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 11th year of inviting proposals for the fund grant. By the submission deadline of May 31, 2026, we received more than 30 valid proposals from students worldwide.

The IACMR Research Committee, co-chaired by Professor Kaifeng Jiang (Peking University) and Professor Shuping Li (The Hong Kong Polytechnic 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 2026 Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund grants:

From Agentic Genius to Communal Complementarity: How AI Reconfigures Gendered Inferences of Sustained Creative Success 
金丽萍（Liping Jin）Peking University

The Two Faces of Leader Knowledge Sharing Request: Why Leader Knowledge Sharing Request Stifles and Sparks Employee Creativity
刘欣宇（Xinyu Liu）The University of Hong Kong

Working Under Scarcity: Workplace Consequences of Basic Needs Insecurity. 
梅浩俊（Jason Moy）University of Washington 

The Interaction between Development-Oriented Local Governments and Startups: A Study Based on Government Guided Funds 
张梦杰（Mengjie Zhang）Sun Yat-Sen University

Steady Rain or Flash Flood? The Frequency and Severity of Environmental Penalties and Corporate Carbon Emissions
张馨元（Xinyuan Zhang）National University of Singapore

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:

• Kaifeng Jiang, Peking University (Co-chair)
• Shuping Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Co-chair)
• Hengchen Dai, University of California, Los Angeles
• Yanjun Guan, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China
• Jiaqing (Kathy) Sun, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Juan Bu, Indiana University
• Qiang Li, China Europe International Business School
• Pengfei Wang , BI Norwegian Business School

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 Wei Shen
Arizona State University
IACMR President