Associate Professor in Marketing
MPhil, PhD (School of Management, Fudan University)
My research interests include artificial empathy, digital marketing, visual content/product design and optimisation, marketing innovation, and unstructured data analytics in business. I apply advanced machine learning techniques in developing marketing models to gain better customer insights and improve business practices in the data-rich environment.
I’m a member of the Marketing subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School, which focuses on strategy, modelling, and consumer behaviour.

Selected publications
- Kulkova, J., Kulkov, I., Rohrbeck, R., Lu, S., Khwaja, A., Karjaluoto, H. and Mero, J. (2023) “Medicine of the future: how and who is going to treat us?” Futures, 146: 103097 (DOI: 10.1016/j.futures.2023.103097)
- Lu, S., Kim, H.-J., Zhou, Y., Xiao, L. and Ding, M. (2022) “Audio and visual analytics in marketing and artificial empathy.” Foundations and Trends in Marketing, 16(4): 422-493 (DOI: 10.1561/1700000067)
- Zhou, Y., Lu, S. and Ding, M. (2020) “Contour-as-face framework: a method to preserve privacy and perception.” Journal of Marketing Research, 57(4): 617-639 (DOI: 10.1177/0022243720920256)
- Lu, S., Xiao, L. and Ding, M. (2016) “A video-based automated recommender (VAR) system for garments.” Marketing Science , 35(3): 341-537 (DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2016.0984)
News and insights
Faculty news
2026 Cambridge Judge excellence in teaching awards
Eleven members of the Cambridge Judge Business School faculty and a Teaching Associate were awarded teaching prizes for excellence across the Business School’s various programmes. The awards were announced on 11 June at a ceremony led by the Dean and Vice-Dean for Programmes.
Faculty news
2025 Cambridge Judge excellence in teaching awards
Eleven members of the Cambridge Judge Business School faculty are awarded teaching prizes for excellence across the Business School’s various programmes.
Programme news
Meet our inspiring Cambridge MBA professors: Shasha Lu
In the rapidly expanding world of AI, ChatGPT, Big Data and social media influence, bringing the world of business and technology together and understanding the science of marketing nuances behind them, is key to learning and understanding the future as it unfolds in front of us, whilst embracing innovation along the way. This article is part of our MBA Teaching Spotlight series.…
Media coverage
Phys.org | 18 March 2016
‘Artificial empathy’ could help stores improve recommendations for customers
Visual data will change the way businesses talk to customers, says Dr Shasha Lu, University Lecturer in Marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School. “It’s about gaining better customer insights to solve business problems and improve business practice,” she says.




