Speaker Profile
Dr. XU Linli is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on advertising and digital platforms.
Her work has been published in premier journals, including Marketing Science, Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and Journal of Marketing. In 2019, she was named an MSI Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute, a prestigious biennial award that recognizes the most promising scholars in marketing and related fields. Her research has been supported by grants from the Marketing Science Institute and the Carlson Dean's Small Research Grant.
Professor Xu earned her Ph.D. from University of Southern California (USC), where she was awarded the James S. Rothwell/Commerce Associate Doctoral Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding academic performance and research capabilities. She also holds a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of British Columbia (Canada) and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Jilin University (China).
Abstract
The rapid growth of digital media platforms has led to information overload for consumers; hence, two major types of user interfaces have been widely used to facilitate the process of online content discovery and consumption. The first type of interface is often referred to as“content discovery pages,”where users are presented with a list of options to browse and choose from. The second type of interface allows users to continuously consume content without the need to discover (through browsing) by automatically presenting a new item when they are done with a particular content. An emerging trend in practice is that many digital platforms utilize both interfaces in order to improve user engagement. This study examines how the dynamic experience of content discovery and consumption under the existence of both interfaces shapes users’ behavioral patterns on digital platforms. We develop an empirical framework capturing each user’s sequence of decisions in discovering and viewing content and allowing for individual heterogeneity. We then estimate the model using granular data from a music mobile platform in China. We find that 1) satiation exists in consumption across users but viewing a broad variety of content helps mitigate satiation, lengthening the duration of user engagement on the platform; 2) On average, consumers prefer to browse more options on the discovery page, but a greater variety of content browsed on the discovery interface is likely to make a user quit browsing and start consuming content; 3) Our examination of user heterogeneity reveals two distinct types of users:“Binge-viewers”and “Browsers.”The former favors extended viewing within a single session and waits longer to return to the platform, while the latter prefers browsing a wide set of content and regularly switches between sessions.
Date/Time: November 6, 2025, 10:00 a.m.
Venue: Room 0218, 0 Teaching Building, Jiuliu Campus
