Joseph KK Ho's work diary

The basic idea underlying quasi-experiment , using an example, is as follows: Choose 2 companies of very similar profile: Step 1: Company A and Company B Step 2: choose 5-6 years of financial data of both companies Step 3: for one company, say Company A, a stimulus was introduced, e.g. implementation of ISO9000 by Company A in year 3; while Company B did not. Step 4: Try to evaluate whether implementation of ISO9000 improved the financial performance of Company A How: Method 1: graphic approach, e.g. line graph, as the following diagram illustrates: Method 2: store the panel data of Company A and B in one file and conduct a multiple regression analysis; use a flag to indicate whether ISO9000 has been implemented; 0 = not implemented while 1 = implemented. E.g. of file fields can be: (1) financial year; (2) Return of Equity; (3) implementation of ISO 9000; (4) Sales Turnover; (5) Gearing ratios)... etc You could improve your research design with a larger sample size...

For a start, I suggest you to consider the following format: A study to: (evaluate; predict; verify; explain (or find out)) [a phenomenon] based on [a theory, perspective, research method]  E.g.: Example 1: A study to find out why some of the mainland visitors squat in the streets in HK based participant observation Example 2:  A study to find out why my boss is so perfect based on structured interview Research design: (i) unstructured interview. (ii) document study of the academic qualification certficates of my boss, (iii) quantitative analysis of my company's financial data over the last five years. I will discuss this topic with you in class.

A typical lecture from Professor Gag: Start Dear class, Today, I want to talk about quasi-experiment as a research method. Let me start with the following example. Say, I am interested to learn whether implementation of ISO9000 will improve the P/E ratio of a companay. So, I set up a quasi-experiment. I choose the following two companies that are very similar in profile except that one of them implemented ISO 9000 a few years ago while the other company has not.  The first company is called Chow Sin Sang , and its finacial figures over the last 6 years are as follows........ The other one is Chow C9 ...... End

Independent Study tutorial 2 topics are as follows (for class A): A. Using Excel for Quantitative Analysis: Doc 1: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/11/conducting-quantitative-analysis-with.html Doc 2: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/research-method-based-on-multiple.html Doc 3: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-chi-square-test-brief-note.html B. On using Financial Portal: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/using-financial-portal-for-financial.html C. On using Hull U. e-library and speedy library search strategies Doc 1: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/01/using-hull-university-e-library.html Doc 2: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/speedy-e-library-search-for-literature.html D. Research methods topics agenda: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/01/research-methods-discussion-agenda-list.html References Ref 1: https://www.facebook.com/groups/194088197319308/ Ref 2: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150112164422...

The following are the main course information on Research Methods for the MBA (Wales) that I will teach: Doc 1 Doc 2 Doc 3 You also need to study Gill and Johnson (2010). Some lecture handwritten notes: Workshop teaching plan Topic 1: On Research Objectives Research Questions and university policy Related article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2011/09/dissertation-objectives-and-research.html University requirements: assignment on proposal is to be used for final year project; topic must be related to your academci programme major (e.g. Law, Project Management, etc).. Hot management topics: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/01/hot-management-topics-for-2010-2011.html Topic 2: On Literature Review Related article: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/01/literature-review-agenda-for-learning.html On e-library usage (if e-library is offered by your university): http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2012/01/list-of-articles-on-e-...

I collected a set of photos on Development and Education to share with you: Photo 1: Photo 2: Photo 3: Photo 4: Photo 5: Photo 6: Photo 7: Photo 8: Photo 9: Photo 10: Photo 11: Photo 12: Total 12 photos.

Back in the 70s and 80s, when mobile phones were not available or common, I could enjoy reading in my railway/ bus trips with ease. These days, there is much noise pollution in the train cabinets with noises from TV and people talking over the phones. In HK, from time to time, there are people talking with themselves loudly due to mental disorder. Today, I suffer from another distraction. I found passengers close to me moving around with the fingers writing on their smartphones. Imagine: some people close to you moving with their figures actively wthin your immediate eyesight, while you are standing in the cabinet holding a journal to read.... so, this is another form of pollution, let's call that eyesight pollution, No wonder it is not easy for young people these to develop deep level thinking and to concentrate on examining issues; the envirronment is so noisy and distracting. Those who were born in the 50s and 60s or even 70s would know how the environment of learning has chan...

