MBA stands for Master of Business Administration.Right? But Dr Rosanna Wong, a vastly experiencedleader in the political and non-profit arenas and a BetaGamma Sigma honoree, has another definition. Hersis “Making Business Accountable” and she is urgingaudience at the Business Leadership Forum to takenote.

Dr Wong’s th inking isstraightforward. She wantsthe business sector tobecome more involved inthe community, showingthe kind of responsibilityand obligation which willstrengthen the relationshipbetween the two. That waya healthy, secure societycan work together formutual profit. Otherwisepolitical or social upheavalmight k i l l chances ofeconomic success.

The former Executive Councillor and current HongKong Federation of Youth Groups’ Executive Directoroutlined her vision at the second HKUST BusinessLeadership Forum, co-hosted by the Beta GammaS i g m a H K U S T c h a p t e r a n d t h e S c h o o l ’sUndergraduate Programs Office at the Conrad Hotel.

Empowered bythe Other MBA

EMBA Ranks World’s No.6

HKUSTNewsletter Issue 22

HKUSTBUSINESS SCHOOL

We always stress the importance of providing aninternational learning environment for our students.What would be better than bringing in studentsfrom abroad so that students from different culturesand backgrounds can study together and learn fromeach other both within and outside the classroom?The School has been working hard to recruit non-local students and I am excited to see that our hardwork has been rewarded.

This fall, the number of Mainland undergraduate students has shot up by morethan 50 per cent from last year. Our full-time MBA program has already attracteda more diverse group of students. The percentage of international students hasincreased to 75 per cent this year, with students coming from as far away asIreland, Israel and Mexico. The School has also expanded its internationalexchange program. At the same time as our students venture abroad, studentsfrom our partner schools, who have chosen to spend a vital part of theireducation with us, are welcomed here. The presence of more internationalstudents certainly fosters a more dynamic learning environment on the HKUSTcampus.

On another matter, the School has just held a party on campus in early Novembercelebrating our No. 6 ranking in the latest Financial Times’ EMBA survey. Weare pleased to get such positive feedback as we continue to be recognized as theleading business school in the region. To continue to make the impact that weneed to make, we need your full support and your ideas on what we can do totake the School to new heights.

K.C. ChanDeanNov 2004

From the Dean

Business School

HKUST Business SchoolDean: K.C. Chan Associate Deans: Gary Biddle, Steven DeKrey, Kar Yan TamNewsletter Editors: Elaine Chu, May Hung Sub-editor: Patrick Megan Writers: Charles Anderson, Kathy GriffinContact us: bmpr@ust.hk Fax: (852) 2358 1467 Website: www.bm.ust.hk © 2004 by the HKUST Business School. All rights reserved.

The Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program has risen to No.6 inthe world on the Financial Times worldwide EMBA rankings- up from its No.9 ranking in the last survey in 2003.

Described by the Financial Times as “one of Asia’syoungest but most respected business schools”, HKUSTis the only school in the Asia Pacific listed among the topten. Its partner school, Kellogg, ranks No.2 in the world.The other schools at the top are Pennsylvania: Wharton(No. 1), University of Chicago: GSB (No. 3), New YorkUniversity: Stern (No. 4) and Duke University: Fuqua (No. 5).

President Paul Chu said: “The ranking is anotherworldwide recognition of HKUST’s remarkableachievement in offering a quality program thatrepresents one of the most successful dimensionsof HKUST’s internationalization.”

Dean K.C. Chan is pleased to see that thepartnership program with Kellogg is doing so well.“The Financial Times recognition confirms that ouron-going efforts in building the School andits programs are succeeding. Our goal is to

add value to our students,

program partner, faculty and the

corporate sponsors in the

continuous pursuit of excellence,”

he said.

Program Director Steven DeKrey

thanked partner school Kellogg

for its support at all levels. He

said: “The rankings reflect the

views of our alumni and students

about the School and the

program. We are delighted to

receive such high praise from

them.”

The Financial Times EMBA

Special Report is on FT.com at

www.ft.com/businesseducation.

EMBA and MBA students celebrate the ranking with faculty and staff.

New

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China Leads the Way

The Department of Finance has received prizes in twocategories for papers published in the Journal ofFinancial Economics in 2003.

Associate Professor Vidhal Goyal won second prizein the Jensen Prizes for papers on corporate financeand organizations, which he co-authored withProfessor Murray Z Frank of the University of BritishColumbia. Their paper was titled “Testing the peckingorder theory of capital structure”.

Assistant Professor Yeung Lewis Chan won secondprize in the Fama/DFA Prizes for papers on capitalmarkets and asset pricing. He co-authored a paperon “A multivariate model of strategic allocation” withProfessor John Y Campbell and Associate ProfessorLuis M Viceira, both of Harvard University.

The annual prizes are selected by readers in a voteand come with a cash prize of US$5,000 for first prizeand US$2,500 for second prize.

