Recently, Professor Lu, Jun (Timothy), Associate Professor of Finance and Doctoral Supervisor at emlyon business school, was invited to attend the 2025 Academic Conference on Family Business and Corporate Governance held in Beijing. During the event, he delivered a keynote presentation on his latest research findings. The conference was jointly organized by the Global Family Business Research Center of Tsinghua University PBC School of Finance, the Financial Management Committee of the Chinese Academy of Management, and the internationally renowned SSCI journal Pacific-Basin Finance Journal (PBFJ). It convened leading scholars and practitioners from around the world to explore governance and sustainable development strategies for family firms in a period of transformation.

Professor Lu presented his latest paper, titled “Passing the Torch and the Plate: Intergenerational Succession and Charitable Donations in Chinese Family Firms.” Drawing on data from publicly listed Chinese family firms between 2008 and 2018, the study provides a systematic analysis of how intergenerational succession impacts corporate philanthropic behavior, aiming to uncover the strategic motives behind increased charitable donations during leadership transitions.

The study finds that philanthropy is not merely an altruistic gesture or a reputational tactic. Rather, family firms often strategically increase charitable giving during succession to help successors accumulate social capital—particularly reputational and political capital—which can mitigate the loss of founder-driven capital during the transition. The effect is especially pronounced when firms are under heightened public scrutiny, the founder holds political ties, or when the institutional environment amplifies the value of political capital. The research received high acclaim from participating scholars for its theoretical depth and rigorous empirical methodology.

Professor Lu's research interests span investor behavior, financial markets and corporate governance, fintech, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and wealth management. This study broadens the theoretical discourse on family business succession and corporate philanthropy by revealing the strategic role of donations in developing successor social capital and advancing firm sustainability. It addresses the real-world challenges of emerging markets while integrating global academic perspectives with local empirical evidence, contributing valuable insights to international governance research from a Chinese context.

Lu Jun

Associate Professor of Finance
DBA Advisor at emlyon business school

Dr. Lu earned his PhD in Managerial Science & Applied Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 2011. He joined emlyon in early 2020, in charge of research and teaching in Finance and Accounting area. Before joining emlyon, he was on the faculty of Peking University HSBC Business School, teaching master’s and MBA programs.

Dr. Lu’s research focus on investor behavior, financial markets & corporate governance, fintech and ESG. His research has been published in highly reputable academic journals including Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, National Tax Journal, and International Review of Finance. His works have received Best Paper Award at top academic conferences, and have been reported by Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and The Fiscal Times.

Dr. Lu is serving as an advisory expert of the Changjiang-delta Capital Market Servicing Foundation, providing thought leadership to the Chinese stock market development, and consulting for the listed firms and policymakers. He has contributed numerous times on financial market issues through keynote speeches, articles and interviews to highly reputable media including Phoenix Media, Sina Finance, China Forex, China Finance, The Beijing News, Shenzhen Evening and the Shenzhen Media Group. Previously he has served as deputy chair of the Risk Management & Insurance Research Center at Peking University HSBC Business School. He has hosted Asian Banker’s China Private Wealth Dialogue, and has served as long time guest speaker at the PKU-HSBC Financial Frontier. In addition, he has delivered training to financial institutions including China Merchants Bank and China Unionpay.