Academic Profile : Faculty
Assoc Prof Sia Siew Kien
Associate Vice President (Lifelong Learning – Continuing Education)
Associate Professor, College of Business (Nanyang Business School) - Division of Information Technology & Operations Management
Director, Asian Business Case Centre (ABCC)
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Siew Kien is an Associate Professor with the Division of IT and Operation Management at the Nanyang Business School. He is also the Deputy Director for the Asian Business Case Centre - a research centre dedicated to understanding the emerging dynamics and the industry best practices in the Asian context.
His research examines how tech innovation enables digital transformation and industry disruptions. He seeks to understand how the related difficulties and challenges can be overcome to realize the business potential of tech innovation. In particular, his research tries to highlight the unique institutional challenges and opportunities in developing, implementing, and diffusing such tech innovation in Asia. He strongly believes in bridging academic research and industry practices. Most of his research are conducted through field interviews, participant observations, and intensive case studies.
His main research interests are in examining issues in process redesign, enterprise systems, complex project management, enterprise integration, organizational transformation, sharing economy, and tech disruption in the financial services industry. Siew Kien has published in international journals such as Decision Sciences, Communications of ACM, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of AIS, Journal of IT, MIS Quarterly Executive, European Journal of Information Systems, Information and Organization, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Database. One of his papers in the Communications of the ACM was noted as a top 1% citation in the IS field, according to Essential Science Indicators by Web of Science. He also won the Stafford Beer Medal, for the best 2007 journal paper in the European Journal of Information Systems confered by the Operation Research Society.
He has over 20 years of research and consulting experience in private and public-sector organizations such as the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, SIA, OCBC, DBS, P&G, Siemens, Singapore Prisons Department, NOL, IDA, MTI, DSTA/MINDEF, and the major restructured hospitals in Singapore. He also has book chapters in Second Wave Enterprise Systems (Cambridge University Press), in Process Thinking: Winning Perspectives for Business Change in the Information Age, (Idea Publishing), and in Strategic Management In the Asia Pacific: Harnessing Regional And Organisational Change For Competitive Advantage, (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford). One of the teaching cases he has written won the 2017 The Case Centre Teaching Case Award in the Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems Management Category
Siew Kien teaches accounting information systems, process innovation, enterprise systems, complex project management, digital transformation, business model innovation, and FinTech disruptions for both the undergraduate and post-graduate/executive programs. In addition, he also conducts classes for qualitative research methods, typically focusing on intensive case study development. He was the 2017 Business Teacher of the Year for the Nanyang Business School undergraduate programmes. He was also among the recipients of the Koh Boon Hwee “Inspiring Teacher” Award in Nanyang Technological University in 2010.
His research examines how tech innovation enables digital transformation and industry disruptions. He seeks to understand how the related difficulties and challenges can be overcome to realize the business potential of tech innovation. In particular, his research tries to highlight the unique institutional challenges and opportunities in developing, implementing, and diffusing such tech innovation in Asia. He strongly believes in bridging academic research and industry practices. Most of his research are conducted through field interviews, participant observations, and intensive case studies.
His main research interests are in examining issues in process redesign, enterprise systems, complex project management, enterprise integration, organizational transformation, sharing economy, and tech disruption in the financial services industry. Siew Kien has published in international journals such as Decision Sciences, Communications of ACM, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of AIS, Journal of IT, MIS Quarterly Executive, European Journal of Information Systems, Information and Organization, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Database. One of his papers in the Communications of the ACM was noted as a top 1% citation in the IS field, according to Essential Science Indicators by Web of Science. He also won the Stafford Beer Medal, for the best 2007 journal paper in the European Journal of Information Systems confered by the Operation Research Society.
He has over 20 years of research and consulting experience in private and public-sector organizations such as the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, SIA, OCBC, DBS, P&G, Siemens, Singapore Prisons Department, NOL, IDA, MTI, DSTA/MINDEF, and the major restructured hospitals in Singapore. He also has book chapters in Second Wave Enterprise Systems (Cambridge University Press), in Process Thinking: Winning Perspectives for Business Change in the Information Age, (Idea Publishing), and in Strategic Management In the Asia Pacific: Harnessing Regional And Organisational Change For Competitive Advantage, (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford). One of the teaching cases he has written won the 2017 The Case Centre Teaching Case Award in the Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems Management Category
Siew Kien teaches accounting information systems, process innovation, enterprise systems, complex project management, digital transformation, business model innovation, and FinTech disruptions for both the undergraduate and post-graduate/executive programs. In addition, he also conducts classes for qualitative research methods, typically focusing on intensive case study development. He was the 2017 Business Teacher of the Year for the Nanyang Business School undergraduate programmes. He was also among the recipients of the Koh Boon Hwee “Inspiring Teacher” Award in Nanyang Technological University in 2010.
Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP systems represent a major change in organisational information systems in terms of their scale and scope, reliance on vendors and advocacy of best practices. They are pervasive and often mission critical. Streamlining and integrating organisational procedures and standardising them over a single platform were what these systems promised. However, cases of expensive ERP implementations going awry has led many to recognise the inherent challenges of successfully implementing such complex package software. Research is currently in progress on these themes: (1) cultural fit of the underlying ERP business models, (2) partitioning the sources of misfits in ERP, (3) challenges in analysing, designing, and implementing ERP, and (4) ERP as an leverage for enterprise integration.
Achieving Global Excellence in Asian Companies: Strategy, Governance and Technology
The growth of the Asian market has led to the development of a select group of Asian companies that have successfully established an international presence. How did these enterprises transform themselves to capture the opportunities in the international market? What strategy and governance principles have they used? How has information technology enabled scale, responsiveness, and innovation in the highly volatile business environment? This research study seeks to understand the practices followed by a handful of leading Asian companies that have clearly established themselves as global leaders.
Tech Disruption and the Quest for New Institutional Legitimacy
Innovation in ICT has disrupted established industries and led to the emergence of new business models which promise to democratize socio-economic relations, bringing new value to customers, workers, and society at large. But as the new business models emerge, they have stirred up many controversies, challenged by various stakeholders in a tussle for new legitimacy. I seek to understand the chaotic process in the dynamic struggle for new legitimacy. What are the legitimacy challenges that tech disruptors face? How can these legitimacy challenges be overcome to achieve success? How are the tech disruptors able to influence the field-level processes of institutionalization to gain legitimacy? What tactics are used in the related struggles?
Tech Innovations for Inclusive Development in Emerging Markets
Exciting new technological innovations are promising new possibilities and opportunities for inclusive growth in the emerging markets. However, real success of such tech innovations in enabling social and economic developments remain elusive as these emerging markets are often stumbled by the lack of fundamental infrastructure and inadequate formal institutional structure. How tech disruptors can innovatively address, bridge or even leverage these institutional voids is a research question that I seek to understand. What are the strategies the tech disruptors employ to address the institutional voids and other institutional challenges in emerging markets? How do these tech disruptors balance the pursuit of market growth and the creation of impactful social outcomes?
Future of Financial Services: FinTech Innovations in Asia
Business digitization is changing the competitive landscape of many industries – the banking industry is of no exception. This research seeks to study the development of digital innovation in financial services in the context of Asia. How is Asia different? What are the unique institutional contexts of Asian market that such FinTech innovations need to cater to? What will the future of financial services in Asia be like?
ERP systems represent a major change in organisational information systems in terms of their scale and scope, reliance on vendors and advocacy of best practices. They are pervasive and often mission critical. Streamlining and integrating organisational procedures and standardising them over a single platform were what these systems promised. However, cases of expensive ERP implementations going awry has led many to recognise the inherent challenges of successfully implementing such complex package software. Research is currently in progress on these themes: (1) cultural fit of the underlying ERP business models, (2) partitioning the sources of misfits in ERP, (3) challenges in analysing, designing, and implementing ERP, and (4) ERP as an leverage for enterprise integration.
Achieving Global Excellence in Asian Companies: Strategy, Governance and Technology
The growth of the Asian market has led to the development of a select group of Asian companies that have successfully established an international presence. How did these enterprises transform themselves to capture the opportunities in the international market? What strategy and governance principles have they used? How has information technology enabled scale, responsiveness, and innovation in the highly volatile business environment? This research study seeks to understand the practices followed by a handful of leading Asian companies that have clearly established themselves as global leaders.
Tech Disruption and the Quest for New Institutional Legitimacy
Innovation in ICT has disrupted established industries and led to the emergence of new business models which promise to democratize socio-economic relations, bringing new value to customers, workers, and society at large. But as the new business models emerge, they have stirred up many controversies, challenged by various stakeholders in a tussle for new legitimacy. I seek to understand the chaotic process in the dynamic struggle for new legitimacy. What are the legitimacy challenges that tech disruptors face? How can these legitimacy challenges be overcome to achieve success? How are the tech disruptors able to influence the field-level processes of institutionalization to gain legitimacy? What tactics are used in the related struggles?
Tech Innovations for Inclusive Development in Emerging Markets
Exciting new technological innovations are promising new possibilities and opportunities for inclusive growth in the emerging markets. However, real success of such tech innovations in enabling social and economic developments remain elusive as these emerging markets are often stumbled by the lack of fundamental infrastructure and inadequate formal institutional structure. How tech disruptors can innovatively address, bridge or even leverage these institutional voids is a research question that I seek to understand. What are the strategies the tech disruptors employ to address the institutional voids and other institutional challenges in emerging markets? How do these tech disruptors balance the pursuit of market growth and the creation of impactful social outcomes?
Future of Financial Services: FinTech Innovations in Asia
Business digitization is changing the competitive landscape of many industries – the banking industry is of no exception. This research seeks to study the development of digital innovation in financial services in the context of Asia. How is Asia different? What are the unique institutional contexts of Asian market that such FinTech innovations need to cater to? What will the future of financial services in Asia be like?