Zhongyuan Sun

Research

My papers, grouped by the three streams of my research. Papers under review and in progress are listed by topic rather than by full title. For a complete list by type, see the CV.

The true Authenticity

Authenticity matters in business because audiences and stakeholders increasingly reward individuals and organizations they perceive as genuine, making it an important source of value creation.

  1. Optimal or Detrimental? Distinctiveness in High Risk Aversion Contexts

    Huajie Shen, Zhongyuan Sun and Stan Xiao Li

    Journal of Business Research, 2025, 200, 115613

  2. The Intellectual Legacy of Erving Goffman in Management Studies: A Citation Context Analysis

    Zhongyuan Sun, Yutian Ren and Yilan Li

    Journal of Management History, 2026, 32(2), 310–328

  3. The Future of Organisational Authenticity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

    Book chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Breakthrough Technologies in Contemporary Organisations, 2025, 81–91

  4. Outsiders, innovation framing and audience evaluation

    Zhongyuan Sun, Yutian Ren and Kui Wang

    Revise and resubmit at Research Policy

  5. Authenticity and audience evaluation

    Zhongyuan Sun, Yutian Ren and Masaru Karube

    In progress

The good Social issues in management

The area to which I currently devote the most time. I believe good research should be socially significant and speak to today’s grand challenges, such as inequality, and I am particularly concerned with marginalized groups that are often overlooked, including animals.

  1. Bittersweet Symphony: A Music Theory Approach to Stakeholder Dissonance and Value Creation

    Skyler Clark-Hamel, Lena Bischoff and Zhongyuan Sun

    Journal of Management, 2026, advance online publication

    Best Paper Award, Social Issues in Management, 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (2025)

  2. The ethics of pet influencers

    Yutian Ren and Zhongyuan Sun

    Under review at the Journal of Business Ethics

  3. CEO regulatory focus and product recalls

    Kui Wang, Ping Zhang, Zhongyuan Sun and Shibin Sheng

    Revise and resubmit at the Journal of Operations Management

  4. Executives’ military background and pay gaps within firms

    Kui Wang, Hanrong Zhang, Ping Zhang and Zhongyuan Sun

    Under review at the Journal of Business Research

  5. Hope among unemployed youth in China

    Zhongyuan Sun and Yutian Ren

    In progress

  6. Blind entrepreneurs in China

    Zhongyuan Sun and Yutian Ren

    In progress

The beautiful Aesthetics

My newest line of work examines the relationship between aesthetics and strategy.

  1. Aesthetic and analytical judgment in strategy

    Zhongyuan Sun and Yutian Ren

    In progress

  2. Aesthetic philosophy and organizational identity

    Zhongyuan Sun, Yutian Ren and Stoyan Sgourev

    In progress

  3. Radical innovation in creative industries

    Zhongyuan Sun and Yutian Ren

    In progress

Book reviews

  1. Review of Japan’s Anime Revolution! Twenty Animated Films That Changed the World, by Jonathan Clements

    Journal of Cultural Economy, in press

  2. Review of Democratizing Luxury: Name Brands, Advertising, and Consumption in Modern Japan, by Annika A. Culver

    Business History, 2026, advance online publication