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February 20, 2008
The Department of Information Systems & Decision Sciences at LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business has welcomed visiting scholar Ming Ren from China for the academic year. A post-doctor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China, Ren aims to carry out research at LSU on information technology applications in the retailing industry, focusing on franchising companies.
Ren’s visit is being funded by Peter Chen, M. J. Foster Distinguished Chair Professor of Computer Science and Adjunct Professor of ISDS. At Tsinghua University, Ren works for the China Retailing Research Centre, which was established with seed funding from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
“It is a good opportunity to collaborate with prestigious professors both at LSU and Tsinghua University,” Ren said. “By integrating the powerful resources from both sides, we are attempting to provide valuable implications for franchise enterprises both in the U.S. and China to facilitate the development of the franchise industry.”
According to Ren, the past two decades have witnessed amazing franchise business growth in China, which has already become the second-largest franchising market in the world only behind the United States. China is now recognized as the most promising destination for both domestic and international franchise business. It has become important and meaningful to study the issues that challenge Chinese franchises and practically explore business opportunities for both Chinese and U.S. franchise systems.
Researchers pursuing those opportunities with Ren at LSU include Robert Justis, director of the International Franchise Forum, and Ye-Sho Chen, director of the Modern Chinese Business and Cultural Initiative in the E. J. Ourso College.
Ren obtained her doctorate in information systems at Tsinghua University. Her research interests include information systems in the retailing industry, evolution of information systems applications and data modeling. She has been published in the international journal Information Sciences, in other works and has been featured at international conferences such as The 11th World Congress of International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA2005).
For information about LSU’s Department of ISDS, visit www.bus.lsu.edu/isds.
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