Dr Zhuolin Bao

Dr Zhuolin Bao is a Lecturer in Marketing, Management and Business Strategy at Hull University Business School. His research examines how brands, consumers, influencers and digital platforms intersect with ethics, corporate responsibility, consumer culture and public accountability. His work is situated across marketing, business analytics, digital consumer behaviour, corporate social responsibility, social media research and responsible business.

Methodologically, Zhuolin combines qualitative and computational approaches, including thematic analysis, digital discourse analysis, text mining, sentiment analysis, topic modelling, regression modelling, applied machine learning and mixed-methods research design. His doctoral research at the University of Glasgow examined how social media influencers publicly reprimand brands for perceived moral and ethical violations. This work conceptualises these influencers as Moralising Brand Influencers and examines how such reprimands make moral expectations toward brands visible in digital markets.

Zhuolin has taught across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in marketing, management, analytics, strategy, ethics and operations. At Hull, he is Module Leader for Marketing Analytics. His teaching is research-led and practice-oriented, with a focus on helping students connect theory, evidence and data-driven insight to real business and management problems.

Before joining Hull, Zhuolin taught as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Glasgow. He also has industry experience in e-commerce, B2B sales, production operations and port logistics, which informs his applied approach to teaching, research and student support.