Speaker：Haitao Cui, Professor of University of Minnesota
Time： 9:30 am, December 20, 2024
Venue：Room 109, Building No.12, Wushan Campus
Introduction to the speaker:
Haitao Cui, Ph.D., Deputy Associate Dean for Global DBA Program, Ecolab-Pierson M. Grieve Chair in International Marketing, Professor of Marketing at the Carlson School,Inaugural Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar, joined the faculty of the Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota in 2005 after earning his in Managerial Science and Applied Economics from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Cui also holds secondary appointment of professor at the Department of Industrial & System Engineering, College of Science & Engineering, UMN. His research areas include behavioral modeling in marketing, branding, competitive strategies, distribution channels, marketing-operations interfaces, and pricing. He serves as Departmental Editor at Production and Operations Management, Guest Associate Editor at Management Science, and on the editorial board of Journal of Operations Management.
Abstract:
With the massive growth of social media and other informational platforms that businesses and individuals may use to share their opinions, a society’s perspectives of certain contentious issues may be influenced significantly. At the same time, it has been noted that various parties have used paid trolls (i.e., fake comments made by bot accounts) to sway public opinions concerning some hotly debated issues or legal proceedings. This article aims to investigate how public opinions and paid trolls may affect the outcome of legal disputes between opposing parties. Our research indicates that firms involved in lawsuits with social media engagement may purchase paid trolls to influence public opinions, and they do so more significantly when the truth does not match the prior expectation of the public. We also discover that social media users’ sophistication may be a pitfall for the involved parties, including the competing firms and the judge who is adjudicating the case. Additionally, the court may be either constrained or aided to identify the truth by having a tendency to render decisions that align with prevailing public opinions, depending on the stake of the lawsuit.
