Dong Xiang is currently a Foreign Professor at Qilu Institute of Technology, China Node Leader of the International Society of Pitching Research for Responsible Science (InSPiR2eS), and a member of the International Council for Small Business. He previously served as Director of the International Research Centre for Digital Finance and Enterprise Development as well as Foreign Dean of the International Business School at Shandong Normal University.Professor Xiang’s research interests include FinTech, digital finance, SME financing and innovation, and financial market efficiency. He has published more than 70 academic papers. His research on FinTech and Chinese SMEs was recognized as an ESI Highly Cited Paper, while his study on Australian government support for SMEs became the most downloaded paper of 2023 in the Accounting Research Journal. He has also received the Best Paper Award at the Australia–New Zealand SME Research Forum.Professor Xiang serves as a reviewer for more than 30 international journals, including Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Economic Modelling, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, and World Development. In 2022, he served as Guest Editor for a special issue of Economic Modelling and organized an international conference that attracted more than 800 participants from around the world.