He coauthored the first paper discovering the "Long Tail" phenomenon in Internet markets, the first paper proving the value of social media in predicting stock markets, and the first paper using interpretable machine learning to quantify ROI of maketing campaigns. He has been an expert, consultant, or advisor for many large companies and governments around the world, and has taught many top executives. He is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences. He has served as a Co-Director of Business Analytics Center and Associate Director of Master of Science in Analytics.

His research has been published in top journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, Review of Financial Studies, Marketing Science, MIT Sloan Management Review, Economic Inquiry, International Journal of Industrial Organization, and Management Information Systems Quarterly. His research has been discussed and cited by media outlets such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, InformationWeek, Wired Magazine, TIME Magazine, Forbes, INC. Magazine, The Telegraph, National Public Radio, SeekingAlpha.com, Bankrate.com, etc. His papers have been adopted for classroom use by many top universities around the world.

He has won research awards such as the inaugural Management Science Best Paper Award in Information Systems, Linda and Lloyd L. Byars Award for Faculty Research Excellence, Jay Ross Young Faculty Scholar Award, and John and Mary Willis Young Faculty Scholar Award. He has also won Fulltime MBA Professor of the Year, been nominated for Georgia Tech's Outstanding Faculty Research Award, Purdue University’s Teaching For Tomorrow Award, and been a Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellow at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Hu is or has been an Associate Editor for Management Science and Information Systems Research, and a Track Chair and Associate Editor for conferences such as International Conference on Information Systems.