Shipeng YAN

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Bio

My expertise lies in corporate sustainability, ESG, and institutional analysis. With training in organization theory, I have a PhD in Management from the IESE Business School in Spain and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration (Information Systems) from the University of Hong Kong.

Lastest News

Major Publications

My research falls into two broad themes. In the first research stream (papers 1-3), I follow an “outside-in” perspective, examining external factors that surround business corporations and employing an institutional theory lens to understand the underlying drivers, mechanisms, and impacts of corporate sustainability. In my second research stream (papers 4-5), I take an “inside-out” perspective, researching internal factors from within business corporations to understand their impacts on the relevant stakeholders and the broader society.

  1. Yan Shipeng, Ferraro Fabrizio, Almandoz Juan (John). 2019. “The rise of socially responsible investment funds: The paradoxical role of the financial logic”. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(2): 466–501
  2. Yan Shipeng. 2020. “A double-edged sword: Diversity within religion and market emergence”. Organization Science, 31(3): 558-575.
  3. Yan Shipeng, Almandoz Juan (John), Ferraro Fabrizio. 2021. “The Impact of Logic (In)Compatibility: Green Investing, State Policy, and Corporate Environmental Performance”. Administrative Science Quarterly,66(4): 903-944.
  4. Maksimov Vladislav, Wang Lu Stephanie, Yan Shipeng (equal authorship). 2022. “Global connectedness and dynamic green capabilities in MNEs”. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(4): 723-740.
  5. Cai Yishu, Yue Qingyuan (Lori), Lin Fangwen, Yan Shipeng, Yang Haibin (equal authorship). (forthcoming). “Sunflower movement and corporate donations”. Administrative Science Quarterly.

Other Publications

Working papers

Corporate sustainability:

Corporate non-market strategy

I am open to collaborations and please don’t hesitate to drop an email at shpyan at hku dot hk if you find an overlapping interest.

For Visiting students & PhD applicants

PhD Admission at HKU Business School

I regularly receive emails soliciting my interest in hiring PhD students, but this is unnecessary. There is a misperception that individual faculty members have independent funding for and can decide on PhD admissions. However, this is not true in our school. PhD admission decisions in our area are committee-based. However, if you are already a doctoral student interested in ESG and institutional analysis, there might be a visiting opportunity.

My style as a PhD adviser

My intellectual style

As a management scholar, I appreciate empirical rigor and clever causal identification, but I deeply care about theoretical novelty and, more often than not, am excited by profound ideas. I value logical clarity and theoretical sophistication. I don’t believe that there has to be a trade-off between the two.

Why PhD in Management?

  1. You will NOT become a CEO of a large multinational firm after doing a PhD in management. Doing this will most likely kill your chance to be a CEO. An imperfect but useful analogy is that a management scholar is to a manager as a football game analyst is to a footballer.

  2. Management research treats managerial phenomena as if they can be scientifically analyzed and generalized and develop abstract theories to describe complex managerial issues in simple ways. Sometimes certain scholars go too far in developing theories on phenomena that few people care about. Sometimes certain scholars are not careful in developing explanations that are logically coherent and scientifically rigorous. Management research must balance between academic rigor and practical relevance.

  3. As a management scholar, you will have the opportunity to help train and educate the next generation of corporate leaders. Future and current managers love to go back to business schools to reflect on their past experiences and learn from your research if it is interesting and relevant.