The true Authenticity
Why audiences and stakeholders reward people and organizations they perceive as genuine, and how authenticity creates value.
孙中源
Zhongyuan Sun
Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
I study strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, drawing on sociology and philosophy. My research is organized around three classic ideals: the true, the good, and the beautiful. In management, these correspond to authenticity, social issues in management, and aesthetics.
I received my PhD in Management from the City University of Hong Kong. Methodologically, I began with quantitative research and have since expanded into theoretical and qualitative work, at both the individual and firm levels.
If our interests align, I welcome the opportunity to collaborate. Please feel free to reach out to me by email.
Research
The good Social issues in management
Research that speaks to today’s grand challenges and to groups that are often overlooked, animals included.
The beautiful Aesthetics
How aesthetic judgment shapes strategy and organizational identity, and how innovation happens in the arts and cultural industries.
News
2026
- A review of Jonathan Clements’s Japan’s Anime Revolution! was accepted at the Journal of Cultural Economy.
- Joined the Early Career Reviewer Board of the Journal of Knowledge Management.
- Published “Bittersweet Symphony” (with Skyler Clark-Hamel and Lena Bischoff) online in the Journal of Management.
- Received the Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Reviewer Award from the OMT Division of the Academy of Management.
- Published a review of Annika A. Culver’s Democratizing Luxury in Business History.
- Awarded a JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (2026–2029) as principal investigator.
- Defended my PhD dissertation at the City University of Hong Kong.
2025
- Joined the Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University, as a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor.
- Won the Best Paper Award in Social Issues in Management (SIM) at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Copenhagen for “Bittersweet Symphony.”
- Published “Optimal or detrimental?” (with Huajie Shen and Stan Xiao Li) online in the Journal of Business Research.
- Published “The intellectual legacy of Erving Goffman in management studies” (with Yutian Ren and Yilan Li) online in the Journal of Management History; it appeared in print in 2026.