China Business Knowledge at CUHK

29/09/2026

AI is everywhere now, but is it always for the better? Choi Sungwoo, Assistant Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at CUHK Business School, notes that AI implementation often brings unintended consequences for consumer behaviour. Consumer perceptions of technology may seem minor, but they can escalate into major problems.

“Understanding these impacts can help practitioners and managers fine-tune their AI applications, reduce potential risks, and maximise the value of these technologies,” Professor Choi says. “Before implementing AI, managers should carefully consider how AI will affect both consumers and employees. They should put themselves in the shoes of the people who will interact with or work alongside the technology and then deploy AI in a way that enhances the overall service experience.”

For instance, people often find AI less reliable for personal tasks, as they value human judgment more for subjective experiences. AI can also make employees feel like their autonomy is being challenged or even worry about their jobs, which hurts team morale and service quality. As businesses deploy algorithms in pricing systems to optimise prices and maximise revenue, consumers often view price discrimination as unfair and are keen to complain about it publicly.

What are your thoughts? Read more: https://cbk.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk/why-humans-keep-swiping-left-on-ai/

Many tend to focus on the technical benefits of AI, but its applicationoften comes with unintended consequences for consumer behaviour, says Prof Choi Sungwoo

25/09/2026

CUHK Business School wishes our global community a joyous and peaceful Mid-Autumn Festival! 🌕

May this cherished season of reunion bring you and your families peace, health, and prosperity. ✨

25/09/2026

Generative AI has rapidly changed how consumers find products, driving retail site traffic and propelling a new digital strategy called generative engine optimisation (GEO).

In new research, Professor Tony Ke and Professor Liao Chenxi, Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at CUHK Business School, use game theory to examine how firms strategically publish content favouring their products to influence AI and consumers.

📌 Synthetic content boosts visibility, but firms caught red-handed deploying it are perceived as lower quality.
📌 Before deciding to purchase, some consumers often cross-check AI recommendations through independent channels.
📌 At some point, synthetic content can help consumers discover good products that lack organic buzz.
📌 High-quality firms risk reputational damage if caught using synthetic content.
📌 GEO cannot substitute traditional organic signals like genuine consumer praise.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/46c3U0m

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21/09/2026

AI is rapidly transforming market research through synthetic surveys, yet large language models often struggle to replicate human decision-making in complex strategic scenarios, even with advanced prompting techniques.

A new study by Professor Philip Zhang Renyu and Professor Jenny Jin, Professor and Assistant Professor in the Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology at CUHK Business School, introduces a two-stage framework inspired by classic psychology to significantly improve AI behavioural alignment.

📌 Context formation systematically defines experimental rules, goals, and setups so AI models fully comprehend their operational tasks.
📌 Context navigation directs AI reasoning selectively towards crucial strategic signals.
📌 Simple tasks require only context formation, whereas complex and multi-party interactions necessitate both stages for accurate alignment.
📌 Even advanced AI models require explicit strategic guidance to interpret subtle human behavioural cues effectively.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4xwNWsR

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18/09/2026

Stock markets have been on a tear this year, driven by a massive bet on AI investments. Ironically, the labour market has taken the opposite path, marked by layoffs and hiring freezes across big tech.

“There is a glaring disconnect between financial markets and the real economy,” says Ying Chao, Assistant Professor of the Department of Finance at CUHK Business School. “When a technological breakthrough happens, markets immediately price in the expectation of future productivity, but the real-world gears, like hiring, production, and physical investment, take much longer to catch up.”

His study finds that such innovation-driven contraction is fueled by “sticky prices”. In economics, this means companies don’t immediately adjust their selling prices even when production costs change after a major tech innovation. When prices are “sticky”, innovation boosts firm profit margins, driving value even as hiring slows.

Read more: https://cbk.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk/why-the-ai-boom-spells-labour-gloom/

14/09/2026

Companies are increasingly seeding synthetic content online to influence generative engine optimisation (GEO). While synthetic content can boost visibility, it also risks consumer scepticism, since it is often perceived as manipulative.

“AI engines work like a ‘black box’, but some consumers have an expectation that content manipulation exists on the internet, so they do not always blindly follow what GenAI recommends,” says Liao Chenxi, Associate Professor of Marketing at CUHK Business School.

In collaboration with Tony Ke, Professor of the Department of Marketing at the School, Professor Liao finds that firms with high-quality products are less inclined to deploy synthetic content. Although lower-quality firms consistently benefit from such tactics, simply banning such content may not always improve consumer welfare.

Read more: https://cbk.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk/can-you-truly-trust-ai-recommendations

The digital world is awash with AI-spun content as firms exploit AI engines for visibility, but Professors Liao Chenxi and Tony Ke find this game could backfire

05/09/2026

As corporations increasingly entrust high-stakes resource allocation and inventory management decisions to AI, relying solely on advanced models can inadvertently introduce operational risks. These powerful tools may inherit, and even amplify, human biases.

A new study co-authored by Professor Chen Zhi, Associate Professor in the Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology at CUHK Business School, explores the “paradox of intelligence”, proving that superior brainpower does not guarantee superior commercial choices.

📌 AI models consistently mirror human ordering biases, ordering too little in high-margin settings and too much in low-margin ones.
📌 The most advanced model over-ordered by 70% in low-margin scenarios, talking itself out of optimal quantities via elaborate over-analysis.
📌 Failure modes vary across architectures, spanning overthinking, sticking too strictly to simple rules, and limited computing power.
📌 Managers must deploy explicit and clear rule-based prompting, choose the right AI model for specific tasks, and ensure a human-in-the-loop to constrain biases.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4qBVTeo

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03/09/2026

AI agents can act as humans in experiments and social simulations, but can they really think like us? While large language models (LLMs), the systems behind AI chatbots, are getting more advanced, they still sometimes act like robots and generic prompts often just don’t cut it.

“LLMs in behavioural and social simulations can fail not only because of flawed reasoning, but also because of the limitations in how they interpret their tasks. Even if they understand the tasks, their reasoning process may not align with human thinking,” says Philip Renyu Zhang, Professor in the Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology at CUHK Business School.

In a new study co-authored with Jenny Jin, Assistant Professor in the same department, Professor Zhang finds that if an AI’s initial understanding of the social rules, goals, and context is incomplete or inaccurate, even its best reasoning will lead to decisions that don’t match human behaviour.

Therefore, they introduce a two-stage approach that explicitly guides AI to build an accurate mental map of the task and then reason within it, a critical step for reliable AI simulations, especially in intricate human interactions.

Read more: https://cbk.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk/can-ai-really-mimic-our-decision-making/

LLMs can successfully reproduce simple social simulations, but often fail to act like human in complex scenarios, Professors Philip Zhang and Jenny Jin find why

31/08/2026

The rise of AI coding assistants signals a new era in software creation, but can these tools truly fast-track developer work and careers?

Professors Keongtae Kim and Michael Zhang from the Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology at CUHK Business School investigate how AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot X reshape software developer work patterns and reveal some fascinating shifts.

AI coding assistants significantly boost developer activity and encourage exploration of new languages, especially for casual coders. Using AI tools can actually lead to faster internal promotions. However, this speed comes with a trade-off: more copy-pasted code and less originality in projects for less established users.

So, is AI democratising code, or are we trading quality for quantity? Read more: https://cbk.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk/is-ai-creating-more-productive-but-dull-programmers/

28/08/2026

Overtourism and visitor misconduct strain destinations worldwide, prompting site managers to search for improved visitor management methods. A new study co-authored by Professor Robert Li Xiang, Fung King Hey Memorial Professor of Tourism Management and Director of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at CUHK Business School, indicates that intelligent robots can serve as highly effective automated persuasion agents to foster responsible conduct without creating psychological tension.

📌 By providing uniform and non-confrontational reminders, smart robots enable policy makers to effectively address the complexities of visitor governance.
📌 Activates visitor self-awareness through impression management theory by creating a noticeable yet non-confrontational presence.
📌 Simpler-looking robots work best with a direct message, while human-like models succeed using humour.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4pLUotH

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