About

Professor Sofia Bapna is the Curtis L. Carlson Chair Professor in Business Analytics and Information Systems at the Carlson School of Management. She serves as the Academic Director of the Carlson Analytics Lab and is closely affiliated with the Carlson School's MS in Business Analytics program. Her expertise encompasses data analysis techniques, predictive analytics, programming, data engineering, and machine learning methods, contributing to the development of emerging data science professionals. Her work involves applying these skills to real business problems, supporting the educational mission of the institute. Her research and teaching focus on the intersection of analytics, information systems, and decision sciences, aiming to advance understanding and application of data-driven decision-making in business contexts. She collaborates with faculty scholars from across the Carlson School and beyond, bringing expertise in computer science, econometrics, strategy, and causal experimentation. Through her leadership and scholarly activities, she contributes significantly to the field of business analytics and information systems.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Business
• Economics
• Microeconomics
• Finance
• Public relations
• Economic growth
• Medical education
• Demographic economics
• Industrial organization
• Marketing
• Medicine
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Personal appeals to male investors can backfire

  Code Ocean · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Women’s reproductive-health ventures face persistent funding gaps, partly because most investors are men who favor ventures aligned with their interests. Research suggests that engaging broader social roles and identities can motivate support for initiatives that do not directly benefit the decision-maker. We therefore test whether relational appeals (asking potential backers to consider the women in their lives) increase male interest. We report on two preregistered field experiments embedded in real fundraising campaigns. One venture, related to a period-care product (N=34,943), solicited funding via emails advertising an equity crowdfunding campaign. The second, related to a contraceptive pill (N=1,805,472), solicited funding via Facebook advertisements. Investor interest was measured based on email or ad click-through, respectively. Across both experiments, relational appeals reduced men’s interest relative to financially focused market-attractiveness appeals (e.g., highlighting the market opportunity). In contrast, though women's interest was systematically higher, it did not differ across appeal types.

  PublisherDOI

• Agentic AI and Structured vs. Self-guided learning

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-07-23

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Recommendation Letter Timing on Applicant Behavior

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-12-22

  datasetSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Agentic AI and Structured vs. Self-guided learning

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-07-23

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Crowdfunding campaign (Facebook ads) for female product

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-02-26

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Job Rejection Message Content Shapes the Composition of Future Applicant Pools

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2025-10-13

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Replication materials for the study, "Job Rejection Message Content Shapes the Composition of Future Applicant Pools." V2 does the following: (1) Reports statistics on gender-by-treatment (2) Remove singletons from the analysis with controls (3) Provides statistics reported in the Supplementary Information

  PublisherDOI

• Video Assessments

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-10-14

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Video Assessments

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-10-14

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Crowdfunding campaign (Facebook ads) for female product

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-02-26

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Effective Referrals

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-10-21

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Gordon Burtch

  Boston University

  5 shared

• Russell J. Funk

  University of Minnesota

  5 shared

• Martin Ganco

  Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology

  4 shared

• Mary J. Benner

  University of Minnesota System

  4 shared

• Alan Benson

  3 shared

• Liangfei Qiu

  University of Florida

  2 shared

Labs

• Sofia Bapna LabPI

Awards & honors

• Sandra A. Slaughter Early Career Award, INFORMS Information…
• INFORMS Information Systems Society’s Sandra A. Slaughter Ea…
• Gordon B. Davis Young Scholar Award, INFORMS Information Sys…
• INFORMS Information Systems Society’s Gordon B. Davis Young…
• Association for Information Systems’ Early Career Award (202…