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I joined the faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University in July 2020. I earned my Ph.D. at the University of Alberta in Strategic Management & Organization and a Master of Environmental Management degree at Yale University. Prior to becoming an academic, I worked with The Forest Trust (now Earthworm Foundation), American Friends Service Committee, Heinrich Böll Foundation, and Global Environmental Institute in managerial and consultancy roles, following a student internship stint at World Resources Institute's Washington, D.C. headquarters. I have lived, studied, and worked in Cambodia, Canada, China, Laos, and the United States.
My academic portfolio centers on societal impact-oriented innovations in business practice and management theory. I teach Strategic Management, International Business, and Entrepreneurship and have engaged in broader humanities and social sciences research. My scholarship on Certified B Corporations and Benefit Corporations (commonly known as B Corps), presented at a set of frontline entrepreneurship, management, B Corps research outlets and in public discourse, has added to scholarly and public understanding and can be considered trailblazing and internationally leading.
In a separate line of research, armed with hubris, I have been trying to break new ground in enhancing the capacity and salience of management theory, a tall order primarily undertaken by eminently established and retired academic colleagues. Last, motivated by the dearth of quality China-themed scholarship, I have been building a research pipeline in this area.
Formal brief biography:
Ke Cao, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business & Economics. He studies and teaches contemporary administrative sciences and has received awards and honours from the University of Alberta, Wilfrid Laurier University, Yale University, Lazaridis Institute, China Scholarship Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada, Responsible Research in Business & Management (RRBM) network, Academy of Management, International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR), and Academy of International Business.
Here are the slides for a brief introduction about myself and my academic portfolio at the January 2023 Lazaridis Business Faculty Council.
My research program centers on advancing contemporary administrative sciences and modernizing management theory. To this end, I pursue scholarship that is more contextual, integrative, robust, and responsive to societal needs. My broad research interests include: How do organizations work? How can businesses contribute to societal welfare? How can management scholarship help build a better society?
In other words, sitting on the well-decorated business school floor of the academic ivory tower, I work to alleviate and prevent human suffering through my scholarship as a champagne socialist (referencing Canadian rock band Arkells).
Below are some ongoing projects. It takes time to generate, develop, and formulate good academic ideas, stylish and not too stylized. I am energized by the inquiry and optimistic about the output in the coming years and decades before I retire at old age, like His Majesty King Charles of Canada, who plays a ceremonial but crucial role, remotely, multitasking, in the function of three branches of the government, and Their Excellencies the Honourable Presidents of the United States Trump and Biden, who both are credited as liberators of the American people and leaders of the free world. In April 2022, I predicted an epic 2024 comeback win for President Trump, a generational political leader. The forecast was reaffirmed multiple times in writing and teaching. I feel fortunate to have witnessed in my lifetime the two rounds of visionary, strategic, bracing, and pivotal shock therapy he has prescribed and administered with commitment, creativity, and élan for America, the greatest country on earth after Canada that was once on the precipice of becoming a weird neoliberal cultural Marxist banana republic keen on keeping its citizens illiterate.
I am one of the very few of His Majesty's Loyal Socialist Professors / HMLSP (Professeures et professeurs socialistes loyaux de Sa Majesté / PPSLM), propagandized by Castro and his Canadian comrades. I bank with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Royal Bank of Canada, shop at groceries run by Empire Company Limited, and take vacations to Cuba from Kitchener/Waterloo or Toronto. During Laurier's renowned St. Patrick's Day Street Party, I stay at home, cook Fish and Chips, and reflect on the quiet dignity of the Crown. I cheer for the Gaels when they compete with the Golden Hawks. I live near the Queen Street and work near the King Street. Some Chinese and American friends were in awe. They didn't know that in True North, Hobbes and Castro have their fair share of purchases. Relatedly, bilingual, multicultural Monarchism and socialized public education and healthcare coexist in harmony. In the US and Canada, universities are run like a Cuban commune. Even students have their union. Funded mainly by taxpayers, faculties spend a lot of time talking bad about President Trump, and sometimes President Biden, at faculty lounges. Unlike many, I greatly admire both Presidents Trump and Biden. President Trump is more talented in theatrics, North America-style. Both are good guys. Like the People's King and the People's Presidents, and following the path of freedom and liberation they paved, I stand on the people's side of the barricades to the end against all baddies in Paris, Lexington, Derry, Oka or elsewhere when the banner of revolution is flying. The ideal scenario is that I will be on some fancy magazine's 80-Under-80 in the second half of the century before being knighted as a prestigious His Majesty's Royal Professor / HMRP (Professeur Royal de Sa Majesté / PRM) by his heir if not by King Charles himself.