For the Jan 2012 class on Research Methods, pls refer to my facebook folder and the related links on blog articles:   https://www.facebook.com/josephho33/posts/180369182064422?ref=notif&notif_t=like#!/media/set/?set=a.496617132089.303612.713727089&type=3 . The following list of terminology is related to your 1-hour closed book examination: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/research-methods-terminology-list.html Related forum on Researh methods: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/194088197319308/

Probably due to the wide expousre to economic news. quite a number of students like to consider economic topics for their dissertation/ independent study projects. For examples: How does HK exchange rate affect HK export performance? How does economic growth of HK affect income distribution in HK? How does economic development affects environmental pollution in HK? Sometimes, students' perspective can be related to M anagerial Economics . The problem is: quite a number of students are not aware that, even for these hot economic issues (which can be considered as related to business studies), they need to do literature review, including literature on Economics. In thise case, I refer you to some examples of academic journals on Economics : http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/academic-journals-on-economics.html Even though you may not be able to fully understand what these academic articles say, you need to browse through them to be aware of what these refereed articles a...

This lunar new year holiday is cold and the shopping centres are so crowded.. as a result, I spend most of my time studying and preparing e-notes - as my holiday entertainment. I wish all of you, friends, students and readers, a happy lunar new year.

Talking about Research Methods, many would consider that as an academic subject. It seems to be unrelated to our daily lives. Actually, we all do research. Take the following photo I  found from facebook as an example: This is an example of taking photo as an evidence of observation and using it to make an empirical generalization. Here is another example: In this diagram, the creator offers a specific view of parents collecting red pockets from their children. It can be expressed in the following root definition (in terms of soft systems methodololgoy): A red pocket confiscated system operated by parents to transfer the red pocket money ownership from their children during Lunar New Year with apparently good intention. Using soft systems methodology, it is useful to develop a conceptual model on this root definition as well as to conduct a CATWOE analysis on this root definition. The point I want to make is: Research Methods and related methodologies, such as soft sys...

New Year entertainment is to learn how to store and distribute pdf with an Internet facility. So, I provide a link that stores my own Ph.D thesis for your reference: My Ph.D thesis . The title is "Development of Multi-perspective, systems-based frameworks". The link for download appears to work only for a week.

I have reviewed a few textbooks on Research Methods (RM) and come up with blog articles that provide agendas for study of a number of key RM topics. They are as follows: Part 1: Overall perspective http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/social-explanation-in-research-methods.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/business-research-strategies-agenda-for.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/planning-research-project.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/literature-review-agenda-for-learning.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/basic-nature-of-quantitative-research.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-nature-of-qualitative-research.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/designing-research-design-discussion.html Part 2: Specific research methods http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/observation-as-research-method.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/ethnography-as-research-method.html http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/sam...

I have come across this situation quite often: Student A: I want to find out or measure the relationship between A and B. Example 1: A is GDP per capita and B can be seriousness of pollution. Example 2: A is Export performance of HK and B is the strength of the currency of Hong Kong You then come up with a research question: how does export performance of HK affect the strength of the HK currency? Your question is: is it an acceptable topic and, if so, what should I do next? I need to point out a few things at this point: There are two aspects to consider about A and B: A and B as concepts to consider and A and B as the empirical measures to study the concepts of A and B. Let me give an example: If A is a student's competence of Statistics (at the conceptual level), then A (as an empirical measure to gauge A (at the conceptual level) can be examination score of Statistics. You need to design a research method to study the cause-effect relationship betwe...

Lunar New Year Entertainment is to do more reading and prepare online lecture notes. I will respond to students' queries via email during the Lunar New Year holidays. I just found a photo of me lecturing in class:

This sometimes happens. Students did not know how to how to do literature review and made complaints in their progress reports "The topic of literature review was not taught in class". I was offended with that, for sure. First of all, I did teach the subject of Literature Review in class and have also written blog articles on that. Secondly, if students still have problems with literature review after class, they should contact me direct via email. I always respond within 24 hours to students' queries. Of course,  I only offer quick feedback while the students need to spend effort to study Research Methods textbook on the topic of Literature Review.  I only facilitate learning and learning by students cannot be imposed externally. It is also clear that email and phone support cannot replace formal lectures. These days, students can also watch video clips on lectures related to Research Methods topics such as Literature Review. I have include video clips (from youtube)...

