Anita Bhappu is a management scholar and academic leader who studies how digital technologies reshape work, services, and consumption. An interdisciplinary researcher in organizational behavior and information systems, she uses human-centered methods such as ethnography, field experiments, and surveys. Her research has examined how communication technologies influence decision-making in diverse work teams, how collaborative consumption among coworkers increases employee engagement and networking, and how digital platforms mediate customer-provider service interactions. Her current research on how riders experience robotaxi transportation services could inform policy debates and safety regulations on autonomous vehicle deployment and platform-based work.
Bhappu is a tenured professor in the School of Engineering at the University of California, Merced, where she previously served as Associate Dean for Student Success and founding chair of the Gallo Master of Management program. From 2023 to 2025, she was Dean of the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, where she led the restructuring of Gustavson’s academic programs and generated CAD $12.9 million in external resources, including government funding for the world’s first custom MBA in Advancing Reconciliation. While at the University of Arizona from 2007 to 2017, she chaired the Division of Retailing and Consumer Science, co-directed the Consumers, Environment & Sustainability Initiative, and founded Sharing Tribes LLC, a software-as-a-service venture launched through the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program.
Bhappu’s research is published in top-ranked journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Internet Research, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Service Research, MIS Quarterly Executive, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. She has served on the editorial board of Organization Science and as an associate editor for special issues of MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Journal. Her work and expert opinion have been featured in more than 30 media outlets, including Business Insider, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Marketplace, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and USA Today, and she is a frequent invited speaker and panelist at international conferences.