Updated on 2026/09/21

写真a

 
HU, Yingfei
 
Affiliation
Faculty of Commerce, School of Commerce
Job title
Research Associate

Research Experience

  • 2024.09
    -
    Now

    The Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships   Adjunct Lecturer

  • 2023.04
    -
    Now

    Waseda University   School of Commerce   Research Associate

Committee Memberships

  • 2025.02
    -
    Now

    Journal of Sustainable Business  Editorial board member

Professional Memberships

  • 2026.04
    -
    Now

    Academy of International Business

  • 2023.05
    -
    Now

    Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution

  • 2020.10
    -
    Now

    Japanese Society for Quality Control

Research Areas

  • Commerce   Green Marketing, CSR

Research Interests

  • Green purchasing

  • Green marketing

  • CSR

Awards

  • JGM Best Paper Award

    2026.02   The International and National Conference on Business Administration and Accountancy 2026   Influence of AI-generated Advertising on Purchasing Behavior

  • Excellent Presentation Award

    2021.11   The Japanese Society for Quality Control   Does Empowering Female Employees Make A Firm More Profitable? The Mediating Role of Consumer Reactions to Female Empowerment

  • Best Paper Award

    2021.06   Global Corporate Governance Institute   The Role of Consumer Attitudes in Explaining the Profit Impact of Female Empowerment at Work

 

Papers

  • Implicit Algorithm Aversion: How Consumer Characteristics Shape Perceptions of Ads Designed by Undisclosed AI versus Human Advertising Professionals

    Bjoern Frank, Yingfei Hu, Takanori Tanaka

    Journal of Advertising   Forthcoming  2026.09  [Refereed]  [International journal]

  • Distinct Environmental Sustainability Signals for Marketing Success: The Interactions of Life Cycle Phases, Green Country Image, and Transparency

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank, Boris Herbas-Torrico

    Business Strategy and the Environment    2026.08  [Refereed]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    Although prior studies show that overall product environmental sustainability enhances consumer value perceptions, it remains unclear how consumers interpret environmental sustainability signals across phases of the life cycle assessment process. Addressing this gap, this study draws on signaling theory to compare the effectiveness of environmental sustainability signals in the pre-use, use, and post-use phases in enhancing symbolic value and brand loyalty, and to examine the moderating roles of green country image and production transparency. Regression analysis of multi-brand evaluations by 886 consumers in Bolivia and China shows that environmental sustainability in all phases enhances symbolic value, driving brand loyalty. A strong green country image weakens the effect of pre-use environmental sustainability but strengthens the effects of use and post-use environmental sustainability. Production transparency amplifies the effect of pre-use environmental sustainability and the corresponding moderating effect of green country image. These findings advance understanding of strategic green marketing and guide firms in effective green product design.

    DOI

  • Communicating cleaner production: When AI or human creativity enables more effective green advertising

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    Journal of Cleaner Production   561   148293  2026.05  [Refereed]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

  • Market success through recycling programs: Strategic options, consumer reactions, and contingency factors

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank, Zhenpeng Lu

    Journal of Cleaner Production   353   131003  2022.06  [Refereed]  [International journal]

    Authorship：Lead author

    DOI

    Scopus

    21
    Citation
    (Scopus)

Presentations

  • Workplace Gender Equality as an International Business Signal: Consumer Purchase Intentions and Word-of-Mouth Across Cultural Contexts

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2026 Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business (AIB) 

    Presentation date： 2026.07

    Event date：
    2026.06
    -
    2026.07

  • International Differences in the Impact of Environmental Marketing

    Bjoern Frank, Yingfei Hu, August Grupp

    33rd Annual CIMaR Conference 

    Presentation date： 2026.05

    Event date：
    2026.05
    　
    　

  • The Consumer Impact of Life Cycle Assessments for Products Made in Countries with Different Environmental Images

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    33rd Annual CIMaR Conference 

