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Press Release on October 24, 2017

| Detailed Findings (Ratings of Best Corporations) |

| Detailed Findings (Rating of Top Ten Political Groups) |

Special Announcements

1. Along with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of SAR, the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of The University of Hong Kong starts to regularly announce the “best corporations” in terms of “corporate social responsibility” ratings from July 2017, highlighting 18 business corporations from six major sectors. Such surveys began in 2008 and cover industries of public transportation, telecommunication, banks and financial services, real estate and property development, retail and fast food restaurants. It aims to gauge the public image of different commercial organizations in order to encourage them to become ethical companies. The rating figures released by POP today on the best real estate and property development companies are one of the “Best Corporations” survey series.

2. From July 2017, apart from sampling landline numbers to conduct opinion surveys, POP has also added mobile numbers to the sampling frame. After three months of testing, in October 2017, POP formalized the use of mixed samples as its standard for regular opinion surveys. The figures released today by POP have already incorporated landline and mobile samples, while “effective response rate” is continued to be used to describe the survey’s contact information. As for the weighting method, a two-step protocol is used. First, both the landline and mobile samples have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 year-end, and the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution as well as economic activity status distribution collected in the 2011 Census. After that, the mobile sample was rim-weighted according to the basic Public Sentiment Index (PSI) figures collected in the landline sample, and then mixed together to produce the final results. This weighting method has proved to be feasible after three months of testing, but POP will continue to review and enhance it, and keep the public informed.

3. To facilitate academic study and rational discussion, POP has already released for public examination some time ago via the “HKU POP SITE” (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the raw data of regular rating surveys of current CE Carrie Lam, former CEs CH Tung, Donald Tsang and CY Leung, along with related demographics of respondents. Please follow normal academic standards when using or citing such data.

Abstract

POP conducted a two-stage survey in October on the “Best Real Estate and Property Development Companies”, and the results show that the most well-known real estate and property development company was Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited. Results of rating survey also show that Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited has the best CSR reputation in the sector, scoring 52.1 marks, followed by Henderson Land Development Company Limited and Cheung Kong Property Holdings, with 52.0 and 49.8 marks respectively. POP interviewed 508 and 546 Hong Kong people by means of random telephone surveys for the first stage naming survey and second stage rating survey respectively. The sampling errors of rating figures are no greater than +/-2.1 marks at 95% confidence level. The response rate of the rating survey is 63%.

As for the top 10 political groups, POP conducted a double stage survey in October, by means of random telephone surveys conducted by real interviewers. Our latest survey of “Top 10 Political Groups” shows that compared to six months ago, the support ratings of most political groups have recovered but all remained below 50 marks. In terms of support ratings, compared to six months ago, out of the 9 political groups which were also rated last time, the support ratings of 8 have gone up significantly. They are NPP, PP, FTU, CP, DP, DAB, LSD and LP. Compared to the last survey, 9 political groups have managed to maintain their places in the “top 10” again, while Youngspiration enters the list for the first time and replaces Labour Party. In terms of relative rankings, CP goes up one position to top the list. FTU goes up two positions to rank 2nd, LP goes down two positions to rank 3rd, NPP goes up two positions to rank 4th, DP remains at the 5th place, DAB, LSD and PP go up one position each to rank 6th, 7th and 8th, Youngspiration enters “top 10” for the first time to rank 9th, Civic Passion remains at the 10th position. It should be noted, however, that our “Top 10 Political Groups” only includes groups which are best known to the public, ranked according to their support ratings. Other political groups may well have very high or low support ratings, but because they are relatively less well-known, they are not included in our final list. The maximum sampling errors of the ratings of top ten political groups registered fall between +/-1.6 and +/-2.5 at 95% confidence level. The response rate of the rating survey is 64%.

Points to note:

[1] The address of the “HKU POP SITE” is http://hkupop.pori.hk, journalists can check out the details of the survey there.

[2] Because of sampling errors in conducting the survey(s) and the rounding procedures in processing the data, the figures cannot be too precise, and the totals may not be completely accurate. Therefore, when quoting percentages of the survey(s), journalists should refrain from reporting decimal places, but when quoting the rating figures, one decimal place can be used.

[3] The data of this survey is collected by means of random telephone interviews conducted by real interviewers, not by any interactive voice system (IVS). If a research organization uses “computerized random telephone survey” to camouflage its IVS operation, it should be considered unprofessional.

Ratings of the Best Real Estate and Property Development Companies

[4] The sample size of the rating survey is 546 successful interviews, not 546 x 63.0% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.

