25 24 HKUST Annual Report 2020-2021 LAB TO MARKET Seeding Strategies for Social Media Who is influential in a social network is important for firms recruiting people to share marketing messages on platforms such as Instagram, Weibo, and TikTok. While previous research suggested targeting people with many well-connected friends obtained the largest reach, Prof. Ralf VAN DER LANS (Marketing) and colleagues showed targeting people with many friends, who in turn have only a few friends, is more effective, increasing a campaign’s reach by 70%. They also found people with many friends were less likely to respond to marketing messages because of increased information received and limited attention to each message. Brain Vessel Disorder Discovery Computational biologist Prof. WANG Jiguang (Life Science, Chemical and Biological Engineering) and his national coresearchers used next -generat ion sequenc ing and a computational approach to uncover a new gene mutation responsible for cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) in non-familial patients. The discovery also lays the foundation for non-invasive diagnosis and potential treatment of the brain vascular disorder that afflicts 10 to 30 million people around the world. 3D Air Quality Measurement Platform Helps Mitigate Ozone Pollution Examining Governance in China Prof. Kellee TSAI (Social Science) co-edited Evolutionary Governance in China: State-Society Relations under Authoritarianism (Harvard University Press 2021), with collaborators in the Mainland and Taiwan. In this work, social scientists examine how the Chinese state relates to non-state actors across several fields of governance, including the economy, envi ronment , labor , local community, public health, society, and religion. The authors identify areas in which state-society interactions shifted over time, ranging from more constructive engagement to protracted conflict. This evolutionary approach provides insights into circumstances where the party-state exerts its coercive power versus more flexible responses or policy adaptations. More Information, Greater Political Manipulation In this study, Prof . LU Yang (Economics) and her co-author interpreted the social media revolution as a shock that simultaneously improves the precision of citizens’ information but also reduces politicians’ costs of manipulation. In developing a model in which a politician seeks to prevent a group of citizens from making informed decisions, the research showed that there is a critical threshold for this equilibrium whereby if the costs of manipulation fall enough, the social media revolution makes citizens worse off despite the underlying improvement in their information. Insights into Product Market Competition Prof. YAN Ji (Finance) and his co-authors proposed an asset pricing model with dynamic strategic competition, showing through their model and data that product market competition intensifies during recessions. In industries with more stable market leadership, firms’ profit margins are higher yet more volatile, rationalizing their higher expected stock returns. The study won the best paper award at the China International Conference in Macroeconomics 2019. Generations and Gender Survey to Dissect Hong Kong Social Phenomena Prof. Stuart GIETEL-BASTEN (Social Science and Public Policy) implemented a pilot version of the Generations and Gender Survey in Hong Kong to better understand why local society is aging rapidly, young people are struggling to access good jobs and affordable housing, and other such phenomena and their root causes. The Generations study is the world’s leading internationally comparative, longi tudinal survey of fami l ies, gender roles, and intergenerational relations, with the research in Hong Kong seeking to delineate the development of policy support. The pilot employed a novel online process and incentive experiments, advancing both survey methodology in the region and key clues to family formation in Hong Kong. It also provides a solid basis for advancing the full first wave of the survey in 2021-22. The Division of Environment and Sustainability’s Air Research Team developed a 3D air quality research platform, in cooperation with the Hong Kong government, to increase understanding of photochemical ozone pollution, its complex precursors, atmospheric processes as well as to step up mitigation. The novel measurement set-up includes a flying observation platform using an H175 Cheetah helicopter from the Government Flying Service, a marine monitoring vessel fleet supported by the Environmental Protection Department, and a series of funded pro j ects conducted to measure spec i es components and air pollutants from ocean, land, and air. Enhancing air-quality monitoring capacity and research findings will assist the government in identifying key emission sources and developing effective control measures to improve air quality in Hong Kong.
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