In recent years, the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) has swept the globe, with the rise of generative AI fueling a massive surge in demand for computing power. Behind the glamorous models and products anchoring this tech revolution lies the essential infrastructure supporting it: data centers scattered worldwide.

3917 0028
KK 1125
- PhD, IESE
- BBA(IS), HKU
Dr. Shipeng YAN is a management scholar with a sociological orientation and a scholarly interest in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues as well as the broader political economy from an organization theory perspective. His studies have been published in prestigious management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Journal of International Business Studies. He also serves as a deputy editor for the journal Organization & Environment and as a senior editor for the journal Management and Organization Review.
- EMBA
Corporate social responsibility, City University of Hong Kong. 2020 - PhD
Organization theory, City University of Hong Kong. 2020-2021
Institutions and teams, Tilburg University. 2017-2018 - Master
Reinventing management in global capitalism, University of Hong Kong. 2021-
Societal institutions and development, Tilburg University. 2016-2018 - Undergraduate
Strategic management, University of Hong Kong. 2021-
Strategic management, City University of Hong Kong. 2018-2020
Strategic decision making, Tilburg University. 2016-2018 - Corporate social responsibility, City University of Hong Kong. 2018-2020
- Corporate social responsibility, Tilburg University. 2016-2018
- ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues
- Political economy
- Organization theory
UTD PUBLICATIONS
- Yan Shipeng, Jiang Wei, Xu Yue. 2025 (forthcoming). “Global investors, hidden suppliers: How institutions shape the impact of stock market liberalization programs on corporate responsibility”. Journal of International Business Studies. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-025-00804-z
- Cai Yishu, Yue Lori Qingyuan, Lin Fangwen, Yan Shipeng, Yang Haibin (equal contribution). 2025. “CSR as Hedging Against Institutional Transition Risk: Corporate Philanthropy After the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan”. Administrative Science Quarterly, 70(2): 367-402
- Maksimov Vladislav, Wang Stephanie, Yan Shipeng (equal contribution). 2022. “Global connectedness and dynamic green capabilities in MNEs”. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(4): 723-740
- 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
- Yan Shipeng. 2020. “A double-edged sword: Diversity within religion and market emergence”. Organization Science, 31(3): 535-795
- 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
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
- Fu Jiawei, Yan Shipeng. 2025. “Institutional complexity and social innovation: The case of Chinese social enterprises”. Voluntas, 36(1): 85-97
- Fu Jiawei, Yan Shipeng. Forthcoming. “How Do New Forms of Organizations Manage Institutional Voids? Social Enterprises’ Quest for Sociopolitical Legitimacy”. Business & Society.
- Zhang, Ze, Yan Shipeng. 2023. “Air pollution and investors’ behavior: A review of recent literature.” The Routledge Handbook of Green Finance: 542–562. London and New York: Routledge.
- Yan, Shipeng, Ferraro Fabrizio. 2016. “State mediation in market emergence: Socially responsible investing in China”. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 48B: 173–206. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Bose Indranil, Yan Shipeng. 2011. “The green potential of RFID projects: A case-based analysis”. IT Professional, 13(1).
- Best Senior Editor Award, Management and Organization Review, 2025
- Best Senior Editor Award, Management and Organization Review, 2024
- Emerging Scholar Award, ONE Division, Academy of Management, 2023
- Dean’s Research Excellence Award, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, 2021
- Finalist, Outstanding Research Award for Junior Faculty, City University of Hong Kong, 2020
- IESE Alumni Research Prize for Best Published Paper, 2019
- 2021-now: Member, Staff Student Consultation Committee, Master of Global Management, The University of Hong Kong
- 2019-2021: Program Leader, MSc Organizational Management, City University of Hong Kong
- 2021-2023: Communications Chair, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management
- 2019-now: Mentor, Doctoral Consortium, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management
- 2019-now: Editorial review board, Organization & Environment
- 2021-now: Editorial review board, Management and Organization Review
Research suggests that firms participating in stock market liberalization programs are exposed to global investors who can exert cross-border influence on management decisions. Accordingly, as global investors increasingly adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, firms in these programs may enhance their corporate responsibility and their commitment to addressing grand challenges. We challenge this literature by explaining why this effect of stock market liberalization programs should not be taken for granted, especially in emerging markets and contribute to the field by showing that institutional factors moderate this relationship. Using China's stock market liberalization programs as natural experiments that quasi-exogenously connect emerging-market firms to global investors, we find that emerging-market firms in stock liberalization programs reduce their disclosure of supplier identity information, an important step in tackling environmental grand challenges. However, when emerging-market firms have certain characteristics, such as a large proportion of committed foreign ownership, global environmental certifications, and top leadership with overseas experience, the negative effect is diminished and even reversed as the balance between the long-term upsides and short-term downsides of voluntary supplier disclosure shifts.
