LKCSB’s Digital Business Research Peak is making headway in exploring how AI tools are reshaping consumer experiences and core business functions from HR, marketing, and chatbots to blockchain applications in sustainable investing and fintech.
As Singapore seeks to advance its digital transformation, including the forging of leading-edge AI strategies to propel its next phase of economic growth, the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) is positioning itself to meet these challenges head-on through its Digital Business Research Peak.
“Our aim is to offer thought leadership and inform policymaking and business practices to support national priorities in digital innovation and transformation through industry engagement and impactful research,” says Associate Professor of Strategic Management Geng Xuesong, a co-lead of the Digital Business Research Peak.
A research peak is a strategic cluster of faculty members focused on common research themes. It is organised to coordinate research activities, enhance collaboration, and foster interdisciplinary research efforts.
The Digital Business Research Peak is taking a multi-pronged approach to drive its efforts, says Associate Professor of Finance Emiliano Pagnotta, who is the other co-lead. This involves facilitating intellectual exchange through a regular seminar series that convenes faculty and students across disciplines; the hosting of high-impact conferences that bring together researchers at the frontier of digital business and AI; building deep connections with industry to get access to proprietary datasets, real-world problem contexts, and a feedback loop to ensure their research remains relevant to practice; and enhancing research infrastructure through targeted investments in human capital and pursuing large-scale research grants to support ambitious, interdisciplinary projects.
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Research Focus
The Digital Business Research Peak’s focus reflects both faculty expertise and the emerging trends in the digital economy. It is structured around three core sub-areas:
AI and Machine Learning Applications in Business: The research explores how AI tools transform core business functions, from HR to marketing. Projects investigate areas such as chatbot deployment, AI-enabled creativity, AI agents, human-AI collaboration and algorithmic support for decision-making.
FinTech and Blockchain: This stream examines how new technologies are disrupting traditional finance, including blockchain applications in sustainable investing, market behaviour, and the integration of fintech into traditional banking.
Digital Platforms and Market Design: The research assesses the inner workings of platforms such as online consumer behaviour and matching algorithms with an eye towards improving governance and market outcomes.
Two projects by faculty who are part of the Research Peak secured research grants in 2024, which reflect their potential in real-world impact.
The first, by Lee Kong Chian Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources Roy Chua, is an exploration of human-AI collaboration in creative work. It examines how AI can augment innovation in the workplace. The other by Associate Professor of Marketing Hannah Chang centres on the use of large language models to decode consumer behaviour and enhance marketing science. Her award-winning study is based on large-scale empirical data that demonstrates that multiple-voice narration in video ads leads to higher persuasion and conversion and was published in the Journal of Marketing Research.
Other notable research published by LKCSB’s faculty in academic journals to date include:
• Insights on how new market entrants can overtake incumbents through better deployment of algorithms by Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship Chen Liang in the Academy of Management Review.
• How generative AI is reshaping job applications and the need for a more nuanced approach to AI use in hiring by Lee Kong Chian Professor of Human Resources Filip Lievens in the International Journal of Selection and Assessment.
• Lee Kong Chian Professor of Operations Management Lim Yun Fong’s research on optimisation of delivery times for e-commerce through balancing of costs, speed, and consumer expectations in the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Journal.
Future Plans
In the short term, the Research Peak is planning to expand its efforts through a multi-dimensional strategy focused on resource allocation, capability building, and the initiation of concrete projects.
In terms of resource allocation, they are looking to invest in cross-school initiatives such as joint research seminars, academic–practitioner dialogues and thought-leadership roundtables. “These formats are designed to facilitate intellectual exchange across disciplinary lines and to identify novel research synergies in digital business and AI,” says Associate Professor Pagnotta.
In 2024, it hosted a regional conference that brought together researchers from leading business schools in Asia who are working on cutting-edge topics in digital business and AI, fostering regional academic dialogue and potential collaborations. Plans are underway for an annual, Asia-focused symposium on digital business which will not only convene leading international scholars but also serve as a regional hub for research dissemination, collaboration, and agenda-setting.
Capability building involves using advanced research tools and investing in a talent development pipeline. “We are exploring the integration of multiple AI-powered platforms such as Deep Research, Genspark, and Manus to support and automate elements of the research workflow. These tools can enhance productivity in literature synthesis, empirical analysis, and conceptual development, enabling faculty to focus on higher-value intellectual contributions,” says Associate Professor Pagnotta.
The Research Peak has also begun work on concrete projects: scalable research initiatives as well as academic-industry collaboration. Faculty members are currently initiating new projects with the potential to scale into multi-year, grant-funded programs. These include exploratory studies in generative AI, algorithmic governance in platforms, and AI-augmented consumer analytics, many of which are being developed as seed projects for MOE Tier 2/3 grant applications.
Eventually, the co-leads see the Digital Business Research Peak maturing into a globally recognised centre of excellence, one that integrates academic rigour and technological innovation and injects industry relevance into the study of digital transformation and AI in business. They aim to:
• Establish a sustained record of publication in top-tier journals across disciplines such as information systems, management, marketing, strategy, and organizational behavior;
• Become a trusted source of evidence-based insights for business leaders, policymakers, and innovators;
• Design and deploy a suite of AI-augmented research tools that support faculty across schools in data acquisition, analysis, and synthesis; and
• Foster a highly supportive environment that empowers faculty to pursue and secure competitive, large-scale research grants such as MOE Tier 2/3, industry co-funded initiatives.
“Our ambition is for SMU to be globally acknowledged as a thought leader in digital business and AI, actively shaping theoretical discourse and driving new frontiers of knowledge,” says Associate Professor Geng.
