HKUST Business Review

Asian Cases, Global Classrooms: Bringing Business Reality to Life With Asia’s economic influence continuing to rise, global interest in how business is done across the region has never been stronger. From multinational executives to students arriving in Asia to study and build careers, there is growing demand for insight into the region’s distinctive business practices. Meeting this need is the Thompson Center for Business Case Studies at the HKUST Business School, which leads the development of high quality Asian business case studies for classrooms around the world. “Today, global attention is shifting toward Asia, where there is a growing appetite to understand the region’s distinctive business practices,” said Professor Roger KING, Senior Advisor and Founding Director of the Center. “Given the differences between East and West in culture and stage of development, Western business models cannot simply be transplanted into the Asian context.” Asia’s strong social networks and unique institutional environment, he noted, offer fertile ground for case studies that deliver insights students cannot gain from textbooks alone. At the heart of the Center’s mission is experiential learning. “In business education, few tools are as powerful as real world learning,” said Professor Winnie PENG, Director of the Center. “Case studies bridge the gap between theory and practice, which is why they are widely embraced by educators around the world.” By placing learners in the shoes of decision makers, cases challenge students to grapple with ambiguity, trade offs, and real constraints. True to its motto, “Asian Cases for the World,” the Center leverages its strategic location in Asia to develop cases across the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. “Our cases span a wide range of industries and subjects and are written by our diverse, world class HKUST faculty, drawing on a strong and trusted industry network,” explained Professor Peng. For Professor Michael CHEN, Advisor to the Center, authenticity is what sets Asia focused cases apart. “They are written from the decision maker’s point of view, showing the real challenges Asian businesses face,” he said. “Homegrown case studies give us a big advantage—we can even invite the business leaders featured in the cases into the classroom to share their experiences.” Beyond the classroom, the Center is committed to expanding its global reach. Since forming a distribution partnership with Harvard Business Impact in 2018, more than 180,000 copies of HKUST case studies have been disseminated worldwide. As founder and current host of the Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS) Case Center, it also leads workshops on case writing, teaching, and research—ensuring Asian business stories continue to shape global business education. As global attention shifts toward Asia, the Thompson Center for Business Case Studies is shaping how the world understands Asian business—one real decision at a time. As host of the AAPBS Case Center, the Thompson Center organizes case workshops regularly in collaboration with different AAPBS member schools. 61 HKUST Business Review