R&D Annual Report 2013

Centre Name:

Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social responsibility in Business (CSDCSR)

Chairperson:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Falahat Nejadmahani Mohammad

Description of Centre:

Sustainable Development (SD) is the main research thrust of the research centre. The global environmental issues drive the urgency for a comprehensive knowledge of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. This centre provides the platform to engage high quality research activities.

Research area:

International Business

Social Responsibility and Governance

Economics and Sustainable Resources

Social Science and Humanities

Business IT

Risk and Operational Management

Legal and Regulatory Matters

Activities in 2013

Summary of activities

No.	Date	Event
1.	25th June	Prospect Collaboration with Telekom Malaysia Meeting held at TM Building, Cyberjaya, Selangor
2.	8th July	International Population Conference on Migration, Urbanisation & Development Conference at University Malaya
3.	24^th July	1^st Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : Near Term Outlook For US-Europe-Asia Presenter : Asst. Prof. Dr. Lim Chee Seong
4.	4^th September	2^nd Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : Important Concepts and Frameworks Focusing on the Intersection between International Business and Entrepreneurship Presenter : Asst. Prof. Dr. Falahat Nejadmahani Mohammad
5.	11^th September	3^rd Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : Goods and Services Tax (GST) Presenter : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thillaisundaram A/L Arumugam
6.	18^th September	4^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : Research In Consumer Behaviour Via Consumer Cultural Theory (CCT) Presenter : Asst. Prof. Dr. Sia Bee Chuan
7.	1^st October	In-House Training (one day) Title : Understanding Qualitative Inquiry Presenter : Asst. Prof. Dr. Law Kian Aun
8.	2^nd October	5^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : SMEs, Institutions and Performance Presenter : Ms. Low Mei Peng
9.	9^th October	6^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : The Accelerating Electricity Cost in SME Presenter : Ms. Jayamalathi Jayabalan and Ms. K. Shamini T. Kandasamy
10.	23^rd October	7^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing) Title : Operations Management as a Weapon to Organization’s Success: Design for Sustainability Presenter : Ms. Chung Chay Yoke
11.	11^thNovember	NGO Awareness Campaign Co-organised with Golden Land Expo (M) Sdn Bhd

Highlight of activities

International Population Conference on Migration,

Urbanisation & Development Conference at University

Malaya (UM)

8^th of July 2013

Universiti Malaya organized a one-day conference on Migration, Urbanisation & Development with a total of 10 experts in the field of demography and development of the United States, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Papers presented covered areas and flow of migration trends; impact of migration on urbanization and development, and strategy and policy in the root issue of migration so that benefits are maximized and disadvantages minimized. A few CSDCSR members attended the conference.

1^st Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : Near Term Outlook For US-Europe-Asia

24^th of July 2013

The center has organized its first internal knowledge sharing among its members by inviting speakers to share on various aspect related to business and sustainability issues.

The first series was done by Dr. Lim Chee Seong who presented his paper entitled ‘Near Term Outlook For US-Europe-Asia’. He has shared his viewpoint on the economic outlook in the near future.

2^nd Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : Important Concepts and Frameworks Focusing

on the Intersection between International Business

and Entrepreneurship

4^th of September 2013

The center continued to organized more talk series as part of the activities to share knowledge among the members. On the 4^th of September 2013, Asst. Prof. Dr. Falahat NejadMahani (Chairperson of CSDCSR) shared with the members about the important concepts and frameworks by focusing on the intersection between international business and entrepreneurship.

He has highlighted the importance of the SMEs market to the future development of the country’s economy as well as some potential challenges faced.

3^rd Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : Goods and Services Tax (GST)

11^th of September 2013

The 3^rd talk series was conducted on the 11^th of September 2013 by Dr. Thillaisundaram. He shared with the members about the implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) that will be enforced by 1^st of April 2015.

4^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : Research in Consumer Behaviour Via

Consumer Cultural Theory (CCT)

18^th of September 2013

As for the 4^th talk series, the center invited Dr. Sia Bee Chuan to share with the members on her expertise in consumer research. Her title of the presentation was “Research in Consumer Behaviour via Consumer Cultural Theory”.

5^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : SMEs, Institutions and Performance

2^nd of October 2013

The 5^th talk series was held subsequently and the center has invited Ms. Low Mei Peng to share with us on the topic of SMEs, Institutions and Performance.

6^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : The Accelerating Electricity Cost in SME

9^th of October 2013

The 6^th talk series was held and the center has invited Ms. Jayamalathi and Ms. Shamini to share with us on the topic of accelerating cost of electricity in SME. They have shared some of the issues pertaining to the rising cost of electricity as well as the some methods to reduce the consumption given that the increment of cost.

7^th Talk Series (Internal Knowledge Sharing)

Title : Operations Management as a Weapon to

Organization’s Success: Design for Sustainability

23^rd of October 2013

The last talk series was conducted at the end of October. CSDCSR invited Ms. Chung Chay Yoke to share on her expertise in operations management. She provided an overview of Operations Management and its benefit of an efficient management in an organization’s setting.

In-House Training

Title : Understanding Qualitative Inquiry

1^st of October 2013

The center has also co-organized an in-house training for the FAM staff entitled “Understanding Qualitative Inquiry”. This training was to provide the participants with better understanding of qualitative research as well as the approaches used. The center has invited Dr. Law Kian Aun to be the trainer for this training session.

NGO Awareness Campaign

11^thof November 2013

UTAR Centre for Sustainable Development & Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) co-organised with Golden Land Expo (M) Sdn Bhd a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Awareness Campaign at Sungai Long Campus. The campaign brought together fourteen (14) NGOs as per the list below:-

No.	Name of Organization
1	National Transplant Resource Centre (NTRC)
2	Independent Living & Training Centre (ILTC)
3	National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia (NKF)
4	Pusat Darah Negara (PDN)
5	Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia
6	MEMSA
7	Persatuan SLE Malaysia (PSLEM)
8	Persatuan Pemulihan Orang-Orang Cacat Selangor W.P
9	Beautiful Gate
10	Desa Amal Jireh
11	Women’s Aid Organization (WAO)
12	Breast Cancer Welfare Association Malaysia (BCWA)
13	Malaysian Environmental NGOs (MENGO)
14	Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)

The objectives of the campaign were to:-

� Enhance staff and students’ awareness, understandability and contribution to the needy.

� Create an opportunity to the community to expose more on this issue.

� Be aware of the needy and provide help in any way possible.

Various activities were conducted ranging from health screening, donation drive to distributing pamphlets throughout the day. National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia gave a presentation on “Chronic Kidney Disease”, “Diabetes Mellitus” and “Organ Donation” whereas Beautiful Gate Foundation for the Disabled presented the issues of Disability Equality Training which was a hit amongst the public as it provided invaluable insights and knowledge from a professional point of view.

Back to Research Centres list