2015 - 7th grant: $115,500 (Dec 2015 - Dec 2017)

When Multinational Corporations Meet Nationalism: A Case Study of Japanese Acquisitions in China

The research makes use of the natural experiments of the anti-Japanese demonstrations of 2005, 2010, and 2012 in China to examine the impacts of nationalism and political disputes on the frequency, volume, ownership stake, and other features of Japanese acquisitions of Chinese target firms.

This research will also examine the channels mediating the impacts of the demonstrations on Japanese cross-border acquisitions including war memories, demonstrations, anti-Japanese sentiments, etc.

PI: Prof. DU Julan, Economics

2015 - 6th grant: $160,010 (Nov 2015 - Apr 2017)

Can Being Alone Benefit the Mental Health of Older Adults? The Roles of Culture and Migration

The research examines the effects of emotional experiences in being alone on mental health among older adults while they engage in their typical daily lives and environments.

The research will compare and contrast the effects of culture and migration as moderators in the relationship between emotional experiences in being alone and mental health among older adults.

It will also explore the mechanisms for the above culture and migration moderations by examining the roles of self-reflection and generativity.

PI: Prof. Helene Hoi-lam FUNG, Psychology

Co-I: Christiane Hoppmann, Dept. of Psychology, University of British Columbia

Co-I: Da Jiang, Dept. of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Co-I: Jennifer Lay, Dept. of Psychology, University of British Columbia

2015 - 5th grant: $181,188 (Oct 2015 - Oct 2016)

A Qualitative Study of the Transition Pathways of Hong Kong Adolescents after Secondary Education

The research examines the educational and occupational aspirations of secondary school graduates in Hong Kong who have entered the different transition pathways at about age 18 (including bachelor degree, associate degree, higher diploma, vocational education, full-time/part-time work, and so forth).

The research tries to identify the complexities, stability, and flexibility in youth transition during the first two years after graduation from secondary school.

It will also examine significant family, school and community factors that influence both educational and career orientation, transitional decision and outcomes after secondary school.

PI: Prof. Esther Sui Chu HO, Educational Administration and Policy

Co-I: Prof. Stephen Wing Kai CHIU, Sociology

2015 - 4th grant: $184,000 (May 2015 - Apr 2017)

Naïve elitism in modern China: Implications for the Development of Civil Societies

The research offers an objective behavioral assessment of naïve elitism, which allows tracking of the waxing and waning of naïve elitism in China.

The conceptualization of naïve elitism in the current research also allows researchers to link the rise of naïve elitism to social mobility and to the means for attaining upward social mobility and hence has important policy implications. Specifically, if the proposed hypotheses are confirmed, policies can be formulated to support upward social mobility through different means, reducing the sole reliance of belonging to an elite for attainment of valued goals.

The research contribtues to the research literature on how changes in the social ecology in China shapes the evolution of civic society in China and the intercultural relations between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

PI: Prof. Letty Yan Yee KWAN, Psychology

2015 - 3rd grant: $106,100 (May 2015 - Apr 2017)

State-society collaboration – a comparative analysis of capacity-building networks in Shanghai and Guangdong

The research seeks to understand the political and managerial rationale behind the Chinese government's initiatives to "re-associate" social organizations in an era of network governance. It will identify governance structures of different types of "hub social organizations" that aim to cultivate new social organizations and enhance their capacity in collaborative public service delivery.

It will also examine the structure of "hub social organization" networks and study the effectiveness of hub social organizations' managed network.

The research will also investiagte how network managers deal with tensions between efficiency versus inclusiveness, internal and external legitimacy, flexibility and stability.

PI: Prof. LI Wei, Government and Public Administration

2015 - 2nd grant: $155,000 (June 2015 - Nov 2016)

Transnational regulation and impacts of trans-border pressure on domestic risk regulatory regimes: a case study of environmental regulation in China

The research will study how transnational pollution is regulated collectively by governments in different places; examine the influence of external pressure on domestic regulatory regimes; examine the implications of globalization on regulatory coordination; examine potential factors determining the success of policy coordination; assess the explanatory power of existing theories on regulation; conduct interviews to collect in-depth information about the determinants of regulatory control; fill in the research gaps in the literature about how regulatory regimes in different places coordinate with each other; and provide Hong Kong government and Guangdong government with policy insights about how environmental regulation can be improved.

