Teddy Sim is involved in research extending from the doctoral work he does on the Portuguese enterprise in the East centering on colonial India in the eighteenth century, of which he has published related papers and the book Portuguese Enterprise in the East: Survival in the Years 1707–57 (2011). He is also the editor of Piracy and surreptitious activities in Malay Archipelago and adjacent regions (2014), and Maritime Defense of China: Ming General Qi Jiguang (2017).