SMU business school dean is first business professor in Singapore to be named ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ in the field of Economics and Business

Singapore, 5 December 2019 (Thursday) - Singapore Management University’s (SMU) business school dean, Professor Gerard George, has been globally recognised as a ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ in the field of Economics and Business in 2019. Professor George, who is Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Dean of SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business, is the first business professor in Singapore to have received this accolade which recognises the significant and global impact of his research in academia.

Each year, the Clarivate Analytics releases a list of the world’s most influential researchers identified by the Institute for Scientific Information using the Web of Science database. The list recognises a select few researchers who had multiple papers frequently cited by their peers over the last decade (from 2008-2018). In 2019, fewer than 6,300, or 0.1 per cent of the world’s researchers across 21 research fields, have earned the exclusive distinction as a ‘Highly Cited Researcher’.

On his latest achievement, Professor George said, “I am honoured and humbled by this distinction for the cross-field citation impact. It reflects SMU’s ethos of impact by bringing together multiple disciplines. I am glad that my work on innovation has found applications not only in business but also in healthcare and energy. The real credit goes to my co-authors and research teams who have brought about research that has meaningful impact on business and our communities.”

[Photo: Professor Gerard George receives recognition for the significant and global impact of his research in academia.]


Professor George’s top-cited paper is: Absorptive capacity: A review, reconceptualisation, and extension, which has been cited 3,701 times. This research examines how firms develop the capacity to absorb knowledge and use it to innovate products and services. It asks the fundamental question: how can businesses organise themselves to foster innovation? The paper conceptually identifies and distinguishes between the underlying firm capabilities to acquire, assimilate, transform and exploit knowledge to create value for the business,” he explained.

His other highly-cited papers include: ‘A capabilities perspective on the effects of early internationalization on firm survival and growth (cited 599 times); ‘Slack resources and the performance of privately held firms (cited 412 times); ‘Privatization in emerging economies: An agency theory perspective’ (cited 295 times); and ‘The effects of business-university alliances on innovative output and financial performance: a study of publicly traded biotechnology companies’ (cited 264 times).

For Professor George’s full CV, pls refer here.

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