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Purpose: The objective of the presented pilot study was to test the applicability of a metric to specifically measure performance improvement via a hands-on workshop about collaborative robotics. Design/methodology/approach: Candidates interested in acquiring basic practical skills in working with a collaborative robot completed a distance learning exercise in preparation for a hands-on training workshop. The candidates executed a test before and after the workshop for recording the parameters compiled in the tested performance index (PI). Findings: The results reflected the potential of the tested PI for applications in detecting improvement in practical skill acquisition and revealed potential opportunities for integrating additional performance factors. Research limitations/implications: The low number of candidates available limited in-depth analyses of the learning outcomes. Practical implications: The study outcomes provide the basis for follow-up projects with larger cohorts of candidates and control groups in order to expedite the development of technology-assisted performance measurements. Social implications: The study contributes to research on performance improvement and prediction of learning outcomes, which is imperative to this emerging field in learning analytics. Originality/value: The development of the presented PI addresses a scientific gap in learning analytics, i.e. the objective measurement of performance improvement and prediction along skill-intensive training courses. This paper presents an improved version of the PI, which was published at the 12th Conference on Learning Factories, Singapore, April 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare the attributes of community dwelling adults with serious mental health illnesses in the USA and Singapore in terms of perception of mental health recovery and its correlates, namely, strengths self-efficacy, resourcefulness and stigma experience. Design/methodology/approach: A convenience sample of 100 participants from each country participated in the study by completing self-administered questionnaires. Findings: The results showed high overall scores in mental health recovery, strengths self-efficacy and resourcefulness in both countries with only a statistically significant difference between both countries in mental health recovery. Participants in both countries also experienced stigma. Research limitations/implications: The study not only enhanced the focus on mental health and its correlates but also suggested the need for efforts to de-stigmatize mental health conditions which could impact on mental health recovery. Originality/value: This paper is original and adds on to the knowledge base on mental health recovery and its correlates through the unique opportunity to review information from both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the development and content of the Vulnerable Adults Act 2018 (hereafter "the Act") in Singapore. It reports the parliamentary processes and deliberations. Design/methodology/approach: A synthesis of publicly available research, policy documents, parliamentary debate, media reports and commentary. Findings: The paper sets the Act's development and aims in Singapore's social and legal contexts. It notes the interface with other legislation and the focus of the Act on community and family abuse and neglect. Research limitations/implications: The paper suggests some areas for research including how the Act is used and its impact and also points to areas where the Act does not apply. Practical implications: The paper outlines new professional powers and responsibilities and the role of government and community-based organisations. Originality/value: This paper provides an early account of the genesis and aims of the new legislation, its powers and administration. Also, international comparisons are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss a foresight study conducted in Singapore's national R&D agency to help science and technology decision makers identify key capability areas of R&D investment to support the manufacturing industry's growth in the country and the region. Design/methodology/approach: Using horizon scanning, scenario analysis and expert opinion, nine capabilities are identified as core areas to be developed to support the country's future growth of product-service systems. Findings: The results of a Delphi survey involving 30 industry and academic thought leaders recommend priorities of these capabilities. This paper concludes with a discussion of the study implications for theory, research and practice in the domain of servitisation and product-service systems. Research limitations/implications: The foresight study presented here on the future of servitisation in Singapore demonstrates one of the first fully fledged applications of foresight in constructing a coherent vision of future product-service system markets. In this study, the authors applied systemic foresight methodology (SFM) comprising the first six phases: initiation (scoping), intelligence (scanning), imagination (scenarios), integration (priorities), interpretation (strategies) and implementation (action).For future research, an ideal step would be to proceed with the final phase of the SFM, impact, to develop indicators for servitisation and to monitor and evaluate the transition process. Practical implications: Manufacturing and services are no longer distinct concepts with a clear divide. Manufacturing firms not only become more service dependent but also produce and provide services for their consumers. This transformation towards servitisation implies fundamental re-organisation of the production and management practices. Furthermore, through new business models, new and loyal customers will be gained, which will in turn bring additional income, while making the companies less prone to economic and business fluctuations. Social implications: The results of this study have practical implications for policymakers of public and private sectors that are interested in playing a key role in future product-service system innovation. These have implications for developing the human and intellectual capital that are required for supporting the future innovation. Institutes of higher learning and vocational institutes should also consider incorporating new curricula and modules to build the capabilities for knowledge creation and transfer. Originality/value: The findings of the present study on strategic growth areas and relevant critical capabilities provide new directions for research in the field of servitisation. Among the nine capabilities identified, the top three were advanced customer intelligence capability, socio-physical service quality, traceability and maintainability and integrated strategic decision-making. From the results, it is apparent that advanced customer intelligence capability is both an area of importance to Singapore and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Cost of living is an important consideration for the decision-making of expatriates and investment decisions of businesses. As competition between cities for talent and capital becomes global instead of national, the need for timely and internationally comparable information on global cities’ cost of living increases. While commercial research houses frequently publish cost of living surveys, these reports can be lacking in terms of scientific rigour. