Xian Cao
Assistant Professor
Office
SFHB State Farm Hall Of Business 250
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Selected Research
Biography
Xian received her Ph.D. in Strategic Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of Connecticut. Living in Champaign with her family, she is the proud mother of two wonderful children, Leo and Lia. A passionate traveler, Xian relishes the opportunity to explore new places and cultures.
Current Courses
MGT 385.002 Organizational Strategy
MGT 226.001 Corporate Entrepreneurship | Syllabus
MGT 226.002 Corporate Entrepreneurship | Syllabus
MGT 326.001 Small Business Field Studies | Syllabus
Teaching Interests & Areas
She teaches courses in entrepreneurship and strategic management, integrating her research interests which focus on female entrepreneurs, the motivations behind entrepreneurship, social media, and research methods.
Research Interests & Areas
Her scholarly work has been published in respected journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Decision Support Systems, Small Business Economics, Journal of Small Business Management, Group & Organization Management, and Personality and Individual Differences. Xian also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for multiple academic journals.
PhD Strategic Management
The University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT
MBA Business Administration
The Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
Bachelor of Arts International Economics and Trade
Nanjing University
Nanjing, China
Best Student Paper Award
2024 Midwest Academy of Management
2024
Best Paper Nominee
Midwest Academy of Management
2021
Diversity Scholarship Recognition
The Ball State University Office of Inclusive Excellence
2019
Evidence From the Kauffman Firm Survey, The Honorarium Award
The Small Business Economics Special Issue in Entrepreneurial Dynamics
2017
Grants and Contracts
COB University Research Grant
Xian Cao.
College of Business. July 1 2025 - June 30 2026
Summer Assessment Grant
Xian Cao.
Ball State University. June 1 2023 - May 1 2024
Journal Article
Detecting Gender Stereotypes against Women Entrepreneurs in Large Language Models
Xian Cao, Hongfei Li, Qingyu Xu, Ruoqing Zhu.
Journal of Business Ethics, (2025)
Analyzing the online word of mouth dynamics: A novel approach
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Hongfei Li, Ruoqng Zhu.
Decision Support Systems, 185 (114306), (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2024.114306
Examining Psychological Mediators in Entrepreneurship: Experimental Designs, Remedies, and Recommendations
Dan K Hsu, Robert Mitchell, Xian Cao.
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 48 (1), (2023), https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587231152824
A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Chief Executive Officer Tenure and Firm Financial Performance: The Moderating Effects of Chief Executive Officer Pay and Board Monitoring
Xian Cao, Junyon Im, Imran Syed.
Group & Organization Management, 46 (3), (2021), https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601121989575
From entrepreneurial passion to entrepreneurial intentions: The role of entrepreneurial passion, innovativeness, and curiosity in driving entrepreneurial intentions
Imran Syed, Jonathan Craig Butler, Ronda M Smith, Xian Cao.
Personality and Individual Differences, 157, (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109758
Founder human capital and new technology venture R&D search intensity: the moderating role of an environmental jolt
Xian Cao, Junyon Im.
Small Business Economics, 50, 625-642, (2017), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9911-5
Looking Upstream and Downstream in Entrepreneurial Cognition: Replicating and Extending the Busenitz & Barney (1997)
Richard J Arend, Xian Cao, Anne Grego-nagel, Junyon Im, Xiaoming Yang, Sergio Canavati.
Journal of Small Business Management, 54 (4), 1147-1170, (2016), https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12233
Written Case with Instructional Material
From Problem to Method: Designing Multiview Sequential Canonical Covariance Analysis for Online Word-of-Mouth Dynamics
Xian Cao, Hongfei Li, Timothy Folta, Ruoqing Zhu.
Sage Research Methods, (2025)
How to Test Psychological Mediators in Entrepreneurship Using Experiments
Xian Cao, Dan Hsu, Rob Mitchell.
Sage Business Cases, (2025)
Presentations
Still Drinking From a Firehose: Teaching With AI 2025 Edition
Carla Flores, Xian Cao, Cindi Kiner, Fred Kitchens, Imran Syed, Ben Blackford, Joel Whitesel.
Midwest Academy of Management, Cleveland, Ohio, October, 2025
Detecting Gender Stereotypes in Large Language Models
Xian Cao, Hongfei Li, Qingyu Xu, Ruoqing Zhu.
Midwest Academy of Management, Moorhead, MN, October, 2024
Drinking From a Firehose: Teaching With and About AI
Carla Flores, Ronda Smith, Imran Syed, Ben Blackford, Jennifer Schultz, Fred Kitchens, Cindi Kiner, Xian Cao.
