Mark Guohua Wu is a Professor of Communication at California State University, Fullerton. He received his academic degrees from top 50 world universities (his Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, his M.Sc. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his B.A. from Tsinghua University in Beijing).

He has professional experience in Global Fortune 500 companies and US Fortune 500 companies across energy, chemical and financial industries. His expertise and skills are in digital advertising, public relations, and integrated marketing communications. Prior to joining Cal State Fullerton, he taught advertising, communication and marketing courses at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, University of Hong Kong, Syracuse University, San Jose State University and Emerson College. His students portray him as a passionate and caring professor.

Dr. Wu’s research areas are advertising and consumer behavior in the online/digital/interactive/social and cross-cultural domains. Some key constructs of his interest are perceived interactivity, initial online trust, and country or national image. He is recognized as the leading scholar in the perceived interactivity research stream, inventing the construct of “perceived interactivity of websites” in his pioneering work "Perceived Interactivity and Attitude toward website" (Wu 1999); his other works related to perceived interactivity are widely cited by scholars globally. One of his academic papers has received the honor of being “among the most highly downloaded articles” (4390 times since 2011) in the Journal of Consumer Marketing – Country image, informational influence, collectivism/individualism, and brand loyalty: exploring the automobile purchase patterns of Chinese Americans.

His articles appear in top U.S. communications and advertising journals such as Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, Journal of Interactive Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, and marketing journals such as Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Consumer Behavior, among others. Also, his articles are published in top Chinese communication journal Journalism & Communication Research published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is the recipient of University Outstanding Researcher award in 2009 at California State University Fullerton.

He published two book chapters in Chinese (Online Advertising Research and Crisis Communication Research) in an edited academic book titled New Trends in Communication published by Tsinghua University Press. His third book chapter is titled A case study of the successful branding story of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University: A holistic marketing perspective in an edited academic book titled Asia Branding: Connecting brands, consumers and companies. He led the project of translating into Chinese a landmark advertising book Persuasive Advertising: Evidence-based Principles. This book has been acclaimed to solve the century-old puzzle in advertising – “I know half of my advertising is wasted, but the trouble is that I don’t know which half.” The translated version was published in 2016 by the Commercial Press of China, ranked #1 among Chinese publishers.

Web of Science of Thomson Reuters has indexed two of his papers entitled "The effects of Web assurance seals on consumers' initial trust in an online vendor: A functional perspective" and "Effects of Perceived Interactivity, Perceived Web Assurance and Disposition to Trust on Initial Online Trust" in categories "Computer Science Artificial Intelligence" and "Communication". They were ranked 311 (out of 53076.0 articles) and 317 (out of 13327.0 articles), respectively (published between 2010 to 2014).

Dr. Wu has also provided outstanding university, community and professional services. At the university level, he chaired the Campus Planning Board at San Jose State University and the University Advancement Committee at California State University, Fullerton. He was the founding co-director for the Center for Brand Values and Communication Research at California State University Fullerton, where he developed the 5Cs of brand trust model (competence, concern, consistency, connection and candor) with brand self-actualization as its ultimate goal through social values multiplying financial values. This model of brand trust accurately predicted the 2012 U.S. presidential election outcome with Obama having an edge over Romney with regard to voters' trust in each presidential candidate (reported in the Los Angeles Times October 26, 2012).

In 2008, he served as President for the Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Faculty and Staff Association at California State University, Fullerton. He reviews journal articles and conference papers regularly for leading journals in advertising, communication and marketing. He has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Interactive Advertising since 2006.

Select Publications

Papers

Wu, G., & Xu, L. (2023). Demystifying the Privacy-Personalization Paradox: The Mediating Role of Online Trust in Websites/Apps with Personalized Ads and Attitude Towards Online Personalized Advertising. In Degen, H., Ntoa, S., & Moallem, A. (Eds.), HCI International 2023 – Late Breaking Papers, 25^th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction HCII 2023 (pp. 480-491): Copenhagen, Denmark, July 23-28,  

Wu, G., Xu, L., Sun, T., & Lin, S. (2018). A brief analysis of American college students’ responses to a China National film “China Steps into a new era”, Journal of Modern Advertising (in Chinese), 17, 58-63.

Wu, G., & Xu, L. (2018). An experimental investigation of the effectiveness of a China National film ‘China Steps into a new era’ among American college students. International Communications 对外传播 , 12, 51-53. 

Wu, G., Lin, S. & Xu, L. (2013). U.S. college students’ responses to people version of China's national image campaign: Pinning hopes on the younger generation. 新 闻与传播研究 ( Journalism and Communication) (in Chinese), 20(6), 57-64.

Wu, G. (2011). Country image, informational influence, collectivism/individualism, and brand loyalty: Exploring the automobile purchase patterns of Chinese Americans. Journal of Consumer Marketing , 28(3), 169-177. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07363761111127590

Wu, G., Hu, X., & Wu, Y. (2010). Effects of Perceived Interactivity, Perceived Web Assurance and Disposition to Trust on Initial Online Trust. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, 16(1), 1-26. [SSCI, impact factor 3.639. JCR ranking 1/54 (communication); 3/65 (Information Science & Library Science). Lead article.]

Hu, X., Wu, G., Wu, Y., & Zhang H. (2010). The effects of third-party Web assurance seals on consumers’ initial trust in online vendors: A functional perspective. Decision Support Systems , 48(2), 407-418. DOI: 10.1016/j.dss.2009.10.004. [SCI, impact factor 2.622. JCR ranking 4/73 in OR/MS]

Wu, G. (2006). Conceptualizing and measuring the perceived interactivity of websites. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 28(1), 87-104. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1998.tb01708.x

Wu, G. (2005). How interactive advertising works: The mediating role of perceived interactivity in the effect of actual interactivity on attitude toward the Website. Journal of Interactive Advertising , 5(2). Retrieved from http://www.jiad.org.

Wu, G. (1999). Perceived interactivity and attitude toward Web sites. In M. Roberts (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1999 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising (pp. 254-262), Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.

Books or Book Articles

Wu, G., Qian, L., & Zhang, X. (2016). A case study of the successful branding story of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University: A holistic marketing perspective (pp. 306- 319). In Bang, N., C. Melewar and D. E. Schultz (Eds), Asia branding: Connecting brands, consumers and companies. London, UK: Palgrave.

Wu, G. (2014). Crisis Communication Research (pp. 216-244). In Hong, J. (Ed), 传播学新趋势 ( New Trends in Communication). Beijing, China: Tsinghua University Press.

Wu, G. (2014). Online advertising research (pp. 825-857). In Hong, J. (Ed), 传播学新趋势 ( New Trends in Communication). Beijing, China: Tsinghua University Press.

Wu, G., Lin, S., Kang, J., & Yang, S. (2016). Persuasive advertising: Evidence-based principles (Translation into Chinese 广告说服力：基于实证研究的195 条广告原理 ). Beijing, China: Commercial Press of China.