PI: Prof. May CHU, Government and Public Administration

Co-I: Miss Vivian CHEN, Government and Public Administration

2015 - 1st grant: $158,000 (May 2015 - Apr 2016)

How does Chinese Nationalism Affect MNEs during National Conflicts

The research is a pioneer study to investigate if and how Chinese nationalism influences foreign multinational enterprises in China. It delineate the concepts of two types of nationalism, namely defensive nationalism and offensive nationalism, and examines their different impacts on foreign MNEs.

With the rise of social media, analyzing data crawled from social media websites becomes feasible. The research adopts advanced text analytics to measure and analyze semantic and affective-based constructs like nationalism in a more precise way. It will provide practical implications for foreign MNEs in China by highlighting how the power of words can affect their legitimacy and how they should develop corporate social responsibility strategies in China, especially when nationalism is high during national conflicts.

PI: Prof. Daphne Wing-yee YIU, Management

2014 - 7th grant: $130,000 (Dec 2014 - Dec 2016)

Volunteering in China: Grooming New Citizens among Governance, Corporates, and NGOs in Guangzhou and Beijing

The research aims to address following five objectives: 1) this research examines and compares politics and meanings of volunteering in China in post-Olympics Beijing and post-Asian Games Guangzhou. 2) It identifies volunteering as a unique political cultural space that city government, corporations and various social organizations (NGOs and GONGOs) play upon. 3) It understands volunteering as a major sphere of citizen making. 4) This project contributes to existing scholarship of state-society relations and citizen making. 5) In the long run, this project shed lights on the ways the Chinese state defines a new state-society relations and civil society with socialist characteristics.

Prof. WU Ka Ming, Cultural and Religious Studies

2014 - 6th grant: $103,212 (Oct 2014 - Sep 2015)

Budgeting for Governance: Evaluating the Impact of Political Changes and Economic Transformation on the Fiscal Decisions of Hong Kong

The research seeks to address following four objectives: 1) the general objective ot the project is to examine the relevancy and connection between public budgeting and governance. 2) More specifically, it examines to what extent fiscal decisions are shaped by forces of political changes and economic transformations in Hong Kong from the post-WWII colonial period to the HKSAR era. 3) It also assesses the role and degree of success of public budgeting as a tool of governance in attaining the important goals of economic growth the political stability during the study period. 4) It adopts a comparative approach to study to what extent the theories of Western public budgeting theories can be adopted in Asian and non-democratic context.

PI: WONG Wai Ho, Government and Public Administration

2014 - 5th grant: $92,000 (Nov 2014 - Oct 2016)

Social Ties as Impetus and Social Strain as Hurdle? Career Exploration among Rural Migrant and Urban Native College Students in Urban China

The research addresses two objectives: 1) the aims of the study are two-fold. First, it seeks to examine the relative roles of various forms of social ties (bridging versus bonding ties and Internet social networking) and social strain in the career exploration of rural migrant college students in urban China. 2) The second aim is that career exploration and its social correlates derived from the analytical framework will be tested across urban native college students so as to identify possible unique impetus and hurdle in career search among migrant college students.

PI: Prof. CHEUNG Wai Ting, Sociology

Co-I: Prof. ZHONG Hua, Sociology

Co-I: Prof. LIU Linping, Sociology, Nankai University

2014 - 4th grant: $120,000 (Nov 2014 - Oct 2015)

Utilization and Perceptions towards Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong

The research aims to address two major objectives: 1) to capture the current health practices, behaviours and perceptions of the Hong Kong people towards traditional Chinese medicine; 2) as a third wave to the tow studies done by the research team in past two decades. The project seeks to track the change in utilization and reception of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong in 3 consecutive decades, and also to construct a profile of utilization for traditional Chinese medicine.

