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Asia School of Business

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Innovation

Center for Technology, Strategy & Sustainability

Sapura Energy empowers us to position ourselves as a leading research center, with a focus on business strategies, technology, and the socio-political dynamics of emerging markets.

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Our Mission

Host visiting scholars and students to lecture and conduct research in the region.

 

Conduct research and subsequently publish the findings.

 

Conduct rigorous and impactful research on business strategies in emerging markets and the firms’ socio-political environment.

Host public keynote events for our research programs to spark intellectual discussions and public interest, furthering knowledge generation.

Promote university-industry linkages and cross-disciplinary collaboration to enhance the understanding and performance of enterprises in emerging markets.

Our Research Projects

ASB-MIT Work of the Future Research Project
Research Center: Center of Technology, Strategy & Sustainability
Dr. Renato Lima de Oliveira, Tan Zhai Gen, Deborah Chow, Vaisnavi Mogan Rao

As part of MIT’s Work of the Future – Global Research Network, the research project aims to examine Malaysia’s adoption of technology (Industry 4.0) and explore how the future of work might evolve in several countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, and Brazil.

Sustainability@ASB
Research Center: Center of Technology, Strategy & Sustainability
Dr. Renato Lima de Oliveira, Tan Zhai Gen, Deborah Chow, Vaisnavi Mogan Rao

The rise of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria to assess companies shows that investors are mindful that climate risk is investment risk. Hence, companies that do not have a clear sustainability plan will be left behind in competing for capital, talent, and aligning values with customers and other stakeholders. 

Scenario Workshop for Energy Transition in Malaysia
Research Center: Center of Technology, Strategy & Sustainability
Dr. Renato Lima de Oliveira, Tan Zhai Gen, Deborah Chow, Vaisnavi Mogan Rao

The workshop is part of a larger MOU partnership between ASB CTSS and IASS, which also comprises other ongoing collaborations in the area of energy transition and climate policies.

Launch of the “Industry 4.0 Technology Adoption in Malaysian Manufacturing: Strategies for Enhancing Competitiveness” policy report.

The Center of Technology, Strategy and Sustainability Asia School of Business launched its report on “Industry 4.0 Technology Adoption in Malaysian Manufacturing: Strategies for Enhancing Competitiveness” at The Wembley, George Town, Pulau Pinang, on 10 February 2023, with the support of the Penang State Government.

News and Events

Visiting Fellow: Dr. Antonio Coco

BowerGroupAsia’s BGA Expert Series: “Where do we go from here: US-ASEAN Trade Relationship”

Launch of the “Industry 4.0 Technology Adoption in Malaysian Manufacturing: Strategies for Enhancing Competitiveness” policy report

Developing and Financing Green Housing in Asia Conference

Research with Impact: From Academia to Policymaking book launch and dialogue session

Research Publication

An Energy Justice Index for The Energy Transition in The Global South

Malaysia’s New Voluntary Carbon Market: Origins, Ecosystem and Prospects

Science and Engineering Knowledge Production in ASEAN: Global Emergence, Fading Regionalism

Unlocking a Low-Carbon Future for Malaysia

Financial Development and Misallocation in the ASEAN Region

Research project under the CTSS Research Grant 2021 for Professor Loredana Padurean

IDE Jetro Conference

Consciousness for Sustainability

The Center of Technology, Strategy & Sustainability (CTSS) Faculty Director

Dr. Renato Lima de Oliveira is a Professor II of Management at Asia School of Business and a research affiliate at MIT, where he earned his PhD in Political Science with a focus on political economy and comparative politics.

His research area is on the political economy of development and state-business relations, particularly in the areas of industrial and innovation policies, and energy politics. He has also worked as a consultant for energy, environment, and politics. At ASB, he teaches courses on international business, energy markets, and advises Action Learning projects.

Dr. Renato Lima de Oliveira

Professor II of Management, Research Affiliate at MIT

Ganesha Pillai A/L Prathapa Senan

Senior Research Associate, ASB

Emir Izat Abdul Rashid

Senior Research Associate, ASB

Maizakiah Ayu Abdullah

Master Degree, Engineering System and Management, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology ​Managing Director, COMET – Community Energy Toolkit

Silvio Meira

Emeritus Professor at the Center of Informatics of the Federal University of Pernambuco

Clarissa Ai Ling Lee

Postdoctoral Researcher at Multimedia University, Cyberjaya

Dr. Pieter E. Stek

PhD in Economics of Technology and Innovation from Delft University

BowerGroupAsia’s BGA Expert Series: “Where do we go from here: US-ASEAN Trade Relationship”

24 February 2023 – The ASB Centre of Technology, Strategy and Sustainability (CTSS) teamed up with BowerGroupAsia (BGA) to host the panel discussion “Where do we go from here: US-ASEAN Trade Relationship,” featuring Datuk Seri Isham Ishak, Secretary-General of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) of Malaysia, Murray Hiebert, Head of Research at BGA and CTSS faculty director, Prof. Renato Lima-de-Oliveira, Assistant Professor of Business and Society at ASB.

In his opening remarks, Datuk Seri Isham Ishak addressed Malaysia’s position in trade negotiations and some key challenges to close wide-ranging deals, drawing from his years of personal involvement in complex negotiations like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTT), the latter recently ratified by Malaysia. The panel also discussed key developments and issues surrounding US-ASEAN geopolitics, trade, and impacts to businesses and supply chains.

