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2025 marked a year of transformative changes and resilience across industries. The advancement of humanoid robots, intelligent tools, and ever-evolving financial complexities is redefining the workforce and reshaping the business landscape. Sustainability also took centre stage, with leaders focusing on responsible growth and human-centric strategies.

What topics have been of concern in the past year? How can business leaders and entrepreneurs thrive during this period? Our top 10 most-read articles of the year offer fresh ideas and valuable insights—from smarter ways to leverage technology to simple habits that make a difference.

By China Business Knowledge @ CUHK

#1 How assistive robots can boost an inclusive workforce

Professor Choi Sungwoo, School of Hotel and Tourism Management

Technology can empower individuals with disabilities to thrive in the workplace. While its impact on consumer perception varies, a new study suggests that personal interaction is key to success.

#2 The science of creativity, genetics and careers

Professor Li Wendong, Department of Management

Is creativity a blessing for individual well-being and career success? Researchers find that creativity can yield diverse and sometimes conflicting effects on one’s career paths and overall life satisfaction.

#3 The green illusion: why eco-conscious people still waste food?

Professor Elisa Chan, School of Hotel and Tourism Management

Food waste is a major contributor to global warming, yet many people—including those who consider themselves environmentally conscious—remain unaware of its serious impact.

#4 Enhancing consumer trust in sponsored ads

Professor Wang Weiquan, Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology

Misleading ads are fuelling scepticism toward sponsored products and sellers, prompting researchers to examine factors that shape user trust and identify effective strategies to strengthen user confidence.

#5 Two cents mean a milestone for startups

Professor Willow Wu, Department of Management

While it is commonly believed that entrepreneurs should follow the advice of investors, the reality is far more nuanced. New research suggests seizing all possible opportunities to learn.

#6 Stay niche for better branding

Professor Tony Ke, Department of Marketing

How a brand positions itself can make all the difference. While chasing market trends seems tempting, niche brand positioning can be more profitable in the long run by building consumer trust.

#7 The matchmaking secrets for high-performing teams

Professor Mandy Hu, Department of Marketing

Teamwork plays an important role in a fast-paced work environment. Researchers discover a method to enhance firms’ productivity by redesigning teams without incurring additional hiring costs.

#8 How mental shortcuts guide loan success and repayment

Professor Michael Zhang, Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology

People sometimes rely on quick thinking when making decisions, but this comfort can be a disaster when it comes to personal finance. Recent research offers insights into choosing the right shortcut.

#9 Do stock buybacks stifle innovation?

Professor Kevin Tseng, School of Accountancy

Companies are buying back more of their own shares, often to meet earnings targets. While some fear this hurts innovation, a new study finds the pressure can make firms put their priorities straight.

#10 The risks and rewards of Chinese shadow banking

Professor Su Yang, Department of Finance

Chinese banks operate shadow banking as a high-yield wealth management product. Researchers investigate how the competition fuels these products and highlight the need for clearer disclosure.

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Each internet search leaves traces that tell a story about market demand, and a new study reveals its link to exposing fraud

Featured faculty: Zhang Yinglei
Written by Ellis Ng

Earnings reports are the scoreboard of a company’s financial health. However, behind those soaring revenue numbers, the truth can sometimes be buried. Some firms inflate their revenues to dazzle investors. It’s a deceptive game that brought giants like the payment company Wirecard and the property developer Evergrande to the ground.

Revenue misstatement can be difficult to spot. Firms often have complex operations and various ways of recording revenue, which can obscure the true financial picture. Traditional audit procedures may not always detect subtle manipulations, particularly when management crafts the presentation of revenues to fit with strategic narratives.

This challenge has led auditors to seek independent and external sources to help spot potential revenue misstatements. A new study suggests that Google can provide answers, given the search engine’s unique feature of collecting user queries.

“Customers nowadays seek product information, such as quality reviews, outlets, and pricing, before making a purchase. As the largest search engine globally, Google serves as a valuable resource to aggregate demand information,” says Zhang Yinglei, Associate Professor at the School of Accountancy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

In a study titled Using Google searches of firm products to detect revenue management, Professor Zhang and her collaborators introduce the manipulation up (MUP) model by harnessing big data. The model leverages the search volume index provided by Google Trends that quantifies the relative frequency of searches for a particular term and compares it with the company’s reported sales figures.

“If reported sales growth significantly rises while Google search volume for the firm’s products significantly declines, this discrepancy should raise a red flag for auditors, analysts, and fraud investigators,” she says.

With this model, auditors and fraud investigators can verify whether the reported revenue aligns with actual consumer interests. It also presents a low-cost and timely tool for auditors that leverages publicly accessible data to independently validate reported revenues and identify fraud.

Turning a search engine into a fraud finder

In developing the model, Professor Zhang, along with Chiu Peng Chia of CUHK Shenzhen, Teoh Siew Hong of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Huang Xuan of California State University, first gathered quarterly firm-level sales data and other financial variables from S&P Compustat, which hosts a comprehensive market and corporate financial database.

They also collect Google Trends data to obtain the search volume index for each firm’s products from 2004 to 2020. The researchers then picked each firm’s biggest advertised brand, collected monthly search data for those products, and then compared changes in search interest to the companies’ reported sales to see if significant differences could signal possible revenue manipulation.

“If reported sales growth significantly rises while Google search volume for the firm’s products significantly declines, this discrepancy should raise a red flag for auditors, analysts, and fraud investigators.”

Professor Zhang Yinglei

The analyses confirm that changes in search volume index are positively correlated with actual changes in sales, validating the use of the MUP model as an external measurement correlating with firm revenue. What makes the tool particularly valuable is that Google Trends data can’t be manipulated by company management, making it an impartial source for genuine consumer interest.

“Google search data offers an independent way to verify company claims, rather than relying solely on information that companies can control,” says Professor Zhang.

The missing piece of the puzzle

To gauge the MUP model’s reliability, the researchers further compare its incremental predictability through rigorous testing against four established fraud detection methods in financial audit, such as the F_Score that spots financial anomalies, Stubben’s discretionary revenues model that tracks unusual revenue patterns, analyst sales forecasts, and media and analyst coverage.

The study shows that the MUP model adds unique insights on top of these traditional tools. It also matches with other common warnings of questionable revenue reporting, such as unusual increases in unpaid customer bills (accounts receivable) and suspiciously low funds to cover losses from unpaid bills (bad debt provisions).

Nevertheless, the MUP model is designed as a prototype diagnostic tool that integrates external big data with traditional fraud risk indicators, but it is not intended to be used independently or as a substitute for other fraud detection methods. Thus, this tool is best used as part of multiple approaches rather than relying on it exclusively.

“The MUP model enhances cross-checking methods by adding a source that is hard for companies to manipulate and helping auditors spot problems during quarterly reviews and in industries where customer search behaviour reflects demand strongly,” Professor Zhang adds.

