Title: Disruptive vis-à-vis Consolidating Knowledge Production

Speaker: Tony Fang (Xiaohui Fang)，Professor, Stockholm University, Sweden

Host: Runtian Jing, Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Time: 11:30–13:00, Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Venue: Room B207, Antai Building, Xuhui Campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Note: Lunch will be served at this seminar. Please register at: https://f.kdocs.cn/g/CwSPdJap

Brief introduction of the content: 

This presentation argues that international business research needs more disruptive knowledge — work that challenges established paradigms rather than merely consolidating existing ones, though both types remain essential. Drawing on Park et al.'s (2023) finding that scientific papers and patents have grown less disruptive over decades, Fang contends that the field has reached an inflection point where geopolitical, technological, and planetary challenges demand new gurus to be born. While disruptive research carries potential career risks, it yields greater academic and societal impact. Fang reflects on how top journals can better incentivize disruptive scholarship through institutional support, cross-discipline and cross-science ideation, renewed single authorship, and, probably most important of all, the courage to ask assumption-challenging questions that can genuinely transform and develop the discipline.

Speaker's profile:

Tony Fang (Xiaohui Fang) is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, Sweden, where he also leads the Cross-Cultural Research Group on Emerging Markets. He has long been committed to promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and the Nordic region in the areas of political economy, technological innovation, education, and culture. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a bachelor's and a master's degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering. He later pursued his doctoral studies in Sweden, earning a Ph.D. in Industrial Marketing from Linköping University. For many years, he has conducted research in international cross-cultural management and international business, earning wide recognition from the academic community both in China and internationally. He serves as a Field Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS). His academic works include: Chinese Business Negotiating Style, A Critique of Hofstede's Fifth Cultural Dimension, From Onion to Ocean, Yin Yang Cultural Theory, International Business under Sanctions, and Tech Cold War, International Economic Multipolarization, and International Business Research.

Welcome all!