Lynn Wu Archives

Exploring the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Turbocharging Innovation in the Generative AI Era

rtificial intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force in fostering innovation and productivity. In our prior research (Wu et al. 2020; Wu et al. 2019), we demonstrated that AI-driven analytics can significantly enhance innovation by combining existing technologies in novel ways and refining existing technologies. With the advent of generative AI and other advanced algorithms, firms are discovering unprecedented opportunities to innovate and create new products. Yet some firms are vastly successful at using AI to innovate while the majority fails.…Read More

Can Artificial Intelligence Mitigate Inventor Productivity Decline after Co-Inventor Premature Death?

Although it is well documented that disruptive events, such as an inventor’s premature death, cause a large and persistent decline in their co-inventor’s innovation performance, strategies to mitigate these negative effects remain unexplored. This project aims to understand how an inventor’s skill and proficiency in artificial intelligence (AI) could counteract the productivity decline resulting from a co-inventor’s demise. We intend to first identify the specific challenges facing inventors in staying innovative after the unexpected death of their close collaborators. Furthermore…Read More

Artificial Intelligence, CEO Turnover, and Directional Change in Firm Innovation

In this project, we aim to investigate the extent to which acquiring AI capabilities can ease firms’ transition of innovation directions in uncertain times of leadership change. To achieve this goal, we plan to identify the challenges that firms face when they attempt to pivot the innovation direction during CEO turnover. Furthermore, we plan to examine how AI can help mitigate these challenges and provide new opportunities for certain types of innovation development. Our study will provide a roadmap for firms to make optimal decisions when allocating AI resources for strategic changes in innovation.…Read More

Does ChatGPT Affect International Trade? Evidence from E-Commerce Vendors

In this study, we plan to examine the business impact of ChatGPT adoption on e-commerce vendors. Our research goal is twofold. First, we examine whether ChatGPT can improve sales performance of e-commerce vendors. Second and more importantly, we study who will benefit more from adopting ChatGPT. …Read More

To Diversify or Not? Multi-Platform Social Media Strategy and E-Commerce Performance

Xiaoning (Gavin) Wang, PhD Candidate, Lynn Wu, Operations, Information and Decisions, and Serguei Netessine, Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School Abstract: As the number of social platforms has grown dramatically in the past two decades, companies face an increasing number of options to choose among for their social media resource…Read More

Artificial Intelligence, Lean Method and Startup Product Innovation

As startups are at the forefront of adopting AI tools, it is important to understand whether AI can amplify the effects of lean methods in helping startups to be even more responsive to market conditions that before. And if so, to what extent and under what conditions AI can complement lean method in developing products.…Read More

Data Analytics, Innovation, and Firm Productivity

This study focuses on how data analytics talent in firms can have an effect on firms’ return on their technology investment. Especially with the rise of social media, cloud computing, as well as many other technologies that can capture detailed digital trace about various human interactions, we hope to understand how some firms can capture the value of the data and gain competitive advantage while some could not.…Read More

Artificial Intelligence and Drug Innovation: A Large Scale Examination of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy and has transformed many business practices. As AI has advanced beyond the conventionally narrow domains, it is starting to exhibit characteristics of “general purpose technologies (GPT)” that are expected to change the nature of more business innovations and reduce their associated financial costs and time.…Read More

Data Analytics Supports Decentralized Innovation

Data-analytics technology can accelerate the innovation process by enabling existing knowledge to be identified, accessed, combined, and deployed to address new problem domains.…Read More

The Employment Consequences of Robots: Firm-Level Evidence

As a new general-purpose technology, robots have the potential to radically transform industries and affect employment. Preliminary empirical studies using industry and geographic region-level data have shown that robots differ from prior general-purpose technologies and predict substantial negative effects on employment.…Read More

For Startups, Adaptability and Mentor Network Diversity can be Pivotal: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment on a MOOC Platform

Entrepreneurs leading digital ventures are often advised to be adaptable. However, research on how to pursue adaptable strategies and whether such strategies improve short- or long-term digital venture outcomes is sparse.…Read More

Information Technology, Organizational Delayering, and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Canadian Microdata

This proposal explores how information technology and innovation in digitization affect organizational structure. Similar to earlier wave of IT adoption that substituted certain routine tasks, we plan to use the Workplace and Employee Survey from Canada to show that this new wave digitization and IT investments can induce a structural change in organizational hierarchies that differ from prior technologies. …Read More