Dr. Shishi Cecilia Wu is an Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Information Systems with a specialization in Data Science from the University of Massachusetts Boston, an M.S. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and a B.A. in Advertising from Tan Kah Kee College, Xiamen University.

Before entering academia, Dr. Wu accumulated diverse professional experience across university student employment services, corporate campus recruitment, and human resources in the insurance industry. She later transitioned into roles in business analysis and project management within the technology sector, where she worked on mobile application development projects. In these roles, she contributed to the design, development, and testing of an AI-based interview platform and played a key role in translating organizational and business needs into actionable technical requirements, effectively bridging communication between business stakeholders and technical teams.

Dr. Wu’s research focuses on three interrelated areas. First, she examines the affordances of short video platforms and their influence on user engagement, flow experiences, and unplanned usage behaviors. Second, she studies business analytics using online unstructured data, including text, images, videos, and behavioral traces, with particular attention to how platform policies shape user engagement and social media governance. Third, she investigates the role of artificial intelligence in recruitment and organizational decision-making, especially how AI-driven hiring systems shape perceptions, trust, and interactions between organizations and job applicants. Methodologically, her work integrates machine learning, mixed methods analysis, econometric modeling, and network analysis to study user behavior and decision processes in digital environments. She serves as a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals, including Asia Pacific Business Review, Journal of Knowledge Management, Behaviour & Information Technology, International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, and Nankai Business Review International. She also contributes to the information systems research community through conference leadership and service, serving as a Section Chair for the Digital Platforms, Innovations and Transformations Section at the Production and Operations Management Society Annual Conference and for the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Section at the Midwest United States Association for Information Systems Conference, as well as through volunteer service for the New England chapter of the Association for Information Systems.

Dr. Wu’s teaching spans Information Systems, Marketing, and Operations Management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her instructional areas include business programming, data analytics, machine learning, and operations management. She independently designed and taught the Advanced Coding for Analytics course at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she developed the full curriculum, instructional materials, and hands-on coding exercises. At Appalachian State University, she teaches Business Analytics using Spreadsheet Technology, guiding students to apply spreadsheet-based analytical tools to solve real-world managerial and business problems across multiple course sections.

Beyond her academic and professional roles, Dr. Wu has maintained a longstanding commitment to community engagement. Her connection to service was shaped early in life through close relationships with her grandparents, fostering a deep concern for the well-being of older adults. She volunteered for eight years with community organizations in Zhuhai, supporting elderly residents living alone and assisting with local outreach programs. During high school, she organized a large-scale volunteer initiative to visit and support older adults living independently, a program that continues today. During her undergraduate years, she also helped establish a peer support center to promote student well-being and connection, reflecting her continued dedication to building inclusive and supportive communities.

You can find her CV here.