2025 Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors: Laurina Zhang, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Laurina Zhang
Questrom School of Business, Boston University

“One of the most memorable aspects of her class was the final project, where she assigned students into two opposing teams to debate growth strategy recommendations for a case company. Each team had to defend a different strategic path—whether to expand aggressively or take a more measured approach—forcing us to analyze every angle, anticipate counterarguments, and refine our strategic reasoning in a high-pressure debate setting. This format transformed what could have been a standard case presentation into a dynamic, real-world strategy battle, mirroring how executives defend business decisions in boardrooms. It pushed us to go beyond just understanding frameworks—it made us own our recommendations, think on our feet, and challenge our strategic instincts.” – Okthalia Adam

Laurina Zhang, 39, is an Associate Professor in Strategy & Innovation at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. She is interested in the organizational and policy levers that affect innovation and inequality. Her work has examined how technology and information affect innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative outcomes through democratization of access and participation for disadvantaged subgroups.

Her research has been published in journals such as Management Science and the Strategic Management Journal. Her research has received numerous awards, including the Best Dissertation Award at Academy of Management, the Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship, Questrom’s Shahdadpuri Faculty Research Award, and financial support from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)’s Innovation Policy and the Economics of Digitization working groups. Her work has been featured in various media outlets, such as Forbes, PCMag, Billboard, Boing Boing, and The Conversation. She has received several teaching recognitions including Elective Professor of the Year for her course in Corporate Strategy and the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 Award, which is awarded to 40 faculty at Georgia Tech.

Prior to joining BU, she served on the faculty at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business and Western University’s Ivey Business School. Laurina holds her Ph.D. from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Prior to her PhD, Laurina worked at the Bank of Canada.

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? July 2020

Education: PhD, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; B.Comm, University of Toronto

List of MBA courses you currently teach: Corporate Strategies for Growth

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… When I got my first job! Just kidding. When I watched my PhD advisor in the classroom. He was both dynamic and challenging. I could really see how motivated the students were to learn the concepts he was teaching. It was the first time I realized the tangible impact that you can have on students in the classroom.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? One of my current projects looks at how digital technologies are used in small businesses across the world, and whether there is a digital gender gap in technology use.  I find that male and female entrepreneurs tend to use some technologies at the same rate (e.g., marketing technologies) but female founders are less likely to adopt technologies used for the management of internal firm processes (e.g., finance, inventory management). However, female entrepreneurs who face higher levels of non-work-related demands (i.e., childcare) are more likely to adopt digital technologies, including ones for which they face higher adoption cost. These findings highlight the role of digital technology in alleviating time constraints for female entrepreneurs beyond conferring firm-specific benefits. They also provide perspective for thinking about policy interventions around reducing the digital gender gap: given digital tools for internal firm management become more important as firms scale, increasing their use among female-led firms, such as through the development of digital skills, may help improve their survival and firm performance.

If I weren’t a business school professor… I would love to write and illustrate children’s books.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I am genuinely interested in the professional and personal development of my students. I hope everyone comes out of my class knowing a little bit more about corporate strategy. But perhaps more importantly, I hope my course provides a safe setting for my students to strengthen their ability to develop, articulate, and defend a point of view, which they can use throughout their lives. I set a very high bar in the classroom and it can be an intimidating place to contribute to the discussion. But every year, I have at least a few students that change from timid individuals at the beginning of the semester to confident, articulate (and often top performing) contributors by the end of the term. These are some of my most gratifying moments as an instructor.

One word that describes my first time teaching: Terrifying.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor:  As a tenure-track faculty, it’s easy to see teaching as something that you “have to do.” But the more I invest in teaching, the more rewarding I find the experience. And now 10+ years into this career, I truly believe that the impact I have in the classroom is just as big (perhaps even bigger) as the impact I have through my research. Knowledge creation and dissemination are both equally important to our profession, and in my opinion, our field would benefit from more scholars who are interested in engaging in both activities. I would encourage junior faculty to view teaching not as something “I have to do”, but instead something that “I get to do.”

Professor I most admire and why: There are so many incredible instructors in my field that I have learned from and deeply respect. But if I have to pick one, I would have to say my former advisor, Ajay Agrawal. To me, he really encompasses what it means to be a top scholar in our field: he does rigorous research that has important scholarly, practical, and policy implications, and he is a phenomenal teacher in the classroom who motivates his students to be their best selves. Plus, I still use one of his final project assignments in my class!

TEACHING MBA STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? MBA students have such interesting work and life experiences that really enrich class discussions. I love hearing about what they hope to achieve post-graduation. I also love challenging them to step outside of their comfort zones and develop into a more informed and professional version of themselves. 

What is most challenging? I teach using the case method. This means I use very few slides and instead “teach” the learning points based on the discussion points raised by students. This means that I can teach the same case across two back-to-back sections and get completely different points of view. Then it’s my job to guide these disparate points to the same learning objectives before class ends. 

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Motivated.

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Entitled.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Tough but fair. I tend to offer a lot of feedback. It’s a lot of work (and I don’t outsource it to a TA!) but I think/hope this makes each evaluation component a learning experience.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? I have a rambunctious 2.5-year-old, so my hobbies now involve riding chu-chu-trains (i.e., subways), playing with model trains, and reading about various trains around the world. 

How will you spend your summer? I have a trip to Switzerland planned! I am excited (and very nervous) to take my son on his first European trip and to one of my favorite places in the world – Wengen, Switzerland!

Favorite place(s) to vacation: My happy places to vacation domestically are Bar Harbor, Maine and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Favorite book(s): I’ll go with childhood classics: Little Women, Anne of Green Gable, and Pride and Prejudice. 

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? I honestly have no consolidated time to watch a 2-hour movie. The last show I watched and enjoyed was Nobody Wants This.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? It really depends on the day and what I’m doing. I equally enjoy pop, classical, and R&B music. 

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… I think business schools need to give students more opportunities to develop critical thinking skills and develop their confidence in applying these skills across a range of different settings. At the end of the day, students are not going to remember a formula they memorized for an exam or a textbook they read. But the critical thinking skills they develop can serve them well across their entire careers. 

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Standing up for their core values and the communities they serve. 

I’m grateful for…my health, my family, and my job. It’s privilege to be able to do what I do.

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