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Prof Gordon Liu

Professor Of Marketing Strategy

The Open University Business School

gordon.liu@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

PROF. GORDON LIU is Professor of Marketing Strategy at the Open University Business School. He is a Certified Management & Business Educator, accredited by the Chartered Association of Business Schools, and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. In 2023, he received the prestigious Gerald E. Hills Best Paper on Entrepreneurial Marketing award for his research on entrepreneurship and marketing. 

Research interests

His research explores value creation in cross-functional marketing, the strategic use of cause-related marketing, the role of technology in product development, B2B marketing, and business networks and ecosystems. These contributions have significantly advanced organisational theories and expanded the scope of business scholarship.

Impact and engagement

His work has appeared in leading academic journals including Journal of Supply Chain Management, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurial Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of World Business International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Small Business Management, Business Strategy and The Environment, Journal of Business Ethics, Group & Organization Management, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and others.

Publications

Digital Artefact

Greenwashing: how ads get you to think brands are greener than they are (2022)

Journal Article

Justice and Contracts as Double-Edged Swords: Collaborative Product Innovation in Hub-and-Spoke Supply Chain Networks (2025)

The influence of marketing exploitation and exploration on B2B SME performance: The moderating roles of supplier flexibility and information exchange (2025)

The influence of marketing exploitation and exploration on B2B SME performance: The moderating roles of supplier flexibility and information exchange (2025)

Causation Processes and Innovation Strategy in Small- and Medium-Sized Firms in Emerging Countries: The Moderating Role of Founder-CEOs’ Human Capital (2025)

Family Ownership and Digital Transformation: The Role of Family Formal Business Networks and Next Generation Dispersion (2025)

The influence of marketing exploitation and exploration on business-to-business small and medium-sized enterprises (2024)

Exploring Information Technology Capabilities from Multiple Aspects of the Resource-Based Theory (2024)

Bricolage Strategies, Stakeholder Engagement, and the Geographic Expansion of Social Enterprises (2024)

Unveiling factors and contingencies influencing exhaustion in professional esports players: evidence from China (2024)

Service innovation in business ecosystem: The roles of shared goals, coopetition, and interfirm power (2023)

Organisational Capabilities and Small And Medium Sized Firms’ Attainment Of Innovation Outcomes: The Moderating Roles Of Exports And Formal Business Networks (2022)

Disentangling Effects of Subjective and Objective Music Characteristics in Advertising (2022)

Power, shared goals and supplier flexibility: a study of the HUB-and-spoke supply chain (2022)

Organizational Capabilities and SME Exports: The Moderating Role of External Funding Intentions and Managerial Capacity (2022)

Proactive Environmental Strategy, Foreign Institutional Pressures, and Internationalization of Chinese SMEs (2021)

Harmonious Workplace Climate and Employee Altruistic Behavior: From Social Exchange Perspective (2021)

To measure or not to measure? An empirical investigation of social impact measurement in UK social enterprises (2021)

IT-based product innovation strategies for small firms (2020)

The Transformation from Traditional Nonprofit Organizations to Social Enterprises: An Institutional Entrepreneurship Perspective (2020)

Promoting employee entrepreneurial attitudes: an investigation of Chinese state-owned enterprises (2020)

A Business Ecosystem Perspective of Supply Chain Justice Practices: A Study of a Marina Resort Supply Chain Ecosystem in Indonesia (2019)

Social Entrepreneurial Passion and Social Innovation Performance (2019)

How Information Technology Assimilation Promotes Exploratory and Exploitative Innovation in the Small- and Medium-Sized Firm Context: The Role of Contextual Ambidexterity and Knowledge Base (2019)

Cause-Related Marketing – Led Corporate Social Responsibility in International Business-to-Business Markets: The Contingent Roles of Host-Country Sustainable Development (2019)

Value-informed pricing for virtual digital products: Evidence from Chinese MMORPG industry (2018)

How and When Socially Entrepreneurial Nonprofit Organizations Benefit From Adopting Social Alliance Management Routines to Manage Social Alliances? (2018)

External supply chain flexibility and product innovation performance: A study of small- and medium-sized UK-based manufacturers (2018)

Network-Bonding Actions, Quality of Ties, and Channel Member Collaboration: Evidence from UK-based Small Firms (2018)

Managing employee attention and internal branding (2017)

Proactive Entrepreneurial Behaviour, Market Orientation, and Innovation Outcomes: A Study of Small- and Medium-sized Manufacturing Firms in the UK (2017)

Environmental Strategy and Competitive Advantage: The Role of Small- and Medium-Sized enterprises' Dynamic Capabilities (2017)

A Typology of Guanxi-Based Governance Mechanisms for Knowledge Transfer in Business Networks of Chinese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (2017)

Overcoming the liability of smallness by recruiting through networks in China: a guanxi-based social capital perspective (2017)

Perceptions of HR practices on job motivation and work-life balance (2016)

The Nature of the Co-Evolutionary Process (2015)

Understanding the Process of Knowledge Spillovers: Learning to Become Social Enterprises (2015)

The Role of Internal Branding in Nonprofit Brand Management: An Empirical Investigation (2015)

An Investigation of Marketing Capabilities and Social Enterprise Performance in the UK and Japan (2015)

Managing Branding and Legitimacy: A Study of Charity Retail Sector (2014)

Charity Retailing in the United Kingdom: A Managerial Capabilities Perspective (2014)

Strategic Orientation and Social Enterprise Performance (2014)

An integrated model of cause-related marketing strategy development (2014)

Strategic Direction of Corporate Community Involvement (2013)

Impacts of Instrumental Versus Relational Centered Logic on Cause-Related Marketing Decision Making (2013)

A study of non-profit organisations in cause-related marketing: Stakeholder concerns and safeguarding strategies (2013)

The Role of Relationally Embedded Network Ties in Resource Acquisition of British Nonprofit Organizations (2012)

Organizational Learning and Marketing Capability Development: A Study of the Charity Retailing Operations of British Social Enterprise (2012)

An Analysis of Cause-Related Marketing Implementation Strategies Through Social Alliance: Partnership Conditions and Strategic Objectives (2011)

Social Alliance and Employee Voluntary Activities: A Resource-Based Perspective (2011)

Employee Participation in Cause-Related Marketing Strategies: A Study of Management Perceptions from British Consumer Service Industries (2010)

Cause-Related Marketing in the Retail and Finance Sectors: An Exploratory Study of the Determinants of Cause Selection and Nonprofit Alliances (2010)

Presentation / Conference

The role of background music used in online learning environments in enhancing the higher education students' learning experience (2024)

The role of background music used in online learning environments in enhancing the higher education students’ learning experience (2024)

The Influence of Music Liking in Green Product Advertisements on Purchase Intention: Positive Brand Attitudes, Music Mode, and Music Tempo (2021)