For the year 2022-2023, faculty members as principal investigators have successfully secured funding from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong for 23 projects under the General Research Fund (GRF), and three projects under the ECS (Early Career Scheme), totalling over HK$12.25 million.
The HK$12,256,393 in GRF funding was awarded to eleven projects of the School of Accounting and Finance (AF), eight projects of the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies (LMS), and four projects of the Department of Management and Marketing (MM).
The HK$1,366,900 of ECS funding, a surge of 113% over last year, was awarded to two AF projects and 1 LMS project.
GRF projects
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ECS projects
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The School of Accounting and Finance, in collaboration with AI investment trading start-up Asklora, has released the inaugural PolyU-Asklora Fintech Adoption Index (FAI). The FAI is the first locally developed index to measure Hong Kong consumers’ adoption of fintech and its impact.
The FAI surveyed over 1,000 Hong Kong residents in regard to their adoption of key fintech applications including virtual banking, mobile payments, online brokerage, digital insurance and cryptocurrency. Overall, the FAI was measured at 55. This figure captures both the proportion of respondents who have adopted fintech products, and the spectrum of fintech services they have adopted. 51% of respondents identified as active fintech users. Other key takeaways were overall security concerns among fintech users, and the relatively strong adoption of fintech by digital insurance users.
The survey found that online stock brokerage has the second-highest adoption rate among all fintech applications, but ranked second-lowest in terms of active usage. Conversely, digital insurance has the second-lowest adoption rate while scoring second-highest in active usage. The research also found that users of virtual banking services had a higher overall adoption rate of all kinds of fintech applications. For instance, 77% were users of online brokerage services.
The PolyU-Asklora project is led by Dr Jingran Zhao, Associate Professor of the School of Accounting and Finance; Pr Jack Poon, Professor of Practice from the same school; and Mr Stephen Joon Choi, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Asklora.
Dr Jingran Zhao said, “The FAI survey results show that Hong Kong residents are keen to adopt fintech products, but fintech companies still have more work to do to convert these new users to active users – for example, by improving the security of their products.”
Prof. Jack Poon also remarked, “It takes two to tango. The fintech products offered by financial institutions, which is the supply-side, do not translate into true adoption until consumers use and benefit from them. The FAI measures demand-side adoption by surveyed consumers. Understanding the friction that consumers experience as they adopt new products is an essential step to broadening financial inclusion in Hong Kong.”
Asklora, as the key project partner, contributed to the research methodology and distribution of the survey. Asklora is a fintech start-up that has revolutionised the stock trading experience with its AI-powered personalisation and trading strategy. It is built for anyone who has felt the pains of stock investing and is seeking more guidance. Asklora uses AI technologies to go beyond market access and guide users through the entire investment. Its proprietary AI technologies includes a unique personalisation process, as well as automated trading risk management models based on published AI research.
The FAI is planned as a long-term quarterly research project. The next survey will start in January 2023. For more information on the PolyU-Asklora FAI, please visit www.polyufai.org.
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| (From left) Dr Jingran Zhao, Prof. Jack Poon, Mr Stephen Joon Choi and Ms Gemmy Cheng (FAI Project Coordinator) |
