On February 19, the Pridi Banomyong International College, Thammasat University and the Thammasat Business School welcomed a guest lecturer who offered insight about Researching in Emerging Nations. Professor Dr. Jake Ansell is professor of risk management at the University of Edinburgh Business School, United Kingdom (UK). Risk management is the study of how to identify and evaluate risks, and decide which ones are most significant. Also, creating strategies of how to minimize, observe, and control bad things if they do happen. Since uncertainty is part of human experience, especially in business, risk management works to prevent this uncertainty from keeping people from achieving their goals. Professor Jake spoke at the Rim-Naam building on Tha Prachan Campus. He generously stated that his presentation was based on the work of Dr. Juthamon Sithipolvanichgul, Dr. Fenfang Lin, and Dr. Ruchi Agrawal, all of whom worked with him as graduate students at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Juthamon is now a full-time faculty member at Department of Accounting, Thammasat Business School. After earning an M.B.A in finance at the University of Durham, UK, she received a Ph.D. in management at the University of Edinburgh.
Among Professor Jake’s many interesting observations were some that affect any Thai student and ajarn who is interested in publishing research in international journals. It is not enough to write research papers. Researchers must also consider how best to present them to editors of professional journals. Professor Jake mentioned some practical considerations about how articles are accepted for publication. This useful perspective on the publishing industry can save Thai students and ajarns a considerable amount of time. For example, mainstream international journals tend not to be interested in data that is drawn from research in emergent nations, because they are not convinced that the data will apply to their own countries. Professor Jake cited the term othering, which means assuming that someone who is different from one person necessarily does not share in common experiences or fit general rules that apply to that person. The ideas of Othering and the Other have been around for a long time, and the TU Libraries have several books by and about two German philosophers who helped readers to understand this phenomenon, G. W. F. Hegel and Edmund Husserl.
For the purposes of trying to get research articles published, Professor Jake noted that U.S. journals are historically guilty of othering. Some researchers in emergent countries have adapted their writing style in academic papers to appear more American, in order to have a better chance of being accepted by American journals. Professor Jake added:
If you want to get a publication [in an international journal], it’s a lot easier if you use US data or European data. It’s considered more useful because US data is large and has always been large.
Larger samples in studies are seen as more representative than small samples. Yet Professor Jake cautioned that it is also important to look at the quality of the samples. For example, in America, research may use up to 100 samples for a study, all of them students. This may mean that the students were not entirely representative of the whole population, and the large sample was not as meaningful as it may appear. In smaller countries such as Thailand, the population is smaller than in the largest nations. It may be more difficult to get published because the amount of credibility people allow to results is not as great as researchers would like. If a study uses 20 percent of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), to an outside observer, this may not seem large enough to be useful. While 20 or 25 percent of a stock exchange in a larger country would be sufficient to base a PhD thesis on. Researchers in smaller countries could solve the problem by expanding the region of their study, extending it to cover a larger area, for example other ASEAN nations.
Editors of international journals want to accept and print materials that they feel will affect their readership. If researchers write about countries where things are done differently, the editors may wonder if the information in a paper applies to them. As Professor Jake noted:
The problem for me is, I think locally and want to think globally.
With many other related ideas, Professor Jake reflected his experience as the author of dozens of published articles. Among the most interesting for TU students and ajarns may be his research on young adult financial capability. For those who are wondering why their brothers and sisters, or children, manage money so poorly, Professor Jake’s coauthored report published in 2016 suggests some possible explanations
to better understand the ability of young adults in managing day-to-day finances, planning ahead and negotiating financial difficulties.
744 samples were studied, all young adult residents of the UK between the ages of 18 and 24. Using focus groups, financial goal-setting and planning; confidence in managing money day to day and making financial decisions; engagement and barriers to engagement; and opportunities to help support young adults’ financial capability in the future were all examined. The results, published in article form last year in the European Financial Review, faced the unpleasant facts:
The current generation of young adults – Millennials – are experiencing lower levels of financial capability than previous generations. Even though they are spending more. In this article, the authors investigate and address the question: – “Why do young adults have such low levels of financial capability?”
Ultimately, education is a factor:
Research by the UK Money Advice Service suggests that young adults in their twenties are far more likely to say they experience financial difficulty “all the time”; and around three-quarters admit to making money mistakes in their first years of financial independence which impact their lives for years to come. Why do young adults have such low levels of financial capability? And what can we do to help? Financial capability is a combination of financial knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge to manage personal finances in the short-term via day to day money management and decision-making and via longer-term financial planning. It can be viewed as a finance-specific form of human capital. Financial capability, though, is a process not an outcome. The development of financial capability must start at a young age and continually needs to be developed throughout life as financial needs change.
For the purpose of the study, samples were divided into three groups: Planners, Dreamers and Drifters. The Planners saved for the future, Dreamers were less able to make financial plans and were less confident in managing their money, worrying about the future. Drifters had few financial goals, little confidence about money and were most dependent on family financial support.
Even Planners, the most serious about money, set only short-term goals, often saving in order to buy something specific. Drifters usually accepted that their personal dreams would likely never come true, and they would never be financially comfortable. The samples all preferred to keep money management as simple as possible. This meant that while most felt good about their current financial position, often without reason, they were still worried about the future. Samples were less confident about financial matters that other age groups, and females were less confident than males. Those who had full-time jobs and lived indepdendently were more confident about managing money and making financial decisions than students or young adults who still lived with their parents. Samples with savings, credit cards and mortgages were more confident than those without them. Among the conclusions of the study was that confidence is based on experience, not just age. Young people who have seen a wide range of situations, financial products, and decisions, learn about money and how to manage it. They can learn from both good and bad past choices.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)