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In February 2022, five winners were awarded ISMS 2021 Doctoral Dissertation Early-Stage Research Grants. These grants are highly competitive and central to the important research that they facilitate. Jiaqi Shi PhD ’24, a previous UCI undergrad and current Merage School PhD candidate interested in researching marketing with sponsored product listings, was one of the winners of this prestigious award.

He spoke on the impact that the grant has had on him, saying: “It’s an excellent opportunity to get feedback from other academics and improve our research.”

Shi started off his academic career at UCI studying quantitative economics and moved on to work at a venture capital firm as a business analyst after graduating with his bachelor’s degree. He later graduated with a double master’s degree in data sciences and business analytics, moving him toward his next position as a data scientist and research engineer. With experience in both industry and academia, Shi was able to explore his interests more thoroughly and eventually decide to pursue a PhD in information systems.

Shi’s decision to pursue further research within academia was not one that he took lightly, though.

Even with the encouragement of one of his marketing professors, Shi did not want to rush into academia blindly: “Before making this important decision, I worked in both industry and academia, checking which one was a more suitable path for me.”

When Shi did decide to pursue a PhD, he chose The Paul Merage School of Business because he was familiar with it from his undergraduate experience and was won over by its “prestigious Ph.D. program with excellent faculty.”

Shi faced another common struggle among academics once he started at the Merage School–imposter syndrome. He said: “I was unconfident in my first two years in the PhD program and kept questioning my ability to do research.” 

This all-too-familiar feeling is something many of us grapple with, but the ISMS grant is an acknowledgment of Shi’s academic ability and a testament to how much of this self-doubt can be an internal struggle. 

Shi’s research project that won him this grant is focused on sponsored product listings in online marketplaces. It investigates third-party sellers’ incentives in sponsored listings with experimental datasets. 

Shi described the premises of his research project, sharing that there is no empirical evidence stating that third-party sellers benefit from per-click sponsored listings even though it is a common practice. He chose this area of research because he was always interested in how business models evolve in e-commerce platforms.

He said: “We see advertising everywhere nowadays, especially on social media and online marketplaces. It’s intriguing to study how advertising works and how it impacts small sellers paying for these advertisements.”

Shi’s research project is thinking about the future of marketing in a world that is becoming more and more digitally driven; it’s no wonder that he was one of the few people to be awarded the ISMS early-stage research grants.

Shi is expected to receive his PhD in information systems in 2024. As a piece of advice for those who are thinking about staying in academia, he says: “I think it’s important to start planning for a future career early or at least carefully think about it before starting to apply to graduate schools. If one’s career plan is to stay in academia and do research, talking with PhD students and seeking research assistant opportunities first are good choices. Academia is more complicated than what we see in classrooms.”

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