11 February 2023, Kuala Lumpur – AHIBS ACTION RESEARCH CHALLENGE is Designed by AHIBS – 2019 as a co-innovative research platform that blends students, staff, and industry. A residential fellowship grant from Azman Hashim Foundation (2019) facilitating action research projects. Allocation of RM65,000.00 has been provided to AHIBS students and academics to conduct research.

Culminates into modern mini-conference to enhance cooperation between AHIBS UTM and industry partners through joined-research activities. AARC contributes to the Key Performance Indicator for Stakeholder Perspective (P3: Transformative Student Experience) in producing first-class human capital at UTM and SDG 8 on Decent Growth and Economic Growth. The topics will be covered in the areas of business management, economics, accounting, information technology, marketing, entrepreneurship, human resources, marketing, innovation, and strategic and financial management.

It also provides key interdisciplinary platforms for students, academics, and industry partners to present and discuss their latest innovations, trends, issues, and challenges facing industry players. The solution is adopted using the Action Research, Business Research, and Case Writing approaches. The evaluation panel for the program comprises of Adjunct Professors, Industrial Advisory Panels (IAP), industry peers and fellow academics.

AARC OBJECTIVE

Benefits:
i. Discuss latest innovations, trends, issues, and challenges in our industry.
ii. Realistic solution based on Action Research.
iii. Evaluated by practitioners among industry peers and fellow academics.

AARC aims:
i. To enhance practical experiences and findings of research collaborations among
students, academics and UTM industry partners.
ii. To enhance diversity in research cooperation between UTM and industry partners.
iii. To increase the volume of publications among academics, students, and industry
partners, if deemed permitted.

The AARC hosted 99 participants which are our MBSA2934 and MBSA 2923 student from MBA and MBA-ODL program. The event will be a platform for them to showcase their final thesis to complete their journey in master’s degree. The area of study varies from strategic management, human resource, finance, accounting, economic, information system, marketing, and entrepreneurship. They are being evaluated by the supervisor, academic and industry panel which contribute to 100% of the total marks in Action Research 2 (AR2) courses. The multidimensional of evaluation are to ensure the quality of the project.

With respect to the selection of company for the project, from the chart presented, most of the students conducted studies in local SME, however for those international students turn to conduct the studies on the SMEs in their country. This international exposure we the strength of our faculty in international collaboration and linkages. The second larges group conducted research in Government Link Company (GLC), while others on MNCs, NCs and Public sectors.

AARC manage to cover at least 12 area of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. AARC manage to organized activities relating and contributing to meet the objective of the SDGs. As the AARC tradition, This semester AARC program started with the welcoming remark by our beloved dean Associate Professor Dr Rosmini Omar and followed by the AARC ACT Talk by Mr. Marco Tieman, the CEO from LBB International Sdn. Bhd. The session received an active participation from all viewers and it was an excellent sharing session that really cherish the morning. To sum up the talk, the Halal market and value chain is growing year on year and it is good opportunity to learn about the HALAL supply chain and the innovation related to it like HALAL cluster model, HALAL eco-system, HALL Value Network. The AARC ACT talk covered the topics in evolutions of Halal, foundation of Halal Supply Chain Management, Synergy in Halal Supply Chain, Halal value chain and Halal Ecosystem.