Specialisation in Business Administration
DOCBA-2024-01: Social Entrepreneurship
Although existed since the 1950s, research on social enterprises began to get the academic world's attention only at the end of the last century. The past two decades have seen a surge in research on social entrepreneurship. However, the application and studies in SE in Macau and nearby regions are still very early. There is both a lack of understanding of this form of enterprise and a lack of empirical research. Therefore, we call to develop an analysis of SE from different levels, from the individual, to organisational, to institutional, to create further understanding of SEs in this region from the societal, political, and corporate points of view.
Principal Supervisor: Jenny Oliveros Lao Phillips(jennylao@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-02: Neuroeconomics and Neuromarketing
The connection between Neurosciences and Business Administration is a trendy area in management, marketing, and people’s development research. The marketing industry classically based its analysis on the effectiveness of campaigns and advertisements on surveys or A/B tests. Although those have proved some level of understanding of the general results, several details of consumer behaviour and reactions are still relevant to research. The monitoring of human responses based on biological signals and images is based on pure data analysis. It is not biased by any external consumer opinion, deception or trick during some experiment. This research topic is broad, and we are focused on: (1) how the neurosciences can help companies and professionals to sell more and better; (2) how to create more effective campaigns, which include target population, effectiveness, and branding; (3) in a more personal approach, how can executives improve their performance, decision-making process and stress management.
Principal Supervisor: Alexandre Lobo(alexandre.lobo@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-03: International Economics
International Economics concerns the impacts of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences on economic activities. It studies the patterns and consequences of the flows of goods, services, factors and capital across countries. The research field also examines the role of international institutions, including the implementation of trade policies. Currently, our research focuses on the sub-fields: (F1) Trade, (F2) International Factor Movements and International Business and (F3) International Finance. (See JEL Classification System of scholarly literature in economics: https://www.aeaweb.org/econlit/jelCodes.php?view=jel.)
Principal Supervisor: Florence Lei(florence.lei@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-04: Business and Financial Analytics
With the increasing amount of data in organisations, effective information extraction and visualisation are critical to any company. Several tools and techniques for data analysis and visualisation are available, but which approach is efficient for one specific bunch of data? On the other hand, AI – Artificial Intelligence is also a significant trend to be considered by companies to help solve complex problems, not only in Production or Engineering but also in Finance and Management. Research areas: (1) Decision making based on AI; (2) Business Analytics (including HR, Finance, and other applications); (3) Data Analysis and Visualization tools and techniques; (4) time series analysis based on linear and nonlinear approaches.
Principal Supervisor: Alexandre Lobo(alexandre.lobo@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-05: Business Ethics
The recent financial crisis, such as the one in 2008, brought back the issue related to the importance of ethical behaviour in business organisations. Setting ethical standards in organisations is considered today as a condition for success. Adopting Ethical standards in an organisation, on the one hand, create more confidence in the current or potential investors for the sustainability of the business; on the other hand, it improves the level of loyalty of the customer to the business. Having ethical standards are one thing, but implementing them might face challenges. In that regard, the focus of this research is to conduct a thorough case study and an assessment of the role of organisational leaders in implementing and deepening ethical behaviours in their organisations.
Principal Supervisor: Ansoumane Douty Diakite(doutyk@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-06: Trends in Strategy and Management
Management is a rich area of research beause of its tight connection between technical skills and soft/personal skills. The application of Project Management frameworks is continuously increasing in the corporate environment, groups are being trained and professionals are getting certified and the demand is still very high. Nevertheless, several problems in organizations still persist during a project execution such as poor scope definition, lack of communication and superficial adoption of frameworks or methodologies. Our research is focused on analysis, processes and techniques that may effectively and successfully manage projects, programs and portfolios in different dimensions, according to the management areas: scope, time, cost, quality, risk (including Monte Carlo simulation and quantitative analytical tools), change, people, among others.
Principal Supervisor: Alexandre Lobo(alexandre.lobo@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-07: Stock Market Analysis: Analytical and Computational Techniques
In this research area, we use the predictions suggested by the Black-Scholes equation and the Merton-Garman one as a starting point to predict the prices of the Option market. In this way, interesting analytical techniques are implemented over these equations to understand the market scenario in deeper detail and improve the predictions inside the Option market. Simultaneously, computational techniques involving standard and machine learning techniques can be used to compare the results with respect to the analytical techniques. While the analytical techniques help us understand the scenario in detail, the computational techniques help us establish solid results that can be trusted. Inside this research, the student will develop solid techniques for data analysis. Doctoral students are also expected to improve their ability to interpret results based on analytical techniques.
Principal Supervisor: Ivan Arraut(ivan.arraut@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-08: Construction of Mathematical Models for Industrial Optimization
In this research area, the student will construct Mathematical models to find equilibrium and optimal points for different systems. The systems under analysis can be financial, industrial, business, corporations, etc. The starting point of this research is understanding basic models involving stochastic variables and the interaction of close neighbours, among others. Some of these models emerge from other research areas and are adapted successfully to explain several social systems. The student working on this project will be able to find the equilibrium and optimal conditions of complex systems. The student will also be able to identify the free parameters of the system, which govern the dynamics of the system. Essential concepts and Mathematical tools will be used during the process, including the construction of Hamiltonians and Lagrangians, which are powerful tools for analysing the system’s dynamics. The same Mathematical objects represent powerful tools for developing computational techniques.
