Sylvia Hubner

Sylvia Hubner

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Management & Organisation, NUS Business School

Sylvia Hubner is Postdoctoral Fellow at the the Department of Management & Organisation at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School. Her research focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation. She combines different methodological approaches, including experiments, field studies and qualitative studies, to investigate leadership, human resources management, diversity, and human-robot-interaction in entrepreneurial and innovative processes; and she has a particular interest in the influence of cultural differences.

Attendees browse as a humanoid robot stands in the exhibition display area at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, 9 July 2020. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

'Kiasu' Singapore, 'yao mianzi' China, and 'leela' India: How does culture influence innovation?

In a study conducted by academics from the NUS Business School surveying the China, India, and Singapore landscape, respondents often described the Chinese as disciplined and focused, Singaporeans as structured, fearing failure and sticking to the plan, and Indians as creative, flexible and frugal. While it is not the only or most pertinent factor, cultural traits matter when it comes to managing teams and maximising their potential to innovate.