Yingying Zhang Zhang

View Faculty Bio

Summary

Yingying Zhang Zhang is a professor of management at the Graduate School of International Management, International University of Japan (IUJ). Through her work on dynamic international strategic human resource management and on a people-centric innovation ecosystem, Zhang Zhang has striven to find a theoretical proposal with practical implications for sustainable management in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) contexts—particularly when these VUCA contexts are provoked by disruptive digital innovation, complex emerging markets, and uncertain crises. Zhang Zhang’s most recent project involves longitudinal action research on social enterprises in the African countries of Niger, Eswatini, and Togo. She hopes to achieve social impact through researching management in emerging markets.

Description of Research Impact

Zhang Zhang’s work has always sought to connect research with society, pairing provocative thinking with a grounding in real-world business. In addition to being widely referenced by business practitioners and general society, Zhang Zhang’s research outcomes have also been published in respected Social Sciences Citation Index journals, such as the Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, Human Resource Management Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Management Decision, European Business Review, Sustainability, and International Marketing Review.

Zhang Zhang has written for the official journal of the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Tourism, as well as the business column for Chinese newspapers and other practitioners’ journals. She also writes teaching cases that serve for management training; these have been published by major case publishers, including Ivey Publishing and the Case Center (formerly the Case Clearing House) and distributed by Harvard Business Publishing.

The impact of Zhang Zhang’s work has been threefold. The first area of impact is in the academic community, where she has taken on a leadership role. Her writing was recognized as outstanding by Emerald in 2017, and in 2022, as the deputy secretary-general of the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM), she edited the Memory Booklet of 1992 IFSAM Tokyo Congress. This booklet commemorates the 30th anniversary of early East-West connections made among management scholars at the first IFSAM conference, which took place in Tokyo in 1992. Zhang Zhang has also assumed a long-term leadership role as an executive board member of Women in the Academy of International Business (WAIB), which supports women scholars’ career development.

The second area where Zhang Zhang’s efforts have had an impact is in business, as is shown by her dedication to the business community and her ability to apply research to business practices. Not only did her early studies on Spain-China relations receive recognition when she was named one of 200 Future Shapers in 2014, but her continuing research also earned her invitations by the Japan International Cooperation Center in 2019 and the International Academy of Strategic Management in 2023 to present seminal talks.

The third impact area of Zhang Zhang’s research relates to education. Her work on emerging markets aligns with IUJ’s mission to train socially responsible leaders, and it has also been converted into teaching cases for IUJ courses, including Competing in Emerging Markets. In recognition of her dedication, Zhang Zhang received the Best Instructor Award from the X-Culture Organization in 2022.

Select Publications

• Yingying Zhang Zhang and Ignacio Olivares, No Más Cuentos Chinos [No More Chinese Tales] (Actualia Editorial, 2012).
• Sylvia Rohlfer and Yingying Zhang Zhang, “Culture Studies in International Business: Paradigmatic Shifts,” European Business Review 28, no. 1 (January 2016): 39–62, https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-07-2015-0070.
• Mu Tian, Ping Deng, Yingying Zhang, and Maria Paz Salmador, “How Does Culture Influence Innovation? A Systematic Literature Review,” Management Decision 56, no. 1 (February 2018): 1088–1107, https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2017-0462.
• Yingying Zhang Zhang and Takeo Kikkawa, People Centric Innovation Ecosystem (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108981200.
• Anne S. Tsui, Yingying Zhang Zhang, and Chen Xiao-Ping, Leadership of Chinese Private Enterprises: Insights and Interviews (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40235-6.
• Yingying Zhang Zhang and Ying Zhou, The Source of Innovation in China: Highly Innovative Systems (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

Supporting Links

• Yingying Zhang Zhang, Research map
• Leadership information, WAIB
• Memory Booklet of 1992 IFSAM Tokyo Congress, IFSAM