Yi Zhu
Professor of Marketing &
Margaret J. Holden and Dorothy A. Werlich Endowed Professor
Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Research Interests
Industrial Organization, Quantitative Marketing, Advertising, E-commerce, Online Auctions
Academic Positions
2024-Current Margaret J. Holden and Dorothy A. Werlich Endowed Professor, UMN
2019-2024 Associate Professor, Carlson School of Management, UMN
2013-2019 Assistant Professor, Carlson School of Management, UMN
Publications
"Customer Voice on Two-Sided Platforms: The Effect of Surge Pricing on Customer Complaints," (with Linli Xu and Max Wei), Management Science, 2024
"Adverse Inclusion of Asymmetric Advertisers in Position Auctions," (with Zibin XU and Shantanu Dutta), International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2023
"Prominent Retailer and Intra-brand Competition," (with Ruitong Wang and George John), Journal of Marketing Research, 2022
“Why Customer Service Frustrates Consumers: Exploiting Hassle Costs by a Tiered Customer Service Organization,” (with Anthony Dukes), Marketing Science, 2019
“Why Is Customer Service So Bad? Because It’s Profitable,” (with Anthony Dukes), Harvard Business Review (HBR.org), February 28, 2019
“Prominent Attributes Under Limited Attention,” (with Anthony Dukes), Marketing Science, 36(5):683-698, 2017
“When It’s Smart to Copy Your Competitor’s Brand Promise,” (with Anthony Dukes), Harvard Business Review (HBR.org), March 23, 2017
“Effects of TV Advertising on Keyword Search,” (with Mingyu Joo and Kenneth C. Wilbur) International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(3):508-523, 2016
Highlighted in “What Should Marketers Read? Our Academic Trustees Tell Us” on
MSI.org (2017)
“Position Auctions with Budget-Constraints: Implications for Advertisers and Publishers,” (with Shijie Lu and Anthony Dukes), Marketing Science, 34(6):897-905, 2015
“Selective Reporting of Factual Content by Commercial Media,” (with Anthony Dukes) Journal of Marketing Research, 52(1):56-76, 2015
Winner, 2012 Shankar-Spiegel Best Dissertation Proposal Award
“Television Advertising and Online Search,” (with Mingyu Joo, Kenneth C. Wilbur and Bo Cowgill), Management Science, 60(1): 56-73, 2014
Winner, 2014 John D.C. Little Award
Finalist, 2014 Frank M. Bass Award
“Hybrid Advertising Auctions,” (with Kenneth C. Wilbur), Marketing Science, 30(2):249-273, 2011
“Click Fraud,” (with Kenneth C. Wilbur), Marketing Science, 28(2): 293-308, 2009
“Private Sector Industrialization in China: Evidence from Wenzhou,”(with John Strauss, Edward Yanmin Qian, Minggao Shen, Dong Liu, Mehdi Majbouri, Qi Sun, Qianfang Ying), in Community, Market and Sate in Development, ed. by Keijiro Otsuka and Kaliappa Kalirajan, Palgrave-McMillan Publishing, 2010.
Working Papers
“Enhancing User Experience: Unveiling the Role of the Quality Score Metrics,” (with Zsolt Katona and Lei Zhuang)
“Price Signaling and Channel Coordination,” (with Ruitong Wang and Akshay Rao)
Service
Referee for Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Marketing Letters, Journal of Retailing, International Conference on Information Systems, and others
Teaching
Marketing Analytics: Customer Insights (MBA Class, Starting Fall 2019), UMN
Average Instructor Rating: 5.6/6 (2019); 5.7/6 (2020, condensed), 5.8/6 (2022-2023)
Marketing Management (Medical Industry MBA core class), UMN
Average Instructor Rating: 5.7/6 (2020, through zoom); 6.0/6 ( 2022-2024)
Marketing Strategy (Capstone Course for Undergraduate Marketing Major), UMN
Average Instructor Rating: 5.6/6 (2014); 5.7/6 (2015); 5.9/6 (Spring 2016), 5.9/6 (Fall 2016), 5.9/6 (Fall 2017)
Introduction to Applying Analytical Tools for Solving Business Problems (Undergraduate Business Analytics Core Class, Starting Fall 2017)
Average Instructor Rating: 5.6/6 (Fall 2017); 5.7/6 (Fall 2018); 5.7/6 (Fall 2019); 5.6/6 (Spring 2021 Zoom), 5.9/6 (Spring 2022); 5.7/6 (Spring 2023); 5.8/6 (Fall 2023); 5.9/6 (Fall 2024)
Quantitative Modeling I (Ph.D. Seminar Class), UMN
Average Instructor Rating: 6/6 (2016-2023)
Marketing Fundamentals (Undergraduate Marketing Core), USC, 2011. Instructor Rating: 4.6/5
Honors and Awards
Winner, Don Morrison Long Term Impact Award, the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science; 2023
Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar; 2023
Outstanding Teaching Award, Carlson School of Management, UMN; 2022
Finalist, Don Morrison Long Term Impact Award; 2022
Finalist, Don Morrison Long Term Impact Award; 2021
Carlson School Outstanding Research Award, UMN, 2019
Mary & Jim Lawrence Fellow, Carlson School of Management, UMN, 2018
Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar, 2017
Winner, John D. C. Little Award for the Best Marketing Paper Published in Marketing Science or Management Science, 2015
Finalist, Frank M. Bass Award for the Best Marketing Paper Derived from a Ph.D. Thesis Published in INFORMS Journals , 2015
3M Nontenured Faculty Award, 2013-2016
Dean's Small Research Grant, Carlson School of Management, UMN, 2013
USC PhD Achievement Award, 2013
USC Graduate School Travel Award, 2013
Shankar-Spiegel Best Dissertation Proposal Award, Direct Marketing Association, 2012
Extraordinary Potential Prize of Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, Chinese Ministry of Education, 2012
AMA-Sheth Doctoral Consortium Fellow, University of Washington, 2012
James S. Ford/Commerce Associates Ph.D. Fellowship, Marshall-USC, 2011
Annual UH Doctoral Symposium Fellow, University of Houston, 2011
Summer Institute in Competitive Strategy (SICS) Financial Support, UC Berkeley, 2010
Workshop on Quantitative Marketing and Structural Econometrics Fellow, Duke University, 2010
INFORMS Marketing Science Conference Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 2008,2012
USC Provost Fellowship, University of Southern California,2008-2013
Contact:
UMN-Carlson School of Management
Department of Marketing
321 19th Ave. South, Suite 3-150
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612)626-6965
Fax: (612)624-8804
Email: yizhu AT umn.edu
