Hillol Bala

Areas of Expertise

IT-enabled business process change and management, IT use and impacts, Strategic use of IT in health care, Enterprise systems implementation

Academic Degrees

• PhD, Information Systems, University of Arkansas, 2008
• MBA, Texas Tech University, 2003
• MS, Information Systems, Texas Tech University, 2002
• BBA, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, 1999

Professional Experience

• Information Systems Research, 2015-present, Associate Editor
• Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 2015-present, Editorial Review Board
• International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), 2015, Track Chair
• Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), INFORMS, 2013, 2014, 2015, Program Committee
• Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), 2011, Editorial Board
• Decision Sciences, 2008-2010, Editorial Review Board
• International Conference on Information Systems(ICIS), 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, Associate Editor
• Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), 2009, 2013, Track Chair

Awards, Honors & Certificates

• Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award 2015, Doctoral Program, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
• Citation of Excellence Award 2012 and 2014 by Emerald Management Reviews
• Nominated for the Harry C. Sauvain Teaching Award (2011) and Trustees'' Teaching Award (2010, 2011, 2014) at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
• Best Published Life Sciences Paper in 2008 Award by the Center for Busniess in life Sciences (CBLS), Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
• Certified Business Process Manager, Business Process Management Group (BPMG), 2006
• Doctoral Academy Fellowship, 2003-2007, Graduate School, University of Arkansas

Selected Publications

• Bala, H., and Venkatesh, V. (2016), “Adaptation to information technology: a holistic nomological network from implementation to job outcomes,” Management Science, 62(1): 156-179.
• Venkatesh, V., H. Bala, and V. Sambamurthy (2016), "Implementation of an Information and Communication Technology in a Developing Country: A Multi-Method Longitudinal Study in a Bank in India," Information Systems Research, 27(3): 558-579.
• Bala, H., Venkatesh, V., Venkatraman, S., and Bates, J. (2016), “If the Worst Happens! Five Strategies for Developing and Leveraging Information Technology-Enabled Disaster Response in Health Care,” IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 20(6): 1545-1551.
• Matook, S., J. Cummings, and H. Bala (2015), “Are You Lonely?: The Impact of Relationship Characteristics and Online Social Network Features on Loneliness,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(5): 278-310.
• Bala, H. (2013), “The Effects of IT-Enabled Supply Chain Process Change on Job and Process Outcomes: A Longitudinal Investigation,” Journal of Operations Management, 31(6), pp. 450-473.

Abstract Prior research on information technology (IT)-enabled supply chain management (SCM) has primarily focused on macro-level issues (e.g., IT capabilities related to SCM, and SCM design and optimization) and outcomes (e.g., firm performance). There has been limited research that focuses on micro-level outcomes related to employees who actually execute SCM processes in organizations. These employee-level outcomes are important because successful implementation of SCM systems and processes hinges on SCM employees’ support and commitment. I develop and test a model positing that SCM employees’ perceptions of changes in their work process characteristics, i.e., process complexity and process rigidity, following a new SCM system implementation will influence their job outcomes, i.e., job performance, job satisfaction, job anxiety, and job security, and their perceptions of process outcomes, i.e., process performance and relationship quality. The model incorporates a holistic appraisal of the extent of change— change radicalness—as a mechanism between work process characteristics and outcomes. The model is supported in three studies conducted in the context of three different SCM system implementations (N = 278, 282, and 304, respectively). In particular, I found that individuals perceived a significant change in their work process characteristics following an SCM system implementation, and changes in work process characteristics had a significant impact on job and process outcomes. These findings contribute to the information systems and operations management literatures and their intersections by offering insights on challenges related to IT-enabled SCM innovation implementation in organizations.

• Bala, H., and Venkatesh, V. (2013), “Changes in Employees’ Job Characteristics during an Enterprise System Implementation: A Latent Growth Modeling Perspective,” MIS Quarterly, 37:4 December, pp 1113-1140.
• Venkatesh, V., Brown, S. A., and Bala, H. (2013), “Bridging the Qualitative-Quantitative Divide: Guidelines for Conducting Mixed Methods Research in Information Systems,” MIS Quarterly, 37(1), pp. 21-54.
• Venkatesh, V., and Hillol Bala. (2012), “Adoption and Impacts of Interorganizational Business Process Standards: Role of Partnering Synergy,” Information Systems Research, 23(4), pp. 1131-1157.
• Venkatesh, V., H. Bala, and T. Sykes (2010), “Impacts of Information and Communication Technology Implementations on Employees’ Jobs in Service Organizations in India: A Multi-Method Longitudinal Field Study,” Production and Operations Management, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 591-613.

