Rajiv Garg

Biography

Professor Garg’s research uses economic and statistical techniques to analyze information flow in digital platforms and networked structures. More specifically, Professor Garg’s research spans following four broad areas: 1) diffusion of digital content across networks, 2) digital marketing strategies for social and mobile commerce, 3) role of digital technologies in labor markets and entrepreneurship, and 4) identification of business value of data streams generated by digital technologies (blockchain, NFT, IoT, AR/VR, etc.).

With his research, Professor Garg has been helping various for-profit, non-profit, and government organizations to develop data enabled digital strategies and public policies. Professor Garg’s research has appeared in academic journals like Management Science, MIS Quarterly (MISQ), Information Systems Research (ISR), Production and Operations Management (POM), Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS), and various other journals and peer reviewed conference proceedings. His work has received media coverage in Forbes, Fortune, Austin Statesman, Dallas Morning News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Medium, and more.

Professor Garg is a public speaker and has frequently talked about the future of workforce, entrepreneurship, technology innovation and adoption, digital media marketing, mobile commerce, and social networks. Professor Garg has taught course on big data, data enabled business insights, business analytics, digital strategy and transformation, interactive marketing, and more.

In the past, Professor Garg has been on faculty at The University of Texas at Austin, worked at organization like National Instruments, Jacobs Engineering (CH2M Hill), JPL, Infosys, and more. For his contributions to the field of technology and engineering, Professor Garg was nominated and named a senior member of IEEE. Professor Garg received his PhD from the School of Information Systems and Management, Carnegie Mellon University. He received graduate degree in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, in Computer Science, and in Electrical Engineering, both from University of Southern California. He received undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Education

PhD in Information Systems & Management

Carnegie Mellon University
M.Phil. in Public Policy & Management

Carnegie Mellon University
MS in Computer Science (Databases & Networks)

University of Southern California
M.S. in Electrical Engineering (Robotics & Intelligent Systems)

University of Southern California
B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering

Banaras Hindu University

Expert Insight: The Voice of Alexa: How Speech Characteristics Impact Consumer Decisions

May 28, 2023

In the 2020 film “Superintelligence,” an all-powerful artificial intelligence attempts to take over the world, and it studies an average person, played by Melissa McCarthy, to decide if humanity is worth saving. The AI is voiced by James Corden—a voice it chooses because it knows it’s one McCarthy’s character will engage with.

Personality matters: the tie between language and how well your video content performs

March 8, 2021

Why does one piece of online video content perform better than another? Does it come down to its relevance, production values, and posting and sharing strategies? Or are other dynamics at play?

Why posting to multiple channels drives virality of online videos

November 9, 2020

Back in the summer of 2012, South Korean pop star Psy released a music video on YouTube. Running at just under four minutes, “Gangnam Style” rapidly became a global sensation. Within just two months of its release, the video was attracting a daily average of nine million viewers. In late September, Guinness World Records confirmed it to be the “most liked” video on YouTube.

The ethical pros and cons of Meta’s new Llama 3 open-source AI model

Fast Company

April 20, 2024

Experts say that while open-source could accelerate innovation, it also could make deepfakes easier.

The Voice of Alexa: How Speech Characteristics Impact Consumer Decisions

emorybusiness.com

April 26, 2023

"If Alexa starts talking to you in Samuel L. Jackson’s voice, will you continue the conversation? What could Samuel L. Jackson’s voice sell you that you would buy?"

AI-Enabled Future of Work

ORMS Today

November 29, 2022

Will artificial intelligence (AI) take over my job? With repeated technology-enabled disruptions in our workplace, it is normal to wonder about the potential of AI. According to one estimate [1], automation might eliminate 73 million jobs by 2030, but another estimate [2] suggests that 85% of the jobs that will exist by 2030 haven’t even been invented yet. The delivery tasks will be automated by self-driving trucks and robots, but new jobs to monitor and control those self-driving trucks and robots will be created in the future. Software programs will be automatically generated based on specifications provided, but new jobs will require creation of new modules to enable new features. Checkout processes will be fully automated at stores, but new jobs will be created requiring knowledge in fashion and nutrition to help guide the customers. Thus, we will let AI take over the boring, repeated and redundant tasks and open doors for creative ways of work and collaboration. An AI-enabled future of work will be fascinating.

Personality matters: the tie between language and how well your video content performs

emorybusiness.com

January 28, 2021

Why does one piece of online video content perform better than another? Does it come down to its relevance, production values, and posting and sharing strategies? Or are other dynamics at play? There are plenty of theories about what, when and how to post if you want to drive the performance of your video. But new research by Goizueta’s Rajiv Garg, Associate Professor of Information Systems and Operation Management, sheds empirical and highly nuanced new light on the type of language to inject in a content if you really want to accelerate consumption. And it turns out that a lot of it depends on personality.

Why posting to multiple channels drives virality of online videos

emorybusiness.com

September 25, 2020

So what’s going on? What is behind the super virality of Gangnam Style and other pieces of content that, like it, appear to defy the rules of probability on the social web? Rajiv Garg, associate professor of information systems & operations management at Emory’s Goizueta Business School, has put a new hypothesis to the test. And he’s found that there’s a clear link between virality and what he calls the “spillover effect” of posting content onto multiple platforms at specific times.

The New Laws of Startup Attraction

Medium.com/@UTexasMcCombs

December 3, 2019

For cities looking to attract technology startups, the connections they offer matter more than big money. New research from Texas McCombs shows that while startup location matters — just not for the same reason as with other businesses — today’s successful tech entrepreneurs gravitate to areas where they have a strong social support network and can obtain multiple rounds of relatively modest funding. “If you’re starting a restaurant, location matters and large funding matters,” says Rajiv Garg, assistant professor of Information, Risk, and Operations Management at Texas McCombs. “But if you’re building a mobile app, the cost is low and nobody cares where you’re located, so the factors that influence a move are very different.”

WorkZone: Job hunters | Quality tops quantity when it comes to contacts

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

October 2, 2017

“It’s OK to have a large network,” Mr. Telang said. “But realize that it’s only a certain part of your network, people who you know well … those are the people who are going to be very helpful.” Mr. Telang and Rajiv Garg of the University of Texas analyzed how unemployed people used their social networks in their searches for jobs and how effective those strategies were. They found the strongest connections on LinkedIn and other career-related online networks generated the most success in finding leads for jobs, landing interviews and ultimately getting job offers. Strong connections are more likely to go to bat for you, calling employers on your behalf and helping you get your foot in the door, Mr. Telang said.