Commenting on nail salons engaging in unfair marketing tactics and hard selling, SMU Associate Professor of Marketing (Education) Seshan Ramaswami said that unlike banking or telecommunications services, it’s easy for customers to switch between different nail salons. So they try to "purchase" loyalty by getting customers to commit to discounted packages of multiple sessions, and “that has led to a lot of complaints in the past, especially when these services have closed down leaving consumers with unused sessions,” he added.
Commenting on the demand for resold mooncake boxes, SMU Associate Professor of Marketing (Education) Seshan Ramaswami said that buyers may have a genuine love for certain brands and want to collect an array of items or accessories under such brands, similar to how concertgoers collect merchandise for a concert. He added that the presentation boxes can be classic collector’s items, especially when the packaging keeps changing over the years, and that their value might appreciate over time.
Commenting on original equipment manufacturers (OEM) being sold on e-commerce sites under different brand names, SMU Professor Emeritus of Operations Management Arnoud De Meyer said that in the case of the Apple iPhone, the whole product is assembled by OEMs, from multiple electronics manufacturers and suppliers such as Foxconn and Pegatron. He said having an OEM was "very common practice" for companies – and thus unavoidable for consumers. Prof De Meyer also commented on the benefits of using OEMs, and explained, "It is all about focus and specialisation.
Commenting on the enabling behaviour of parents, SMU Senior Lecturer of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources and Director of Undergraduate Admissions at SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business Paul Lim said parents often do this out of love, “drowning our children in love”. “But this kind of love is not the kind of love we should give them.
The fast-changing landscape of tech post-Covid has kept students on their toes, with fresh tech graduates voicing their concerns about their hiring prospects. The Ministry of Education’s annual Joint Graduate Employment Survey, showed that 88.7% of information and digital technologies graduates found full-time permanent work after six months in 2023, down from 93.2% in 2022 and 93.7% in 2021.
Commenting on the TikTok trend known as “underconsumption core”, SMU Associate Professor of Marketing (Education) Seshan Ramaswami said that when making their lists, participants would be more conscious of why they are buying things. They may then realise that some purchases are to escape from deeper emotional issues and find healthier ways to address these instead. Assoc Prof Ramaswami also said the underconsumption trend could be a bane for retailers, whose profits are closely tied to consumer spending, but it could also create other business opportunities.
Commenting on the trend of quiet vacationing, SMU Senior Lecturer of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources Paul Lim said quiet vacationing is a complex trend to unpack because of the myriad reasons behind why a worker might travel covertly. He acknowledged that self-motivated employees can successfully balance their personal and professional lives without compromising the quality of their work, but cautioned that the lack of accountability and transparency inherent in remote work could also be exploited by some employees.
In an interview, SMU Assistant Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship (Education) Terence Fan discussed how recent changes to the SimplyGo scheme could encourage greater adoption among Singaporeans. He opined that the real-time linking of payment options, like debit cards, simplifies the management of transport expenses for students and parents.
Impact investing, which counts a variety of causes among its beneficiaries, is much harder to quantify, compared with carbon accounting. According to panellists at the seventh annual Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI) conference on 2 September at SMU, there is currently no perfect solution. Koh Lin-Net, institutional relations lead at Temasek Trust hoped the academic community could help the sector collect the data cost-effectively using technology.
Commenting on Cathay Pacific grounding 48 planes for checks on Monday after a Zurich-bound flight had to return to the city shortly after take-off, SMU Assistant Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship (Education) Terence Fan said the Airbus 350 planes had an "airworthiness directive" issued on them by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency this year.