Simply put, this model is most effective for cross-checking revenue reports in the retail and business-to-customer industries, where customers are more likely to search for product information before purchase. By combining data from search engines with traditional financial analysis, auditors can build a more complete picture of a company’s true performance.

The future of fraud detection

Auditors aren’t the only ones to benefit from the MUP model. Investors can also use it to evaluate company risks before making investment decisions, while regulators and policymakers can incorporate it into their fraud prevention strategies.

By analysing Google search data not just for a single product but also for companies within the same industry, analysts and auditors can gauge the relationship between the company’s revenue changes and its competitors. This could help make more accurate and improve the ability to spot fraud.

Comparing competitors’ Google Trends data will also enable analysts to distinguish between company-specific issues and industry-wide trends, helping determine whether declining consumer interest is unique to one company or reflects broader market changes.

What about markets where Google is less commonly used? Professor Zhang believes that the approach works with other search engines. “For example, fraud investigators can utilise the Baidu search index in Chinese Mainland and the Naver search index in South Korea to assess genuine consumer interest in a firm’s products.”

The study further advocates for regulators to adopt a more proactive stance in combating fraud by collecting transaction data from independent external sources and making this information publicly available. Such collaborative efforts would make fraud detection methods more accessible and affordable for auditors and stakeholders.

Easing the identification of potential financial misstatements would diminish the incentives for revenue manipulation, thereby discouraging such unethical behaviour. Ultimately, transparency stands as a powerful deterrent, perhaps the most effective safeguard, against fraudulent behaviours.

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Daily patterns in foreign exchange markets create massive fluctuations worth over US$1 billion, a new study finds

Featured faculty: Paul Whelan
Written by Ellis Ng and Putro Harnowo

Foreign exchange or forex is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, with a daily trading volume of US$9.6 trillion, according to a 2025 survey by the Bank for International Settlements. This number is significantly higher than the stock markets, which are estimated to be around US$700 billion per day.

Forex traders buy and sell currencies to make profits on differences in exchange rates over a global, decentralised market. With low capital requirements and the flexibility to trade anywhere, forex trading may appear easy, but practice suggests otherwise. The forex market is highly volatile and influenced by global politics and economics.

Although various methods have been designed to anticipate price movements and manage risk, forex traders suffering huge losses are not uncommon sights. A notable example is US$900 million lost by world-renowned investor Warren Buffett in 2005, signalling the unpredictable nature of foreign currency investment.

As the most widely traded currency, the US dollar is involved in more than 80 per cent of all forex transactions. Some argue that this domination may change amid intensifying trade and geopolitical tensions, along with US tariffs and protectionist policies that could potentially weaken the greenback’s hegemonic position.

However, Paul Whelan, Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, remains cautious about anticipating dramatic changes to established patterns. “It’s too early to know if US tariffs will change the norm. The fundamental driver, consistent global demand for US dollar-denominated assets, remains robust despite shifting geopolitical dynamics.”

Although predicting currency market movements accurately is impossible, Professor Whelan’s recent study reveals a fascinating cycle that also demonstrates the persistent appeal of the US dollar. Every day at precisely 9.55am in Tokyo, 2.15pm in Frankfurt, and 4pm in London, the US dollar strengthens dramatically, only to weaken just afterwards. It’s a systematic pattern researchers have now quantified, revealing daily swings exceeding US$1 billion across global currency markets.

“Rather than market inefficiency, we find the daily swing pattern as a structural feature of the currency market driven by the prevalent demand for US dollars,” Professor Whelan says.

“The fundamental driver, consistent global demand for US dollar-denominated assets, remains robust despite shifting geopolitical dynamics.”

Professor Paul Whelan

What causes the billion-dollar daily swing pattern?

In a paper titled Foreign exchange fixings and returns around the clock, Professor Whelan, along with Ingomar Krohn at the Bank of Canada and Philippe Mueller at Warwick Business School, examined 21 years of high-frequency trading data and discovered a daily swing pattern around specific moments known as fixings. Fixings refer to the times when currency exchange rates are officially published, calculated by aggregating bids and offers to establish a reference price for valuing and executing international transactions.

Several key fixings are used worldwide, but the most prominent ones are the Tokyo, Frankfurt and London fixings, which have provided benchmarks for major currencies such as the yen, euro and pound, the top three currencies traded against the US dollar. Banks in Tokyo simultaneously publish their fixing at 9.55am, Frankfurt-headquartered European Central Bank announces its fixing at 2.15pm, and London-based Thomson Reuters updates its WM/Reuters fixing at 4pm, all in local time.

If converted to New York’s Eastern Time Zone (ET), Tokyo fixing happens at 8.55pm, Frankfurt at 8.15am, and London at 11am ET. As shown below, these fixing times are not exactly aligned, creating W-shaped patterns where the US dollar appreciates before the fixings and depreciates immediately afterwards.

Tokyo fixing is especially important as Japan doesn’t apply daylight saving time, a common practice among Northern Hemisphere countries where the clocks are set forward by one hour in spring and back by one hour in autumn, resulting in a change in time difference between Tokyo and other cities in the study throughout the year. From spring through autumn, the W-shaped pattern near the Tokyo fixing shifts by about one hour.

“Japan’s non-observance of daylight savings time serves as a quasi-natural experiment to prove the reversal is really tied to the fixing time,” says Professor Whelan.

What makes the finding striking is its consistency. The analysis of the nine most frequently traded currencies against the US dollar reveals a pervasive and highly statistically significant daily pattern across different time periods, suggesting that this isn’t a temporary market quirk but a fundamental feature of how global currency markets function.

The researchers believe that the pattern is driven by demand for US dollars at around major currency fixing times. Traders and financial institutions that facilitate foreign exchange transactions accumulate US dollars to meet this demand, causing the greenback to appreciate against other currencies. Right after the fixings, the dollars are sold back, leading to a price drop.

These findings highlight important considerations for managing currency risk. For corporations holding international operations, the real-world implications are significant. “Cross-border businesses might take into account timing around fixings to address pricing uncertainty,” says Professor Whelan.

Currency markets don’t always follow the logic

While identifying the daily swing pattern may help mitigate investment risk, it is worth noting that foreign exchange remains volatile due to the significant influence of external factors and trading behaviours. Another study by the researchers, Uncovered interest parity in high frequency, highlights that currency markets are not perfectly rational or predictable.

The researchers explore an investment strategy called a carry trade, which involves borrowing in low-interest-rate currencies, such as the Japanese yen, to invest in assets denominated in higher-interest-rate currencies, like the US dollar. According to the uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) theory, exploiting the interest rate differential shouldn’t yield consistent profits, as currencies with higher interest rates should gradually depreciate to offset the interest gains and maintain market balance.

However, the fact that some traders can still make profits from a carry trade has been perplexing. The researchers sought to determine how and when such an anomaly occurs by analysing foreign exchange market data spanning more than 25 years, focusing on nine of the most heavily traded currencies that account for 75 per cent of global daily average trading volume.