These days, education centres ask me to teach Research Methods; while marking dissertation reports and assignments, I have this viewpoint: How can a student expect to write a dissertation report that shows good understanding of Research Methods, if the student does not study Research Methods textbooks and does not spend sufficient time to do literature review? When students do not know what to do with writing dissertation proposals, I heard one of the teachers said: "I will ask the students to form groups to discuss how to formulate proposals". If the students do not know Research Methods and do not know how to do literaure review, we should teach and encourage them to study the subject well. If the students are not interested to learn Research Methods, we should explain to them why learning Research Methods is good to their  human and professional development. We should set up a role model to students.. ultimately, not all students are interested in learning Research Met...

I want to provide some information about using the e-library of Hull University. First of all you visit the e-library of Hull University at: http://zc7xc9dq8b.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=ZC7XC9DQ8B&N=100&SS_searchTypeJournal=yes&S=SC&C=BU0287 . You will see the following screen Exhibit 1: Home page of e-library with an index of journals (with the corresponding url links) From the e-library homepage, I now click on the link of "Academy of Entrepreneurship journal" and I am directed to the Athens login page, as follows: Exhibit 2: Athens login page You need to key in your Athens user ID and password at this stage. Next, you are in the homepage of the Journal of Academy of Entrepreneurial Journal, as follows: Exhibit 3: Home page of "Academy of Entrepreneurial Journal" If you now click on "View most recent issue", you will see the following screen: Exhibit 4: Current issue of the journal with options to download art...

Before Independent Study (IS) tutorial 2, I would like you to: Learn how to use university e-library to do some browsing of academic journals to pick  up some IS themes that you would like to consider for your proposal; preferably, you should do some preliminary literature review Do some reading on Research Methods references, e.g. textbook Do some reading on statistics, especially on multiple regression analysis and chi-squared test; I will perform a demonstration on how to use Excel to do multiple-regression analysis and chi-squared test in tutorial 2 on Jan 31. Contact me via email if you have any further problems with your formulation of IS proposal or with things you do not understand in your study of Research Methods. Although I can offer guidelines and advice to you, the actual formulation of IS proposal requires certain level of intellectual competence on Research Methods and effort to do some preliminary literature review on your part. So, to do well ...

Out of today's Independent Study (IS) meeting, I note the following information: Students can choose a topic in business study for their IS proposal; the topic need not be confined to Accounting and Finance Students can still do questionnaire survey; the questionnaire need to be drafted and incorported in the IS proposal for lecturer to review; there is an ethical checking on the questionnaire (and a there is an ethical form for students to fill in). Students should use the following referencing format: (surname, year), and avoid using numbering in referencing. These information will be officially confirmed. You will learn more about that later from the Lecturer or school admin.

For the first tutorial on Independent Study, Class A ; I will review the following documents: Document 1: on Proposal requirements Document 2: on assessment criteria of the final report "Assessment Grid" Document 3: on Oral presentation Document 4: On task deadlines Doc 5: Mark allocation by tasks The scanned images of the documents are not clear; pls bring along IS course materials to the class. References Blog article 1: http://josephkkhoworkdiary.blogspot.com/2012/01/preparing-for-independent-study-work.html Blog  article 2: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/planning-research-project.html Blog article 3: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2012/01/list-of-articles-on-e-library-usage.html Blog article 4: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/10/brief-note-on-harvard-referencing.html Blog article 5: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/09/proposal-abstract-and-dissertation.html Blog article 6: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/li...

From a few months in 2011, I had been the Deputy Principal of an education centre, after the Principal's sudden decease from  a heart attack. I mainly taught subjects in Global Business Management in that education centre. As a Deputy Principal, I took up final year dissertation supervision for the Building Services Engineering. This led me to the field of Building Services Engineering, which I am still learning. As to Research Methods and Dissertation writings, I do have quite much experience. I notice that there is a video clip on youtube on the last graduation ceremony organized by the centre. It is quite a memorable one, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1ifit9Yxg . During that brief period of time, students at the centre would call me Principal. That education centre has now been dormant. It is very difficult to predict what could happen in 2012. However, opportunities are always for those who are prepared .

