Meet Lily, a small toy seller on a major online marketplace. She relies on two key services: customer trend data to know what products to stock, and short-term loans to buy inventory before the holiday rush. But new research by HKUST’s Professor Lijian Lu and colleagues shows these services don’t always reinforce each other. Using a game-theory model of ... Read More

When you see a social media ad with dozens of “likes,” do you assume it is worth your time? A new study suggests the answer is more complicated than it looks. HKUST’s Professor Song Lin and his colleague conducted a large-scale field experiment on WeChat, analyzing more than 5.5 million ad impressions across 82 ads. Their goal was to find out whether showing ... Read More

An important challenge for investors is understanding why some stocks and investments perform better than others. Traditionally, financial experts have predicted how much return (or profit) an investor can expect based on a company’s size, its earnings, or overall economic conditions. With important implications for investors and other finance professionals ... Read More

Today’s consumers heavily rely on online peer reviews to guide their purchase decisions. Yet, review platforms and businesses alike are struggling with a shortage of online reviews and declining review length. In response, many businesses have turned to offering incentives, such as discounts or even direct payments, in exchange for (often positive) reviews ... Read More