New

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Lessons From a Laureate

Leading by Example

New students at the Business School were givena reminder that there is more to life than justclimbing the career ladder, by an inspirational figurewell qualified for the task.

Dr Thomas Sze Tong Chan, a successfulneurosurgeon who quit private practice in HongKong to head World Vision Hong Kong and WorldVision China, spoke to them about “socialresponsibility” as part of their orientation program.

Dr Chan, a graduate in medicine from the Universityof Hong Kong, is no stranger to the School. Hebeefed up his management knowledge with aKellogg-HKUST Executive MBA in 2001 afterbecoming Chief Executive of the two branches ofthe global relief and development organization in

Thomas Chan (back row second left) and his EMBAclassmates visit the elementary school in Wuding, Yunnan,a gift from the third EMBA class to the village there.

The general businesscommunity can now benefitfrom top-class research bythe School’s professorsthanks to a ser ies ofbooklets that presents theirfindings, rewritten in a non-academic style.

The Business Insights series,made up of simplif iedversions of more than 80refereed papers originally

published in the prestigious Financial Times SelectJournals series of 40 top publications, kicks off withthe subject-of-the-moment: China.

Twelve articles offer valuable insights for business andaccounting professionals looking for a betterunderstanding of the world’s fastest growing economy.As Dean K.C. Chan explains in his introduction to thebrochure: “Professors at the HKUST Business Schoolare not only well-positioned to take the lead in researchin this area, they also co-author research with otherinternational academics that examines China businessmatters.”

The first booklet is published in English and Chinese.It will be followed by six others, taking accounting,finance, information and systems management,management and marketing as their themes.

Talk about hot off the presses. Just one monthafter the publication of an important paper oninternational trade, Nobel Laureate Robert E Lucascame to the Center for Economic Development totalk about his findings.

Lucas, one of the world’s most influential moderneconomic theorists, published his GeneralEquilibrium Analysis of the Eaton-Korum Model ofInternational Trade in May with co-author FernandoAlvarez. In June he was at HKUST to lead a seminaron what it contains.

The University of Chicago professor is also anadviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.A fellow adviser there, V V Chari, Professor ofEconomics at the University of Minnesota, hasdescribed his general work this way:

“Lucas’ central contribution is that he developedand applied economic theory to answer substantivequestions in macroeconomics. Economists todayroutinely analyze systems in which agents operatein complex probabi l ist ic environments tounderstand interactions about which the great

Dean Chan Joins HSIAdvisory Committee

Dean Chan has joined theHang Seng Index AdvisoryCommittee with effectfrom October 1, 2004. ProfK.C. Chan is best knownfor his research on thepricing of risky assets andthe performance of equitytrading strategies.

The Advisory Committee is an independent advisorybody which meets regularly to discuss matters relatingto the Hang Seng family of indexes. Members areappointed in their personal capacity. The Hang Sengfamily of indexes is managed and compiled by HSIServices Limited, which is a wholly-owned subsidiaryof Hang Seng Bank.

1996 and 1999 respectively. He now coordinates WorldVision International’s East Asia sub-region.

His audience also heard from Associate DeanProfessor Kar Yan Tam before joining separate sharingsessions with alumni and student helpers.

Advancing with the Internet

The future is in your phone connection, we are told.Faculty and students were given the chance to findout how an Internet pioneer views that propositionwhen Dr Vinton G Cerf gave a lecture at HKUST.

Widely known as one of the fathers of the Internet,Cerf is senior vice president of technology strategyfor the giant MCI telecommunications company. Heco-designed the TCP/IP protocols in use today, ledthe engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial emailservice connected to the Net and played a key role indeveloping data packet and security technologieswhile with the US Department of Defense.

“Internet pioneer glimpes into the Future of the Internet.”His last position, as MCI’s senior vice president ofarchitecture and technology, saw him designadvanced network frameworks for business andconsumer use.

Cerf ’s many awards have inc luded a USNational Medal of Technology, presented by

President Bill Clinton.

His talk, “A Glimpse into the Future of the Internet”,was jointly organized by the Departments ofInformation and Systems Management and ComputerScience, along with the Off ice of UniversityDevelopment and Public Affairs.

From left: Dean Chan, Robert Lucas and Yuk-Shee Chan,Vice-President for Academic Affairs.

theorists of an earlier generation could only speculate.This sea change is due primarily to Lucas.”

As leader of the New Classical School, the modernversion of the Chicago School, Lucas is credited withhelping to decisively bury Neo-Keynesian orthodoxythrough his introduction of the concept of “rationalexpectations”. He won his Nobel Prize in 1995 foreconomic science.

Papers Win Top Prizes

HKUST Business School

Mainland Intake on the Increase

A Place to Grow

University is a place to learn. But for Mainlandundergraduate students in the Business School, it hasalso been a place to spread their wings and developpersonally as well as professionally.

