In the landscape of development economics and international management research in Southeast Asia, Iskandar Muda stands out as a scholar with both profound practical experience and an interdisciplinary perspective. As a Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Sumatera Utara, and Editor-in-Chief of the English-language international journal Journal of Emerging Markets and Management, his academic identity spans multiple fields, including accounting information systems, public sector accounting, financial accounting, and economics. In recent years, he has continuously worked to bring indigenous research from emerging markets to the forefront of the international academic stage.
Professor Muda possesses a composite academic background in accounting, financial management, and economic research, holding multiple professional qualifications. Within the Indonesian higher education system, he has long been rooted in the frontline of teaching and research at the Faculty of Economics and Business. His personal research interests focus on accounting information systems, public sector accounting, financial accounting, and economics. These seemingly micro-technical fields are always closely intertwined with macro-level issues in his academic map, such as institutional transformation, public governance, and industrial upgrading in developing countries. This research path of “viewing institutions through numbers and development through finance” has profoundly shaped his unique understanding of management issues in emerging markets.
Research Focus: The Underlying Logic from Accounting Information to Institutional Quality
In recent years, Professor Muda’s research has consistently revolved around the governance efficiency of the public sector in emerging markets, the transparency of accounting information, and the constraining effects of the institutional environment on corporate behavior and financial development. The core issue he focuses on remains consistent: in developing economies with weak rule of law and uneven institutional quality, how can accounting and financial information serve as critical infrastructure for improving public governance, reducing transaction costs, and attracting investment?
In the field of public sector accounting, he has long tracked the correlation between fiscal transparency, budget execution efficiency, and public service delivery quality in local governments in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. He emphasizes that accounting information is not merely a technical recording tool but an institutional vehicle for public accountability. In the intersection of financial accounting and economics, he focuses on the interactive relationship between corporate financing constraints, capital market development, and the institutional environment in emerging markets. He pays particular attention to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—the group that contributes the most employment in emerging economies yet faces the greatest difficulty in obtaining formal financial support—and how they can break through institutional bottlenecks to achieve growth. His research findings have been published in multiple international journals, providing solid micro-level evidence for understanding the economic governance of Southeast Asia and broader emerging markets.
Academic Engagement: A Field Network Connecting Asia-Pacific and the Globe
Professor Muda is highly active in the international academic networks of development economics and management. He frequently attends international conferences hosted by universities and research institutions in the Asia-Pacific region on themes such as economic transition, public governance, and SME development. He has also made numerous academic visits and conducted joint research in China, Malaysia, and Thailand. These exchanges are not superficial courtesy calls but deep collaborations with joint projects, data co-construction, and co-publication as substantive content. He attaches great importance to promoting stable academic dialogue mechanisms between indigenous scholars in Indonesia and Southeast Asia and research teams in other emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific region, forming a cross-regional comparative research synergy on issues such as cross-border investment, regional industrial chain restructuring, and digital economy transformation.
Domestically in Indonesia, he actively participates in cooperative projects between Universitas Sumatera Utara, local governments, and industry associations. He aligns academic research with regional industrial development needs, providing empirical support for policy issues such as local business environment assessment and digital transformation of SMEs.
Core Perspectives: Three Consistent Academic Judgments
On various international academic platforms, Professor Muda’s viewpoints are distinct and consistent. First, research on emerging markets cannot simply apply the theoretical models of mature Western markets. The institutional prerequisites of developed economies—comprehensive rule of law, transparent market signals, and mature financial systems—are often lacking in developing countries. Directly transplanting theoretical frameworks will only lead to conclusions divorced from reality; original theoretical extraction must be based on the local institutional environment. Second, SME practices and local institutional constraints should be core issues in emerging market management research, not marginal supplements. Existing international economics and management journals overly focus on pure theoretical modeling and macro-aggregate analysis, lacking publication space for real management dilemmas on the industrial front; this imbalance needs to be corrected. Third, theoretical research and industrial cases must be equally valued. If academic research cannot respond to the real problems of corporate practitioners and policymakers, it loses its fundamental significance of serving development.
Editorial Philosophy: Opening a Door for Marginalized Voices
After assuming the role of Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Emerging Markets and Management, Professor Muda systematically translated the above academic judgments into editorial practice. He observed that in the current international open-access publishing environment for management and economics, many top-tier journals center on the theoretical frameworks of developed markets, with emerging market issues often appearing only as supplementary cases. Existing similar publications mostly focus on pure theoretical modeling or macro-economic aggregate analysis; SME practices, local institutional constraints, differentiated regional and national experiences, and industrial frontline management cases find it difficult to obtain sufficient publication space. Furthermore, the research voices of indigenous scholars from emerging economies in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America are easily systematically marginalized.
Therefore, the journal has established a clear complementary positioning: forming a complementary and symbiotic academic ecosystem with existing excellent publications in the field, rather than engaging in repetitive competition. The editorial orientation emphasizes “three equal weights”—equal weight on theoretical construction and empirical testing, equal weight on university research and industrial practice, and equal weight on multi-level research across macro-policy, meso-industry, and micro-enterprise. The research horizon faces global developing economies without being limited to a single national scenario, with a special focus on emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region, encouraging original theoretical extraction based on local institutional environments and cultural contexts.
In terms of the scope of solicitation, the journal covers cross-border fields such as emerging market corporate strategy, organizational management, and innovation/entrepreneurship; emerging market financial development, investment/financing, and digital finance; economic transition and industrial upgrading in developing countries; cross-border investment and international trade; public governance and institutional environment assessment; as well as the practices of digital transformation, sustainable development, and ESG in emerging markets. It accepts various types of manuscripts, including original empirical papers, theoretical research, literature reviews, and case studies.
From the lecture halls of Universitas Sumatera Utara to the podiums of international academic conferences, from the micro-data of accounting information systems to the macro-propositions of institutional transformation in emerging markets, Professor Muda’s work has always revolved around the same belief: scholars from emerging economies should have equal rights to international academic publication, and original research under local institutional contexts should receive the same respect as Western theoretical models. This stance is not only his research methodology but also the value coordinate he has set for Journal of Emerging Markets and Management—ensuring that researchers in emerging markets are no longer just “case providers” in international academic discourse, but equal participants in theoretical construction.
