Dr Elizabeth Yi Wang
- Position: Associate Professor of International Business
- Areas of expertise: Sustainable development (ESG and SDG policy), innovation (patents, invention strategies, and learning); firm performance; multi-location enterprises; spillovers; global value chain governance
- Email: Y.E.Wang@lubs.leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 6856
- Location: G.08 Cromer Terrace
- Website: Strategic Crafting of Country Image | LinkedIn
Profile
Dr Elizabeth Yi Wang is a statistician and an artist by training, wiht expertise in multi-level econometric modelling of the behaviours of multi-unit and multi-location organisations, particularly multinational enterprises (MNEs) and business groups. Her research explores three inter-related questions:
- How do multi-location enterprises achieve competitive advantage by managing risk and maintaining control in critical processes such as internationalisation, learning, invention, and partnership development?
- How do external pressures – including SDGs policies and ESG standards – shape strategic decisions and operational shifts in these organisations?
- How can policy interventions be coordinated across borders to mainstream sustainable development both globally and locally?
A strong advocate for empowering sustainable development in the Global South, Dr Wang is critical of institutional failures that hinder collaboration and slow progress toward achieving the SDGs. Her work often intersects international business strategy with development, governance, and sustainability.
Dr Wang is an award-winning educator and a committed public intellectual, with contributions spanning scientific discovery and knowledge transfer. She has been invited by overseas institutions and business associations to provide strategic advice on issues such as public education, regional development and branding, poverty alleviation, and cross-border e-commerce education.
She served as a long-standing Co-chair of the European Academy of International Business (EIBA)/EIASM Doctoral Symposium in International Business (EIBA-DS) from 2013 to 2019. During her tenure, the Symposium was renamed the Danny Van Den Bulcke Doctoral Symposium in International Business (DVDB-DS) in honor of one of the field’s key scholars.
Dr Wang is the founder of the Mainstreaming Impact in International Business (MIIB) initiative, which advocates for integrating global challenges such as SDGs and geopolitical uncertainties into international business education and research.
She is also an active contributor to major sustainability initiatives. Her recent work include:
- Co-chairing panels on global value chain governance and ESG in the UN SDG conference ICSD (2022-2024
- Organising special panels at the AIB UK& Ireland Annual Conference (2022-2025) and EIBA 2023-2024
- Embeding SDGs into International Business Curricula in multiple higher education institutions.
- Hosting high-profile impact events such as An Angeda for Sustainable International Business, A Multistakeholder Conversation on Sustainable International Business, which brought together academic and non-academic stakeholders from around the world.
Committted to mentoring, Dr Wang has guided many early career researchers and served as mentor to five Michael Beverley Innovation Fellows.
Honours and Awards:
Winner, Women of Achievement
Winner, Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Winner, the Neil Hood and Stephen Young Prize for the Most Original New Work, awarded by the Doctoral Colloquium at the AIB UK & Ireland Annual Conference 2007
Education: Ph.D. International Business and Economics, University of Leeds.
Ph.D. title: “Foreign direct investment spillovers in China”. Supervisor: Professor L Jeremy Clegg, Professor Peter J Buckley, and Dr Chengqi Wang. External Examiners: Professor Steven Young, Business School, University of Glasgow, UK, and Dr Axèle Giroud, Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK.
The third year of her Ph.D. study was sponsored by the Sino-British Fellowship Trust and Chinese Student Award.
Responsibilities
- Director of Internationalisation, International Business (current)
- Director of Student Education in International Business (past years)
- Programme Director, MSc Global Business (present), MSc International Business (past years)
Research interests
Dr Wang’ research centres on four inter-lined themes: enterprise, space, governance, and AI. She examines how these dimensions interact and how stakeholders – firms, governments, and civil society – can harness their synergies to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Her research seeks to answer the following questions:
- How do organisational, geographic, societal, and technological boundaries shape the pursuit of sustainable development?
- How can risk, control, identity, and spillovers be managed to foster collaboration between firms and societal stakeholders in delivering the SDGs?
- In what ways do entrepreneurship, innovation, AI, and governance drive change in sustainable development practices over time?
- How can International Business Policy combined with AI catalyse systematic transformation for sustainable global development?
Dr Wang welcomes PhD proposals aligned with these research areas, specifically those focused on green technology, rural development, poverty reduction, and ESG. She particularly encourages applications from candidates with multidiciplinary, especiall computer science, backgrounds and big data analytics skills.
