HKU Business School has been dedicated to providing quality business education and advancing the knowledge frontiers. The recent re-accreditation by AACSB International (AACSB) for another five years represents international recognition of our on-going efforts to improve in all aspects.
AACSB specifically endorsed the School’s remarkable achievement in research and publications and the robust mechanism in ensuring quality teaching and learning. It also reaffirmed that the School has forged strong alliances, partnerships and collaborations with top universities around the world, becoming one of the top business schools in the region in just 20 years of establishment.
Leveraging on our deep root in Hong Kong, we have been fostering amicable connections with the business community in both Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area, creating more opportunities for its students. In addition to a strong governance system and a good track record, AACSB highlighted that HKU Business School has a sound strategic plan that all stakeholders are engaged and involved. Going forward, we are committed to developing ourselves into a world leading expert hub for data analytics, machine learning and digital transformation and a regional expert on finance, economics and business trends.
HKU Business School was first accredited by AACSB in 2010 and was re-accredited in 2015. The School’s attainment of the accreditation has demonstrated its commitment to maintaining best practices and world-class quality business education.
Founded in 1916, AACSB is the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools. AACSB accreditation represents an achievement of excellence in business education. Today, a total of 882 institutions across 57 countries and territories have earned AACSB accreditation in business.
Students from HKU Business School won three awards in the HKGCC Business Case Competition including Champion – Great Eagle Group, Champion – NEC and 2nd Runner-up – NWS.
Themed “Building better, brighter businesses”, the competition invited tertiary students and recent graduates to provide ideas and solutions to crack the business cases formulated by one of the five sponsors, including Citibank, Great Eagle Group, NEC, NWS and Sino Group.
Top 5 teams from each sponsor’s track were selected to proceed to the Semi-Final (Mentoring Phase) where mentors from each sponsor’s track provided guidance to the Semi-final Teams to refine their respective submissions. Top 3 teams from each sponsor’s track were selected to participate in the Final round and pitch their business ideas to the panel judges on January 22, 2021.
HKGCC Business Case Competition was launched in 2019 to promote the exchange of ideas between university students and businesses as well as encourages students to develop innovative and creative solutions for real-life business cases. Learn more about the competition: https://www.chamber.org.hk/bcc2020/
The team “British Army” receives Champion – Great Eagle Group
British Army: Champion – Great Eagle Group
Mr. Tsang Chun Wai, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2 (2ndfrom right)
(This team comprises four other team members from Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong and School of Business and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.)
Sharing of Tsang Chun Wai
Developing a business proposal was not as easy as we thought. Innovativeness was the biggest challenge. Many solutions had already been adopted, particularly for technologies related to climate change. Hence we had to take extra steps to dig deeper into various sources of information to find technologies that were truly innovative.
For most of our team members, this was the first experience of pitching a business proposal. The pitching round for the competition was especially difficult since we only had 5 minutes to present our ideas. Therefore, we had to be very precise in extracting the key messages we wanted to deliver out of our detailed proposal. We also had to be creative and inspiring to capture the attention of the judges. It was a difficult but rewarding experience.
The team “HERON” receives Champion – NEC
HERON: Champion – NEC
Miss Yeung Yan Yan, BBA, Year 2 (1st from left)
(This team comprises 2 other team members from School of Decision Sciences, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong and School of Business and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.)
Sharing of Yeung Yan Yan
This competition equipped us with the latest and innovative adaptation of AI technology to be applied to the hotel industry with regard to the four major aspects — Remote, Transparency, Touchless, and Automation. Apart from understanding the Next Normal Solutions, we also learned more about hotel technologies such as unified app platforms, digital signage, robotics, smart check-in, and out system. These technologies not only aimed at bringing convenience to the customer, they also emphasised safety under the pandemic to boost customers’ confidence. This valuable experience also taught us not to overlook the warmth and hospitality even with the usage of gadgets and machines. The real interaction between customers and hotels was a vital element to attain public attention and strengthen closer bonding. After all, we gained precious experience in developing business proposals and learnt about the practical application of pioneering technology in this competition.
The team “Morphy” receives 2nd Runner-up – NWS
Morphy: 2nd Runner-up – NWS
Miss Chan Sum Yu, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3 (3rd from right)
Miss Chui Tinbo, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3 (3rd from left)
Mr. Lau Chung Yan, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3 (2nd from left)
Miss Shum Denise, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3 (2nd from right)
(This team comprises 1 other team member from Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong.)
