Professor Tian has published more than 80 refereed journal articles in areas such as corporate finance, governance and Chinese captial markets. His current Google scholar H index is 42 with more than 7,000 citations. He is also listed among the Top 25 most prolific authors globally in corporate finance. He is also ranked 2nd in Handelsblatt, 3rd in ERIM, 6th in ABDC, CABS and VHB in Australia and New Zealand, as per P-rank for publications between 2016-2021. 

In recent years, his works have been appeared in Management Science (2019 and 2021), Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Corporate Finance (nine papers), Journal of Banking and Finance (seven papers), Journal of Business Ethics (two papers), Auditing, European Accounting Review and Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. Additionally, he successfully supervised more than 25 PhD students. He is currently an Deputy Editor for the Accounting and Finance journal and a board member of Asian Finance Association.

His research interests focus on corporate finance and governance including CSR, political connections, regulation and corruption, social identity and finance, CEO compensation, bank lending and informal finance, innovation, and investment efficiency.