On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at 10 a.m., CUFE Business School successfully held the 8th Excellence Academic Lecture of 2026 in Room 615 of the Main Teaching Building, South Campus. The lecture featured Professor Cao Lanlan from NEOMA Business School as the keynote speaker. Over ten participants, including faculty, PhD, and master’s students, attended the event.
The lecture was hosted by Professor Gu Leilei, Vice Dean of CUFE Business School, who introduced Professor Cao’s academic background. Professor Cao is a Marketing Professor at NEOMA Business School, specializing in strategic responses and value creation of retail enterprises amid environmental changes. Her research covers international retail, digital transformation, omnichannel collaboration, AI, and new technology innovation management, with publications in journals such as the Journal of Retailing, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and International Business Review. She currently serves as Director of the Master in Retail Management program at NEOMA.
Professor Cao’s lecture, titled “Does GenAI Create or Destroy Value? Evidence from the Retail Sector,” explored whether generative AI (GenAI) creates or destroys value. Based on a resource-based view, she argued that the impact depends on whether GenAI complements or conflicts with existing retail resources. An event study of 88 U.S. retailers’ GenAI adoption announcements revealed an average negative market reaction, suggesting a conflict with customer relationship resources. However, this effect varied: retailers targeting female customers experienced stronger negative reactions due to the centrality of relational resources, retailers with physical stores experienced weaker negative reactions due to complementary assets, and service-oriented retailers showed slight negative effects due to sensitivity to perceived human touch. The study contributed to innovation management by outlining boundary conditions for GenAI value creation and explaining the paradox of micro-productivity improvements not translating into firm value, highlighting that GenAI adoption is a strategic fit decision rather than a binary choice.
After the lecture, participants engaged in in-depth discussions on research topics, theoretical contributions and limitations, and frontier research directions, fostering academic exchange and idea collision.
The “Excellence Academic Lecture” series is a platform established by CUFE Business School to fulfill its mission of contributing new management knowledge. It aims to gather cutting-edge ideas and innovative perspectives on frontier theoretical issues and organizational development challenges in business administration, providing solutions relevant to Chinese society and economic development.