The results show that when major currency markets are closed or less active, mostly at night, the UIP theory tends to hold in diminishing carry trades. However, during daytime at US trading hours, currencies with higher interest rates tend to appreciate instead of depreciate, which contradicts the UIP theory. Most of the profits from carry trades are actually made in short bursts when major economic news comes out, such as the Federal Reserve’s announcements or major economic reports, during trading hours.

“Important economic news, like major reports or announcements, can cause sudden and big changes in currency prices as they show whether the economy is doing well or poorly,” says Professor Whelan. “Holding onto currency investments during these times is risky because prices can jump unexpectedly. To be willing to take this risk, investors need to expect higher returns as compensation for facing these shocks.”

On average, big news days account for only 17 per cent of all trading days in the sample, but contribute to two-thirds of the extra profit beyond normal market fluctuations. However, the probability of losses remains non-negligible, particularly during periods of market turbulence or when currencies behave abnormally.

Currency markets are more nuanced and less predictable compared to other financial markets. While classical theories provide a helpful framework, real-world data reveal consistent patterns of deviations. Market expectations and reactions are vital in understanding currency movements, more crucial than relying on interest rate differentials.

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A new study reveals how reputation, competition, and regulation shape the way businesses treat your personal data

Featured faculty: Jesse Yao
Written by Sally Ho

It’s fair to say that no one has been spared from the universal nuisance of scam calls and messages. Bad actors often find the targets from data brokers that collect personal data illicitly or purchase it from platforms to which users have entrusted their information.

Companies collect vast information about their customers to personalise advertisements and product offerings, yet many users are unaware of how valuable their personal data is. While the exact market value of personal data remains obscure, the global data broker industry is estimated to be worth US$277 billion in 2024.

Although countries around the world have issued stringent data protection laws, data misuse and breaches are increasingly common. Many companies mention their commitment to keep users’ data private in their privacy policies, but end up sharing or selling it to third parties without consent.

“Companies have a strong motivation to sell users’ data for immediate profits, and may not realise that they can actually gain consumer trust and loyalty by honouring their commitments to user privacy,” says Jesse Yao, Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School. “Data sales are often not transparent or directly observable. Consumers can’t easily verify if a company is truly keeping its privacy promises.”

Ultimately, the nature of data collection creates a conundrum, where consumers are unsure about sharing their information as companies juggle between keeping and selling data. In his latest paper, Reputation for privacy, Professor Yao explains that such a dilemma is called the “holdup problem,” where two parties hesitate to cooperate due to concern about the opportunistic behaviour of the other party.

Can reputation protect data privacy?

Consumers who believe that a firm values its reputation over immediate profits are more confident in entrusting their personal data with the said firm. Building on this idea, Professor Yao models various scenarios of firm and consumer data interactions and then compares the outcomes in different market structures.

“Companies have a strong motivation to sell users’ data for immediate profits, and may not realise that they can actually gain consumer trust and loyalty by honouring their commitments to user privacy.”

Professor Jesse Yao

The analyses find that privacy protection thrives in a monopoly setting, where one firm dominates. In this setting, customers quickly find out which firm to blame for any data sales. Considering the risks of permanent reputational damage by selling or recklessly handling user data, the firm has a strong incentive to protect data to keep consumer trust and loyalty.

In a competitive market with multiple firms relentlessly trying to outmanoeuvre each other, reputation fails to serve as a privacy gatekeeper. Since consumers cannot easily identify which company leaks or sells their data, and individual firms do not bear the full consequences of harming consumer trust, the repercussions for the offenders are weak and temporary.

Take Apple’s operating system iOS, for instance. The company has quasi-monopoly power over its closed ecosystem and tight controls on both hardware and software. Consumers cannot install software from other manufacturers and will easily point fingers for any data breaches. Since Apple cares so much about reputation, it has strong incentives not to misuse users’ data.

On the other hand, the open Android ecosystem has numerous hardware manufacturers and software developers sharing the market. Consumers often cannot tell which apps were responsible for privacy violations due to noisy data flows and shared infrastructure, making the environment more prone to privacy risks, as evident in many news reports.

“We even find situations where two competing companies at first wanted to stick to their privacy commitment and were very willing to keep their reputations, but the temptation was so strong that they eventually failed to do so,” says Professor Yao.

Why privacy policy and regulation matter

Unfortunately, there is no purely monopolistic market in the real world, and people nowadays use multiple apps on various devices. Companies can easily gain short-term profits by selling data, and customers will find it hard to track down the responsible party. This lack of accountability reduces firms’ incentives to protect privacy. In this case, regulation plays a vital role in ensuring consumers’ rights.

Sound regulation can extend benefits for both consumers and companies. Protecting data privacy will make consumers more confident to share their information and to get better product offerings. At the same time, companies benefit from enhanced reputations and sustainable profits from loyal customers.

“Consumers and companies actually share the same interest, but the companies might be tempted to act against consumers’ interest by selling their data for short-term gains,” says Professor Yao. “Therefore, well-designed regulations are important to encourage businesses to behave responsibly, which benefits both consumers and companies in the long run.”

On top of that, regulators shall impose fines to deter firms from violating privacy commitments. “Liability fines by themselves are not enough, but liability fines with regulatory monitoring could do the trick,” he says.

The study offers a general framework for future exploration on the effectiveness of different policy tools and business practices, especially on how emerging technologies like AI will shape privacy dynamics.

As technology advancements tend to increase the benefits and complexity of data use, enforcing privacy in ever competitive markets becomes challenging. Regulators may use AI-based monitoring and enforcement, alongside liability fines, to encourage firms to maintain privacy commitments. Without strong and enhanced regulatory interventions, enforcing data privacy may become more and more difficult as technology progresses.

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Pressure creates diamonds. Some companies have embraced this mindset to spark inventions

Featured faculty: Kevin Tseng
Written by Putro Harnowo

Public companies around the world are increasingly buying back their own stock. American firms are expected to set a record of US$1.1 trillion in share repurchases this year, led by Apple and Nvidia, while Asian companies have bought back US$266 billion in shares by August 2025, already 1.7 times more than last year.

Despite the growing trend, reactions surrounding this practice, simply called buybacks, have been mixed. American venture capitalist Nick Hanauer once said stock buybacks kill the economy, Senator Elizabeth Warren called them a tool to inflate executive pay, and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has aimed to limit buybacks so companies invest in capital spending instead.

Companies buy their shares back for many reasons, such as returning excess cash to shareholders or signalling confidence in their prospects. In some cases, buybacks can also help lift earnings per share (EPS), a key metric to show how much profit is attributed to each share, by reducing the number of shares outstanding.

Public firms typically set quarterly targets for their EPS, which also serves as a benchmark for evaluating firm performance. When firms miss this goal, their stock price and investors’ confidence may drop.

Treading on the verge of missing the EPS target put companies under “earnings pressure,” leading them to buy back some of their own shares. The caveat is stock buyback requires substantial cash, so companies often cut back spending on capital expenditures, employment, and research and development afterwards.

