[January 29, 2026] Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) has officially announced the recipient of its 2025 Outstanding Research Award. Professor Sun Tianshu, Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Center for Digital Transformation at CKGSB, has been honored for his outstanding academic achievements and impact in frontier fields including AI agents, large language models, enterprise digital transformation, digital platforms, and intelligent business models.
Established in 2007, the CKGSB Outstanding Research Award is presented annually to recognize professors at the school whose work demonstrates originality, depth, and impact, while fostering the exchange of academic research and ideas globally. The award was presented by CKGSB Dean and Dean’s Distinguished Chair Professor of Finance, Li Haitao.
In 2025, Professor Sun achieved exceptional research milestones across the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and the data economy. Five of his papers were published or accepted in world-leading academic journals such as Management Science, Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA), Information Systems Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Journal of Management Information Systems. He also published 11 papers in top international conferences across information systems, computer science, management science, and economics, earning five Best Paper Awards and nominations, reflecting the global influence and frontier nature of his research.
Before joining CKGSB, Professor Sun was one of the youngest tenured professors at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, with a joint appointment in computer science, and recognized with Robert R. Dockson Named Professorship. Since joining CKGSB, he has published 16 articles in top-tier international journals and dozens of leading conference papers, further strengthening the school’s global leadership in technology, digital transformation and AI research.
Professor Sun’s research systematically explores AI in enterprise decision-making and real-world business operations, addressing core issues such as human–AI collaboration, AI-driven marketing and decision algorithms, organizational design and productivity, data asset value under privacy and regulatory constraints, platform algorithms and market competition, and digital decision-making in logistics and service operations.
By integrating AI algorithms and systems, large-scale randomized experiments, and real-world company data, he builds rigorous, verifiable, and applicable research frameworks that bridge theory and practice.
Beyond research, Professor Sun plays a leading role in the global academic community. He serves as Associate Editor for Information Systems Research and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Guest Associate Editor for Management Science and MIS Quarterly. Recently, he founded the “Agentic AI & Human-Agent Collaboration” department at Decision Sciences, becoming its Founding Editor-in-Chief. This marks the first dedicated AI-agent research section in global management and decision science journals.
At CKGSB, Professor Sun established the Center for Digital Transformation, nurturing a new generation of global AI and digital transformation scholars. In 2025, he also launched the international academic conference ADE2025: AI-driven Digital Transformation for Emerging Markets. The conference brought together senior scholars from Wharton, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, NUS, CUHK, and other top institutions to advance academic exchange on AI-driven transformation in emerging markets.
This award recognizes not only Professor Sun’s academic excellence, but also CKGSB’s long-standing commitment to world-class research, global influence, and the integration of academia with real-world impact.
