Although emojis are often seen as amusing icons to include in text messages, they can also be a useful tool for organizations that are seeking customer forgiveness.

Recent research by Kai-Yu Wang, Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Marketing, International Business, and Strategy Department at the Goodman School of Business, examines the use of emojis in customer complaint handling on social media.

Wang’s study suggests that by using emojis in their digital communications, businesses are perceived as more sincere and empathetic which, in turn, leads to customer forgiveness.

He will present his findings Friday, Feb. 17 at Goodman’s Luncheon Speaker Series event in his talk titled, “How the emoji use in apology messages influences customers’ responses in online service recoveries: The moderating role of communication style.”

Wang has been recognized with numerous research and teaching awards. He is a current recipient of Goodman’s Distinguished Scholar of the Year Award and received Goodman’s Departmental Researcher of the Year Award in 2018–2019 as well as 2015-2016. For his teaching, Wang has also received the 2021 Goodman Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, 2020 Brock University Award for Distinguished Teaching and 2022 Society for Marketing Advances Distinguished Teaching Award.

The Goodman Luncheon Speaker Series provides Goodman faculty, staff and students with an informal opportunity to listen and discuss recent advances in research, teaching and practices with business colleagues.

The event will take place from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Sankey Chamber. Goodman faculty, staff and students are invited to attend. Members of the Brock community interested in joining can email Crystal Li at sli3@brocku.ca to reserve a seat.