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by formulating a comprehensive and rigorous methodology to compare the cost of living for expatriates in 103 world’s major cities.Design/methodology/approach A cost of living index for expatriates composed of the ten consumption categories is constructed. The results from the study covers a study period from 2005 to 2014 in 103 cities. More than 280 individual prices of 165 goods and services have been compiled for each city in the calculation of the cost of living index for expatriates. New York has been chosen as the base city for the study, with other cities being benchmarked against it. A larger cost of living index for expatriates implies that the city is more expensive for expatriates to live in and vice versa.Findings While the authors generate the cost of living rankings for expatriates for 103 cities worldwide, in this paper, the authors focus on five key cities, namely, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich, as they are global financial centres. In 2013, the latest year for which data are available, Zurich was the most expensive for expatriates among the five cities, followed by Singapore, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong. These results pertain to the cost of living for expatriates, and cities compare very differently in terms of cost of living for ordinary residents, as ordinary residents follow different consumption patterns from expatriates.Originality/value Cost of living in the destination city is a major consideration for professionals who look to relocate, and organisations factor such calculations in their decisions to post employees overseas and design commensurate compensation packages. This paper develops a comprehensive and rigorous methodology for measuring and comparing cost of living for expatriates around the world. The value-addition lies in the fact that the authors are able to differentiate between expatriates and ordinary residents, which has not been done in the existing literature. They use higher quality data and generate an index that is not sensitive to the choice of base city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Malaysia and Singapore had parted more than five decades ago. Much of the existing literature concerned about the bilateral ties between two economies focusing on the political economy perspective. This paper aims to provide insights on the economic development and prospects of Malaysia and Singapore at the national level. In addition, this paper also makes a pioneering attempt at conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis between Malaysia and Singapore at the city level.Design/methodology/approach This paper offers a case study of Malaysia and Singapore by assessing their national economic competitiveness, urban standards of living and quality of life. The paper leverages on a series of indices such as the competitiveness index for ASEAN-10, the cost of living, wages and purchasing power of ordinary residents, as well as the liveable cities index to perform the analysis.Findings In terms of national competitiveness, the analysis shows that Singapore and Malaysia have been leading the ASEAN region from 2000 onwards, being the top- and second-ranked, respectively. Malaysia still lags Singapore in several aspects such as attractiveness to foreign investors and standard of living, education and social stability despite insignificant differences in the ranking. City-level analysis shows that the cost of living in Singapore is almost double of that in Kuala Lumpur, although living in Singapore is more affordable owing to the higher wage rate received by the ordinary citizens.Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, this paper assesses economic development in Singapore and Malaysia instead of focusing on cross-straits relations. Second, the study reflects the view that the improvement of standards of living and quality of life for ordinary residents is paramount to economic development. The competitiveness index and city-level benchmarks used in the paper reflect the standards of living and the quality-of-life dimensions. Third, the focus on city-level analysis in addition to conventional national-level analysis helps to provide policymakers with practical policy implications against the backdrop of rapid urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate information literacy (IL) skills of secondary students in Singapore after integration of these skills into school curriculum. The study also explored cyber wellness skills of the students. Design/methodology/approach: A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 14 secondary schools, located in different geographical zones of the country. A total of 3,306 secondary students participated in this survey. A scoring scheme was devised to assess IL skills of the students. Findings: The students achieved an overall mean score of 52.6%, which is considered as a "middle" level of IL competency. The students obtained high mean scores for two IL skills: "defining information task and analysing information gaps" (60.5%) and cyber wellness (60.1%). Lowest scores were achieved for two IL skills: "selecting information sources" (47.4%) and "appraising the information process and product" (48.0%). Research limitations/implications: This study has not investigated IL knowledge of teachers, responsible for teaching IL components. Similarly, content analysis of school textbooks, integrating IL skills, could be useful. Practical implications: It appeared that integration of IL skills into school curriculum showed limited success in imparting these skills. This paper suggests measures for improving the integration of IL skills into school curriculum. Findings of this survey will be useful to curriculum planners, education administrators, instructors teaching IL skills and school librarians. Originality/value: This study was unique as, in addition to standard IL skills, it also investigated cyber wellness skills. It was desirable as now social media have become a popular source for information seeking and sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Social media use carries both opportunities and risks for children and adolescents. In order to reduce the negative impacts of social media on youth, the authors focus our efforts on parental mediation of social media. