Biography

Year of entry: 2014

Dissertation Committee: Vibha Gaba (co-chair), Henrich Greve (co-chair), Vikas Aggarwal, Brian Wu (University of Michigan)

Finalist, Kauffman Best Student Paper Awards in Entrepreneurial Cognition, 2020

Strategy Research Foundation (SRF) Dissertation Scholar Award, 2018-2020

PhD Rudolf & Valeria Maag Scholarship in Entrepreneurship, 2019-2020

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Research Interests

Opportunity Identification, Organizational Learning, Technology Management, Managerial Cognition, Machine Learning Methods

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Teaching Interests

Entrepreneurship, Technology Management, Managing Organizational Change, Business Analytics

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Overview

Amy's dissertation examines different aspects of organizational learning and opportunity identification in emerging markets. The starting point of the research is, although the first challenges firms face in emerging markets are what opportunities to pursue and the iterative process to articulate the opportunities, these issues have not received sufficient scholarly attention. Using rich data in the empirical setting of mobile application developers, Amy applies the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modelling method to identify functionalities, which represent the purposes products can provide for customers. The emerging market can be seen as a functionality landscape with clusters highlighting different functionalities firms can position themselves in. In the dissertation, Amy studies how firms learn from their own and others' experiences as well as customers' feedback to identify opportunities and navigate the functionality landscape.

Broadly, Amy is interested in how managers interpret information and respond to changes in the performance and evolution of technology and user preferences in the demand environment. She also explores these topics in the mutual fund industry and the instant photography industry.

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Work in Progress

1. Gaba, V., Lee, S., Meyer-Doyle, P., & Zhao-Ding, A (equal contribution). “Prior Experiences of Managers and Responsiveness to Performance Feedback: Evidence from Mutual Funds”— Revise & Resubmit at Organization Science

2. Zhao-Ding, A. “Product Experience and Learning to Identify Opportunities: Evidence from Mobile Application Developers” —job market paper

3. Zhao-Ding, A. “Demand Heterogeneity and Firm Positioning: The Evolution of Boundaries in Functional Market Segments” –dissertation chapter

4. Zhao-Ding, A. “Product Positioning and Performance in Goal-Based Categories” –dissertation chapter

5. Zhao-Ding, A. “Unexpected Perks of Being Customer-Centric: Growth Opportunity Identification in Instant Photography”— working paper

6. Zhao-Ding, A. & Aggarwal, V. “User Analytics and Adoption of New Technology: Mobile Application Developers in Augmented Reality (AR)”— data analysis

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Education

INSEAD (Singapore/Fontainebleau, France)
PhD Candidate in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise Area (2014-Present)

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA)
Visiting PhD Student (Spring 2017)

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
Master of Social Science in Global Political Economy (2010-2011)

Peking University (Beijing, China)
Bachelor of Arts in Economics (2006-2010)