Critics argue that such a short-term cash flow strategy can compromise long-term innovation. However, Kevin Tseng, Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, proposes an alternative view. His recent collaborative study, Innovation under pressure, shows some firms increase their innovation output following EPS-motivated buybacks, even expanding their product lines beyond existing offerings.

“Buybacks spend a considerable amount of money, forcing firms to prioritise higher-value projects rather than indiscriminately trimming research and development,” he says. “Earnings pressure from buybacks does not appear harmful to innovation outputs because it can spur innovation efficiency.”

“Pressure does not necessarily suppress innovation but can sharpen resource allocation, encouraging focus on the most promising projects.”

Professor Kevin Tseng

How earnings pressure can drive innovations?

Along with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Heitor Almeida and Mathias Kronlund, as well as Vyacheslav Fos of Boston College and Hsu Po-Hsuan of National Tsing Hua University, Professor Tseng obtains the US firms’ financial information from the Centre for Research in Security Prices and Compustat, and collects EPS data from the Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System.

They focus on firms that have filed patents with the US Patent and Trademark Office from 1988 to 2015, within two years before experiencing earnings pressure. After excluding financial and utility firms, the final sample consists of 2,312 unique firms.

The researchers categorise the firms based on their innovative efficiency by assessing how effectively they have converted research and development spending into new patents. Those good at producing patents relative to their spending are classified as innovation-efficient.

Firms that are more innovation-efficient tend to cut their less productive projects and are more agile in reallocating their research and development towards higher-impact and the most profitable projects. Earnings pressure pushes these firms to produce more new ideas and inventions, particularly in the first year after buybacks, and persists for about three years before diminishing.

“Thus, the pressure can repeatedly shape innovation outcomes, but the benefits are not permanent, as they taper off unless renewed,” says Professor Tseng.

Innovation-efficient firms facing earnings pressure are also more likely to increase the number of researchers and scientists. By doing so, these firms are better positioned to access more new knowledge and explore more innovative technologies.

Further analyses show innovation-efficient firms increasingly use new knowledge by 2.5 per cent and boost their patent ratio in previously unknown fields by 3 per cent following earnings pressure. Using trademark data from the patent office, the researchers find such reallocation results in 4 per cent more product categories than before.

Meanwhile, less innovation-efficient firms are prone to cut research and development spending when facing earnings pressure. “Less innovation-efficient firms’ projects usually don’t lead to many patents, so when these companies face pressure to meet earnings goals, cutting back on research is the easiest and least harmful way to save money,” says Professor Tseng.

How do some firms thrive under pressure?

It may sound puzzling to see that some firms could increase the number of researchers and patents amid earnings pressure. Further analyses find innovation-efficient firms reallocate their expenditure by selling or closing their existing plants, then invest in new technologies.

Professor Tseng attributes such agility to short innovation life cycles and patent portfolio diversity. A short innovation life cycle means new products are developed, improved, and replaced quickly, such as those in consumer electronics, software, and fast fashion industries. In contrast, a long innovation life cycle means the products remain relevant for many years before being replaced, such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and industrial equipment.

Firms in industries with short innovation life cycles are used to a fast pace in technological development and have greater flexibility in reallocating resources across different projects. Additionally, firms with a diversified patent portfolio can easily switch focus and adapt to changes.

Finally, to be more innovation-efficient, Professor Tseng suggests firms examine how well their research projects perform, explore different technology areas, and keep an eye on how new and different their patents are. “By identifying and emphasising their most productive or novel lines of research, firms can weather earnings pressure without sacrificing long-term innovation,” he says.

Although the study focuses on US public firms, he believes the findings can apply to a wider context. Even without public earnings targets, startups and private firms often face external milestones, such as investor expectations or financing constraints, which generate similar short-term pressure.

“Pressure does not necessarily suppress innovation but can sharpen resource allocation, encouraging focus on the most promising projects,” he adds. “The key is to avoid across-the-board cuts and instead redirect resources towards higher-value opportunities.”

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Technology can empower individuals with disabilities to thrive in the workplace across industries, including hospitality, in which personal interaction is key to success

Featured faculty: Choi Sungwoo
Written by Pan Jingyi

It’s no longer shocking to see robots working in restaurants and hotels. To create more inclusive opportunities, some businesses employ people with disabilities to control these service robots. The operator’s face appears on the robot’s screen, maintaining a human touch while promoting inclusion.

These telepresence robots, also known as avatar robots, allow individuals with mobility disabilities to navigate around physical barriers and engage in work interactions remotely. “Robotic technology has significant potential to enable hospitality and tourism companies to hire people with disabilities despite their mobility restrictions, creating a meaningful social impact,” says Choi Sungwoo, Assistant Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

“Consumers generally prefer in-person interactions, either when employees use advanced technologies like wearable robots or traditional aids such as wheelchairs, compared to employees working through telepresence robots.”

Professor Choi Sungwoo

In addition to telepresence robots, wearable robotic technologies, such as exoskeletons and bionic arms, have also made it possible for people with physical disabilities to stand, walk and perform daily tasks that may be impossible with traditional prosthetics and mobility aids. While not widely adopted in workplaces, these technologies promise to further empower individuals with disabilities to participate in the job market.

Many companies and universities are now developing technologies to help individuals with limited mobility. However, little is known about how consumers actually feel, especially when different kinds of robotic technology are now available. To address this gap, Professor Choi, together with Sara Kim of the University of Hong Kong, recently conducted a study titled Consumer perception of employees with disabilities using robots.

“We found that not all technologies are perceived equally,” says Professor Choi. “Consumers generally prefer in-person interactions, either when employees use advanced technologies like wearable robots or traditional aids such as wheelchairs, compared to employees working through telepresence robots.”

The findings suggest that companies should feel confident about hiring individuals with disability, as consumers usually react positively as long as they can provide in-person service. As employing people with disabilities onsite not only promotes diversity and fairness but also enhances the overall consumer experience, companies aiming to create an inclusive environment may find assistive technology a worthy investment.

Mixed reactions to telepresence

In their first experiment, Professor Choi and his collaborator recruited around 200 participants from an online data platform, Prolific, and examined consumer reactions towards services provided by employees with disabilities in different scenarios.

Participants were asked to imagine visiting an art museum and rate their likelihood of choosing a guide from three options: an in-person using a wheelchair, a guide operating remotely via telepresence robot, and an in-person guide without disability.

The result shows that participants are less likely to choose the guide using a telepresence robot than either of the in-person guides. Furthermore, the guide in a wheelchair is sometimes chosen even more often than the guide with no disability. A second experiment conducted at a public university with 85 participants in a real-world setting confirmed these findings.

Psychological and social disconnection

Why are telepresence robots less accepted? The researchers attribute it to a psychological phenomenon where people subconsciously perceive them as lacking warmth and emotions. This happens because consumers struggle to look past the machine’s physical form to connect with the human operator, effectively overlooking the employee’s feelings and personal qualities.

When consumers speak with employees through a screen, they may feel as if they’re engaging with machines rather than a real person, due to the physical separation and the robotic nature of the interaction, explains Professor Choi.

