Dear IACMR Community,

The Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund was created to commemorate the life and work of Professor Kwok Leung and to continue his mission of supporting young scholars. This fund is intended to assist Ph.D. students who need financial support to collect data for their dissertations. It is open to all doctoral students conducting research in Chinese Management.

This is the 9th year of inviting proposals for the fund grant. By the submission deadline of May 10, 2024, we received more than 30 valid proposals from students worldwide.

The IACMR Research Committee, co-chaired by Professor Cuili Qian (The University of Texas at Dallas) and Professor Wei He (Nanjing University), reviewed and assessed the submitted proposals. The following five proposals, listed in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names, received the highest ratings and have been awarded the 2024 Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund grants:

Siyu Chen, Zhejiang University
What’s Left When Art Can even be Automated? Rethinking Self-expression of Creative Professionals under the Disruption of GenAI 

Longwang Fu, City University of Hong Kong
Rubber Stamp Versus Gatekeeper? Short-Selling Deregulation and Independent Directors’ Dissensions 

Xinyue Li, University of International Business and Economics
Do Not Let Solicitation Create Side Effects: the Double-edged Impact of Leader Voice Solicitation on the Solicited Employees, Third-Party Employees, and Teams

Maogang Sun, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Ai-Audience and Corporate Communication Strategy Conveying Firms’ Negative Financial Performance in Emerging Markets 

Ines Wen, University of Sydney
How Disruption Catalyses the Innovation Process in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Global Contexts 

Warm congratulations to the above winners! Each winner will receive a grant of RMB 10,000.

We would also like to take this opportunity to recognize the outstanding contributions of our reviewers, listed in alphabetical order by their last names:

• Cuili Qian, The University of Texas at Dallas (Co-Chair)
• Wei He, Nanjing University (Co-Chair)
• Jie (Jasmine) Feng, Rutgers University
• Chak Fu Lam, City University of Hong Kong
• Shuping Li, Hong Kong PolyTech University
• Cecilia Gu Qian, Georgia State University
• Zhiyan Wu, Erasmus University
• Yucheng Zhang, University of Southampton

Thanks to the generous donations of many scholars, this award has been made possible. We would greatly appreciate it if you could join us in supporting Kwok’s mission of training young scholars. Please contact Dr. Lerong He, IACMR Treasurer, at lhe@geneseo.edu if you would like to contribute.

Thank you for your kind attention and constant support!

Professor Runtian Jing

Shanghai Jiao Tong University
IACMR President