Desmond (Ho-Fu) Lo
William T. Cleary Professor
Associate Professor, Marketing
Professor Lo's research interests cover distribution channels, business markets, sales force, and management. He has published research papers in prestigious journals in Marketing, Economics, and Strategic Management. His current research focuses on coordination and organizational governance in industrial, retail, and knowledge firms. He has taught courses in marketing strategy, go-to-market strategy, and business marketing.
Externally, Professor Lo was visiting researchers at Columbia University in New York, Kobe University in Japan, and the University of Lyon in France. He was an elected board member at the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics (SIOE).
Prior to working in academia, he was business-unit head at Hewlett Packard in China and Agfa in Asia. He also managed distribution channels for Toshiba and LG in China and Hong Kong. Professor Lo earned his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, M.A. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and BA in Economics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“The Incentive and Selection Roles in Sales Force Compensation Contracts,” Desmond Lo, Mrinal Ghosh, and Francine Lafontaine (2011), Journal of Marketing Research, 48(4), 781-798.
“Pricing Formats for Branded Components in Business-to-Business Markets: An Integration of Transaction Cost Economics and the Resource-Based View,” Desmond Lo, Kellilynn Frias, and Mrinal Ghosh (2012), Organization Science, 23(5), 1282-1297.
“The Double-Edged Effect of Knowledge Acquisition: How Contracts Safeguard Pre-Existing Resources,” Giorgio Zanarone, Desmond Lo, and Tammy Madsen (2016), Strategic Management Journal, 37(10), 2104-2120.
“Price Delegation and Performance Pay: Evidence from Industrial Sales Force,” Desmond Lo, Wouter Dessein, Mrinal Ghosh, and Francine Lafontaine (2016), Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 32(3), 508-544.
“The Strategic Use of Early Bird Discounts for Dealers,” Desmond Lo and Stephen Salant (2016), Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 14(2), 97-127.
“Coordination and Organization Design: Theory and Micro-Evidence,” Wouter Dessein, Desmond Lo, and Chieko Minami (2022), American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 14(4), 804-843.
“Contracting to (Dis)incentivize? An Integrative Transaction-cost Approach on How Contracts Govern Specific Investments,” Desmond Lo, Giorgio Zanarone, and Mrinal Ghosh (2022), Strategic Management Journal, 43(8), 1528-1555.
“Managing with Style? Micro-evidence on the Allocation of Managerial Attention,” Desmond Lo, Francisco Brahm, Wouter Dessein, and Chieko Minami (2022), Management Science, 68(11), 8261- 8285.