Sharing of HKU team members:
This priceless experience had inspired us from comprehensive perspectives. During the preparation stage, we enriched ourselves with an exploration of this novel industry, ranging from its current challenges to future opportunities. Meanwhile, by listening to other teams’ presentations and judges’ comments, we had a taste of the real business world by the practical consideration such as revenue forecast as well as integration of profitability and sustainability. We were honoured to be offered this chance to nourish our technical knowledge and soft skills, unleashing our potential beyond the classroom.
Two teams of HKU Business School students won four awards at the ACCA Hong Kong Business Competition 2020-21, including 2nd Runner Up, Digital Excellence Award, Research Excellence Award and Merit Award on January 23, 2021.
Themed “Rewiring our future: leading digital innovation and sustainable success”, the competition required students to design a campaign, project or product for the selected industry, and to share their vision and ideas on a business model in a world of uncertainties, creating sustainable value with public interests at heart.
Aiming at nurturing students with a blend of accounting and business knowledge alongside values of social responsibility, ACCA launched this annual competition since 2007. Students benefit from a broad range of skills training workshops and coaching from the ACCA fellow members, to enhance their analytical, proposal writing and presentation skills.
The team “EdMotion” receives the 2nd Runner-up and Research Excellence Award
EdMotion – 2nd Runner-up and Research Excellence Award Miss Lam Tsz Lik, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 1 (3rd from right) Mr. Tsui Tsun Ming, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2 (4th from right) Miss Yang Qingfang, BBA(IS), Year 2 (3rd from left) Miss Yeung Ka Yan, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 2 (4th from left) Faculty Advisor: Dr. Winnie Leung
Sharing of the team: ACCA Hong Kong Business Competition encourages students to leverage technology to grasp business opportunities. Since ACCA is advocating “inclusion”, it also hopes students be able to think of business ideas that make a positive social impact. Throughout the competition, we had submitted our business proposal, a three-minute video about our business idea and a PowerPoint for the final presentation.
The experience broadened our business horizons. We had vivid discussions with the coach – ACCA member Mr. Derek Hui, Planning & Production Control Manager, HAECO Hong Kong and learned more about how the business world works. We also became more socially aware as we dug deeper into our business ideas targeting ethnic minority students.
The team “ARthlete” receives Merit Award and Digital Excellence Award
ARthlete – Merit Award and Digital Excellence Award
Miss Chen Ying Hei Helena, BBA(IBGM), Year 2 (2nd from left) Miss Keung Sum Yuet, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2 (1st from left) Mr. Sheung Chi Long, BBA(IBGM), Year 2 (2nd from right) Miss Yeung Seen Yan, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2 (middle) Faculty Advisor: Dr. Winnie Leung
Sharing of the team:
Team ARthlete’s proposal leveraged on AR and AI technologies to create a business model that delivered an effective means of physical training online. ARthlete aimed to improve the physical education experiences of students during the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as to promote a healthier lifestyle to the general public and to facilitate the training of professional athletes. In this competition, our team realised that generating a positive impact for the greater community was essential to achieve a sustainable business. Furthermore, in view of the rapid development in technology, creative minds for its implementation was vital to improve the living standards everywhere.
Our team was extremely grateful for being one of the finalist teams and received the Merit Award and Digital Excellence Award. We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to Dr. Winnie Leung and the coach – ACCA member Mr. Charles Chan, Tax Services, Partner from PwC who offered their kind assistance throughout the competition. Our team would continue to strive for a more sustainable business world as the world becomes more interconnected with digital developments.
On Thursday, January 21, the online dialogue between Mr. Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of Blackstone, and Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School, attracted over 500 attendees from around the world. As an event kicking-off the School’s 20th Anniversary celebration, the dialogue between two masterminds perfectly aligns with the School’s commitment to engaging globally impactful academic and business leaders in cultivating thought leadership and inspiring our young leaders. During the event, the two speakers discussed insightful topics ranging from management skills to global economic prospects.