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to enhance the conceptualization and operationalization of parental mediation of social media. Design/methodology/approach: First, the authors conducted focus groups with both children and parents in Singapore to categorize parental mediation strategies for social media and develop an initial scale of these strategies. Then, a survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1,424 child participants and 1,206 parent participants in Singapore to develop and test the scale. Findings: The focus group results identified four conceptually distinct parental mediation strategies for social media, labeled as active mediation, restrictive mediation, authoritarian surveillance, and non-intrusive inspection, and were used to develop an initial scale of these strategies. Based on the data from survey questionnaires, the authors investigated both inter-item and item-total correlations and performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which developed and validated the scale of parental mediation of social media. Originality/value: First, this research explained what parents do to manage children's social media use and identified four conceptually distinct parental mediation strategies of social media, making a significant contribution to the parental mediation theory. Additionally, the research developed the first theory-derived, successively validated and reliable scale in parental mediation of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The transportation system in any city is complex and evolving, shaped by various driving forces and uncertainties in the social, economic, technological, political and environmental situations. Its development and demands upon it cannot be projected by simply extrapolating past and current trends. This paper aims to present a foresight study examining the future of urban mobility, focusing on the dense Asian city-state of Singapore. The objective is to develop scenarios for the future of urban mobility, to facilitate future policy implementation by highlighting long term challenges and opportunities for transportation planning in cities. Design/methodology/approach: To create future scenarios, the authors first sought to identify key drivers of change through environmental scanning, expert interviews, focus group discussions and technology scanning. These drivers of change were subsequently used in a scenario planning workshop, organized to co-create alternative future visions for urban mobility 2040 with experts and local stakeholders. Findings: Two scenarios emerged, called the Shared World and the Virtual World. For each scenario, the authors described the key features in terms of dominant transport modes for the movements of passengers and freight. Subsequently, the authors discussed possible implications of each scenario to the individual, society, industry and government. Originality/value: As cities grow and develop, city and transport planners should not only address daily operational issues but also develop a well-informed, long-term understanding of the evolving mobility system to address challenges that lie beyond the five- or even ten-year horizon. By using scenario planning approach, the authors hope to prepare stakeholders for the uncertain futures that are continuously shaped by the decisions today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Misinformation can have lasting impacts in the management and control of a public emergency. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how misinformation flows and how user characteristics can shape such flows in the context of a violent riot in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach: The authors apply the two-step flow theory and discuss the mixed methods approach involving wrangling Twitter data and descriptive analysis to develop and analyse two corpuses of misinformation related to the riot. Findings: The findings are mostly consistent with the two-step flow theory, in that misinformation flows to the masses from opinion leaders (as indicated by higher measures such as online social influence and followers/following ratio). In the presence of misinformation, tweets opposing such misinformation may not always come from opinion leaders. Practical implications: The authors work furthers knowledge about how misinformation goes viral, which provides practical implications to help policymakers and scholars in understanding and managing the dynamics and pitfalls of misinformation during an emergency. Originality/value: This paper tackles the problem of misinformation in public emergencies using a mixed methods approach and contributes to ongoing theoretical work on managing online misinformation especially in public emergencies and crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of large inflow of foreign workers on the Singapore manufacturing productivity using a panel data at the disaggregated industry level from 1998 to 2008. The results indicate that foreign workers do make productive contribution to manufacturing productivity, but it is much lower as compared to local workers. However, the author observe the declining capital-labour ratio with the increase in the flow of foreign workers. This is expected to have direct impact on the competitiveness of the manufacturing in the export market. Since new technologies are embodied in new capital investment, the declining capital-labour ratio indicates that workers might be producing output with less technology-intensive capital. Conversely, local workers are more productive with high capital investment, indicating that local workers are more skilled and hence there is more complementarity between capital investments and local human capital. Design/methodology/approach – The author implement a panel estimation of disaggregated industry level data of Singapore manufacturing from 1998 to 2008. The author use GMM estimation to control for any endogeneity issues in the estimation. Findings – The results indicate that foreign workers do make productive contribution to manufacturing productivity; but it is much lower as compared to local workers. However; the author observe the declining capital-labour ratio with the increase in the flow of foreign workers. Research limitations/implications – The data for foreign workers at the disaggregated level is not publically available and this is given for this research purpose. The data for foreign workers is limited as it does not have by educational levels. Practical implications – This is the first paper to study impact of foreign workers on manufacturing sector at a disaggregated panel data. There are important policy implications for managing foreign workers and achieving sustainable growth for the Singapore economy. Social implications – The welfare and social impacts of foreign workers on the Singapore economy is