Time: 14:00-17:00, 19 March 2026
Speaker: Justin Tan is the Newmont Chair in Business Strategy and a tenured Professor of Management at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada. He was the only U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Economics and Management to teach in China for one year. His main teaching and research fields include entrepreneurship and innovation, strategic management, and corporate social responsibility. He has published dozens of academic papers in leading international journals including Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Journal of International Business Studies, and more than ten papers in Management World and Journal of Management Sciences in China. He has led five key and general projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and nine research projects funded by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Professor Tan has served as editor-in-chief, associate editor, editorial board member, or reviewer for more than ten major international academic journals. Eight of his cases have been included in the Harvard/Ivey case libraries.
Abstract:
In this academic talk, Professor Tan will first briefly review the development of his research interests and trajectory, then focus on how the ESG framework has evolved over the past two decades from a marginalized corporate social responsibility practice into an important organizational logic widely valued by investors, policymakers, corporate managers, and academics. The talk first reviews the origins of ESG and then discusses the institutional logic driving its global diffusion. On this basis, it uses macroeconomic and industry-level cases to assess ESG's potential contributions to economic growth and social well-being at the macro level, as well as its practical constraints, and offers an outlook on future directions for ESG practice and research.
