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The main purpose of this research is to investigate the supply chain performance through collaborative effectiveness, from the organisations of Asia–Pacific region perspective, compared with that of global organisations based on collaborative supply chain practices.

The survey research methodology was adopted, involving the collection of survey data from 223 participants across 10 different industries and 6 geographic regions. Data included 103 organisations in the Asia–Pacific region including Australia, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

From a collaborative effectiveness perspective, the supply chain performance of Asia–Pacific organisations is different when compared with that of global organisations. It was also found that global organisations are driven by sales performance, while Asia–Pacific organisations are focussing mainly on the cost in terms of the number of employees, and therefore productivity. The metal industry stands out to be the best performing industry from a collaborative effectiveness perspective in the Asia–Pacific region and globally.

The research findings can be used as a guide by industry practitioners to develop benchmarks for collaborative supply chain practices by industry and region of operations. This research has been limited to a few industries such as manufacturing, logistics, service and retail industries.

This research generates new knowledge on the relationship between the collaborative effectiveness and supply chain performance, from the perspectives of both Asia–Pacific and global organisations, based on a collaborative effectiveness framework. The study proposes an innovative approach of assessing supply chain performance through collaborative effectiveness from the perspectives of geographical boundaries and industry types.

In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, the pursuit of new perspectives and different growth models is imperative. One of the most significant trends of our time is the rise of Asia in the world economy. After centuries of Western economic dominance, China, India, and the rest of the East, alongside emerging economies more broadly, are beginning to challenge the West for positions of global industry leadership and underlying managerial philosophies and perspectives. In this paper, I review some key philosophical insights from Asia that have underpinned the success of many Asian businesses for generations, hoping that it will encourage more efforts – conceptually, theoretically, and empirically – leading the discourse on fresh new perspectives on business in emerging economies in general, and on Asian management in particular.

The geopolitical scenario in South Asia has of course assumed a new dimension at least in three fields: ethno-cultural, strategic configuration and psychological. In the ethno-cultural field, South Asia has become highly volatile and explosive. In most of the states of South Asia, ethno-cultural conflicts exist: for instance, in Sri Lanka where the LTTE militant group is engaged in a bloody warfare vis-à-vis the Sri Lankan State; in Pakistan Shia-Sunni conflicts and the Mohajir Qaumi movement for autonomy; and in India the religious fundamentalism due to the rise of Hindutva that has created a panic among minority groups like Christianity. In Nepal, the Communist Party (ML) is indulged in the worst kind of political violence. These trends show the upper hand of ethno-cultural elements in the geopolitical setting of South Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented and has disproportionately affected the lives and livelihoods of people worldwide. Many governments restricted social and economic activities to curb the virus, and with the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, many see it as providing hope to return to normalcy. Within such a context, China, Russia, and the United States (USA) have leveraged their vaccine diplomacy to gain and expand their influence. Vaccine diplomacy could help major powers cement their influence well beyond the pandemic if successfully deployed. By examining the vaccine diplomacy race in Southeast Asia, this chapter reveals the factors that motivate major powers to engage in the race and the strategies used. This chapter also assesses China’s vaccine diplomacy in Malaysia and how it has contributed to cementing a stronger bilateral relationship between Malaysia and China that would probably outlast the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the contributions of the Asia‐Pacific region to leading practice in sustainability in higher education (HE), as prelude and orientation to this special issue collection from different countries and regions.

This is a critical review that includes international and regional policy contexts in sustainability and “education for sustainable development” (ESD), whilst exploring the trajectories of key initiatives across the region and considering the broader context of sustainability innovation within the HE sector.

The Asia‐Pacific region offers many creative initiatives and shows considerable progress in ESD and in understanding the learning dimensions of sustainability. At the same time, it mirrors global trends in that further work is needed to promote systemic change in educational arenas, particularly in terms of strategic integration within HE institutions. The Asia‐Pacific contributions to this collection demonstrate the need to harness national policy, to develop local and regional initiatives and to work effectively towards more profound change in HE curricula and through collaboration with external communities and stakeholders.

This is a distinctive collection of new initiatives from the Asia‐Pacific, which compensates for the comparative lack of dissemination in this area. There is considerable sustainability innovation emerging in this region which shows leading‐edge responses from within the HE sector on a number of key challenges and issues.

Since China initiated its “go global” policy that promotes its overseas investment, China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) has increased almost twenty times during the last 10 years, reaching $55.9 billion in 2008. The issue of internationalization of Chinese OFDI has attracted increasing attention of researchers from a business perspective. This article systematically reviews the previous studies on overseas investments by Chinese MNEs and discusses the characteristics of Chinese internationalization behavior at both firm level and country level. The internationalization of Chinese companies cannot be understood as a simple game of “catch up” with established MNEs, and more firm‐level empirical studies should be carried out on how these characteristics influence firms’ strategic decisions.

This paper reconsiders the approaches to measuring Confucian values, and tests their association with workforce performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine how such values and performances are prioritized across three East Asian societies, but more importantly, identifies how variations across societies might result from the way in which Confucianism has been transformed/appropriated differently across history.

