He helped Tsinghua University Institute of Economics and Management introduce the distinguished professor system according to the Wharton business school experience he taught, and attracted the world's top scholars to teach in Tsinghua. This system was quickly imitated and adopted by first-class universities in China, and became an important innovation of academic modernization in China.
In cooperation with Chen, he established the North American model business doctor program in Tsinghua University, which quickly became the national doctor training model of the School of Economics and Management.
His three accounting research theories have changed the research mode of national accounting.
At the invitation of Zhang Hongzhang, Dean of the School of Management of National Taiwan University, John Gould, Dean of university of chicago booth school of business, and Paul Danos, Dean of Dartmouth Business School, were invited to make a comprehensive physical examination for the School of Management of National Taiwan University and make suggestions, which initiated the regular external evaluation of Asian business schools. Therefore, he became the consultant and chairman of the Accreditation Committee of China Management Institute. He has won the Robert Jeffrey Sternberg Award for Outstanding Research, the National Outstanding Achievement Award of the American Publishing Association and the Freeman Award for Outstanding Service. He is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Finance and Industry, Who's Who in Hong Kong and Who's Who in International Economy.
Li Zhiwen is a jury member of the National Science Foundation of the United States, the National Science Foundation of Chile, the Hong Kong Research Foundation and the Taiwan Province Provincial Science Foundation. He is often appointed as a judge of many famous universities in the United States, France, Britain, China, Taiwan Province Province, Singapore and Hongkong. He is the founding director of HKUST 1994- 1996.
Li Zhiwen is a world-famous management scholar. Professor Cohen from tulane university, USA, served as the vice president of business school for fifteen years. The first batch of distinguished professor from Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, the first Cursor Professor from Zhejiang University School of Management, and the first Distinguished Professor from Taiwan Province University School of Social Sciences in Taiwan Province Province.
Li Zhiwen founded Dr. Friedman Research Center and Asian EMBA class in tulane university. He is the founding professor of HKUST, where he founded the accounting department and served as the head of the department. When he 1999 left office, the number of papers published by HKUST Accounting Department in the top five accounting academic journals in the world was the highest in the world. He was an assistant professor at university of chicago booth school of business and an associate professor at Wharton Business School. During Wharton's teaching, he was the head teacher of the doctor of accounting.
He has served as a special consultant or researcher at Stanford Research Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, China Academy of Sciences and Academia Sinica. In 2007, Li Zhiwen Business School was established at the invitation of Zhejiang University. Together with Qiu Chengtong Mathematics Class and Ba Denian Medical Class, it formed an elite institution of undergraduate education in Zhejiang University.
He is also an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur educator. In Tsinghua University, he coached students to set up Hualan Consulting Company, served as chairman, angel investor and company director. The former serves the enterprise management process with modern management knowledge and research results, so as to sort out and improve the enterprise physique. The latter provides advice and education for the growth of China youth.