WENCHANG ZHANG 张文昌
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I am an Assistant Professor at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Bloomington.

My research focuses on platform operations and online market design, with the goal of understanding how digital platforms reduce market frictions and improve market performance. I study how digital platforms address core operational challenges—including participation, matching, market expansion, and information frictions—and examine the broader economic and social implications of platform-based markets.

I received my Ph.D. in Operations Management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, co-advised by Wedad Elmaghraby and Kostas Bimpikis (Stanford).

Working Papers

Student co-authors are highlighted with *. 
"When Workloads Are Emotional Labor: An Empirical Study of Livestreaming Productivity," with Feifei Song*, Shenyang Jiang, and Ken Moon. [SSRN]
  • Winner, Professor Andy Yeung 2026 Best Paper Award, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
"Can AI Replace Human Judgment in Marketplace Operations? Evidence from Keyword Auction Campaigns," with Ken Moon. [SSRN]
Under Review, Management Science.

"Learning by Doing in SME Manufacturing," with Mengfei Li*, Yue Cheng, Liu Ming, and Xiaole Wu. [SSRN]
Reject & Resubmit Invited, Management Science.
  • Honorable Mention, the 15th POMS-HK Best Student Paper Award (for Mengfei Li).
  • Selected for presentation at 2025 Workshop on Empirical Operations Management (HKU Business School).
"Information Provision in Platform Competition,"​ with Kostas Bimpikis and Yiangos Papanastasiou. [SSRN]
Major Revision, Operations Research. 
  • 1st Place, 2025 INFORMS Service Science Best Cluster Paper Award.​
"Restaurant Density and Delivery Speed in Food Delivery Platforms," with Zhanzhi Zheng* and Ruomeng Cui.  [SSRN]
Minor Revision, Operations Research.
  • Finalist, 2024 POMS College of Operational Excellence Junior Scholar Best Paper Competition.
  • Selected for presentation at Wharton Empirical OM Workshop 2022, Marketplace Innovation Workshop 2022, KDD 2023, TALENT Workshop 2025, Northwestern/USC Research Roundtable on Platform Dynamics 2026​.

​Publications & Accepted Papers

6. "Omnichannel Operations in On-Demand Delivery Platform with Buy-Online-and-Pick-up-in-Store," with Yu Guo*, Fei Gao, and Liu Ming. [SSRN] 
Forthcoming, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.
  • 3rd Place, 2024 POMS-China Best Student Paper Award (for Yu Guo).
5. "Reducing Traffic Incidents in Meal Deliveries: Penalize the Platform or its Independent Drivers?" with Christopher S. Tang, Liu Ming, and Yue Cheng. [SSRN]
Forthcoming, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.
  • Media coverage: How to Reduce Food-Delivery Collisions, UCLA Anderson Review​; MSOM spotlight feature.
4. “Marketplace Expansion Through Marquee Seller Adoption: Externalities and Reputation Implications,” with Wedad Elmaghraby and Ashish Kabra. [PDF] [SSRN]
Management Science, 72(2), 2025.
  • Keynote presentation at INFORMS Workshop on Market Design 2021 (by Wedad Elmaghraby).
  • Selected for presentation at Wharton Empirical OM Workshop 2021.
  • Media: Maryland Smith Research.
​3. "The Sales Impacts of Traffic Acquisition Promotion in Live-Streaming Commerce," with Chewei Liu, Liu Ming, and Yue Cheng. [SSRN]
Production and Operations Management, 34(12), 2025. 

2. “Information Provision in Two-Sided Platforms: Optimizing for Supply,” with Kostas Bimpikis and Yiangos Papanastasiou. [SSRN] 
Management Science, 70(7), 2024.
  • Media: 运筹OR帷幄.
1. “Managing Market Thickness in Online Business-to-Business Markets,” with Kostas Bimpikis, Wedad Elmaghraby, and Ken Moon. ​[SSRN]
​Management Science, 66(12), 2020. 
  • 1st Place, 2017 IBM Service Science Best Student Paper Award​; Finalist, 2018 POMS College of Supply Chain Management Best Student Paper Competition.
  • Selected for presentation at Wharton Empirical OM Workshop 2017, Marketplace Innovation Workshop 2017.
  • Media: How retailers can make more money in online auctions Phys.Org.
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