Program at a Glance
This program is designed for students who seek training in advanced theoretical and applied issues in the field of information systems. The training prepares students for conducting leading-edge research in topics ranging from the design of optimized systems to the effective use of such systems in organizations. Students undergo rigorous training in research methodologies, as well as in the design of information systems. The research conducted is often interdisciplinary in nature and is characterized by strong analytical or econometric modeling of new and emerging issues in information technology management and creation. The program prepares students mainly for academic positions in research universities; some students may be placed in research positions in industry, government or consulting organizations.
The PhD in Information Systems program is characterized by a high ratio of research faculty to students, which fosters close working relationships. Students have the opportunity to be involved in ongoing faculty research projects under the mentorship of experienced professors. The close interaction with faculty enables students to quickly learn to identify and develop research ideas and create their own research agenda. Students also develop their teaching skills under faculty mentorship by teaching organized classes.
Candidates
Successful candidates must possess a strong aptitude for abstract thinking and quantitative analysis to address relevant business problems. Students admitted into the PhD in Information Systems program devote the first few years to coursework and research projects, preparing for the qualifying examinations and developing their preliminary dissertation proposal. The next one to two years are devoted to dissertation research and writing. Students must complete at least 75 semester hours of approved graduate work before a degree may be conferred. Credit may be granted for courses taken elsewhere.
Apply for PhD ProgramProgram Contact
Srinivasan Raghunathan, PhD
Ashbel Smith Professor
PhD Area Coordinator, Information Systems
The Information Systems Doctoral program at the Naveen Jindal School of Management offers an outstanding opportunity for research in the Information Systems discipline. Our faculty’s research productivity usually ranks at the top in the world. More importantly, we work at the forefront of a variety of research topics and methodologies. Come join us to make this program even stronger!
Research Rankings
Faculty research pursuits range from quantitative modeling to empirical studies, mathematical programming, applied stochastic processes, statistics, econometrics and economics.
With analytical depth and methodology, drawing from disciplines such as economics, operations research and econometrics, their research is both prevalent and employed in today’s rapidly changing technological world.
The UT Dallas Top 100 Worldwide Rankings of Business Schools based on Research Contributions in Information Systems Research, Journal on Computing, MIS Quarterly, 2017–2021.
| Rank | University | Articles | Score | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Texas at Dallas (Naveen Jindal School of Management) | 55 | 26.57 | USA |
| 2 | University of Maryland at College Park (Robert H. Smith School of Business) | 48 | 20.25 | USA |
| 3 | University of Minnesota at Twin Cities (Carlson School of Management) | 34 | 16.61 | USA |
| 4 | Temple University (The Fox School of Business and Management) | 47 | 16.32 | USA |
| 5 | City University of Hong Kong (College of Business) | 32 | 12.46 | China |
| 6 | University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business) | 30 | 11.06 | USA |
| 7 | University of Washington at Seattle (Michael G. Foster School of Business) | 30 | 10.94 | USA |
| 8 | Tsinghua University (School of Economics and Management, Internet Industry) | 30 | 10.89 | China |
| 9 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School of Business) | 22 | 10.70 | USA |
| 10 | Arizona State University (W.P. Carey School of Business) | 24 | 10.54 | USA |
Placements
Advanced and rigorous coursework, methodology and design, and significant placement on student research are the hallmarks of the Information Systems program.
The Information Systems program is characterized by a high ratio of research faculty to students, which fosters close collaboration. Students have the opportunity to be involved in ongoing research projects under the mentorship of renowned, distinguished faculty.
The program is designed for students to develop a strong aptitude for abstract thinking and quantitative analysis to address relevant business problems for their careers in academia or industry.
As shown in the table below, our Information Systems students have obtained top academic and industry appointments.
