Six External Research Funds Awarded to IBSS Faculty Members

A total number of 6 IBSS research projects have been recently awarded research grants from national, provincial and municipal research funding bodies. This represents the strong research capabilities and collaborative research atmosphere in IBSS at XJTLU.

IBSS research team, led by Dr. Lixian Qian, was awarded research fund of 480,000 RMB from the general programme of the 2015 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The awarded project, entitled “Theoretical and Empirical Studies on the Dynamic Diffusion of Low Carbon Innovations: the Perspective of Socio-technical System Evolution”, aims to deeply explore the dynamic diffusion patterns of low-carbon innovations and the corresponding key influencing factors in the perspective of social-technical system evolution. The team members include Dr. José María Grisolía, Dr. Juelin Yin and Dr. Woon Kian Chong from IBSS as well as two external researchers from the UK. The NSFC was established in 1986, and represents the highest level of China’s natural science research. The NSFC supports researchers to carry out innovative scientific research and promotes balanced, coordinated and sustainable development of the various disciplines.

In addition to the NSFC project, IBSS has 5 other research projects that receive provincial and municipal support. Three research projects were supported by the Jiangsu Department of Education Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Funding Programme. One awarded research project entitled “Government Support, Internationalization and Innovation of Chinese Firms” is led by Dr. Fangrong Li from IBSS management group. It aims to explore how Chinese firms’ internationalization effort would influence their innovation activities and performance.

Dr. Juelin Yin was awarded a research project entitled “A Study of Pro-Environmental Consumer Behavior in the City of Suzhou”, which aims to explore the antecedents as well as consequences of sustainable consumption practices in Suzhou, with a particular interest in how sharing (such as car sharing, bicycle sharing) contribute to sustainability. The third provincially supported project is “Consumer Adoption of Multi-level Low-Carbon Innovations: Empirical Study in South Jiangsu region” applied for by Dr. Lixian Qian, which will investigate the consumers’ adoption preferences towards different levels of environmental friendly innovations in South Jiangsu.

Another two research projects, applied for by Dr. Juelin Yin and Dr. Dieu Hack-Polay were funded by Suzhou Social Science Planning Programme. Both projects aim to address corporate responsibility in a broad sense, with social entrepreneurship and migrant workers as the research focuses.

XJTLU aims to become a research-led international university in China. The awarding of these external research funds highlights the importance the University and IBSS place on research and supporting research related activities.