Grace Fan

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Management
Other Titles: specializing in Indigenous-led Sustainability and Inequality Reduction
Office: EME 4131
Phone: 250.807.9717
Email: grace.fan@ubc.ca

Graduate student supervisor



Research Summary

Inequality; Environmental sustainability; Two-Eyed Seeing; Indigenous worldviews; Indigenous knowledges; Feminist care ethics; Emotions and institutions; Social-symbolic work; Institutional change; Institutional logics; Community-based participatory research methods; Ethnography; Process research; Qualitative methods

Biography

Dr. Fan is an award-winning scholar with a passion for Indigenous-led sustainability, and issues of social and environmental inequality involving Indigenous peoples in Canada and worldwide. Her research of societal challenges sits at the intersection of inequality and environmental sustainability. Her research on sustainability focuses on Indigenous-led environmental sustainability efforts. Dr. Fan’s research contributes to understanding what policy makers, practitioners, and academic researchers can learn from Indigenous peoples, who are leading sustainability efforts in their own nations and communities in Canada and worldwide. Specifically, Dr. Fan examines the processes through which Indigenous peoples mobilize Indigenous ethical practices and Indigenous knowledges, anchored in Indigenous worldviews, to (re)construct the relationships between humans and nature, and revive their cultural identity in the process. Related to this theme, Dr. Fan investigates how historically marginalized and oppressed actors (e.g. Indigenous peoples) themselves (and not through intermediaries) develop innovative solutions to reduce deeply entrenched structural inequality at community and field levels.

Dr. Fan’s research on organizations and entrepreneurship focuses on community-based entrepreneurship. Specifically, she investigates the process through which organizations and entrepreneurs draw on cultural symbols including values and visuals in addition to language and meaning to initiate social change and innovation. This strand of her research is informed by her prior industry experience in working at the board level and mentoring budding entrepreneurs.

Dr. Fan’s research is interdisciplinary, community-based, and has positive impact on the ground. The findings of her research has informed policy makers, practitioners, and communities about best practices in achieving environmental sustainability, reducing social and environmental inequality, and fostering social innovation.

Dr. Fan adheres to the foundation of “Two-Eyed Seeing”, honouring the best of Indigenous knowledges and Western science, with a view to develop new theory to deepen existing understandings and challenge taken-for-granted assumptions.

Dr. Fan is a member of the Academy of Management, the European Group of Organization Studies, and the International Association of Chinese Management Research. She regularly reviews for the Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division of the Academy of Management. She is an ad hoc reviewer for Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Organization Science,  Human Relations, and Journal of Management Inquiry. She sits on the Editorial Review Board of Management & Organization Review.

Prior to becoming an academic, Dr. Fan worked in the field of private equity, and served as Executive Board Members of companies under investment. She is an invited panellist for “Women in Boardroom” Forum in United Kingdom. She has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America. These experiences have greatly enriched her life, and gifted her the humanity to embrace different cultures and diverse views. Outside of work, Dr. Fan loves travel, music, hiking, swimming, Qigong, and growing vegetables and flowers.

Degrees

PhD, Imperial College London
MBA, London Business School

Research Interests & Projects

Dr. Fan experienced a significant and prolonged career break due to life-threatening illness. Her healing journey is ongoing.

Currently, Dr. Fan is working on three projects directly involving Indigenous-led efforts to reduce inequality: one project examining the role of Indigenous women in creating community-based markets, and two projects on Indigenous-led efforts to reduce social and environmental inequality. All projects have significant implications for new knowledge creation, policy, and practice.

Selected Publications & Presentations

Selected Referred Publications:

Fan, G.H. forthcoming. Can You Hear Nature Sing? Enacting the Syilx Ethical Practice of Nʕawqnwixw to Reconstruct the Relationships Between Humans and Nature. Journal of Business Ethics. DOI 10.1007/s10551-024-05634-x. Impact Factor: 6.1. Five-year Impact Factor: 8.1. Ranked #16 in Financial Times top 50 academic journals in the field of management and organizational studies.

Fan, G.H. & Cunliffe, Z.A. forthcoming. Transforming relationships and empowering communities: The role of care ethics in solving grand challenges. Journal of Business Ethics. DOI 10.1007/s10551-023-05491-0. First author (65% contribution). Impact Factor: 6.1. Five-year Impact Factor: 8.1. Ranked #16 in Financial Times top 50 academic journals in the field of management and organizational studies.

Fan, G.H. & Zietsma, C. 2017. Constructing a shared governance logic: The role of emotions in enabling dually embedded agency. Academy of Management Journal, 60:2321-2351. First author (65% contribution). Impact Factor: 10.979; five-year Impact Factor: 16.178. Ranked #1 in Financial Times top 50 academic journals in the field of management and organizational studies.

Fan, G.H. 2020. Winning hearts to achieve sustainability: Theorizing change from an emotional perspective. The Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. The effective acceptance rate for best paper proceedings is below 5%.

