Dr Jessica An holds an education-focused Assistant Professor post in the Department of Strategy and International Business at Birmingham Business School since January 2025. She is aspired to enhance students’ learning experience with innovative teaching in a cross-cultural, digitally integrated global environment. She has extensive teaching experience in Strategy, International Business and Entrepreneurship subjects within the home market as well as in transnational education. Jessica often practises online interactive tools in blended learning, online teaching and face-to-face delivery with small or large sized student cohorts.
Prior to joining University of Birmingham, Jessica was an Assistant Professor in Strategy (2023-2025) and Lecturer in Business Management (2017-2023) at Coventry University, leading BA International Business Top Up Course and Curriculum Transformation. Many academic roles she had been entrusted with include Academic Conduct Officer, School Alumni Lead, Dissertation Supervisor, Conference Coordinator and Transnational Partnership Assessment Moderator. She often led a large team of academics and built cross-departmental collaborations. She was awarded First Prize in Student Experience engaging innovative digital tools in 2018 and was the most elected dissertation supervisor by students in 2019. She was honoured to be invited to deliver guest lectures in Hong Kong (SHAPE) and the United States (NAU). Jessica supported the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) re-accreditation for BA Business Management Course. She is also currently a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds the position as the Lead External Examiner in MSc. Leadership and Human Resource Management at Northumbria University.
Jessica received her PhD in International Studies and Social Sciences at Coventry University in 2017, investigating Chinese entrepreneurs’ guanxi in the UK using qualitative case study analysis. Her research interests include guanxi, social networking, social embeddedness, entrepreneurial contextualisation and ethnic minority entrepreneurs. She accepts PhD student in related fields. She regularly attends internationally recognised conferences and provides peer reviews for The International Journal of Management Education (TIJME), the International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development (IJTLID), and Journal of Marketing for Higher Education (JMHE) since 2020. She was awarded Best Reviewer in BAM 2022. She also publishes book chapters, digital artefacts, online case studies on teaching pedagogies for effectively engaging Chinese students in the UK classrooms.
Prior to academia, Jessica’s industry background lies in Advertising and Marketing, and International Trade. She worked as an Internet Marketing Manager in a couple of British SMEs, specialising in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising in an effort to help British SMEs enter the Chinese market via the internet, and vice versa. She closely worked with UKTI and CBBC on international projects. Other globally renowned companies she worked for include Saatchi & Saatchi, the English Premier League, Young & Rubicam.