Mr. Ra Thorng, MI staff member, attended the APUGSM 2014 International Summer Conference on Business and Economic Research in order to present the accepted paper “Cross-border Value Chain: An Assessment of Longan Value Chain in Pailin, Cambodia” in Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Oita, Japan, from 25 to 26 July 2014. The Conference concluded with 23 presentations delivered by research scholars from Australia, Cambodia, Japan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, the Republic of China and the United States of America. The two-day conference discussed current research and development in areas of Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability, Supply Chain Management, Economics and Marketing & Innovation in the context of internationalization, regionalization and globalization. 

During the sessions, the papers and panels presented were eye-opening and Ra Thorng had the chance to introduce MI research paper to diverse people from a broad range of backgrounds. In return, he received an equally broad range of feedback from these consultations, which were as highly helpful as the experience of explaining MI research works to various researchers and fellow doctoral students. A lot of fruitful discussions took place during the sessions which inspired many sparkling ideas and provided an opportunity for researchers to rethink their research from a different point of view. 

Ra Thorng stated, “I definitely gained a lot from attending this conference by getting to meet academics from different disciplines and fellow doctoral students who had such diverse views from mine that challenged my own. I found many interesting works related to my research area and I met authors to discuss and exchange ideas with. I was introduced to many new methodologies and theories which could be relevant for my future research and career”.