Speaker: Jingjing MA (Michigan State University)

Abstract: Recent research has shown that there is considerable within-person variance in leadership behaviors that cannot be explained by chronic individual differences. Unfortunately, we lack sufficient understanding of dynamic, transient factors that may impact daily leader behaviors. In this presentation, I will present a daily diary study drawing from ego depletion theory that investigated relations of managers' commute stressors and depletion with transformational behaviors. The study found that managers' daily commute stressors were associated with increases in morning depletion. These increases in depletion were, in turn, associated with a lower likelihood of exhibiting transformational leader behaviors that day for managers who believed that willpower is a limited resource. However, this detrimental effect of depletion was avoided for managers who believed that willpower is not a limited resource. As time allows, I will also briefly discuss my dissertation.

About the Speaker:

Jingjing MA (PhD candidate, Michigan State University)

Speaker: Qian SUN (Fudan University)

Abstract:Previous studies show that profitability does not improve after share issue privatization (SIP) in China. We explore the possibility that the positive privatization effect can be overwhelmed by a negative listing effect, leading to an overall negative or insignificant SIP profitability change. Using the difference-in-differences approach with various matched samples, we show that there is a positive privatization effect and there is a negative listing effect on profitability. We also document evidence of a significant improvement in profitability after separating the “pure” privatization effect from the SIP effect. Our findings are robust to alternative variable specifications and methodological changes.

About the Speaker:

Sun Qian, professor and doctoral supervisor. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Fudan University and the Head of the Department of Finance and Finance of Fudan University School of Management.

Professor Sun Qian studied at Peking University, William Paterson College and Arizona State University and received his bachelor's degree, master's degree in business administration and doctorate in economics. Professor Sun teaches at the Nanyang Technological University Business School in Singapore. At the end of 2005, he was employed by Xiamen University as dean and special professor of the Institute of Financial Management and Accounting. In 2010, he was appointed as a Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Finance and Finance at the School of Management at Fudan University. Teaching courses in corporate finance, international finance, and bank management。

He used to be a senior visiting financial expert at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Professor Sun Qian has long been engaged in research on capital market, corporate finance, international finance and auditing, and has written more than 30 papers in international leading academic journals included in SSCI. Most of its research is related to China and has unique insights on some issues.

Professor Sun Qian is a member of the Asian Shadow Finance Regulatory Commission. He was the vice chairman of the Asian Finance Association and the deputy director of the Finance Guidance Committee of the Ministry of Education. He also served as the editor of several domestic and international academic journals.

Speaker: SitingWANG (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Abstract: Newcomers' socialization is one of the most essential issues for employees. Based on cognitive information-processing theory, the study tests a longitudinal model, which examines how leaders’ initial impressions of newcomers' competence and ingratiation influence leader-member exchange (LMX) and the development of LMX during the first four months after employees entering organizations. Using 159 leader-newcomer dyads over four-time points, the results showed that at the early stage, leaders' perceived newcomers' competence was positively associated with LMX while leaders' perceived newcomers' ingratiation was negatively associated with LMX. Over time, leaders' self-enhancement tendency strengthened the positive relationship between leaders' perceived newcomers' competence and the change of LMX (e.g., trajectory), as well as weakened the negative relationship between leaders' perceived newcomers’ ingratiation and the change of LMX. In addition, controlling for initial LMX, LMX trajectory had positive impact on newcomers' outcomes, including task performance, mentoring, and promotability. Theoretical contributions and future research directions are discussed.

About the Speaker:

Siting WANG (PhD candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago)

Speaker :Mengzi JIN（Singapore Management University)

Abstract: Innovation typically involves generating multiple novel ideas and selecting the most promising one for implementation. In this research, I examine how gender influences idea selection during innovation process. I theorize that although women are equally capable as men in generating highly novel ideas, women and men differ in “novelty avoidance” during idea selection - the extent to which individuals refrain from pursuing the most novel ideas they have generated. In a laboratory study where students were instructed to make creative short-films for the university, I found support of the hypothesis. In a second laboratory study where students were instructed to make creative photo collages for the university, I found that the gendered effect is moderated by the presence of women in judging panels. Specifically, women’s novelty avoidance tendency is mitigated when there are more women appeared in the judging panel. In the third study conducted on a creative crowd sourcing platform featuring a sample of freelancers, I replicated the gender difference in novelty avoidance and found that fear of social backlash from demonstrating high creativity explains women’s novelty avoidance tendency. Overall, my work advances current understanding of the challenges and opportunities that women innovators face, thereby helping to close the gender gap in innovation and entrepreneurship.

