Professor Jing Dai’s research focuses on sustainable supply chains as well as supply chain innovation. She is the principal investigator for two grants funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Both NSFC funded projects investigate green and sustainability-related issues. One is entitled "Exploring green supply chain management in China: strategy-structure-capability-performance perspective", and the other "Environmental technology innovation for developing supply chains". Her research provides a theoretical guideline and managerial implications for business and policymakers in developing sustainable capability and effective operations.

Prof. Dai’s research suggests that there is a need for an appropriate organizational structure to support sustainability in business. Supply chain collaboration is an important structural aspect to achieve both environmental and social sustainability. She also further investigates “who” to collaborate, and “how” to collaborate for achieving a “win-win” situation for business and society. For example, one of her research findings suggests while collaborating beyond your organization, inter-organizational complementarity facilitates incremental environmental innovation while inter-organizational compatibility plays a more crucial role in radical environmental innovation. She also investigates how smart technology and digitalization influence collaboration and sustainability. One of her projects investigates the impact of digital technologies on economic and environmental performance in the context of industry 4.0. The findings suggest that to achieve sustainable development, manufacturing firms are encouraged to extend the application of digital technologies into supply chains and to connect with their supply chain partners. Her recent study also suggests that Blockchain is alternative inter-organizational governance to build up trust, enabling supply chain collaboration for sustainability.