Dr. Vaarun Vijairaghavan

Biography

Dr. Vaarun Vijairaghavan is an Assistant Professor of Business Technology Management at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. He holds a PhD in Business Technology Management (with a minor in Accounting) from the University of Calgary, an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from the University of Pune, India.

His research sits at the intersection of economics and information systems, with active streams in IT regulation, data portability, platform economics, digital piracy, and IT productivity. He employs analytical modelling and econometric methods to address questions with direct policy and managerial relevance. His work has been published in Management Science and is under review at MIS Quarterly — two of the field's top journals. He has presented at ICIS, INFORMS, CIST, and WISE, and has held visiting positions at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and the University of Ulm, Germany.

Prospective PhD Students: Dr. Vijairaghavan actively welcomes inquiries from doctoral students from doctoral students with a strong background in microeconomics or analytical modelling who are interested in platforms, IT regulation, or digital markets. He holds over C$200,000 in active research funding, including:

• SSHRC Insight Development Grant (PI) — C$65,400 — Improving Energy Productivity through Information Technology (2023–2026)
• SSHRC Insight Grant (Co-Investigator) — C$122,500 — Impact of Data Portability on Competition, Privacy, and Welfare (2022–2027)

Students working with Dr. Vijairaghavan benefit from exposure to a rigorous analytical research environment, involvement in active projects targeting top IS and management science outlets, and a supervisor with a strong record of mentoring through publication and conference presentation. He has previously co-supervised a postdoctoral researcher and has served on multiple PhD committees at Haskayne.

Prior to academia, Dr. Vijairaghavan held industry roles in product development, consulting, and marketing across Canada, the United States, and India, including positions at IBM, Smart Technologies, and Nulli Secundus.