Applications for the Rice MBA are open. Round 2 deadline: January 16. Apply today.

School Updates

Jing Zhou named Rice Business’ deputy dean of academic affairs

by Avery Ruxer Franklin

Jing Zhou, the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Management and Psychology at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, has been appointed deputy dean of academic affairs for the business school effective July 1. She succeeds Jeff Fleming, the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Professor of Finance, who will complete a seven-year term as deputy dean this month.

Jing ZhouZhou is a highly accomplished scholar whose research has been cited more than 40,000 times, ranking among the top 1% of influential researchers in business and management. Her research interests include innovation, contextual and personal factors that facilitate or inhibit creativity and innovation, and creativity in entrepreneurship.

Zhou’s systematic program of research has addressed central management questions, such as how organizational and contextual factors interact with personal values to enhance or restrict individual and team creativity. She has taught courses on leadership, innovation, negotiation and organizational behavior at the undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA and Ph.D. levels. She has also served as a consultant to organizations on issues related to leading innovation and negotiation.

Zhou is the area coordinator for organizational behavior, director of Ph.D. program and director for Asian management research and education at Rice Business. She is a fellow of the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Outside Rice, Zhou has served as president of the International Association for Chinese Management Research, as associate editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology and on the editorial boards for many other journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of Management, Leadership Quarterly, Management and Organization Review, Organizational Psychology Review and the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 

“Beyond these prestigious recognitions, we all know Jing as a generous colleague and as an honest and trusted friend and supporter of the Jones School and Rice University,” wrote Peter Rodriguez, dean of the Jones School, in an announcement. “We are fortunate to have in Jing, an eminent scholar and a colleague of the utmost integrity, to serve as our next deputy dean.”

 

You May Also Like

School Updates

A new study co-authoered by Rice Business’ Tommy Pan Fang provides the first large-scale statistical analysis of data center location strategies across the United States. It offers policymakers and firms a clearer starting point for understanding how different types of data qcenters get located in response to economic and strategic incentives.

In The Media

New research co-authored by Jing Zhou finds that generative AI can enhance employee creativity—but mainly for those with strong metacognition. Employees who actively plan, monitor and refine their thinking benefit most from AI, highlighting the need to pair AI tools with training that develops these skills.

In The Media

Poets&Quants highlights 2025’s most disruptive undergraduate startups, showcasing student founders applying business education to launch ventures across tech, health, education and consumer markets.