. In agreement with our expectations, majority of the interviewees have matching thoughts that “bed arrangement” is the primary consideration in bedroom interior configuration. Most of the design outputs were highly attached to favorable Feng Shui conditions. The overall findings implied that bedroom Feng Shui is not merely superstitious but most components are practical design references for architects from diverse backgrounds.

Facilities management (FM) activities affect citizens’ health and safety, long-term urban environmental sustainability and the relationships between the built and natural environments of cities. This study aims to comprehend the status of smart FM tools application, how they are used to improve the delivery of FM services and the barriers to their implementation.

To investigate the current smart solutions that leverage the quality of FM service, a case study based on the FM practice in Hong Kong was carried out. The case study was conducted in two phases of data acquisition based on a qualitative research methodology. After conducting in-depth interviews to determine the application of smart FM tools in different types of properties and to identify the initiatives and barriers to smart FM tool application, three workshops were conducted to validate the findings and further investigate the influence of FM professionals on smart FM tools application in Hong Kong.

The findings of the case study revealed, firstly, that four types of smart FM tools – user-centric, safety and hygiene, maintenance and sustainability-oriented – are used to assist the delivery of FM services. Secondly, smart FM tools are shown to be useful in assisting FM activities. Thirdly, the existing barriers to smart FM tool application manifest differently in shopping malls, office buildings and residential buildings. Fourthly, smart FM tools are used to address the four attributes of user needs: comfort, health and wellbeing, convenience and information to occupants.

The value of this study lies in its focus on the industry level (FM industry) and the application process of smart FM tools in different types of property, revealing the benefits, initiatives and barriers to their future application. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the current status and elaborates the barriers to smart FM tool application, which will help FM practitioners to make strategic decisions on selecting and developing smart FM tools. Also, this study will facilitate smart FM tool application policy development.

This study investigates Hong Kong “consumers” sake tasting preferences, willingness to pay and how information commonly found on the bottle or menu affects these attributes.

This study took place inside a four-star hotel lobby restaurant. Convenience sampling was used to collect 184 valid responses from Hong Kong residents. Respondents were given four sakes two blind and two with common information found on the bottles and asked to rate each one independently.

The results suggest that alcohol content is the most crucial attribute in assessing the overall liking for consumers. In addition, information currently provided by producers and brewers has a negative effect on all assessment attributes and overall liking, but a positive effect on willingness to pay.

Sake producers, brewers, marketers, and hotel food and beverage managers should reconsider marketing strategies and the type of information provided to send better signals, increase “consumers” assessment and their overall liking. The results of this study suggest that sake brewers may want to advertise the alcohol content better to achieve higher satisfaction.

Consumers taste preferences for sake are not well understood. By applying the signalling theory the study results filled an information gap by examining how sake information commonly found on labels affects hotel guests tasting preferences and willingness to pay.

Extensive research towards identifying the attributable cost overrun factors globally has been conducted predominantly from a survey-oriented perspective, which disregard the contextual basis on which these triggers manifest. This study aims to explore the driving factors of cost overrun in highway projects, specific to the Nigerian context.

The research used a context-based approach to seek project stakeholders’ perspectives on the key drivers of cost overrun in highway projects in Nigerian. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with client, contractor and consultant organisations involved in the provision of highway infrastructure projects in Nigeria. The collected data was analysed using a developed coding framework grounded on a case study approach, principles of inductive thematic analysis and saliency analysis to identify the key drivers.

Findings from the analysis identified triggers from macroeconomic, societal, leadership and project management perspectives with synergistic relationships with each other based on prevalence and significance. Among the key triggers is a delay in work progress, political instability, adverse weather, social issues, delay in progress payment to contractors and modification of project scope. In conclusion, the triggers of cost overrun in highway projects are contextually driven by the complex nature of the project management, societal, macroeconomic and leadership triggers specific to the Nigerian context.

The research was limited to only highway infrastructure projects in Nigeria. Furthermore, the findings are based on a small sample size, and thus, caution must be taken before applying the outcome of this study in a generalised way to other contexts.

Practically, the stakeholders i.e. client, contractors and consultants should acknowledge the contextual circumstances in which each of the triggers takes place, which will aid in developing pragmatic measures and make the right decisions towards addressing these triggers during any highway construction project in Nigeria and enhance the chances of project success.