Attracted by the high academic standards andinternational exposure here at HKUST, they have beendelighted to realize there is another dimension to theeducation on offer. Overseas exchanges, meetingpeople from different cultures and the chance to tryout new things are making big impressions on thesestudents.

“The program at UST requires a proactive attitude inseeking out opportunities for development,” 2004 BBAgraduate, Jody Wang Ting Ting, said.

“One of my best experiences was my exchange toFrance. It gave me a much more global perspective interms of culture, economics and society.”

The Beijing native, who was admitted to PekingUniversity before choosing UST, spent a semester inFrance. She now works for HSBC, but her experiencesin the Business School have had a lasting effect.

“I found the BBA program very valuable because itwas an ideal combination of theoretical and practicaleducation that went far beyond the traditionalclassroom experience,” Ms Wang said.

“And my college life has been an extraordinaryexperience. The environment was culturally andacademically very different from Mainland China. I wasable to make a lot of local and exchange friends andparticipate in many student activities. It enriched mylife in many meaningful ways.”

The number of fee-paying undergraduate studentsfrom the Mainland has increased sharply, in the wakeof efforts by the Business School to recruit non-localstudents and make the school’s reputation betterknown outside Hong Kong.

Sixty-seven students from various points in MainlandChina were admitted to undergraduate studies inSeptember, up from 30 last year, 20 in 2002 and only12 in 2001.

“We received more than 1,000 applications this yearand the quality of the students is very good,” ProfessorKar Yan Tam, Associate Dean and Director ofUndergraduate Programs, said.

“Before this year, a lot of applicants hadn’theard of us. But our promotion efforts and theranking of the Business School [as 9th bestEMBA program in the world by the FinancialTimes last fall] has caught their attention.”

A major benefit in recruiting more students fromoutside Hong Kong is that it increases diversityon campus, he said. In the past, more than 95per cent came from local high schools. Currently,about 10 per cent at the Business School arefrom outside Hong Kong but the long-term goalis to increase that to 15-20 per cent.

“Major universities around the world have asignificant percentage of students from

overseas. Our long-term objective is to have morestudents not only from the Mainland, but fromSoutheast Asia, Europe and North America,” he said.

Some improvements will be needed to enable thatexpansion to happen. The current intake isaccommodated comfortably, but Professor Tam saidHKUST would need to increase capacity on campusin terms of housing, counseling and facilities in thelonger term.

Mainland students may also need financial help toafford their fees. Professor Tam said they would workon fund-raising and asking industry to set upscholarships or other measures to provide funding.

“I never expected to do all of thesethings, but now they have becomea part of my story at HKUST,” shesaid. “My advice to others is thatHKUST gives you chances, don’twaste them!”

The abundance of opportunities iswhat attracts Mainland students toUST in the first place. Zhu said shechose UST over a top universityin Shanghai because of i tsreputation and its location in HongKong.

Isabel Wang Haiqing, a final yearAccounting student, felt she couldgain greater global exposure hererather than at any renowneduniversity across the border.

“Studying at UST has not onlydeveloped my knowledge and

skills, and given me a deeper insight into the businessworld, it has also trained me to be more independent,responsible and mature,” she said.

Raising Our ProfileAbroad

The Business School’s reputation and its FinancialTimes ranking may be well-established here inHong Kong, but in the rest of Asia, it still surprisespotential students.

At the Beijing International Education Expo heldin late August, visitors approached the BusinessSchool booth curious about study in Hong Kongand came away impressed by what the schoolhad to offer.

“Most people didn’t know about the FT ranking.Some of them knew us as a good school, but notthe ranking,” Prof. Thomas Wong, Director ofChina Program Development, said.

Prof. Wong said they received about 200 enquiriesa day during the three-day expo, largely fromparents and students exploring their options.About 60,000 people attended the event, whichfeatured universities from Britain, the UnitedStates and elsewhere in Asia, as well as HongKong and the Mainland.

The Business School was participating in the expoto raise its profile outside Hong Kong, rather thanaccept applications. A long-term goal is toincrease the number of non-local studentsadmitted to the school.Kar Yan Tam

Isabel Wang (left) on exchange at theUniversity of Southern California.

“I found the BBA program very valuable because it was anideal combination of the theoretical and practical educationthat went far beyond the traditional classroom experience.”

Maxine Zhu also graduated in2004 and now works for Ernst& Young. Like Wang, she wasone of the early Mainlandundergraduate intake and sheleft UST similarly impressedby both the academic andextra-curricular opportunitieson offer.

“It is not common [elsewhere]to have professors fromOx fo rd , USC and UBCteaching you in one semester,but this happened to me andit is very common here. It isalso not common to studywi th s tudents f rom topuniversit ies in Germany,France, the US and Canada,but this also happened to meand is common here. I couldmake a long list of ‘it is notcommon but it happens here’things,” she said.

