CMMU Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership

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Breakthrough study uncovering how engineering capstone projects can be fundamentally redesigned to foster academic motivation and global sustainability literacy

BANGKOK, THAILAND — The Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership at the College of Management, Mahidol University (CMMU) has announced a breakthrough study uncovering how engineering capstone projects can be fundamentally redesigned to foster academic motivation and global sustainability literacy. Published yesterday in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Engineering Education (Top 10% Q1), the research introduces a transformative model to prepare future engineers for global sustainable development goals.

The study, conducted by Dr. David Kongpiwatana Narong (CMMU and Thammasat Business School) and Prof. Philip Hallinger (CMMU), draws on qualitative insights from final-year engineering students. It evaluates the contrasting psychological and educational impacts of traditional industry-based projects against community-focused service-learning initiatives.

🎤 "Engineering education stands at a critical crossroads where we can no longer afford to treat technical acumen and socio-environmental responsibility as separate disciplines. Our findings show that moving students away from theory-oriented text and placing them in community service-learning settings forces them to confront real-world 'authentic learning gaps.' This exposure fundamentally rewires their professional identities, shifting their definition of engineering from a narrow lens of technical optimization to a holistic practice rooted in ethics, human well-being, and localized social responsibility.", stated Dr. Kongpiwatana.

🎯 Service-Learning Drives True Sustainability Thinking
A key discovery of the research is that the context of an engineering project completely shapes how a student defines sustainability:
♦️ Industry-Based Context: Students working with commercial firms narrowly view sustainability through an environmental lens, focusing primarily on technical efficiency, renewable energy, and cost-reduction.
♦️ Service-Learning Context: Students collaborating with local communities develop a holistic understanding, integrating environmental safety with social responsibility, community well-being, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

🎯 Overcoming Restraining Forces in Higher Education
While student motivation is strongly driven by structured autonomy and interdisciplinary teamwork, the researchers identify several critical "restraining forces" that halt deep learning. Academic institutions must proactively address these roadblocks:
♦️Severe time constraints and compressed 14-week project timelines.
♦️Competing academic priorities that divide student attention.
♦️Highly restricted budgets and lack of physical engineering resources.
♦️Insufficient stakeholder engagement, which dilutes real-world validation.

🎯 A New Framework: The Integrative Model
To solve these systemic academic challenges, the CMMU research team developed a transferable Integrative Model of Project-Based Learning for Sustainability. Merging Kurt Lewin’s Field Theory with Self-Determination Theory, the framework maps how external constraints directly affect student psychology (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) to dictate ultimate learning outcomes. The model provides engineering departments worldwide with a step-by-step blueprint to cultivate a long-term professional identity centered on ethical, sustainable engineering practices.

The CMMU Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership (CRSL) is a research center based at the College of Management, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. The center operates as a prominent international academic hub focused on advancing management and leadership knowledge tailored for sustainable development. It has pioneered a number of internationally recognized sustainability theories deeply rooted in King Rama IX's philosophy of Sufficiency Economy.

Truly world-class business schools build their own theories/models/frameworks for research and teaching. An example is at Harvard Business School (HBS) below where they do not simply adopt theories/models/frameworks from others to teach. This is what makes HBS highly competitive and attracts numerous executive students from around the world to study at Harvard each year.

At CRSL, we follow this well-established approach of truly world-class business schools by equipping our faculty and doctoral researchers with theory building tools/techniques they need to create new theories/models/frameworks in response to today's unsolved sustainability challenges. Many doctoral researchers have created their own theories/frameworks/models that later become internationally recognized.

CRSL researchers deliver cutting-edge frameworks for real-world problems that lack existing solutions. Today, the center has produced some of the world's top 10% sustainability reports.

Interested in joining our top-team researchers, check out below.
📍 PhD in Management
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinmg/
📍 PhD in Sustainable Leadership
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinsl/
📍 Doctor of Business Administration
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/dba/

📌 CRSL sustainability management framework achieved a global milestone

Managing for improving sustainability performance in an organization is a complex issue. It's not as simple as improving some indicators such as carbon footprint and waste reduction, but is instead how to create and maintain a dynamic balance among simultaneous, frequently conflicting demands from a wide range of stakeholders. A practical framework for this purpose was introduced to the world in 2024, and it's now at the 95 percentile of the field.

CRSL researchers have continued to produce cutting-edge models/frameworks in response to real-world problems with no existing solution. It's home to some of the world's top 10% sustainability reports.

