The Subforum on Interdisciplinary Frontier Research in Technology and Business of ECNU Young Scientists (Scholars) International Forum (hereinafter referred to as the “Subforum”) was livestreamed in the afternoon of April 15. The event was jointly organized by ECNU Shanghai International School of the Chief Technology Officer (hereinafter referred to as “CTO School”), ECNU Asia Europe Business School (hereinafter referred to as “AEBS”), and ECNU-UH Joint Translational Science and Technology Research Institute. To promote academic exchange and cooperation, four young notable scholars from China and other countries were invited to deliver academic reports and explore international research frontiers. Prof. He Jiaxun, Executive Dean of CTO School, delivered an address. Wang Zhenghuan, Vice Dean of CTO School, presided over the event. Nine senior experts in different academic disciplines participated in the Subforum. The livestream was viewed by more than 100 experts, scholars, teachers and students.
The Subforum kicked off at 13:00 as scheduled. Prof. He Jiaxun delivered a speech, in which he extended a warm welcome to the four young scholars and pointed out that education is being pushed to change in the face of the pandemic. With tremendous changes in the world posing higher requirements for the management in various sectors, higher education is facing the challenge of improving the competencies of talents. CTO school aims to promote the reform of business and management education through the interdisciplinary program in technology and business. To deliver on its commitment to the mission of “realizing the social value of technology through the collaborative transformation of people and technology,” and to cultivate CTOs and future-oriented, strategic tech entrepreneurs, CTO School has developed interdisciplinary programs in technology and business, T3 Pyramid Model for talent cultivation and the “4+X” curriculum system. Prof. He stated that the new era poses new requirements for teachers who need to adapt to teaching reform and innovative practices. The good teachers that CTO School expects are, according to Prof. He, mentors who have a keen sense of their mission to guide the students’ world outlook, role models that set an example for students, and guardians that support the students’ development.
Yang Ling, associate professor of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University with a Ph.D. from Stanford University, delivered an academic report titled “An Analysis of Entrepreneurship Research and Corporate Social Responsibility Research in the Process of China’s Marketization from the Perspective of Organizational Theory.” In the report, Dr. Yang introduced approaches to the application of organizational theory in innovation, entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and other research fields. Dr. Yang’s research results included the impact of institutional logic and relational linkages on enterprises and entrepreneurs’ behaviors, start-ups’ response to legitimacy pressure, responsible and standardized corporate governance, and differences in the performance of male and female entrepreneurs.
Liu Du, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Department of International Development with a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick, UK, delivered an academic report titled “Application of Machine Learning in Technology Valuation and Patent Strategy Analysis.” In the report, Dr. Liu introduced research results in machine learning methods and use of new datasets as well as breakthroughs in technology valuation and patent strategy analysis. In one research project, he proposed an analytical framework for using machine learning and deep learning techniques to evaluate biomedical technologies. In another research project, he utilized semi-supervised topic modeling techniques to identify patent strategies through different patent value categories in unstructured patent data.
Zhou Qin, with a Ph.D. in Operations Management from the School of Business and Economics of the University of Hong Kong, delivered an academic report titled “Supply Chain Management and Platform Operations.” Dr. Zhou introduced research on the optimal investment decisions of innovative suppliers in the supply chain, as well as the impact of downstream manufacturers’ bargaining power and intensity of competition on upstream suppliers’ innovation investment and channel allocation decisions. Her report also offered a look at product reliability and extended warranty pricing in the supply chain, as well as the impact of product reliability and extended warranty pricing in different supply chains on the balance of supply and demand in ride-hailing platforms.
Zheng Lijing, with a Ph.D. from the Department of Marketing, School of Economics and Management, University of Hong Kong, delivered an academic report titled “The Deviant Prosocial Behavior in the Access-Based Consumption.” In her research, she examined the impact of consumption patterns on consumers’ general prosocial behaviors and concluded through experiments that in access-based consumption, consumers tend to engage in less prosocial behaviors as they prefer convenience. Dr. Zheng proposed two solutions to attenuating the negative impact of access-based consumption patterns: first, reducing convenience in accessing goods provided in access-based consumption; second, increasing social connections in access-based consumption.
In their reports, the four scholars above demonstrated their strengths in different academic disciplines. Experts and young scholars present exchanged their views, and discussed interdisciplinary degree program construction and the research frontier in technology and business, as well as the corresponding education innovation and reform. The Subforum lasted for about four hours before it drew to a successful end.