Co- Academic Directors USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (ICCI)
Shantanu Dutta
Academic Director USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry(ICCI)
Dave and Jeanne Tappan Chair
Professor of Marketing
Shantanu Dutta is an expert on strategic marketing, especially in high technology markets. He also studies how firms use distribution, partnerships, and value pricing to build competitive advantage. His research has been published in leading marketing, economics, and management journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Management Science, and Strategic Management Journal. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Marketing Research and Marketing Science.
Baizhu Chen
Academic Director USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry(ICCI)
Professor of Clinical Finance and Business Economics
Baizhu Chen studies macroeconomics and international economics, with an emphasis on China. His work has been published in the Journal of Peace Research, European Journal of Political Economy, China Economic Review, Applied Financial Economics, Social Choice and Welfare, and Journal of Macroeconomics. He is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Finance and Banking at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, chief economist of Sino-Century Capital, a VC firm in Shanghai, and former president of the Chinese Economists Society. He is academic director for Marshall’s GEMBA program, and a recipient of the Golden Apple Award.
Marshall Faculty
Francis Pereira
Associate Professor of Clinical Data Sciences and Operations
Dr. Francis Pereira received his Ph.D. in Political Economy and Public Policy from the University of Southern California. He has published over 15 articles in such prestigious journals as the Journal of Communications Networks.
Sha Yang
Ernest Hahn Professor of Marketing
Sha Yang’s research focuses on modeling consumer purchase behavior and market competition. Her recent research interests include search engine advertising and social network. She is a leader in developing models with sophisticated interactions among consumers and firms, and is a pioneer in introducing Bayesian methods into estimation of such interactions. Professor Yang has published more than 20 articles, and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics. Professor Yang has collaborated with many companies including Visa, Miller Brewing Company, HP, Pepsi Co., CBS, TNS, McCann Ericson, epinions.com, Taobao.com and China Mobile.
Tianshu Sun
Assistant Professor of Data Sciences and Operations
Tianshu Sun’s research conducted in collaboration with leading private and public sector platforms addresses how firms can use large-scale field experiments in conjunction with big data to improve business decisions. His current research focuses on understanding 1) how digital platforms can use IT-enabled and data-driven interventions to influence social sharing among individuals, and 2) how organizations can leverage mobile and Internet of Things to integrate individuals’ online and offline experience. Tianshu has worked closely with a variety of organizations including Facebook and Alibaba. Many findings from these studies have been implemented by collaborating organizations. Tianshu has given over 70 talks at top universities and international conferences, and has research papers published in Management Science, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Health Economics. Tianshu’s research has received 9 Best Paper Awards (ICIS,CIST,WITS,INFORMS), and has been supported by grants from Adobe and Marketing Science Institute.
Annenberg Faculty
David Craig
Clinical Associate Professor
Professor Craig teaches graduate courses in media industries, management, and practice. His courses include Global Hollywood (CMGT 559), Visual Storytelling (CMGT 552), Media Industries and Management (CMGT 586), and Social Media Entertainment (CMGT 529). He is also an Associate Professor on the faculty at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industries, where he teaches courses in global media and conducts research about Chinese media industries.
Along with his research partner, Professor Stuart Cunningham, Craig has mapped the contours and dimensions of the global-scaling and rapidly-evolving social media entertainment industries, including a competing Chinese Wanghong Industry. Whether referred to as influencers, YouTubers, vloggers, livestreamers, wanghong or KOLs, these industries are distinguished by creators operating as social media entrepreneurs by harnessing multiple platforms to create commercial and cultural value. Their work is featured in a dozen journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and edited volumes, including Social Media Entertainment (NYU Press, 2019), Wang Hong (Polity, 2020) and Creator Culture (NYU Press, 2021).
Craig is also a veteran, Emmy-nominated, Hollywood producer and TV programming executive. Over the past three decades, he helped produce over 30 films, television movies and series, web series, documentaries, books, graphic novels, and stage productions. While generated for commercial value, these projects were more often based on history, literature or contemporary social issues and made available as curriculum for schools across the country.
As an activist, Craig serves on the Board and Jury of the Social Impact Media Awards. For decades, he has been involved in the LGBTQ social movement. He was an early board member of GLAAD, producer of multiple LGBTQ-themed TV movies and plays, featured in a number of books on LGBTQ marriage, and queer media scholar and historian. His UCLA dissertation mapped the critical production and cultural pedagogy of LGBT-themed TV movies from That Certain Summer (1972) to The Normal Heart (2014).
Ben Lee
Clinical Professor of Communication
Ben Lee earned his Ph.D. from USC Annenberg in 2005, and now serves as a Clinical Professor. His primary instructional duties involve teaching with fellow faculty in the Communication Management graduate core and research practicum courses.
In the Communication Management program, Lee also serves as its Associate Director. In this role, he acts as the equivalent of a chief operational officer – coordinating faculty efforts with key staff functions in admissions, academic advisement, and career development, as well as supporting faculty in building rigorous and quality experiences for students.
Many of his students hail from China, and through them he has learned much about the nation’s economy, society and people. He has been consulted much about developments in China’s higher education, by both public and private institutions. He now leads USC Annenberg’s collaboration with different Chinese universities, advising on faculty, curriculum, and programs. He also directs a research center in Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry. The research from the center and his students focus on the most current social media entertainment, new television formats, new media firms’ strategies and execution, and American entertainment firms seeking to understand Chinese audiences.
As a scholar and practitioner, Lee is intensely curious about human performance – how individuals, organizations and societies survive and thrive, especially in volatile and uncertain environments. His expertise has been especially relevant for China’s experience.