A Best-Worst experimental design is used to measure three aspects of Confucianism (relational, pedagogical, and transformative), and three aspects of workforce performance (mindset, organization, and process) to capture the trade-offs by respondents from three East Asian societies: China (n=274), Taiwan (n=264), and South Korea (n=254). The study employs analysis of variance with post-hoc tests to examine differences between societies. A hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s method is utilized to identify clusters based on similarities within the data. And last, multiple regression analysis is applied to determine the explanatory power of Confucian values on workforce performance.

Findings confirm the prioritization of three aspects of Confucianism (relational, pedagogical, and transformative) to differ between Mainland Chinese, Taiwan Chinese, and Korean respondents – producing five distinct clusters based on similarities across three societies. Overall, between 7 and 27 percent of the variance in workforce performance could be explained by the Confucian values included in this study.

This study highlights the “different shades of Confucianism” across East Asian societies, which we coin as Confucian Origin, Preservation, and Pragmatism, and demonstrates the need to take a multifaceted perspective in the measurement of Confucian culture. The study provides empirical support for the link between Confucianism and performance at the micro-level, as originally proposed by Baumann and Winzar (2017), and identifies specific antecedents of behavior for research moving forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic meltdown and social unrest severely challenged most countries, their societies, economies, organizations, and individual citizens. Focusing on both more and less successful country-specific initiatives to fight the pandemic and its multitude of related consequences, this chapter explores implications for leadership and effective action at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. As international management scholars and consultants, the authors document actions taken and their wide-ranging consequences in a diverse set of countries, including countries that have been more or less successful in fighting the pandemic, are geographically larger and smaller, are located in each region of the world, are economically advanced and economically developing, and that chose unique strategies versus strategies more similar to those of their neighbors. Cultural influences on leadership, strategy, and outcomes are described for 19 countries. Informed by a cross-cultural lens, the authors explore such urgent questions as: What is most important for leaders, scholars, and organizations to learn from critical, life-threatening, society-encompassing crises and grand challenges? How do leaders build and maintain trust? What types of communication are most effective at various stages of a crisis? How can we accelerate learning processes globally? How does cultural resilience emerge within rapidly changing environments of fear, shifting cultural norms, and profound challenges to core identity and meaning? This chapter invites readers and authors alike to learn from each other and to begin to discover novel and more successful approaches to tackling grand challenges. It is not definitive; we are all still learning.

There is limited empirical research on the internationalization processes, strategies and operations of Asian multinational enterprises (MNEs) from countries at different levels of development. This paper examines and analyzes the internationalization strategies and characteristics of Asian MNEs within the investment development path (IDP) perspective.

Primary data are drawn from matched case studies of emerging MNEs from Taiwan (a newly industrializing country) and Malaysia (a fast developing country) in the textile and electronics industries.

The internationalization strategies of our Taiwanese and Malaysian case firms were founded on cost‐based competencies and other location‐based advantages, brought together by an extensive web of ethnic networks. Differences between our Taiwanese and Malaysian case firms were found and discussed. In general, the Taiwanese firms were more internationalized (at stage 3 of IDP) than the Malaysian firms (stage 2). They had more developed and elaborate production networks and greater own design manufacturing/own brand manufacturing participation than the Malaysian firms.

The research did not capture the operational strategies at the level of the subsidiary or JV. The findings were exploratory and formed the basis for research propositions presented. As indicated there existed a wide empirical research gap on Asian as well as Taiwanese and Malaysian MNEs. These need to be filled to provide further evidence and answers to the issues raised in the paper. Other potential areas of research could include longitudinal studies of Asian MNEs to examine whether they will resemble Western MNEs as they evolve, the impact of ethnic networks on the performance of Asian MNEs of both Chinese and non‐Chinese origins, and the role of the state in internationalization strategies.

Few studies have been done on emerging market multinationals and their internationalisation strategies.

This study aims to investigate the trend of research on universities and accountability (UAA) in Southeast Asian (SEA) countries.

A total of 115 journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters were obtained from the Scopus database spanning the years 1996–2023. These documents were subsequently analyzed using bibliometric methods.

The majority of UAA in SEA documents were published between 2007 and 2023 (106 documents, 92.19%). Scholars from both SEA countries and outside the region, particularly Australia, co-authored UAA in SEA documents. While scholars from Vietnam contributed the highest number of UAA in SEA publications (30 documents), scholars from Australia received the highest number of citations (878 citations). Collaboration between Vietnam and Australia emerged as the most productive partnership in conducting studies on UAA in SEA. Additionally, UAA in SEA documents were published not only in education-related outlets but also in other sectors, particularly in public policy. Furthermore, studies on UAA in different countries exhibited both similar and dissimilar interest keywords.

This study represents the first bibliometric analysis focusing on UAA in SEA literature. The insights and implications derived from this study are valuable for future researchers, university leaders and policymakers.