“Service employees with disabilities working through telepresence robots may inadvertently create a sense of psychological distance from consumers, resulting in feelings of social disconnection,” he adds.

Physical presence is key in hospitality

To explore how to ease potential concerns towards employees with disabilities who provide service via telepresence robots, the researchers conducted a third experiment, recruiting nearly 200 people from Prolific.

This time, participants were presented with scenarios involving a restaurant server. Similar to the previous experiments, the server was either working remotely through a robot, working onsite using a bionic arm, or working onsite without disabilities. “We found that consumer perceptions of telepresence interactions were generally less positive,” Professor Choi says.

Across three experiments, consumers were less receptive to frontline staff working remotely. Professor Choi notes that the findings suggest physical presence is paramount in frontline service roles. No matter whether the staff is using a traditional wheelchair or a cutting-edge wearable robot, consumers’ responses are as positive as they are towards employees without disabilities.

Using technology more thoughtfully

In the wake of the pandemic and rising sustainability consciousness, hospitality and tourism companies face labour shortages and growing pressure to demonstrate social responsibility, making the hiring of people with disabilities both an ethical and strategic imperative. While employing remote-controlled robots sounds like a win-win solution, companies must recognise that some technologies foster acceptance and inclusion, whereas others may backfire.

Given consumers’ reactions to telepresence robots, Professor Choi recommends that companies committed to social inclusion prioritise assistive technologies like mobility aids or wearable robotics for frontline employees. He also encourages governments and NGOs to provide financial assistance to individuals and businesses that cannot afford these technologies.

Nevertheless, telepresence robots can still play a role. “They can offer valuable opportunities for individuals with disabilities to engage in the workforce, especially in behind-the-scenes roles like accounting and admin support, or when in-person work isn’t possible, such as during natural disasters, severe weather conditions, or personal injury,” says Professor Choi. In these cases, he emphasises the need for additional efforts to maintain personal connection through warmth and empathy, bridging the psychological gap that technology may create.

Finally, it is crucial to take the perspective of people with disabilities into prime consideration. Professor Choi notes that many people with disabilities are hesitant to enter the workforce, often due to a lack of confidence rather than employer reluctance. Based on the current research, he plans to explore how robotic technologies influence employees’ job performance and identity perceptions in his future studies.

“With the advancement of robotic technologies, we hope more people with disabilities can access these tools, navigate around physical barriers, and become more active in the workplace and society at large,” Professor Choi says.

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The relationship between success and self-development runs deeper than previously thought

Featured faculty: Li Wendong
Written by Gigi Wong

Those who have worked long enough may still recall the feelings of receiving their first paycheques. After years passed, many would have realised how far they had come, and more importantly, how their personalities or the people they know had evolved over the years. At some quiet hour, a random thought may pop up: Do we shape our income, or does our income shape who we are?

A new study suggests our personalities and our paycheques may be more intertwined than we realise, each influencing the other over time in a reciprocal dance. “When income increases, it signals that the current career progress is significant and the status in society is improving,” says Li Wendong, Associate Professor in the Department of Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

Professor Li’s latest study challenges the assumption that our personalities are relatively fixed and set in stone, that a person is always either an introvert or an extrovert, agreeable or argumentative, cautious or reckless. Furthermore, his paper titled A continuous time meta-analyses of reciprocal relationships between personality traits and income suggests that some personality traits can also predict future income changes.

His study also found an overlooked drawback of pay rises. Positive reinforcement that comes with income increases may lead employees to stick to routines and conventional ways of doing work, eventually limiting them from exploring new approaches to improve their performance.

career, personality — Rising income reinforces career success and social status, encouraging effective behaviors that may gradually shape personality.

“Such a positive reinforcement likely prompts employees to exploit the current effective work methods and strategies further. Over time, changes in such behaviours, thoughts and feelings likely foster personality change.”

“Thus, after a pay rise, organisations may also consider using incentives to motivate employees to come up with novel strategies to complete their work responsibilities and think out of the box to spur creativity and innovation,” he adds.

Which came first: pay rise or personality change?

Along with his PhD students, as well as Zhang Zhen of Southern Methodist University, Zhang Xin of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Christian Dormann of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Professor Li analysed data from 11 large national and regional longitudinal studies in the world involving 134,551 participants in total.

Studies were included if they measured at least one of the Big Five personality traits and individual income at three or more time points. These personality traits refer to five broad dimensions of personality that make each person unique, including emotional stability, conscientiousness (e.g., being dependable and hardworking), agreeableness (e.g., friendliness), extraversion (e.g., being outgoing), and openness (e.g., being curious and open to new experiences).

The team integrated findings across all the studies, which followed participants over periods ranging from four to nineteen years. The researchers also examined patterns of personality change and income shifts within the same individuals over time, painting a much richer picture than a simple snapshot study.

They found that conscientiousness and emotional stability tended to increase following a boost in income. The results also demonstrated significant effects of income changes on subsequent changes in both traits.

“While an income increase can make employees more stable and reliable, it may also reduce their tendency to seek novel strategies and goals — that is, their exploratory, creative and risk-taking behaviours may decline.”

Professor Li Wendong

In other words, a fatter paycheque seems to make employees more disciplined, dependable, poised, and unflappable over time. On the other side, as expected, people who became more conscientious and emotionally stable went on to see larger income increases over the next several years.

On the contrary, there was a negative reciprocal relationship between extraversion and income: being more extroverted seems to make people less likely to earn more money later on and earning more salary appears to make people more introverted at a later point in time. The effects of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion on income fluctuate over time, with the strongest impact occurring around one year after personality traits were assessed and tend to weaken afterwards.

Other personality traits have a negative relationship with the pay rise. The effect of income on changes in agreeableness is negative and the relationship between agreeableness and change in income is unclear.

“Increases in conscientiousness and emotional stability are positively related to subsequent increases in the employee’s income over time,” says Professor Li. “Our analyses also revealed that the reciprocal effect between extraversion and income was negative and significant across different time points.”

Success rewires our inner traits

Income-personality link cuts both ways, but what explains these intriguing connections between who we are and what ends up in our bank accounts? The researchers propose a few rationales, drawing on the cybernetic Big Five theory.

As mentioned above, pay rises reinforce our current strategies and behaviours at work, and in turn, motivate us to hone and further exploit those strategies. This results in deepening the motivational stability or conscientiousness quality, as well as emotional stability and social stability.

However, the cybernetic Big Five theory suggests that income increases are less likely to provide incentives for employees’ exploration and risk-taking behaviours, which may further enhance extraversion and openness traits. Based on empirical findings, the researchers posit that all five traits above correspond to one of the two broad dimensions of the Big Five that are associated with career strategies: stability and plasticity traits.

Extraversion and openness are included in plasticity traits, which encourage exploration by generating novel strategies when old plans prove insufficient, or when environmental changes occur, allowing for adaptation in uncertain environments. Stability traits comprise conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness, which primarily serve to maintain stability and prevent disruption to ongoing strategies for achieving long-term goals.