It was a nice dinner gathering with my GBM students, now already graduated from the programme. Some take further study and are coping with work and study at the same time. Others are preoccupied with work and personal matters of various sorts. The gathering reminds me of a drawing I made after a cake party in class with these GBM students. These days, I really enjoy meetings and gathering with students, as a friend and a mentor. Here is a photo taken of me in a BBQ gathering with students: I wish they all do well with work, continuous professional development and personal life.. As to myself, I am happy to be the big brother to them and keep in touch with them via email and facebook.

I have been asked to provide some briefing on plagiarism to new students. Based on my experence, new students to Degree programmes in Business Management (including Finance and Accounting study)  need to know about a few topics at the beginning of their programme. They are as follows: English writing skill: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/improve-english-writing-skill-note.html On e-library: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/11/on-value-of-university-e-library.html ; also refer to: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/browsing-academic-e-library-brief-note.html ; also note academic publishers' websites info: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/12/major-websites-of-academic-publishers.html On harvard referencing: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/10/brief-note-on-harvard-referencing.html On academic forums related to businesss subjects: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/10/list-of-academic-forums.html On plagiarism: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/...

Due to the popularity of smartphones, more students are making innovative use of smartphones in their study. I came across this phone which is a clever way to use smartphone is examination: This technique is mainly applied when the education centre is not keen on exam invigilation - some education centres hold the view that reporting examination cheating by students to the universities will damage the "reputation' of the education centres. I advise that you try to keep two smartphones so that, when one is confiscated, you have a back-up device. In this case, you need to save up more money to buy two smartphones. Obviously, you need drilling to enhancing your skill in this application and you do need good eyesight to do that. Sometimes, there are many students who use smartphones to cheat in exam at the same time. This makes the examination centre atmosphere more relaxing. The larger the number of students who cheat in examination, the more students will consider t...

Back in 1982, when I was a student, my Polytecnic lecturer called me Teacher Ho, because I looked like a teacher. Actually, I taught in secondary evening school at that time. When I started my career in industry in the mid-80s, some of my colleaques called me Professor Ho, because I looked like an absent-minded Professor. When I got my Ph.D. in in mid-90s, some of my students started to call me Dr Ho, though one of my friends just said "You are a good dog"..  A few years ago, HKU appointed me as a Visiting Associate Professor, some colleagues and some students called me Professor Ho again. Once I was in the Underground Railway, a very old lady came up and called me Uncle; I believe I look like an uncle. Now that, some students call me Big Brother Ho (BBH)..  As I review all these titles, I think I prefer Big Brother Ho among all the titles. Or, to simplify the whole matter, just call me Jo. And, Jo is a good Dr, not a good dog.

In my career as a teacher,  I have come across a few misleading ideas and deceptive views. I want to explain a bit my views: Some education centres emphasize they are non-profit-making organizations; actually, they are profit-maximizing enterprises. Thus, look at what they do, not what they say in their websites. Some teachers tell me they are capable and responsible teachers; they can tell you all the reasonable views about teaching quality and teaching competence; again, pay attention to what they do, not what they say. The espoused theories can be very different from the theories in use. Some people can show you all the impressive qualifications that they have: if the person has a PhD, ask the person for any academic publications that the person has written; if the person has got good academic qualifications, ask the person to show you his/her dissertation report for a look (if feasible). In short, one has to rely a lot on direct observation to make jud...

As I look up my work calendar, I notice that the first local tutorial session on Independent Study (for my accounting students) by me is at the end of January 2012; I am aware that some of my Independent Study students have already been doing some preparation work for their topic areas during the holidays.  I would like you (IS students) to take a look at my faebook subject folder: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150101409692090.314231.713727089&type=1 .  I have quickly browsed the 2012 notes from the UK lecturer and the materials are essentially the same as the previous one. I suggest that you join my facebook  IS study group which is especially useful if you intend to conduct online survey with your fellow classmates: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150101409692090.314231.713727089&type=1#!/groups/143861262337078/ . You need to learn how to do literature review and make use of your Hull e-library. During the Christmas and New Year hol...

