Yiwei (Derek) Wang

Biography

Yiwei Wang is an Assistant Professor at Zhejiang University, International Business School. His research uses empirical and analytical methods to study technology-enabled retail and service operations, with a focus on retail operations, e-commerce platforms, and human-AI service systems.

One stream of his research examines the deployment of AI in customer service operations, including human-AI collaboration and human-in-the-loop interventions. Another stream studies innovative retail operations models, such as ship-then-shop strategies, subscription service design, and omnichannel retailing. Together, his work investigates how firms design operational processes that shape customer experience, operational efficiency, and business performance.

His research has appeared in journals such as Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Service Science. He currently serves as an ad hoc reviewer for Management Science, Operations Research, Journal of Operations Management, Omega, and Decision Analysis.

• Topics: Human-AI Interactions, AI and Service Process Design, Retail and E-Commerce Operations.

• Methodologies: Causal Inference, Field Experiments, Large-Scale Platform Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Unstructured Data Analysis, Economic Modeling.

Academic Positions

Zhejiang University

• • Assistant Professor, International Business School, 2022–present

• Researcher, International Research Center for Data Science, 2023–present

Education

Ph.D., Management — University of California, Irvine 

B.S., Industrial Engineering and Operations Research — University of California, Berkeley

Research

Working Papers

• Yiwei Wang, Chuan Zhu, Tianjun Feng, Lauren Lu, Bingxin Jia. Agentic AI and Human-in-the-Loop Interventions: Field Experimental Evidence from Alibaba’s Customer Service Operations, submitted. 

• Xiao Ni, Yiwei Wang, Tianjun Feng, Lauren Lu, Yitong Wang, and Congyi Zhou. Generative AI in Action: Field Experimental Evidence from Alibaba’s Customer Service Operations, second-round revision at Management Science. 

  • First place, POMS College of Service Operations Best Student Paper Competition, 2026

• Yiwei Wang and Lauren Lu. Ship-Then-Shop as a Promotional Tool: Evidence from an Online Omnichannel Fashion Retailer, second-round revision at Management Science.

Publications

• Yiwei Wang, Lauren Lu, and Pengcheng Shi. Does Customer Email Engagement Improve Profitability? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Subscription Service Retailing, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2022, 24(5), 2703–2721. 

• Yiwei Wang, Vidyanand Choudhary, and Shuya Yin. Product Design Enhancement for Fashion Retailing, Service Science, 2023, 15(3), 157–171. 

• Miloš Fišar, Ben Greiner, Christoph Huber, Elena Katok, Ali I. Ozkes, and the Management Science Reproducibility Collaboration. Reproducibility in Management Science, Management Science, 2023, 70(3), 1343–1356. 

Note: member of the Management Science Reproducibility Collaboration.

Presentations

1. Agentic AI and Human-in-the-Loop Interventions: Field Experimental Evidence from Alibaba's Customer Service Operations

• Conference Presentations: POMS Annual Meeting (2026)

2. Generative AI in Action: Field Experimental Evidence from Alibaba's Customer Service Operations

• Conference Presentations: POMS Hong Kong (2025; 2026); POMS Annual Meeting (2026)

3. Ship-Then-Shop as a Promotional Tool: Evidence from an Online Omnichannel Fashion Retailer

• Conference Presentations: INFORMS Annual Meeting (2020; 2024; 2025); POMS Annual Meeting (2021; 2023); POMS Hong Kong (2024); ISMS Marketing Science Conference (2024)

4. Does Customer Email Engagement Improve Profitability? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Subscription Service Retailing

• Conference Presentations: INFORMS Annual Meeting (2020; 2021); POMS Annual Meeting (2021); POMS China (2022); CSAMSE Annual Meeting (2022)

• Invited Seminars: Santa Clara University (2021); University of San Diego (2021); Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (2021); University of Science and Technology of China (2021); Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (2021); Zhejiang University (2021; 2023); University of Waterloo (2022)

5. Product Design Enhancement for Fashion Retailing

• Conference Presentations: INFORMS Annual Meeting (2016; 2017); CSAMSE Annual Meeting (2016; 2018); SoCal OR/OM Day (2019)

Teaching

Zhejiang University, International Business School (ZIBS) — Instructor

• Operations Management (iMBA); Business Analytics (iMBA); Operations Management (GCM, Undergraduate); Supply Chain Data Analysis (iMDS)

University of California, Irvine — Paul Merage School of Business — Graduate Student Instructor

• Business Analytics (Undergraduate/MBA/EMBA); Operations Management (Undergraduate/MBA); Introduction to Business and Management (Undergraduate); Supply Chain Management (Undergraduate)

Student Mentorship (Expected Graduation Year)

Ph.D. Students

• Xintian Zhang (Zhejiang University) — 2030

• Junjie Li (Zhejiang University) — 2029

• Xiao Ni (Fudan University) — 2027

• Chuan Zhu (Fudan University) — 2027

Master of Data Science (Zhejiang University)

• Can Yang — 2028

• Yilin Wang — 2027

• Huanbiao Zhang — 2027

iMBA (Zhejiang University)

• Nguyen Thach Thao — 2028

• Yuhan Xu — 2028

• Rubing Gao — 2027

• Jun Ying — 2027

• Huishi Fang — 2026

• Li Kang — 2026

• Yuyang Ding — 2025

• Changjiang Zheng — 2024

• Yuling Zhou — 2024

• Xinliang Shi — 2024

MCS (Zhejiang University)

• Giulia Nicoletti — 2026

• Giacomo Pizzo — 2026

• Marko Taskovic — 2025

• Milos Jevtic — 2025

• Piyathida Silapachai — 2025

• Sawichaya Teeranuwat — 2025

• Erika Piras — 2024

Academic Services

• Referee, Management Science, Operations Research, Journal of Operations Management, Omega, Decision Analysis

• Session Chair, POMS HK 2026

• Session Chair, POMS Annual Meeting 2020, 2021, 2023

• Session Chair, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2020, 2021, 2024

• Session Chair, CSAMSE Annual Meeting 2022

• Session Chair, ISMS Marketing Science Annual Meeting 2024

Awards and Honors

• Doctoral Student Fellowship, University of California, Irvine

• Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society                        

• Alpha Pi Mu Honors Society, Berkeley Chapter