Tripartite arrangements at meso level in promoting human capital development in Southeast Asian tiger economies

My proposed ESRC research fellowship examines the coordinated involvement of quasi-government agencies, research institutes and multinational corporations (MNCs) in promoting sustainable mutual relations in the context of emerging market economy countries (EMEs). In so doing, I hope to support multilateral UK-Japan and ASEAN relations and address bottleneck competitiveness, productivity and innovation experienced by UK-based automotive industry. At the same time, I intend to refine some of the debates on institutional changes in Japan and SEA countries with a focus on meso-institutional analysis and transnational business factors. This examination of the meso level in promoting skills development and new management practices has been underestimated in the policy development setting and literature. I am committed to bridging the knowledge gap on UK-Japan trade relations and Japanese Foreign direct Investment (FDI) and Official Development Assistance (ODA) policies given the socioeconomic and political changes in ASEAN countries.
At the meso level, my Ph.D. findings indicate that Japanese agencies have shaped MNC-subsidiary relationships by constructing institutional variants and mitigating the effects of cross-border management conflict. Furthermore, meso associations and government agencies develop important influence where macro- and micro-level channels of influence are institutionally limited. For example, in the case of MNCs in Indonesia, foreigners are prohibited from working in HRM-IR functions. Thus, quasi-government agencies such HIDA may be instrumental in diffusing Japanese HRM-IR "best practices and policies". Empirically, this trend has implications for industry policy development and overcomes cross-border business issues given the local institutional constraints. My doctoral research also reveals that diplomatic relationships create opportunities for Japanese firms and business associations to engage in socioeconomic development activities abroad in collaboration with training, research and development institutes, such as IDE-JETRO.
This ESRC work builds on my doctoral research which will be extended through a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) grant from April to September 2019. Under the mentorship of Professor Delbridge, the proposed ESRC postdoctoral fellowship at Cardiff will begin in October 2019. It will focus on analysing the accumulated multidisciplinary empirical data and generating further empirical and policy-informed research outputs. These JSPS and ESRC fellowships, which are concentrated on the three largest economies in SEA, will foster further UK-Japan-ASEAN international academic research and policy development, particularly in the areas of industrial strategy and skills formation policy.
The ESRC fellowship is a logical extension of my JSPS fellowship, as I plan to scrutinise my fresh data from the perspectives of comparative studies and new insights into Japanese management practices and policies development. An investigation of the automotive supply chains and economic developments in SEA's EMEs is relevant to UK-based automotive supply chains, UK debates on industrial strategy and policy development.
To understand the implementation and impact of Japanese automotive HRM-IR practices and policies in the tiger economies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, I will conduct an ethnographic study at HIDA and IDE-JETRO. The focus is on the application and implications of Japanese dominant HRM-IR practices and policies affecting management and workers of automotive manufacturers operating in those EMEs. The coordinated strategy of Japanese MNCs and the core interest of quasi-governments is to manage the bottleneck overseas subsidiaries skills formation, competitiveness and shape the local labour market institutions. Thus, the significance of the JSPS research project to ESRC is its analysis of the Japanese type of management skills training and development that are handled by