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.

My research explores how organisations and individuals navigate uncertainty and crises, and how these dynamics shape careers, identity, and meaning at work.

I am particularly interested in state power and state intervention, which often create uncertainty and can even trigger crisis. I examine how state power—expressed through policy, ideology, regulation, or ownership—influences organisational practices, cultures, identities and people’s work.

In the context of international business, I examine how geopolitical tensions and state interventions influence business activity, from investment decisions to global strategy and talent management. My work highlights how firms experience crises, rebuild legitimacy, and cultivate resilience in complex international business environments, and how these organisation-level dynamics are lived and negotiated by managers and employees in their everyday work.

My recent publications on state power, crisis, and work:

• Lai, K. & Potocnik, 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)
• 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

• Crises and resilience
• Career, identity, and meaning at work
• State power
• Ideology
• Geopolitics and international business
• Historical and archival research