Kazuhiro Asakawa

Kazuhiro Asakawa is Professor of Global Innovation Management at Keio University's Graduate School of Business Administration (KBS), where he has been faculty since 1995, progressing from Assistant Professor to his current position as full Professor. He holds the Mitsubishi Foundation Chairship at Keio Business School and serves as Vice President (Program) for the Academy of International Business (AIB) from 2021-2024. Previously, he served as Chair of the AIB Japan Chapter (2012-2018) and Program Chair for the AIB 2023 Annual Meetings in Warsaw.

His academic journey includes a BA summa cum laude in Political Economy from Waseda University (1985), an MBA from Harvard Business School (1991), and both M.Sc. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996) from INSEAD in France. His distinguished career reflects a blend of Japanese academic tradition and international business scholarship.

Asakawa's research focuses on global innovation management, particularly examining how multinational corporations manage R&D across borders, source knowledge internationally, and balance subsidiary autonomy with headquarters control. His work bridges theoretical frameworks with practical implications for multinational enterprises, with special attention to Japanese firms' global strategies. His research reveals how subsidiaries can transform liability of foreignness into strategic advantage and how firms navigate the tension between local adaptation and global integration in innovation processes.

His publication record demonstrates consistent contribution to top-tier journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Global Strategy Journal, Research Policy, and Journal of World Business. His recent work shows increasing focus on organizational resilience in global disruptions, ecosystem approaches to innovation, and the evolving relationship between multinational firms and global cities as strategic locations.

• AIB Fellow, Academy of International Business (2015)
• Winner, Organization Design Community-Accenture Annual Award for Best Research Paper (2023)
• Academy of Management IM Division HKUST Best Papers in Global Strategy Finalist (2024)
• Finalist, Association of Japanese Business Studies Best Paper Award (2017)
• The Best Reviewer's Award, IM Division, Academy of Management (2015)

Asakawa has supervised PhD candidates internationally and reviewed tenure decisions across continents. His editorial leadership includes serving as Consulting Editor for Journal of International Management and Advisory Editor for Research Policy, while previously holding positions as Associate Editor of Global Strategy Journal and Senior Editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He has taught as visiting faculty at numerous international institutions including ESSEC, McGill, Yonsei, and JKU Linz, and was a visiting scholar at MIT Sloan School of Management.