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Feng Mai, Ph.D. (麦丰)
Associate Professor & Henry B. Tippie Research Fellow
Affiliated Faculty, Informatics Graduate Program
Department of Business Analytics
Tippie College of Business, The University of Iowa

Office Address:
W378 Pappajohn Business Bldg, 21 E Market St, Iowa City, IA 52242-1994
Email: feng-mai@uiowa.edu

I am an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. My research areas include social media, FinTech, and machine learning. I am particularly interested in developing NLP methods to study culture and values. I received my Ph.D. in Operations, Business Analytics and Information Systems from the University of Cincinnati in 2015, under the guidance of Dr. Michael Fry, and hold an M.S. in Statistics from Miami University. Before joining the University of Iowa, I was an Associate Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology.

[Google Scholar] [ORCID]

Selected Publications

  • “Analyzing Professional Ethics of Physicians Using Online Patient Reviews: a Machine Learning Approach”, with Kanix Wang, Zhe (Jay) Shan, Dawei (David) Zhang, Xiaosong (David) Peng, Production and Operations Management, 2025.
  • “A Computational Framework for Understanding Firm Communication During Disasters”, with Bei Yan, Chaojiang Wu, Rui Chen, Xiaolin Li, Information Systems Research, 35(2), 2024. [download][software package & code]
  • “Stigmergy in Open Collaboration: An Empirical Investigation Based on Wikipedia”, with Lei (Nico) Zheng, Bei Yan, Jeffrey V. Nickerson, Journal of Management Information Systems, 40(3), 2023. [download]
  • “Measuring Corporate Culture Using Machine Learning”, with Kai Li, Rui Shen, and Xinyan Yan, Review of Financial Studies, 34(7), 2021. [download] [code] [culture data]
  • “The Role of Corporate Culture in Bad Times: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic”, Kai Li, Xing Liu, Feng Mai, and Tengfei Zhang, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 56(7), 2021. [download]
  • “Empirical Analysis of Multi-Task Learning for Reducing Model Bias in Toxic Comment Detection”, with Ameya Vaidya and Yue Ning, 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), 2020. [download]
  • “Operational Efficiency and Patient-Centered Healthcare: A View from Online Physician Reviews”, with Dong-Gil Ko, Zhe (Jay) Shan, and Dawei (David) Zhang, Journal of Operations Management, 65(4), 2019. [download]
  • “The Roles Bots Play in Wikipedia”, with Lei (Nico) Zheng, Christopher Albano, Neev Vora, and Jeffrey V. Nickerson, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (ACM CSCW), 2019. [download][code]
  • “The Effect of Online Reviews on Product Sales: A Joint Sentiment-Topic Analysis”, with Xiaolin Li and Chaojiang Wu, Information & Management, 56(2), 2019. [download]
  • “Deep learning models for bankruptcy prediction using textual disclosures”, with Shaonan Tian, Chihoon Lee, and Ling Ma, European Journal of Operational Research, 274(2), 2019. [download]
  • “A Big-Data Approach to Understanding the Thematic Landscape of the Field of Business Ethics”, with Ying Liu and Chris MacDonald, Journal of Business Ethics, 160(1), 2019. [download]
  • “How Does Social Media Impact Bitcoin Value? — A test of the silent majority hypothesis”, with Qing Bai, Zhe (Jay) Shan, Xin Wang, and Roger Chiang, Journal of Management Information Systems, 35(1), 2018. [download] [data]
  • “Model-Based Capacitated Clustering with Posterior Regularization”, with Michael Fry and Jeffrey Ohlmann, European Journal of Operational Research, 271(2), 2018. [download]
  • “Supply-Chain Performance Anomalies: Fairness Concerns under Private Cost Information”, with Fei Qin, Michael Fry, and Amit Raturi, European Journal of Operational Research, 252(1), 2016. [download]
  • “The Journal of Consumer Research at Forty: A Historical Analysis”, with Xin Wang, Neil Bendle, and June Cotte, Journal of Consumer Research, 42(1), 2015. [download]
  • “Database – Market Dynamics and User-Generated Content About Tablet Computers”, with Roger Chiang and Xin Wang, Marketing Science, 33(3), 2014. [download] [data] [code]

PhD Students and Alumni

  • Lei (Nico) Zheng (Graduated in 2023, Assistant Professor at UMass Boston)
  • Ji Sui (Graduated in 2023, Assistant Professor at SUNY Polytechnic Institute)
  • Zihan Chen (Graduated in 2025, Applied Scientist at Amazon)
  • Xiaoxuan Xu (2023 -)