November 28, 2025, CUFE Business School held the 6th lecture of the first phase of the 2025 Doctoral Research Capacity Enhancement Program in Conference Room 602. Assistant Professor Zhao Binbin from the Department of Business Management, School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, was invited as the keynote speaker. Using the article “Patterns, Structures, and Gradient Effects of Global Cross-Border Mobility of Researchers over the Past Century” as an example, he shared insights and techniques for conducting research in the field of management. Nearly 20 participants from CUFE Business School attended the lecture. The event was prepared and organized by Associate Professor Dou Chao, Director of the Doctoral Program of CUFE Business School. The Doctoral Research Capacity Enhancement Program is a distinctive initiative launched by CUFE Business School to improve doctoral students’ research capabilities. The program adopts a “lecture + mentoring” format and covers the entire core process of academic research. It is organized one phase each academic year, with several lectures in each phase covering multiple disciplinary directions, including research topic selection, literature review, research design, methodological techniques, academic writing, manuscript submission, and revision.
The lecture was chaired by Associate Professor Dou Chao, Director of the Doctoral Program of CUFE Business School, who first briefly introduced the speaker, Assistant Professor Zhao Binbin. Dr. Zhao received his Ph.D. from the Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on innovation management and innovation policy. He has published more than ten papers in well-known domestic and international journals, including Management World, Science Research Management, China Soft Science, and Research Policy. Some of his research achievements were fully reprinted by the Replicated Journals of the Information Center for Social Sciences, RUC. He also serves as an anonymous reviewer for journals such as Science of Science and Management of S.&.T., International Review of Economics and Finance, Energy Economics, and Environmental Research.
Keynote Speaker: Assistant Professor Zhao Binbin
Assistant Professor Zhao Binbin structured his keynote speech around three parts: an overview of the research background, sharing of top-tier journal papers, and academic paper writing and publication. In the part of sharing top-tier journal papers, he introduced his article published in Management World titled “Patterns, Structures, and Gradient Effects of Global Cross-Border Mobility of Researchers over the Past Century—An Empirical Study Based on Scopus Scientific Literature Data.” Based on nearly 81 million scientific publications from 232 countries and regions between 1920 and 2020, the study depicts and analyzes the patterns and structures of cross-border mobility of researchers over the past century and proposes the gradient effect to explain the underlying evolutionary mechanism. In the part on academic paper writing and publication, Zhao outlined six major sources for identifying research topics: supervisors’ vertical or commissioned research projects, tracking overlooked questions in top journals, focusing on academic debates, cross-disciplinary application of theories and methods, data-driven research, and policy-driven research. In response to doctoral students’ questions about how to efficiently read large volumes of literature, Zhao emphasized the importance of clarifying the purpose of reading. He pointed out that reading academic papers is not only for identifying research directions and topics, but also for learning advanced methods and tools, finding supporting “evidence” for one’s own viewpoints, and imitating high-level academic writing styles. Based on these multiple objectives, Zhao introduced a three-step approach to efficient reading: skim, assess, and delve deep. He also stressed that “the palest ink is better than the best memory,” encouraging students to take notes diligently and make good use of reference management software and artificial intelligence-assisted reading tools, using technology to empower research and significantly improve information processing efficiency.
The lecture was rich in content and clear in logic, providing both high-level guidance on research directions and detailed methodological instruction. During the interactive session, Zhao patiently answered questions raised by students regarding submission guidelines and literature reading. The attending doctoral students noted that the lecture came as “timely rain,” resolving many of the difficulties they faced at the early stage of academic research and laying a solid foundation for their future academic writing and publication. They greatly benefited from the session.