| Graduation Year | Name | Initial Placement | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Ozdemir Yagmur | Erasmus University | Assistant Professor |
| 2023 | Tang Ping | Bentley University | Assistant Professor |
| 2022 | Zhang Haozhao | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Assistant Professor |
| 2021 | Zhang Chenglong | Chinese University of Hong Kong | Assistant Professor |
| 2020 | Hosseini Leila | Temple University | Assistant Professor |
| 2020 | Mehta Sameer | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Assistant Professor |
| 2020 | Tunc Murat | Tilburg University | Assistant Professor |
| 2019 | Bao Chenzhang | Oklahoma State University | Assistant Professor |
| 2019 | Yang Mingwen | University of Washington | Assistant Professor |
| 2018 | YeongIn Kim | Virginia Commonwealth University | Assistant Professor |
| 2018 | Manmohan Aseri | Carnegie Mellon University | Visiting Assistant Professor |
| 2018 | Cheng Nie | Iowa State University | Assistant Professor |
| 2018 | Danish Saifee | University of Alabama | Assistant Professor |
| 2018 | Jayarajan Samuel | University of Texas at Arlington | Assistant Professor |
| 2017 | Li Lusi | California State University, Los Angeles | Assistant Professor |
| 2016 | Sun Zhen | George Washington University | Assistant Professor |
| 2014 | Mo Jiahui | Nanyang Technological University | Assistant Professor |
| 2013 | Ceran Yasin | Santa Clara University | Assistant Professor |
| 2013 | Kwark Young | University of Florida | Assistant Professor |
| 2012 | Chen Hongyu | California State University, Long Beach | Assistant Professor |
| 2012 | Lee Chul Ho | Xavier University | Visiting Assistant Professor |
| 2011 | Ghoshal Abhijeet | University of Minnesota | Visiting Professor |
| 2011 | Jabr Wael | University of Calgary | Visiting Professor |
Student Publications
The close interaction with faculty enables students to quickly learn to identify and develop research ideas and create their own research agenda. Students also develop their teaching skills under faculty mentorship by teaching organized classes.
Below are examples of student publications in 24 leading business journals from 2017-2021.
Abhijeet Ghoshal, Atanu Lahiri, Debabrata Dey, 2021. “Support forums and software vendor’s pricing strategy.” Information Systems Research, vol. 32.
Srinivasan Raghunathan, Mehmet Ayvaci, YeongIn Kim, Huseyin Cavusoglu, 2021. “Designing payment contracts for healthcare services to induce information sharing: the adoption and the value of health information exchanges (hies).” MIS Quarterly, vol. 45.
Subodha Kumar, Min Chen, Min-Seok Pang, 2021. “Do you have room for us in your IT? An economic analysis of shared IT services and implications for IT industries.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 45.
Young Kwark, Liangfei Qiu, Gene Moo Lee, Paul A. Pavlou, 2021. “On the spillover effects of online product reviews on purchases: evidence from clickstream data.” Information Systems Research, vol. 32.
Sirong Luo, Dengpan Liu, Radha Mookerjee, 2021. “The effects of auction-based pricing mechanisms and social characteristics on microloan performance.” Productions and Operations Management, vol. 30.
Ganesh Janakiraman, Sameer Mehta, Vijay Mookerjee, Milind Dawande, 2021. “How to sell a data set? Pricing policies for data monetization.” Information Systems Research, vol. 32.
Jiahui Mo, Sumit Sarkar, Syam Menon, 2021. “Competing tasks and task quality: an empirical study of crowdsourcing contests.” MIS Quarterly, vol 45.
Murat M. Tunc, Huseyin Cavusoglu, Srinivasan Raghunathan, 2021. “Online product reviews: is a finer-grained rating scheme superior to a coarser one?” MIS Quarterly, vol. 45.
Mingwen Yang, Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, Vijay Mookerjee, 2021. “The race for online reputation: implications for platforms, firms, and consumers.” Information Systems Research, vol. 32.
Mingwen Yang, Varghese S. Jacob, Srinivasan Raghunathan, 2021. “Cloud service model’s role in provider and user security investment incentives.” Production and Operations Management, vol. 30.
Milind Dawande, Ganesh Janakiraman, Manmohan Aseri, Vijay S. Mookerjee, 2020. “Ad-blockers: a blessing or a curse?” Information Systems Research, vol. 31.
Chenzhang Bao, Kirk Kirksey, Indranil R. Bardhan, Bruce A. Myers, Harpreet Singh, 2020. “Patient–provider engagement and its impact on health outcomes: a longitudinal study of patient portal use.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 44.
Leila Hosseini, Vijay Mookerjee, Chelliah Sriskandarajah, Shaojie Tang, 2020. “A switch in time saves the dime: a model to reduce rental cost in cloud computing.” Information Systems Research, vol. 31.
Jianqing Chen, Srinivasan Raghunathan, Lusi Li, 2020. “Informative role of recommender systems in electronic marketplaces: a boon or a bane for competing sellers.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 44.
Sameer Mehta, Vijay Mookerjee, Milind Dawande, Ganesh Janakiraman, 2020. “Sustaining a good impression: mechanisms for selling partitioned impressions at ad exchanges.” Information Systems Research, vol. 31.
Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, Danish H. Saifee, Atanu Lahiri, Indranil R. Bardhan, 2020. “Are online reviews of physicians reliable indicators of clinical outcomes? a focus on chronic disease management.” Information Systems Research, vol. 31.
Ying Xie, Jayarajan Samuel, Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, 2020. “Value of local showrooms to online competitors.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 44.
