Updated on 2024/12/22

Affiliation
Faculty of Commerce, School of Commerce
Job title
Research Associate
Degree
MA (Commerce) ( 2020.03 Graduate School of Commerce, Waseda University )
BA (Commerce) ( 2017.07 Shanghai University )

Research Experience

  • 2023.04
    -
    Now

    Waseda University   School of Commerce   Research Associate

Education Background

  • 2020.04
    -
    Now

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Commerce   Doctoral Program (Commerce)  

  • 2018.04
    -
    2020.03

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Commerce   Master's Program (Commerce)  

  • 2013.09
    -
    2017.07

    Shanghai University  

Professional Memberships

  • 2024.05
    -
    Now

    The Academic Association for Organizational Science

  • 2023.06
    -
    Now

    Academy of Management

  • 2022.09
    -
    Now

    Academy of International Business

  • 2021.07
    -
    Now

    Japan Academy of Strategic Management

  • 2020.09
    -
    Now

    Japan Academy of Business Administration

Research Areas

  • Business administration   Organizational Behavior, Innovation

Research Interests

  • Workplace Deviant Behavior

  • Knowledge Sharing

  • Innovation

  • Organizational Culture

  • Online Community

Awards

  • PhD Best Paper Award

    2023.11   The 39th Euro Asia Management Studies Association Annual Conference  

 

Papers

  • Building bridges or barriers? The role of community culture in online knowledge sharing

    Mengru Zhao, Sen Zhang

    2024 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference Proceedings    2024.12  [Refereed]

    Authorship:Lead author, Corresponding author

  • The prohibitive voice dilemma: When direct prohibitive voice backfires and how LMX saves it?

    Sen Zhang, Mengru Zhao

    2024 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference Proceedings    2024.12  [Refereed]

    Authorship:Last author

  • Team familiarity, task familiarity, and product innovation: Evidence from Japanese Sake brewing

    Sen Zhang, Hang Yuan, Mengru Zhao, Donghoon Kim, Keisuke Hori, Yusuke Hoshino, Hiroshi Shimizu

    The 84th Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings   2024 ( 1 )  2024.07  [Refereed]

    DOI

  • A Fault Confessed Is Half Redressed: The Impact of Deviant Workplace Behavior on Proactive Behavior

    Sen Zhang, Mengru Zhao

    Administrative Sciences   14 ( 7 )  2024.07  [Refereed]

    Authorship:Corresponding author

     View Summary

    <jats:p>The extant research on deviant workplace behavior has mainly examined the consequences of such behavior from a “victim-centric” perspective, while ignoring the psychological and behavioral responses of the employees who engaged in it. Drawing upon moral cleansing theory, we adopt a “victimizer-centric” perspective and contend that employees experience moral deficits after engaging in deviant workplace behavior, which consequently lead to subsequent proactive behavior. We also propose that the indirect relationship between deviant workplace behavior and proactive behavior is contingent upon individuals’ moral courage. Specifically, employees with high moral courage are more inclined to perform subsequent proactive behavior upon perceiving a moral deficit than those with low moral courage. Our hypotheses are supported by empirical data from an experimental study involving 128 participants in the United Kingdom (Study 1) and a multi-wave survey-based field study with a sample of 180 employees conducted in the United States (Study 2). Our research provides contributions to the literature on deviant workplace behavior by demonstrating how and when deviant workplace behavior can lead to subsequent compensatory behavior, as well as practical insights for both employees and organizations.</jats:p>

    DOI

    Scopus

    1
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • ORCHESTRATING INNOVATION: DIVERSITY OF TEAM CHARACTERISTICS IN THE SYMPHONY OF NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

    Hang Yuan, S. E.N. Zhang, Mengru Zhao, Keisuke Hori, Yusuke Hoshino, Hiroshi Shimizu

    International Journal of Innovation Management   28 ( 3-4 )  2024.05  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    This study investigates the strategic orchestration of New Product Development (NPD) teams, focusing on how age diversity influences their innovation capabilities within the competitive landscape of firms. As firms encounter an evolving demographic landscape, the role of team composition, particularly age diversity, becomes critical in tuning innovation and market alignment. This paper synthesises the disparate findings from the innovation management literature on the impact of age diversity, employing dual theoretical perspectives: information/decision-making and similarity/categorisation. The former suggests that age diversity brings diverse knowledge that boosts innovation, while the latter indicates it might hinder social cohesion and team performance. Addressing the gaps in existing research, this study explores tenure diversity and team familiarity as moderators in the age diversity-performance relationship. It hypothesises that tenure diversity can enhance knowledge exchange and innovation but may complicate social interactions, whereas high team familiarity might restrict new idea generation by homogenising knowledge. Empirical analysis conducted on a dataset of 21,370 observations from Japanese sake breweries reveals that tenure diversity and team familiarity are critical in moderating the effects of age diversity on NPD outcomes. These findings enrich the NPD literature by highlighting the importance of demographic diversity and provide new insights into managing age-related dynamics in team settings. The study underscores the need for managerial strategies that leverage demographic diversity to enhance NPD effectiveness.

