Keyan Lai

I am a Lecturer in International Human Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh Business School. Prior to joining Edinburgh in 2019, I worked at the University of St Andrews as an Associate Lecturer in Management. I obtained my PhD from Cardiff Business School in 2017.

Focusing on the politics of social evaluation, my research explores how organisations are increasingly evaluated through political, ideological, and geopolitical lenses, and how these evaluations shape organisational legitimacy, identity, stakeholder relationships, and strategic action.

I am particularly interested in the nexus between geopolitics and business. Across this work, I study how national security concerns emerge around foreign firms, cross-border investments, and strategic technologies, and how such concerns shape their social evaluation. Lai and Potočnik (2026)  show how national security threat accusations against an MNE function as negative signals in recruitment, reducing job seekers’ organisational attraction and job-pursuit intentions. It also demonstrates the limits of CSR in offsetting the effects of such crises. Lai and Fortwengel (2025) provide insights into why politically embedded identities can become a source of constraint when multinational corporations later face national security scrutiny amid geopolitical tensions. 

Overall, my current research focuses on multinational technology firms. I examine how technology becomes a site of state power and geopolitical contestation, and how firms and innovations become entangled with national security concerns and legitimacy challenges. As an extension of my broader research on social evaluation, I also study third-sector organisations operating within complex systems of commissioning, funding, partnership, and public accountability.​

My recent publications on national security, social evaluation and work:

• Lai, K. & Potočnik, K. 2026. Recruitment in times of crisis: The impact of negative signals and CSR on job seekers’ attraction to multinational enterprises. Journal of Management Studies. (Accepted/in press). http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.70109
• Lai, K. 2026. Developing a power perspective on public service contracting: Evidence from Scotland’s homelessness sector. Public Management Review. (Accepted/in press). https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2026.2653081
• Lai, K., & Fortwengel, J. (2025) Constructing an organizational identity with political ideology: The case of Huawei, 1987-2020. Strategic Organization. (Accepted/In press). https://doi.org/10.1177/14761270251327988
• Lai, K. (2021). National security and FDI policy ambiguity: A commentary. Journal of International Business Policy, 4(4), 496-505.
• Lai, K., Morgan, G., & Morris, J. (2020). ‘Eating bitterness’ in a Chinese multinational: Identity regulation in context. Organization Studies, 41(5), 661-680.
• Lai, K. (2025). How foreign investments by multinational enterprises become national security threats: An organizational field perspective. In B. Christiansen & J. Branch (Eds.), Impacts of Geoeconomics and Geopolitics on International Business. IGI Global. (Accepted/ In press) https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3373-1265-1.ch007

* I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in social evaluation, particularly those working on national security, foreign direct investments, emerging market multinationals, and technology firms.

• Geopolitics and business
• Social evaluation 
• National security
• Organisational legitimacy 
• Politics of technology and tech business
• Emerging market multinationals