Dr. Thomas Wu

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Doctor of Business Administration

I am using this avenue to share what I have learned from my Doctor of Business Administration courses. I found most work to be interesting and challenging. Group work have also provided me with many opportunities to learn from my classmates as well.

Online survey packages

Referencing information - Harvard system versus Oxford system

BUSS671 Global Marketing Management

MGT671 IT Strategies & the IT Infrastructure

ACCT601 Advanced Financial Management

MGT6011 Qualitative Research & Consultancy

MGT6611 Advanced Business Strategies

MGT682 Independent Studies - Corruption

MM602 Business Research Analysis and Design

MM604 Statistical Analysis for Management Research

Thesis Proposal - Market Power, Market Size, and Diversification in the Emerging Markets

Thesis Proposal - Powerpoint presentation for Residential II

Thesis

BUSS671 Global Marketing Management

Project 1. We were responsible for the Interactive Computer case. The main focus of this case is transfer pricing and the effects of transportation cost, tariffs, and other factors on transfer pricing. For the submitted report, please click here. For the Powerpoint presentation, please click here.

Project 2. We were asked to develop an international marketing plan for a specific project in the Asia Pacific region. Our project is bottled Chinese herbal tea. For the submitted report, please click here. For the Powerpoint presentation, please click here. Sorry the Chinese fonts did not get translated when acrobated.

Review paper project. We were asked to select a marketing topic, perform literature review on the topic, identify important contributions from the literature, and write a paper synthesising the relevant literature. My topic was on the effects of information and communication technologies ("ICT") on service industries in the Asia Pacific region. In additions to the discussion of the current literature, I have theorized on how ICT will alter the business landscape in the Asia Pacific region. There are differences due to dissimilar culture and distinct political and economic structure. I have proposed several topics for further research in this area. For submitted report, please click here. Comments and input are greated appreciated.

MGT671 IT Strategies & The IT Infrastructure

Individual project. We were asked to select an IT related topic and prepare a proposal. The proposal should include the background and importance of topic, problem and objectives, literature review, framework and methodology, schedule, possible industrial and academic implication, and conclusion. I selected post-merger technology integration issues as my topic. I hypothesized that technology platform becomes more standardized and modular, the software and hardware technology infrastructure becomes less important with the trend of open systems and outsourcing, and a firm's competitive advantage with respect to technology now hinges on the quality of its customer database and the firm's ability to data mine useful information from this database. For submitted report, please click here.

ACCT601 Advanced Financial Management

Great classical finance papers were read for this course. The book used is also very informative and interesting. Please contact myself at thomaswu@thomaswu.com for list of papers and books used for this course.

Project 1. We reviewed 3 papers which looks at the effects of unexpected changes in capital expenditure or research and development expense on stock price. Initially, stock prices experienced cumulative excess returns when there is an unexpected increase in capital expenditure or research and development expense. Subsequent, the effect becomes less significant. We extended the research to 2000 to 2003 as it was a period of general stock decline. For Powerpoint of our presentation, please click here.

Project 2. We reviewed 2 papers on whether spin-offs and layoffs improve firm performance. The paper found that own industry spin-off do not improve performance, while cross-industry spin-off improves performance. The improvements in firm performance came from the parent because management can focus their efforts on their own industry. The second paper found that layoffs improve performance. For Powerpoint of our presentation, please click here.

MGT6011 Qualitative Research & Consultancy

Project 1. We did a consultancy case project in which we acted as consultants to a local company.

Project 2. This individual project requires us to plan a qualitative research project. My paper investigates the relationship between majority owner-management firms and corporate governance. I hypothesis that majority owner-management firms is the most effective form of ownership structure for corporate governance in Asia Pacific. The research uses interviews to obtain main independent variables, delphi panel to rank these variables, and interview and statistical analysis to isolate ownership structure that are favorable for corporate governance purposes for each country in the Asia Pacific region. For the submitted report, please click here.

Two pictures were taken on the last day of class on the 9th floor conference room. Click to see Picture 1 and Picture 2.

