Download YANG WANG Jones Graduate School of Business 267 McNair Hall

YANG WANG
DOCTORAL CANDIDATE
Jones Graduate School of Business
267 McNair Hall – MS 531
6100 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005
Cell Phone: (702) 521-2401
Email: [email protected]
Web: yangwangresearch.wordpress.com
EDUCATION
PhD, Business Administration, 2016
Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University
Dissertation Title: Empirical and Theoretical Investigations in Pricing (essays denoted by *)
Dissertation Committee: Amit Pazgal (chair), Wagner Kamakura, Ajay Kalra, Natalia Sizova
M.B.A, Finance, 2010
Lee College of Business, University of Nevada - Las Vegas
B.S., Hotel Administration (Magna Cum Laude), 2008
University of Nevada - Las Vegas
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Causal inference with big data, revenue management, online reviews, dynamic pricing, channel
structure, industrial organization, cross-disciplinary business research
WORKING PAPERS AND RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
The Effects of observing the service quality of peers (Job Market Paper)
with Alex Chaudhry, Invited for revision at Journal of Marketing Research
The current research paradigm of social influence in customer satisfaction in the digital age focuses on
peer effects in the expectation formation stage. We propose that the broad class of publicly observable
service interactions can also have satisfaction externalities for customers who observe these interactions.
We test the social influence of observable peer service interactions in the context of managers’ response
to online reviews. At the time of writing her review, a focal customer has already purchased and
experienced the product or service. Even so, managers can still influence focal customers postconsumption satisfaction through their responses to other customers’ reviews. Through a novel naturalexperiment, we find empirical evidence using a dataset of more than 17 million hotel reviews that
publicly stated satisfaction is positively (negatively) influenced by managers’ responses to negative
(positive) reviews of previous customers. In addition, we apply latent Dirichlet allocation methods to
model the tailoring of manager response to customer reviews. We find that response tailoring to negative
(positive) reviews enhances (exacerbates) the positive (negative) effect on subsequent opinion.
Keywords: Online reviews, tailored firm engagement, customer satisfaction, natural experiment, topic
modeling
(Sub)optimality of managerial dynamic pricing* (Working paper)
Target Journal: Management Science
This study contributes to the largely theoretical field of revenue management with an empirical
investigation into the sub-optimality of managerial dynamic pricing policies as evidenced in the Las
Vegas hotel market. We demonstrate that managers consistently choose prices that yield revenues
approximately 25% below optimal levels. Specifically, managers appear to choose prices in a manner
Yang Wang CV
consistent with maximizing a mix of occupancy and revenue. We find support for the hypothesis that the
unobservability of counterfactual revenues may drive managers’ suboptimal pricing policies when the
hotel is expected to fill capacity. Additionally, we explore a novel managerial use of online reviews in
pricing decisions and the effect of competitors’ pricing strategies on a focal hotel’s optimal prices. We
discover that predicting mean reverting tendencies of online reviews can marginally improve the focal
hotel’s bottom line during slow seasons. Similarly, we show that there is an economically significant
impact of predicting competitors’ prices on the focal hotel’s pricing policies.
Keywords: Revenue management, dynamic pricing, competitive pricing, online reviews
A model of pricing and advertising competition in the presence of online sales agents* (Manuscript
in preparation) with Amit Pazgal, Target Journal: Marketing Science
Service providers have traditionally sold either directly to the consumer or through small independent
sales agents (e.g. travel agents). The internet has consolidated the role of sales agents in the form of online
travel agents (OTA’s, e.g. Expedia) and other internet sales agents (ISA’s, e.g. Ticketmaster), giving them
bargaining power over service suppliers. However, few theoretical investigations have been made into
why internet retailers or sales agents exist in markets where service providers can act as direct sellers.
This paper presents a model of a horizontally differentiated duopoly in the presence of a sales agent where
all three players can sell directly to the consumer. We show that agents can exist by appealing to consumers
who are relatively indifferent between the competing service providers. The sales agent creates a
prisoner’s dilemma for service providers in their decision to participate on the OSA platform.
Additionally, we demonstrate that prices may be higher despite the increased competition on the OSA
platform because of endogenously created loyal and switching segments. Finally, we propose a model that
describes the mechanism by which online sales agents may reach indifferent consumers. In this model all
firms advertise to reach consumers, but while direct sellers advertises their own brand, the OSA advertises
for the entire product category.
Keywords: Online sales agents, price competition, advertising, game theory, industrial organization
The global diffusion of management best practice (Research in progress)
with Alex Chaudhry
Managers’ public response to online reviews has become a common practice as online review platforms
have become a prominent source of information for consumers in their purchasing decisions. The broad
adoption of this publicly observable management practice provides us the perfect laboratory in which to
study the diffusion of management practice. Analyzing a dataset of nearly 100 million reviews across
500,000 tourism-related businesses located across the globe, we document the rise of the practice of public
response to online customers reviews over the span of 12 years. In particular, we address the questions,
are large chain businesses central to the diffusion of best practices, does competition drive new practice
adoption, and do customers wield a voice strong enough to force management innovation in the digital
age? We find support for all three forces by estimating a spatial-temporal diffusion model of management
response to online reviews. Additionally, we examine the moderating effects of a business’ reliance of
repeat customers, the size of the business, and cultural barriers in the diffusion process
Keywords: Best practice, social diffusion, customer communication, online reviews
Risk premium of the bullwhip effect in a networked B2B economy (Research in progress)
with Edwin Hu
Yang Wang CV
There has been a long tradition in the finance literature of studying systematic economic risk factors in
the pricing of financial assets. The majority of proposed risk factors have been derived from characteristics
of firms in isolation. We propose that the interconnectedness of firms in an economy can pose additional
systematic risks to firms in upstream positions due to the bullwhip effects. The bullwhip effect describes
the increased volatility in production as downstream demand shocks propagate upstream due to
information asymmetry, time to production, shipping time, and other frictions. To test our hypothesis of
this additional risk factor, we data mine customer disclosures in the footnotes of the SEC 10-K and 8-K,
constructing a B2B sales network dataset of more than 4000 unique seller nodes per year for 36 years. We
are able to identify evidence of the bullwhip effect in the form of amplified cash flow volatility when we
control for industry supply chain diversification of upstream firms based on firms’ position in the
economic network. However, we find no evidence of the bullwhip effect being priced as a risk factor,
suggesting a possible systematic mispricing by financial markets.