[5] The maximum sampling errors of various ratings are not more than +/-2.1. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. When quoting these figures, journalists can state “sampling errors of various ratings not more than +/-2.1 at 95% confidence level”.

Top 10 political groups

[6] The sample size of the first stage naming survey of top 10 political groups is 508 successful interviews, not 508 x 60.8% response rate, while the sample size of the second stage rating survey is other 1,009 successful interviews, not 1,009 x 64.5% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.

[7] “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. When quoting these figures, journalists can state “sampling error of rating not more than +/-2.5 at 95% confidence level”.

I. Ratings of the Best Real Estate and Property Development Companies

In 2008, HKUPOP initiated a tracking survey series on Corporate Social Responsibility, aiming to gauge the public image of different commercial organizations in order to encourage them to become ethical companies and select the best corporations. There are a total of six modules under this survey series, namely, 1) Public Transportation, 2) Telecommunication, 3) Banks and Financial Services, 4) Real Estate and Property Development, 5) Retail, and 6) Fast Food Restaurant. From January to December 2015, the survey was sponsored by Metro Broadcast Corporation Ltd and branded as “Metro CSR Index”. Results were released every month in the website of Metro Radio.

At the beginning, these surveys were conducted once every three months, with two different modules each time. From July 2017, the frequency was changed to once every six months, with one module only for each survey. The surveys were conducted in two stages. In the first stage, respondents were requested to nominate, unprompted, at most 5 corporations that they can think of. POP would then select from this list of unprompted nominees the 3 most frequently cited names for the next stage survey. During the second stage survey, respondents would be asked to rate the CSR performance for each of the shortlisted corporations using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates extremely poor performance, 100 indicates extremely good performance, and 50 means half-half.

Latest Figures

From July 2017, POP enhanced the previous weighting method that has been used for quite a few years. Apart from age, gender and education, economic activity status is now also taken into account when adjusting data. The latest figures released today have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 year-end, the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution and the economic activity status distribution collected in the 2011 Census. The mobile sample has also been rim-weighted according to the basic Public Sentiment Index (PSI) figures collected in the landline sample. Herewith the contact information for the latest surveys of the best real estate and property development companies under the Best Corporations series:

[8] Errors are calculated at 95% confidence level using full sample size. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.

The research design of our “Best Corporations” rating survey has been explained in detail under “Survey Method” in our corresponding web page. The corporations being rated in our latest survey were those which obtained highest unprompted mentions in our first stage naming survey conducted in October 2017. In the survey, respondents could name up to 5 local real estate and property development companies which they knew best. The top three corporations mentioned most frequently in the sector were: Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited, Cheung Kong Property Holdings and Henderson Land Development Company Limited. These corporations then entered into the second stage rating survey conducted in the same month, respondents were asked to rate each short-listed corporations using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates extremely poor performance, 100 indicates extremely good performance, and 50 means half-half.

Recent ratings of the best real estate and property development companies are summarized as follows:

* “Overall response rate” was used before September 2017, thereafter, “effective response rate” was used.

[9] All error figures in the table are calculated at 95% confidence level. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Media can state “sampling error of various ratings not more than +/-2.1 at 95% confidence level” when quoting the above figures. Numbers in square brackets { } indicates rankings. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.

[10] Such changes have gone beyond the sampling errors at the 95% confidence level, meaning that they are statistically significant prima facie. However, whether numerical differences are statistically significant is not the same as whether they are practically useful or meaningful, and different weighting methods could have been applied in different surveys.

Our latest survey showed that Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited was considered as having the best CSR reputation among local real estate and property development companies, scored 52.1 marks, while Henderson Land Development Company Limited and Cheung Kong Property Holdings scored 52.0 and 49.8 marks respectively.

Online Opinion Analysis

In July 2017, POP started collaborating with uMax Data Technology Limited to conduct “Online Opinion Analysis”. uMax Data would provide technical support concerning social big data to track posts in Facebook pages and various major forums in Hong Kong that mentioned specific political figures or organizations. When public opinion changes very significantly, POP will summarize the popular online posts about the specific political figures or organizations between the two surveys and compile a list of related events. Readers could make their own judgment if the events listed have impact on the related public opinion figures.

Since the latest survey findings reveal that the rating of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited has changed significantly compared to the figure recorded in the last survey, POP conducted “Online Opinion Analysis” to identify the top ten most discussed issues on the Internet. The list of most discussed items after eliminating duplications is as follows:

The results show that online public opinion had been discussing Sun Hung Kai Properties’ shopping malls events and the court ruling on Hui-Kwok case. Whether or not these items could sufficiently explain the changes in Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited’s rating, readers could form their own judgment.

