Ningzi is a research specialist at the Data Science Institute and an adjunct assistant professor at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. Her research advances stakeholder theory and behavioral theory of the firm, with a particular focus on how cognition of the executives and stakeholders shapes the choices and consequences of firm strategies. She is especially interested in understanding how executive communication affects stakeholder evaluation of the firm and how managers decide on innovation strategies.
Her work investigates psychologies underlying organizational communication and innovation. On one front, she studies financial and non-financial disclosures, such as earnings calls and sustainability reports, asking how distinct communication content or style shape stakeholder perceptions under different market conditions. On another front, she studies patents filed by firms, questioning how managers choose to take risks in knowledge generation. Throughout her projects, she uses natural experiments and various language models to gather rich empirical evidence.
Her teaching interests include strategic management, organizational theory, and entrepreneurship. At Booth, she has been teaching an MBA class on organizational design and strategy implementation. Before this, she taught strategic management to undergraduates at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. Ningzi earned her Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Economics from Tsinghua University and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University.
