Our first Faculty Spotlight of the semester is on Dr. Henry (Xu) Han, Associate Professor of Management. Dr. Han joined the School of Business in 2017. Born in China, he studied at the China Foreign Affairs University before obtaining his Ph.D. at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. He teaches classes in Strategic Management, Selected Topics in Management, and Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management.
Dr. Han is currently researching, “Intra-Firm Work Experiences and Corporate Venturing by Employees.” Recently, we caught up with him to learn more about this research.
Can you share with us a little about this topic?
“Corporate venturing involves employees initiating ventures to explore new business opportunities for their organizations. These initiatives are vital for the long-term success and competitiveness of firms. However, research suggests that organizations often face challenges in motivating and engaging employees to pursue such initiatives. Therefore, an important question to address is: how can organizations effectively prepare employees for corporate venturing?”
What drew you to this topic?
“The sustainability of firms’ success has declined significantly in the past decade, making this topic highly important. Moreover, it lies at the intersection of the two areas I am most passionate about: strategy and entrepreneurship.”
Have you encountered any challenges in conducting this research?
“Conducting this research requires a large dataset that provides detailed information about employees’ work histories within a large organization, as well as their involvement in corporate venturing activities. However, such data is often confidential and difficult to access.”
What have you found the most interesting to come out of this research so far?
“Employees’ willingness to engage in corporate venturing activities is strongly influenced by their work experience within the organization. Specifically, those with more diverse functional work experience are more likely to pursue corporate venturing. Moreover, employees can gain such experience not only by working in multiple functional roles themselves but also by collaborating with colleagues who possess knowledge of different functions. Both types of experiences can increase their likelihood of pursuing corporate venturing.”
Read more about Dr. Han and see what other things he has been working on.