In June 2016, CHEN Yubo, professor of Marketing, Associate Dean and director of Center for Internet Development and Governance at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM), was named a finalist for theJournal of Marketing Research’s 2016 William F. O’Dell Award.

The O’Dell Award honors a Journal of Marketing Research article published in 2011 that “has made the most significant, long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology, and/or practice.”

Professor CHEN was recognized for his work “Online Social Interactions: A Natural Experiment on Word of Mouth Versus Observational Learning,” which appeared in April 2011. The article was co-authored by Dr. XIE Jinhong and Dr. WANG Qi. Dr. XIE is the JC Penney Eminent Scholar Chair and professor at Warrington College of Business, University of Florida. Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor at the School of Management at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Professor CHEN was the first author and corresponding author.

Utilizing three longitudinal, quasi-experimental field studies, the article examined the varied effects word of mouth and observational learning have on consumers’ purchase decisions. Among the study’s major findings are that negative word of mouth is more influential than positive word of mouth, and positive observational learning significantly increases sales, but negative observational learning information has no effect.

Professor CHEN received his Ph. D. in Marketing from the University of Florida, M. Eng. in Systems Engineering and B. Eng. in Industrial Management Engineering from Southeast University.