Wael Jabr
Associate Professor of Information Systems
I am an Associate Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems at the Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University. I earned my PhD in Management Science from the Information Systems and Operation Management department at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Jindal School of Management.
Expertise
Every time a judge weighs an algorithm's recommendation before sentencing, or a shopper reads reviews before buying, a decision that used to belong to a person alone is now being shaped by a system someone else designed. That interaction — between people and the digital systems now embedded in how firms operate — is what my research is about. As platforms and, increasingly, AI take on a growing role in how decisions get made, they're not just changing what businesses do; they're changing how individuals decide, what they pay attention to, and how they treat each other. My research examines this evolving relationship through two themes: A) human–algorithm interactions, and B) information-rich platforms. A) Human–Algorithm Interactions: As algorithms take on a larger role in firms' decisions, how people actually respond to them — behaviorally and perceptually — has become critical, especially where algorithmic input complements, and sometimes overrides, human judgment. My work pays particular attention to how these effects vary across demographic lines. In the judicial system, I find that algorithmic sentencing recommendations produce uneven impacts by race and gender, with real consequences for public safety. In peer-production systems, I find that algorithmic agents can disrupt workflows and reduce efficiency when they override experienced human contributors. My ongoing work extends this theme to how firms integrate AI into operational decision-making more broadly. B) Information-Rich Platforms: Digital transformations have also made platforms central to everyday decision-making. An app store, for example, doesn't just connect developers with users — it surfaces the reviews that guide what people buy, turning the platform into an infomediary. My research examines this role: how much information platforms should surface before it degrades decision quality, how reputation-system design shapes user contributions, and how the interplay between recommendations and reviews influences consumer choice. I've extended this work to online trading platforms, studying how visible social signals shape behavioral biases in financial decisions. On the social side, I study how platforms' information flows push users toward more polarized messaging, and how greater transparency in public data can drive real behavioral change in firms.
Education
Ph.D. in Information Systems, The University of Texas at Dallas, Jindal School of Management, Richardson, Texas, USA, 2011-01-01 Master of Business Administration, The University of Texas at Dallas, Jindal School of Management, Richardson, TX, USA, 2010-01-01
Courses Taught
BA 840 – BUS DATA MGMT
Business Data Management will enable students to use various database designs to acquire the information needed to make effective business decisions. Successful students will be able to design, create, and implement a relational database and be able to write SQL statements to obtain information from a database. In addition, students will investigate the next generation approaches for storing, manipulating, and managing web data in unstructured formats. Students will gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages among XML, NoSQL, NewSQL, and Relational databases. After successfully completing this course, students will have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to:- structure a database, configure it, perform analysis within it, and report from it- have adequate understanding of SQL to retrieve data from a database using SQL query language- design a database system including an ER Model and a UML class diagram, and implement the design in an enterprise databaseapplication- understand NoSQL databases, XML native databases, NewSQL databases, and the advantages and disadvantages of thesedatabases.
Selected Publications
Mendel V., Aaltonen A., Rai A., Mathiassen L., Jabr W. "Timely Quality Problem Resolution in Peer-Production Systems: Impacts of Contributor Experience and Control Mechanisms" Information Systems Research, vol. 36, 2024-01-01
Mookerjee R., Jabr W., Singh H. "A Boosting Policy to Optimize User Forum Performance: Model and Evaluation" Production and Operations Management, vol. 32, 2023-12-01
Ho I., Jabr W., Zhang Y. "AI in Law Enforcement: Examining the Impact of AI-Supported Recommendations on Judicial Fairness" Workshop on Information Systems Economics, 2023-12-01
Ding C., Jabr W., Guo H. "Electoral Competition in the Age of Social Media: The Role of Social Media Influencers" MIS Quarterly, vol. 47, 2023-12-01
Ho I., Jabr W., Zhang Y. "AI in Law Enforcement: Examining the Impact of AI-Supported Recommendations on Judicial Fairness" Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, 2023-01-01
Ho I., Jabr W., Zhang Y. "AI in Law Enforcement: Examining the Impact of AI-Supported Recommendations on the Judicial Fairness" Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research, 2023-01-01
Jabr W., Dhanorkar S. "Can Broadband Help Curb Pollution? Implications for Marginalized Communities" INFORMS Workshop on Data Science, 2023-01-01