Everyone makes mistakes but one must seriously address and reform system-wide problems to stop making the same mistakes over and over again. “Mistakes sometimes help you reform and change what you are doing, allowing your organisation to leapfrog to the next level,” said Mr. Schwarzman. It is exactly because of deep reforms, Blackstone has managed to ascend to its current position. To act more proactively, Mr. Schwarzman also analyses problems of other companies and finds out solutions, enabling Blackstone to dodge avoidable traps. This habit is also conducive to business negotiations as he could better understand the needs of his clients.
Managing a global team of 3,000 employees in 24 cities across the world can be a tricky business. Mr. Schwarzman’s believed that leaders are responsible for cultivating a coherent corporate culture to prevent infighting. If talented individuals could gain job satisfaction and feel comfortable in team work, any odd or aggressive behaviours should be repelled. From a more macroscopic view, Mr. Schwarzman observed that technological advancements in recent years have brought relentless waves of market disruptions. A good leader must recognise these changes, humbly learn from stakeholders and lead the company to become the market disruptor. When asked whether the business world would be held more accountable to the society, Mr. Schwarzman agreed. He believed that organisations at any scale are inevitably affected by regional social and political issues, therefore it is necessary to operate sustainably.
When talked about one of the most heated topics, i.e. the clash between the US and China, Mr. Schwarzman said in the past four years, in particular, has undoubtedly caused serious shocks to global political and economic landscape. He believed that with the Biden administration taking the helm, discussions between the two superpowers would be conducted in a different tone. He also believed that academics could provide westerners with context and cultural explanations, bridging China closer to the world. “The world does not understand China enough,” said Professor Cai. He believed that scholars in HKU could be in the vanguard of fostering the integration between China and the world.
As a concluding remark, Mr. Schwarzman praised Hong Kong for having a critical mass of talents, good systems and wise financial management. He sees a bright future ahead of our city.
The Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Pokfield Campus held on January 26, 2021 marks the construction kick-off of the new home for HKU Business School where we will continue to innovate, collaborate and grow in a state-of-the-art academic complex.
As we aspire to become a premier business school in Asia with significant global influence, this flagship academic complex will provide ample space for teaching, learning, research and community activities with an ambience of openness, energy and connectivity to foster incubation and exchange of ideas among members of the university, community and business sector.
The campus will also provide upgraded and contemporary sports facilities, a premium residential complex and a university guest house, as well as a teaching and learning hub and conference centre, aiming to transform the site into a new landmark campus hub. It will be a green, smart and healthy campus, creating an enhanced environment for the community with better connectivity.
At the Ceremony, members of HKU Business School community, including members of International Advisory Committee, faculty members, staff, alumni and student representatives, were invited to be part of this historical milestone of the School in reaching the new heights of success and growth.
This new home of HKU Business School is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2023, and the whole campus will be ready by the third quarter in 2025.
From left: Mr. Blair Pickerell, External Member of the Pokfield Campus Project Group; Mr. Martin Tam, Chairman of the Pokfield Campus Project Group; Professor Richard Y.C. Wong, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor; Professor Edward K.Y. Chen, Member of the Council; Dr. Patrick S.C. Poon, Member of the Court, Member of the Council and Chair of HKU Convocation; Professor Xiang Zhang, President and Vice-Chancellor; Dr. Philip N.L. Chen, Member of the Court; Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School; Professor Frederick Ma, Honorary Professor; Mr. Hoi-yen Tang, HKU Sports Scholar and Student Representative
Members of the International Advisory Council were invited to celebrate the groundbreaking of our new home at Pokfield Campus.
Members of the International Advisory Council were invited to celebrate the groundbreaking of our new home at Pokfield Campus.
HKU Business School faculty members were excited about the new development project.
HKU Business School faculty members chit-chatted with HKU President Professor Xiang Zhang.
FBE Student Leadership Award aims to recognise and reward HKU Business School undergraduate students who have demonstrated leadership within the University and the wider community; and to promote informal learning through students’ participation in extra-curricular activities, involvement in community service and student leadership.
Five FBE students have won the Award in 2020/21, the award winners are:
Mr. Agarwal Naman, BEcon&Fin, Year 3
“It is indeed a great honour for me to receive the FBE Student Leadership Award. The recognition will certainly encourage me to continue making relevant contributions to society in the future, through actions in both my personal and professional space.”