Prof. Lima-de-Oliveira emphasized that political risks to businesses are on the rise and have been impacting global trade and business operations in terms of environmental footprint, human rights, and standing on issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also mentioned that studies about how the socio-political environment affects business operations and strategy are part of the core mission of the CTSS. Murray Hiebert connected US domestic politics to global trade relations, in particular with China, and noted the decline in support for free trade among the key political parties in the US. The event was attended by business representatives, government and diplomatic officials, as well as faculty and students.

Launch of the “Industry 4.0 Technology Adoption in Malaysian Manufacturing: Strategies for Enhancing Competitiveness” policy report

The Center of Technology, Strategy and Sustainability Asia School of Business launched its report on “Industry 4.0 Technology Adoption in Malaysian Manufacturing: Strategies for Enhancing Competitiveness” at The Wembley, George Town, Pulau Pinang, on 10 February 2023, with the support of the Penang State Government.

The report is the outcome of a broader cross-national research program with MIT’s Work of the Future Global Research Network, looking at digital transformation and work in manufacturing. This report on Malaysia found that while firms adopt IR4.0 to improve productivity and quality, the availability of talent, skills and continuous training remains the biggest challenge to IR4.0 adoption. The report suggested that:>br>
–In the short-term, efforts for continuous training and upskilling should be enhanced, including strengthening the technical and vocational education system.
– In the mid-term, the state should develop incentives that match entrepreneurial discovery of new activities.
– In the long-term, Malaysia needs a new industrial policy to chart a way out of premature deindustrialisation.

The report launch event featured welcoming remarks by YB Dato’ Abdul Halim Hussain, the Penang State EXCO for Trade, Industry and Entrepreneur Development, a keynote presentation by Dr Timothy Sturgeon, Senior Researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Industrial Performance Center (IPC), a presentation of the report by Dr Renato Lima de Oliveira, Faculty Director of the CTSS, and a panel discussion on “Policy for Talent and Skills Upgrading in Penang”, with Dr Renato and Dato Dr Shanmuganathan Palanisamy, CEO of Kontron Malaysia, which was moderated by Ms Ong Wooi Leng from the Penang Institute. The event was attended by around 100 participants from policymaking, research and academic institutions, and the private sector.

Research with Impact: From Academia to Policymaking book launch and dialogue session

January 10, 2023 – The Research with Impact: From Academia to Policymaking event organised by the Centre for Technology, Strategy and Sustainability (CTSS) at the Asia School of Business was held on the 9th of January 2023 at the Asia School of Business’ Khazanah Auditorium.

The event was held to launch the How to Engage Policymakers with your Research book co-edited by Dr Syahirah Abdul Rahman, Sr Lecturer in Business and Management at Oxford Brookes Business School and a policy brief presentation, Unlocking a Low-Carbon Future for Malaysia, by Prof Renato Lima de Oliveira, Assistant Professor of Business and Society at the Asia School of Business (ASB). This was followed by a panel discussion with policymakers and researchers.

To find our more about “Unlocking a Low-Carbon Future for Malaysia” report, in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Sustianability Studies (IASS, now the Research Institute for Sustainability, RIFS), Postdam, please visit https://www.iass-potsdam.de/en/news/unlocking-low-carbon-future-malaysia

Financial Development and Misallocation in the ASEAN Region – Research project under the CTSS Research Grant 2021 for Professor Ikuo Takei

To what extent financial development explains the misallocation of finance? (Figure 1) I analyze publicly listed manufacturing firm financials in selected ASEAN region countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—and Hong Kong from 1999 to 2019. I estimate the efficient allocation of debt and equity within a sector employing a production-based framework. That is to say, total debt and equity in a sector are held constant, and reallocate debt and equity across firms within a sector to maximize value-added as a counterfactual experiment (Figure 2). There are two key findings. First, I find the estimated degree of cross-sectional misallocation of finance has a negative relationship in the long run with proxies of the national-level Financial Development Index (FDI). Second, the size of the change of value added from observed to efficient allocation in developing countries is quantitatively significant. On the one hand, aggregate real value-added improves by in a range of 42-91% in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, reflecting the substantial efficiency gains available from financial reallocation. On the other hand, Hong Kong and Singapore exhibit modest improvement of 8-22%. Note: FDI is a composite measure of depth, access, and efficiency of financial markets published by the IMF. 

A study for market validation of the tools required for scaling start-ups in emerging economies specifically in Malaysia and neighbouring Southeast Asia countries. – Research project under the CTSS Research Grant 2021 for Professor Loredana Padurean

The present research was an effort to validate and better understand the scaling tools or strategies used by startups in scaling up their ventures. The research also attempted to find out any other scaling strategies used by entrepreneurs to scale their ventures. The study was principally based on primary data and the data were collected from startup companies in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore and China. Five in-depth interviews have been conducted with ventures located in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines to gather the insights of scaling strategies used across startups in different geographies and industries. To decipher the insights gathered through the in-depth interviews, survey method with structured questionnaire was then used to solidify the findings via in-depth interviews, This research did not seek to detail each and every industry-specific strategies that startups use, but aimed to identify and validate the scaling tools or strategies commonly used by startups in the scaling stage of venture, irrespective of sector or industry.

IDE Jetro Conference

On the 17-19 of August 2022, the Center of Technology, Strategy and Sustainability hosted the “Crisis, Transition and (De-) Globalization in the Offshore O&G Energy Value Chain Workshop” together with the Institute of Developing Economies JETRO (IDE-JETRO) of Japan. The research workshop included attendees from the University of Oslo, Africa School of Business, Japan/IDE-JETRO and other industry players, where the researchers heard from Malaysian industry players on issues regarding the O&G energy value chain and also research areas for the future.