MGT6611 Advanced Business Strategies

There are some good articles on strategies that was used for this course.

Case Writeup. We were required to write a case on a business that can be used for teaching purposes. I wrote my case on a hardware maintenance service provider in Hong Kong. For the case, please click here. I have changed the names of the company and the characters for posting here.

MGT682 Independent Studies

We are suppose to select a topic of interest and prepare a research proposal that includes all the necessary requirements except for the actual performance of the research work.

I was interested in three topics: (a) development and current issues in behavior finance, (b) effects on a firm's cost of capital and risk profile when it list equity in multiple markets (i.e. diversification of source of capital), and (c) corruption and its effects on China.

Behavioral finance is a very interesting topic, but it necessitates a more qualitative approach. The effects of multiple stock listings is more empirical in nature; unfortunately, I knew I would fall to the temptation of complete the whole research process of which there is inadequate time within one semester. As a result, I prepared a research proposal on corruption and its effects on China. For the research proposal, please click here.

MM602 Business Research Analysis and Design

A review of qualitative and quantitative research was provided. An extremely informative course that provided us with a big picture view of our goals and direction.

We have three group projects which use the same topic; we need to provide an outline of a thesis topic using a qualitative approach, a quantitative approach, and a discussion of which one to use.

We also have to prepare a summary of a thesis proposal with all the necessary work performed up to the actual data collection and analysis. Hence it includes all the requirement for a thesis including literature review, data collection methodology, analytical approach.

MM604 Statistical Analysis for Management Research

Some very useful statistical techniques were taught, including classic ones like t-test, ANOVA, and regression to the more contemporary techniques like correspondence analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. We used SPSS and AMOS as our statistical packages.

Project 1. Take home assignment on the basic statistical techniques. For the submitted report, please click here.

Project 2. We have to reviewed two research papers which utilize the statistical techniques taught in this course. For the submitted report, please click here.

Final Examination. The final examination is open book. For my submitted examination, please click here.

Thesis Proposal

I hypothesize that diversification is beneficial to firms in the emerging markets if (a) it enables the firm to increase its market power, and (b) the firm has limited growth potential in its industry or country. Please click here for my thesis proposal. The Acrobat cannot convert the summation sign and it is shown as a question mark. I will present my thesis in early May for approval.

As a note, two research papers in the Journal of Finance (Vol. 59, No 2, April 2004) found benefits in diversification. The first paper found diversification premium when another data source is used for segment information, highlighting the shortcoming of the Compustat database (measurement error). The second paper concluded that diversification is optimal for maximization of shareholder value (endogeneity factor).

Thesis Proposal Powerpoint Presentation

My supervisor advised me to include capital markets development as an independent variable. I have also added robustness tests for autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity. For the Powerpoint presentation for my thesis proposal, please click here.

Thesis

Using the multiplier approach (Berger and Ofek (1995)) to value multi-segment firms from ten emerging markets in Asia, I found that there is a discount associated with multi-segment firms. Upon further investigation, I found that single segment firms are very different from multi-segment firms. Multi-segment firms generally have lower excess firm values, but the lower excess firm values is reduced as firms diversify. I concluded that two hypotheses can account for this observation.

The first hypothsis involves the natural evolution of firms. I hypothesize that most firms started out as small single segment firms. Successful firms will grow and continue as single segment firms, while unsuccessful firms will disappear over time. The "barely" successful and the "used to be" successful firms will diversify to seek growth opportunities. However, diversification and market power are associated with higher excess firm values amongst multi-segment firms because there are synergistic benefits and firms can leverage their market power across new and existing segments.

The second hypothesis involves non-representative sample of single segment firms in the multiplier approach. Previous research have proposed that single segment firms are different from segment of multi-segment firms because they lack the infrastructure for internal capital markets. As a result, only the most outstanding single segment firms remain in business. Using these "above average" performers will naturally result in a discount for multi-segment firms.

For the Powerpoint presentation of my VIVA, please click here.

For my thesis, please click here.