When experiencing a career setback, employees are likely to adjust their strategies and explore novel approaches or acquire new strategies to advance their careers —a characteristic of openness. They may also become more extroverted and enhance their social capital for career development or for exploring other alternatives. These changes over time may get habitualised across various life domains.

“The idea that income increases confidence and exploration remains a theoretical possibility, but our empirical evidence suggests that, over time, higher income may instead lead to more stability and less exploratory behaviour or lower extraversion, likely because employees settle into effective, established work strategies rather than seeking novelty,” Professor Li says.

Career development and pay incentives

The upshot is that our personalities are not entirely fixed to our job descriptions. As we progress through our careers, our personality inevitably gets imprinted by our professional successes and stumbles, but those experiences also get funnelled back into further shaping our future fortunes, for better or worse.

According to Professor Li, the findings have important practical implications for employees and organisations. Earning a higher income may make us more conscientious and emotionally stable over time, but also diminish our extroverted and explorative tendencies to find novel strategies.

Employees should be mindful of these potential shifts, he advises, to better navigate their career development. Organisations, too, should take note that the common workplace practice of using pay rises to motivate staff may have some unintended consequences on employees’ personality development.

“Given that many organisations tend to employ pay rises as an important incentive scheme to motivate their employees, the findings suggest that organisations should also be aware of positive and perhaps, unintended consequences of pay rises,” he adds.

“While an income increase can make employees more stable and reliable, it may also reduce their tendency to seek novel strategies and goals — that is, their exploratory, creative and risk-taking behaviours may decline. This may lead to adverse consequences for organisations in adapting to new and uncertain environments.”

To mitigate the adverse effects of pay rises, Professor Li emphasises the importance of acknowledging the benefits and risks, and find a way to balance stability and creativity. Companies need to adopt practices that encourage employees to explore new ideas, such as supportive management and more job autonomy, to foster intrinsic motivation and creativity.

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The new normal leaves commercial property markets in many major cities with vacant premises. A new study offers an answer

Featured faculty: Desmond Tsang
Written by Putro Harnowo

A couple of years have passed since the pandemic subsided and borders reopened. Commercial real estate markets have shown signs of recovery globally, but the progress appears to be much slower than expected. Oddly, in some parts of the world, the market seems to be losing ground.

Commercial property values in European cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt and Paris have been slashed over the past few years. In the US, the office market in business hubs like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago has seen better days. Hong Kong’s commercial real estate market has also been feeling the pinch, with high vacancy rates in both the office and retail segments.

Desmond Tsang, Associate Professor of Real Estate at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, points out that one of the key reasons is reduced human mobility, referring to fewer people physically visiting or moving around, in commercial real estate. Remote working and digital commerce have become the new normal, but many real estate companies are slow to adapt.

“Reduced mobility is here to stay, and hence, commercial real estate demand would be under pressure, although some sectors or regions would be more affected than others,” he says. “For instance, offices in the US would be more deeply affected since remote working is more prominent there than in some other regions like Hong Kong or Singapore.”

His latest study, Human mobility and commercial real estate: Evidence from REIT operating performance, documents how changes in human mobility have become a permanent fixture. Along with Erkan Yönder of Concordia University and his PhD student, Halil Özgür, Professor Tsang found that for office properties, a one per cent decline in human mobility leads to a 1.9 per cent drop in rental revenue, driven by a sudden drop in demand for office space. As the supply cannot adjust quickly, higher vacancies occur.

For retail properties, a one per cent decrease in human mobility increases operating expenses by 2.1 per cent. This is because shopping centres and malls feature common areas like hallways, restrooms, seating areas, courtyards, and the like that require continuous maintenance and enhancement, where operating expenses are fixed regardless of the number of visitors. The shift in shopper behaviour drives retail owners to invest in additional features, promotional events and other campaigns to draw customers back.

The study urges the public and private sectors to monitor and consider human mobility factors when evaluating property performance. At the same time, property owners should develop strategies to respond to the structural shifts or consider repurposing spaces to accommodate such changes.

“The outlook is not all bad, as we may see some conversions from office to residential and some flight-to-quality phenomenon, in which high-end, amenity-rich buildings will fare much better,” Professor Tsang says. “Many brick-and-mortar department stores may face declining sales and the same goes for lower-tier shopping centres and districts, but there could still be value for some new retail concepts, such as experiential retail and food delivery hubs.”

“Reduced mobility is here to stay, and hence, commercial real estate demand would be under pressure, although some sectors or regions would be more affected than others.”

Professor Desmond Tsang

How mobility affects real estate performance

In the study, the researchers utilised Google mobility data that tracks the movement of US citizens to help mitigate the pandemic’s impact from 2020 until the tech giant terminated it in October 2022. They then matched data from Google with local points of interest from an open-source platform, OpenStreetMap, during the same timeline to observe actual changes in human mobility.

Mobility was observed to decline significantly from the second quarter of 2020, when authorities issued stay-at-home orders and closed public facilities, and then further eased by 2022, following the widespread availability of vaccines. Interestingly, despite the social restriction no longer in place, people were still 4.6 per cent less mobile in 2022 compared to before the pandemic. The analyses revealed a persistent decline in mobility due to structural shifts in how people live, work and shop.

To identify local factors behind such a change, the team collected demographic data from the US Census Bureau and then applied a machine learning approach, extending analyses through 2023. Locations with a higher proportion of residents holding a bachelor’s degree or higher were found to experience a greater reduction in mobility. The researchers argue that individuals with higher level of education are more likely to be able to work remotely during and after the pandemic.

To measure the impact of human mobility on commercial real estate, the researchers examined US real estate investment trusts (REITs) data from S&P Global Market Intelligence from 2019 to 2023. REITs own and operate numerous commercial real estate properties and are also publicly traded on stock exchanges, requiring their financial reports to be detailed and transparent.

Their analyses demonstrated that human mobility has a significant impact on REITs’ earnings, with considerable effects on office and retail properties both during and after the pandemic. For both types of properties, a one per cent drop in mobility lowers REITs’ net operating income by 2.8 per cent during the pandemic and by 1.8 per cent post-pandemic.

Hong Kong commercial real estate landscape

Although the study was conducted using US data, Professor Tsang believes that other developed markets are seeing similar trends of decline in human mobility, including Hong Kong. “There are many different reasons for mobility changes in different regions, making reduced mobility remain in many parts of the world in 2025,” he says. “For the US, it goes back to work-from-home and flexible work models. For Hong Kong, decreased mobility in some central areas stems from the travel flows between Hong Kong and mainland China after the pandemic.”

Mainland Chinese visitors have always been the largest group of tourists in Hong Kong, but their numbers have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to the city’s tourism board. On the other hand, an increasing number of Hong Kong residents prefer to spend weekends and holidays in mainland China due to more affordable options, which affects the city’s commercial real estate rent.

