Jie Wu
Chair Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
University of Aberdeen Business School
What happens to competitive advantage when strategy is delegated to learning machines?
Professor Jie Wu's research examines how algorithms and artificial intelligence are transforming the foundations of competitive advantage, including when the capabilities firms spent decades building turn into liabilities. His wider research spans digital inclusion, entrepreneurship, and innovation and internationalisation in emerging economies.
He has published more than eighty articles in leading academic journals, including the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, and Research Policy among the Financial Times Top 50 and UTD Top 24. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review and Forbes, and he has been named on Stanford University's list of the world's top 2% most-cited scientists for six consecutive years (2020–2025).
His current research programme studies the algorithmic transformation of dynamic capabilities: how artificial intelligence reshapes sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring; what "capability" means when strategic action is delegated to learning machines; and how AI-driven stratification alters the status orders on which markets and organisations run. Recent work from this programme appears in the Journal of Management Studies ("Algorithmic Status Inequality," 2026, solo-authored).
- Strategy & capabilitiesDynamic capabilities under AI disruption; when established capabilities turn into liabilities; microfoundations and leadership for AI change.
- AI & organisationHuman–AI collaboration and decision making; generative AI for strategy and innovation; AI governance, safety, and transparency.
- Digital strategy & entrepreneurshipPlatforms, ecosystems, and data network effects; born-digital firms and digital internationalisation; entrepreneurship and digital inclusion in emerging economies.
Open call The International Journal of Human Resource Management, special issue "Addressing Ultra-Low Fertility and Workforce Shrinkage: A Human-Centered HRM Response to the Demographic Crisis." Manuscript deadline: 30 November 2026. Editors: Ingyu Oh, Jie Wu, Ho-Kwong Kwan, and Hyun-Jeong Kim. Call for papers.
Wu, J. (2026). Algorithmic status inequality: An integrative perspective on AI-driven social stratification. Journal of Management Studies. solo-authored · doi.org/10.1111/joms.70134
Khan, Z., Wood, G., Khan, H., Al-Tabbaa, O., Puthusserry, P., & Wu, J. (2026). Multinational enterprises and their role in mitigating climate change: Comparative perspectives. Management International Review. doi.org/10.1007/s11575-026-00639-2
Wu, J., Triana, M. d. C., Richard, O. C., & Yu, L. (2024). The impact of CEO successions involving a change in gender on strategic change. Journal of Management Studies.
Kim, H., Wu, J., Schuler, D. A., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2020). Chinese multinationals' fast internationalization: Financial performance advantage in one region, disadvantage in another. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(7), 1076–1106.
Richard, O. C., Wu, J., Markoczy, L. A., & Chung, Y. (2019). Top management team demographic-faultline strength and strategic change: What role does environmental dynamism play? Strategic Management Journal, 40(6), 987–1009.
Wu, J., Si, S., & Wu, X. (2016). Entrepreneurial finance and innovation: Informal debt as an empirical case. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 10(3), 257–273.
- Area Editor, Technovation
- Associate Editor, Asian Business & Management
- Editorial Review Boards: Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Studies, and Business & Society
- Guest editor of special issues for Management International Review, Transportation Research Part E, and European Management Journal
- Fellow, British Academy of Management Peer Review College
- Current roles. Chair Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship; Director of Postgraduate Research (PGR Director), University of Aberdeen Business School; Co-Director, Africa-Asia Centre for Sustainability.
- Visiting positions. Stanford University (visiting scholar under the guidance of Professor James G. March); Columbia University Business School; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
- Teaching across institutions. University of Leeds, National University of Singapore, University of Auckland, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and University of Macau, among others.
- Education and career. PhD, National University of Singapore. His academic career spans Singapore, New Zealand, Macau, and the United Kingdom.
I collaborate with externally funded postdocs, PhD students, early-career scholars, visiting scholars, and entrepreneurs to produce rigorous publications and high-value proposals. Visits are flexible: short (2–8 weeks), medium (3–12 months), or long (1–3 years). No internal funding is available; this invitation is for candidates who bring their own funding or projects.
What I provide: publication strategy and hands-on paper development; research design, methods, and compliance support (ethics, data, visa); introductions to UK research and innovation networks; and local guidance on Scotland and university navigation.
As PGR Director, I lead the School's doctoral programme and welcome enquiries from prospective PhD candidates in strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
To start Email jie.wu@abdn.ac.uk with a 1–2 page CV, a short summary of your research or venture idea, your funding status, and your preferred timeline.
- Strategic Research Frontiers Workshop series, Aberdeen: founder, organiser, and chair, with keynotes by Jay Barney (2024), Dovev Lavie (2024), and Richard Whittington (2025), and paper-development sessions with leading journal editors.
- Academy of Management 2026, Philadelphia: discussant, Professional Development Workshop on leadership development in African contexts.
- Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit & Festival: Academic Host and Chair, 2026 Aberdeen Edition; Judge, 2025 Edinburgh Edition.
- Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS): keynote speaker, knowledge-exchange seminar "Crafting Interesting Papers for Technovation" (2024).
jie.wu@abdn.ac.uk
MacRobert 802, King's College, University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 5UA, United Kingdom