II. Top 10 political groups

Latest Figures

POP today releases on schedule via the POP Site the latest ratings of the top 10 political groups. From July 2017, POP enhanced the previous weighting method that has been used for quite a few years. Apart from age, gender and education, economic activity status is now also taken into account when adjusting data. The latest figures released today have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 year-end, the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution and the economic activity status distribution collected in the 2011 Census. The mobile sample has also been rim-weighted according to the basic Public Sentiment Index (PSI) figures collected in the landline sample. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

[11] Calculated at 95% confidence level using full sample size. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified.

The research design of our “Top ten political groups” has been explained in detail under “Survey Method” in our corresponding web page. The top political groups listed in our latest survey were all those who obtained highest unprompted mentions in our first stage naming survey conducted from October 12 to 13. In that survey, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 political groups whom they knew best. Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), Democratic Party (DP), Civic Party (CP), Liberal Party (LP) and Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) were mentioned most frequently. Please refer to the relevant table in our website for the rest of the list. The 12 most frequently mentioned political groups then entered into the second stage rating survey. During that second stage survey conducted from October 16 to 19, respondents were asked to rate each political group in turn using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates absolutely no support, 100 indicates absolute support, and 50 means half-half. After calculation, the bottom 2 political groups in terms of recognition rate were dropped, leaving behind the top 10. In case any group failed to reach the 50% benchmark recognition rate, it would also be dropped. It should, however, be noted that because political groups are not yet legal entities in Hong Kong, such definitions are rather vague, and so-called political groups are constantly evolving. As a result, strange names may appear in the list of groups mentioned by respondents in Stage One surveys. In order to avoid personal bias, our research team will eliminate groups which fall outside the popular definition only after the first stage of the survey. To facilitate readers follow our research process step by step, the POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since July 1998. The latest ratings of the top 10 political groups, together with the previous ratings, are summarized below:

* “Overall response rate” was used before September 2017, thereafter, “effective response rate” was used.

[12] All error figures in the table are calculated at 95% confidence level. “95% confidence level” means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Media can state “sampling error of various ratings not more than +/-2.5 at 95% confidence level” when quoting the above figures. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.

[13] Ratings with recognition rates not reaching top 10 in either stage of survey are not available. { } Number in square brackets indicates rankings.

[14] Such changes have gone beyond the sampling errors at the 95% confidence level, meaning that they are statistically significant prima facie. However, whether numerical differences are statistically significant is not the same as whether they are practically useful or meaningful, and different weighting methods could have been applied in different surveys.

Findings obtained from mid-October showed that, the most popular political group was Civic Party (CP) which attained 47.0 marks. Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), Liberal Party (LP), New People’s Party (NPP), Democratic Party (DP) and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) scored 46.0, 45.7, 45.5, 44.5 and 42.8 marks respectively and ranked 2nd to 6th. The 7th to 10th places went to League of Social Democrats (LSD), People Power (PP), Youngspiration and Civic Passion, attaining 36.4, 34.8, 28.5 and 28.2 marks respectively. The mean score obtained by the top 5 political groups was 45.8 marks. For this latest survey, Neighbourhood and Worker’s Service Centre (NWS) and Labour Party obtained a support rating of 47.4 and 42.9 marks respectively, but they were dropped due to their relatively low recognition rates. The overall ratings ranked according to results obtained over the past 4 surveys are tabulated as follows:

[15] “Average rating” is the average of all ratings obtained by political groups over the past 4 surveys, different weighting methods could have been applied in different surveys

[16] “Overall ranking” is first determined by their number of times on top 10, and then their average ratings. { } Number in square brackets indicates rankings.

The overall rankings in the past 4 surveys showed that, seven political groups were listed for four times, CP achieved an average rating of 46.2 and ranked first. Meanwhile, the 2nd to 7th ranks fell to LP, FTU, DP, DAB, LSD and PP, with respective average ratings of 45.7, 44.6, 44.0, 42.1, 36.2 and 34.1 marks. Labour Party and NPP were listed three times and ranked the 8th and 9th with respective average ratings of 43.8 and 43.5 marks. Civc Passion was listed twice and ranked the 10th with average rating of 27.9 marks. Furthermore, NWS, Scholarism, HKI and Youngspiration were listed once with average ratings of 54.3, 32.1, 29.4 and 28.5 marks respectively, now ranked the 11th to 14th.