    Presentation date： 2026.05

    Event date：
    2026.05
    　
    　

  • Green Marketing Practices: Profit Impact by Context

    Bjoern Frank, August Grupp, Yingfei Hu

    2nd Industrial Marketing Management Oceania and Asia Summit 

    Presentation date： 2025.11

    Event date：
    2025.11
    　
    　

  • Incentivizing Green Supply Chain Actions across Cultures

    Bjoern Frank, August Grupp, Yingfei Hu

    22nd ANZAM Operations, Supply Chain and Services Management Symposium 

    Presentation date： 2025.11

    Event date：
    2025.11
    　
    　

  • Factors Influencing Patient Decisions on Robotic Surgery

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank, Kentaro Shimoura

    22nd ANZAM Operations, Supply Chain and Services Management Symposium 

    Presentation date： 2025.11

    Event date：
    2025.11
    　
    　

  • Implications of AI-Human Differences in Green Ad Design Effectiveness for Sustainable Services

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2025 Frontiers in Service Conference 

    Presentation date： 2025.07

    Event date：
    2025.07
    　
    　

  • Adoption of Robotic Surgery Services: Personal, Situational, and Technological Determinants

    Bjoern Frank, Yingfei Hu, Kentaro Shimoura

    2025 Frontiers in Service Conference 

    Presentation date： 2025.07

    Event date：
    2025.07
    　
    　

  • AI-Human Green Ad Design Differences: Behavioural Impact

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2024 ANZMAC Conference 

    Presentation date： 2024.12

    Event date：
    2024.12
    　
    　

  • Maximizing the Effectiveness of Ecolabels to Incentivize Ethical Consumption

    Bjoern Frank, Karen Peters, Yingfei Hu

    24th Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering & Management System Conference 

    Presentation date： 2024.11

    Event date：
    2024.11
    　
    　

  • Consumer Reactions to Women's Career Advancement: Manufacturing vs. Service

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2024 Frontiers in Service Conference 

    Presentation date： 2024.06

    Event date：
    2024.06
    　
    　

  • Service Brand Recovery from Greenwashing: Effectiveness and Contingency Factors

    Bjoern Frank, Yingfei Hu, Wonjun Joung

    2024 Frontiers in Service Conference 

    Presentation date： 2024.06

    Event date：
    2024.06
    　
    　

  • Effectiveness of Brand Recovery Actions after Greenwashing

    Bjoern Frank, Wonjun Joung, Yingfei Hu

    2023 ANZMAC Conference 

    Presentation date： 2023.12

    Event date：
    2023.12
    　
    　

  • Personal and Situational Determinants of Patients' Adoption of Robotic Surgery

    Bjoern Frank, Kentaro Shimoura, Yingfei Hu

    2023 IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 

    Presentation date： 2023.10

    Event date：
    2023.10
    　
    　

  • Consumer Reactions to E-Government Services: The Influence of Personal Information Sharing

    Bjoern Frank, Akira Nishikawa, Yingfei Hu

    2023 IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 

    Presentation date： 2023.10

    Event date：
    2023.10
    　
    　

  • 製品ライフサイクル（使用前・使用中・使用後）の段階における環境持続可能性が顧客に与える影響の比較

    胡 穎飛, フランク・ビョーン, SHEN Xin, HERBAS-TORRICO Boris

    日本商業学会第73回全国研究大会 

    Presentation date： 2023.05

    Event date：
    2023.05
    　
    　

  • Empowering Women: Market Consequences, Mechanisms, and Contingencies

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2022 ANZMAC Conference 

    Presentation date： 2022.12

    Event date：
    2022.12
    　
    　

  • The Role of Consumer Attitudes in Explaining the Profit Impact of Female Empowerment at Work

    Bjoern Frank, Manae Konishi, Yingfei Hu

    7th International Conference on CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance 

    Presentation date： 2021.06

    Event date：
    2021.06
    　
    　

  • The Customer Impact of Environmental Sustainability in Different Phases of the Product Life Cycle

    Bjoern Frank, Xin Shen, Yingfei Hu, Boris Herbas-Torrico

    7th International Conference on CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance 

    Presentation date： 2021.06

    Event date：
    2021.06
    　
    　

  • 製品のリサイクルは顧客維持にどのように貢献できるか

    胡 穎飛, フランク・ビョーン, 蘆 振鵬

    日本品質管理学会第50回年次大会 

    Presentation date： 2020.11

    Event date：
    2020.11
    　
    　

  • Enhancing Brand Loyalty through Recycling Program Strategy

    Bjoern Frank, Zhenpeng Lu, Yingfei Hu

    2019 ANZMAC (Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy) Conference 

    Presentation date： 2019.12

    Event date：
    2019.12
    　
    　

  • Green Purchasing Mechanisms: Pollution, Salience, and Values

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2019 ANZMAC (Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy) Conference 

