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Professor Hinrich Voss

Professor Hinrich Voss

Profile

I am a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Business University of Leeds (CIBUL). I am interested in the relationship and interaction between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and institutions. This interest has evolved into a research strand on Chinese and emerging market MNEs (EMNEs) and one on sustainability and ethics. I am an Associate Editor of Transnational Corporations, in-coming Senior Editor of Management and Organization Review, and on the editorial review boards of Journal of International Business Policy, International Business Review, Management and Organization Review, and Asia Business & Management.

I worked at the University of Leeds from 2007 to 2020 and am now with HEC Montreal. While at Leeds, I was in the International Business department of Leeds University Business School but for one year when I was affiliated with the East Asian department as part of my Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the White Rose East Asia Centre/ National Institute for Chinese Studies. From 2014 to 2017 I was Director of the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds and together with my Chinese co-Director and our outstanding team established strong relationships with local policy makers, cultural institutions, and industry. The latter was partially achieved through the Leeds City Region China Business Club of which I was the Elected Chairman.

Research interests

I am interested in the relationship and interaction between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and institutions. This interest has evolved into a research strand on Chinese and emerging market MNEs (EMNEs) and one on sustainability/ethics. My research on Chinese MNEs has investigated how their internationalisation is affected and influenced by home and host country institutions. This includes, for example, how they respond to risk. This research stream has expanded recently to consider global samples of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). I have used this to investigate with L Jeremy Clegg and Janja A Tardios (Brunel) how the internationalisation of state-owned enterprises is influenced by the home country political set-up. Ultimately, this body of research relates to questions about the international competitiveness of mainland Chinese companies and their motivation for overseas investments. I have published work related to this research strand in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Journal of Economic Geography, Management International Review, International Business Review, Journal of International Management, and Multinational Business Review and the books Determinants of Chinese Outward Direct Investment and Chinese Outward Direct Investment (with Peter J Buckley).

The research strand on international business and sustainability/ethics has been supported by funding from the British Academy and DfiD, AHRC and the Sino-British Fellowship Trust (SBFT). The British Academy and DfiD funded an interdisciplinary research project with Matthew Davis, Mark Sumner, Louise Waite and Divya Singhal (Goa Institute of Management, India) on how businesses have responded to the UK Modern Slavery Act and the obligation to increase transparency on modern slavery in their global supply chains. A data collection method we have used on this project has been sucessfully developed into a tool to teach transparency and accountability in global value chains. The AHRC funded project builds on those insights and investigates how the Covid pandemic has affected relationships in UK-Indian fashion value chains. The SBFT funded research investigated climate change stratgies of MNEs in China. I have published work related to this research in Journal of Cleaner Production and Asia Business & Management.

Qualifications

  • PhD in International Business, University of Leeds
  • Diplom Oekonom, University of Duisburg
  • International Teachers Programme

Professional memberships

  • Fellow Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
  • Chartered Management & Business Educator (CMBE)
  • Academy of International Business
  • Academy of Management
  • European International Business Academy
  • International Association of Chinese Management Research

Student education

I am part of an Erasmus funded European consortium called "MNC whispering" that is currently developing video case studies for international business. These videos will be an open educational resource that will become available through the website and the Case Centre. Our publication in the Journal of Teaching in International Business discusses why a greater use of videos would be desirable. I am also working with Peter J. Buckley and Peter Enderwick on the 2nd edition of the International Business textbook and have published with Giles Blackburne on experiential learning in international business. 

Research groups and institutes

  • Centre for International Business at the University of Leeds

Current postgraduate researchers