Research informed by practice

Xiaoguang Wu is a PhD Research Scholar in Strategy and Management at NHH, Norwegian School of Economics. His research develops a sociological perspective on entrepreneurship by examining the institutional and cultural conditions that shape entrepreneurial action and outcomes.

His work focuses on how entrepreneurs interpret complex environments, build legitimacy, combine different systems of meaning, and translate values into organisational practices. Across projects on institutional logics, Norwegian entrepreneurship, sustainability as a research object, and China’s new energy vehicle field, he is interested in the reciprocal relationship between entrepreneurship and institutions.

Xiaoguang brings more than a decade of entrepreneurial experience in China to his academic work. This experience informs his interest in entrepreneurship as an activity embedded in social relationships, cultural expectations, infrastructures, and systems of exchange. It also shapes his commitment to connecting rigorous theory with problems that founders, educators, and organisations encounter in practice.

Alongside his research, Xiaoguang developed the Entrepreneurial Sustainability Canvas, a teaching tool that helps students and founders integrate sustainability into venture-design thinking. His teaching and mentoring experience spans entrepreneurship, strategy, management consulting, research methods, and business model design.