Interested in joining our top-team researchers, check out below.
📍 PhD in Management
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinmg/
📍 PhD in Sustainable Leadership
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinsl/
📍 Doctor of Business Administration
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/dba/

Media Contact:
Sooksan Kantabutra, PhD
CMMU Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership
College of Management, Mahidol University
sooksan.kan @ mahidol.ac.th

📢 CRSL theory among the elite top 3% globally

Early this year, we have introduced an interim theory of Supply Chain Resilience. Only months later, this report is at the 97 percentile in the field according to Scopus, meaning this research paper has received more citations than 97% of other similar papers published in the same field during the same time period. In other words, Scopus places this specific paper in the elite top 3% of its research category globally. 🎉🎊

Through a theory-building course, doctoral students in our PhD in Sustainable Leadership program are equipped with the skills and knowledge to develop cutting-edge frameworks/models in response to real-world problems that have no current solution. Supply Chain Resilience is one such problem.

For the report, click here: https://doi.org/10.3390/su18052497

For the PhD in Leadership program, click here: https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinsl/

A comparison of Stanford Top 2% Scientists in Thai Universities. Mahidol University remains the number one with 66 scholars on the list, three of which are at CRSL.

📢 Introducing the latest CRSL member

Kamonkan Khunhirun is a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) candidate at the College of Management, Mahidol University (CMMU), where her research interests center on organizational resilience and organizational capability. She also serves as Deputy Chief Officer – Human Resources at Mitsubishi Company (Thailand) Ltd. With more than 20 years of HR experience across multinational and Thai organizations in the public and private sectors, her expertise spans organizational restructuring, culture and capability development, and workforce transformation.

In her current role, Kamonkan leads organizational change by aligning workforce strategy and organizational culture with the company’s strategic priorities to build a resilient, future-ready workforce. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Thammasat University and earned her master’s degree in Human Resource Development from the University of Manchester under the Royal Thai Government Scholarship.

At CRSL, Kamonkarn is searching for a practical approach as to how to equip a business organization with resilience capabilities via day-to-day sustainability practices, which goes beyond simple risk and change management and moves away from temporary crisis survival to long-term, adaptive organizational evolution.

📢 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mahidol University Theory of Organizational Resilience Bridges Vital Practice Gap among Organizational Leaders

BANGKOK, THAILAND — The College of Management, Mahidol University (CMMU) has demonstrated the powerful global utility of its academic frameworks, as its pioneering theory of organizational resilience directly addresses and fills the long-standing ex*****on gap faced by organizational practitioners worldwide.

While industry leaders and administrators across sectors widely acknowledge the need for institutional stamina, a critical operational disconnect has historically persisted. Practitioners frequently struggle with how to systematically implement, nurture, and sustain resilience within highly complex environments. This exact practical vulnerability is brought to light in highly demanding institutional settings, such as the qualitative realities analyzed in Elizabeth R. Thompson’s (2026) landmark higher education cyber-resilience research at Purdue University.

CMMU fills this precise tactical void through the foundational organizational resilience theory developed by its faculty, Kantabutra and Ketprapakorn (2021). Rather than offering passive or purely abstract concepts, the Mahidol framework provides a systematic, structured roadmap designed specifically for leaders. It bridges the gap between theoretical institutional communication and the active, concrete leadership strategies required to withstand severe digital and operational disruptions.

🎤 As Dr. Thompson of Purdue University has noted in the thesis that, "In practice, few leaders know how to systematically develop or nurture resilience within organizations. Thus, Kantabutra and Ketprapakorn (2021) propose an organizational resilience theory to help connect growing streams of literature that deal with these challenges. "

🎤 Highlighting the practical weight and international significance of this framework, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vichita Ractham, Mahidol University Vice President for Corporate Communication and Branding, shared: "The core philosophy of our research at Mahidol is rooted in real-world application. A truly robust management theory cannot exist solely in an abstract vacuum; it must fill the practice gap to guide practitioners through unpredictable disruptions. The integration of our organizational resilience models into diverse, high-stakes global environments proves that the intellectual capital developed at Mahidol University provides the actionable blueprint leaders need to navigate complexity with measurable agility."

🎤 Emphasizing the college's strategic focus on delivering immediately applicable managerial solutions, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Prattana Punnakitikashem, Dean of CMMU, added: "At CMMU, our educational mission is centered on empowering leaders with transformative, highly practical knowledge. By directly addressing the gaps that practitioners face in the field daily, this organizational resilience theory translates complex, high-level institutional strategies into clear, operational steps. We are immensely proud that our faculty's research continues to offer actionable, globally relevant toolkits that strengthen organizational health and decision-making on an international scale."

🎤 Providing critical technical insight into how the framework bridges ex*****on barriers on the ground, Dr. Nuttasorn Ketprapakorn, CMMU PhD graduate and co-developer of the theory, explained: "Practitioners do not fail from a lack of wanting to be resilient; they fail because standard management literature leaves them without an engine. Our framework targets the micro-level system throughputs—transforming individual learning into immediate corporate buffering capacity. By embedding a risk-aware, sustainability-focused mindset directly into leadership behavior, we move the conversation from temporary crisis survival to long-term, adaptive institutional evolution. This is how we successfully bridge the ex*****on gap."