Her dual Accounting andManagement of Organizationsp r o g r a m w a s a l s o a nuncommon opportun i ty ,alongside the chance to learnFrench and the tango and be a member of the 9thEditorial Board of the Students’ Union, among hermany other accomplishments.

Jody Wang (left) outside the London officeof her employer, HSBC.

Maxine Zhu

Undergraduate Program

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3

New

s

2

Undergraduate Program

s

Studying the Options

Location, location, location. That’s the catchphraserealtors use when asked to cite the most importantfactor in deciding on a property. But it also could applyto students working out which quality university theyshould attend.

Students who receive attractive offers from topoverseas universities but decide to study at HKUST,cite the proximity to China as an important factor in

their decision.

4

Summer ofGood Fortune

enter ing the World Trade Organizat ion, the

opportunities for business major students wi l l

increase exponentially,” he said.

The quality of the program also meant students had a

bright future, he said.

“I plan to take an MBA overseas two or three years

after graduating from HKUST. From the success the

first graduating class has had, I feel that Global

Students Rise toThai Challenge

The summer holidays presented new challengesfor a team of undergraduates – and we’re not talkingabout a summer job. They entered the ThammasatUndergraduate Business Challenge in Bangkok andperformed impressively against competitors fromaround the region.

The team of four year 3 students – Wai Ying Fung,Derek Lee, Winnie Lui and Chi-Wai Ng – wererequired to formulate a strategy for a car partcompany, AAPICO Hitech, to grow and prosper,and present their ideas to a panel of judges.

The team made it to the semi-finals and wereplaced first runner-up, behind ThammasatUniversity.

“This competition really broadened our horizonsand allowed us to apply our knowledge in practicalfields. It also provided us with a great opportunityto interact with students from around the region,and learn more about the business environmentand culture of other countries,” Lui said.Fiona Hui

Derek Lee and Wai Ying Fung (left), Chi-Wai Ng (thirdfrom right), Winnie Lui (second right) pose with teamadvisor Rovena Kwan (far right) and a Thai studentambassador.

“First and foremost, Global Business is the number onebusiness program in Hong Kong. It's still on the risesince its establishment four years ago.”

She had studied at international schools and wascomfortable in an international environment. HKUSTstood out for her for several reasons.

“I felt that the future prospects of staying in Hong Kongwere greater,” she said. “I felt that HKUST would allowme to develop local relationships and help build myability to communicate and read better in Chinese. I alsofelt that I would be able to gain more knowledge of theChina market.”

Six second-year students from the Schoolwere given a taste of the real world along withadvice from the top when they took part inthe Shun Hing Internship Program during thes u m m e r b re a k . T h e p ro g r a m p ro v i d e sstudents with hands-on work experienceoverseen by management-level mentors fromwithin Shun Hing.

Twenty-nine students from Shanghai and 15 fromShenzhen saw more than just the HKUSTcampus when they came to Hong Kong to join90 others at the Business School’s week-longSummer Study Program.

There were seminars on business, social science,management, humanities, finance, IT, economicsand logistics. Company visits, social activitiesand cultural sightseeing were also arranged forparticipants to get a better glimpse of thebusiness and cultural scenes of Hong Kong.

Eric Li Ka Cheung, former legislative councilmember for the accountancy functionalconstituency, was guest at one evening’s dinnerfunction.

A Summer WellSpent

Summer Study Program

Shun Hing Internship

Bryan Li, a first-year Global Business student, receivedoffers from Johns Hopkins University in the UnitedStates, the London School of Economics andUniversity College, London, before choosing HKUST.

“First and foremost, Global Business is the numberone business program in Hong Kong. It's still on therise since its establishment four years ago. With China

Business offers the best employment prospects andincreases my chances of enrolling in a good graduateschool.”

Cherin Wai, also a first-year Global Business student,received offers from the University of Michigan, BostonUniversity, New York University, the University ofWestern Ontario and York University in Toronto.

The power and good fortune of the dragon hasrubbed off on Year 2 Global Business studentFiona Hui.

In one remarkable summer, she has beaten keencompetition for a summer internship with Merrill Lynchand been selected as a Hong Kong delegate toDragons in China – The First World Chinese YouthForum.

The five-day forum, which was scheduled for Beijingat the end of September, is jointly organized by TheHong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and the All-China Youth Federation. About 2,000 young peoplefrom around the world were invited to attend.

Its theme was "New Opportunities in a GlobalEconomy" and Hui participated in a panel discussionon sustainable development.

“I believe I will gain new insights [at the forum] into thechallenges of globalization, through exploring andsharing perspectives with renowned speakers from thegovernment, business sector, academia and otheryoung delegates from around the world,” Hui saidbefore she went.

Hui participates in voluntary services in her free timeand also enjoys playing sports, traveling and reading.

this firm, they make an additional capital investment.At the end of the period, the firm's cash flow is realized,and the firm's true type is revealed if the firm goesbankrupt. The investors sue the auditor if the firm'strue type is different from the type attested by theauditor (i.e., if an audit failure has occurred). In thatcase, the auditor must pay damages to the investor."

