Email: [email protected]

Yang is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) of Digital Transformation and Business Intelligence at Aston Business School. Prior to this, Yang worked as a Lecturer at Loughborough University London and the University of Glasgow where she obtained her PhD degree.

In her research, Yang focuses on two broad questions:

• How do firms design, innovate, grow and transform their business models in the digital economy?
• What are the economic, organisational and societal implications of digital innovations?

To ensure her research generates real-world impact, Yang collaborates extensively with businesses and organisations in the manufacturing and healthcare sectors.

She has secured £1.3 million in funding from ESRC, NIHR, Innovate UK, and industry partners, enabling her to address pressing challenges at the intersection of theory and practice. Her funded projects have explored themes such as decarbonising healthcare through the servitization of medical equipment manufacturers, developing digital and shared-care business models in healthcare, and strengthening the business case for digital adoption in manufacturing. These engagements have enabled her to actively support, shape, and drive servitization and digital transformation in practice.

Business model design

Digital business models

Platform business model

Digital innovation

Digital healthcare

Digitalisation in aging societies

2011 - 2016, PhD Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

2010 - 2011, MSc International Business and Entrepreneurship, the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

06/2022 - present, Senior lecturer in Digital Transformation and Business Intelligence, Aston Business School, Aston University

01/2018 - 06/2022, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Loughborough University London

10/2016 - 01/2018, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow

2025-2029, A transdisciplinary hub to decarbonise commissioning and delivery of healthcare (Co-I), funded by NIHR and UKRI. £7.1 million. ASG will be leading the work stream on service-led business models and servitization, contributing to the Hub’s overarching vision: to create a world-leading international centre that supports the NHS in becoming a low-carbon healthcare provider, serving as a blueprint for health systems globally.

2025 - 2027, KTP with Eye-Docs (PI), funded by Innovate UK, UKRI. £265,923. Digital transformation of the referral pathway and patient co-management between Eye-Docs and partners.

2025, Industrial Digital Technology (IDT) Readiness Assessment Tool (Co-I). Funded by InterAct Hub, ESRC. £22,500.

2024-2026, KTP with MBD (PI), funded by Innovate UK, UKRI. £179,782. Develop, trial and implement a novel companion business model, which integrates MBD's current grants-based business model with a commercial model that enables MBD to exploit commercial opportunities in Virtual and immersive Production.

2023-2025, KTP with Eye Docs Limited (CO-I), funded by Innovate UK, UKRI. £268,006. To grow business in a private eye-care clinic by innovating the business model, expanding the services offered, optimising patient pathways, and introducing novel shared-care regimes for NHS patients.

2022, Digital investment challenges of manufacturers (Co-I), funded by InterAct, ESRC. £55,000.

2021-2022, Business model innovations in creative industries (P-I), jointly funded by Loughborough University London and Creative Research and Innovation Centre. £5,000.

2018 - 2019, Digitalisation advantage: Harnessing the power of digital innovations to improve healthcare access (P-I), jointly funded by Loughborough University London and Yunnan University in China. £14,000.

2017, Economy development and industry transformation in rural areas of China (P-I), funded by China Electronic Commerce Expert Service Centre (CECES). £2,500.

2017, Discovering future biotech business models (Co-I), funded by Impact Accelerator Account, ESRC. £5,500.

2021 - Present, editorial board member, Long Range Planning

Shriram Dusane. 2024 - present. Servitization in healthcare

Nurcan Kirer. 2024 - present. Diverse user groups and transportation system design

Aisy Irwan. 2022 - present. Digital innovation and SME entrepreneurial performances

Hua Zhang. 2020 - 2024. Environmental innovations and firm risks. Completed.

Pauline Shabani. 2020 - 2023. Returnee entrepreneurs and the innovation ecosystem. Completed.

Dr Femi Obasan. 2019 - 2022. Entrepreneurial family firms. Completed.

Academy of Management

Strategic Management Society

BN2223 Cloud Computing for Business

BNM805 Foundations in Business Systems

BNK482 Digital Transformation

BNK582 Digital Transformation