Dr. Subrina Lu, assistant professor in the Marketing Department was awarded a Faculty Scholarship Initiative (FSI) Award for the 2020-2021 academic year. The Faculty Scholarship Initiative (FSI) was established to facilitate faculty scholarship and research. Vital to CSU's mission, the FSI funds faculty conducting quality research, or other creative or scholarly activity, that advances the respective field or discipline. 

Dr. Lu will use the award to focus her research in three studies.

The first study focuses mainly on online textual communication effectiveness. She will examine how herd behavior influences customers' online voting behavior by collecting data from Amazon online product reviews.

The second study is on online visual communication effectiveness. She will develop a conceptual framework to examine the visual-based brand perception (VBBP) using machine learning techniques by collecting images from major companies' Instagram accounts.

The third study will examine the joint effects of visual and textual communication on crowdfunding success by collecting data from Kickstarter projects and will analyze the synergistic effect of visual and textual communication on crowdfunding outcomes.

From a practical point of view, the results of all three studies will be used to provide guidelines for marketers to effectively communicate online.

Dr. Lu teaches Social Media and Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing Strategies and Marketing Strategy.