Jyotishka Ray, Syam Menon, Vijay Mookerjee, 2020. “Bargaining over data: when does making the buyer more informed help?” Information Systems Research, vol. 31.
Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, Vijay Mookerjee, Mingwen Yang, 2019. “Prescribing response strategies to manage customer opinions: a stochastic differential equation approach.” Information Systems Research, vol. 30.
Zhengrui Jiang, Dipak C Jain, Xinxue Shawn Qu, 2019. “Optimal market entry timing for successive generations of technological innovations.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 43.
Xinxue Shawn Qu, Zhengrui Jiang, 2019. “A time-based dynamic synchronization policy for consolidated database systems.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 43.
Byungwan, Koh, Il-Horn Hann, Srinivasan Raghunathan, 2019. “Digitization of music: consumer adoption amidst piracy, unbundling, and rebundling.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 43.
Milind Dawande, Ganesh Janakiraman, Zhen Sun, Vijay Mookerjee, 2019. “Data-driven decisions for problems with an unspecified objective function.” Journal on Computing, vol. 31.
Yue Zhang, Jian-Yu Fisher Ke, Nan Hu, Ling Liu, 2019. “Risk pooling, supply chain hierarchy, and analysts’ forecasts.” Production and Operations Management, vol. 28.
Vijay Mookerjee, Milind Dawande, Ganesh Janakiraman, Manmohan Aseri, 2018. “Procurement policies for mobile-promotion platforms.” Management Science, vol. 64.
Srinivasan Raghunathan, Lusi Li, Jianqing Chen, 2018. “Recommender system rethink: implications for an electronic marketplace with competing manufacturers.” Information Systems Research, vol. 29.
Srinivasan Raghunathan, Young Kwark, Jianqing Chen, 2018. “User-generated content and competing firms product design.” Management Science, vol. 64.
Vijay Mookerjee, Yong Tan, Depngpan Liu, 2018. “When can ignorance be bliss: organizational structure and coordination in electronic retailing.” Information Systems Research, vol. 29.
Vijay Mookerjee, Dengpan Liu, 2018. “Advertising competition on the internet: operational and strategic considerations.” Production and Operations Management, vol. 27.
Mingzheng Wang, Yu Zhang, Zhengrui Jiang, Haifang Yang, 2018. “T-closeness slicing: a new privacy-preserving approach for transactional data publishing.” Journal on Computing, vol. 30.
Sarkar, Sumit, Menon, Syam, Mo, Jiahui, 2018. “Know when to run: recommendations in crowdsourcing contests.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 42.
Feng, Haiyang, Jiang, Zhengrui, Liu, Dengpan. “Quality, pricing, and release time: optimal market entry strategy for software-as-a-service vendors.” MIS Quarterly, 2018, vol. 42.
Bardhan, Indranil, Zheng, Zhiqiang, Ayabakan, Sezgin. “A data envelopment analysis approach to estimate it-enabled production capability.” MIS Quarterly, 2017, vol. 41.
Janakiraman, Ganesh, Sun, Zhen, Mookerjee, Vijay, Dawande, Milind. “Not just a fad: optimal sequencing in mobile in-app advertising.” Information Systems Research, 2017, vol. 28.
Ghoshal, Abhijeet, Lahiri, Atanu, Dey, Debabrata. “Drawing a line in the sand: Commitment problem in ending software support.” MIS Quarterly, 2017, vol. 41.
Mookerjee, Vijay, Cai, Yuanfeng, Jiang, Zhengrui. “How to deal with liars? Designing intelligent rule-based expert systems to increase accuracy or reduce cost.” Journal on Computing, 2017, vol. 29.
Nault, Barrie, Raghunathan, Srinivasan, Koh, Byungwan. “Is voluntary profiling welfare enhancing?” MIS Quarterly, 2017, vol. 41.
Raghunathan, Srinivasan, Cezar, Asunur, Cavusoglu, Huseyin. “Sourcing information security operations: the role of risk interdependency and competitive externality in outsourcing decisions.” Production and Operations Management, 2017, vol. 26.
Raghunathan, Srinivasan, Kwark, Young, Chen, Jianqing. “Platform or wholesale? A strategic tool for online retailers to benefit from third-party information.” MIS Quarterly, 2017, vol. 41.
Ray, Jyotishka, Samuel, Jayarajan, Menon, Syam, Mookerjee, Vijay. “The design of feature-limited demonstration software: choosing the right features to include.” Production and Operations Management, 2017, vol. 26.
Zhang, Jie, Hu, Nan, Pavlou, Paul. “On self-selection biases in online product reviews.” MIS Quarterly, 2017, vol. 41.
Zheng, Zhiqiang, Ayabakan, Sezgin, Kirksey, Kirk, Bardhan, Indranil. “The impact of health information sharing on duplicate testing.” MIS Quarterly, 2017, vol. 41.
