Management of Services Organisations in the Asia Pacific Development & Sustainability (MSOAP)

In the past decade, the sustainability of economic and social wealth creation has dominated public and academic discourse across local, national, regional and global levels. The services sector has been identified as the primary vehicle for promoting such development as its economic contribution has long been evidenced in various statistics: employment, value creation and international trade. 

At a social level, the sector's importance has been impelled by the proliferation of lifestyle options and changing social values as a result of ever-growing service offerings for traditional domestic and personal activities. In addition the growing contribution of non-profit organisations as important social agents that promote fairness and equity in society.

Nonetheless, contrary to the celebrated importance of the sector at a macro level, little attention has been given to the fundamental problem of its successful development and sustainability: the what, how and why of the effective management of the sectors’ constituents, or services organisations. In particular, this is the case of the Asia Pacific region.

The absence of empirical knowledge poses a significant challenge to the prospect of sustainable economic and social development in the region where many countries are progressively transforming into post-industrial economic and social models under the tidal wave of globalisation. The research addresses the foundations of future economic and social development and their sustainability in the region by generating knowledge on the effective management of services organisations in the Asia Pacific and the challenges they face. 

More specifically, it initiates and leads the development of a long overdue management paradigm, the management of services organisations in Asia Pacific, from a regional perspective in response to a growing body of evidence which strongly suggests limitations of the existing Western value-laden management literature in understanding and explaining management and business practices in the region. It will explore, define, explain and compare unique business/management models and systems of services organisations in the Asia Pacific with research emphases on their development and sustainability.