ISDSI Conference 2022 at JAGSoM: Global Scholars & Directors Address theme ‘Building Sustainable Businesses in the Phygital World’; Receives 200 papers from Top B-schools; Awards announced

Jagdish Sheth School of Management (JAGSoM), in collaboration with the International Society for Data Science and Innovation (ISDSI), recently conducted the 16^th edition of ISDSI Global Conference from 27^th to 29^th of December. The State University of New York at Albany (SUNY) and NASSCOM were conference partners.

Conference theme was ‘Building Sustainable Businesses in the Phygital World’. Conference hosted tracks on many relevant topics including Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, Data Science, Industry 4.0, Future of Work and Design Thinking. Conference attracted more than 200 paper presentations from global scholars, doctoral students, and faculty members from IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, XLRI, SPJIMR, IIM Kozhikode, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, SUNY (Binghamton), IIM Nagpur, IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Vishakhapatnam, IIM Tiruchirappalli, IIM Jammu, IMI, Symbiosis SIBM, Alliance University, and others.

Apart from Paper presentation, ISDSI-2022 conference at JAGSoM featured theme-based workshops, technical tracks, directors' Panel, editors' Panel, networking with senior scholars, and many other sessions in the context of building successful phygital businesses enabled by data science and innovative practices. Conference was a great opportunity for Indian scholars to learn from in-person presence of top global scholars like Prof. Jagdish Sheth, Chairman JAGSoM and Professor Emory University; Prof. A. Parasuraman, Pro-Chancellor, Vijaybhoomi University and Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami; and Prof. Vithala R. Rao, Mentor of the Vithala R. Rao Centre for Business Analytics at JAGSoM and Prof. Emeritus, Cornell University. Prof. Vithala R. Rao was the Conference Chair.

Speaking at the valedictory function, Dr Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore, said  “Over the years, then called IFIM BSchool, and now JAGSoM has transformed significantly in multiple fronts. Associating with famed professors, such as Prof. A. Parasuraman, Prof. Jagdish Seth, and Prof. Vithala R. Rao, JAGSoM has brought in much credibility to this transformation process “.

Panel Discussions featuring Directors & Deans at ISDSI Global Conference 2022
ISDSI had various panel discussions on topics at the cusp of technological revolution. The Global Scholars Panel saw participation from three global scholars, Prof. Jagdish Sheth, Prof. Vithala Rao and Prof. A Parasuraman. Moderated by Prof. Ranjan Banerjee, Dean, BITSoM – BITS School of Management, the panel discussed the challenges and opportunities of producing world-class scholars in India for the world. The panel deliberated on pooling like-minded institutions in a consortium approach to address big challenges faced by current academic institutions in this regard.

The Panel Discussion on Internationalization had the following panel members - Prof Jagdish Sheth, Prof Rishikesha Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore,Prof Suraj Commuri, Senior Associate Dean, University at Albany, SUNY, Prof Asit Barma, Director, BIM,Trichy, Prof Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Director, Indian Institute of Plantation Management & Professor, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and Mr Sanjay Padode, President - Vijaybhoomi University & Chairman- Centre for Developmental Education, India. The delegates deliberated on the scope and opportunities of the Internationalisation of B Schools with special emphasis on India as a destination. They emphasized India, being a global destination is opening avenues and welcoming institutes of repute to establish campuses in India.

The directors panel comprising of Anup K. Singh, Director General, Nirma University, Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur, Pawan Kumar Singh, Director, IIM Tiruchirappalli, Ravi Kumar Jain, Director, Global School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Srinivasan R Iyengar, Director, JBIMS Mumbai, Amit Agnihotri, Founder MBAUniverse.com (Moderator) deliberated on the impact of technology on management education. More specifically, the directors deliberated on a) How can management educators leverage 'technology as a competitive advantage' in course curricula for students? b) How can technology be an enabler in delivering quality management education? c) How can one use technology to increase student experience before they get into business school, while they are in business school, and after they leave business school?

The Editor’s Panel had editors from top journals worldwide and the session was moderated by Prof Varsha Jain, Professor, MICA Ahmedabad. The panel members answered several questions related to the art and science of research publication.

The Accreditation Panel comprised of Ms. Amy Memon, Regional Head, South Asia for AACSB, Dr. Ramachandran Natarajan, W. E. Mayberry Professor of Management & Associate Dean, Tennessee Tech University, Mr. Nishith Jain, Special Senior Advisor Asia, EFMD and Dr. Suraj Commuri, Associate Dean and Strategic Initiative Lead at University at Albany School of Business. The focus of the panel discussion was Accreditation Standards, Trends, and Challenges.

Finally, the ISDSI-Global Conference had on its Agenda an intensive interaction with the industry. Two industry panels were conducted -a Startup Panel and a CXO Panel. The panel discussants were CXOs and Co-founders from companies like Accenture, Latentview Analytics, Sayurbox, JCPenny, Waterbridge Ventures, Clootrack, Forum Synergies, etc. The panels discussed the current issues and trends in data science and analytics and were attended by over 200 senior executives from industry and academia.

Workshops at  ISDSI Global Conference 2022
Conference hosted many workshops by senior academics and thought-leaders. Prof. Vithala Rao gave a workshop on Choice Modeling. A workshop on ‘Use-Inspired Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: A Research Agenda for Business Schools’ was conducted by Prof. Anitesh Barua from UT Austin, Texas.  Prof. Chandrasekhar S, Senior Professor, JAGSoM, gave a workshop on ‘Explainable AI’. Prof. D Sudharshan, Professor Emeritus at University of Kentucky conducted a workshop on ‘Technology driven marketing’. Prof. Venky Shankar, Professor of Marketing at Texas A&M University, conducted a “Retailing Analytics” workshop. Prof. Parasuraman, Professor Emeritus at University of Miami and Pro -Chancellor, Vijaybhoomi university conducted a workshop on “Programmatic Research”. Prof. Vishal Gaur, also from Cornell University, discussed some of his latest research projects in his workshop on Data Driven Research in Supply Chain. Other workshops included “Machine Learning” by Prof. Seshadri Tirunillai of University of Houston, “Supply Chain” by Prof. Rajesh Kumar Singh of MDI Gurgaon, “Data Engineering & Analytics in BFSI Sector” by Prof. Tuhin Chattopadhyay of JAGSoM, and ‘Innovation” by Prof. Rajendra Srivastava of ISB.

Best Paper Awards
One of the highlights of the conference was the Best Paper Awards. There were six awards based on the best paper nominations, three in Faculty Category and three in Doctoral Category. The First Prize of $1000, Second Prize of $750 and Third Prize of $500 was sponsored by IFIM Alumni Association.

Award winners are:

Faculty Category

Doctoral Category

Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay, Director, JAGSoM, in his address complimented the Conference Co-Chairs, Dr Supriyo Ghosh and Dr. Ambika Nanda, the faculty, staff and student volunteers for their effors to make the conference a succsess. Dr. Chattopadhyay thanked the sponsors for their contribution of around INR 20 lakhs and the sponsoring society of JAGSoM, Centre for Developmental Education for contributing around INR 50 lakhs in making ISDSI Global Conference 2022 a conglomeration of global scholars and thought leaders.

The conference concluded with passing the baton function to IIM Ranchi, which is declared as the host of ISDSI – 2023 conference.