Mr. Leung Chak Tim, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2
“With the comprehensive support from HKU, I have chances to serve international businesses and foundations as well as taking up important roles in the University. It is such a pleasure to be the recipient of the FBE Student Leadership Award 2020-21. It recognises student’s leadership contribution and encourage me to pass on the passion, spirit and energy.”
Miss Mahendru Gauri, BBA(IBGM), Year 3
“I’m extremely grateful to the HKU Business School for providing me a wide variety of extra-curricular opportunities which have fuelled my holistic development. It is an honour to receive the FBE Leadership Award and I hope to continue doing meaningful work and contributing to society in all possible ways.”
Mr. Mak Lai Hang, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3
“I am very grateful for the recognition and support the HKU Business School has given me through the FBE Student Leadership Award, which was only possible due to the incredible teams and people I worked with. The School’s generous and impactful Award inspires me to continue to lead volunteer projects that can meaningfully empower our community.”
Mr. Wat Tsz Cheung, BBA(IBGM), Year 5
“I’m incredibly grateful to have received the FBE Student Leadership Award. This is a great recognition for students who strive to make a difference to our school and wider community. Thank you to the HKU Business School for continually supporting organizations such as 180 Degrees Consulting, in helping us broaden our impact.”
Teams of HKU Business School won the 1st runner up and the merit award in HKICPA Business Case Competition 2020. This year, the competition received more than 919 teams’ participation from various institutions in Hong Kong, Greater China and Macau regions. Participating teams were required to submit written proposals on a case study in catering industry for screening. After several rounds of evaluation, six finalist teams were selected for competing in the Final Oral Presentation Day which was held online on November 28, 2020.
The HKICPA Business Case Competition is an inter-tertiary event aims at developing students business skills, cultivating their professional judgment and preparing themselves for the business environment.
In the first round, as we were required to draft a 15-page business proposal for a catering company, we spent two weeks brainstorming and polishing our written proposal. During the process, we all spent quite a long time coming up with new ideas and assessing each planned strategy’s feasibility. Since we were from different programmes and majors, we also learnt a lot from each other such as managerial accounting, financial derivatives, marketing, valuation and so on, which also made our proposal more multi-faceted and professional.
The final round was quite different from the first round as it required a high level of presentation skills. We needed to put our content into very concise sentences and pay attention to our presence and oral expressions. The Q&A part was also very crucial because it required us to consider our proposed strategies thoroughly and comprehensively enough. Thanked to the support and guidance from Dr. Olivia Leung, we learnt how to give an attractive story-telling presentation with delicate coherences and links between each part, as well as a presentation full of team collaborations.
Though the competition was switched to online mode, we still had an enjoyable teamwork and competition experience. HKICPA Business Case Competition enabled us to learn new knowledge and explore different fields in business. It also facilitated our teamwork ability. We were glad to have participated in the competition!
The annual conference International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB) is an excellent opportunity for the scholars to share research ideas and get informed about the latest development in the field of electronic commerce.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the very first International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB 2020) virtual conference is hosted by HKU Business School this year during December 5-7, 2020. The conference theme this year is “Electronic Business under COVID-19 Pandemic”. We received 71 submissions and 54 papers were accepted into the final programme of 19 sessions. The topic areas of the papers include artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, blockchain, COVID-19 issues, E-collaboration, E-commerce, E-education, E-innovation, E-marketing, E-SCM, E-sustainability, IoT, social commerce, technological issues, and user behaviors.
In this conference, there are 55 registered scholars from 16 countries and regions, including China, Germany, Hong Kong, Houston, Ireland, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, UK, USA. This year, the Best Paper Award Committee had selected 4 top-quality papers to receive the awards.
The International Conference on Electronic Business is an affiliated conference of Association of Information Systems. It brings together leading Electronic Business scholars in Asia and around the world. The conference is held under the supervision of The International Consortium for Electronic Business (ICEB) editorial board and is the top academic Electronic Business conference in the world. It brings together top researchers in Electronic Business field and related areas within Asia and around the world to present cutting-edge research and exchange intellectual ideas.
Three undergraduate students of HKU Business School took part in the HKSI Institute Scholarship Programme 2020 and were awarded Champion, 1st Runner-up & team award, and Finalist.
Participating students were required to write a 1000 word essay on the topic “What does it take to develop a career in the increasingly digitalised financial industry?” Eight finalists were then selected to work on a research project in groups of two to compete for attractive cash prizes and premier internship opportunities offered by leading firms in accounting, banking and financial services.
