Staff Profile

Irene Chu is a lecturer in International Management at Newcastle University Business School.

She gained her MBA and PhD from Durham University Business School and previously worked in the international public and private sectors in Taiwan.  She joins NUBS from the University of Bradford School of Management, where she was Associate Professor in Business Ethics and Cross-cultural Studies, Programme Leader for MSc International Business and Management and UN PRME Lead for the School.

She was awarded the Best Paper Awards and Best Symposium at the Academy of Management conference’s Management, Spirituality and Religion stream in Boston, 2019. She was also awarded the Founders’ Award for Emerging Scholars at the Society for Business Ethics conference in Atlanta, USA 2017 for her PhD thesis.

She is also an international subject matter expert in International Business Management for the Irish National Agency's National Framework of Qualifications.

Irene's interdisciplinary research interests are virtue ethics, especially the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Confucianism, cross-cultural studies, critical realism and institutional logics. She has publications in several journals including the Journal of Business Ethics, British Journal of Management and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Current projects include introducing bringing morality back into into institutional logics via a typology of goods, concepts of the self, eudaimonia (human flourishing) in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in emerging markets, especially Africa.

With over 12 years' teaching experience in HE, Irene has designed and delivered courses across different levels for UG, PG and MBA executive learners in business ethics, sustainable business, corporate social responsibility, cross-cultural management and strategic management.

Irene delivers lectures for the following modules:

BUS3078 Advanced Global Strategy

BUS3017 CSR & Ethics

BUS3054 Strategy, Organizations and Society

BUS3057 International Business Diplomacy

NBS8128 Transition in the Global Economy

NBS8432 Sustainability Management and the Natural Environment

• Chu I. Harmony and MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics in Taiwan’s Confucian Covid Response. In: Vu,CM;Singh,N;Burton,N;Chu,I, ed. Faith traditions and practices in the workplace – Implications for coping mechanisms in unprecedented times. Palgrave, 2022. In Preparation.
• Vu CM, Singh N, Burton N, Chu I, ed. Faith traditions and practices in the workplace – Implications for coping mechanisms in unprecedented times. Palgrave, 2022. In Preparation.
• Chu I, Vu CM. The Nature of the Self, Self-Regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self. Journal of Business Ethics 2022, 180, 245-262.
• Adomako S, Amankwah-Amoah J, Debrah YA, Khan Z, Chu I, Robinson C. Institutional Voids, Economic Adversity, and Inter-firm Cooperation in an Emerging Market: The Mediating Role of Government R&D Support. British Journal of Management 2021, 32(1), 40-58.
• Chu I, Moore G. From Harmony to Conflict: MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics in a Confucian Tradition. Journal of Business Ethics 2020, 165, 221-239.
• Donbesuur F, Ampong GOA, Owusu-Yirenkyi D, Chu I. Technological innovation, organizational innovation and international performance of SMEs: The moderating role of domestic institutional environment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 2020, 161, 120252.
• Amankwah-Amoah J, Adomako S, Chu I. Entrepreneurs’ Passion, Home Country’s Institutional Voids and Small Firm Internationalization. Research in International Business and Finance 2020, 53, 101178.
• Vazquez D, Preuss L, Adomako S, Chu I. How does Corruption Influence the Corporate Sustainability Performance of Firms in Developing Countries?. In: International Association for Business and Society 2022. 2022.
• Chu I, Vu CM, Adomako S. The Importance of an Eudaimonic Balance of Values in Entrepreneurial Ventures: An Analysis Using Institutional Logics and Critical Realism. In: Academy of Management Annual Conference 2022. 2022, Academy of Management.
• Chu I, Burton N, Vu CM. MacIntyre and the Morality of Inclusion: A Critical Review. In: Society for Business Ethics. 2020, Virtual: Society for Business Ethics.
• Vazquez D, Adomako S, Chu I. Perceived Corruption and Environmental Performance of SMEs in Ghana. In: Academy of Management. 2020, Virtual: Academy of Management.
• Vu CM, Chu I. Reflexive Identity Construction: Interpretations from the Notions of the Relational Self and Non-self. In: European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) 35th EGOS Colloquium. 2019, Edinburgh.
• Vu CM, Chu I. A transcultural interpretation of the self: Implications for Self-Regulation towards Ethicality. In: Society for Business Ethics. 2019, Boston: Society for Business Ethics.
• Burton N, Chu I, Vu CM, Koehn D, Mejia S, Skorburg JA. Management, spirituality and religion in conversation with the self and virtue. In: Academy of Management. 2019, Boston: Academy of Management.
• Chu I, Vu CM. The Influence of Confucianism and Buddhism on Family Business in Taiwan and Vietnam. In: Academy of Management. 2019, Boston: Academy of Management.
• Chu I, Moore G. Bringing Morality Back In: A Conceptual Synthesis of Institutional Logics and MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics. In: Society for Business Ethics. 2018, Chicago.
• Chu I. Are MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics Meaningful in a Confucian Tradition?. In: Society for Business Ethics. 2017, Atlanta, Georgia.