Asia Pacific

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore

HBS established the first of the School's international research centers in Hong Kong in 1999, the Asia-Pacific Research Center (APRC). In 2010, the Harvard Center Shanghai (HSC) opened, home to a 90-seat HBS classroom, and more recent expansion has added an office in Singapore to more broadly support HBS faculty in this region. The three locations work in strong partnership with one another not only to support faculty research, but a full range of MBA and Executive Education student programming. Through their ongoing work they have developed important links with governments, academic institutions, and corporations within a region that is assuming an increasingly vital role in the world economy. Enabled by its local presence, the School has been able to enhance the breadth and depth of faculty research and case studies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Locations

Harvard Center Shanghai
5/F, Shanghai IFC-HSBC Building
No. 8 Century Avenue
Pudong, Shanghai
Tel: +86 21 3852 3800
Fax: +86 21 3852 3820
http://shanghaicenter.harvard.edu/

Singapore Office
MYP Centre
9 Battery Road, 11F/12F
Singapore 049910
Tel: +65 6422 7969
Fax: +65 6597 7099

Asia-Pacific Research Center
10 Pottinger Street, 24th Floor
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2289 9988
Fax: +852 2521 1427

News & Highlights

OCTOBER 2022
EVENT

Presentation by Professor Mattias Fibiger on The Semiconductor Wars

In October 2022, he HBS Club of Singapore hosted a Global Networking Night for alumni. Professor Mattias Fibiger from the Business Government and International unit presented on the topic of the semiconductor wars between the U.S. and China. Starting with the origins and the development of the semiconductor industry, Professor Fibiger traced the participation of various key countries in the semiconductor industry, and the decisions and events that brought about today’s US-China rivalry in semiconductors. The presentation was followed by an energetic Q&A session. More than 50 alumni from the Asia-Pacific region participated in this in-person event.

OCTOBER 2022
EVENT

Virtual Case Discussion with Prof. Forest Reinhardt on Nestlé: The World's Largest Food Company Confronts Climate Change

On October 24, the Asia-Pacific Research Center co-organized a virtual case discussion in partnership with Executive Education. Professor Forest Reinhardt, the faculty chair of the HBS Agribusiness Seminar, taught the Nestlé case to explore how the world’s largest food and beverage company is striving to achieve its sustainability objectives without sacrificing short-term performance and shareholder value. More than 50 HBS alumni, executives, and investors from the agribusiness sector participated in the session.

AUGUST 2022
MBA EXPERIENCE

MBA Admissions Event: Life at HBS

On August 11, the Harvard Center Shanghai and the MBA admissions office hosted an in-person MBA information session, for prospective students to learn more about the program and life at HBS. This was the first in-person event that the MBA admissions office has held in Asia-Pacific since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the 90-minute session, three current MBA students and one alumnus shared their experiences at HBS, the case method, the community support, and also their struggles. The last 30 minutes was a break-out session for prospective students to discuss directly with the panelists. More than 90 people participated in the event.

JUNE 2022
EVENT

Webinar with Professor Hubert Joly: The Heart of Business

On June 30, Professor Hubert Joly, former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, shared his new book The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism, now available in Chinese. The event was jointly organized by the Harvard Center Shanghai and the Harvard China Fund. More than 250 alumni and business executives from Greater China and Asia-Pacific participated in the event. Yi Wang, Executive Director for University Programs, HCS, and Professor Joly talked about the mission of enterprise in the new era and discussed the business philosophy that Professor Joly had gleaned from 30 years of reflection, learning, and practice from the successful transformation of Best Buy.

New Research on the Region

2023
Working Paper

Is Pay Transparency Good?

By: Zoë Cullen

Countries around the world are designing pay transparency policies with the intention of combating pay discrimination. Are these policies working as intended? Most focus on revealing pay gaps between co-workers within a firm, with the goal of arming workers with information to negotiate equal pay for equal work. While this has led to a narrowing of co-worker wage gaps, these policies have also led to demoralizing peer comparisons, and created spillovers between negotiations that in turn force employers to bargain aggressively, lowering average wages. The future for pay transparency policies, however, is bright. When designed to go beyond co-worker wage gaps, pay transparency policies address a wide-array of information frictions in the labor market. Experimental and quasi-experimental evidence showed vertical pay transparency shifted peoples’ beliefs upward about what they could earn if they gained a promotion, leaving employees more motivated and productive. Pay transparency in job-postings revealed which employers can offer the highest wages, redirecting applications toward higher paying firms. Pay transparency between employers shed light on the wages of competing firms, reducing the information rents of firms in wage-setting games and increasing wages for lower-skill work. The key design feature for all these pay transparency policies is that they shine the light outward, away from similar workers negotiating with the same employer. The degree of learning and behavioral change stemming from pay transparency underscores the extent of information frictions in the labor market. I describe an open field for pay transparency studies to improve the functioning of labor markets and shed light on how the labor market operates. I also apply insights from existing evidence to predict how recent legislation, including mandated pay ranges in job advertisements, will affect the labor market.

January 2023
Case

Velong: Rethinking 'Made in China'

By: Krishna G. Palepu, Nancy Hua Dai and Billy Chan

Velong is a supplier of kitchen equipment and backyard grills for major global brands and store brands of large western retailers. In light of the Covid-related disruptions to the global supply chains, and the evolving trade tensions between China and the Western countries, Velong’s global customers were pressuring the company to move 30% of its manufacturing from China to other locations. Velong was considering a number of countries to shift its manufacturing – India, Vietnam, Trukey and Mexico. At present, none of these countries seem to be able to match the cost structure and manufacturing quality that the company is able to achieve in China. Velongs c0-founders, Jacob Rothman and Iven Chen, need to decide soon how to forumlate a strategy to deal with the challenge.