discussed. There is also the issue of policy calibration to balance the flow of foreign workers in the Singapore economy. Originality/value – This is the first paper to study impact of foreign workers on manufacturing sector at a disaggregated panel data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to study the future of the Singapore association of social workers using causal layered analysis (CLA) and the Futures Triangle. In today’s rapidly changing world, professional associations have to re-evaluate their roles to remain relevant. This paper presents an analysis of findings from a study on the level of alliance of social workers with their professional association. By critically examining underlying issues beneath common beliefs held by social workers that impede, promote or sustain change with their professional association, we can gain a deeper understanding into their level of alliance with their association. Insights toward current issues faced by the association as well as its alternative and preferred futures could be illuminated. Design/methodology/approach – Inayatullah’s “Futures Triangle” was used to deepen the findings of the study on the level of alliance of social workers with their professional association from the lens of CLA (Inayatullah, 2004). The study employed interviews with 27 social workers in Singapore, selected through purposive sampling. Findings – Alternative scenarios and preferred futures of the Singapore Association of Social Workers (SASW) that were postulated from the interviews reinforce a need for more targeted recruitment campaigns. It also calls for regionalization and globalization of SASW to maximize its potentials. Originality/value – The paper suggests how a social work association might be able to reposition its role in relation to its stakeholders to promote and sustain itself. SASW could do so through positioning itself as the “National Geographic” beacon for social workers in Singapore to reach out to the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess knowledge of Singapore Grade 5 (11 years old) students’ understanding and proficiency in basic information literacy (IL) skills of defining information tasks, selecting information sources, seeking information from sources and synthesising and using information.Design/methodology/approach A 38-item multiple-choice question assessment instrument was used to assess the students’ IL skills based on the i-Competent IL model. The instrument first developed in 2010 was refined and expanded to increase the robustness and accuracy of assessment for the study. It was administered to 17 primary schools in Singapore in November 2015. The maximum possible score of 54 was scaled up to 100 to report the overall mean score for ease of reference and comparison. A total of 2,399 returns were obtained and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 22.0 to compute the mean scores, IL stage-level scores. The study also investigated for any significant differences in performance between male and female students, and students with or without access to the internet at home.Findings The students achieved an overall mean score of 53.39 which is below a recommended acceptable score of 60 or 70 advocated in a number of past studies. The two worst performing areas of IL skills were synthesising and using information and seeking information from sources with mean scores of 45.89 and 48.81, respectively. A review of the highest number of incorrect answers suggests that students had difficulty in identifying key information from an information task narrative, understanding the use of reference sources and role of librarians, distinguishing between a fact and opinion, and adopting the best strategy for searching. Girls outperformed boys with an overall mean score of 55.38 vs 51.50. Students with internet access at home fared better than those without access to it with a score of 53.67 vs 45.81. The overall poor results of the survey suggest an urgent need to review the IL education landscape in the Singapore school system, revisit polices, priorities and assess the relevance and effectiveness of the IL curriculum, practical hands-on classes, and interventions that are currently employed in schools.Practical implications The study helped identify areas of IL skills strengths and weakness among Grade 5 students in Singapore schools. It provides recommendations for follow up actions for education authority and schools to improve the situation.Originality/value This study was prompted to provide an assessment after a national IL initiative was launched in 2012 to inculcate IL skills among the school-going children as part of creating a value-driven education system. This is the first reported set of findings for a large-scale survey conducted to measure and ascertain the IL skills level among Grade 5 students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to calculate the net gains or losses for the ASEAN Members 1998-2007 in the East Asian market. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a new extension to the shift-share analysis to attribute the net shift to competing economies with a dynamic approach. This new extension is applied to analyze the competition among the ASEAN members in the East Asian market for the year from 1998-2007. Findings – Although in terms of market share, Indonesia and Malaysia take the lead in East Asia, the dynamic shift-share analysis suggests that the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia are gainers during 1998-2007, with positive net shifts and positive competitiveness effects. Originality/value – There are two main contributions of this paper: one is to dynamically estimate the net shifts of the economies as compared to the traditional comparative static approach; the other is to extend the shift-share analysis to attribute the net gains or losses to competing exporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to examine both the cointegrating and causal relationships among inward FDI and the host country's employment in manufacturing and services sectors. Design/methodology/approach – This paper applies autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework to test the cointegration and causality patterns using Singapore as a case. Findings – Apart from the presence of a unique long-run relationship, the findings also show evidence of long-run causality, running from employment in manufacturing and services to FDI inflows, and from FDI inflows and services employment to manufacturing employment. Furthermore, there is evidence of short-run causality showing strong FDI-employment and employment linkages, predominantly from the manufacturing to services. Research limitations/implications – One likely area of future research is to extend this paper by using disaggregated data, e.g. FDI inflows by sector (manufacturing and services), and employment by the respective sectors. Practical