# ZHENG, Yanfeng
**Source**: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng
**Parent**: https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/innovation-and-entrepreneurship
ZHENG, Yanfeng
Associate Professor
Department of Management
[View Profile](https://mgmt.hkust.edu.hk/faculty-and-staff/directory/yfz)
### Recent Activities
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
WANG, Qinyu Ryan
[Shadow of the great firewall: The impact of Google blockade on innovation in China](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2026/02/shadow-great-firewall-impact-google-blockade-innovation-china)
Research summary: Building on the search-based view of innovation, we develop a framework regarding how Google guides innovative search behavior. We exploit an exogenous shock, China's unexpected blockade of Google in 2014, and adopt a difference-in-differences approach with a matched sample of patents from China and nearby regions to test our predictions
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2026/02/shadow-great-firewall-impact-google-blockade-innovation-china)
[ [Innovation and Entrepreneurship](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/innovation-and-entrepreneurship "Innovation and Entrepreneurship") ]
[Read Full Paper](https://gwern.net/doc/economics/copyright/2020-zheng-3.pdf#:~:text=Our%20analyses%20show%20that%20the%20blockade%20negatively%20affected,group%20who%20were%20presumably%20unaffected%20by%20the%20event)
ZHONG, Weiguo
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
[Do Political Connections Stifle Firm innovation? Natural Experimental Evidence from China's Anti-Corruption Campaigns](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2026/02/do-political-connections-stifle-firm-innovation-natural-experimental-evidence)
Research Summary: The impact of political connections on firm innovation remains unclear. Utilizing the unexpected removal of high-ranking officials during China's anti-corruption campaigns between 1999 and 2015 as an exogenous shock, we analyze this relationship to provide greater clarity. Employing a difference-in-differences approach, we find that firms
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[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2026/02/do-political-connections-stifle-firm-innovation-natural-experimental-evidence)
[ [Innovation and Entrepreneurship](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/innovation-and-entrepreneurship "Innovation and Entrepreneurship") ]
[Read Full Paper](https://sms.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.3690)
WANG, Qinyu Ryan
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
[Patent Regime and the Geography of Cumulative Innovation](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2025/09/patent-regime-and-geography-cumulative-innovation)
[Innovation](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/innovation)
[Explicit Knowledge](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/explicit-knowledge)
Cumulative innovation—building on existing ideas to create new innovations—is key to technological and economic development. Unsurprisingly, the process is geographically localized: innovations tend to be developed by innovators located nearer to their predecessors. Yet research has thus far failed to account for the strengthening of this effect in recent
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2025/09/patent-regime-and-geography-cumulative-innovation)
[ [BizBites](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/bizbites "BizBites") ]
[Watch Video](https://video.ust.hk/watch?video=C5417E6E1D386E20&embed=Y)
[Read Full Paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323000938)
WANG, Qinyu Ryan
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
[How Patents Shape the Geography of Innovation](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2025/06/how-patents-shape-geography-innovation)
[Innovation](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/innovation)
[Explicit Knowledge](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/explicit-knowledge)
Cumulative innovation—building on existing ideas to create new innovations—is key to technological and economic development. Unsurprisingly, the process is geographically localized: innovations tend to be developed by innovators located nearer to their predecessors. Yet research has thus far failed to account for the strengthening of this effect in recent
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2025/06/how-patents-shape-geography-innovation)
[ [BizStudies](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/bizstudies "BizStudies") ]
[Read Full Paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733323000938)
WANG, Qinyu Ryan
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
[Inventor Mobility and the Left-behind Patents](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2024/05/inventor-mobility-and-left-behind-patents)
[Patent](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/patent)
[Tacit Knowledge](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/tacit-knowledge)
[Intellectual Property](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/intellectual-property)
What should firms do with their patent rights when inventors jump ship? This key managerial question was recently addressed in an elegant study by HKUST’s Yanfeng Zheng and a colleague. With critical implications for firms deciding whether to maintain intellectual property after inventors leave, the authors established and empirically tested a framework
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2024/05/inventor-mobility-and-left-behind-patents)
[ [BizBites](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/bizbites "BizBites") ]
[Watch Video](https://video.ust.hk/watch?video=3EB99744296F6BF0&embed=Y)
[Read Full Paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733322000130)
WANG, Qinyu Ryan
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
[Lose the Inventor, Keep the Patent?](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2024/01/lose-inventor-keep-patent)
[Patent](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/patent)
[Tacit Knowledge](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/tacit-knowledge)
[Intellectual Property](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/intellectual-property)
What should firms do with their patent rights when inventors jump ship? This key managerial question was recently addressed in an elegant study by HKUST’s Yanfeng Zheng and a colleague. With critical implications for firms deciding whether to maintain intellectual property after inventors leave, the authors established and empirically tested a framework
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2024/01/lose-inventor-keep-patent)
[ [BizStudies](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/bizstudies "BizStudies") ]
[Read Full Paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733322000130)
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
XIA, Jun
[More Risk, Less Reward: Venture Capital Investment in China](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2022/02/more-risk-less-reward-venture-capital-investment-china)
[Venture Capital](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/venture-capital)
[Investment Decision](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/investment-decision)
[Resource Dependence](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/resource-dependence)
[Social Network](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/social-network)
Chinese venture capital (VC) firms suffer from imperfect information and poor legal protections when deciding whether to continue to invest in a company or cut it loose, according to HKUST researcher Yanfeng Zheng and a colleague. Analysing more than a decade’s worth of deals, the authors established that Chinese VCs are more likely to terminate investments
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2022/02/more-risk-less-reward-venture-capital-investment-china)
[ [BizStudies](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/bizstudies "BizStudies") ]
[Read Full Paper](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/joms.12255)
[ZHENG, Yanfeng](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/zheng-yanfeng)
[Innovation in China: Blockade of Google, Made in China 2025, and more](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2021/05/innovation-china-blockade-google-made-china-2025-and-more)
[Firewall](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/firewall)
[Google Blockade](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/google-blockade)
[Innovation](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/innovation)
[China](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/china)
[Interdisciplinary Seminar](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/tag/interdisciplinary-seminar)
Building on the search-based view of innovation, we develop a framework regarding how Google guides innovative search behavior. We exploit an exogenous shock, China's unexpected blockade of Google in 2014, and adopt a difference-in-differences approach with a matched sample of patents from China and nearby regions to test our predictions. Our analyses show
...
[Read More](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/2021/05/innovation-china-blockade-google-made-china-2025-and-more)
[ [BizTalks](https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/bizinsight/biztalks "BizTalks") ]
[Watch Video](https://video.ust.hk/Watch.aspx?Video=30681505E5174B95&embed=Y)
[Read Full Paper](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3179)