Li, Toby Assistant Professor

My research interest revolves around the energy transition from traditional to sustainable sources, focusing on the challenges faced by oil and gas companies in this shift to renewable energy. The difficulty lies partly in organizational inertia, as these companies often cling to profitable traditional operations while hesitating to adopt unproven technologies. This challenge is compounded by these corporate executives who are heavily incentivized to maximize short-term profits, which depresses their willingness to commit long-term investments in emerging technologies that could secure their company's future success. In other words, these leaders prioritize current customer needs and product improvements, overlooking new technologies that could eventually capture new markets. My study explores strategies for escaping this strategic dilemma, such as better recognizing disruptive potentials early, and better incentivizing the development of emerging technologies in-house, or establishing autonomous units focused on exploiting such technological disruptions.