implications – Manufacturing and services have been regarded as the "twin engines" of growth for the Singapore economy. As the economy is moving up the value chain from downstream to upstream activities, a significant proportion of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been attracted to the manufacturing and services sectors. The present study provides useful policy implications towards promoting foreign investment in emerging areas of and manpower development in both sectors of the economy. Originality/value – This paper explores the possible interactions between FDI inflows and employment in manufacturing and services sectors as well as the employment linkages between manufacturing and services in Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to revisit the highly debated trade-growth hypothesis by considering the effects of trade and output volatility on the relationship between trade and economic growth. Design/methodology/approach - The relationship is modeled by testing for the existence of output and trade (export and imports separately) using the conditional variances of the variables and then specifying an autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (ARCH) process in a vector error correction model. Findings - Using Singapore as a case study, the paper finds the two-way relationship between export growth and trade-adjusted GDP growth is robust even after controlling for the effects of income and export volatility. In addition, neither trade nor GDP volatility bears any impact on the bi-directional causality between imports and unadjusted GDP growth thereby highlighting the crucial role of imports as intermediate inputs and embodying foreign technology in promoting economic growth. There is also evidence that output volatility impedes output and trade growth, while trade volatility exerts a negative influence on the trade-adjusted income growth. Practical implications - Ignoring the presence of trade and output volatility in modeling the trade-growth relationship provides biased empirical results which have serious implications for trade-oriented growth strategies that policy makers cannot afford to ignore. Originality/value - This is the first attempt to explicitly model output, export and import volatility in empirically testing the trade-growth hypothesis. Second, the robustness of the hypothesis is also tested by considering GDP and non-trade GDP as it has been argued that use of GDP may lead to the problems of simultaneity and specification bias since exports and imports are themselves a component of GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the trade linkages and degree of export competitiveness between Singapore, China and India. Design/methodology/approach - Balassa's export performance index and the dynamic RCA index was adopted, as suggested by Kreinin and Plummer to identify the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) of the above countries in industrial products by SITC 1- and 2-digit levels. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient is used to identify the degree of complementarity between RCA indices. Findings - Given the abundant resources, China and India have comparative advantage in a broad range of manufactured goods as compared to Singapore. From the disaggregated analysis at 2-digit level, the paper finds that the Singapore and China exports are complements, although the degree of complementarity has being declining over time. Meanwhile, Singapore and India exports are found to be stronger complements and stable over time. The results also show that China and India exports are strong substitutes. The paper also finds that the export specialization of China and India has experienced significant changes and shifting to new export products over time. Originality/value - Given the recent trade agreements between China and Singapore and India and Singapore, it is important to examine the trade linkages (complementarity/substitutability of trade) between these countries. The paper highlights the importance of China and India in complementing countries such as Singapore as it climbs the technological ladder to maintain its competitiveness in the world market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper seeks to explore the influences of service quality in higher education and the perceptions associated with the implementation of a Singapore tertiary institution. It draws on the underpinnings of SERVQUAL, and discusses the dichotomy and interrelation between customer perception and expectation. Design/methodology/approach - Qualitative methodology was employed and data were collected by means of structured in-depth interviewing with both internal (18 academics and ten current students) and external samples (ten graduates and five industry representatives). Content analysis was utilized to examine three key aspects of service standards: customer orientation, course design/delivery, and support services. Findings - The way students are perceived, whether as customers or products, will have an influence on the type of learning dynamics that develop both within and outside the classroom. Service quality, therefore, needs to be evaluated based on an integrated experience which occurs in a network of learning spaces created to promote dialogue, inquiry and reflection. Practical implications - Management of student expectations is fundamental to ensuring appropriate service quality in higher education. Closer working relationship with industry partners should be encouraged to serve as an audit on curricula relevance. Long-term quality of support services can be achieved by short-term measures such as training staff to be student-centered rather than task-driven. Originality/value - This paper is based on an actual framework developed by the engineering school as part of their strategic plan in achieving excellence in both quality of courses and learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how the library management of the Raffles Library and Museum (the former name of the National Library of Singapore) positioned the library in relation to the wider colonial society of which it was a part. More widely, the aim is to explore the role of libraries within a colonial setting. Design/methodology/approach - The paper takes the form of historical research using archival materials. Findings - The paper finds that the Raffles Library and Museum responded to the needs of two kinds of users: the potentially wayward colonist in need of "wholesome" recreation and the scientist/scholar involved in making Singapore a regional centre for the production of colonial knowledge. Originality/value - While knowledge-producing institutions such as botanical gardens, zoological parks, museums of natural and human history, as well as anthropological and geographical societies now feature prominently in discussions of British colonialism, the colonial library has been overlooked. This paper represents a start at bringing the colonial library into focus as an institutional node designed to sustain colonial endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper seeks to consider the basis on which a management corporation can represent original and subsequent purchasers of units in strata developments in a representative action against developers; the significance of unit owners' share values when courts award compensation; vicarious liability; and developers' use of the "independent contractor" defence in relation to its liability for defects in common property. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyses cases from several common law jurisdictions, with a focus on Singapore Court of Appeal decisions. Findings - The paper highlights the problems posed as a result of the doctrine of privity in relation to management corporations' claims against developers for defects in common property; the implications of unit holders' share values; and the circumstances in which developers can avail themselves of the independent contractor defence. Practical implications - The paper will be instructive to developers, contractors, management corporations and both original and subsequent purchasers of units in strata developments. Originality/value - The paper brings to focus the importance of due consideration by the management corporation before it commences a representative action on behalf of the subsidiary proprietors; and also highlights procedures and/or legislation that need to be implemented, failing which there may be financial implications that can render a "successful" litigation against the developer a pyrrhic victory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Building on studies examining the role of social media in contemporary forms of collective action and social movements, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between prior informational use of social media and individualized collective action. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 220 participants were surveyed in real-time during a protest against overpopulation in Singapore. Findings – Social media use was significant in disseminating information about the protest, and reflecting perceived personal relevance for specific issues. The authors found mixed motivations for attending the protest, significantly shaped by social proximity to organizers and personal relevance. Originality/value – The authors address research gaps in the link between social media use and individualized collective action, and real-time data collection during a protest. It is often difficult to study this link, given that social media may not be always the only platform used prior to a protest by participants. The case discussed here provides a unique opportunity for this to be addressed: the protest was not publicized by local mainstream media prior to the event and social media was the only place for both activists and the public to find and disseminate information about the protest. In other words, how participants used social media had a direct and meaningful impact on their participation in the protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- With pressing issues of climate change, greening buildings have emerged as a viable solution for meeting the increasing demand for buildings with minimal environmental impacts. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to establish the possibility of achieving this goal by investigating the drivers, challenges, and critical success factors (CSFs) involved in greening existing buildings. Since most of the relevant literature focuses on only acknowledging CSFs for new building projects in general, this study seeks to distinguish CSFs that are particularly related to the greening of existing buildings. Design/methodology/approach -- Based on a review of past literature, 28 selected factors were identified and were categorised into five main groups, namely pre-project-related factors, project management-related factors, client-related factors, project team-related factors, and external factors. Because older buildings have more constraints than new buildings, a comparison of the CSFs for greening new and existing buildings was also made. Surveys and interviews were conducted to validate the CSFs identified. Findings -- The top CSFs in each building category (new vs existing) were then further examined and analysed. These are "top management support", "effective planning and control", "building owner's involvement", "cost management", "responsiveness of building owners", "clear scope and priorities of stakeholders", and "legislation". Furthermore, there was a strong consensus on the rankings of most factors between new and existing buildings. Research limitations/implications -- By understanding the factors that are crucial for managing and delivering successful green projects in the Singaporean context, these CSFs can be used to direct an organisation's efforts in identifying critical issues and tackling them to achieve high performance. Originality/value -- An ambitious goal of greening 80 per cent of Singapore's building stocks has been set by the government in the Second Green Building Master Plan. To help achieve this goal, this study contributes to the knowledge of project management issues that would determine the success of managing new green building projects and retrofitting existing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigates strategies for achieving better integration between the design and construction (DC) and operation and maintenance (OM) supply chains in Singapore. The specific objectives are to: discover the goals that stakeholders want to achieve in integrating the supply chains; identify the stakeholders that play important integration role in each supply chain; and investigate the effective strategies that may yield better integration of the supply chains. