Staff Profile - Shaowei He

Shaowei’s research examines how multinational corporations develop and implement strategies within changing organisational and geopolitical contexts. It addresses two connected issues: the micro-foundations of corporate strategy making; and the co-production of geostrategies of MNCs, states, and regions. Drawing on international business and strategy, international relations, and economic geography, he has investigated post-acquisition integration, internationalisation of emerging market firms, firm legitimacy, and regions’ strategic coupling with global production networks. Empirically, his research uses the international expansion of Chinese enterprises as a theoretically revealing setting through which to examine the interactions between firm strategy, regional development, national interests and geopolitical change. Beyond its academic contribution, his research has informed policy, business practice and public debate concerning Chinese investment, UK–China regional collaboration and the national-security implications of foreign investment, leading to a REF2021 Impact Case.

Shaowei has received research grants from Leverhulme/British Academy and British Council. His work has appeared in leading academic journals such as Journal of World Business, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Review, and Management and Organization Review.

Shaowei was the Research and Enterprise Lead for the Faculty of Business and Law between 2021 and 2023. In that role he helped to strengthen a more inclusive and supportive research culture as well as a stronger engagement with the external community. Shaowei led the China and Emerging Economies Centre as its Director between 2016 and 2022 during which he developed the centre to be a cross-country collaboration platform.