As a Professor of Practice in Management and Leadership, my research explores two major strands within the field of strategic management:

(1) International business (IB) strategy focusing on the multinational corporation (MNC) in emerging markets; and (2) digital business transformation with an emphasis on organisational change, resilience and leadership.

• The first research stream on IB strategy examines the convergence of strategic choice, institutionalism and firm-institution interaction of MNCs in China. It focuses on the relationship between strategic orientation, industry-based competitive environment, firm resources configurations, institutional context and differential performance outcomes. While it agrees with the general notion that the appropriate strategy will be a function of industry factors and firm-specific factors, there may be varying performance implications depending on key elements of the institutional context as well as (co-evolutional) firm-institution interaction.

• The second research stream on digital business transformation broadly deals with the problem of managing organisations in the face of environmental discontinuities. Specifically, it focuses on the influence of the upper echelon’s leadership practices on technology-led business model transformation including the formation of (circular) business ecosystems. It is assumed that successful digital business transformation and non-incremental innovation in organisations are a question of leadership and organisational agility rather than a question of technological capabilities. This notion is explored by looking into different configurations for organisational change, resilience and leadership viewed against corresponding performance outcomes.

• Economic validity, as measured by firm performance, is used as a dependent variable in the research constructs of both strands of investigation. In essence, my research explores which configurations organisations choose and which perform best.

Academic involvement include: 

• Org. Development & Change ― Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Organisational Change (CLEO)
• MSc Global Leadership and Management ― Queen's Management School (QMS)
• Distinctive Leadership in the Digital Age ― The William J Clinton Leadership Institute (WJCLI)
• Strategic Change Leadership in Digital Transformation ― The William J Clinton Leadership Institute (WJCLI)
• Senior Management Programme ― The William J Clinton Leadership Institute (WJCLI)

Industry experience:

• PwC: Org. Change & Talent Management Consulting
• Towers Watson: Org. Transformation & Human Capital Consulting
• Roland Berger: Strategy Consulting, Automotive Industry
• Robert Bosch: Sino-Foreign JV, Sales Overseas

Academic education:

• PhD in Strategy, King's Business School, King's College London (KCL), UK
• MBA, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Shanghai, China
• BA (First-class Hons), European School of Business (ESB), London, UK / Reutlingen, Germany