National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (Decision, Risk, and Management Sciences)

I am extremely honored to receive the support from the Decision, Risk, and Management Sciences division of the National Science Foundation for my dissertation research. This is also the first national, external grant I have received for my research. In this research, I am going to examine the dynamic processes of organizing and managing social innovation in the context of social entrepreneurship. Best practices identified in the research will offer tangible solutions to help practitioners make marked improvement in creating scalable and sustainable social innovations.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Research Grant

I am a research assistant for Planning Knowledge Networks for Scaling Up Impact project (PI: Prof. Noshir Contractor, Co-PI: Prof. Michelle Shumate, Prof. Paul Leonardi, & Prof. Leslie DeChurch). This project combines social network methods with social influence strategies to scale up neo-natal and maternal health care solutions in Bihar, India.

National Science Foundation CAREER Grant (Science of Organizations)

I had the great opportunity to be involved in this 5-year funded project examining The Impact of Interorganizational Network Evolution on Outcomes for Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs). We collected data from more than 800 NGOs around the globe about their organizational capacity and their networking patterns with other nonprofits, businesses, and governmental agencies.

National Science Foundation (Engineering Design and Innovation)

This interdisciplinary research project seeks to examine customers’ preferences and decision-making processes through analyzing large-scale complex networks. Drawing on social network theory (e.g., homophily and social influence theory) and social network analysis techniques (e.g., exponential random graph modelling), it has the potential to advance our understanding of multidimensional customer-product networks.

Northwestern University School of Communication Faculty Innovation Grant 

Prof. Michelle Shumate and I got a research grant to examine how human services nonprofit organizations across the United States use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate their collaboration with other nonprofit organizations. We hope this project would help organizations, both profit and nonprofit, develop best practices of technology use.

Buffet Institute for Global Studies Dissertation Travel Grant

I am generously supported by this research grant from Buffet Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University to conduct an exploratory study on how Chinese social entrepreneurs generate and diffuse social innovation. The findings of this project will help me gain insight into how institutional environments enable or constrain social entrepreneurship.

Northwestern University School of Communication Ignition Grant

I received this grant from the School of Communication to study the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance. This project is different from my previous projects in that it focuses on the social value creation of for-profit organizations, whereas my previous research primarily focuses on nonprofit organizations’ social value creation dynamics.

Northwestern University School of Communication Dissertation Research Grant

I received this grant from the School of Communication to conduct the pilot study for my dissertation research, which explores how social ventures in the United States create and organize social innovation in the context of social entrepreneurship. It expects to survey 300 social ventures working in social issues such as environment and community development.