Yangyang Zhang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Management, College of Business Administration Loyola Marymount University
- Los Angeles CA
Biography
Yangyang Zhang is an assistant professor of management in the College of Business Administration (CBA) at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Yangyang earned her Ph.D. in management from Stevens Institute of Technology and her master's degree in human resource management from Rutgers University. Her research focuses on strategic leadership and corporate governance. She is dedicated to advancing our understanding of the “human side” of strategy, mainly through close examination of executives’ characteristics and cognitions and their influences on various firm strategies. Yangyang teaches courses in strategy and management, and she also has valuable working experience in the field of human resources. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a compensation specialist for Otsuka Pharmaceutical company in Princeton, New Jersey from 2015-2016.
Education
Beijing Information Science and Technology University
B.B.A.
Human Resource Management
2013
Rutgers University
Master in Human Resource Management
2015
Stevens Institute of Technology
Ph.D.
Management
2023
Social
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Best Conference Paper
Jeong, S.H., Mooney, A., & Zhang, Y. (2021). "Investor reactions to racial-ethnic minority CEOs appointments." Presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management (virtual).
Best Doctoral Paper
Zhang, Y., Mooney, A., & Jeong, S.H. (2023). "Scapegoats or change agents?: Examining the promotion of racial minority CEOs to firms in crisis." Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Management Association.
Affiliations
- Academy of Management
- Strategic Management Society
- Southern Management Association
Articles
The power of posting: An examination of CEO social media celebrity
Journal of Management StudiesMooney, A., Song, R., & Zhang, Y.
2025-08-29
The increasing prevalence of social media has prompted discussions regarding its impact on the social evaluations of organizational leaders. In this study, we develop the construct of CEO social media celebrity, which arises when a CEO obtains high levels of attention and positive emotional responses from audiences on social media. Building upon parasocial interaction theory, we examine how a CEO's posting influences their likelihood of becoming a social media celebrity.
Racial minorities in strategic leadership: An integrative literature review and future research roadmap
The Leadership QuarterlyZhang, Y., Mooney, A., & Ozgen, S.
2025-01-01
Bolstered by their slow but increasing representation, racial minority strategic leaders have started to capture significant research attention across disciplines. We review this emergent literature, synthesizing and integrating the research progress to date across the 147 articles we identified. Our review highlights a range of factors that have been found to influence racial minority representation in strategic leadership positions, including factors at the firm, board, individual, and environmental levels. We also summarize how such representation has been found to affect firm outcomes (e.g., firm performance, innovation) as well as the careers of the racial minority leaders (e.g., compensation, promotion).
How do investors really react to the appointment of Black CEOs?
Strategic Management Journal2022-08-25
A recent study found that markets react negatively to the appointment of Black CEOs, with an average cumulative abnormal return of −4.2%. The authors argue this is caused by investors invoking racial biases and stereotypes. In contrast, using a comparable sampling period and analytic approach, we find markets react positively to the appointment of Black CEOs with an average abnormal return of +3.1% (or +2.0% after conservatively addressing outliers). Our results are consistent across several alternative analyses, sample adjustments, and robustness tests. We argue racial biases and stereotypes in markets are outweighed by investor appreciation for the higher bar for advancement that Black CEOs face and the exceptional attributes they must exhibit as a result. To conclude, we discuss the implications of our findings.
The paradox of digital savviness: an examination of conditions that mitigate its power
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management2022-03-31
Top executives play an important role in how firms keep pace with or fall behind in today’s digital economy. In this study, we considered 246 top business executives and digital transformation projects for which they were responsible but had not yet approved. Based on surveys each executive completed, we found that commitment to digital transformation initiatives – a critical success factor for the initiative – was strongly associated with the executives’ ‘digital savviness’ but that this was weakened when executives had longer tenures with their organisations or faced greater competitive pressures. Our findings illustrate that executive commitment to digital transformation does not just require an increase in technological understanding. It is a qualitative change in the way executives prepare for, respond to, and stay engaged with digital initiatives.
