Dr Yanfei Hu
Biography
Yanfei Hu is Lecturer of Sustainable Enterprises at the Surrey Business School. She holds a PhD in Business Administration, an MBA (both from the Ivey Business School, Western University, Canada), and a BA in Economics. Prior to joining the academia, she worked in the media and education sectors, holding positions of business journalist, media group special projects manager, and corporate development director based in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Toronto.
Research
Research interests
Yanfei's areas of expertise include strategic management, social change and social innovation, organization theory, and qualitative research methods.
Her research explores organizational strategies and tactics in changing entrenched cultural and political institutions. She explores this question with institutional theory, social movement theory and the sensemaking perspective. Yanfei has two ongoing research projects:1) a historical case study (1978-2008) of the Ford Foundation’s grantmaking strategy in China promoting human rights and democracy; 2) a study of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals)’s discursive tactics in transforming the prevailing meat-eating culture in North America. Her other projects explore impactful social issues such as the rise of veganism and sustainable eating, and the problem of inequality in and out of organizations. Her data include interviews, organizational archives, print, broadcast and social media archives. Yanfei uses diverse qualitative research methods including grounded theory, process study, and discourse analysis, among others.
Awards
- Finalist, Best Paper on Environmental and Social Practices (ESP) 2017, Organization & Management Theory (OMT) Division, Academy of Management (AOM)
- Best Student Paper Award 2015, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS)
Conference presentations
- Hu Y., Rerup, C, & Zietsma, C. Reflexivity in the “middle”: Conducting large-scale institutional work in repressive contexts. Presented at the Academy of Management (AOM) annual meeting, August 9-13, 2019, Boston.
- Hu Y., Rerup, C, & Zietsma, C. Institutional Interveners and Human Rights Development in Extreme Institutional Environments. Harvard Kennedy School SICI Conference on Rethinking Cross-Sector Social Innovation, April 5-7, 2018, Boston. http://sici.hks.harvard.edu/
- Hu, Y. A longitudinal view of negotiating dual legitimacies during institutional change. European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, July 5-7, 2018 Tallinn, Estonia. https://www.egosnet.org/home
- Paper presentation. Hu, Y., & Rerup, C. 2017. “Mediating Human Rights-Based Change in an Authoritarian State”. Presented at the Academy of Management (AOM) annual meeting, August 4-8, 2017; this paper is also a Finalist, Best Paper on Environmental and Social Practices (ESP) 2017, Organization & Management Theory (OMT) Division, AOM.
- Hu, Y. “Social Movement Organizing: Robust Action in a Movement-Inhibiting Environment”. Presented at the American Sociological Association (ASA) annual meeting, August 10-15, 2017.
- Hu, Y. “Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Paradoxes of MNC Social Coordination”. Presented at the British Academy of Management (BAM) 2017 Conference, September 5-7, 2017
My teaching
MAN1090 Business Ethics (module leader)
MAN1100 Economics, Business and Sustainability
Personal tutor
Placement year tutor
My publications
Additional publications
Peer reviewed article:
Hu, Y., & Rerup, C. 2017. “Mediating Human Rights-Based Change in an Authoritarian State”. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings (top 10% of conference papers)
Hu, Y., & Rerup, C. Forthcoming. Sensegiving and Sensemaking of Highly Disruptive Issues: Animal Rights Experienced Through PETA YouTube Videos. Research in the Sociology of Organizations.
Dissertation:
Social Movement Organization and Robust Action: Creating a Pre-movement in a Movement-Inhibiting Environment
Chair: Dr. Claus Rerup; Examiners: Dr. Tima Bansal, Dr. Charles Jones, Dr. Christine Oliver, Dr. Mark Zbaracki