Researcher biography

Professor Joseph Fan joined UQ Business School in 2022, after serving 25 years in Hong Kong (CUHK 2004-2011; HKUST 1997-2004; HKU 1996-1997). He holds a PhD in finance from University of Pittsburgh, USA (1996) and a BA degree in economics from National Taiwan University (1985).

Joseph is a world leading researcher and an expert on the finance, governance, and organization of emerging market companies. He has published his research in a wide spectrum of renounced academic journals, including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Business, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Journal of Accounting Research.

Joseph is one of the most cited researchers in finance globally – over 20,000 citations in Google Scholar. In particular, his co-authored research about ownership structures of East Asian companies has been named the 26th most cited article of all time published by Journal of Finance as of 2021. His another co-authored paper about political connections of Chinese firms published in Journal of Financial Economics has been named by Abacus (2018) as the 2nd most cited paper of all time on China finance and accounting topics. Joseph's research leadership is reflected by his long service on various editorial boards of international journals, including Journal of Corporate Finance and Management Science. His research insights are frequently quoted by global and regional medias, including The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Nikkei Asian Review, and South China Morning Post.

Besides research, Joseph devotes to disseminating knowledge to the industry and business community through applied research, executive education, and consulting. He is a co-author of The Family Business Map and several other books and case studies about family business governance and succession. He has developed a full EMBA course on corporate governance from emerging market perspectives and another course on family firm succession and governance, both are new and important addition to the business school curriculum. Joseph has consulted corporate governance and family business succession topics to numerous large and median sized global and regional industry leaders in China and Southeast Asia. The strong linkage between Joseph's academic research and industry impacts has been acknowledged by Hong Kong University Grant Committee in its 2020 Research Assessment Exercise, as one of the top level (4/4) social impact cases submitted by all universities in Hong Kong.