Xiao Shawn Zhang
Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University
xiao DOT zhang AT slu.edu
I am an assistant professor in the Operations and IT Management Department at Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University. I served as the Interim Program Director of M.S. in Supply Chain Management in 2022. I was a visiting assistant professor at MIT Sloan in Summer 2023 (teaching associate for EMBA Core 15.734 Introduction to Operations Management). I worked as a research intern at Sabre Corporation and Air Products.
My research lies at the intersection of revenue management & pricing (RMP) and consumer behavior, bridging operations management and marketing. In RMP, I study how firms implement dynamic pricing and assortment planning strategies and how automakers price mobility services. In consumer behavior, I conduct laboratory experiments to examine how individuals process information and provide advice in probabilistic decision-making contexts (e.g., health insurance and utility plan selection), as well as the incentive mechanisms that improve information transmission.
I am an automobile enthusiast who enjoys flipping, maintaining, and modifying cars. I collaborate with automobile and mobility companies for research projects and teaching cases. I am a foodie who enjoys cooking Chinese-style BBQ and Texas-style BBQ in my leisure time.
Education
Ph.D. in Operations Management, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, June 2018
M.S. in Statistics, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, May 2017
M.S. in Computational Mathematics, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, May 2011
B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, July 2009
Areas of Interest
Reseach:
Topics – Operations and Marketing Interface, Pricing, Customer Behavior, Retail Operations
Methodologies – Approximate Dynamic Programming, Discrete Convex Analysis, Lab Experiments
Teaching:
Operations – Supply Chain Management, Optimization, Operations Management, Revenue Management
Marketing – Pricing, Marketing Analytics
Analytics – Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics
Upcoming Podcast:
“Driving the Future - Global Perspectives on the Dynamic Automobile Industry” on November 6, 2025 10:00 - 11:15 AM Central Time
Panelists:
Ivan Drury – Director of Insights at Edmunds, known for his sharp insights on market shifts and consumer trends on Yahoo Finance and CNBC
Haoran Zhou from Telescope望远镜 – F1 commentator and the founder of Telescope望远镜, one of the most thoughtful English-language automotive YouTube channels on Chinese EVs and mobility trends
Thomas Majchrzak from Autogefühl – Renowned German automotive journalist with some of the most honest and detail-oriented car reviews on YouTube
If you are passionate about EV economics, mobility pricing, or global automotive strategy, please use the following Google Form to register for the podcast: https://forms.gle/mWJ4zz9ugspJo6rP9