Midwest Academy of Management, Moorhead, MN, October, 2024
Excellence in Teaching: A Panel Discussion on Innovative Strategies for Effective Teaching
Syed Imran, Heather Dixon, Seo-Young Byun, Ben Blackford, Cindi Kiner, Fred Kitchens, Tim O Peterson, Xian Cao.
Midwest Academy of Management, Moorhead, MN, October, 2024
ChatGPT is my Teaching Assistant
Carla Flores, Syed Im, Xian Cao, Fred Kitchens, Cindi Kiner.
Midwest Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, October, 2023
Venting on Social Media and Social Support for Entrepreneurs: The Mediation Effect of Gender-Venting Congruity
Xian Cao, Hongfei Li, Dan K Hsu, Frederic Delmar.
Academy of Management, Boston, MA, August, 2023
Gender Stereotypes and Social Support in the Digital Entrepreneurial Community
Xian Cao, Hongfei Li, Dan K Hsu, Frederic Delmar.
Midwest Academy of Management, Detroit, MI, October, 2022
Analyzing Big Data in Entrepreneurship: Replicating and Extending Evans and Leighton (1989) Using a Machine Learning Approach
Xian Cao, Zigeng Wang, Huarui Jing, Timothy B Folta, Frederic Delmar, Ruoqing Zhu.
Academy of Management, Seattle, WA, August, 2022
A New Method to Understand the Online Word of Mouth Dynamics: Multi-view Sequential Canonical Covariance Analysis
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Hongfei Li, Ruoqing Zhu.
Midwest Academy of Management, Davenport, IA, October, 2021
A New Method to Understand the Online Word of Mouth Dynamics: Multi-view Sequential Canonical Covariance Analysis
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Hongfei Li, Ruoqing Zhu.
Academy of Management, Vancouver, Canada, August, 2020
Who Becomes a Serial Entrepreneur: Developing a Multi-Dimensional Definition of Prior Entrepreneurial Experience
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Frederic Delmar.
Academy of Management, Vancouver, Canada, August, 2020
Mechanisms underlying the impact of passion on entrepreneurial intentions
Imran Syed, Ronda Smith, Xian Cao.
Midwest Academy of Management, Omaha, NE, October, 2019
Analyzing Big Data in Management: Re-visiting the Entrepreneurial Entry Problem
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Frederic Delmar, Ruoqing Zhu.
Academy of Management, Boston, MA, August, 2019
The Impact of Microfinance Community on Opportunity-Motivated Entrepreneurship: the Moderating Role of Gender Equality
Junyon Im, Xian Cao.
Academy of Management, Boston, MA, August, 2019
The Relative Financial Payoffs to Prior Entrepreneurial Experience: Inside versus Outside the Entrepreneurial Context
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Frederic Delmar.
Academy of Management, Boston, MA, August, 2019
A New Method to Understand the Online Word of Mouth Dynamics: Multi-view Sequential Canonical Covariance Analysis
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Hongfei Li, Ruoqing Zhu.
Statistical Conference in E-Commerce Research, Hongkong, China, August, 2019
Who Becomes a Serial Entrepreneur: Developing a Multi-Dimensional Definition of Prior Entrepreneurial Experience
Xian Cao, Timothy B Folta, Frederic Delmar.
Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Boston, MA, June, 2019
Can Ownership be Seductively Destructive? Unpacking the Relationship between CEO Stock Ownership and at-IPO discretionary Earnings Management.
Xian Cao, Qing Cao, Zeki Simsek.
Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, August, 2018
Explore Entrepreneurial Human Capital and New Venture R&D Search Intensity: A Dynamic Perspective
Xian Cao, Junyon Im.
Academy of Management, Anaheim, CA, August, 2016
Unpacking the Relationship between CEO Share Ownership and IPO Firm Survival
Xian Cao, Qing Cao, Zeki Simsek.
Academy of Management, Anaheim, CA, August, 2016
CEO Involvement in At-IPO Discretionary Earnings Management in Young Entrepreneurial Firms
Xian Cao, Qing Cao, Zeki Simsek.
Academy of Management, Vancover, CA, August, 2015
CEO Tenure and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis
Junyon Im, Xian Cao.
Academy of Management, Vancover, CA, August, 2015
Looking Upstream and Downstream in Entrepreneurial Cognition: Replicating and Extending the Busenitz & Barney Study
Richard Arend, Xian Cao, Anne Grego-Nagel, Junyon Im, Xiaoming Yang, Sergio Canavati.
Academy of Management, Orlando, FL, August, 2013