College of Business: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Joseph Cheng

Professor of Business Administration

Biographical Sketch

Joseph L. C. Cheng is Professor of International Business and Management and Director of the Illinois Global Business Initiative in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Ilinois.  He is a former director of the Illinois Center for International Business Education and Research (1999-2006), and a past chair of the Academy of Management’s International Management Division (2002-03).  Professor Cheng received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has previously taught at the Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (visiting), Virginia Tech, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  During the Spring 2003 semester, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

             Professor Cheng's current research interests include strategy and organization design for transnational firms, global competition and multinational management, foreign R&D investment, societal influence on business and management practice, and organizational change and innovation.  His work has been supported by funding agencies both in the U.S. and abroad.  Since 1990, he has received more than US$2 million external funding, including two multi-year Title VI CIBER grants from the US Department of Education, and a CIMS grant from the US National Science Foundation.  He has published in leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Advances in International Management, Human Relations, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Management International Review, Management Science, and Organization Studies, among others. 

             Professor Cheng has received recognitions for teaching, research, and professional service excellence, including an Outstanding Elective Professor Award from the Ohio State University MBA Programs, a Best Paper Award from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management, and a Distinguished Service Award from the Academy’s International Management Division.  He is currently Co-Editor of the Elsevier/JAI research series, Advances in International Management, and serves on the editorial review boards of Management International Review, Journal of World Business, and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management.  Most recently, he was appointed Senior Editorial Consultant to the European Journal of International Management; and beginning July 1, 2007, he will serve as a Senior Consulting Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies, the flagship publication of the Academy of International Business.