Women Managers in Hong Kong: Personal and Political Agendas

The proportion of women managers in Hong Kong has been steadily increasing in recent years. Hong Kong's ‘can-do’ spirit, education system and laws against sex discrimination probably have contributed to the increase. However, roles in the private (home) and public (work) spheres remain highly gendered. This has led to intense worak–family stress for women managers, some of whom also face sex discrimination at work, such as negative attitudes toward women, the old-boy network and sexual harassment. However, the overall level of awareness of sex roles and sex discrimination among women managers is low. Furthermore, women managers tend not to court open and direct confrontation. Instead, they tend to pursue individualistic personal coping strategies. Women managers rely on support from their extended family and hire domestic help to cope with work–family stress. Women managers also work hard to prepare themselves for a job move when they perceive or encounter sex discrimination. They tend not to make demands of their husbands, the workplace, or the government due to concepts about the private and public divide and about gender roles in these two spheres. We argue that political agendas which push for more flexible gender roles, state childcare and women- and family-friendly organizational policies are needed to bring more women into management at a faster pace.     

Crossing Cultural Boundaries: A Multicultural Kindergarten in Hong Kong

Confronted with the rise of a new group within its organization, Small World, an international Christian kindergarten in Hong Kong, is being forced to reconsider its boundaries. The trend towards more applications to international schools by Hong Kong Chinese, adds an extra dimension to the already extensive cultural diversity among the kindergarten's staff, students and their parents. Describing the appreciation for cultural diversity amongst staff and parents, the strategies that are used to maintain harmony and the motives that (Hong Kong Chinese) parents have for participation in the school, it is argued that only one effect of globalization on the macro level can be identified on the micro and meso level, namely indigenization. The article shows how parents, staff and the organization all try to adopt attractive or useful elements of foreign cultures without giving up their own culture, and subsequently foster multiculturalism in an attempt to reach their goals, these being the cultural competence of their children for Hong Kong Chinese parents and success for the organization. The resulting demand for the incorporation of extra foreign elements in the curriculum is forcing Small World to reconsider its boundaries.     

香港服务贸易的演进

根据香港服务贸易演进的情况,香港服务贸易可划分为三个不同阶段,分别为自然型服务贸易阶段,知识型服务贸易阶段以及战略型服务贸易阶段.对三个阶段香港服务贸易各服务组别进行定量与定性分析,总结出香港服务贸易发展各阶段发展特点、模式及其成功经验.     

Managerial Role Motivation and Role-related Ethical Orientation in Hong Kong

Journal of Business Ethics - Is there a relationship between the psychological construct of hierarchic managerial role motivation and the moral construct of role-related ethical orientation? In...     

Managing knowledge work in Asia Pacific contexts: case studies of Hong Kong SMEs

This study explores how knowledge creation and sharing practices are fostered in a sample of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong. Our analysis indicates that three types of managerial interventions – initiating intervention, reinforcing intervention and aligning intervention – are particularly useful to promote knowledge management activities among employees. Such findings provide insights into researchers and managers on the important role of managerial interventions in knowledge management (KM) as well as the idiosyncrasies of KM in SMEs in Chinese societies.     

深圳与香港物流业竞争力分析

随着深圳物流业的崛起,深圳与香港物流业竞争力的比较越来越受到业界的关注。通过在生产要素成本、组织成本和要素质量三个方面对深圳和香港物流业的竞争力的实证分析,表明深圳的要素成本比香港有明显的优势,但是深圳的制度成本比香港要高。在生产要素质量方面,深圳与香港的“硬要素”差距不大,“软要素”差距比较大。深圳中低端物流业务的竞争力正在接近甚至超越香港,将促使原本在香港境内的此类业务向深圳、珠江三角洲等地区转移。     

参加WTO香港会议的感受与启迪

作者于2005年12月13日到18日参加了WTO在我国香港举办的第六届部长级会议。根据亲身感受写出本文。第一,描述了《香港部长宣言》的产生与内容,指出其重要性。第二,总结了我国在WTO香港会议中的作用和收获。第三,介绍香港会议期间有关WTO的国际研讨会内容,国内研讨与之相比的差距。     

BOT在香港隧道项目中的应用:经验与教训

BOT(即建造-营运-移交)在香港公共服务领域的应用有悠久的历史.文章对BOT在香港隧道项目的具体应用进行分析,指出这些项目存在的问题,以期对内地交通运输事业的发展提供经验借鉴.     