The context-based approach applied in this study is expected to provide a new insight in understanding the triggers of cost overruns, especially in highway projects in Nigeria and indeed other developing countries with similar governance characteristics

One of the standard practices of Communist Parties around the world is to employ art, including music, as a channel to spread political ideologies. This study aims to scrutinize the reception of Beethoven's music, particularly from a political viewpoint, by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the early years of its rule, i.e. from 1949–1959. The ambiguity of Beethoven's own political outlook may have provided an opportunity for the CCP to choose the composer and his music in support of its aims.

To understand why and how the CCP could exploit Beethoven and his music to support its political ideologies, a series of Chinese writings on Beethoven between 1949 and 1959 have been studied. Those literatures not only helped the composer gain reputation and popularity in the PRC, but also provided a platform for the CCP to manipulate such candidate and his music. Finally, the reception of the performances of the Ninth Symphony in 1959 in the PRC is singled out for close examination.

During the first ten years of the establishment of the PRC, the quantity and quality of the articles on Beethoven expanded considerably. These writings continued to reflect the reception of Beethoven and his music with the addition of political nuances that could be interpreted in the CCP's favour.

This paper seeks to examine the PRC's artistic policies, with a particular emphasis on the reception of Beethoven and western classical music.

The purpose of this paper is to review research about China’s individual tax compliance. While empirical research in this jurisdiction is still in its infancy, the scale of the problem might be under estimated, or at least over looked. Comparatively, tax compliance as a subject matter has received considerable attention in developed Western economies, where the data had revealed an increasing trend of taxpayers not complying with their tax obligations. Although, this issue had not received as much attention by the Chinese government, as the world’s second largest economy and one of the most populous nations in the world, tax compliance is of critical importance to the Chinese economy and welfare of its citizens. Therefore, it is crucial that a review about China’s tax compliance research should be conducted to identify gaps in the literature.

This paper focuses specifically on a review of empirical research about China’s individual tax compliance. While, this work is primarily descriptive, it builds on existing research to make normative recommendations aimed at improving tax compliance in China.

This paper reaffirmed earlier findings in the literature that Confucianism influences both Chinese social and individual ethical values, any attempt to foster greater tax compliance in China should appeal to the importance of taxes as contributions to the public funding of family and community welfare. However, what was missing from previous research is that the assumption about Chinese ethical values was overly narrow. Apart from Confucianism, another Chinese philosophy known as Legalism is also influential in prompting ethical behaviour, in particular on regulatory issues. Therefore, tax compliance in China drawing on Chinese ethical values should include both incentives and disincentives to prompt individuals to comply with their tax obligations.

The observations and recommendations put forward in the paper are principle-based solutions drawn from Chinese ethical values. Furthermore, no detailed discussions on enforcement are included, as it is beyond the scope of the paper. Hence, the recommendations will require further empirical testing and should be examined in future research.

This review draws attention to a subject matter in China that has been overlooked. Apart from revisiting the key and related literature on China, this paper identified a gap that had been neglected in earlier research. Legalism, a less known Chinese ethical school of thoughts, is an important to the design of tax regulations prompting individuals to comply with their tax obligations.

The purpose of this paper is to give a critical review of the City-State Theory by Wan Chin of Hong Kong. Chin is referred to as the “Father of Hong Kong Independence,” and his two books about the City-State Theory of Hong Kong are popular among the netizens in Hong Kong as a new model of Hong Kong-China (People’s Republic of China (PRC)), in which Hong Kong is considered a city-state and should be fully segregated from the PRC other than in seeking its help in military and diplomatic functions. This paper will aim to review his works with the view of nationalism and nativism theories.

This paper uses nationalism theories with particular focus on Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and theories on American nativism. Then an effort is made to compare these theories against Chin’s arguments on his City-State Theory. This paper also compares his theories against China’s state-nationalism raised by Professors He and Guo.

This paper concludes that Chin advocates a “Hong Kong Nationalism,” a blend of traditional Chinese culture and moral values (he used the term Huaxia), but with a Western influence, into a typical Hong Kong culture. His theory fits into Anderson’s arguments of allowing Hong Kong citizens to imagine Hong Kong as a nation, through the “ramparts” of the city-state. His nativist advocacies also have shown strong nationalistic sentiments. He argues that China should be built in the Hong Kong model before the PRC intervention.

Despite his fame, this paper is the first comprehensive academic paper to review Chin’s theories. This paper introduced the notion of “ramparts” and how this has become the backbone of Chin’s nationalism advocacies.