Background and Scope

The Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund was created in 2016 to commemorate the life and work of Professor Kwok Leung, and to continue his mission of supporting young scholars. The fund is intended to support Ph.D. students who need funds to collect data to finish their dissertations. An applicant may submit one proposal for funding consideration during each award cycle.

The fund is open to all doctoral students doing Chinese Management research. Research that is “Chinese” includes studies where data is collected from Chinese companies or Chinese individuals. Research that is “Management” includes micro OB, macro OB, strategy, etc. Chinese Management research includes (but is not limited to) Cross-Cultural Management research and Indigenous Chinese Management research.

Funding and Deliverables

Each year there will be a maximum of five awards of RMB 10,000 yuan (before tax) each. Support will be prioritized based on the quality of the research proposal, financial need, and track record of accomplishment by the student. Winners will be announced by July 17, 2026.

Please be reminded that once their dissertations are completed, award winners are expected to provide an executive summary of the research findings and a copy of the dissertation (with acknowledgment of the IACMR Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund).

Proposal Submission and Evaluation

Applicants must be active IACMR members (membership fee current). Applications should include:

• A cover page: indicate IACMR membership, classify dissertation track (micro/macro), contact information
• A one-page biography
• An abstract of the proposal
• The proposal itself (15 pages max., single-spaced) with the following structure:
  1. Theoretical background, research questions and expected contributions
  2. Research method and data collection
  3. Expected impact of the Dissertation Fund on the quality of the research
  4. Research schedule
  5. Detailed budget, including sources of support other than this dissertation fund
  6. References
• A signed letter from a faculty advisor commenting on the author’s research potential and affirming that s/he is working on a dissertation proposal
• A signed confirmation letter containing the following statements (Signature required):
  1. If awarded, upon completion of this dissertation, I will provide IACMR with an executive summary of the research findings and a copy of the dissertation (with acknowledgment of the IACMR Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund).
  2. If awarded, I will attend the award ceremony at the 2027 IACMR Biennial Conference in Hong Kong.

Please merge all the materials into ONE PDF file. Proposals that do not meet these requirements will not be sent for review.

We asked the proposals to be sent to iacmrmembership@pku.edu.cn with the subject “Application for the Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund”, by May 31, 2026. The proposals will be forwarded to IACMR Research Committee for assessment. 

2026 Kwok Leung Memorial Dissertation Fund Grant Committee

• 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.