Yu Jeffrey Hu is an associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology’s  Scheller College of Business. He is an expert on big data, electronic commerce, Internet retailing, social media, consumer behavior, and online advertising. He coauthored the first paper on the "Long Tail" phenomenon in Internet markets; he is among the first to measure the effect of social media promotions on product sales and the effect of social media content on stock markets. He has conducted research or consulted for many companies including Amazon, HP, Cisco, BankBoston (now part of Bank of America), Nortel, a major publishing company, and a number of large retailers selling products such as clothing and shoes. He has done consulting work for European Commission on issues related to Internet commerce.

His research uses empirical and analytical models to study the effect of social media on stock market and product sales, the competition between print books and e-books, the Internet markets’ “Long Tail” phenomenon, the firm’s product variety/assortment decision, and the effect of technology use on consumers’ shopping behaviors. He has also written papers on the different pricing models in online advertising and the different mechanisms to protect online consumers’ privacy. 

His research has been published in top journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, Sloan Management Review, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Economic Inquiry. His research on the “Long Tail” phenomenon on the Internet has been discussed extensively and cited by media outlets such as New York Times, InformationWeek, Wired Magazine, TIME Magazine, INC. Magazine, and National Public Radio. His papers have been adopted for classroom use by many universities in the United States (including classes taught at MIT, Harvard Univ., Yale Univ., Stanford Univ., Univ. of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon Univ., New York Univ., Univ. of California-Berkeley, Univ. of Maryland, Emory Univ.) and internationally (including classes taught in Canada (Univ. of Calgary), Germany (Univ. of Paderborn), UK (Univ. of Portsmouth, Univ. of Surrey), and China (Tsinghua Univ.)).

Dr. Hu is an Associate Editor for journals such as Management Science (since 2011) and Information Systems Research (since 2012), and for conferences such as International Conference on Information Systems.

• Brynjolfsson, Erik, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith. 2006. “From Niches to Riches: The Anatomy of the Long Tail.” Sloan Management Review, 47(4) 67-71.  


• Brynjolfsson, Erik, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith. 2003. “Consumer Surplus in the Digital Economy: Estimating the Value of Increased Product Variety at Online Booksellers.” Management Science, 49(11) 1580-1596. 


• Tang, Zhulei, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith. 2007. “Gaining Trust through Online Privacy Protection: Self-Regulation, Mandatory Standards, or Caveat Emptor.” Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(4) 153-173. 


• Simester, Duncan, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Eric Anderson. 2009. “Dynamics of Retail Advertising: Evidence from a Field Experiment.” Economic Inquiry, 47(3) 482-499. 


• Brynjolfsson, Erik, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Mohammad Rahman. 2009. “<a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=995647">Battle of The Retail Channels: How Product Selection and Geography Drive Cross-channel Competition.</a>” Management Science, 55(11) 1755-1765. 


• De, Prabuddha, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Mohammad Rahman. 2010. “Technology Usage and Online Sales: An Empirical Study.” Management Science, 56(11) 1930-1945. 


• Brynjolfsson, Erik, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Michael D. Smith. 2010. “Long Tails vs. Superstars: The Effect of Information Technology on Product Variety and Sales Concentration Patterns.” Information Systems Research, 21(4) 736-747.  


• Ren, Charlotte, Ye Hu, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu, and Jerry Hausman. 2011. “Managing Product Variety and Collocation in a Competitive Environment: An Empirical Investigation of Consumer Electronics Retailing.” Management Science, 57(6) 1009-1024. 


• Goodbye Pareto Principle, Hello Long Tail: The Effect of Search Costs on the Concentration of Product Sales 


• IT-Enabled Broadcasting in Social Media: An Empirical Study of Artists’ Activities and Music Sales 


• The Customer as The Advisor: The Role of Social Media on Financial Markets