About the Speaker:

Mengzi JIN (PhD candidate, Singapore Management University)

Speaker: Xiaoyun YU (Indiana University)

Abstract: We show that firms manage their earnings downwards when their industry peers file for initial public offerings (IPOs). The downward accruals reverse if there are no peers attempting an IPO. This effect is stronger if peers poise a bigger threat to the incumbents and if industries are more competitive or informationally opaque. When incumbents engage in more aggressive downward earnings management, peer firms suffer from lower offer prices, raise smaller amount of capital, and are more likely to withdraw from the offering. They also invest less, hoard more cash, and experience lower profitability post IPO. Our results highlight the role of strategic disclosure on product market competition. Endogeneity of going-public activity and choice of proxies for earnings management and industry classification do not appear to drive our findings.

About the Speaker:

Xiaoyun Yu is a professor of finance and Arthur M. Weimer Faculty Fellow at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Her research interests are in the areas of theoretical and empirical corporate finance, with a focus on information economics, IPOs, financial institutions and systems, and political economy of finance. Her work has been published in leading academic journals including Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Journal of Accounting and Economics.

She has won numerous awards for her research, including the TCW Best Paper Award, FMA Best Paper Award in Financial Institutions and Markets, TCFA Award for the Best Paper on Corporate Finance, CICF Best Paper Award, and Sun Yefang Financial Innovation Award. Her research has been featured in various media outlets, including the CNBC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

Professor Yu has taught courses in corporate finance at undergraduate, MBA, EMBA and doctoral levels. She has also chaired or served as a member of dissertation committees of numerous doctoral students.

Professor Yu received her bachelor degree from Renmin University in Beijing, and obtained her PhD in Finance from the Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota.

Speaker: Prof. David Ahlstrom (The Chinese University of Hong Hong)

Abstract: Publishing in quality academic journals (or your thesis) is challenging. Authors who want to improve their chances of publishing in business and allied social sciences journals can save themselves much time and frustration by ensuring that their manuscripts are consistent with the journal’s aims and scope and address key unanswered research questions or improvements to current theory and evidence in a given domain. It is well-understood if a manuscript lacks theoretical grounding or makes significant methodological or research design mistakes, it will likely be rejected. Many researchers do not make mistakes there, but do fail to properly situate, motivate, and organize their manuscripts well, particularly in the all-important introduction of the paper. Oftentimes, an author may face rejection of his or her manuscript not because of bad data or methods, but because of major framing and organizational issues with the paper, as well as it lacking clear contributions. This talk (and associated handouts) addresses these key problems within the context of writing a clear research question and introduction section, and contributions, which then form the basis for the overall organization of the paper. Numerous helpful sources for authors are also provided and discussed.

About the Speaker:

David Ahlstrom (PhD, New York University) is a professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and previously worked in the computer industry and government for a number of years. His research interests include managing in Asia, entrepreneurship, organizational and economic history. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and Journal of World Business. His work has also appeared multiple times in The Wall Street Journal. Professor Ahlstrom has guest edited special issues for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and Multinational Business Review.

Speaker: Kun ZHANG (University of Colorado Boulder)

Abstract: Strategy and entrepreneurship scholars have identified many benefits for new ventures to employ signals to access resources in financial and partner selection factor markets. However, scholars have not explored the inventor labor market from a signaling perspective. This paper investigates inventor mobility across biopharmaceutical startups and examines the effects of two signal variables, VC prominence and alliance network prominence. We suggest that VC prominence and alliance network prominence can provide a higher level of comfort and assurance in the presence of information asymmetry between the new venture and other players in the market, thereby enabling the new venture to have better access to the labor factor market. We further point to a potential downside of signaling in terms of out-bound inventor mobility. Empirical evidence from biopharmaceutical startups show that new ventures can benefit from VC and alliance signals to attract inventors to join the firm, but they may also risk losing existing human capital. In addition, we show that the signaling effects become less pronounced as the venture’s level of information asymmetry decreases.

About the Speaker:

Kun Zhang is a doctoral candidate in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests revolve around technological innovation and corporate strategy choices, drawing upon the perspectives of knowledge-based view and information economics. Specifically, Kun’s first stream of research and dissertation focuses on knowledge worker mobility as a means of external knowledge acquisition in the context of interfirm partnerships. Kun’s second stream of research looks at macroeconomic conditions of innovation, where he specializes in the patent examination procedures in China and its implications for research policy and innovation scholars. Recent projects are on inventor mobility, collaborative strategies, and applications of information economics to various problems in strategy, international business, and entrepreneurship. His most recent paper published in Research Policy studies the determinants of the duration and outcomes of patent examination using a novel SIPO data set.