As Hong Kong landlords and retailers battle against shifting consumer habits and a wave of store closures, Professor Tsang suggests businesses must devise plans to reduce operating costs while sustaining revenue and enhancing their brand reputation. “Focusing on new and innovative ways of shopping and retail is a possible strategy,” he adds.

For instance, he suggests encouraging more mixed-use developments by integrating living, working and leisure spaces with a 24/7 urban ecology rather than traditional retail, or adopting holistic district renewal instead of revitalising isolated building projects.

The study with US data found that mobility dropped significantly near commercial areas, restaurants, banks and schools due to pandemic restrictions and lasting changes, such as remote work. Areas near warehouses, industrial buildings and farms saw smaller declines, as these places often depend on physical presence and were less impacted by remote work trends. To extend the findings in the Hong Kong market, more data are needed to measure the magnitude of mobility’s impact accurately.

“Some companies track cell phone data for the Hong Kong market and this can be put to good use to understand travel patterns and office utilisation in different areas,” he adds. “It would be interesting to see whether mobility patterns in commercial hubs that are more remote would be different from those in downtown areas. This relates to the importance of location in human mobility and commercial real estate performance, which, in essence, we examine as a novel mechanism for mobility change.”

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Apart from making travel more convenient, the rapid growth of China’s high-speed trains puts a greener future on the right track

Featured faculty: Zoe Yang
Written by Pan Jingyi

When someone says, “I drive an electric vehicle or EV because it protects the environment,” it could be music to the ears of climate advocates. Regardless, EVs have reshaped the global transportation landscape, with major traditional global carmakers now joining the race in battery-powered vehicles. In this new wave of the automotive evolution, no country has achieved what China has done.

The Chinese market held almost two-thirds of global EV sales last year, followed by Europe and the US with 17 and 7 per cent, respectively, as reported by Bloomberg. Another report by the International Energy Agency highlights that electric cars accounted for almost half of all China’s car sales in 2024. Meanwhile, the country continues to be the manufacturing hub, contributing to more than 70 per cent of the world’s EV production.

A quick glance may hint that consumer purchase subsidies and government stimulus to boost production capacity are the main drivers. However, despite similar financial incentives, the EV adoption rate in Western nations still lags behind that of their East Asian counterpart. So, what makes China’s approach different, and how does this approach shape market dynamics and consumer choices?

“The expansion of the high-speed rail system is one of the main reasons for the increase in EV market share and sales in China.”

Professor Zoe Yang

In the past two decades, China’s high-speed rail network has risen to become the world’s most extensive and most heavily utilised system.

“Many countries are growing increasingly concerned about how competitive Chinese EVs have become, and whether that success is primarily due to government support,” says Zoe Yang, Associate Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

Professor Yang notes that the tariffs imposed by the US and the EU on Chinese EVs in late 2024 reflect growing tensions and a gap in understanding the underlying reason for such rapid ascendancy in green technology. Therefore, she sought the answer in her recent paper, High-speed rail and China’s electric vehicle adoption miracle, and discovered a crucial yet often overlooked factor: Rather than serving as substitutes, high-speed rail and electric vehicles function as complementary modes of transport, together creating an integrated system that supports and accelerates EV adoption.

“The expansion of the high-speed rail system is one of the main reasons for the increase in EV market share and sales in China,” she adds. “Our data indicates that the high-speed rail connectivity can explain up to one-third of the total increase during our sample period.”

In the past two decades, China’s high-speed rail network has risen to become the world’s most extensive and most heavily utilised system. The country’s railway operator aims to extend its operational high-speed rail tracks to about 60,000 km by 2030, up from 48,000 km by the end of 2024.

Putting peace of mind on wheels

While purchasing an EV could be cost-effective and environmentally friendly, one of the biggest hurdles for potential buyers is “range anxiety,” a fear that the car’s battery won’t last for the expected long trips or reach its intended destination. Although there have been considerable improvements in battery capacity and the expansion of charging facilities, the study finds that concerns about such anxiety, especially under certain geographical or climatic conditions, still linger. As a result, conventional cars often remain a more appealing choice for single-car owners.

One of the biggest hurdles for potential EV buyers is “range anxiety”.

High-speed rail, however, offers a solution by making long-distance travel more convenient, allowing consumers to rely on EVs for daily short-distance commutes while using faster trains for longer journeys. In other words, high-speed rail enhances the overall practicality of having EVs. “The extensive and well-integrated network of China’s high-speed rail system serves as a reliable complement to EVs, alleviating range anxiety by offering an efficient option for medium to long-distance travel,” Professor Yang says.

Working together with Li Ming of CUHK-Shenzhen, Fang Hanming of the University of Pennsylvania and Wang Long of Fudan University, Professor Yang analysed vehicle registration data from 2010 to 2023 comprehensively, and compared changes in EV market share and sales before and after new high-speed rail lines were built across more than 300 prefectural cities in mainland China.

The team found that the growth in EV adoption following the introduction of high-speed rail connections is substantial, but its impact varied across different regions of the country. The benefits of connected transportation networks are less pronounced in the western part of China, likely due to lower economic development and less developed EV-related infrastructure, as well as in the northeast, where colder climates can pose a challenge to battery performance.

Connectivity and synergy with other policies

In the following steps, more than 7,000 EV-related policy documents were examined between 2010 and 2022, along with data on EV charging stations across 328 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2023, and China’s road infrastructure and connectivity through 2023. The results confirmed that high-speed rail connectivity is an independent and robust factor that contributes to the rapid adoption of EVs.

However, the well-connected railway network is not the exclusive driving force behind EV adoption. Other factors, such as local industrial policies, charging infrastructure and economic development, cannot be neglected in building a comprehensive grid that boosts confidence in electric cars.

Specifically, consumer purchase subsidies are particularly effective in fostering EV adoption for cities connected by high-speed rail, and the high-speed rail connectivity also leads to more charging stations. When both combine, the positive impact on EV adoption is greater than either factor would achieve alone.

“While the high-speed rail connection enhances early EV adoption by alleviating consumers’ range anxiety, the larger consumer base creates an agglomeration effect and further fosters the construction of charging stations, and the two jointly benefit future consumers,” Professor Yang says, adding that the synergy between the high-speed rail network and other infrastructure and policies may explain why the connection has a persistent and growing effect on EV adoption.

Integrated strategies for sustainable development

The study challenges the misconception that China’s dominance in the EV market is attributed solely to consumer purchase subsidies and government policies aimed at enhancing production capacity, revealing a more nuanced picture and offering valuable insights for policymakers around the world. The lesson is clear: accelerating the transition to EV requires not just better cars, more supportive policies, and more charging stations, but also integrated transportation systems.

“The high-speed railway is not the only solution,” Professor Yang says. The essential takeaway for other countries is that complementary transportation can reduce long-distance travel concerns and accelerate EV adoption. “Whether it is high-speed railway, express bus systems or charging networks, the goal is to build confidence in the practicality of EV ownership, especially for users who still depend on long-distance mobility.”