Opinion Daily

In January 2007, POP opened a feature page called “Opinion Daily” at the “POP Site”, to record significant events and selected polling figures on a day-to-day basis, in order to let readers judge by themselves the reasons for the ups and downs of different opinion figures. In July 2007, POP collaborated with Wisers Information Limited whereby Wisers supplies to POP each day starting from July 24, a record of significant events of that day, according to the research method designed by POP. These daily entries would be uploaded to “Opinion Daily” as soon as they are verified by POP.

For the polling items covered in this press release, the previous survey was conducted from April 24 to 27, 2017 while this survey was conducted from October 16 to 19, 2017. In between these two surveys, herewith the significant events selected from counting newspaper headlines and commentaries on a daily basis and covered by at least 25% of the local newspaper articles. Readers can make their own judgment if these significant events have any impacts to different polling figures.

13/10/17	Joshua Wong and the others found guilty of criminal contempt of court for obstructing bailiffs at Mong Kok rally site.
10/10/17	Chief Executive Carrie Lam delivers her first Policy Address.
25/8/17	The Court of Final Appeal rejects the application for appeal by Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching.
20/8/17	Various groups organize protest against jailing of activists.
17/8/17	Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow have been sentenced to six to eight months in prison.
16/8/17	Democrat Howard Lam is prosecuted of misleading police officer.
25/7/17	The government announces the co-location arrangement for the Express Rail Link.
19/7/17	The Legislative Council Finance Committee approves the funding request of $3.6 billion for new educational resources.
14/7/17	The High Court disqualifies four lawmakers from the Legislative Council.
28/6/17	Xi Jinping visits Hong Kong for handover anniversary.
13/6/17	The Chief Executive in Council has endorsed the report and recommendations of the Standard Working Hours Committee as a framework to guide the future formulation of the working hours policy.
3/6/17	The Development Bureau announces the Sustainable Lantau Blueprint.

Commentary

Frank Wai-Kin Lee, Research Manager of Public Opinion Programme, observed, “Our ‘Best Corporations’ survey conducted in October shows that the most well-known real estate and property development company was Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited. Results of rating survey also show that Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited has the best CSR reputation in the sector, scoring 52.1 marks, followed by Henderson Land Development Company Limited and Cheung Kong Property Holdings, with 52.0 and 49.8 marks respectively.

As for the ‘Top 10 Political Groups’, compared to six months ago, the support ratings of most political groups have recovered but all remained below 50 marks. In terms of support ratings, compared to six months ago, out of the 9 political groups which were also rated last time, the support ratings of 8 have gone up significantly. They are NPP, PP, FTU, CP, DP, DAB, LSD and LP. Compared to the last survey, 9 political groups have managed to maintain their places in the ‘top 10’ again, while Youngspiration enters the list for the first time and replaces Labour Party. In terms of relative rankings, CP goes up one position to top the list. FTU goes up two positions to rank 2nd, LP goes down two positions to rank 3rd, NPP goes up two positions to rank 4th, DP remains at the 5th place, DAB, LSD and PP go up one position each to rank 6th, 7th and 8th, Youngspiration enters ‘top 10’ for the first time to rank 9th, Civic Passion remains at the 10th position. It should be noted, however, that our ‘Top 10 Political Groups’ only includes groups which are best known to the public, ranked according to their support ratings. Other political groups may well have very high or low support ratings, but because they are relatively less well-known, they are not included in our final list. As to what events have affected the ups and downs of the popularity of these groups, readers can make their own judgment after reading through detailed records placed in our ‘Opinion Daily’.”

Future Release (Tentative)

October 31, 2017 (Tuesday) 12pm to 2pm: Popularity of CE and HKSAR Government

Reference – Technical Notes of “Online Opinion Analysis”

Technically, POP research team firstly determines and inputs related keywords to be searched on the platform provided by uMax Data. POP then selects targeted online platforms to be monitored (currently selected: Facebook and forums), and extract the top five most discussed items on each online platform, thus come up with a list of 10 items in total. By eliminating duplications in the top ten items, POP compiles a table which is included in the press release for readers’ reference.

No. of hits since Jun 3, 2000: 81,354,251

No. of hits since Jan 1, 2018: 492,303

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Everything carried in this website does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles and messages posted at the opinion platforms. Any responsibility, legal and otherwise, arising from any such item shall vest entirely with its author. The intellectual property of all information contained in this website, including questionnaire design and research reports, originally belongs to HKU POP unless specified otherwise. HKU POP opens their copyright to the world via this website, but would request all users to acknowledge their source properly.

HKU POP all rights reserved.

Last update :  26/6/2019