Chen, Hongyu, Zheng, Zhiqiang, Ceran, Yasin. “De-biasing the reporting bias in social media analytics.” Production and Operations Management, 2016, vol. 25.
Hann, Il-Horn, Koh, Byungwan, Niculescu, Marius. “The double-edged sword of backward compatibility: the adoption of multigenerational platforms in the presence of intergenerational services.” Information Systems Research, 2016, vol. 27.
Janakiraman, Ganesh, Sun, Zhen, Mookerjee, Vijay, Dawande, Milind. “The making of a good impression: information hiding in ad exchanges.” MIS Quarterly, 2016, vol. 40.
Lee, Chul Ho, Geng, Xianjun, Raghunathan, Srinivasan. “Mandatory standards and organizational information security.” Information Systems Research, 2016, vol. 27.
Mookerjee, Vijay, Ceran, Yasin, Singh, Harpreet. “Knowing what your customer wants: improving inventory allocation decisions in online movie rental systems.” Production and Operations Management, 2016, vol. 25.
Xia, Hao, Dawande, Milind, Mookerjee, Vijay. “Optimal coordination in distributed software development.” Production and Operations Management, 2016, vol. 25.
Admission Procedures
Applicants should have at least a bachelor’s degree. Admission is based on grade point average, graduate examination test score (GMAT* or GRE), letters of reference (at least three, with two from academic references), business and professional experience (if applicable), a written statement of personal objectives and compatibility with faculty research activities. Since the School of Management starts making first-round admission decisions on December 9, it is best to complete the entire application process no later than December 8. While applications will be accepted after that date, applying after December 8 may significantly lower your chance of acceptance. Applications for admission can be made using the UT Dallas Graduate Application website.
* UT Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management prefers the GMAT admission test, however, we gladly accept the GRE test as well.
Degree Requirements
Calculus, matrix algebra, computer programming and statistics are prerequisites for the doctoral program – every admitted student is responsible for ensuring he/she has satisfied these prerequisite requirements before joining the program.
Doctoral students in Management Science benefit from exposure to multiple functional areas in management. To ensure this benefit, students who enter the program without an MBA (or equivalent degree) are required to complete a combined minimum of four courses (at the master’s or doctoral level) in at least three functional areas. This cross-functional exposure is beneficial for students engaging in cross-functional research, positioning their research for broader appeal and effectively teaching business school students with diverse specializations.
The Management Science PhD core curriculum consists of a minimum of 9 courses.
Please visit the Management Science Degree Plan page for core and secondary core course requirements.
Nine hours in any approved field.
Students are required to take a sequence of specific courses. Students should consult with faculty members in their respective areas to decide on the sequence of courses.
Twelve hours of special topics and seminars in the information systems area.
Students are required to write original research papers in both their first and second summers. The second-year paper is presented in a seminar attended by faculty and other students and must be judged to be passing by the faculty before the student can advance to candidacy.
PhD in Information Systems students take a written preliminary exam at the end of their first year in the program over a set of core methodology courses (MECO 6315 Approaches to Statistical Inference, MECO 6345 Advanced Managerial Economics, MECO 6350 Game Theory, OPRE 7353 Optimization). At the end of their fifth semester in the program, students take a qualifying exam (consisting of two parts: a written exam that tests their knowledge of information systems theory and applications and a completed research paper).
PhD students must successfully complete the preliminary and qualifying examinations, respectively, to enter PhD candidacy. The area faculty will determine whether a student has successfully completed the exam requirements based on the student’s performance. Criteria to evaluate students may include results from the in-class written portion of the exams, quality of research papers and/or presentations, performance in special courses (e.g., seminar courses), satisfactory GPA as determined by area faculty and other forms of assessment as required by the student’s area. An unsatisfactory performance in any one of the criteria for either the preliminary examination or the qualifying examination may result in dismissal from the program.
Once the student has passed the qualifying exam and paper requirements, work on the dissertation can commence. The dissertation is written under the direction of the dissertation committee. Twelve to 24 semester hours may be granted for the dissertation toward the minimum 75-hour requirement for the degree. At a time mutually agreeable to the candidate and the dissertation committee, the candidate must orally defend the dissertation to the committee.
The Dissertation Proposal must be successfully defended at least one semester prior to the term of graduation. The requirements for the proposal defense should be discussed with the dissertation committee prior to scheduling the defense. Dissertation Proposal Defenses will be open to all faculty and PhD students of the Jindal School of Management.
Ready to start your PhD application?
Before you apply, get familiar with the admission requirements and application process for Jindal School PhD programs at UT Dallas.
How to Apply