Yong Li

 

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RESEARCH THEMES

I conduct research at the intersection of strategy, entrepreneurship, and international business, studying venture capital, crowdfunding, new venture innovation and international investment. The overarching goal of my research is to offer insights into how firms and new ventures make investment decisions under uncertain conditions, and how they create and capture value from such decisions. My work is motivated by a pervasive business challenge: Decision making in entrepreneurial contexts is characterized by nontrivial uncertainty and information asymmetry. Firms and new ventures must formulate strategies to meet this challenge. My research centers on analysis of these strategies and their performance implications.

My work suggests that it is critical to keep options open and get the institutions right for value creation and value capture under uncertainty. First, the agency and information economics view highlights that venture capital creates value by resolving information asymmetry between investors and entrepreneurs. My work contributes to the literature by exploring another distinct mechanism for venture capital to create value, which is to act flexibly under uncertainty to capture the upside potential and limit the downside exposure of entrepreneurial opportunities (e.g., Li, 2008; Li and Mahoney, 2011; Tong and Li, 2011; Li and Chi, 2013; Li et al., 2023). Second, institutions are devised to reduce uncertainty in (economic) exchanges by providing a structure to the society. My work adds to this research stream by highlighting informal institutions embedded in human networks (e.g., Iriyama, Li and Madhavan, 2010) and exploring how they interact with formal institutions (i.e., laws and regulations) to affect venture capital and international investments under conditions of uncertainty (e.g., Li and Zahra, 2012; Li, Vertinsky, and Li, 2014; Li, Hernandez, and Gwon, 2019; Li, et al., 2023).

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

     Keeping options open in venture capital and international investments:

  1. Li, Y., and T. Chi. 2013. Venture capitalists’ decision to withdraw: The role of portfolio configuration from a real options lens. Strategic Management Journal 34: 1351-1366.
  2. Li, Y. & J. Mahoney. 2011. When Are Venture Capital Projects Initiated? Journal of Business Venturing. 26(2): 239-254.
    • “JBV Field Editors Highlighted High Quality Paper” in Management and Entrepreneurship, 2016
  3. Tong, T. & Y. Li. 2011. Real Options and Investment Mode Decision: Evidence from Corporate Venture Capital and Acquisition. Organization Science. 22(3): 659-674.
  4. Li, J. & Y. Li. 2010. Flexibility versus Commitment: MNEs Ownership Strategy in China. Journal of International Business Studies. 41(9): 1550-1571.
  5. Li, Y. 2008. Duration Analysis of Venture Capital Staged Financing: A Real Options Perspective. Journal of Business Venturing. 23: 497-512.  
  6. Li, Y., B. James, R. Madhavan, & J. Mahoney. 2007. Real Options: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead. Advances in Strategic Management, 24: 31-66.

     Getting the institutions right in venture capital and international investments:

  1. Li, Y., J. Li, P. Zhang, and *S. Gwon. Accepted. 2022. Stronger Together: Country-of-Origin Agglomeration and MNE Location Choice in an Adverse Institutional Environment. Strategic Management Journal.
    • IACMR Best Macro Paper, 2021.
  2. Li, Y., E. Hernandez and *S. Gwon. 2019. When do ethnic communities affect foreign location choice? Academy of Management Journal. 62 (1), 172-195.
  3. Zhao, E. and Y. Li. 2019. Institutions and Entrepreneurship: Broadening and Contextualizing the Institutional Theory in Entrepreneurship Research. Quarterly Journal of Management 4 (2), 15-25.
  4. Li, Y., Vertinsky, I., and Li, J. 2014. National distances, international experience, and venture capital investment performance. Journal of Business Venturing 29(4): 471-489.
    • Finalist, Carolyn Dexter Award, Academy of Management, 2010
    • Finalist, 3rd Israel Strategy Conference Best Paper Award, 2010
  5. Li, Y. and S. Zahra. 2012. "Formal Institutions, Culture, and Venture Capital Activity: A Cross-Country Analysis". Journal of Business Venturing. 27(1): 95-111.
  6. Iriyama, A., Y. Li, and R. Madhavan. 2010. Spiky Globalization of Venture Capital Investments: The Influence of Prior Human Networks. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 4(2): 106-127.

