Welcome! I am Xiajing Zhu (pronounced as sha-jing), a PhD candidate in Marketing at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California Irvine.

As a consumer behavior researcher, I use a multi-method approach to study the role of misinformation and information in political and branding marketplaces, and how these processes are shaped by their identities and environmental factors.

I am on the 2024-2025 marketing job market.

Substantive: Misinformation, Donations, Branding, Public policy, Societal well-being, Consumer welfare, Transformative consumer research
Theoretical: Social identity, Ingroup/outgroup, Political ideology, Moral values, Message framing
Methodological: Lab and field experiments, Multilevel modeling, Text data analysis, Spatial data analysis

Zhu, Xiajing & Pechmann, Connie. Political Ideology and Political Donations (dissertation essay 1), manuscript preparing, target: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Zhu, Xiajing,Teng, Lefa, & Wang, Xinran. Brand Misinformation and Response Strategy, manuscript preparing, target: Journal of Marketing Research.

Zhu, Xiajing & Pechmann, Connie. Political Ideology and Consumer Support for Ingroup (dissertation essay 2), data collecting, target: Journal of Consumer Research.

Zhu, Xiajing & Pechmann, Connie, (accepted), “Political Polarization Triggers Conservatives’ Misinformation Spread to Attain Ingroup Dominance,” Journal of Marketing.

Foti, Lianne, Zhu, Xiajing, Yuan, Yige, & Teng, Lefa, (2020), “Broadcasting and Narrowcasting: The Impact of Affective and Cognitive Message Framing on Message Persuasiveness,” International Journal of Advertising, 39(8), 1183-1201.

Zhu, Xiajing, Teng, Lefa, Foti, Lianne, & Yuan, Yige, (2019), “Using Self-Congruence Theory to Explain the Interaction Effects of Brand Type and Celebrity Type on Consumer Attitude Formation,” Journal of Business Research103, 301-309.

Dou, Xinhua, Zhu, Xiajing, Zhang, Jason Q., & Wang, Jie, (2019), “Outcomes of Entrepreneurship Education in China: A Customer Experience Management Perspective,” Journal of Business Research103, 338-347.

Academic Honors

2024, UC Irvine Graduate Division Fellowship ($9500), UC Irvine Graduate Division

2024, Top 3 Poster in PhD Research Fest, UC Irvine Merage School of Business

2024, AMS Doctoral Consortium Fellow, Academy of Marketing Science, Coral Gables

2023, AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium Fellow, American Marketing Association, Oslo, Norway

2023, Ray Watson Fellowship, UC Irvine Merage School of Business

2022, ACR Conference Travel Award, Association for Consumer Research

2021, Management Fellowship, UC Irvine Merage School of Business

2019, Outstanding Master’s Thesis (university-level), Jiangnan University

2019, Outstanding Master’s Thesis (state-level), Education Department of Jiangsu Province

Service Award

2022, Outstanding DECADE Representative Award, UC Irvine Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE)