Staff profile

Jiajun (Chris) Gong is a postgraduate research student at Durham University Business School. He holds a master’s degree from Durham University and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Nottingham, across its UK and China campuses. He has also gained international academic and research experience in the United States, Sweden, and France.

His research interests lie at the intersection of strategic management, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. He is particularly interested in how resource-constrained firms navigate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pressures, and under what conditions these pressures can be transformed into strategic opportunities and sources of competitive advantage. His research also explores the challenges and trade-offs associated with sustainable business strategies, including the factors that contribute to business failure. His research aims to advance the understanding of how smaller firms balance sustainability ambitions with commercial viability in increasingly uncertain business environments.

• Strategic Management
• ESG Pressures and Strategic Responses
• Sustainable Competitive Advantage
• Business Failure and Firm Survival