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Daniels School Faculty

Yu Jeffrey Hu

Yu Jeffrey Hu

The Accenture Professorship of Information Technology

Education

Ph.D., Management Science, Information Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management
M.S., Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.S., Finance, Tsinghua University

CV

Yu Jeffrey Hu is a Full Professor and Accenture Chair at Purdue University’s Daniels School of Business. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of INFORMS Information Systems Society, and has been a Digital Fellow at MIT's Initiative on Digital Economy. He is a world-renowned expert on AI, analytics, digital economy, digital transformation, electronic commerce, omni-channel retailing, offline commerce, social media, and fintech. His research uses AI, econometric, and analytical models to quantify technology-driven user experience in environments such as electronic commerce, omni-channel retailing, offline commerce, social media, mobile app, fintech, and healthcare.

He coauthored the first paper discovering the "Long Tail" phenomenon in Internet markets, the first paper proving the value of social media in predicting stock markets, and the first paper using interpretable AI to quantify ROI of marketing campaigns. He has been an expert, consultant, or advisor for governments in the U.S., Europe, and Asia and many large companies around the world. He is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences.

His research has been published in top journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, Management Information Systems Quarterly, Review of Financial Studies, Marketing Science, and MIT Sloan Management Review. His research has been discussed and cited by media outlets such as Wall Street JournalNew York TimesReuters, Bloomberg, InformationWeekWired MagazineTIME Magazine, ForbesINC. Magazine, The Telegraph, National Public Radio, SeekingAlpha.comBankrate.com, etc. His papers have been adopted for classroom use by many top universities around the world.

He has won a number of research awards such as the inaugural Management Science Best Paper Award in Information Systems. He has also won a number of teaching awards, including Georgia Tech’s Course Instructor Opinion Survey Teaching Award and Fulltime MBA Elective Professor of the Year. He has been Georgia Tech’s Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellow and been nominated for Purdue University’s Teaching For Tomorrow Award. Student teams advised by him have won a number of national competitions.

He has built and led degree and non-degree programs and centers. For instance, he co-led the launch of Master of Science in Analytics, an MBA concentration and an undergraduate certificate in business analytics, and Business Analytics Center , and served as the degree’s Associate Director and the center’s co-Director. He has developed and taught executive education programs to many C-level executives.

He has mentored many PhD students and junior professors who have become tenured, full, or chair professors at top universities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has been an Associate Editor for several top journals and organized several international conferences.

Journal Articles

  • Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Duncan Simester. (2011). "Goodbye Pareto Principle, Hello Long Tail: the Effect of Search Costs on the Concentration of Product Sales." Management Science vol. 57 (8), 1373-1386. | Related Website |
  • C. Ren, Y. Hu, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Jerry Hausman (2011). "Managing Product Variety and Collocation in a Competitive Environment: An Empirical Investigation of Consumer Electronics Retailing." Management Science vol. 57 (6), 1009-1024. | Related Website |
  • Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Michael D. Smith. (2010). "Long Tails versus Superstars: The Effect of Information Technology on Product Variety and Sales Concentration Patterns." Information Systems Research vol. 21 (4), 736-747. | Related Website |
  • Prabuddha De, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Mohammad Rahman. (2010). "Technology Usage and Online Sales: An Empirical Study." Management Science vol. 56 (11), 1930-1945.
  • Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Mohammad Rahman. (2009). "Battle of the Retail Channels: How Product Selection and Geography Drive Cross-Channel Competition." Management Science vol. 55 (11), 1755-1765. | Related Website |
  • Duncan Simester, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Erik Brynjolfsson, Eric Anderson. (2009). "Dynamics of Retail Advertising: Evidence from a Field Experiment." Economic Inquiry vol. 47 (3), 482-499. | Related Website |
  • Zhulei Tang, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Michael D. Smith. (2008). "Gaining Trust through Online Privacy Protection: Self-Regulation, Mandatory Standards, or Caveat Emptor." Journal of Management Information Systems vol. 24 (4), 153-173. | Related Website |
  • Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Michael D. Smith. (2006). "From Niches to Riches: Anatomy of the Long Tail." Sloan Management Review | Related Website | Download |
  • Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu Jeffrey Hu, Michael D. Smith. (2003). "Consumer Surplus in the Digital Economy: Estimating the Value of Increased Product Variety at Online Booksellers." Management Science vol. 49 (11), 1580-1596. | Related Website |

Proceedings (refereed)

  • Hailiang Chen, Prabuddha De, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Byoung-Hyoun Hwang (2011). "Sentiment Revealed through Social Media and Its Effect on The Stock Market." IEEE Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing | Related Website |
  • Erik Brynjolfsson , Yu Jeffrey Hu, Michael D. Smith (2009). "The Longer Tail?: The Changing Shape of Amazon's Sales Distribution Curve." | Related Website |
  • Driving Traffic: New Interpretable AI Model Aims to Improve Mall Performance

    Many malls are closing, affecting rent revenue. However, those that incorporate new technologies and AI tools are growing and opening branches in new cities, says Yu Jeffrey Hu, the Accenture Professorship of Information Technology at Purdue’s Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.

    Full story: Driving Traffic: New Interpretable AI Model Aims to Improve Mall Performance

  • Daniels School MIS faculty honored by leading research association

    Three faculty members in the Management Information Systems (MIS) area at Purdue University’s Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business were recently recognized with awards from the INFORMS Information Systems Society (ISS), which seeks to foster, promote, and disseminate research on the use and impact of information technology in organizations.

    Full story: Daniels School MIS faculty honored by leading research association

Contact

yuhu@purdue.edu
Phone: (765) 494-4504
Office: RAWL 4003

Quick links

My LinkedIn Page
My SSRN Page
My Publications

Area(s) of Expertise

Artificial Intelligence, Business Analytics, Consumer Behavior, Data Analytics, Digital Economy, E-Commerce, Fintech, Information Technology, Social Media