Fan, G.H., & Voronov, M. 2020. From capitalist’ tail to socialism builders: The role of Confucian Moral Virtues in Transforming the Stigma-inducing Moral System, Academy of Management Annual Conference, virtual.

Fan, G.H. & Zietsma, C. 2015. Emotionalizing Logics: Interactions between Cognitive Processes and Emotional Mechanisms in Building a Shared Governance Logic under Institutional Complexity, Academy of Management Annual Conference, Vancouver.

Fan, G. H. 2015. Values Old and New: Building an Entrepreneurial Logic to Navigate Institutional Complexity. New Institutional Theory Annual Conference, Vienna, March 2015; European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Conference, Athens.

Fan, G.H. & Zietsma, C. 2014. Affective Commitments, Moral Emotions and Emotional Energy: Building a Shared Governance Logic in the Okanagan. Institutions and Emotions Workshop, Toronto.

Fan, G.H. 2014. Multiple Logics in Action: Water Sustainability in the Okanagan. Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Philadelphia.

Fan, G.H. 2014. Community, Family, Political and Entrepreneurial Logics in Action: Combining and Balancing Multiple Logics to Navigate Institutional Complexity. Academy of Management Journal and Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division of the Academy of Management Joint Writing Workshop, United Kingdom.

Fan, G.H. 2013. Combining Multiple Institutional Logics to Construct Collective Identity. Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division of the Academy of Management Joint Conference, Singapore.

Other Invited Activities:

Invited Expert panellist on “Ethics in Business, Policy, and Law”, co-hosted by Neuroethics Canada, Ethics for UBC, March 2022.

Invited Expert panellist on “Your Next Step: Starting Your Business in Kelowna” event, organized by UBC and sponsored by CBC Radio, Kelowna, BC, February 2016.

Invited Chair and discussant: “Accommodating Stakeholders and Audiences: Ambivalence, Ambiguity, Misalignment & Prioritization”, Scholarly Paper Session, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, August 2015

Invited Reviewer for Carolyn Dexter Award, an All-Academy award given to the paper that best meets the objective of internationalizing the Academy of Management, 2013, 2014 and 2015

Invited Chair and Discussant: “Plural Institutionalism”, Scholarly Paper Session, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, St. Antonia, August 2011

Selected Grants & Awards

Eminence Cluster of Research Excellent Grant on plastic recycling, 2021-2025 (co-applicant). $500,000

Finalist Winner, the 2020 Responsible Research in Management Award
Fan, G.H. & Zietsma, C. 2017. Constructing a shared governance logic: The role of emotions in enabling dually embedded agency. Academy of Management Journal, 60:2321-2351. This Award was granted based on academic rigour and policy impact on the ground (e.g. at the organization, community, and societal levels). Papers were reviewed by both academic stream (Fellows of the Academy of Management) and executive stream (senior executives) reviewers. In this particular case, the publication of this paper led to changes in policy, thereby positively improving water sustainability in North America.

SSHRC Explore and Exchange Small Grant, 2020. (PI)

Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant, 2020. (PI)

SSHRC Insight Development Grant #430-2014-00826, 2014 – 2019. (PI)

Winner, Best Paper on Environmental and Social Practices Award, 2020
Fan, G.H. 2018. Winning hearts to achieve sustainability: Theorizing change from an emotional perspective. Awarded by the Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division, the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago. The effective acceptance rate for best paper proceedings is below 5%.

Best Reviewer Award, Management and Organization Review, 2015

Finalist, Best Symposium. Fan, G.H. & Jennings, D. 2014. “Bridging institutional analysis with micro cultural dynamics in explaining environment sustainability”, Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Philadelphia. The effective acceptance rate for best paper proceedings is below 10%.

All the grants listed above are competitive.

Media

Finding solutions for the plastic waste (Eminence grant), February 21, 2023 news.ok.ubc.ca/2023/02/21/finding-new-life-for-plastic-waste/

Eminence cluster of research excellent grant, February 2022 https://research.ok.ubc.ca/research-excellence/research-clusters/2021-research-clusters/plastic-recycling/

Invited Expert regarding “Ethics in Business, Policy, and Law”, co-hosted by Neuroethics Canada, Ethics for UBC, March 2022.

Responsible Research in Business and Management Winners Award Webinar, October 6, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCC0BrmR5QI&feature=youtu.be

Invited Expert Panelist regarding Entrepreneurship, co-hosted by UBC and CBC radio, March 2016

Interviewed on CBC radio regarding the proposed Water Sustainability Act of British Columbia, August 2014

Kelowna Capital News and The Daily Courier reported my research on water sustainability in British Columbia, August 2014
http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-121363-24-.htm
http://www.obwb.ca/ubco-research-into-b-c-s-most-treasured-resource-h2o/
http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/ubco-research-into-b-c-s-most-treasured-resource-h2o/

 

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