U.S. Market Entry Strategy for LED-Curing Technology
In the summer of 2018, I visited my family friend’s company, Youwei Group, which was developing an innovative coating capable of rapid curing under LED light, offering numerous environmental and economic advantages over traditional paints. Seeing the technology at work firsthand made me wonder: why wasn’t this in every market? The opportunity was too great not to pass up.
Starting my sophomore year, I researched the intersection of sustainability and business strategy. I kept wondering: how do innovative green technologies actually make it from the lab to the market—especially across international borders? What barriers do they face, and how can companies overcome them? This project became my way of exploring those questions through real-world market analysis.
Youwei Group LED-Curing Coating Market Strategy: A Sustainable Entry into the U.S. Industrial Coatings Market
The industrial coatings industry is responsible for a significant environmental impact—traditional solvent-based coatings release harmful VOCs and consume massive amounts of energy. LED-curing coating technology offers a transformative alternative, reducing energy use by up to 50% and eliminating VOC emissions entirely. But having breakthrough technology isn't enough—getting it adopted in a competitive, highly regulated market like the United States requires a sophisticated strategy.
This work, conducted under the mentorship of Professor Noel Capon at Columbia Business School and Zixiao Bian at the University of Chicago, was published in the Open Journal of Business and Management (Vol. 13, Issue 6). Beyond developing a market-entry strategy, this project demonstrated that solving global sustainability challenges requires understanding not only the science but also the business realities that determine whether innovation reaches the people who need it.