Selected research and engagement grants:
- “Building Effective Multilateralism in GVC Governance: The Role of Green Policy and Green Innovation”, Research Development Fund, University of Leeds (2022). This project integrates stakeholder engagement into research design to explore how green policies and innovations can improve global value chain governance.
- “How does policy exert real effects?” Foreign Experts Grant, Ministry of Science and Technology, China. Awarded at the highest national level, this renewable award supports international research collaboration. The total anual amount awarded is 855,000 RMB (£94,119). The grant supports research on the real-world effecgs of policy on business and sustainability.
- “Strategic Crafting of Country-of-Origin-Image: Strengthening Competitive Advantages of Firms in Times of Global Geopolitical and Economic Uncertainty” Challenge Fund, Leeds University Business School (£19, 500). A multidisciplinary collaboration involving partners from the UK, China, India, and Brazil. This project develops a science of strategic country image-making to support trade negotiations, exports, and regional competitiveness.
Research contributions to SDGs:
SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing and SDG 10 Reduced Inequality Within and Among Countries:
- Contribution to a major Government survey designed by the Parliamentary Office Science and Technology (POST) for experts to voice their concerns on the societal impact of COVID-19.
- Invited presentation in the 5th Emerging Markets Inspiration Conference (EMIC): Has the COVID-19 Changed the UK’s Country Image Perceived by External Stakeholders? Chinese Students' Reactions to the British Government’s Handling of the Pandemic
- Invited book chapter contribution: At the Crossroads: International Student Exchanges During the COVID 19 Pandemic, in Globalization, Political Economy, Business and Society in Pandemic Times, (ed.) Pervez Ghauri, Tony Fang, and John Hassler, 2021.
SDG 9 Inudstry, innovation, and infrustructure:
- Multinatioal Enterprises as Agents of the Green Agenda, research presented at the World Investment Forum 2023.
- Multinational Enterprises, ESG, and SDGs - The Potential of Product Innovation by Moody’s in Driving Positive
Change, The Luminary, Moody’s, 2023. - Location still matters! How does geographic configuration influence the performance-enhancing advantages of FDI spillovers?, Journal of International Management, Volume 26, Issue 3, September 2020, 100777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2020.100777, offers the implications for regional FDI policy: while multinational enterprises possess advantages in protecting own technology and knowledge in a host economy policymakers will be ill equipt to focus on attracting inward FDI to specific regions without understanding “how” local businesses actually learn from foreign MNEs. See research blog “How emerging market firms learn from multinational enterprises”.
- The 7th World Investment Forum, 18-22 Oct 2021, panel discussion “Aligning multinational firms for the “decade of action”: a real prospect or wishful thinking?”. For details of the in-depth study of green innovation she and her co-authors conducted and its suggestions of how MNEs can contribute to SDGs please see here and here.
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth:
- Sustainable International Business Partnership (SIBP), An Agenda for Sustainable International Business, Impact Event of the Academy of International Business (AIB), November 20, 2023.
- What Does It Take to Build an Inclusive Governance of Global Value Chains? A Framework for Intervention. AIB Insights. https://doi.org/10.46697/001c.71445, Wang, E. Y., Driffield, N., Clegg, J., Miles, L., Alford, M., and J. Kim, 2023.
Qualifications
- PhD International Business and Economics, University of Leeds
- MSc International Finance, University of Leeds
- BSc Economics and Statistics, Capital University of Economics & Business, Beijing, China
Professional memberships
- The Higher Education Academy
- European Academy of International Business
- Academy of International Business
- British Academy of Management
Student education
Dr Elizabeth Yi Wang is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and the Executive Coordinator of the Teaching and Education Special Interest Group (T&E SIG) of the Academy of International Business (AIB).
During the past years, she has developed and managed 5 undergraduate (UG) modules, 5 postgraduate (PG) modules, two masters programmes – MSc International Business (IB) and MSc International Business (with Study Abroad). As Director of Student Education in International Business, she oversaw the strategic development of UG and PG IB Curriculum and, during my term, both UG and PG programmes achieved national excellence (top NSS ranking of UG programmes) and global excellence (top Financial Times Masters in Management Ranking of our MSc IB). As AACSB Accreditation Champion, she led the re-articulation of IB programme and module learning outcomes, and ensured successful accreditation of 4 UG programmes, 1 PG programme, and more than 40 associated IB modules.
She is an advocate of research-based-learning and research-led teaching.
Recent modules:
Chinese Business (PG), The Emerging Markets (PG), Research Methods for International Business (UG), Managing International Business (UG), Contemporary Topics in International Business (UG)
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for International Business at the University of Leeds