From a recent phone chat with a student, I came across the same query from students related to final year dissertation: Question 1: If the dissertation report should have word count of 100,000 while your report has 6,000 words or 140,000, is it still OK? My answer: try to stick to 100,000 words. +/- 5%; if your word count deviates by more than 10%, it can be a serious problem, and it probably also indicates that there is fundamentally a serious quality problem with your dissetation report. Question 2 from students: If I have the problem as mentioned in Question 1 (e.g. +/- 20%), will I still get a pass with my dissertation. You see, I just want a pass. My answer: I am fully aware of your goal; but it is not necessary to tell me about that, unless you think that "if I fail your dissertation  report, I am a bad guy." Whatever your intention is, it is irrevelant to my supervision work. If your dissetation report's quality is good enough for  a pass, I will give you a p...

From the article in Newsweek (Jan, 9 & 16, 2012; "Buffer your brain...." p. 22-29), I have chosen a few advices that I like most: a. Drink coffee b. Eat yogurt c. Eat dark chocolate d. Sleep a lot. e. Wipe the smile off your face I think, the advices noted above I can practise more often in 2012....; I cannot remember the other advices from the article..

As I started to use facebook for around 2 years, I hope my previous students who still remember me to rejoin my facebook if they are interested to do so. My facebook ac is https://www.facebook.com/josephho33 . Only some of them would be interested in doing so, I think.

Over the last 2 years, two of the education centres that I work with for some time have closed down their business; for one centre, the boss has retired; for the other one, the principal has passed away due to heart attack. Subsequently, the centre also closed down. Thus, I need to find other new education centres to work with for 2012. If I can find some part-time teaching jobs in Macau, maybe I can earn some extra income from the casinos.

There are various sorts of students' complaints: some are quite reasonable, some not. I want to discuss it from the perspective of omnicompetence. [Omnicompetence implies human development which covers the pursuit of truth, plenty, good and beauty; omnicompetence focuses on self-directed process of improving capacity to perform effectively (Ackoff, 1981)]. First of all, some examples of students' complaints: too much reading required from the lecturers; insufficient supervisor support to do finaly year projects; too much homework to do; examination scope too broad; lectures delivered are unfocused; course content has little practical value; and, finally, the degree qualfications obtained do not help to improve employability, etc..  Now, let me talk about self-fulfilling prophecy. When students are not satisfied, teachers become dissatisfied; education centre bosses also become dissatisfied. That triggers more efforts to control the situation, which further worsens ...

My field trip to 46th HKBPE (工展會) Hong Kong today, with photos taken as observation materials. The observations give some information on the event operation and event atmosphere: The entrance: need to buy entry tickets Event information counter Notice on visitor behavior codes  Booths are grouped into a number of zones Booth staff introducing and selling their stuff Some mainland China enterprises set up booths in this exhibition venue On material handling in the exhibition venue These photos illustrate some of the operations issues and event atmosphere for this event.

I have got a message from one of my students doing final year project who said that he could not contacted me by mobile phone as my mobile phone was turned off. I think there can be many reasons why sometimes attempt to contact me by mobile phone could fail. The fact is: sometimes I prefer phone chats over email  discussion. Very often, when I am doing works in my work desk, I monitor my facebook mailbox. Thus, I am able to respond to email queries quite promptly. Thus, in case, you are not able to contact me by mobile, you could leave a message to my facebook mailbox with your mobile phone number. I can then respond promptly to your query. In short, if you failed in your attempt to contact me by phone because my mobile phone was turned off, the best action is to leave try a few times at different times of a day, and leave a message to me with your mobile phone no. so that I am able to call back to you.  I am a very accessible teacher as a matter of fact.

When reading a professional  Human Resources journal, I came across a leaflet about the IELTS test, which is a test on English language. These days, my part-time degree students at one of the centres are required to attend English language class. Some of the full-time Degree students are also talking about sitting for some English language test, which probably is this IELTS test. Back in 1982, while studing at Hong Kong Polytechnic, I taught Secondary School Form 3 and Form 4 English in evening school. I am fully aware that, with English language skill up to Secondary School Form 3-4, students should be quite capable of communicating in English. The fact is, over the last 2-3 years, the English language skill of my local students in Hong Kong has deteriorated fast. Referring to the IELTS leaflet I got (see exhibit below), I would say that students with English language skill up to Secondary School Form 3-4 should be at level 6. Form 5 or Form 6 students who are outstanding i...