Since its launch in 2004, HKSI Institute Scholarship Programme has provided university students an avenue to widen their horizons and advance their career development for the financial industry.
Sharing from the Awarded Students:
Champion – Lee Chi Lam Esther, BEcon&Fin
“HKSI Scholarship Programme 2020 has been a fruitful journey to deepen my understanding towards the financial sector. I have learnt about the changes in the finance industry in the realm of technology, such as the implementation of ‘Digital Person’. I am also grateful to have received valuable mentoring from Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, which has allowed me to get a head start on building my career path in the banking industry.”
1st Runner-up & team award* – Lee Siu Hin Aaron, BBA(Law)&LLB
”Despite majoring in law, I have embraced different opportunities in the financial sector. It is for this reason that I have joined the HKSI Scholarship. The experience in shadowing Mr. Paul Day, head of operation from Morgan Stanley, is an eye-opening and precious one. Therefore, stay open-minded and seize your opportunities. You may gain more than what you have ever expected from the journey.”
*shared with another student from City University of Hong Kong
Finalist – Ma Chun Ming James, BFin(AMPB)
“The HKSI scholarship programme was fun, intellectually stimulating, and challenging. Experienced senior executives of multinational financial institutions come together to guide you to an interactive research project. The programme strives to discover dynamic ways to ensure this is a fun and interactive competition! I highly recommend students from the faculty to join the programme next year.”
Champion Miss Esther Lee (2nd from left) accompanied by HKU Representative Prof. Anna Wong (right) to accept award from Mr. Barry Tong (2nd from right) of Grant Thornton, Programme Chair and Lead Sponsor, and Mr. Dicky Hung (left) of SPD Bank, Research Project Sponsor.
Mr. Aaron Lee (3nd from right) and Mr. Alex Kwok (3nd from left) accompanied by Prof. Anna Wong (left) and Prof. Stephen Shum (right) to accept the Team Award from Ms. Katherine Ng (2nd from right), Chairman of HKSI Institute, and Mr. Victor Lee (2nd from left), Chairman of Panel Interview.
Finalists accompanied by university representatives to accept awards from Mr. Christopher Tang (2nd from left), Member of Panel Interview, Mr. Kevin Liem (right), Volunteer Marker, Mr. Barry Tong (2nd from right) and Mr. Kingston Tsang (left).
The COVID-19 pandemic has subdued our physical economy, but mankind’s innovative spirit is indominable. On November 14, 2020, Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School, and his PhD advisor cum 2020 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, Professor Paul Robert Milgrom from Stanford University were invited for discussion at the 11th Caixin Summit “Rebuilding Global Trust” on the development of auction theory and the study of market design. Professor Milgrom spiced up the conference by sharing his Nobel Prize worth of masterpiece—a customised auction model that brings Genesis to the United States (US) broadcast landscape.
The auction model, invented by Professor Milgrom and his team, is a classic example of combining economic theory and cutting-edge computer science technology into practice. The project cost around 10 billion dollars but generated a revenue of approximately 20 billion dollars. Professor Cai applauded that the development of auction theories and its application is breathtaking throughout these decades. He believed that new and complex practical problems present new opportunities for economic research and analytical advancements. And at the same time, those researches and analysis can provide solutions to problems and challenges.
Professor Milgrom also shared the same view that the blending of academic theories with advanced technologies could be applied to improve social equity. Using the COVID-19 vaccine as an example, a customised auction system could be developed to ensure that the vaccine will be assigned to the groups with the most urgent need. Despite some questions about the ambiguity of macroeconomic theories, which are too abstract to be practical in general, Professor Milgrom pointed out that macroeconomic theories share great synergies with computer science. While computer scientists are good at making predictions under a ceteris paribus condition, theories from economics, political science, and psychology would be useful to make such predictions based on more realistic conditions.
Professor Cai also totally agreed with the observation of Professor Milgrom. He illustrated that economists are living in a time where interdisciplinary knowledge could be applied to practical issues way much easier than any time in history. There will be endless possibilities combing economic knowledge into machine learning and data analytics. As a closing remark, he urged us to keep up with the times and be open to new ideas.
The team “British Army” receives Champion – Great Eagle Group
