His research areas are in innovation management and industrial development, in particular, at the industrial and firm level. His recent research interest involves examining how the video game industry has been structured and how creativity enters the product development process (mostly based on qualitative research in the United States, and to a limited extent, in China). From this, he is developing theories of creative organization. He has a Ph.D. in public policy analysis and management from Carnegie Mellon, and earlier degrees in economics and engineering. Prior to SMU, he worked at think tanks for the United Nations University and Asian Development Bank in Tokyo.