Dr Kun Fu

Her research interests lie in the fields of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. She works on how entrepreneurs react to their contexts and examines the outcomes of this process such as firm creation, growth aspiration, technology innovation and diversification. Kun also undertook consultancy assignments for national government (e.g., The Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis), international organization (e.g., The World Intellectual Property Organization), and private sector enterprise (e.g., Shell). She is the Module Leader and lecturer of Innovation Management (LLP201), Intellectual Property (LLP205) modules, and teaches sessions in Principle of Entrepreneurship (LLP207) and Dissertation (LLP501) modules.

In March 2019, Dr Kun Fu won a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant. You can find out more in our news story. 

Kun developed a strong multidisciplinary knowledge base integrating the fundamentals of science and technology with management through her undergraduate study in Civil Engineering Management. She graduated from Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino with the 1st class grade and obtained her MSc. Double Degree in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering and Multidisciplinary Innovation. Kun’s PhD research at Bocconi University focused on understanding the differences in entrepreneurial activities across regions and countries worldwide. Her PhD thesis, titled “Contextual Influence on Innovative Start-up Firms” investigated the impact of knowledge base of industrial cluster and national institutions on the emergence and innovation performance of entrepreneurial firms.

Kun is passionate about advancing the knowledge of how varied types of entrepreneurs with strategic importance to the society are influenced by their social, cultural, and regulatory contexts and understanding the outcomes of this process in terms of firm formation, growth aspiration and innovation activities of these firms using multi-level modelling techniques. She is currently involved in several research projects and collaborations with scholars from top-tier institutions across the world (e.g., Prof. Erkko Autio and Prof. Mike Wright from Imperial College Business School in the UK , Prof. Karl Wennberg from Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, Prof. Kuo-Feng Huang from Taiwan National Chengchi University and Dr. Yanbin Jiang from Zhejiang University in China).

Kun is currently co-supervising two PhD candidates with Professor Wilfred Dolfsma and Reader Louise Scholes. Ms. Ye Zhang’s research has a focus on the antecedents, investment process and outcomes of co-investment activities of crowdfunding and business angels. Mr. Gori Olusina Daniel is interested in exploring the impact of ownership on firm performance and examines the moderating role of local embeddedness and institutional effectiveness on firm performance in emerging markets.

Kun is affiliated with several academic societies: Entrepreneurship, Business Policy Strategy and Technology Innovation Management Divisions of the Academy of Management, and the DRUID. She serves as a reviewer for several International Conferences and peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, and International Small Business Journal.