At the same time, due to regional disparities, strategies must be tailored to local conditions such as infrastructure readiness, income levels and travel patterns. “Governments can offer higher EV purchase subsidies in less-developed areas and expand heated or indoor charging stations in cold regions,” she adds.

Whether in transportation or other sectors, Professor Yang underscores the significance of integrated planning, which can drive significant and long-term change. “Infrastructure and technology adoption are deeply interconnected. Aligning the two can create powerful synergies that drive sustainable development.”

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A CUHK expert shares insights on how ancient teachings from the I-Ching help manage challenges in the current economic turbulence

Featured faculty: Sin Yat-ming
Written by Pan Jingyi

In the time of geopolitical tensions, economic volatility and technological upheaval, individuals and businesses face a pressing question: How to thrive amid these constant disruptions? The insights may lie in a Chinese text with a history spanning more than five millennia: I-Ching, also known as the Book of Changes.

The I-Ching serves as a tool for divination in traditional Chinese knowledge and has become a profound philosophical classic. The book includes 64 symbolic hexagrams that represent various natural phenomena and mirror human life experiences.

leadership — The I-Ching can provide guidance to individuals and businesses dealing with rapid changes in the current uncertain period.

Despite being an ancient text, the wisdom of the I-Ching is timeless as it emphasises adaptive thinking – an approach highly relevant to today’s world. Scholars and practitioners have used the book symbolically, often to provide guidance for moral decision-making. Its hexagrams can be interpreted in various ways, often adopting broader cosmological meanings applicable to daily life.

Throughout the ages, I-Ching enthusiasts have claimed that the book is a means of understanding current and future events. Dr Sin Yat-ming, Adjunct Professor of the Department of Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, points out that the I-Ching can provide guidance to individuals and businesses dealing with rapid changes in the current uncertain period.

Speaking during a master class for the School’s EMBA programme in May, Professor Sin explains that the I-Ching is not just a source of knowledge but a repository of wisdom. Traditionally, yarrow stalks or tossing coins are used to generate hexagrams, but nowadays, individuals can reflect on their circumstances and select the hexagrams they feel best resonate with their situation, allowing for diverse interpretations and insights.

A stepwise approach to decode hexagrams

In the I-Ching, each hexagram is composed of six horizontal lines representing the interplay of yin (“⚋”) and yang (“⚊”), which are opposite yet complementary forces. The yin and yang symbol first combine to form eight basic triagrams, which are then further combined in pairs to create 64 complex hexagrams.

To fully grasp a hexagram’s message, one can start by carefully interpreting three basic elements: the name of the hexagram, a general explanation of the hexagram’s significance, and the meanings of each horizontal line within the hexagram.

“By carefully observing and interpreting current events, individuals can identify and analyse the corresponding hexagrams in I-Ching, paving the way for informed decisions and sound judgments in the face of uncertainty.”

Professor Sin Yat-ming

For example, the first hexagram, qian (乾 or heaven, ䷀), depicts the vigorous movement of heaven and indicates that individuals should constantly strive to improve themselves. While this hexagram encourages individuals to work hard, its six lines are associated with the journey of a dragon through six stages – also a metaphor for leadership growth.

The first stage, “a dragon hiding in the deep,” symbolises the early stages of a career, where bold actions might be inappropriate due to a lack of authority or experience. By the fifth stage, the dragon soars, representing the pinnacle of success after overcoming challenges. However, the sixth stage warns of “an arrogant dragon,” illustrating a common theme in Chinese culture: excess often leads to downfall.

From collapse to renewal

Hong Kong, like many other economies, is grappling with significant challenges as it manoeuvres the US-China trade tensions, the sluggish property market and the struggling retail sector. Professor Sin identifies two hexagrams that may help people have a better understanding of the current circumstances.

The 23rd hexagram, bo (剝 or stripping, ䷖), describes the collapse of a brightness (yang) due to a victory and invasion of darkness (yin). Due to the rapid and unpredictable change in macro-environment, Hong Kong is losing its competitive edge. “But don’t be too pessimistic, there is always a solution,” he says.

The subsequent hexagram may offer hope. The 24th one, fu (復 or returning, ䷗), describes “thunder stirring beneath the earth”, depicting the retaining of brightness in total darkness, which signals nascent renewal. However, as the power of the thunder is still very weak, this recovery takes time to gain momentum. “Therefore, Hong Kong should prioritise and concentrate developing one or two key industries before expanding further, which can help the city regain its competitiveness in the future,” he adds.

Lessons for global relations

trade-war — The I-Ching also offers valuable insights that can shed light on international relations.

Beyond addressing local challenges, the I-Ching also offers valuable insights that can shed light on international relations. For instance, Professor Sin uses the other two hexagrams to dissect the ongoing trade disputes between the US and other countries in recent months.

“A nation can adopt one of two stances in response to such trading tax conflicts: embodying the essence of the sixth hexagram, song (訟 or arguing, ䷅), or resonating with the seventh hexagram, shi (師 or leading or army, ䷆),” he says.

More specifically, he underlines that the sixth hexagram represents resolving conflicts through humility and negotiation. This approach reflects diplomatic efforts to ease tensions during trade wars. On the other hand, the seventh hexagram suggests that beneath the surface, tension is building, potentially leading to retaliatory actions such as tariff exchanges.

This wisdom can give us direction on what to anticipate in the global landscape following the trade war. According to the I-Ching principle, following the above two hexagrams is bi (比 or grouping, ䷇). Professor Sin elaborates that this hints at a scenario where nations may polarise into opposing factions, which could escalate the risk of conflict or even war, although the full implications of these developments remain to be seen.

Empowering decisions with I-Ching

“The I-Ching studies the changes of all things,” Professor Sin adds. “By carefully observing and interpreting current events, individuals can identify and analyse the corresponding hexagrams, paving the way for informed decisions and sound judgments in the face of uncertainty.”

However, he highlights that understanding and applying the I-Ching in real life is not a simple task. “Knowledge and information are easy to access today, but wisdom is not. To truly benefit from the I-Ching, one must be passionate and willing to invest effort in learning and thinking I-Ching.”

While the I-Ching can help individuals and businesses enhance their analytical, predictive and decision-making abilities, Professor Sin stresses that it does not determine destiny. “The book only reveals options, not outcomes,” he says, “Ultimately, we still need to make our own judgements.”

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Which came first: pay rise or personality change?

Success rewires our inner traits

Career development and pay incentives

The new normal leaves commercial property markets in many major cities with vacant premises. A new study offers an answer

How mobility affects real estate performance

Hong Kong commercial real estate landscape

Apart from making travel more convenient, the rapid growth of China’s high-speed trains puts a greener future on the right track

Putting peace of mind on wheels

Connectivity and synergy with other policies

Integrated strategies for sustainable development

A CUHK expert shares insights on how ancient teachings from the I-Ching help manage challenges in the current economic turbulence

A stepwise approach to decode hexagrams

From collapse to renewal

Lessons for global relations

Empowering decisions with I-Ching

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