2024
>October, Marathon, Toronto. 3 hours 48 minutes (Personal Best).
>August, 25km, Stone Cairn Trail Race, Niagara.
>May, Marathon, Ottawa.
>February, 8 miles, Re-Fridgee-Eighter, Waterloo.
2023
>October, Marathon, Toronto.
>May, Half Marathon, Ottawa.
2019
>August, 10k, Edmonton.
My medals are as impressive as a royal's. People say they are beautiful wow. I like beautiful medals. Thank you. Working toward becoming a sub-three-hours marathoner in 2025 at Mississauga, Toronto, or other places in Canada.
I regard research as a privilege as well as a responsibility and endeavor to conduct impactful research that contributes to both theory and practice. I hope to write more public-facing scholarly work once I wrap up some research projects. So far, on this front, I have published lots of tweets at @kcvgd. The handle is a shorthand for "KC Vagabond." The Twitter banner photo was taken in 2010 at a conservation area in Bolikhamxay province, Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Here are my best-known refereed academic writings (* denotes equal authorship).
Lazaridis School of Business and Economics
Alberta School of Business
1. Academic Review & Editing
On a range of theoretical themes, research settings, and methods, I have reviewed manuscripts for the Academy of Management Discoveries (a total of 5), Academy of Management Review (1), Asia Pacific Journal of Management (2), Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility (5), Business Strategy and the Environment (2), Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management (2), Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (2), European Financial Management (3), European Journal of Management Studies (3), European Journal of Women's Studies (1), Journal of Business Ethics (7), Journal of Business Research (1), Journal of Business Venturing (5), Journal of Management (6), Journal of Management Studies (5), Management and Organization Review (8), Organization Studies (1), Organization & Environment (6), Review of Managerial Science (1), Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal (1), and Strategic Organization (8).
I review research grant applications for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada. For SSHRC, I reviewed one project in 2022 as an external and expect to read about 16-17 application files as an adjudication committee member in 2024-25 in the area of business studies. In 2021 and 2022, I reviewed book projects for Springer Nature (1; in Law) and the University of Toronto Press (2; in Business). Additionally, I review conference manuscripts of the Academy of Management (AOM) and the International Association for Chinese Management Research (IACMR) consistently.
2. Public Engagement
3. Faculty Roles
4. Work and Membership in Academia
I have been a member of the following academic communities:
I was on the 2019-20 management faculty job market. The following information may be of use to prospective and fellow academics in pursuing a career in this space:
Invited on-campus interviews: Management Area, University College Dublin (declined after accepting an offer); Management Area, University of Rhode Island; Management Department, New Mexico State University; Policy Area (renamed Strategic Management Area later), Wilfrid Laurier University; Leading People and Organizations Area, Fordham University.
Early-stage interviews not on-campus: Deakin University; Portland State University; University of New Hampshire; University of Arkansas; University of Memphis; University of Manitoba; Boise State University; Kansas State University; University of Texas at San Antonio.
Contact Info:
E: kcao@wlu.ca
T: 548.889.4450
F: 519.884.0201
Office location: Lazaridis Hall 4029
Office hours:
Email for an appointment.
Languages spoken: English, Français de base, Basic Persian, Basic Cantonese, Standard Mandarin Chinese, Southwest Shandong Dialect of Chinese, Very Limited Arabic, Español, & Gaeilge.