Prof. ZHENG Xu (鄭煦教授)

Xu Vivian Zheng is an Associate Professor in Department of Marketing, College Business of City University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. in Marketing from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Vivian’s research interest primarily focuses on inter-firm relationship governance mechanisms, specifically including: (1) retail location selection and multi-channel governance in marketing channel contexts; (2) inter-organizational governance mechanisms; (3) development strategies of franchising companies (e.g., regional expansion); and (4) corporate ESG practices. Vivian has published in leading marketing and business journals such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Retailing, etc.

Dr. Zheng teaches Global Marketing and Principles of Marketing across all levels including undergraduate, taught master, MBA, EMBA and DBA programs. She has received College of Business Teaching Excellence Award and Student Learning and Development Excellence Award. She received her Ph.D. in Marketing from University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining the Marketing Department at CityU.

Awards

Research Grant

• PI: "Contagion of Failure: Paths and Curbing Mechanisms of Successive Store Failure Within Franchise Networks", Strategic Research Grant - City University of Hong Kong , Amount: 100,000 (2024-2026) , with Yajing Fan
• PI: "The Role of Franchise Contracts in Optimizing Franchise Relationships Outcomes: A Data Science Approach", Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant - City University of Hong Kong , Amount: 300,000 (2022-2024) , with Li, Lishuai, Wang, Shucheng, and Huang, Jianxiang
• PI: "When Mutli-Unit Franchising Backfires: The Contingent Effects of Subgroup Configurations", General Research Grant - Research Grants Council, Hong Kong , Amount: 240,993 (2022-2023) , Zheng, Xu (Vivian), Li, Ji Jenny
• PI: "Beyong Locations: The Contingent Effects of Governance Mechanisms in Clustering of Franchised Outlets", General Research Grant - Research Grant Council, Hong Kong , Amount: 486,176 (2021-2023) , Zheng, Xu (Vivian) and Yajing Fan
• PI: "When It Is Good to Be Vague: The Strategic Use of Contract Ambiguity in Franchise Relationship Management", Strategic Research Grant - City University of Hong Kong , Amount: 100,000 (2018-2020) , Zheng, Xu (Vivian)
• PI: "Unnatural Relationship Dissolution in Franchising: A Dual-Agency Perspective", General Research Grant - Research Grants Council, Hong Kong , Amount: HKD 501,250 (2015-2017) , Xu Zheng, Jeff Jianfeng Wang, Marko Grunhagen
• PI: "Marketing Assets, Marketing Actions, and Firms' Response Strategies to Exogenous Shocks", Early Career Scheme - Research Grants Council , Amount: HKD321,696 (2013-2015) , Zheng, Xu

Administrative Assignments

Selected Publications