Keywords: B2B sales, networks, supply chain, bullwhip effect, risk premiums, factor models
HONORS & AWARDS
AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Northwestern University
ISMS Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Emory University
ISMS Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Boston University
ISMS Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Rice University
Structural Econometrics Workshop, Duke University
UH Doctoral Symposium Fellow (Presenter), University of Houston
MGM Mirage Graduate Education Grant (full tuition)
Weinberger Hotel Scholar (1/2 tuition)
Nevada Millennium Scholar (1/3 tuition)
National Merit Scholar (full tuition)
2014
2014
2012
2011
2013
2012
2008-2010
2006-2008
2006-2008
2006-2008
PRESENTATIONS & CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE
(Sub)optimality of managerial dynamic pricing in a competitive oligopoly
Marketing Science Conference
2014
Uncertain demand in a mature market: nonparametric dynamic pricing in the Las Vegas resort market
Marketing Science Conference
2012
A model of online service retailers in horizontally differentiated markets
University of Houston Doctoral Symposium
2012
UT Dallas FORMS Conference
Annual Rice University Marketing Camp
Marketing Science Conference, Houston, TX
2012-2014
2012-2015
2011
TEACHING INTERESTS
Principles of Marketing, Marketing Research, Pricing, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing
ACADEMIC/TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University
Research Assistant to Drs. Amit Pazgal, Randy Batsell, Wagner Kamakura, and Sharad Borle
2010 – Current
Yang Wang CV
Teaching Assistant to Dr. Amit Pazgal’s MGMT719 class, Thinking Strategically (Spring 2011), Dr. Randy Batsell’s
MGMT895 class, Data Analytics for EMBA, and Dr. Sharad Borle’s MGMT595 class, Data Analytics for PMBA.
Course Development (February 2016 launch) for Rice University’s Coursera specialization – Data Analysis with Excel.
Ad hoc referee for Production and Operations Management
2014 – Current
College of Education, University of Nevada – Las Vegas
2006 – 2007
Research Assistant for Spencer Foundation grant project on international comparative education
Coding and translation of video recorded Chinese elementary school mathematics lectures. Creating Microsoft Access
database and queries for easy data extraction of lecture coding.
2006 – 2007
TestSmart, Las Vegas
SAT and AP Calculus Instructor
INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
Cangrade, Cambridge, MA
2013 – Current
VP of Scientific Research
R&D related to employee hiring, retention, and training selection algorithms.
Las Vegas Sands (Venetian and Palazzo resorts)
Revenue Management Analyst
Call Center and Resort Operations Analyst
2009 – 2010
MGM Grand Resort
Channel Distribution Specialist
Inventory Specialist
2007 – 2009
COMPUTING
Python, STATA, MATLAB, VBA, R, SAS, Linux, Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3), web crawling
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
AMA, INFORMS
PERSONAL
USA citizen, speaks native English and fluent Mandarin, avid ice hockey player (Fall 2014 Space City
rec. league champion), winner of multiple state and regional violin competitions.
DOCTORAL COURSEWORK
MARKETING
Analytical Models in Marketing
Business Game Theory
Behavioral Economics
Consumer Behavior (x3 semesters/diff readings)
Managerial Research
Measurement Theory
Hierarchical Bayes Models in Marketing
ECONOMICS
Amit Pazgal
Amit Pazgal
Amit Pazgal
Ajay Kalra
Vikas Mittal
Wagner Kamakura
Sharad Borle
Yang Wang CV
Mathematics for Economists
Microeconomic Theory I
Microeconomic Theory II
Econometrics I
Econometrics II
Empirical Microeconomics
Industrial Organization
Dynamic Optimization
Siyang Xiong
Simon Grant
Camelia Bejan
Bill Brown
Robin Sickles
Vivian Ho / Richard Boylan
Marc Dudey
Peter Hartley
FINANCE
Empirical Methods in Finance
James Weston
ACCOUNTING
Analytical Models in Accounting
Thomas Hemmer
STATTISTICS
Statistical Learning (audit)
Genevera Allen
PSYCHOLOGY
Social Psychology
Mikki Hebl
REFERENCES
Amit Pazgal
Professor of Marketing and Operations Mgmt.
Jones Graduate School of Business
Rice University
P.O. Box 2932-MS 531
Houston, TX 77252
(713) 348-5404
[email protected]
Wagner Kamakura
Jesse H. Jones Professor of Marketing
Jones Graduate School of Business
Rice University
P.O. Box 2932-MS 531
Houston, TX 77252
(713) 348-6307
[email protected]
Ajay Kalra
Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Marketing
Jones Graduate School of Business
Rice University
P.O. Box 2932-MS 531
Houston, TX 77252
(713) 348-2387
[email protected]
Randy Batsell
Associate Professor of Marketing
Jones Graduate School of Business
Rice University
P.O. Box 2932-MS 531
Houston, TX 77252
(713) 348-5390
[email protected]
Sharad Borle
Associate Professor of Marketing
Jones Graduate School of Business
Rice University
P.O. Box 2932-MS 531
Houston, TX 77252
(713) 348-4349
[email protected]