Industry and Government Engagements

Delivering confidential consulting and strategic advisory services to advance its marketing experimentation and analytics capabilities, including the accurate measurement of digital advertising effectiveness and the optimization of multi-channel ad strategies, with details protected by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

Delivering confidential consulting and strategic advisory services for its core platforms—Airbridge and Airflux—which power mobile and web attribution, product and user analytics, and automated A/B Tests and targeting, as well as on the development of ad optimization engines powered by privacy-aware machine learning, designed to deliver targeted advertising with measurable business impact, with details protected by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

• Co-organizing MUST.Connect, an event that brings together around 20 innovative Korean startups and over 200 key stakeholders in Singapore, including corporations, investors, research institutes, and government agencies, and hosting it at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

• Evaluating and selecting startups for acceleration, followed by assessing their current status and providing tailored growth strategies. This includes fostering connections between Korean startups and key stakeholders in Singapore, conducting workshops on industry–academic collaborations to explore joint R&D opportunities with universities, and offering formal consulting services grounded in data-driven insights.

• The Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (PUAC) is a constitutional institution established in accordance with Article 92 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea.

• PUAC advises by request and makes proposals to the President of the Republic of Korea regarding policy development and implementation for democratic and peaceful inter-Korean unification.

Our team developed a primary bank index model for retail customers and investigated the impact of customers’ mobile banking app adoption on hidden defection, in which customers purchase financial products from competing banks instead of their primary banks. 

Yoonseock Son, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Giri Kumar Tayi, and Wonseok Oh (2020) "Impact of Customers’ Digital Banking Adoption on Hidden Defection: A Combined Analytical-Empirical Approach," Journal of Operations Management, 66(4):418–440.

Delivered confidential consulting and employee training services, with details protected by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

Our team investigated how individuals' movie-going behavior at offline cinemas, such as CGV Lotte Cinema, and Megabox, changes after subscribing to streaming platforms like Netflix.

Sihan Fang, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Anand Gopal, and Yongjin Park (2024) "Return of the Movie Night? Analyzing the Impact of Netflix Subscriptions on Offline Movie Spending," Information Systems Research, Available Online. 

We are also examining how individuals' use of traditional banking services for financial products, as well as their online and offline retail transactions, shifts after adopting mobile-only banks such as KAKAO Bank or K Bank.

Sihan Fang, Anand Gopal, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, and Yongjin Park (2023) "Friend or Foe?  Understanding Determinants of the Mobile-Only Bank Adoption," Conference of Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Phoenix, AZ, October 2023

Sihan Fang, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, and Yongjin Park (2021) "Impact of Digital-Only Bank Adoption on Consumer Consumption: Empirical Evidence," Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, TX, December 2021

Our team is investigating how mobile channels shape the behaviors of both borrowers and lenders in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, as well as the corresponding impacts on credit risk management and economic return. 

Sihan Fang, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Tian Lu and Yingjie Zhang (2023) "Mobile Effects on Two-Sided Financial Decisions: Evidence from Field Experiments on Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms," Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Nanchang, China, July 2023 

Our team is investigating when, how, and to which human service agents generative AI-powered chatbots should delegate customer interactions. 

Our team is investigating whether and how the two-stage cryptocurrency-based loyalty program (CBLP) improves users’ participation in a mobile ride-hailing platform and the moderating roles of the cryptocurrency’s price across the two stages.

Euro Bae, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Jaywon Lee, and Daegon Cho (2021) "Cryptocurrency-Based Incentives and Digital Platforms," Bright Internet Global Summit (BIGS), Virtual, December 2021

Our team is investigating whether and how the cryptocurrency-based loyalty program (CBLP) improves users’ participation in a knowledge exchange platform.

Our team investigated the relative effectiveness of mobile and offline channels in facilitating personal weight management.

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Sanjeev Dewan, Wonseok Oh, and Tae Kyung Kim (2023) "Self-Regulation and External Influence: The Relative Efficacy of Mobile Apps and Offline Channels for Personal Weight Management," Information Systems Research, 34(1):50–66. 

We also investigated the dynamics of individuals' intrinsic self-regulation in achieving their desired weight loss goals, as well as the varying effectiveness of interventions aimed at enhancing self-regulation and weight loss success, considering dynamic changes in self-regulation.

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Sanjeev Dewan, Wonseok Oh, and Tae Kyung Kim (2017) "Efficacy of a Health App for Obesity and Overweight Management: A Hidden Markov Model," Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, Korea, December 2017.

Our team investigated individuals' acceptance of AI-based preventive health interventions, their subsequent health behavior changes, and strategies to enhance the effectiveness of these interventions.

Nakyung Kyung, and Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon (2022) “Rationally Trust, but Emotionally? The Roles of Cognitive and Affective Trust in Laypeople’s Acceptance of AI for Preventive Care Operations,” Production and Operations Management, Available Online.

