SHENZHEN, Oct. 15, 2026 — College of Management, SZU (SZUCM)The 207th session of the Distinguished Scholars Forum of the College of Management, SZU took place in Room A205, Mingli Building on October 14, from 15:30 to 17:30. Professor Zhao Xiande, Chair Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at CEIBS and Director of the CEIBS Supply Chain Innovation Institute, delivered a keynote speech themed “Business Model Innovation and Digital Transformation of Chinese Enterprises”. The forum was hosted by Associate Professor Jia Yibo, Deputy Director of the SZU Institute of New-Quality Productive Forces, and drew enthusiastic participation from faculty and students.
Based on his long-term research on Chinese firms, Professor Zhao introduced a four-stage model of supply chain transformation: passive support, proactive segmentation, intelligent experience and open ecosystem. He illustrated different transformation paths adopted by traditional manufacturers represented by Haier and digital-native enterprises such as . As digital technologies integrate deeply with business operations, supply chains evolve from a functional support unit into a key driver linking end users, integrating industrial resources and enabling business model innovation. He highlighted that the core of supply chain digitalisation lies in end-to-end collaboration and innovation, delivering combined product-service solutions to generate new business value.
Drawing on his collaborative research with Haier, and other leading companies, Professor Zhao elaborated the linkage between digital supply chains and business model innovation. Taking Haier’s evolution from mass production and mass customisation to service-oriented manufacturing and platform ecosystem via the COSMOPlat platform as an example, he explained how platform-based supply chain capabilities facilitate resource integration and value co-creation. For A company , he presented its platform-enabled Customer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) model, blockchain traceability and green logistics practices, showing how digital technologies boost new product development, shape consumer behaviour and enable innovative green business models. He also shared an integrated approach that connects corporate practice, teaching and academic research, advocating field research to develop teaching cases, build theoretical frameworks and feed research findings back into classroom instruction.
After the talk, Associate Professor Jia Yibo thanked Professor Zhao for his insightful presentation. He noted that Professor Zhao’s work bridges industrial practice, theoretical research and talent cultivation, offering a valuable model for industry-university-research collaboration. With abundant local innovation resources in Shenzhen, translating real-world business challenges into high-quality cases and research outputs remains a priority for the college. The forum deepened participants’ understanding of domestic business innovation and digital transformation, inspired original context-based management research, and supports SZUCM’s efforts to advance industry integration, improve education quality and serve Shenzhen’s industrial and economic development.
Contributed by: Li ZichengReviewed by: Jia YiboTranslated and reedited by Zhang Ruina, International Development Office, SZUCM
