University of Hong Kong

This course examines marketing strategies and emerging issues in platform business models and the sharing economy. It covers the special features, pricing, customer acquisition and management, trust building, ecosystem and governance of such business models. It also analyzes the business models of representative firms in several key sectors—lodging, ride-hailing, e-commerce, office sharing, and online travel—and the future trends of platform business models and the sharing economy. In addition to qualitative analysis, this course also discusses how data analytics are applied in these businesses and the special skills needed for such business models.

This course examines an introductory overview of the field of migration studies. It covers why people move; theories of immigrant adaptation; immigration and citizenship; and how immigrant entrepreneurship is related to the adaptation and survival strategies taken by immigrants.

This course examines the material culture of modern China from the Republican period to the Reform era, with a focus on the Maoist era from 1949 to the late 1970s. By focusing on the design, production, consumption, and circulation of the material culture everyday life, this course will make sense of how the profound changes experienced during the twentieth century translated into the material, aesthetic, and cultural experiences of everyday people in China. It looks at how objects came to signify abstract concepts such as socialist modernity, feudal backwardness, or revolution, and ask how material goods can carry multiple associations, from the ideological to the aesthetic. The class will examine a variety of objects, including ceramics, consumer goods, enamelware, interior design and decor, lantern slides, photographs, posters, and textiles, paying particular attention to the relationships formed with objects and the cultural meanings ascribed to them.