Amid the current vicissitudes of globalization and the profound shifts in the global environment, Chinese enterprises’ international expansion strategies are beset with challenges. Their erstwhile strategies succeeded for the straightforward reason that close political ties with the upper echelons of host-country governments readily secured access to resources, markets, and policy incentives.
Firms with political connections to a regime with an authoritarian history face a dilemma when the regime undergoes a democratic transition. Such connections provide an essential competitive advantage when the regime is in power but become a liability when an institutional transition brings democratic change. This study theorizes that when expose a regime’s distorted policies favoring elites over others and signal a high probability of regime turnover, firms may hedge against the risks associated with their political connections by engaging in philanthropy. We further contend that this effect is stronger for firms located in regions characterized by the rise of an opposing political party or a strong civil society. We find support for our theory in Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Movement. Our article reveals a strategy that firms adopt to survive democratic transitions and thus contributes to research on how firms use non-market strategies to adapt to institutional changes. Our research also shows that strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) can substitute for corporate political activity or compensate for its limitations, and it expands research on the signaling function of social movements from public to private politics.
Prof. Shipeng Yan and Ms. Runjia Zhang used Tencent’s “AI Corpus for good” and Ant Group’s “Blue Vest social good campaign” as case studies for top digital companies' practices in helping the elderly. They advocate for digital companies to understand the needs of the elderly through social cooperation and emphasize the importance of understanding their psychological characteristics to design products with emotional connection. At the same time, through education and social services, improve their digital literacy and awareness of fraud prevention. Let our seniors enjoy the convenience brought by technology safely and confidently!
Ningxia has emerged as a key wine production region in China, contributing nearly half of the country's total output. The wineries here not only stimulate local economic growth but also lead in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, promoting sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and cultural preservation.
Environmental protection is traditionally seen as a state responsibility, and the private market is meant to focus on creating shareholder value rather than preserving nature. Still, market-based solutions such as green investing have emerged. The research addresses whether green investment funds can influence firm-level environmental performance in relation to the presence of state environmental- and shareholder protection policies.
環境、社會及管治(Environmental, Social, and Governance,簡稱ESG)近年好似雨後春筍般,已經無處不在。當眾人還分不清這3個字母順序的時候,ESG早已牽動無數跨國公司的重大決策,也深刻影響各國政府的監管決定。
環境、社會及管治(Environmental, Social, and Governance,簡稱ESG)近年好似雨後春筍般,已經無處不在。當眾人還分不清這3個字母順序的時候,ESG早已牽動無數跨國公司的重大決策,也深刻影響各國政府的監管決定。
Environmental protection is widely perceived as a state responsibility, but market-based solutions such as green investing have emerged in the financial sector. Little research has addressed whether green investing can affect corporate environmental performance and how the state would moderate such an impact. Using an institutional logics perspective, we extend the literature on institutional complexity by exploring the factors leading to compatibility of logics and practices. We theorize that the success of green investing as a novel hybrid practice combining financial means and environmental goals depends on the legitimacy it achieves as an appropriate solution to the stated goal, and this legitimacy can be boosted or dampened by other hybrid practices in the field. Analyzing a panel dataset of 3,706 firms from 20 countries between 2002 and 2013, we find a positive relationship between the relative size of green investment in the economy and firm-level environmental performance in that country. This relationship is moderated by state policies: a strong environmental protection policy weakens the positive relationship between green investing and corporate environmental performance, and a strong shareholder protection policy strengthens the relationship. We contribute to research on institutional complexity, logic compatibility, and public–private cooperation in pursuing the common good.




