Hemant K. Bhargava

Professor Hemant K. Bhargava is an academic leader who focuses on computing technology and the economic and competitive aspects of its diffusion into business and society. He shares his extensive scholarship with industry, government, and the broader community, through presentations, articles, interviews, testimonies, and other outreach events. His research develops and analyzes economic models for decisions related to operations, marketing, and competitive strategy for technology goods, and their implications for competitive markets and technology-related policy. His recent scholarship explores the regulatory challenges, trust mechanisms, and economic drivers shaping artificial intelligence. Applications of his work include platform businesses, information and telecommunications industries, healthcare, media and entertainment, and electric vehicles. He has published over 100 articles in the top journals Management Science, Operations Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Information Systems Research, and Production and Operations Management, and in major scholarly conferences. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society, and Department Editor (Information Systems) for INFORMS’ flagship journal Management Science, and has co-chaired the leading conferences in the field. He has also served previously  as Associate Dean, and as Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee.

Dr. Bhargava has received several research awards. Recent ones include the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; the 2020 INFORMS Journal on Computing "Test of Time" award for his 2007 paper on search engines; the Best Paper Award at the 2021 INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technologies; and a Research Excellence Gift from DataStax in 2024 and Google in 2017-18. He co-founded the annual Theory in Economics of Information Systems workshop. He co-founded and was the first Academic Director of the UC Davis Master of Science in Business Analytics program in 2014-16.2014-16. In2020, he  conceived and launched the Center for Analytics and Technology in Society. He was listed among the Global 100 Top Academic Data Leaders by Chief Data Officer magazine in 2020. He serves on several campus-wide advisory committees, and has a long record of working with industry and government towards improving business decisions, strategy, and policy. He has dozens of articles, interviews, speeches and blogs directed at general audiences, covering aspects of technology that affect business, society and economy. He also performs advisory and mentoring roles within and outside the University, including the UC Davis Data Science Initiative and DataLab.

• At UC Davis, Graduate School of Management, UC Davis, since July 2003.

  • Previously: Professor of Information Systems at Penn State University (Smeal College of Business Administration, 2000-03) and the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, 1989-2000)

  • Past Visiting Affiliations: Carnegie Mellon University, Humboldt University (Berlin) and University of Maastricht. 

• Director, Center for Analytics and Technology in Society (CATS)

• Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, from July 1, 2025

• Co-Founder and First Academic Director, MSBA (Master of Science in Business Analytics) program

• Distinguished Fellow, INFORMS Information Systems Society.

• UC Davis Executive Council, and Chair of Faculty Executive Committee at the GSM, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2017-18.

• Associate Dean for Instructional Programs, 2010-2013

• Mondavi Center Academic Advisor Council, 2020-2025

• Advisory Board, UC Davis Data Science Initiative (later, UC Davis Data Lab), since 2015.

• Advisory Board, UC Davis Religions of India Initiative, 2012-2020.

• Education

  • Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1989).

  • MBA, Indian Institute of Bangalore (1986)

  • BS (Mathematics), University of Delhi (1984)

I have led many initiatives to increase the footprint of UC Davis and the Graduate School of Management  (GSM)in platform thinking, business analytics and data science. In 2024-25 I led a small committee to examine the future of GSM, and business schools generally, in this age of AI. From 2012-2015, I worked with Prof. Prasad Naik to conceive and design a new graduate program (Master of Science degree in Business Analytics ), and win approval for it from the GSM, UC Davis, and UC Office of the President. I then worked on the launch of the program from 2016-2018, and served as Academic Director for the first cohort of this class that graduated in August 2018. I also serve on the campus-wide committees tasked with defining "Data Science" initiatives at UC Davis. 

I was Associate Dean (at UC Davis GSM) from 2010 to 2013, and as Faculty Chair during 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2017-18, with concurrent membership in the Executive Council of the UC Davis Academic Senate. 

In 2010, I co-created (with Prof. Vidyanand Choudhary) the "Theory in Economics of Information Systems" (TEIS) workshop, and co-chaired the annual meeting during 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2017. I serve on the TEIS Advisory Board, and have previously been on the Advisory Board of the INFORMS Computing Society.

My chief professional group is INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science. I have been Department Editor at Management Science since 2022 and have served on the Editorial Boards of several top-tier INFORMS journals, including Operations Research, Management Science, and Marketing Science. I co-chaired the INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology during 2007 and 2013, and the INFORMS Computing Society's conference in 2004. I have been involved in multiple select groups that have examined the future of academic research production and evaluation after the advent of modern generative AI technologies.  

• Hemant K. Bhargava, Antoine Dubus, David Ronayne, and Shiva Shekhar, “The strategic value of data sharing in interdependent markets”, Management Science (forthcoming) (Apr. 2025)

• Hemant K. Bhargava, Susan Brown, Anindya Ghose, Alok Gupta, Dorothy Leidner, and D.J. Wu, “Exploring Generative AI’s Impact on Research: Perspectives from Senior Scholars in Management Information Systems”, ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (forthcoming 2025) 

• Hemant K. Bhargava, “Multi-Device Consumption of Digital Goods: Optimal Product Line Design with Bundling”, Journal of Management Information Systems 40 (Mar. 2023), pp. 724–751

• Manish Gangwar and Hemant K. Bhargava, “Pricing On-Demand Services: Alternative Ways of Combining Usage and Access Fees”, Production and Operations Management (feature article) 32 (Jan. 2023), pp. 11–27

• Hemant K. Bhargava, Kitty Wang, and Luna Zhang, “Fending off Critics of Platform Power: Doing Well by Doing Good”, Management Science 68 (Nov. 2022), pp. 7793–8514 (Winner of Best Paper Award at Conference on Information Systems and Technology 2021)

• Edward G. Anderson, Hemant K. Bhargava, Jonas Boehm, and Geoffrey Parker, “Electric Vehicles Are a Platform Business: What Firms Need to Know”, California Management Review 64.4 (2022)

• Hemant K. Bhargava, “The Creator Economy: Managing Ecosystem Supply, Revenue-Sharing, and Platform Design”, Management Science 68 (July 2022), pp. 4755–5555

• Sunita M Desai, Jiejie Wang, Uttara Ananthakrishnan, Ishita Ghai, Ateev Mehrotra, and Hemant K. Bhargava “Research Letter: Potential Savings Associated With Switching Medication Formulation”, JAMA Health Forum (Feb. 2022)

• Hemant K. Bhargava, Jonas Boehm, and Geoffrey Parker, “How Tesla’s Charging Stations Left Other Manufacturers in the Dust”, Harvard Business Review (Jan. 2021)