Pae and Yoo say they offer new insights by consideringthe links between the auditor's effort put into an auditand a company's internal control system. Recentstudies, they point out, have focused on "audit effort"alone and one piece of research in particular arguesthat regulators can achieve the right outcome throughchoosing an appropriate damage award. By addinganother dimension, the academics say they haveshown this is not the case.

It is all a balancing act, it appears. "The costly natureof the audit effort and internal control system raises aquestion of how to balance the owner's investment inthe internal control system with the auditor's effort,"Pae and Yoo write. "We show that when the auditor islegally liable to financial statement users, there is ...strategic interaction between the auditor's provision

Research

"We show that there does not exista level of auditor legal liability thatinduces both the owner and theauditor to choose the first-bestinvestments. In particular, a liabilitylevel that induces one party's first-best investment always results in theother party's under-investment," theysay.

Their research, Pae and Yoo write,has implications for the UnitedStates Litigation Reform Act of1995, which reduces auditors' legalliability, and for the US Securitiesand Exchange Commission's(SEC's) drive to enhance corporateinternal controls.

"Recent changes in the regulatory environment canbe interpreted in the context of our model," they say."Our analysis suggests that if auditors' legal liabilitywas excessive, then the Private Securities LitigationReform Act may enhance social efficiency. In addition,the SEC's recent effort ... may be beneficial if excessive

auditors' legal liability has led firms to under-invest intheir internal controls."

The academics explain the risk the auditor faces asfollows.

"Investors in a competitive capital market price thefirm based on an audit report, and if they purchase

The Burden on an Auditor

5Based on: Strategic interaction in auditing: an analysis of auditors' legal liability, internal control system quality, and audit effortSuil Pae, Seung-Weon YooReprinted from The Accounting Review, Vol 76, No 3, July 2001, with permission from the American Accounting Association. This paper is part of the collection in the HKUSTBusiness Insights - Accounting issue. See story on page 2.

“The investors sue the auditor if the firm’s true type isdifferent from the type attested by the auditor (i.e., if anaudit failure has occurred).”

There's a lot at stake for an auditor when hisassessment of a company's financial health is not upto scratch. Those who make their investment decisionsbased on his findings will likely want legal redress ifthey lose money through inaccurate reports. The costto his reputation can also be high.

But, as HKUST Business School professors Suil Paeand Seung-Weon Yoo point out, an auditor's findingsare only as good as the financial statements he is givento work with and they in turn depend on the strengthof the firm's internal control system.

The researchers have taken the interaction betweenauditor, company owner and outside investors andproduced a frame-work that shows the likely outcomeif an auditor carries a large legal liability over his reportand what happens if that liability is lessened.

Pae and Yoo say that an increase in an auditor's legalliability encourages an owner to cut investment in theinternal control system and shift the burden to theauditor because the owner has a lesser incentive tospend time and money on the system. The auditor,meanwhile, has to work harder than he should becauseof this imbalance and also through concern over thepenalties he faces if he gets it wrong.

On the other hand, if the auditor's liability is small andthe owner is concerned about carrying the can, thenthe owner is likely to over-invest in the process whilethe auditor under-invests.

The academics conclude that, although there is a levelof liability that cuts out much of this inefficiency, itcannot be eliminated altogether. Their message forregulators is that they can't achieve the best outcomeby tinkering with damage awards alone.

Suil PaeAssociate Professor, Accounting

Seung-Weon YooAssistant Professor, Accounting

“An increase in an auditor’s legal liability encourages anowner to cut investment in the internal control systemand shift the burden to the auditor because the owner hasa lesser incentive to spend time and money on the system.”

of effort and the firm owner's investment in the internalcontrol system."

If the owner and auditor co-operate fully, they can usetheir resources with maximum efficiency. But if theydon't and they concentrate on personal payoffsinstead, their resources are not allocated properly andtheir efficiency declines, the authors conclude.

New

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MBA

Programs

The proximity of the dynamic China market – and thehigh-quality, international nature of the HKUST MBA– are also attracting attention further afield. Of the 52new students this year, 18 are from Mainland China,13 from Hong Kong and the rest from other countriessuch as Canada, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Switzerlandand Thailand. Overall, 72 per cent of new studentsbelieve an MBA earned at HKUST, as opposed toelsewhere, will expand or create new job opportunitiesfor them.

“The China element attracts international students toHong Kong. They either want to look for careeropportunities here and in China, or they want to knowmore about business in China so they can use thatknowledge in their home country,” Tsang said.

The percentage of students coming from outside HongKong has increased from 61 per cent in 2002 to 75per cent this year, thanks to greater promotion on the

Mainland and overseas. Tsang said theyhoped to expand the program to keep up thediversity of students, although maintainingquality is a top priority.

