Yuan teaches and conducts research in the area of organizational communication and intercultural communication. Specially, she is interested in studying knowledge management through the development of social capital, and the adoption and usage of information and communication technology. Her recent research has focused on examining cultural differences in cognition and decision making, for instance, how American and Chinese people react differently to climate change initiatives and how they obtain health information differently. She has also explored how differences in communication styles between the East and the West influence the effectiveness of intercultural collaboration and expertise sharing.