In terms of teaching, Kun Zhang has led courses and seminars on business and corporate strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship in several undergraduate degree programs. He is the recipient of the 2017 PhD Teaching Award at the Leeds School of Business, and he now serves on the PhD Teaching Award Committee at the Leeds School of Business.

Kun obtained a master degree in Management Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science in UK, where he has conducted research on open innovation, behavioral economics, and decision sciences. Additionally, Kun is a member of Academy of Management and Strategic Management Society.

Speaker: Jiexin WANG (The Pennsylvania State University-Scranton Campus)

Abstract: There is currently no guiding theoretical framework to explain the link between agreeableness and work-family conflict and consequently, key questions about why, how and under what conditions agreeableness is associated with work-family conflict remain unanswered. To address these gaps, we draw on emerging perspectives of positive workplace relationships with communal function to frame agreeableness as a type of chronic individual difference, when combined with job demands as the contextual factor, determines the extent to which one engage in helping, a prosocial behavior as the “characterization” of communal workplace relationships. We further propose that the positive indirect effect between agreeableness and work-family conflict via helping is strengthened when job demands are high.  In addition, we propose a dual stage moderation model that simultaneously examines the moderating effect of negative affect to determine the nature and strength of the helping behaviors-work-family conflict relationship. We test and find support for our hypotheses using a three-wave data collection with one month across each time point. Our counterintuitive findings suggest that although agreeable individuals tend to be helpful in all aspects of their lives, pursuing communal-oriented relationships in the form of helping others at work intensifies the internal conflict that arises within an employee in the form of work-family conflict. That is, agreeable individuals cannot serve work and family equally well. Implications of these findings for future theorizing and research on work-family conflict via relationship lens are discussed.

About the Speaker:

Wang Jiexin is an assistant professor of management at the Pennsylvania State University Scranton campus and a Ph.D. in management from Texas A&M University. His research interests include human resource management and organizational behavior; his research interests include organizational citizenship behavior (active behavior, prosocial behavior), employee personality and team composition, work-family balance, and positive psychology. The paper has been published in foreign top and excellent journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Vocational Behavior.

Abstract: Both researchers and practitioners have observed a growing trend of dual leadership in contemporary organizations. Despite this trend, most leadership research has been conducted in the context in which every employee is working for only one leader. Drawing upon role theory, I investigated leader-member exchange (LMX), which captures the quality of the dyadic relationship between leader and follower, in the dual leadership context. In the present study, I focus on LMX misalignment, the difference of an employee’s relationships with two leaders, and investigated how LMX misalignment influences employees’ role ambiguity and role conflict and in turn their creative behaviors. To test the hypothesized model, I surveyed 137 social workers who are working for two leaders, and both leaders have the same position power and work interdependently. Integrating polynomial regression with multilevel analyses, I examined a moderated mediation model and found support for my hypothesized model.

About the Speaker:

Sun Jiaqing is currently pursuing a doctorate in management at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has a Ph.D. in psychology from Beijing Normal University. Her main research area is leadership research, focusing on the impact of leadership behavior on subordinates' perceptions, emotions, and behaviors from the perspective of leadership-subordinate interaction. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Behavior and Journal of Psychology.

Speaker: Sanli Li (University of South Carolina)

Abstract: The burgeoning of ibusiness firms in the modern digital economy challenges the received internationalization theory. Given that ibusinesses such as social networking sites create value by providing a digital platform for users to interact with one another, we employ a user-network perspective and externalization logic, suggesting that ibusinesses’ internationalization process depends critically on users’ collective interactions, instead of being solely driven by firms’ market commitments as noted by the Uppsala model. However, ibusinesses may suffer from liabilities of outsidership due to the boundedness of international network effects. Drawing on social network theory, we demonstrate that such liabilities can be mitigated by first diffusing the ibusiness platform in countries with higher clout. Our analysis using a unique dataset of mobile ibusiness platforms finds empirical support for the hypotheses. We discuss theoretical implications for the network approach of the Uppsala model in the digital era.

About the Speaker:

Sali Li, associate professor at Sonoco International Business Department, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. Dr. Li joined the IB faculty at MSB since 2013. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He teaches global strategic management in the IMBA Program, and cross-cultural negotiation in the IB undergraduate and MIB programs. Professor Li's primary research interests cover multinational strategy, revisiting the resource based view, and international entrepreneurship, with particular focus on emerging economies. Dr. Li's research has been published in top tier academic journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Journal of Management. He currently is serving on the editorial board of the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Journal of International Management, Journal of Management, and Long Range Planning. He is a reviewer for other journals, including: Journal of International Business Studies and Strategic Management Journal. Professionally, he is a member of the Academy of Management, Academy of International Business, International Association for Chinese Management Research, and Strategic Management Society.