     Mitigating information asymmetry in entrepreneurial finance

  1. *Courtney, C., Dutta, S., and Li, Y. 2017. Resolving information asymmetry: Signaling and crowdfunding success. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 41(2): 265-290.
  • Highlighted as contributing significantly to the journal’s impact, 2019

     Micro perspectives on Entrepreneurship:

  1. Kim, J., E. Grijalva, D. Newman, and Y. Li. Entrepreneur Weirdness as a Double-Edged Sword. Accepted. 2023. Personnel Psychology.
  2. *Liu, Y., Y. Li, X. Hao, and Y. Zhang. 2019. Narcissism and entrepreneurial learning from Failure. Journal of Business Venturing. 34 (3), 496-512.

     Other topics in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and International Business:

  1. Liu, Z., *Z. Xu, Z. Zhou, and Y. Li. 2019. Buddhist entrepreneurs and new venture performance: The mediating role of entrepreneurial risk-taking. Small Business Economics. 52 (3), 713–727.
  2. Li, Y., S. Zahra and S. Lan. 2017. Heterogeneity in New Venture Formation Rates across Nations: The Schumpeterian and Institutional Economics Views.  Entrepreneurial Finance: Managerial and Policy Implications . 1-35. Lead article.
  3. Zahra, S., L. R. Newey, and Y. Li. 2014. On the Frontiers: The Implications of Social Entrepreneurship for International Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 38(1): 137-158.
  4. Li, J., Y. Li and A. Rugman. 2012. Real options theory and international investment strategy. In A. Verbeke & H. Merchant (eds.). Edward Elgar Handbook of Research on International Strategic Management.
  5. Li, J., Y. Li, and D. Shapiro. 2012. Knowledge seeking and outward FDI of emerging market firms: The moderating effect of inward FDI. Global Strategy Journal. 2(4): 277-295. Lead article
  6. Li, Y. and R. Aguilera. 2008. Director Turnover in Acquired Firms: A Multi-Theoretical Approach. Corporate Governance: An International Review. 16(6): 492-503.

* PhD students

 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

 

  1. Li, Y., and E. Yao. 2019. All ties are not created equal: Institutional equity ties, IPO performance, and market growth of new ventures. In D. Cumming & S. Johan (ed.). Oxford Handbook of IPO.
  2. Li, J., Y. Li and A. Rugman. 2012. Real options theory and international investment strategy. In A. Verbeke & H. Merchant (eds.). Edward Elgar Handbook of Research on International Strategic Management.
  3. Li, Y. 2012. Venture capital staging: Domestic VC- versus foreign VC-led investments. In D. Cumming (ed.). Oxford Handbook of Venture Capital. Oxford University Press: 354-372.
  4. Wu, J., E. Yao, Y. Li and H. Du. 2009. Theory and evidence of social influence on NBA officials decision making. International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences. 2(4):340-351.

 

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS AND MISC.

 

  1. Rajshree Agarwal, Jay B. Barney, James Fiet, William B. Gartner, Yong Li, Saras Sarasvathy, Andrew H. Van de Ven and Shaker A. Zahra. 2019. Advancing Theory Development in Entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  2. Gwon, S., Y. Li, J. Li and P. Zhang. 2019. Conational Agglomeration and Location Choice of MNEs. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  3. Li, Y. and J. Zhu. 2018. College Dropout Entrepreneurs and New Venture Milestones. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  4. Courtney, C., S. Dutta and Y. Li. 2016. Resolving Information Asymmetries: Influence of Media and Crowd Sentiment on Crowdfunding Success. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  5. Gary Dushnitsky, Yong Li, Gautam Ahuja, Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon and Dean A. Shepherd. 2016. The Pursuit of Innovation. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  6. Li, Y., E. Hernandez and S. Gwon. 2015. When do ethnic communities affect foreign location choice? Academy of Management Proceedings.
  7. Li, J., Y. Li and D. Shapiro. 2012. Knowledge Seeking and Outward FDI of Chinese MNEs: The Moderating Effect of Inward FDI. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  8. Li, Y., J. Li, and I. Vertinsky. 2010. National Institutional Differences and Performance of International Venture Capital Syndicates. Academy of Management Proceedings.
  9. Iriyama, A., Y. Li, and R. Madhavan. 2009. Spiky Globalization of Venture Capital Investments. Academy of Management Proceedings.

 

RESEARCH GRANTS

 

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (with Ilan Vertinsky), 2023-2026

Business and International Education grant, UNLV, 2022

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (with Ilan Vertinsky), 2019-2022

Rocky Mountain CIBER Grant, 2021

Summer research grant, SUNY Buffalo, 2007-2018

Scholars in Creativity, Innovation and Research Fund, University of Illinois (with Joe Mahoney), 2008-2009

 


SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

 >80 since 2003