Dr Rebecca Yu Li
Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Management
- Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management
- Brunel Business School
Topics
I welcome PhD applications that examine the dark side and governance of innovation, particularly how organisations adopt, govern and learn from emerging technologies under conditions of uncertainty, regulation and institutional complexity. I am especially interested in research that explains processes and mechanisms: why technology adoption succeeds or fails, how innovation capabilities are built, how organisations manage risk and unintended consequences, and how policy, regulation and institutional environments shape strategic choices across different national and sectoral contexts.
I am particularly interested in supervising projects on:
- blockchain and AI adoption governance, especially in emerging-market, cross-border or resource-constrained contexts;
- responsible digital innovation, including trust, transparency, accountability, cybersecurity, data governance and ethical technology use;
- regulation, standards and innovation strategy, including how policy frameworks enable or constrain market formation and technology adoption;
- innovation failure, learning and recycling, including how organisations recover value from failed or abandoned innovation projects;
- cross-border innovation and knowledge networks, including how firms build capabilities through international collaboration;
- sustainable and social innovation, including how organisations manage tensions between economic viability, technological change and social or environmental impact.
I am currently supervising PhD students whose work aligns with this research agenda on digital technologies, governance, organisational resilience and sustainability.
Khalid Ahmed Al Buainain Al Mazrouei is researching cybersecurity governance and risk management, with a focus on regulatory compliance, organisational cyber resilience, cybersecurity awareness and international and regional standards, including ISO 27001 and UAE-NESA. His project connects technology governance research with real-world cybersecurity practice.
Chuanbei Lyu is researching blockchain technology in sustainable food supply chain management. Her project examines how blockchain can enhance transparency, traceability and trust in addressing environmental, social and governance challenges, and how blockchain-enabled systems can support sustainability outcomes in complex food supply chains.
Prospective applicants are encouraged to develop theoretically grounded and empirically robust proposals that connect innovation strategy, technology governance and responsible business practice. I am particularly interested in projects that go beyond describing technology adoption to explain the organisational, institutional and regulatory mechanisms that shape responsible innovation outcomes.