Meanwhile, the East-West exchange is alsopermeating into the part-time MBA program,despite an almost entirely local intake.

Steven DeKrey, Associate Dean and Directorof MBA Program, believes HKUST can act asa focal point for students from Hong Kong

Home Attractions

Crossing Cultures

6

China is the economic powerhouse of the future, asmany pundits have pointed out. And many studentsfrom outside the region are keen to study here andposition themselves to take up the growing number ofbusiness opportunities on the Mainland.

About 40 per cent of students enrolled in the full-timeMBA program this year come from outside Hong Kongand Mainland China – from countries as diverse asIndia, Israel, Mexico and the United States.

The drawing card of China is matched by theopportunity to pursue studies in a top-rankedinstitution, say students.

Ricardo Zepeda Graham comes from Mexico, where hecompleted his BSc. He had made only two short tripsto Hong Kong and one to China before deciding tostudy here to learn more about business and the region.

“I chose UST mainly for three reasons: I need businessadministration knowledge to move forward in mycareer, our company does a fair amount of trading withChina so I want to specialize in China business, andUST has an excellent reputation,” he said.

Andrew Kane was also attracted by the rising powerof the Asian economy. He completed a BA atMiddlesex University and a French degree ininternational business in Marseilles, and he has livedin Ireland and the United States, as well as Franceand Britain.

Until arriving in Hong Kong to take up his studies, hehad spent only one week here. But his job in theadvertising industry saw him increasingly steeredtowards Asia.

“If you wish to work in a global business environment,you will have Asia thrust upon you,” he said. “Mydecision to do an MBA here was as much tactical as

There’s no place like home – or at least, your ownbackyard. That’s what Mainland MBA students arereflecting in their pursuit of an internationallyrecognized degree and lucrative job opportunities.

Having taken up full-time study at the Business School,this year’s Mainland students are sending strongsignals that they also prefer to stay close to home aftergraduation – in contrast to their predecessors whoventured to Western countries for better careeropportunities and salaries.

“More people are looking for opportunities in Asia andin China in particular,” Chris Tsang, the AssociateDirector of Post-graduate Programs, said.

“The economy is moving fast here, there are moreopenings, more multi-nationals are setting upbusinesses and they need people who understandChinese culture and have international business skills.Our graduates get very good offers from the Mainland.”

strategic: tactical in that I required more solidknowledge of the financial business environment,strategic in that I want to position myself as a bridgebetween the European and Asian markets.”

Another new student, Peter Ungvari, already has a fairamount of experience of Asia. He has worked in bothHong Kong and China, having earned a BA in New Zealandand a Master’s in International Relations in Australia.

In addition to the reputation and ranking of thebusiness school, he chose UST because “it is veryinternational in outlook with a diverse student body,the exchange program is an attractive plus, and thefull-time student numbers are small,” he said.

The chance to study with students from other countriesgives the program added value, as far as ZepedaGraham is concerned. “Our class is extremely diversein cultural and ethnic backgrounds. In real life, onehas to deal with a variety of people from all over theworld,” he said.

Teachers Honored

Full-time MBA students gave their favoriteteachers a gift at the end of the 2003-04academic year – but it didn’t come wrappedin a box. Instead, they showered them withawards to show their appreciation.

The Best Teacher Awards ceremony in Maywas organized by first-year full-time MBAstudents and saw honors handed out to fourteachers selected by a vote.

Professor Vidhan K Goyal of Finance wasvoted Best Core Teacher, followed by runner-up, Professor Xu Dingbo, formerly ofAccounting.

Professor Laurence Franklin, also of Finance,was named Best Elective Teacher for hiscourse on Venture Capital in Asia, and receivedthe runner-up award in the same category forInvestment and Finance in China. He alsoreceived an honorable mention for best coreteaching. The honorable mention in electiveswent to Adjunct Professor, Paul Cheng.

“The awards were presented on behalf of thefull time MBA students to demonstrate theirappreciation for excellence in teaching,”according to one of the organizers, EdwardLogsdail.

The awards were handed at the end of thelast day of exams – making it an enjoyableend to the academic year, he added.

Andrew Kane

Peter Ungvari

Ricardo ZepedaGraham

New MBA students participate in the experimental learningprogram.

and China to learn more about the outside world, andfor students from elsewhere to learn more about China.“This kind of East-West experience is very valuable,both for the students and for their future employers.Obviously, there is a big benefit for the School as well,”he said.

Many students obtained their first degree overseas andsome have worked away from home, bringing theirexperiences and broader perspectives into theclassroom.

Forty-two per cent of part-time MBA students in HongKong have studied abroad, in such places as Australia,Canada, India and the United States, adding a newdimension to the classroom.

