Contact

260 Mervis Hall
priyanga.gunarathne@katz.pitt.edu
412-624-1127
Personal web page

Profile

Priyanga Gunarathne is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration (Information Systems and Technology Management), at the Katz Graduate School of Business of the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests lie in how information systems enable firms to leverage big data and artificial intelligence (AI) for better operational and customer outcomes. Her current research portfolio mostly focuses on the development of theory-driven empirical studies to provide new insights into consumer and firm behavior in the digital age. Her scholarship is largely grounded on an interdisciplinary multi-method approach that includes econometric analysis, survey data analysis, and experiments, along with machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing techniques to leverage largely unstructured data in the digital age. She has particular research interests in social media, digital discrimination, electronic privacy, and the economics of AI. 

Courses Recently Taught

• BMIS2542 Data Programming Essentials with Python (MBA)
• MIS3099 Readings in MIS (Ph.D. Seminar)

Awards and Honors

• Excellence in Teaching Award (MBA Program) – Katz Graduate School of Business 2021/2022
• Winner of the 2022 ISS Cluster Best Session Chair Award – awarded by the Information Systems Society of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science
• Best Paper Nominee: 39th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2018)
• Best Paper Nominee: 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2017)
• Best Paper Nominee: Workshop on e-Business (WeB 2017)

Professional Service and Activities

• Session Chair – Collaborations on Digital Platforms session – ISS Cluster of INFORMS 2022
• Associate Editor – International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS): 2020, 2021
• Program Committee Member – Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST): 2020, 2021, 2022
• Discussant: Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE) 2021
• Regular Reviewer: Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ), Information Systems Research (ISR), Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS)
• Ad hoc Reviewer: Decision Support Systems (DSS), International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)
• Center Affiliations: Associate Director of the Pittsburgh Center for Artificial Intelligence Innovation in Medical Imaging, 2020 – present, Member of the South Asia Council, University of Pittsburgh. 2018 – present

Degrees

• PhD in Business Administration (Computer Information Systems), Simon Business School, University of Rochester.
• MS in Business Administration, Simon Business School, University of Rochester.
• MBA in Information Technology, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa
• BSc Eng. (Hons) in Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa

Recent Publications

Priyanga Gunarathne, Huaxia Rui, and Abraham Seidmann. “Racial Bias in Customer Service: Evidence from Twitter,” Information Systems Research (33:1), pp.43-54.

Priyanga Gunarathne, Huaxia Rui, and Abraham Seidmann. 2018. “When Social Media Delivers Customer Service: Differential Customer Treatment in the Airline Industry,” MIS Quarterly (42:2), pp. 489-520.

Priyanga Gunarathne, Huaxia Rui, and Abraham Seidmann. 2017. “Whose and What Social Media Complaints Have Happier Resolutions? Evidence from Twitter,” Journal of Management Information Systems (34:2), pp. 314-340.

Academic Area

Information Systems and Technology Management

Personal Interests

In her spare time, Priyanga likes to explore the Pāli Canon, the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. She also loves baking and sewing for her little daughter Shakya.