About
I am an assistant professor at the School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, one of China's top ten universities. I received my Ph.D. in Operations and Decision Technologies from the Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine, where I was advised by Professor Luyi Gui.
My research uses game-theoretic and optimization methods to study new business models in digital commerce and retail. It focuses on two areas: livestream commerce and the creator economy, as well as socially responsible operations.
In the first area, I study how influencers and brands jointly negotiate contract terms; how livestreaming shapes pricing and consumer behavior; and how platforms use their control over visibility to balance organic and sponsored content and to manage their creators' growth. I also study information design for livestream consultations on online medical platforms.
My second area, socially responsible operations, overlaps with the first in my work on rural livestream commerce, where I study who captures its gains and when competition among smallholder farmers for attention gives rise to origin fraud. I also study retail operations for food recovery, such as pricing strategies at surplus-food supermarkets.
I hold a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA and an M.S. in Interdisciplinary Statistics and Operations Research from UNC Chapel Hill.
Upcoming: I will present "Surplus Food Retailing with Pay-What-You-Want Pricing" at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Tuesday, November 3.
Research
Publications
Lin, X., Gui, L., Lu, Y. (2026). Empowering or Exploiting? The Implications of Direct Market Access for Improving Smallholder Farmers' Welfare. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. Forthcoming.
Lin, X., Gui, L., Lu, Y. (2024). Managing Sales via Livestream Commerce: Implications of Price Negotiation and Consumer Price Search. Production and Operations Management.
Working Papers
Lin, X., Gui, L., Yang, L. Surplus Food Retailing with Pay-What-You-Want Pricing. Major revision at Management Science.
Work in Progress
Liu, Y., Lin, X., Lu, Y. Persuasion via Livestreaming: Evidence from Online Medical Consultation.
Lin, X., Gui, L. Platform Visibility Control and the Balance of Sponsored and Organic Content.
Lin, X. Attention Competition and the Risk of Origin Fraud in Rural Livestream Commerce.
Awards
Ray Watson Doctoral Fellowship, UC Irvine
Long US-China Institute Graduate Student Research Fellowship, UC Irvine
Wenqiang and Michelle Bian Sustainability Award Endowment, UC Irvine
Recent Presentations
Invited Talks
- Institute of Supply Chain Analytics, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, April 2026
Surplus Food Retailing with Pay-What-You-Want Pricing:
- Annual POMS-Conference 2027 (scheduled)
- INFORMS Annual Meeting 2026 (scheduled)
- INFORMS Annual Meeting 2025
- DSI Conference 2024
- INFORMS Annual Meeting 2024
Empowering or Exploiting? The Implications of Direct Market Access for Improving Smallholder Farmers' Welfare:
- DSI Conference 2024
- INFORMS Annual Meeting 2024
- Purdue Operations Conference 2024
- MSOM 2024 Conference
- SoCal OR/OM Day 2024
- Annual POMS-Conference 2024
Teaching
Instructor
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Operations Management (International Graduate Program), Fall 2026
UC Irvine
Management Science, Summer 2024
Teaching Assistant, UC Irvine
Management Science
Supply Chain Management
Operations Management
Operational Excellence (MBA)
Analytical Decision Making Models for Management (MBA)
Revenue Management (MBA)