Big Data and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Haitian LuAssociate Head, School of Accounting and FinanceDeputy Director, Center for Economic Sustainability and Entrepreneurial Finance (CESEF)

How Technology, Big Data and Entrepreneurship are LinkedTechnology enables more efficient business transactions,

expand business scopes, and expedite business processes.Mean time, technologies leave companies, government, and

organizations with vast quantity of business data (“Big Data”).Understand and utilize those data create new business

advantage and opportunities (“Entrepreneurship”).

>“Big data is not actually about the data. The revolution is not that there’s more data available. The revolution is that we know what to do with it now. That’s really the amazing thing.” Gary King, professor and director of Harvard University Institute for Quantitative Social Science

Think about the following concepts:>You may have heard about Fintech, how about …>Accountech>Regtech>Insurtech>Paytech>…>Where there is investment, there is opportunity. Accounting and

financial firms, and almost all industrial firms are increasing IT investment, including digitize their business to find more customers, improving decision-making process, and to ensure security and compliance.

What do your employers say on the expectation of accounting graduates … “We need CPAs no matter what, but we need ones who are open to IT and have good business sense plus

strong soft skills. The future of accountants is that they'll become half accountants and half advisors specialised in different businesses or industry domains. This will be the new generation of professional accountants.”

“Currently a number of consulting firms and all Big Four CPA firms are providing data analytics consulting services to clients. Clients in HK are lagging behind in data analytics and many of our retail clients in HK are still at the customers data-collecting stage and in the process of finding ways to analyzingit. Due to high staff costs and lack of software support for companies in Hong Kong to analyze data, consulting firms are mostly hired in handling this for cost efficiency purposes. In the long run, with sufficient talents and more computer software developed, I believe the finance team will be handling such work in analyzing the data as part of financial reporting.”

“In fact, data analytics has become more and more important, and affect almost every business sector and industry. For us as the leading accounting firm, it brings us not only business opportunities but affects how we deliver our services, including assurance, tax and advisory. Such impact on our delivery model and the way we help our clients solving their important model has become more and more obvious.”

Extracted from our interview with Ms. Winnie Ki (Partner of Assurance, EY), Mr. Raymond Poon (Partner of Assurance - Financial Services Practice, PwC),Mr. Peter Koo (National Leader of IT Advisory Services, Deloitte), Mr. Steven Parker (Partner - Audit Data & Analysis, KPMG), Ms. Jenny Lam (SeniorManager of Department of Professional Practice, KPMG) and Dr. Angela Wong (Director of Human Resources, BDO Limited).

Example of data-driven entrepreneurship such as “Sharing Economy”

Attention is money! Emerging business models such as “internet celebrity economy” or “Esports”?

A Leap of Trust Lies at the Core of Virtually All Economic Transactions

What Builds Trust?

>Laws and regulations>Market forces and reputational capital >Personal ethics, integrity and culture

>And … Technology

Disruptive technological innovation: The Blockchain>How distributed ledger technology (or blockchain) works?>How do blockchain re-shape the following industry? banking and payments Supply chain management Insurance Voting (shareholder, political, and other public choices) Public sector governance Legal profession (robo-advisors, smart contracts) YOUR INDUSTRY?

Excited to explore more? Here is what you need to do…>Choose the big data and entrepreneurship theme for your

Capstone Project!>Identify an interesting, important and specific research question

that we know little about, and discuss with your supervisor. >Conduct investigation through primary and secondary

materials, market research, surveys, interviews, benchmarking, and other social science research methodologies.

>Write persuasive analytical essays for your project and final report.

>Easy takeaways for business people (their time is scarce).

Where to find serious discussion on these new trends?

What shall my first semester project report look like?>Sample opinion-piece style article by Karl Ulrich (vice vice dean

of entrepreneurship and innovation at Wharton) on “Why Bicycles Are Making a Huge Comeback in China?”

>http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-bikecycles-are-making-a-huge-comeback-in-china/

What shall my final report look like? > Intensive case studies or analytical article with theoretical backup and

managerial implications.

Sample Article 1:>Ross J.W., Beath C.M., and Quaadgras A. 2013. You May Not Need Big

Data After All: Learn How Lots of Little Data Can Inform Everyday Decision Making. Harvard Business Review 91(12) 90-98.

Sample Article 2:>Iansiti M., Lakhani K.R. 2017. The Truth About Blockchain. Harvard

Business Review 95(1) 118-127.