香港与西部地区的产业比较和合作分析

香港是全球第三大金融市场、第七大贸易经济体系、第九大服务输出地。香港拥有大量的金融、保险高级管理人才和制造业企业管理人才；国际营销网络高度发达?而我国西部地区基本处于世界中低收入水平，总体经济极为落后。香港的现代化大都会与西部地区的落后经济形成了鲜明的反差。差距就是潜力，潜力是合作发展的动力，香港与西部经济上的互补性表明两地具有极大的合作空间，其合作的前景非常远大。     

文化传承与创业实践育人的研究

大学生在新的经济形势下,充满了对创业的向往。但是大学生创业面临多种困境,很多创业计划仅是一个创意,这种创意又缺乏立足于市场的特点,缺乏中国特色,不能将中国古典文化融入创业。高校教师应在古典文化传承的基础上指导大学生进行创业实践,这样才能不断提高大学生创业的能力,提高大学生创业成功率。     

Factors Affecting Ethical Attitudes in Mainland China and Hong Kong

In this article, we analyzed the effect of various factors on moral judgment and ethical attitudes of working persons. It was found that the effect of various socio-demographic factors on ethical attitudes varied between the two different categories of ethical issues under study, issues which involve explicit violation of laws vis-à-vis issues which involved social concerns. Our results did not support the implication of Callahan’s hypothesis that males are more sensitive to rule-based ethical issues while women are to issues involving social concerns; it was found that females have a lower acceptability of unethical behaviors related to both categories of issues in Hong Kong, whereas gender effect was not statistically significant in Mainland China. University education also had no significant effect on ethical attitudes. Religion played an important role in affecting ethical attitudes, however, its effect varied with different types of religions; Christianity was found to be most favorable to higher ethical standards, but people of traditional Chinese religion had a higher acceptability of unethical behaviors involving social concerns compared to people with no religion. Our finding also indicated that employees in state-owned enterprises, private employees, employees in foreign-investment firms, and employers in Mainland China all had a higher acceptability of unethical law-breaking behaviors compared to workers in collectives, throwing doubt on the validity of convergence theory in Mainland China. Kit-Chun LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist Universty. she is also Guest professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Joural of Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Economica and Labour Economics. Guicheng Shi is Assistant Professor in Faculty of Management and Administration of Macau University of Science and Technology     

Selling through entertaining: The effect of humour in television advertising in Hong Kong

Considerable research evidence has indicated that humour has a positive impact on attention but no consensus is reached with regard to the persuasive effect of humour in advertising. Two hundred and fifty-four university students were recruited to watch five television commercials and respond to a structured questionnaire in this study. Results show that humour secures attention getting while disrupts message processing. Humour enhances message persuasiveness when the moderating variable need for cognition (NFC) is controlled. Participants with low NFC are easier to be persuaded by humorous commercials than participants with high NFC do. It is also found that repeated exposure to the same humorous commercial does not harm its persuasive effect. Male audiences regard humorous commercials as more persuasive while female audiences are the opposite. The study provides guidelines for advertisers/advertising practitioners who would like to employ humour in their communication at the same time it draws ethical concerns towards the increased application of entertainment-coated persuasion.     

Cultural identities of Chinese business: networks of the shark-fin business in Hong Kong

From a global standard, shark-fin consumption certainly violates international norms on bio-diversity and endangers the existence of the shark species. Furthermore, the commercial shark-fin industry generates additional adverse environmental impacts. Nevertheless, shark-fin consumption has served an important role in the cultural aspect of Chinese ‘foodway’. More importantly, the business relations and networks behind this industry have never been comprehensively studied. In so doing, this paper employs first hand interviews with the traders and processors, as well as official statistics from the government of Hong Kong, to come up with one of the most comprehensive and in-depth pieces of research on the business relations and the cultural aspects of shark-fin business in Hong Kong. In addition, we will explore the theoretical as well as the cultural dimensions of shark-fin business in trying to question the meaning of Chinese business networks. One of the key findings of this piece of research is that the collective activities of shark-fin consumption, business relations and networks are embedded along the historically, socially and culturally constructed Chinese identity. The implication is that such orchestration between culture and business can have far-reaching consequences to other Chinese businesses.     

