SHORT BIO

Viswanath Venkatesh, who completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1997, is an Eminent Scholar and Verizon Chair of Business Information Technology at the Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech. Since Fall 2021, he is also the Director of Pamplin’s Executive PhD program. He is also an affiliate faculty member at Virginia Tech India. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential scholars in business and economics, both in terms of premier journal publications and citations. His research focuses on understanding the diffusion of technologies in organizations and society. He has worked with several companies and government agencies. His most impactful project focuses on rural India and improving the quality of life of the poorest of the poor—which he has presented in various forums including at the United Nations. The sponsorship of his research has been about US$10M. His work has appeared in leading journals in human-computer interaction, information systems, organizational behavior, psychology, marketing, medical informatics, and operations management. Over various 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year periods (since 2001), he has been the most productive in terms of publications in the premier journals in information systems (i.e., Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly) and best paper awards (e.g., Academy of Management Journal). His works have been cited about 180,000 times and about 60,000 times per Google Scholar and Web of Science, respectively, with an h-index of 90 and i-10 index of 160, with 20 papers being cited over 1,000 times per Google Scholar. He has been recognized to be among the most influential scientists (e.g., Clarivate, Thomson Reuters’ highlycited.com, Emerald Citations, SSRN, PLoS Biology). For instance, in a recent article in PLoS Biology and annual updates (Iaonnidis et al. 2021), based on citation data from 1996 to 2022, he had career ranking for citation impact of 422nd out of ~9 million scientists across all scientific fields and 1st in information systems—and he has been in the top-1000 out of ~9 million scientists across all scientific fields since the rankings were introduced in 2017; similarly, his annual citation impact rankings have been on or about the top-100 out of ~9 million scientists across all scientific fields since 2017. He has taught a wide variety of undergraduate, MBA, exec MBA, PhD, and executive courses. Student evaluations have rated him to be among the best instructors at the various institutions, and he has received teaching awards at the school and university levels. In addition to his leadership role in Virginia Tech’s Executive PhD program, he has performed extensive administration and service including a long stint at Arkansas as the director of the information systems PhD program. He also plays a key role in Virginia Tech’s growing international programs (e.g., with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies). In 2009, he launched an IS research rankings web site, affiliated with the Association for Information Systems (AIS), that has received many accolades from the academic community including AIS’ Technology Legacy Award. He has served in editorial roles in various journals including Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Production and Operations Management, and Decision Sciences Journal. He is a Fellow of the AIS and the Information Systems Society, INFORMS.

HIGHLIGHTS

Impact

  • ~180,000 cites per Google Scholar (20 papers with >1,000 cites)
  • ~60,000 cites per Web of Science (among the highest in business in general and information systems in particular)
  • h-index: 90; i-10 index: 160
  • Recognized by various agencies and articles for high citation impact (e.g., Clarivate, Thomson Reuters’ highlycited.com, Emeralds Citations, SSRN, PLoS Biology, Stanford/Elsevier), with papers among the most cited in various journals (e.g., Decision Sciences, Info Sys Res, Journal of Ops Mgmt, Mgmt Science, MIS Quart)
  • Iaonnidis et al. (2021) developed a standardized, composite metric from 6 citation metrics—based on citation data from 1996 to 2022: career ranking of 422nd out of ~9 million scientists in all scientific fields and 1st in information systems; in the annual (2022) ranking, ranked 63rd out of ~9 million scientists in all scientific fields (similarly ranked since 2017 when rankings were introduced)
  • Clarivate’s Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher 2022 (~7,000 researchers out of ~7 million researchers in all fields)
  • Project that has significantly reduced infant, child and maternal mortality rates in rural India
  • Worked with several organizations, with significant corporate sponsorship (>10M USD) and grant funding >1M USD
  • PhD graduates (Sykes and Bala) recognized as most productive assistant professors
  • Presented work at various forums including United Nations
  • Association for Information Systems Fellow
  • Information Systems Society, INFORMS Fellow

Research Productivity

  • Most productive in publishing at Info Sys Res/MIS Quart in various periods (since 2001) including various 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year periods
  • One of only 2 scholars with >30 MIS Quart papers
  • Only scholar to publish in all four issues of MIS Quart of a calendar year—has done this twice (2013 and 2017)
  • Work has appeared in leading journals in several fields: human-computer interaction, information systems, library science, management, psychology, marketing, medical informatics, and operations management
  • Several recognitions (e.g., best paper awards at AMJ)
  • Keynotes and presentations at various conferences

Administration and Service

  • Director of Pamplin’s Executive PhD program
  • IS research rankings website—recognized with Association of Information Systems’ Technology Legacy award
  • PhD program director/chair of PhD committee: department and college
  • Extensive involvement in international collaborations
  • Extensive committee involvement
  • MBA consulting program director
  • Extensive involvement in conferences (e.g., panels, keynotes)
  • Editorial boards at various journals

Teaching

  • Designed and taught courses at all levels
  • Consistently high teaching evaluations
  • Scholarly open access book on advice to junior faculty members and PhD students
  • Several workshops and courses taught, including in emerging economies (e.g., Cameroon, China, India, Malaysia)
  • Articles published
  • Grants
  • Awards