The Institute focuses on five key research themes, namely:

(1) Social Partnership between Labor and Management;
(2) Decentralized Governance;
(3) Family Business and Enterprise Development;
(4) Networks and Production Clusters; and
(5) Openness, Structural Adjustment, Institutional Reforms and Sustainable Development.

Social partnership between labor and management

This theme takes the perspective that Filipino management and workers compete against foreign (e.g., Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese) management and workers, rather than compete against themselves, thus, the importance of productive collaboration between labor and management, one that is supported by a facilitative government. The social–partnership ethos translates into a stronger and more harmonious industrial relations environment that can help facilitate the needed organizational and sectoral changes in firms and industries in the face of increased challenges from globalization. Underpinning the social-partnership ethos is that properly motivated Filipino workers can be the foundation of the international competitiveness of Filipino firms and industries.

The key question: How can we foster the ethos of social partnership to help improve productivity, efficiency, and workers’ welfare?Back to top

Decentralized governance

Improved governance has become a popular call in order to generate more investments into the country. The focus of this theme is improved decentralized governance. This is because location decisions of firms and the possibilities of capturing economies from production networks necessitate better governance at the sub-national level. The presumption here is that effective industry clustering, which must necessarily have a locational dimension, is an important aspect of the country's adjustment for productivity, efficiency and competitiveness in the face of increased international competition. Efficient and effective local governments can be catalysts for strengthening the country's capacity to adapt to the challenges of openness and structural adjustment.

Effective decentralized governance is not only for improved investment climate and efficient adjustment to economic openness. It is, in its own right, critical to ensuring that government programs best serve the country's people, by giving the latter more voice in the design and implementation of government programs.

The Institute's anchor research project in this area is the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Network, which is supported by the International Development Research Centre–Canada. An effective CBMS can improve local budgeting, project design and implementation and deepen participation of the populace in local governance. Possible complementary research projects would be case studies on local government's role in industrial adjustment and clustering. Back to top

Family business and enterprise development

Family businesses are acknowledged to constitute a significant percentage of all businesses in the country, and could, therefore, be considered the backbone of the economy. Therefore, how can we make them more efficient and more competitive in the era of globalization? How can we make them more robust organizations so that they serve as the foundation for a dynamic economy? To answer these questions, it is imperative to understand the various issues facing family businesses, including issues concerning succession, family dynamics, and professionalization, among others. Back to top

Networks and Production Clusters

A key ingredient in the economic dynamism, competitiveness and flexibility of the successful East Asian countries is the development of manufacturing and service clusters. Scholars have identified the benefits of clusters: ready and flexible supply of labor, availability of specialized producers of goods and services, greater market penetration, business alliances and organizations, technological spillovers, and distribution of infrastructure cost among a number of firms.

The Philippines has a successful cluster in furniture making around Cebu City, and a stagnating cluster in shoe manufacturing around Marikina. In sharp contrast, Japan has more than 500 clusters. The policy challenge is how to encourage the development of more of them in the country. Toward this end, there is a need for greater understanding of the factors behind the growth and failures of clusters in the country as well as bottlenecks that hinder their development. Back to top

Openness, Sectoral Adjustment, Institutional Reforms and Sustainable Development

The theme is decidedly a broad one. It encompasses three foci of interest. The first one is the evaluation of the impact of developments in the international economy on the local economy, industry and business. The second related focus is on the national level, largely sectoral structural adjustment and institutional reforms for sustained robust growth and greater equity in the face of globalization. The third focus addresses the concerns of better utilization of natural resources and lower pollution from economic activities.

A number of largely demand–oriented researches of the Institute are under this theme. They highlight one of the overriding concerns of the Institute; that is, to help in the reform process in the country. Thus, for example, in agriculture, this involves a special concern for improving the research, development and extension system as well as the improvement of the quality of services of the agricultural bureaucracy. In addition, the key issue of improving the logistics system or agricultural distribution system in order to integrate the Philippine market. Back to top