CIBER Awards 2017 PhD Research Award to Che-Wei Liu

The Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of Maryland is pleased to announce that Che-Wei Liu is the recipient of the 2017 CIBER PhD Research Award. CIBER supports PhD development as one of its four main pillars and the Center awarded Liu $4,000 to help fund his research.

Liu is a member of the Decision, Operations & Information Technologies Department at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. His research will focus on determining how to leverage reciprocity in order to encourage individuals’ physical activity. The intent of his research is to determine how behavioral economics can improve the effectiveness of financial incentives in impacting weight loss. The study will be conducted through the implementation of a randomized controlled experiment in Taiwan to an online physical activity community.

Though the experiment will be conducted on the group in Taiwan, the online platform also serves users in Japan, Singapore, France, the United States and more. In his study, Liu will consider whether the effect of the experiment is conditional due to cultural differences regarding the intervention effects.

“It has always been my passion to understand how information technology changes individuals’ behaviors on a mobile platform, especially in the health field,” shared Liu. “I have conducted studies to leverage the power of social norms, goal setting, and implementation intentions to motivate people to exercise more or live a healthier life.”

The PhD research awards were started with the goal of encouraging research that furthers our understanding of the international context within which business is conducted. Costs of travel and data acquisition can often be a significant barrier in conducting international research and this award tries to lower these barriers. “We received very high quality proposals, which were evaluated for analytical rigor, practical relevance, and potential for impact,” said CIBER Executive Director Kislaya Prasad. “Che-Wei’s work on reciprocity exemplifies these qualities. It is innovative and novel, and promises to have great impact. We look forward to the results of this study with anticipation.”

This program is sponsored in part by the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education.