Founded in 1869 as a prestigious land-grant institution in West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University is an elite research powerhouse. Renowned for technical innovation and operational excellence and as the birthplace of the world’s oldest computer science degree-granting department, Purdue commands an elite national reputation in cybersecurity infrastructure, making it an internationally recognized benchmark for testing modern institutional resilience and communication frameworks.

For the Purdue PhD dissertation, click here: https://hammer.purdue.edu/articles/thesis/An_Exploration_of_Organizational_Cyber-Resilience_in_Higher_Education_A_Two-Study_Qualitative_Analysis_of_Internal_and_External_University_Communication/33101486?file=67096868

Interested in joining our top-team researchers, check out below.
📍 PhD in Management
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinmg/
📍 PhD in Sustainable Leadership
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/phdinsl/
📍 Doctor of Business Administration
https://www.cm.mahidol.ac.th/dba/

Media Contact:
Sooksan Kantabutra, PhD
CMMU Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership
College of Management, Mahidol University
sooksan.kan @ mahidol.ac.th

ย้อนอดีตวันก่อตั้งศูนย์ 🎯

สมดุล มั่นคง ยั่งยืน "เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง" "ศาสตร์พระราชา" โลกยกย่อง นับเป็นเวลา 70 ปีแห่งการครองสิริราชสมบัติของ "พระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว"

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CMMU Sustainability Theory Anchors Landmark Corporate Governance Study by Elite Global University

BANGKOK, THAILAND — The College of Management, Mahidol University (CMMU) proudly announces that its pioneering theory of corporate sustainability has been utilized in a breakthrough international governance study. The research, co-authored by scholars from the prestigious University of Göttingen in Germany and Kuwait University, validates the critical role of trust over rigid corporate monitoring systems. By merging CMMU’s sustainability insights with open systems theory, the global study successfully decodes the "social software" driving corporate behavior across 23 countries.

Founded in 1734 by King George II of Great Britain, the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen is one of Germany's oldest, largest, and most prestigious public research institutions. Renowned worldwide for its historic significance and academic excellence, the university is affiliated with 47 Nobel Prize winners. It consistently ranks among the top global institutions, currently holding an international rank of #122 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and sitting comfortably in the top 100 worldwide for research quality. The university's involvement provides a massive level of global prestige and empirical validation to CMMU’s foundational framework.

🎯 Key Highlights
* Global Validation: CMMU theory reaches top-tier global research networks.
* Systemic Connector: Trust proves to actively absorb complex corporate environmental risks.
* Control vs. Collaboration: High-trust cultures successfully substitute formal rules with relationship-based collaboration.
* Elite reference: Global powerhouse positions CMMU theory alongside classic systems theories.

🎯 Grounding Global Corporate Governance
The newly published study integrates CMMU's corporate sustainability theory to challenge traditional, restrictive agency models. Traditional models look at businesses as closed networks controlled only by legal and financial mandates. Using data from 1,293 firms, the research proves that companies operating in high-trust macro-environments can safely bypass expensive compliance "taxes". CMMU’s framework acts as the vital link showing that sustainable performance relies on local cultural adaptation rather than standard global rules.

Click here for the study: https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14070876

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Groundbreaking RESTORE Framework Integrates CRSL’s Organizational Resilience Theory to Revitalize Nursing Faculty

BANGKOK, THAILAND — A newly published study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing introduces the RESTORE Framework, a transformative, multi-level model designed to tackle the global nursing academia crisis. Developed by researchers Samira Hamadeh (Federation University Australia) and Suha Ballout (University of Washington School of Nursing), the framework shifts the focus of workforce sustainability away from individual self-care and toward systemic, organization-wide design.

Central to the RESTORE Framework is its integration of the CRSL's Organisational Theory of Resilience. Grounded fundamentally in General Systems Theory, the CRSL framework conceptualizes an institution not as a collection of isolated individuals, but as a dynamic, interconnected network of subsystems that must be collectively nurtured. By merging the CRSL core components into nursing academia, the resulting RESTORE model maps how specific institutional inputs directly drive long-term workforce survival.

The CMMU Center for Research on Sustainable Leadership (CRSL) is a research center based at the College of Management, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. The center operates as a prominent international academic hub focused on advancing management and leadership knowledge tailored for sustainable development. It has pioneered a number of internationally recognized sustainability theories deeply rooted in King Rama IX's philosophy of Sufficiency Economy.