Jabr W., Dhanorkar S. "Can Broadband Help Curb Pollution? Implications for Marginalized Communities" International Conference on Information Systems, 2023-01-01
Jabr W., Ghoshal A., Cheng Y., Pavlou P. "Maximizing revisiting and purchasing: A clickstream-based approach to enhance individual-level customer conversion" Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 40, 2023-01-01
Jabr W., Zheng Z. "Exploring firm strategy using financial reports: performance impact of inward and outward relatedness with digitisation" European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 32, 2022-01-01
Jabr W. "Review credibility as a safeguard against fakery: the case of Amazon" European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 31, 2022-01-01
Jabr W., Rai A. "When Trading Becomes Social: How Social Trading Platforms Affect the Disposition Effect" Conference on Information Systems and Technology, 2022-01-01
Jabr W., Rai A. "When Trading Becomes Social: How Social Trading Platforms Affect the Disposition Effect" Academy of Management Annual Conference, 2022-01-01
Jabr W., Rai A. "When Trading Becomes Social: How Social Trading Platforms Affect the Disposition Effect" International Conference on Information Systems, 2022-01-01
Jabr W., Yin D., Zhang H. "Online Word-of-Mouth: Research Curation" MIS Quarterly, 2020-01-01
Ding C., Jabr W., Guo H. "Electoral Competition in the Age of Social Media: Implications on Party Policies and Media Reports." Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, 2019-12-01
Jabr W., Zheng E. "Mining Firm Strategy from Financial Reports: Impact of Mimicry, Relatedness and Digitization on Performance" International Conference on Information Systems, 2019-01-01
Ding C., Jabr W., Guo H. "Politics in the Age of Social Media" China Workshop on Economics of Information Systems Theory, 2019-01-01
Gutt D., Neumann J., Jabr W., Kundisch D. "The App Updating Conundrum: Implications of Platform’s Rating Resetting on Developers’ Behavior" International Conference on Information Systems, 2019-01-01
Jabr W., Guo H. "What Drives Social Media Slant?" Production and Operations Management Society Annual Conference, 2018-05-01
Jabr W., Mookerjee R., Singh H. "Managing Online User Forums for Optimal Performance" Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 2018-01-01
Jabr W., Zhao K., Cheng Y., Srivastava S. "Understanding the Disappointment in Product Reviews" Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2018-01-01
Jabr W., Zhao K., Cheng Y., Srivastava "Understanding the Disappointment in Product Reviews" International Conference on Information Systems, 2018-01-01
Saffarizadeh K., Jabr W., Keil M. "Update Assimilation in App Markets: Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Updates?" International Conference on Information Systems, 2018-01-01
Lohtia R., Jabr W., Qi Z., Guillory M. "What Makes Reviewers Helpful, a Study of Yelp and TripAdvisor" Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2018-01-01
Jabr W., Pavlou "Inferring Customer Needs from Pre-Purchase Information Search: A Clickstream-Based Approach" Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 2017-01-01
Saffarizadeh K., Jabr W., Keil M. "Leveraging Customer Feedback Through App Reviews" INFORMS Annual Meeting, 2016-01-01
Yin Z., Rai A., Jabr W. "Not All IT Innovations Are Equal: Evidence from Medical Device Patents" International Conference on Information Systems, 2015-01-01
Qi Z., Storey V., Jabr W. "Sentiment Analysis Meets Semantic Analysis: Constructing Insight Knowledge Bases" International Conference on Information Systems, 2015-01-01
Jabr W. "The Fallacy of Fraudulent Reviews" Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, 2015-01-01
Jabr W., Zheng E. "Know yourself and know your enemy: An analysis of firm recommendations and consumer reviews in a competitive environment" MIS Quarterly, vol. 38, 2014-01-01
Jabr W., Mookerjee R., Mookerjee V., Tan Y. "Leveraging Philanthropic Behavior for Customer Support: The case of user support forums" MIS Quarterly, vol. 38, 2014-01-01
Jabr W., Rahman M. "Dynamics of the Market for Information: An Analysis of the Online Word-of-Mouth" International Conference on Information Systems., 2013-01-01
Jabr W., Zheng Z. "The Impact of Product Maturity and Variety on the Performance of IT Intensive Firms" 22nd Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 2012-01-01
Jabr W., Mookerjee R., Mookerjee V. "An Analysis of the Delay in Customer Support Forums: an Analytical and Empirical Approach" Conference on Information Systems and Technology, 2011-01-01
Jabr W., Mookerjee R., Mookerjee V. "A Queueing Analysis of Customer Support Forums: The Joiner Paradox" 20th Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 2010-01-01
Jabr W., Zheng E., Mookerjee V. "On the Dynamic and Competing Effects of Online Reviews on Sales" 20th Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 2010-01-01
Jabr W., Mookerjee R., Tan Y., Mookerjee V. "An Integrated Model for Customer Service Support: A Queueing Analysis" 19th Annual Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 2009-01-01
Ho I., Jabr W., Zhang Y. "AI in Law Enforcement: Examining the Impact of AI-Supported Recommendations on Judicial Fairness" INFORMS Annual Conference
Honors and Awards
Best Paper Award, INFORMS, (2023-12-31)
Best Session Chair Award, INFORMS, (2023-12-31)
Graduate Student Residential Teaching Excellence Award 2023, Smeal College of Business, (2023-12-31)
Guest speaker at MBAN graduation ceremony, MBAN students class of 2023, (2023-04-28)