Abstract India is an important frontier for economic growth, investments, and development. The service sector, like the manufacturing industry, in India is booming. Following the trend of their western counterparts, service organizations in India are implementing enterprise-level information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support service processes. In this paper, we used socio-technical systems theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of ICTs on the five job characteristics, i.e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, in the job characteristics model (JCM) in a service organization (a bank) in India. We also tested the entire JCM that relates job characteristics to job satisfaction and job performance via various mediators and moderators. In a 32-month longitudinal field study of 1743 employees, we gathered one wave of data before an ICT implementation and two waves after the implementation. We found that, although the ICT enriched employees'' job characteristics, employees reported significantly lower job satisfaction and job performance. To understand this puzzling finding, we conducted a qualitative study and identified four contextual forces that contribute to these results and hinder successful implementation of ICTs in the service sector in India and, possibly, other developing countries: environmental barriers, learning difficulty, culture shock, and employee valuation.

• Venkatesh, V., and H. Bala (2008), "Technology Acceptance Model 3 and a Research Agenda on Interventions," Decision Sciences, 39(2), 2008, 273-315.

Abstract Prior research has provided valuable insights into how and why employees make a decision about the adoption and use of information technologies (ITs) in the workplace. From an organizational point of view, however, the more important issue is how managers make informed decisions about interventions that can lead to greater acceptance and effective utilization of IT. There is limited research in the IT implementation literature that deals with the role of interventions to aid such managerial decision making. Particularly, there is a need to understand how various interventions can influence the known determinants of IT adoption and use. To address this gap in the literature, we draw from the vast body of research on the technology acceptance model (TAM), particularly the work on the determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and: (i) develop a comprehensive nomological network (integrated model) of the determinants of individual level (IT) adoption and use; (ii) empirically test the proposed integrated model; and (iii) present a research agenda focused on potential pre- and postimplementation interventions that can enhance employees'' adoption and use of IT. Our findings and research agenda have important implications for managerial decision making on IT implementation in organizations.

• Venkatesh, V., S.A. Brown, L. Maruping, H. Bala, "Predicting Different Conceptualizations of System Use: The Competing Roles of Behavioral Intention, Facilitating Conditions, and Behavioral Expectation," MIS Quarterly, 32(3), 2008, 483-502.

Abstract Employees’ underutilization of new information systems undermines organizations’ efforts to gain benefits from such systems. The two main predictors of individual-level system use in prior research—behavioral intention and facilitating conditions—have limitations that we discuss. We introduce behavioral expectation as a predictor that addresses some of the key limitations and provides a better understanding of system use. System use is examined in terms of three key conceptualizations: duration, frequency, and intensity. We develop a model that employs behavioral intention, facilitating conditions, and behavioral expectation as predictors of the three conceptualizations of system use. We argue that each of these three determinants play different roles in predicting each of the three conceptualizations of system use. We test the proposed model in the context of a longitudinal field study of 321 users of a new information system. The model explains 65 percent, 60 percent, and 60 percent of the variance in duration, frequency, and intensity of system use respectively. We offer theoretical and practical implications for our findings.

• Bala, H. and V. Venkatesh (2007), "Assimilation of Interorganizational Business Process Standards," Information Systems Research, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 340-362.

Abstract Organizations have not fully realized the benefits of interorganizational relationships (IORs) due to the lack of cross-enterprise process integration capabilities. Recently, interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) enabled by information technology (IT) have been suggested as a solution to help organizations overcome this problem. Drawing on three theoretical perspectives, i.e., the relational view of the firm, institutional theory, and organizational inertia theory, we propose three mechanisms—relational, influence, and inertial—to explain the assimilation of IBPS in organizations. We theorize that these mechanisms will have differential effects on the assimilation of IBPS in dominant and nondominant firms. Using a cross-case analysis based on data from 11 firms in the high-tech industry, we found evidence to support our propositions that relational depth, relationship extendability, and normative pressure were important for dominant firms while relational specificity and influence mechanisms (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures) were important for nondominant firms. Inertial mechanisms, i.e., ability and willingness to overcome resource and routine rigidities, were important for both dominant and nondominant firms.