    Presentation date： 2019.12

    Event date：
    2019.12
    　
    　

  • Regional Environmental Pollution and the Importance of Environmental Sustainability in Quality Perceptions

    Yingfei Hu

    2018 Qualcon (National Conference of the Australian Organisation for Quality) 

    Presentation date： 2018.10

    Event date：
    2018.10
    　
    　

  • Making Green Innovation/Advertising Profitable across B2B Contexts

    August Grupp, Bjoern Frank, Yingfei Hu

    2017 ANZMAC (Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy) Conference 

    Presentation date： 2017.12

    Event date：
    2017.12
    　
    　

  • Does Environmental Pollution Influence Green Purchasing Behaviour?

    Yingfei Hu, Bjoern Frank

    2017 ANZMAC (Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy) Conference 

    Presentation date： 2017.12

    Event date：
    2017.12
    　
    　

▼display all

Research Projects

  • Ethical Purchasing as a Process: Contextual Mechanisms Driving Consumer Decisions and Sustainable Business Outcomes

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  KAKENHI

    Project Year :

    2026.04
    -
    2029.03
     

    HU, Yingfei

  • Contextual Moderators of Green Purchasing Behavior: Differences by Country, Industry, and Brand

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  KAKENHI

    Project Year :

    2023.08
    -
    2025.03
     

    HU, Yingfei

    　View Summary

    This research conducted five subprojects on consumers’ green purchasing behavior and identified strategies for firms to communicate environmental information effectively. While product sustainability generally improves consumer evaluations, its impact varies by the life cycle phase, the production country’s green image, and information disclosure level. In cases of severe pollution, consumers’ motivation to express personal values through green purchasing tends to weaken, while the desire for social approval becomes stronger. Greenwashing undermines trust, though sincere recovery efforts can partially restore it. AI-created green ads were found to be roughly as effective as human-made ones, and particularly effective for lower-priced products and consumers with lower environmental awareness. The effectiveness of eco-labels depends on their familiarity, theme, and design; labels emphasizing animal protection are generally preferred by older and more ethically conscious consumers.

 

Internal Special Research Projects

  • Effective Green Advertising: When AI Works Best and When to Rely on Human Designers

    2025  

    　View Summary

    This study examines the effectiveness of generative AI, including tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, in green advertising, a domain that plays a critical role in promoting sustainable consumption and environmentally responsible markets. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into marketing practice, an important question arises as to whether AI-generated content can match or surpass human professionals in communicating environmentally relevant information, particularly in contexts where ethical meaning, emotional resonance, and trust are central. Drawing on processing fluency theory, this research conceptualizes advertising effectiveness as driven by the ease with which consumers process message content, distinguishing between perceptual fluency (ease of surface-level processing) and conceptual fluency (ease of meaning-based interpretation). Based on two large-scale experiments involving nearly 6,000 consumers in Japan, spanning 30 scenarios across six product categories, the findings show that the relative effectiveness of AI- versus human-created green advertisements depends on multiple contextual factors, including product characteristics, advertising design features, and consumer values. Specifically, AI-generated ads are more effective in contexts characterized by lower complexity and lower consumer involvement, such as utilitarian and lower-priced products, shorter and more structured messages, brand-owned platforms where narrative depth or emotional subtlety in green advertising is less expected, and audiences with weaker environmental concern, where perceptual fluency plays a dominant role. In contrast, human-generated ads outperform AI in contexts that require deeper interpretation and emotional and moral evaluation, including hedonic or higher-priced products, longer or more ambiguous messages, independent platforms where credibility is more salient, and audiences with stronger environmental values, where conceptual fluency becomes more important. These findings highlight that AI and human creators possess complementary strengths rather than substitutive capabilities. The study contributes to research on AI in marketing and green advertising by identifying processing fluency as a unifying mechanism that explains when AI or humans are more effective in sustainability communication. From a practical perspective, the results suggest that organizations can enhance the effectiveness of green advertising by strategically aligning the use of AI and human input with the complexity of the message and the values of the target audience, thereby improving consumer understanding of environmental attributes and supporting the broader transition toward more sustainable consumption patterns, while also informing responsible and effective communication strategies in practice.