We also investigated the optimal design of incentives used by mobile health (mHealth) services to promote health behaviors. Specifically, we examined egoistic incentives, which directly reward individuals for engaging in health behaviors, and philanthropic incentives, which link these behaviors to charitable contributions.

Nakyung Kyung, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, and T. Ravichandran (2020) "Walk for Whom? The Effectiveness of Prosocial and Self-Interested Incentive Designs for Mobile Health Interventions," Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Virtual, December 2020

Our team is investigating how contextual factors in public transit, such as crowdedness, time, and route types, influence individuals' engagement with mobile apps across various app categories. 

Xiaoni Lu, Siliang Tong, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon and Xi Zhao (2023) "Crowded Social Media: Investigating the Crowdedness Effect on Social Media Usage," Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Nanchang, China, July 2023

Our team is investigating how diverse factors that can be captured in a mobile navigation app, such as traffic conditions, driving behavior, location of departure and destination, and time, influence drivers' responsiveness to mobile promotions. 

Anindya Ghose, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Dongwon Lee, and Wonseok Oh. “A Moving Target: Contextual Targeting and Promotion with Car-Navigation Apps”

Our team is investigating the efficacy of voice-based conversational targeting deployed through smart speakers to help companies vitalize the ecosystem where smart speaker platforms operate. Specifically, we are exploring a series of practical strategies for conversational targeting by answering how, when, to whom, and with what service targeting should be implemented to achieve maximum performance.

Wangyu Heo, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, and Wonseok Oh (2022) "The Sound of Targeting: The Efficacy of Conversational Campaigns Deployed Through Smart Speakers," Conference of Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Indianapolis, IN, October 2022

Our team is investigating how diverse factors that can be captured in a mobile navigation app, such as traffic condition, driving behavior, location of departure and destination, and time, influence drivers' responsiveness to mobile promotions. 

Anindya Ghose, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Dongwon Lee, and Wonseok Oh. “A Moving Target: Contextual Targeting and Promotion with Car-Navigation Apps”

Our team investigated how contextual targeting with commuting is associated with responses to mobile coupons as well as how the effectiveness of this targeting is impacted by multiple-coupon distribution strategies and expiration timing.

Anindya Ghose, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Dongwon Lee, and Wonseok Oh (2019) “Seizing the Commuting Moment: Contextual Targeting based on Mobile Transportation Apps,” Information Systems Research, 30(1):154–174. 

Our team is investigating whether and how the two-stage cryptocurrency-based loyalty program (CBLP) improves users’ participation in a mobile ride-hailing platform and the moderating roles of the cryptocurrency’s price across the two stages.

Euro Bae, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Jaywon Lee, and Daegon Cho (2021) "Cryptocurrency-Based Incentives and Digital Platforms," Bright Internet Global Summit (BIGS), Virtual, December 2021

Our team is investigating how a Query Recommender System (QRS) and auto-completion features in the search bar influence user search behavior, sales volume, and consumption diversity on a mobile food delivery app.

Shuang Zheng, Siliang Jack Tong, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Gordon Burtch, and Xianneng Li (2025) “Recommending What to Search: Sales Volume and Consumption Diversity Effects of a Query Recommender System,” Marketing Science.

Our team is investigating the impact of self-service technologies (SSTs) implemented in retail stores to complement or replace traditional POS counters on sales dynamics, labor productivity, and customer segmentation.

Jeongha Kim; Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon; Dongwon Lee; Hyunseok Lee; Kyuhan Lee (2024) “Help Yourself: An Empirical Analysis of Self-Service Technologies in Retail Stores,” Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE), Bangkok, Thailand, December 2024

Our team investigated the impact of mobile app-based loyalty programs adopted by a large conglomerate on consumer purchasing and redemption behavior across its multiple subsidiary brands with varying levels of popularity and market presence.

Our team is investigating the Play-to-Earn (P2E) model, a disruptive innovation in the gaming industry that is redefining traditional gameplay. P2E games allow players to earn financial rewards through gameplay, offering ownership of digital assets that can be converted into fiat currency. We are examining its impact on gamer behavior and game profitability, as well as how player characteristics shape these effects.

Kayoung Shin, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Anindya Ghose, Changwoo Suh (2024) “Play, Earn, and Engage: The Motivational Influence of Crypto-Economic Models on Mobile Game Engagement,” International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Bangkok, Thailand, December 2024

Our team is investigating the efficacy of voice-based conversational targeting deployed through smart speakers to help companies vitalize the ecosystem where smart speaker platforms operate. Specifically, we are exploring a series of practical strategies for conversational targeting by answering how, when, to whom, and with what service targeting should be implemented to achieve maximum performance.