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The sampling frame was Singapore-based clients, consultants and construction firms involved in developing and managing built facilities. Findings – The most important strategies for integrating the supply chains are: sharing relevant information and addressing sustainability issues jointly with DC and OM teams; and integrating life cycle optimization options in DC and OM supply chains. Research limitations/implications – The limitations include low response rate, and the subjective nature of a Likert scale which was used to rate importance levels. The research implication is that activities in DC and OM supply chains can indeed be integrated, and this leads to higher value for all stakeholders. Practical implications – The practical implication is that stakeholders could adopt the effective strategies identified by this study to foster closer integration of the two supply chains in Singapore. Teams from both supply chains need to work jointly instead of consecutively. Sharing information through an online platform by setting up a web-based database may help in their collaboration. It is also important that common goals need be set out at the onset, preferably by clients of built facilities, with strong buy-in by main contractors and consultants, so as to achieve better value. Originality/value – The study revealed effective strategies for integrating DC and OM supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Quality assurance and management is vital for the continuous improvement of the content, delivery and development of teacher education programmes. This paper seeks to explore theoretical issues and ideas in assessing the quality preparation of teachers in the Singapore context. Design/methodology/approach – An academic quality framework provides an architectural approach to optimizing quality processes, transitioning from a disjointed set of quality processes to an integrated workflow based upon established best practices. Findings – The architectural framework provided a systematic focus to develop and sustain the academic quality of the teacher development programmes. Quality change and developments occur through collaboration and learning. The emphasis is on quality management as a process-oriented strategy. Originality/value – There is a shift in paradigm from traditional models of programme evaluation to a systems approach that incorporate multi-dimensional models to impact administration, teaching and research in a teacher education institution. Thus Singapore's teacher education quality management should be considered beyond a set of measurement tools towards a systematic, scheduled and focused examination as a whole, as a process-oriented strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of selected individual, technological and implementation variables on the intention to use technology, among a sample of primary school teachers in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 385 teachers from 18 primary schools completed a survey questionnaire measuring their responses to six constructs that are categorized into in three contexts in which teachers' intention to use technology was influenced. Latent variable modeling was used as the technique for data analysis. Findings – The results showed that teachers' intention to use technology was not significantly influenced by the three contexts. However, each of the three contexts was significantly explained by their variables. The results suggest that the teachers in this study may have conceptualized the influences on their intention to use technology differently than commercial users of technology, as seen from the information sciences literature. Originality/value – This study contributes to our understanding of what influences the intention to use technology among educational users. While much research has been focused at the variable level, this study examines the contexts in which variables interact with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper which aims to study the development and effectiveness of quality assurance as a competitive tool for Singapore's private tertiary education in a growingly competitive global market. It notes the importance of quality assurance in private tertiary education in Singapore in order for the country to compete effectively and maintain its current objective of becoming educational hub. The study found that quality assurance in Singapore's private tertiary education is insufficient. It suggests that Singapore needs to re-evaluate its quality assurance framework in order to earn its vision of becoming a regional educational hub.

Purpose - Potential and benefits of classification schemes and thesauri in building organizational taxonomies cannot be fully utilized by organizations. Empirical data of building an organizational taxonomy by the top-down approach of using classification schemes and thesauri appear to be lacking. The paper seeks to make a contribution in this regard. Design/methodology/approach - A case study of building an organizational taxonomy was conducted in the information studies domain for the Division of Information Studies at Nanyang Technology University, Singapore. The taxonomy was built by using the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Information Science Taxonomy, two information systems taxonomies, and three thesauri (ASIS&T, LISA, and ERIC). Findings - Classification schemes and thesauri were found to be helpful in creating the structure and categories related to the subject facet of the taxonomy, but organizational community sources had to be consulted and several methods had to be employed. The organizational activities and stakeholders' needs had to be identified to determine the objectives, facets, and the subject coverage of the taxonomy. Main categories were determined by identifying the stakeholders' interests and consulting organizational community sources and domain taxonomies. Category terms were selected from terminologies of classification schemes, domain taxonomies, and thesauri against the stakeholders' interests. Hierarchical structures of the main categories were constructed in line with the stakeholders' perspectives and the navigational role taking advantage of structures/term relationships from classification schemes and thesauri. Categories were determined in line with the concepts and the hierarchical levels. Format of categories were uniformed according to a commonly used standard. The consistency principle was employed to make the taxonomy structure and categories neater. Validation of the draft taxonomy through consultations with the stakeholders further refined the taxonomy. Originality/value - No similar study could be traced in the literature. The steps and methods used in the taxonomy development, and the information studies taxonomy itself, will be helpful for library and information schools and other similar organizations in their effort to develop taxonomies for organizing content and aiding navigation on organizational sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the money demand function for five Southeast Asian countries, viz. Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach - The ARDL modeling approach is employed because of its ability to incorporate both 1(0) and 1(1) regressors. Findings - The results reveal that real M2 aggregate, real expenditure components, exchange rate, and inflation rate are cointegrated for Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. The statistical significance of real income components suggests the bias of using single real income variable in money demand (M2 aggregate) specification of both short- and long-run. The CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests show that the estimated parameters are stable for the five Southeast Asian economies, except for Indonesia which is based on short-run specification. Practical implications - These findings are important for policy makers in formulating monetary policy. Originality/value - Besides conventional determinants of money demand such as exchange rate and interest rate variables, this study considers the major components of final expenditure (GDP) - final consumption expenditures (private and government sectors), expenditures on investment goods, and exports as scale variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose ? While it is generally acknowledged that entrepreneurship can be taught, many differ in their opinions about the appropriate methodologies to teach and equip students with the requisite entrepreneurial skills. This paper presents a case to suggest that a problem-based learning (PBL) approach practised at the Republic Polytechnic in Singapore could be an effective pedagogical approach for entrepreneurship education. Design/methodology/approach ? Using case study method, the performance of a pioneer batch of students who took up the entrepreneurship programme (designed using PBL) was monitored and documented. Findings ? It is found that problems that simulate entrepreneurial situations within the classroom environment contribute to enhancing students' appreciation and capacity for entrepreneurship. The findings generally support the notion that PBL, premised upon an active learning and multi-solution approach, shares many similar characteristics as the interdisciplinary and ?learning-by-doing? approach of entrepreneurship education. Research limitations/implications ? Further, research to track and measure the post-programme outcomes of the students' entrepreneurial development is needed to determine the efficacy of entrepreneurship education using the PBL approach. Originality/value ? Pedagogical practices may not have been significantly considered as viable means of increasing the efficacy of entrepreneurship education. This case study signals to entrepreneurship educators and researchers that more emphasis could possibly be placed on developing innovative practices for entrepreneurship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study sets out to investigate the pattern of benefits from education along the earnings distribution and compares this pattern between general and vocational/technical education in Singapore, with a particular focus on male-female differences. Design/methodology/approach - Quantile regression methodology is used, which allows for estimates of education benefits that differentiate the contribution of the quantity and quality of education along the earnings distribution. The quantile regression estimates highlight where in the income/ability distribution the impact of education is more pronounced. Findings - Finds that, while the pattern of returns to an additional year of education for general education follows that of other high income countries, exhibiting increasing returns to education as one goes from lower to higher income quantiles, the returns to vocational education exhibit much lower heterogeneity. Based on the findings, the vocational education system in Singapore has served women with secondary vocational qualifications particularly well. They earn more, have higher labor force participation, experience higher employment rates and are associated with a narrower gender earnings gap compared with women with general education. However, this is not the case for women with polytechnic qualifications, who earn much less than men with such qualifications. Practical implications - The findings suggest that, by and large, Singapore's vocational education system at the secondary level has successfully addressed the needs of the industry and has contributed towards narrowing gender earnings differentials. It has also contributed towards less overall earnings inequality, because it results in less heterogeneity in the returns to education, compared with general education. However, the curricula of polytechnics need to be re-examined to identify the cause of the sharply lower female benefits from this type of education. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the empirical literature with its use of the quantile regression methodology in evaluating the benefits of vocational versus general education for men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Due to various historical differences in organising, documenting and managing information across cultural institutions, cross-domain resource discovery in the cultural heritage sector remains problematic. Leveraging on the lessons learnt from current efforts to enhance access to networked digital cultural resources, this paper seeks to explore the development of a taxonomy for the same purpose. Design/methodology/approach - A methodology was developed for the construction of a 500-term taxonomy for a Singapore-based cultural heritage network. Based on this taxonomy, the benefits and problems of developing such a knowledge organisation system for a cultural network are also discussed. Findings - Collecting terms and concepts from various external and internal sources was sufficient to kick-start the taxonomy development process. One of the key aspects of the Integrated Museum and Archives System (IMAS) taxonomy is its ability to show a broad overview of the all the resources held by the National Heritage Board, regardless of originating institution. Originality/value - No single scheme currently best fits the needs of cultural networks, but all can benefit from each other's learning process. The development of the IMAS taxonomy particularly benefited from the insights provided by faceted classification and the possible relationships between terms and concepts in ontology. Such guidelines and recommendations also provide much ground and basis for the NHB to start a framework for standardising documentation practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-cultural and practical challenge of evaluating the management performance of Australian and Singaporean expatriates has received little research attention. This paper explores critical perceptions of performance management by analysing the results of structured interviews with Australian and Singaporean expatriate managers and human resource professionals. Contrary to initial expectations, a slight majority of respondents were satisfied overall with the fairness and accuracy of expatriate performance management practices. Their proposals for more effective performance management are analysed, focussing on the efficacy of involving multiple, cross-cultural raters in performance appraisal. The cultural differences between Australian and Singaporean expatriates are also explorer. The findings of this research provide important direction for the development of culturally sensitive international human resource management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]