    DOI

    Scopus

  • Measuring online community culture: Scale development and validation

    Mengru Zhao

    Computers in Human Behavior Reports   13  2024.03  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    People use online communities for knowledge exchange. To uncover the motivations behind individual's online behavior, prior research has examined the shared norms and values among community members from a cultural perspective. However, there remains a lack of unified conceptualization and measurement in this regard. I address this gap by introducing the concept of online community culture and developing a measurement scale from community member's perspective. Following the scale development paradigm, I collected data from a total of 1011 individuals across four surveys to assess the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the scale. As a result, I present a scale that captures two types of cultural values that are expected to be associated with community members' knowledge contributions, namely aggressive culture and supportive culture. Limitations and guidelines for future research are also discussed.

    DOI

    Scopus

  • From beneficial to harmful: The effects of voice endorsement on employee’s cyberloafing

    Sen Zhang, Mengru Zhao

    2023 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference Proceedings     650 - 663  2023.12  [Refereed]

    Authorship:Corresponding author

  • The determinants of knowledge sharing in online communities: The role of community culture, personality and P-E fit

    Mengru Zhao

    2022 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference Proceedings     59 - 72  2022.12  [Refereed]

  • The formation of online community culture

    Mengru Zhao

    The Bulletin of the Graduate School of Commerce   94   13 - 35  2022.03  [Refereed]

  • Research on antecedent factors of open innovation performance: Foreign literature review and trends

    Mengru Zhao

    The Bulletin of the Graduate School of Commerce   92   49 - 73  2021.03  [Refereed]

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Presentations

  • The prohibitive voice dilemma: When direct prohibitive voice backfires and how LMX saves it?

    Sen Zhang, Mengru Zhao

    2024 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference 

    Presentation date: 2024.12

  • Building bridges or barriers? The role of community culture in online knowledge sharing

    Mengru Zhao, Sen Zhang

    2024 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference 

    Presentation date: 2024.12

  • Unfamiliar paths to excellence: The role of team and task familiarity in Sake brewing innovation

    Sen Zhang, Hang Yuan, Mengru Zhao, Donghoon Kim, Keisuke Hori, Yusuke Hoshino, Hiroshi Shimizu

    AAOS Annual Meeting 2025 Special Session 

    Presentation date: 2024.09

  • Team familiarity, task familiarity, and product innovation: Evidence from Japanese Sake brewing

    Sen Zhang, Hang Yuan, Mengru Zhao, Donghoon Kim, Keisuke Hori, Yusuke Hoshino, Hiroshi Shimizu

    The 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management 

    Presentation date: 2024.08

  • A Fault confessed is half redressed: The impact of deviant workplace behavior on proactive behavior

    Sen Zhang, Mengru Zhao

    The Journal of Management Studies Workshop - Japan 2024 

    Presentation date: 2024.05

  • From beneficial to harmful: The effects of voice endorsement on employee’s cyberloafing

    Sen Zhang, Mengru Zhao

    2023 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference 

    Presentation date: 2023.12

  • Measuring online community culture: Scale development and validation

    Mengru Zhao

    The 39th Euro Asia Management Studies Association Annual Conference 

    Presentation date: 2023.11

  • The determinants of knowledge sharing in online communities: The role of community culture, personality and P-E fit

    Mengru Zhao

    2022 Academy of International Business (AIB) Asia Pacific Regional Conference 

    Presentation date: 2022.12

  • Knowledge sharing in online communities: Role of community culture and personality traits

    Mengru Zhao

    The 96th Annual Conference of Japan Academy of Business Administration 

    Presentation date: 2022.09

▼display all

 

Internal Special Research Projects

  • The Determinants of Knowledge-sharing Intention in Online Communities

    2023  

     View Summary

    With the rise of online communities, research has focused on how to manage the communities and foster members’ knowledge-sharing intentions. While prior studies have emphasized the importance of shared norms and values among community members, there lacks a unified conceptualization and measurement. In response, this study bridges insights from both online community research and traditional organizational culture literature to introduce the concept of online community culture. It further develops a measurement scale consisting of aggressive and supportive cultural elements, comprising nine items from the community member’s viewpoint. Through a series of studies involving several survey administrations, the scale demonstrates robust convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. These findings have implications not only for advancing our understanding of the determinants of knowledge sharing in online communities, but also for assessing community culture and member composition, thereby facilitating sustainable online community operations.