中国内地与香港债券市场整合问题研究

债券市场是现代金融体系的重要组成部分,债券市场整合是中国内地与香港开展金融合作的重要方面。文章认为中国内地与香港进行债券市场整合有助于巩固香港的国际金融中心地位,有助于推进人民币国际化和利率市场化进程,有助于促进中国内地债券市场的发展完善和加快亚洲金融一体化步伐。但目前中国内地与香港在进行债券市场整合时会遇到一系列障碍性因素:香港人民币存量有限;人民币尚未实现完全可自由兑换;内地与香港两地的利差带来的投机套利活动会对内地金融体系形成冲击等。在对中国内地与香港债券市场整合的近期、中期和远期模式进行设计展望的基础上,文章提出了推进内地与香港债券市场整合的一系列政策建议。     

香港在泛珠三角旅游合作中的角色

在泛珠三角旅游合作中,香港以其雄厚的经济实力、旅游业实力和明显的旅游业优势而占有独特的地位.香港不仅可以成为内地旅游业发展的窗口,而且可以成为联接内地与海外旅游业的桥梁,甚至还可以成为内地旅游部门借鉴当今国际旅游业先进经验的一个重要渠道.泛珠各省区应善用香港的旅游资源和优势,推动内地旅游业有新的发展.     

中国内地和中国香港的贸易自由化效应研究——基于全球贸易分析模型GTAP的分析

基于全球贸易分析模型GTAP模型和CEPA免税清单"原产地"标准,分析了中国内地和中国香港实施"港产品零关税"和"全面贸易自由化"产生的经济、贸易和产业效应,以及海峡两岸ECFA早期收获和全面实施的影响。研究发现:由于中国内地关税大幅度减免,"港产品零关税"使中国香港进出口增加幅度大于中国内地,中国内地服务业和符合原产地标准的中国香港制造业生产出口增加。如果两地进一步实现"全面贸易自由化",则进出口值、经济增长和福利水平将大幅度提高,并促进两地产业结构调整和升级,但中国内地进口增加幅度大于出口导致贸易余额减少。此外,ECFA早期收获使中国台湾贸易余额增加,而ECFA全面实施将使中国香港作为海峡两岸经贸中转港的地位受到影响。     

Hong Kong and Singapore exchanges confront high frequency trading

The Hong Kong (HKEx) and Singapore (SGX) exchanges remain conflicted about high frequency trading (HFT), reflecting the environment of private and public sector actors in which the HKEx and SGX operate. Neither exchange has resolved these conflicts, leaving the HFT controversy simmering and limiting the amounts of such trading occurring on their exchanges. Competitor exchanges in Asia, however, are more supportive of HFT. With the aid of technology providers which enable HFT, the HKEx and SGX significantly improved their trading infrastructures. At the same time, these providers developed data centres at other exchanges and built fibre-optic connections which permit low-latency trading across Asia. Traders in Hong Kong and Singapore access these exchanges, potentially undermining the HKEx and SGX.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: Hong Kong vs. United States Students

This study examined the orientation toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) of 165 U.S. and 157 HongKong business students. Although respondents from both countries viewed CSR as a construct in much the same way, many differences were found in the types of responsibilities considered most important. Specifically, Hong Kong students gave economic responsibilities more weight and non economic responsibilities less weight than did U.S. students.     

Contrasting the evolution of corporate governance models: A study of banking in Hong Kong

The sub-prime mortgage crisis, the bankruptcies of important US banks, and many originally family controlled enterprises coming under non-family, CEO-type leadership during the 2008 global credit crunch led many people to rethink the relationship between risk management and family businesses. One of the foci was on the doctrine of separation of ownership. This paper attempts to compare and examine the evolution of corporate governance in the banking business in Hong Kong by using two key financial institutions based there. By contrasting the evolution of corporate governance, management style and pattern of succession, we can see that although they developed under the same business environment and legal framework, the East-West business culture and ideology led them to choose different ownership structures and ways of succession, which ultimately determined their different developmental trajectories.