Dr Tao Zhang

Tao’s research focuses on technology policy, innovation management and energy, standing at the intersection of innovation and sustainability. He primarily examines technology user behaviour, technological change and innovation management in relation to energy, e.g. consumers’ adoption of innovative energy technologies, post-adoption user learning, and national/international environment and climate policies for promoting innovative energy technologies. He is also interested in energy efficiency, sustainable production, CSR and firms’ pro-environmental behaviour. His research expertise in nature is inter-disciplinary. He is specialised in both empirical and computational simulation methods.

Prior to joining the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Loughborough University London as a Senior Lecturer, Dr Tao Zhang was a Lecturer in Marketing and Sustainability in Birmingham Business School, the University of Birmingham. Before Birmingham, he had three-year post-doc experience in the School of Computer Science, the University of Nottingham, for an EPSRC Energy and Complexity Science project. He received his PhD from Judge Business School, the University of Cambridge.

Dr Tao Zhang is currently engaged in the following research projects:

• CSR and firms’ technological innovation, with colleagues from Tsinghua University (China) and the University of Cambridge
• Government environmental subsidies and firms’ technological innovation performance, with colleagues from Central South University (China)
• Inter-firm links and firms’ innovation performance in an innovation ecosystem, with colleagues from Tsinghua University (China)
• Water disclosure and firm risk, with colleagues from Central South University (China)

Dr Tao Zhang is supervising/co-supervising the following PhD students:

• Misha Xu (University of Birmingham). PhD project: The effects of social norms on consumer impulse buying
• Yingying Qian (University of Birmingham). PhD project: The effects of Word-of-Mouth on new product development
• Hao Wu (University of Birmingham). PhD project: Does service innovation capability lead to service innovation performance? Empirical evidence from global engineering service firms

Dr Tao Zhang is an associate researcher of the Energy Policy Research Group, the University of Cambridge. He also remains close links with the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham, Tsinghua University and Central South University.