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Youngbok Ryu


Biography

Youngbok Ryu is an associate teaching professor at Northeastern University, where he is leading the BS in Management program and teaching courses in the MS in Commerce and Economic Development program. He is also a co-director of the Northeastern Lab for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, where he assists small businesses in scaling and conducts research on procurement issues in higher education. Before joining academia, he worked with think tanks such as RAND Corporation and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. His interests include policy and management issues related to science and technology, energy and environment, entrepreneurship and small business, and economic development. 

Academic Background and Areas of Research With Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the RAND School of Public Policy, Ryu’s research focuses on sustainable development. His overall research interests lie in innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Particularly, Ryu is interested in shedding light on the role of tech-based small businesses in public procurement, assessing the performance of various decision-making units, and understanding contextual effects on the performance. Ryu is currently studying procurement issues in higher education institutions with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. 

Professional Experience: 

2024 – Present: Associate Teaching Professor at the College of Professional Studies, Northeastern University 

2020 – 2024: Assistant Teaching Professor at the College of Professional Studies, Northeastern University 

2017 – 2020: Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Business and Technology Management, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology 

2014: Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 

2011 – 2017: Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation 

Research Focus Areas:  

Sustainable development  

Selected Publications:  

1. Yang, R., Ryu, Y., and Oet, M.V. (2024). Assessing the Foreign Direct Investment Performance of Middle-Income Countries Using Data Envelopment Analysis with Translation Invariance. Economies: 11 (11), 314. 2. Sueyoshi, T. and Ryu, Y. (2022). Performance Assessment on Technology Transition from Small Businesses to the U.S. Department of Defense. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences: 80, 101177. 3. Nguyen, H. and Ryu, Y. (2022). Assessing the Performance of Vietnam’s Banks in the Era of Free Trade Agreements. Sustainability: 14 (2), 1014. 4. Ryu, Y. and Sueyoshi, T. (2021). Examining the Relationship between the Economic Performance of Technology-based Small Suppliers and Socially Sustainable Procurement. Sustainability: 13 (13), 7220. 5. Sueyoshi, T. and Ryu, Y. (2021). Environmental Assessment and Sustainable Development in the United States. Energies: 14 (4), 1180. 

Accomplishments 

2024 – Present: Secretary and Treasurer, American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) New England Chapter 

2023 – Present: Member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Northeastern University 

2022: Best Paper Award from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Section on Procurement and Contract Management (SPCM) 

2017: Brian Stockdale Memorial Award from Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) 

Selected Grants:  

1. Knowledge Challenge Grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO, USA: Promoting Supplier Diversity in Higher Education Procurement, 2. University Center Grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Washington, DC, USA: Reinvigorating Inclusive, Equitable Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IE^2) in New England, 3. Research Grant on the Acquisition Research Program from the U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, DC, USA: Technology Transition Performance of the U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research Program, 4. TIER-1 Seed Grant from Northeastern University’s Office of Research Development: Green Finance for Arctic Futures: Innovating for Sustainability and Indigenous Empowerment, 5. Mutual Mentoring Advancement Program (M2AP) Fund from Northeastern University’s ADVANCE Office of Faculty Development: Organizing Writing Retreats for Academic  

Publications and Presentations Selected Fellowships:  

1. Faculty Fellowship from Northeastern University’s Global Experience Office 2. Fellowship for the Social Studies of Emerging Technologies from the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure 3. Energy Innovation Policy and Management Fellowship from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation 4. Dissertation Fellowship from the National Defense Research Institute 5. Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/youngbok-ryu-7b4a6434/ 

Education

PhD from Pardee Rand Graduate School of Policy Studies (2017)

Area of Expertise

Entrepreneurial Innovation, Regional Economic Development, Small Business Innovation Research, Transportation Decarbonization