Principal Supervisor: Ivan Arraut(ivan.arraut@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-09: Game Theory and Economic Equilibriums: Decision Theory.
In this research area, doctoral students will research and experiment with well-known game theory techniques to make optimal decisions that benefit the different parties involved in different negotiations. This research can be applied to economy, finance, management, as well as other research areas involving rational decisions. The analytical techniques implemented involve decision matrices, decision trees, zero-sum game techniques, Nash equilibrium, etc. These analytical techniques can be combined with computational techniques involving ordinary algorithms and Machine learning to reach new and improved approaches, as innovative results and scenarios are expected to emerge from this research. Students will train the ability to improve their decision-making power after knowing several well-known cases and models. Additionally, new contributions oriented to some specific research direction are expected.
Principal Supervisor: Ivan Arraut(ivan.arraut@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-10: Industrial Organization
Industrial Organization builds on “the theory of the firm” and further investigates the market structure and the firms' behaviour. The research field explores real-world issues of imperfectly competitive markets, such as transaction costs, imperfect information and entry barriers of new firms. It also analyses how government actions influence the organisation of markets and firms. Currently, our research focuses on the sub-fields: (L1) Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance and (L3) Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise. (See JEL Classification System of scholarly literature in economics:https://www.aeaweb.org/econlit/jelCodes.php?view=jel.) – [Prof. Florence Lei]
Principal Supervisor: Florence Lei(florence.lei@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-11: Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility Research aims to continue with cutting-edge research on Case Studies in the Chinese context, which covers working conditions, labour rights, fair competition, and ethical standards with a focus on different efficient strategies to implement theories of leadership studies, Stewardship Codes and the Macau Manifesto as a summary of critical points of business ethics. Special attention is given to visual media to further develop digital Educational Materials on CSR, which would, in a more concise way, enhance the awareness and implementation of Ethical codes in a competitive environment.
Principal Supervisor: Stephan Rothlin(stephan.rothlin@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-12: Technology and Innovation in Business Administration
Innovative technologies (e.g., electric vehicles, autonomous driving, innovative city/building/home systems, wearable devices, self-ordering kiosks, e-government solutions, websites, apps, software, blockchain applications, etc.) are reshaping everyday life. But why are some technologies spreading faster than others? How do consumers accept and use these technologies? Why have some innovations struggled to gain acceptance in society? This area proposes researching different applications, experiments, users/organisations' approval and their impact on businesses.
Principal Supervisor: Alessandro Lampo(lampo.alessandro@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
DOCBA-2024-13: Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
Over the last few years, we have witnessed a revolution in thinking about marketing and consumers and their relationships with marketing. Significant research has been done, helping us better understand the relationship between marketing, consumer behaviour and the more comprehensive today's society increasingly immersed in ubiquitous digital media. At USJ, we focus our research on four main strands: a) Consumer Intentionality Toward Human-Chatbot Interaction: aiming to investigate consumer intentionality toward human-chatbot interaction by applying AI for marketing communication. Chatbots are interactive, virtual agents that engage in verbal exchanges with humans through the usage of natural language. As chatbots have become increasingly popular over the past years, many companies have recognised their far-reaching potential for commercial purposes (e.g. customer support, e-commerce guidance). However, despite their widespread usage, which factors affect users’ perceptions and use of chatbots remains primarily unknown. b) Guilt’s Impact on Consumption: where guilt, in the scope of consumption, is a rather complex construct that has never been comprehensively disentangled and measured thoroughly. We aim to understand in which way this source of guilt guides individuals' decisions in what concerns their buying and consumption options; c) Second-Hand Market for Clothing: Due to economic recessions, political instability, the rise of the conscious consumption and generational development, second-hand markets have conquered appreciation among consumers. Along with these factors, the growth of specific sites, such as eBay, is a potentiator of these markets' development. However, there has been a recent trend in developing websites for selling second-hand-specific products that are gaining popularity. One of these trends includes products specifically for kids. The focus here is the study of the market of second-hand products, especially for kids and a better understanding of the corresponding consumer behaviour. d) Rebranding Traditional SMEs: during the pandemic, the Macau government supported traditional local SMEs to renovate and innovate their businesses. While changes in the appearance of brick-and-mortar businesses are seen around town, efforts have been encouraged to innovate these businesses that have been run the same way for generations. This project intends to explore the strategies used by these traditional SMEs in Macau for rebranding, market expansion, and sales improvement to identify models that SMEs can adopt in Macau.
Principal Supervisor: Susana Cristina Lima da Costa e Silva(susana.costa.silva@usj.edu.mo)
Academic Unit: Faculty of Business and Law