“This kind of East-West experience is very valuable,both for the students and for their future employers.”Chris Tsang Steven DeKrey

HKUST Business School7

Right Makeup for Winning Team

Kellogg Day

Students &

Alum

ni

The Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program hosted aKellogg event named World Wide Wednesday onSeptember 22. On that day, Kelloggers around theworld organized a get-together in the countries theylive in. In Hong Kong, around 100 alum, students andfaculty including over a dozen from the EvanstonKellogg program, took part in a relaxing boat triparound Victoria Harbor.

Beauty proved to be more than skin deep for HKUSTMBA students who came out top performers for HongKong in an international on-line business challengeorganized by cosmetics giant L’Oréal.

The competition selects local and global winners. OurMBA students took first and second place for HongKong, although Singapore’s INSEAD won the globalprize.

The L’Oréal e-Strat Challenge lets participants

experience the realities of running a global cosmetics

company. Teams have to make decisions to ensure

they stay competitive and achieve a high share price

index. They must keep track of competitors and take

The winning team (from second left) Michelle Kuang, Annie Laiand Pauline Huang posing with Doris Chan (far left), AssistantDirector (MBA Placement and Exchange Programs), MeiKwong (second from right), Director, MBA Career Servicesand team advisor, Stephen Nason.

into account factors such as pricing policy,production issues, research and developmentstrategy, finance, marketing, advertising and brandpositioning.

A member of the HKUST team, Pauline XiaoboHuang, said they competed against 10,000 teamsworldwide to make it to the final list of 1,000 invitedto take part in the competition.

“This game provides us with the opportunity to testour business acumen and to further develop ourmanagement skills,” she said.

“Although we made small mistakes from time to time,because of our careful planning our SPI grew

Front row from left: Alice Yeung, Suki Chan, Wendy Kam,Becky So and Cherry Li pose with Steven DeKrey, MBADirector (back row left) and Brett Bonthron from Microsoft.

Five MBA students won praise from Silicon Valleymovers and shakers after putting their entrepreneurialskills to the test against tough opposition in California.

Suki Chan, Wendy Kam, Cherry Li, Becky So and AliceYeung were among the 25 semi-finalists in the highly-competitive University of San Francisco 2004International Business Plan Competition.

The judging panel included over 50 venture capitalistsand executives from top flight companies such asMicrosoft, McKinsey and Nokia. More than 150

In the Business of Winning

technology, using an adaptor and a SIM card. It tookthem less than two months to prepare their presentation,prototype and display.

They say HKUST courses such as Venture Capital in Chinaand others in marketing, finance and accounting helpedthem do well, as did soft skills learned through otherprojects and extra-curricular activities.

This was the first competition of its kind for the fivestudents who this year will be taking different courses infinance, China business and marketing either in exchangeschools or in Hong Kong. But they have already mentoredan undergraduate team developing proposals for abusiness plan competition sponsored by Goldman Sachsand they plan to enter more contests themselves in thenear future.

In the meantime, they have said thank you to the Schoolby donating their prize to the MBA office.

“This game provides us with the opportunity to test ourbusiness acumen and to further develop ourmanagement skills.”

steadily and made us stand out to be the first in HongKong.”

Huang added their experiences could provide valuablelessons for next year’s participants, and help them achieveeven better results.

graduate student teams from 100 universities in18 countries originally took part. The HKUST teamcame away with the Microsoft Technology PioneerAward after being told their business plan was“brilliant” and their presentation was “strong, well-organized and cohesive”. The financial portion wassaid to be “great, with a good level of detail”.University of Pennsylvania MicroMRI were theoverall winners.

“The invaluable prize is the feedback andsuggestions we received from leading Silicon Valleyventure capitalists,” said Becky So. “Together withthe exposure to a real start-up business, it all madethis business plan competition exceptional and farmore than a traditional academic exercise.”

The team proposal involved the use of technicalinnovations to provide seamless wireless andmobile internet access through both 3G and Wifi

“Their business plan was brilliant and their presentationwas strong, well-organized and cohesive. The financialportion was said to be great, with a good level of detail.”

New

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Mei Kwong has been appointedDirector, MBA Career Services. Shewas Senior Advisor when she joinedHKUST in 2003. Kwong has spentmuch o f he r own ca ree r i nmarketing, backed up by five yearsin executive search. She began

gaining her experience in advertising and brandmanagement with two Chicago-based companies, LeoBurnett and Kraft Foods, returning to Hong Kong tohelp her family company’s expansion into China. Afterher father’s retirement and the company’s sale, shejoined A.T. Kearney management consultants, settingup an executive search business in Hong Kong, beforemoving on to a well-established group of book-sellersas Group Business Development Director. Kwong is agraduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Management of Organizations

Aidan Kel ly has jo ined theDepartment as a visiting scholar forone year, after coming to HKUSTfor the same purpose in 2000to 2001. Professor of BusinessAdmin is t rat ion at Univers i tyCollege, Dublin, from 1987 to the

present, he has headed that department on twoseparate occasions. Kelly is a much publishedresearcher and has held visiting positions at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and in New Zealand,Australia, Cyprus and France.

