Q. Please briefly introduce yourself
Good afternoon. I am Hyeyeon Park (Class of 2011) and have graduated Korea University MBA Division of International Business last February of 2018. As of February next year, I have been appointed as a full-time professor at University of Surrey.

Q. How did you prepare your doctoral thesis and appointment during the doctorate course?
During my doctorate course, my first thesis in collaboration with professor Chris Changwha Chung was luckily published in the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), the TOP Journal in the International Business branch. I was able to start my graduation thesis relatively earlier from this achievement. I also had the opportunity to prepare for my research portfolio by working on other thesis along with my graduation thesis.
In case of the preparation for my appointment, I began my preparation in earnest after I got my doctor’s degree. I was able to gain a lot of opportunities to have interviews with various universities around the world through an eminent business conference - Academy of Management (AoM) Placement Service which is held every summer. After going through the final Job Talk, I finally decided which university to go to. 

Q. What are some aspects that you think positively influenced your appointment?
I believe the full-support from professors of International Business and KUBS with unstinting advice from my academic adviser allowed me to improve my competence of research and lecturing during my doctorate course. KUBS actively recommends students to participate in both Korean and overseas business conferences and supports research fellowship in many ways. As a result, I was able to receive an award for excellent research taking the presentation of my thesis in both Korean and overseas business conferences as this opportunity. Also, this allowed me to continually improve my research abilities by submitting to overseas journals.
Moreover, the opportunity to improve my lecturing skills by teaching outstanding students really helped a lot. By regularly giving English lectures to students from different countries, I strived to come up with an effective teaching method. This led to receiving the award of excellent lecture and verifying my communication capabilities which as a result brought positive consequences.

Q. Do you have any concerns about living abroad?
I am rather thrilled than being worried since I studied my master’s course at UK. I am looking forward to having some time to broaden my field of vision as well as concentrating on my research, by starting my teaching life at UK where the burden of lecturing is relatively less than other places.

Q. What are some future research plans?
It is important to change the field of business of subsidiaries to achieve continuous growth in the recent rapidly-changing market. However, the reality is that many multinational corporations became to large and it is hard to bring about change by making decisions at the head office level. Therefore, I am planning to research the development regarding the field of business and improvement of performance in subsidiaries at the level of multinational firm network, as well as the method of learning by subsidiaries.

Q. Do you have any advice for future global savants?
If you are serious about your research and you have intellectual curiosity towards it, I recommend challenging it with hope and patience. Especially, I would like to stress the importance of regularly finding your own area of interest and preparing your research portfolio during the master’s and doctorate program, if you are interested in a foreign university. By actively participating in business conferences and submitting to overseas journals to constantly achieve your goals, you will be able to become a researcher with international competitiveness. I am looking forward to meeting more seniors and protégé in different places across the world in the future.