Research

We study how digital technologies shape behavior and markets, and how firms innovate and respond to policy and market uncertainty. Our work combines empirical causal analysis with research on counterfactual reasoning and explainable AI.

* Corresponding author

Digital Platforms & Consumer Behavior

How digital platforms, retail technologies, and other decision environments shape consumer behavior, choice, and market outcomes.

Accepted & Forthcoming

Interactive Blind Lead-In Ads and Purchase Conversion: The Roles of Completion and Creative Design Features

Yoon, S., Yoo, J.*, Kim, M., Kim, W., Lee, M.S.
Journal of Interactive Marketing (SSCI)
Presentations & workshops:
  • Darden-Cambridge Judge-HKU FBE Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference
  • NYU-Temple Conference on Digital, Mobile Marketing, and Social Media Analytics (by invitation only)
Research support:
  • Principal investigator, National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan (NSTC), "Curiosity Evocation and Resolution in Ads: Empirical Investigation in Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trials" (2022–2024)
Working Paper

Navigating the New Retail Landscape: Mobile Scan-and-Go and the Impact of Mobile Payment Adoption

Yoo, J., Chen, Y., Kim, M., Kim, W.
Best Paper Award, KMA Doctoral Dissertation Competition at The 1st Joint Conference on Distribution, Marketing, Advertising, and Consumer Behavior (DMAC)
Presentations & workshops:
  • The 11th Yale-MIT China India Consumer Insights Conference (doctoral student support from Yale School of Management)
  • 2022 Information Systems Research (ISR) Author Development Workshop
  • The 3rd CEIBS Marketing Symposium
Research support:
  • Principal investigator, National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan (NSTC), "Mobile Scan-and-Go and the Future of Offline Retail: How Reduced Transaction Costs Affect Consumer Behavior" (2023–2025)
SSRN
Revision invited

Helping Hands to Bear the Burden of Choice: Recommendations from Similar, but Not Close, Others Reduce Choice Difficulty

Yoo, J., Kim, W.*, Ackerman, J.
Journal of Marketing (UTD24, FT50)
Working Paper

Exploring Apps with Mixed Ratings: Examining How Users Find Regulatory Fit in Making Purchase Decision

Duron, E.A., Ray, S., Yoo, J.
Presentations & workshops:
  • ISR Paper Development Workshop at PACIS (2024, presented by Edgar A. Duron)
  • TSWIM (2024, presented by Edgar A. Duron)
  • DIGIT Workshop at ICIS (2024, presented by Edgar A. Duron)
  • MIS Quarterly Author Workshop (2026, presented by Edgar A. Duron)
Link
Published

Compromise Effect and Consideration Set Size in Consumer Decision-Making

Yoo, J., Park, H., Kim, W.*
Applied Economics Letters, 25(8), 513–517, 2018
Link Video
Thesis

The Effects of Short-Term Rental Platforms on the Housing Market: Evidence from Saint Lucia Using a Bartik Shift-Share Instrumental Variable Approach

Mave Kimara Alexander
M.S. Thesis, iMBA, NTHU, 2026
Link
Thesis

Unintended Consequences of Sales Ban: Empirical Analysis of the Book Retailing Industry

Natasha Carissa Tedjasukmana
M.S. Thesis, iMBA, NTHU, 2025
Link
Thesis

Influence of Message Framing on Consumer Adoption of AI Services: Evidence from the Financial Sector

Sin-Yu Lin
M.S. Thesis, Institute of Service Science, NTHU, 2024
Link
Thesis

Evaluating Risk-Reducing Incentives to Influence Consumers' Purchase Decision of Private-Label Products

Daniel Vinicio Gonzalez de Leon
M.S. Thesis, iMBA, NTHU, 2023
Link

Causal Inference & Explainable AI

We distinguish counterfactual outcomes in causal inference from counterfactual explanations of machine-learning predictions, develop optimization methods for robust explanations, and explore AI-assisted causal analysis.

Working Paper

Structure-Aware Robust Counterfactual Explanations via Conditional Gaussian Network Classifiers

Liao, Z.-Y., Yoo, J., Yang, H.-T., Chen, P.-A.
Presentations & workshops:
  • CMCT (2026, presented by Zhan-Yi Liao)
  • TSWIM (2026, presented by Po-An Chen)
Related master's thesis
arXiv
Working Paper

From What Ifs to Insights: Counterfactuals in Causal Inference vs. Explainable AI

Shmueli, G., Martens, D., Yoo, J., Greene, T.
arXiv
Thesis

Structure-Aware Robust Counterfactual Explanations via Conditional Gaussian Network Classifiers

Zhan-Yi Liao
M.S. Thesis, Institute of Information Management, NYCU, 2025
Co-advisors: Po-An Chen; Jaewon Yoo
2025 Best Master's Thesis Award (Honorable Award), Algorithms and Computation Theory Society of Taiwan — awarded to Zhan-Yi Liao's master's thesis
Related working paper
Link
Work in Progress

Improving Causal Identification with Explainable AI-Assisted Confounder Discovery

Authorship to be determined.

Work in Progress

Can AI Dream Up a Control Group? Generating Synthetic Respondents to Reconstruct Untreated Potential Outcomes

Authorship to be determined.

Innovation & Firm Strategy

How firms innovate and commercialize products, and how their strategic choices respond to public policy, alliances, intellectual property, and market uncertainty.

Accepted & Forthcoming

Why does pharmaceutical detailing increase over time? Indication expansion versus inter-firm competition

Nam, S., Kim, M., Yoo, J.*
Journal of Business Research (SSCI)
Video
Published

The Effect of Alliance Activity on Patent Litigation: In the Case of Printed Electronics

Kang, M., Yoo, J., Kim, W.*, Kim, N.
Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society, 21(1), 265–299, 2018
Link Video
Thesis

State Economic Freedom and Firm Size as Moderators of Paid Family Leave’s Effect on Firm Risk-Taking

John Loui Santiago
M.S. Thesis, iMBA, NTHU, 2026
Link
Thesis

Effects of Paid Family Leave Policy on Firm Risk-Taking: A Quasi-Experimental Approach

Pei-Jou Lin
M.S. Thesis, Institute of Service Science, NTHU, 2025
Link
Thesis

Examining the Impact of Paid Family and Medical Leave Policy on Firm Innovation: Evidence from Quasi-Experiments

Yu-Chen Hsiao
M.S. Thesis, Institute of Service Science, NTHU, 2024
Link
Thesis

Does CSR Visibility Lead to Superior Financial Performance? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

Yichun Liu
M.S. Thesis, Institute of Service Science, NTHU, 2023
Link

Under review 2 additional manuscripts; titles and authors withheld during blind review.