Dr. Ravi Bapna is the Board of Overseers Professor of Information and Decision Sciences Department at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Bapna is the founding academic director of University of Minnesota's Social Media and Business Analytics Collaborative (SOBACO), an inter-disciplinary resarch center that views the billion strong, online social-graph as a giant global laboratory, a sandbox to gain a deeper causal understanding of how consumers, firms, industries and societies are being reshaped by the social media and big-data revolution.
He teaches graduate students, executives, CIOs and CMOs on how to leverage the digital revolution for competitive advantage. His professional interests have resulted in research, consulting and executive education engagements with a variety of leading US and Indian companies.
As Co-Executive Director of the Srini Raju Centre for Information Technology and the Networked Economy (SRITNE) at the Indian School of Business, Bapna heads the CIO Academy as well as co-directs the Identity Initiative, an inter-disciplinary research initiative aimed at assessing the socio-economic impact of India’s Unique Identity (UID) project.
Prior to joining Carlson, Professor Bapna was an Associate Professor and Ackerman Scholar in the Operations and Information Management Department at the School of Business, University of Connecticut. His research interests are in the areas of economics of information systems, social media, big-data analytics, peer influence, human capital issues in the IT services industry, online auctions, e-market design, Grid computing, and the design of the IT organization.
His research has been extensively published in a wide array of journals such as Management Science, Informs Journal on Computing, Statistical Science, Information Systems Research, Journal of Retailing, MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, CACM, Naval Research Logistics, DSS, EJOR and ITM. His views have featured in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, LiveMint, India Knowledge @ Wharton, The Economic Times and Business Today.
Professor Bapna has been invited to present his research at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Federal Trade Commission, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Google Inc., Bangalore, The Wharton School, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, IIM-Calcutta, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, University of Washington, National University of Singapore and University of Connecticut among others. He was recently invited to give the keynote address for the 13th International Conference on Electronic Commerce 2011, Liverpool, UK.
Bapna serves as a senior editor for MIS Quarterly and as an associate editor for Information Systems Research. He has served as the co-chair of the prestigious Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE) 2010, and the Conference on IS and Technology (CIST) 2009. He is one of the three founders of the Statistical Challenges in E-Commerce (SCECR) workshop. He regularly serves on program committees of major international IS conferences and workshops, and was the co-chair of the First International Symposium of Information Systems held at ISB. He is a member of the Nasscomm Innovation Institute, a think-tank to foster innovation in the Indian IT/ITeS industry.
Professor Bapna completed his Bachelors in Commerce from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta, Bachelors in Computer Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology and received his doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut, where his thesis was in the area of Information Systems.