New Appointments

Accounting

Char les Hsu , who took h i sbachelor ’s degree at X iamenUniversity, master’s at LouisianaState University and PhD at PurdueUniversity, also becomes AssistantProfessor. Hsu worked for four yearsas an accountant and one year as a

controller in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before becomingInstructor at Purdue.

Kai Wai Hui, formerly ResearchAssistant at the University of Oregonwhere he gained his PhD this year,has been appointed AssistantProfessor. A BBA graduate from theChinese University of Hong Kong, heis a US certified public accountant.

Shibin Xie , a former auditor atPr icewaterhouseCoopers andInstructor at the University of Iowa,also becomes Assistant Professor.Xie took BAs in economics andengineering at Tsinghua Universityin Beijing, a master’s in engineeringat the same institution and a PhD atthe University of Iowa.

Dean’s Office

Ruby Chan is the new AssistantD i r e c t o r , U n d e r g r a d u a t eDevelopment, a role she comes toafter extensive experience in NorthAmerica and Hong Kong. She hasworked for Polarline DevelopmentLimited, Pacific Century CyberWorks

Ltd, the Hong Kong Productivity Council, PriceWaterhouseManagement Consulting and The Chase ManhattanBank in Hong Kong, and Canada Life Assurance Companyin Vancouver. She graduated with a Bachelor of BusinessAdministration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Kitty Chong has been appointedAssistant Director, MBA AlumniDevelopment, a role she f i tscomfortably into thanks to her closeassociation with HKUST. Shecompleted a Dual Degree (MBA inE-Commerce and MSc in Information

System Management ) in the Business School in 2003and is Vice President of the HKUST MBA AlumniAssociation. Ms Chong’s previous employment includesseveral years at Cathay Pacific Airways, where shewas charged with partnership marketing for the LoyaltyPrograms. She obtained a BSc in Computer Sciencefrom the University of British Columbia and worked atBC Hydro in Vancouver before she returned to HongKong in 1998.

Marketing

Maria Galli, has been appointedAssistant Professor. She took herfirst degree, a BS in economics atthe Universidad Torcuato Di Tella inArgentina before moving on to anMSc in management and a PhD inmarketing at INSEAD, France.

Liang Guo has been appointedAssistant Professor. Guo took a BAin economics at Peking Universityand a PhD in marketing at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.

Anirban Mukhopadhyay has beenappointed Assistant Professor. HisBSc in physics at Delhi University andMBA from the Indian Institute ofManagement in Bangalore werefollowed by an MPhil and PhD, both inmarketing, from Columbia University.

Tuan Pham , mos t recen t l yProfessor of Business (Marketing) atColumbia University and holder ofa PhD in Business Administration,Marketing, from the University ofFlorida, will spend one year asVisiting Professor.

Marketing

Wilfried R Vanhonacker has beenappointed Head of the Departmentfor three years starting June 2004.

Information and Systems Management

Suenghee Yu is a new AssistantProfessor. Yu took a master’s inaccounting science at the Universityof Illinois, a master’s in informationsystems at Carnegie Mellon and adoctorate in industrial administration,informat ion systems, a lso at

Carnegie Mellon. He served there as an Instructorat the Graduate School of Industrial Administrationfrom 1999 onwards.

Finance

Kevin Wang joins the Departmentas Visiting Associate Professor fromRotman School of Management atthe University of Toronto. He took aBS in mathematics at WuhanUniversity, a master’s in economicsat the University of California and a

PhD, in finance, at the University of Chicago.

Mungo Wilson also becomesAssistant Professor. He took his BAin po l i t i cs , ph i l osophy andeconomics at Oxford, an MSc ineconomics at London School ofEconomics and a PhD at Harvard.Wilson spent three years as a trainee

and then assistant solicitor (lawyer) in the UK dealingwith mergers, acquisitions, corporate restructuringsand tax-related matters.

Economics

T i a n j i m H o s s a i n h a s b e e nappointed Assistant Professor afteracting as a teaching assistant andresearch assistant most recently atPrinceton. Hossain holds a BS andBA in computer science andeconomics respectively from the

University of Maryland and an MA and PhD, both ineconomics, from Princeton.

Accounting

James Frederickson, AssistantProfessor of Accounting from 1998to 2004, becomes AssociateProfessor.

Guochang Zhang has beenpromoted to Professor f romAssociate Professor, a position heheld from 2001 to 2004.

Information and Systems Management

Albert Ha has been promoted toProfessor and Deputy Head. Hewas Associate Professor from 2001to 2004.

Yan Xu has been promoted toAssociate Professor. He was aVisiting Assistant Professor from1997 to 1999 and Ass istantProfessor from 1999 to 2004.

Mike So, Assistant Professor from1998 to 2004, has been promotedto Associate Professor.

Finance

Sudipto Dasgupta, AssociateProfessor from 2000 to 2004,becomes Professor.

Promotions