Research Overview

Xiaohang (Flora) Feng is a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University under the guidance of Prof. Kannan Srinivasan. Her work integrates computer vision, generative AI, and machine learning to solve marketing challenges, leveraging unstructured data, explainable AI, and human experiment. She also explores sustainability, using analytical model, causal inference, and structural model. Her research has been accepted at the Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Consumer Research, with ongoing work at advanced stage at Marketing Science. She has also authored book chapters on AI in Marketing, advancing the intersection of technology, business strategy, and sustainability.

Media Coverage

Job Market Paper

Dynamic Impact and Strategic Optimization of Sustainability Certification on E‑Commerce Platforms: Structural Estimation and Utility‑Aware Generative AI

Xiaohang (Flora) Feng, Xiao Liu, Shunyuan Zhang, and Kannan Srinivasan. 2025.

Selected Work

“An AI Method to Score Celebrity Visual Potential,” 2025. Xiaohang (Flora) Feng, Shunyuan Zhang, Xiao Liu, Kannan Srinivasan, and Cait Lamberton.

Accepted at Journal of Marketing Research.

Selected Media Coverage: Wall Street Journal, HBS Working Knowledge, EMPOWERED, Harvard Research in 2023 (A Year of Discoveries).
Selected Conference Presentation: ISMS Conference, UTD BASS Conference, INFORMS Annual Conference, Theory + Practice in Marketing Conference.

“Visual Uniqueness in Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: Machine Learning Model Development, Validation, and Application,” 2025. Xiaohang (Flora) Feng, Charis Li, and Shunyuan Zhang.

Accepted at Journal of Consumer Research.

Selected Conference Presentation: EMAC, ISMS Conference, Theory + Practice in Marketing Conference, La Londe Conference.

“Sustainability and Competition on Amazon,” 2025. Xiaohang (Flora) Feng, Xiao Liu, Shunyuan Zhang, and Kannan Srinivasan.

Major Revision at Marketing Science.

CSB Research Grant, New York University Stern Center for Sustainable Business.
Selected Media Coverage: Amazon Days.
Selected Conference Presentation: Marketing for Environmental Sustainability Conference at Stanford, Theory + Practice in Marketing, Houston Doctoral Consortium, ISMS Conference.

“Marketing Through the Machine’s Eyes: Image Analytics and Interpretability,” Xiaohang (Flora) Feng, Shunyuan Zhang, and Kannan Srinivasan. 2023.

Published at Review of Marketing Research. Emerald Publishing Limited.