PI: Prof. CHIU Wing Kai, Sociology

Co-I: Prof. Rance P. L. LEE, Sociology

Co-I: Prof. CHEUNG Yuet Wah, Sociology

Co-I: Prof. JIN Lei, Sociology

2014 - 3rd grant: $120,000 (May 2014 - Oct 2015)

The Determinants of Women Labor Force Participation in Hong Kong: 1991-2011

This research seeks to address five specific aims: 1) to examine the trends of women labor force participation between ages 25-54 from 1981 to 2011 and compare it with OECD countries. 2) to test the theories of availability, marketability, market demand from the micro level of individuals and households on explaining the status of women labor force participation. 3) to examine the new household economic theory at the micro level by incorporating the earning ability of other family members into the model. 4) to understand the differentials of choices among different types of labor participation such as full-time vs. part-time job.5) to contribute to the current initiative at CUHK on population policy research by shedding light on a key variable in Hong Kong's human resources development.

PI: Prof. CHIU Wing Kai, Sociology

Co-I: Prof. TONG Yuying, Sociology

2014 - 2nd grant: $124,280 (May 2014 - April 2015)

Between Hui and Islam: Re-invention of City Space in Muslim Women in Guangzhou and Hong Kong

This research aims to address four goals: 1) to study the historical relationship between Muslim communities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong in terms of family, organizational and other social ties; 2) to examine the differences in religious and daily practices in the two Muslim communities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong with respect to their different social and historical development; 3) to compare and contrast the Islamic teachings on women and women’s practice of them in two different cities; and 4) To conceptualize the use of religious and family space in women’s negotiation between their different identities of hui, South Asians and Islam in/outside of their respective Islamic communities.

PI: Prof. WONG Wai Ching, Cultural and Religious Studies

2014 - 1st grant: $151,080 (Sep 2014 - Aug 2016)

Defining the Relationship between the State and the Market for Effective Pollutant Emission Trading in China

This Research aims to evaluate pilot SO2 and CO2 emission trading schemes in China from the market design perspective, assess the respective roles of the state and the market, investigate the boundary between them for the market to function well, and discuss how to let the market play a "decisive" role. It examines the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems and the effectiveness across various emission source sizes, appraise the impact of emission source sizes on the appropriate boundary between the state and the market.

PI: Prof. XU Yuan, Geography and Resource Management

2013 - 2nd grant: $198,000 (Nov 2013 - Jun 2015)

Happiness and Socioeconomic Inequality within Marriage: Experimental Survey Evidence form the Pearl River Delta

This Research aims to examine whether and how the happiness of an urban Chinese is influenced by socioeconomic inequality within marriage, with inequality defined by the relative standing of income and occupational status between husband and wife. It tests the validity of three existing theories that may explain any inequality effects: (a) conformity to gender ideology, (b) equity and (c) family utility. Mixed methods approach is used. Not only collect attitudinal data on gender imagine, role paly, and report their personal sense of overall happiness under different hypothetical combinations of marital inequality. This study is a pioneering effort in Chinese sociology, studying the interplay of social comparison and marriage. It is also timely, as China faces surging economic inequality and a stagnation of national happiness.

PI: Prof. TAM Hong-wing, Sociology

2013 - 1st grant: $149,500

The Patterns and Impacts of Elder Care Arrangements in Shanghai and Hong Kong: Convergence or Divergence

This research seeks to address three specific aims: 1) to describe and compare the current patterns of elder care arrangements in Shanghai and Hong Kong; 2) to examine explanatory mechanisms for differential patterns of elder care arrangements between and within two societies; and 3) to evaluate the linkage between differential patterns of elder care arrangements and elders’ life satisfaction between and within two societies.

The research will enrich the literature on the mechanism for differential patterns of elder care arrangements by examining a comprehensive model that takes into account individual, interpersonal and societal influence on elder care arrangements. The findings will also extend our knowledge of the linkage between elder care patterns and elders’ life satisfaction in Chinese societies.

PI: Prof. ZHANG Jiaan, Social Work