Z. John Zhang

Tsai Wan-Tsai Professor
Professor of Marketing
Founding Director, Penn Wharton China Center

Contact Information

Primary Email:
zjzhang@wharton.upenn.edu
Office Phone:
(215) 898-1989

office Address:
754 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: channel and retail management., competitive strategies, market entry, targeted pricing and other pricing strategies

Links: CV

Overview

Professor Z. John Zhang’s research focuses on targeted pricing and other pricing strategies, competitive strategies, market entry, luxury goods, and channel and retail management. Recent work focuses on a luxury brand’s pricing strategy in the presence of high quality, low price counterfeits, as well as the optimal design of a luxury brand’s online and offline strategies. In addition, his recent research also looks into how it takes a country to create prominent global brands.

Professor Zhang’s research has been published in top-tier academic journals including Marketing Science, Management Science, and the Journal of Marketing Research. He also served as Area Editor for Marketing Science, Management Science, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics in the past, and currently serves as the Area Editor for Management Science and International Journal of Research in Marketing. Professor Zhang has won numerous academic and teaching awards.

Professor Zhang received a PhD and MA in economics from the University of Michigan , a PhD and MA in History and Sociology of Science and Technology from the University of Pennsylvania , and a BA in Engineering Automation and Philosophy of Science from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei, China.

Research

Current Projects: Targeting and channel strategies; behavior-based targeted pricing; demand collection systems.

Vibhanshu Abhishek, Kinshuk Jerath, Z. John Zhang (Forthcoming), Platform or Wholesale: Channel Structures in Electronic Retailing, CIST 2011.
Z. John Zhang, Jia Liu, Eden Yin, Crossing the Chasm: It Takes a Country to Create Global Brands.
Z. John Zhang, Yasid Soufi, Florian Kraus, Do Strategic Orientations Matter for a Really New Technology? The Case of Blockchain Projects.
Z. John Zhang, Paola Mallucci, Tony Cui, Can Haggling Facilitate Price Collusion?.
Z. John Zhang, Pinar Yildirim, Reto Hofstetter (Working), Rewarding Few or Many: Investigating the Impact of Rewards in Crowd-Sourcing Innovation Contests.
Z. John Zhang, Tansev Geylani, Kinshuk Jerath (Under Revision), Competitive Store Brand Strategy in the Presence of One-Stop Shoppers.
Z. John Zhang, Kinshuk Jerath, Serguei Netessine (Working), Can We All Get Along? Incentive Contracts to Bridge the Marketing and Operations Divide.
Z. John Zhang, Kinshuk Jerath, Stephen Hoch (Working), In Pursuit of Retail Dominance: Market Dominance, Channel Dominance, or Both?.
Z. John Zhang, Reto Hofstetter, Harley Krohmer, David Blatter (Working), Consumer Sensitivity to Price Increase Strategies: An Empirical Investigation.
Z. John Zhang (2025), The finger arithmetic of free vs. fair trade, .

Awards and Honors

Wharton MBA Teaching Awards, 2023
Wharton MBA Teaching Awards, 2022
Finalist for the Long Term Impact Award, the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science., 2011
Finalist for the O’Dell Award for the Most Impactful JMR Paper Five Years Later, 2007
Wharton EMBA Electives Teaching Award., 2003
Frank Bass Award for the Best Dissertation Paper, 2001
John Little Award for the Best Paper in Marketing Science, 2001
Eugene Lang Research Fellowship, Columbia University, 2000
Eugene Lang Research Fellowship, Columbia University, 1999
Rackham Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1992
Maas Research Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1990
Pensfield Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1987
The Newcomen Award for Best Essay in History of Technology, 1987
Mellon Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1986
Dean’s Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1985

Activity

Latest Research

Vibhanshu Abhishek, Kinshuk Jerath, Z. John Zhang (Forthcoming), Platform or Wholesale: Channel Structures in Electronic Retailing, CIST 2011.

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