Wangyu Heo, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, and Wonseok Oh (2022) "The Sound of Targeting: The Efficacy of Conversational Campaigns Deployed Through Smart Speakers," Conference of Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Indianapolis, IN, October 2022

Our team investigated how contextual targeting with commuting is associated with responses to mobile coupons as well as how the effectiveness of this targeting is impacted by multiple-coupon distribution strategies and expiration timing.

Anindya Ghose, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Dongwon Lee, and Wonseok Oh (2019) “Seizing the Commuting Moment: Contextual Targeting based on Mobile Transportation Apps,” Information Systems Research, 30(1):154–174. 

Most mobile advertising platforms (MAPs), such as Google and Meta, collect user behaviors across a portfolio of apps using unique matched user identifiers to create detailed user profiles. These profiles enable the delivery of targeted advertising campaigns to the right user segments. However, this advertising model faces significant challenges with the introduction of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework from iOS 14.5. The ATT framework requires app publishers to obtain explicit user permission to collect advertising identifiers, replacing the previous opt-out model. This shift has had a profound impact on the mobile marketing industry, which heavily relied on these identifiers. As most users decline to grant permission, MAPs' ability to generate accurate user profiles has diminished, reducing their marketing effectiveness. 

In response to the challenges of ad efficiency on iOS, as the PI, our team is proposing a novel approach that involves directly injecting external third-party data into the profiling process, which not only improves targeting accuracy but also has the potential to activate a dormant market for data within the mobile marketing industry.

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon and Sanghyuk Noel Son (2024) “Breaking Silos, Building Bridges: Collaborative Data Sharing for Mobile Ads in the Age of Privacy,” WITS Feeder Workshop, Singapore, September 2024

We are also investigating diverse mobile advertising strategies, including banner ads, interstitial ads, push notification ads, social media ads, and rewarded ads.

Our team is investigating how app users and developers respond to Google’s enforcement of its first-party in-app payment and billing system over third-party alternatives.

Jihye Kim, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Wonseok Oh, and Kun Shin Im (2022) "The Economics of In-App Payment Options: Implications for Digital Platform Governance," Conference of Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Indianapolis, IN, October 2022

We also investigated how the attributes of social media platforms (e.g., open vs. closed, symmetric vs. asymmetric social networks) and user preferences regarding platform diversity (e.g., single-homing vs. multi-homing) moderate the influence of homophily on user behaviors across varied social segments. 

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Wonseok Oh, and Tae Kyung Kim (2017) “Platform Structures, Homing Preferences, and Homophilous Propensities in Online Social Networks,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 34(3):768–802.

We also investigated the digital vulnerabilities arising from dependence on mobile social apps (e.g., social media and social games). Rational addicts consider the long-term consequences of their current behaviors and aim to maximize utility from their consumption over time. In contrast, myopic addicts seek immediate gratification, overlooking the future impact of their current use. Our empirical analysis confirmed the presence of rational addiction, rather than myopic addiction, in the context of social app consumption.

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Hyunji So, Sang Pil Han, and Wonseok Oh (2016) “Excessive Dependence on Mobile Social Apps: A Rational Addiction Perspective,” Information Systems Research, 27(4):919–939.

We also investigated the asymmetric competition between social media and messaging apps caused by overlapping memberships in the mobile social app market.

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Wonseok Oh, and Tae Hyun Kim (2015) “One-Sided Competition in Two-Sided Social Platform Markets? An Organizational Ecology Perspective,” Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Fort Worth, TX, December 2015

Yoonseock Son, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Giri Kumar Tayi, and Wonseok Oh (2020) "Impact of Customers’ Digital Banking Adoption on Hidden Defection: A Combined Analytical-Empirical Approach," Journal of Operations Management, 66(4):418–440.

Sihan Fang, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Anand Gopal, and Yongjin Park (2024) "Return of the Movie Night? Analyzing the Impact of Netflix Subscriptions on Offline Movie Spending," Information Systems Research, Available Online. 

Our team is investigating whether, how, and which types of cloud outsourcing can enhance firms' growth through M&A strategies.

Moksh Matta, Kiron Ravindran, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, and Gautam Ray (2024) “Wings that Fly or Chains that Bind? Studying the Effects of Cloud-Sourcing on M&A Growth” 

Our team is investigating the nature and causes of Information Technology-related patent trolling to offer policy recommendations that safeguard the health of the digital innovation landscape.

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, Byung Cho Kim, and Wonseok Oh (2016) “The Toll of Patent Trolls: Implications for Innovation,” The Korean Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (KrAIS) Post-ICIS Workshop, Dublin, Ireland, December 2016 

Our team investigated the factors that influence information diffusion trajectories on social media, which can sometimes lead to cohesion but more often result in significant fragmentation.

Byung Cho Kim, Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon, YongOk Kwon, Kyumin Lee, and Dongwon Lee (2023) “Illusion of Diffusion: A Percolation Perspective on Social Structure and Segregation in Twitter Networks,” Computers in Human Behavior, 148: 107898.