Lerner Welcomes New Faculty: Yuanchen Su

This year, the UD Alfred Lerner College welcomed several new faculty members into its community. Yuanchen Su is an assistant professor of marketing; she spoke with Lerner about her research focus and what made her want to teach at University of Delaware.

Lerner: What is your professional and academic background?

Su: I hold a Ph.D. in business administration (marketing concentration) and a M.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Minnesota, and a B.E. in automation from Tsinghua University.

Lerner: What is your research focus?

Su: My research interests lie broadly in quantitative marketing with an emphasis on incentive design, social interactions and competitive strategies. In my current research, I study how gamification incentives, such as sales leaderboards and random rewards, can impact sales performance.

Lerner: What inspired you to work in your field/research/subject area?

Su: I am always interested in how incentive can influence people’s productivity. While the traditional sales incentives have been studied a lot, gamification incentives (contests, leaderboards, random rewards, progress bars), which are relatively new and have been used in many domains like sports and education, are less studied in the sales domain. We are quite unclear about how and why these gamification incentives work or do not work.

Lerner: What is it about UD that made you want to work/teach/research here?

Su: I loved it when I first visited here. UD has a beautiful campus in a lovely town (convenient itself and close to big cities). Lerner, BUAD department, and marketing group are so supportive and give me the confidence that I can be happy working here. 

Lerner: What course are you most excited to teach at Lerner?

Su: [I am most excited to teach] Marketing Analytics. I can share the analytics knowledge as well as how analytics can be applied in marketing with my students. I enjoy sharing this.

Lerner: What is something unique about you that may surprise your peers/students? (hobby, talent, experience etc.)

Su: I’m a Mongol (蒙古族) Chinese and from Inner Mongolia, a landlocked province, but I am a dedicated swimmer.

Recent News

Lerner Academic Advisors Help Undergrads Finish in Four

article written by Cori Burcham When Grace Kotzen arrived at the University of Delaware in fall 2023, she knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur but wasn’t sure how to chart her course. During new student orientation at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and...

Jill Pante Discusses Embracing AI in Your Job Search

Jill Pante, director of the Lerner College Career Services Center, recently wrote an article for Delaware Business Times on how job seekers can use AI to supercharge their job search. AI-powered tools make it easier to identify in-demand skills and can help job...

My Summer Internship: Eden Melamed

This summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics discovered new avenues for professional preparation and practical hands-on experience. Lerner College students pursued an array of internships, externships and...

My Summer Internship: Dane Robertson

This summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics discovered new avenues for professional preparation and practical hands-on experience. Lerner College students pursued an array of internships, externships and...

Vita Nova Opens Kitchen to UD Edge Summer College Program

Cori Burcham wrote this article. In the kitchen of Vita Nova in early August — the University of Delaware’s student-operated restaurant located at the Trabant University Center — high school students in the Edge Summer College Program gather around a work table and...

My Summer Internship: Jenna Mayer

This summer, students from the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics discovered new avenues for professional preparation and practical hands-on experience. Lerner College students pursued an array of internships, externships and...