John Paul MacDuffie
Professor of Management, the Wharton School; Director, Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation, Mack Institute of Innovation Management
John Paul MacDuffie is Professor of Management at the Wharton School and Director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI) at the Mack Institute for Innovation Management. PVMI carries on the work of the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP), the research network founded at M.I.T. to study the challenges facing the global automotive industry, which Professor MacDuffie co-directed from 2001-2012. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard University and his Ph.D. degree from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.
His global research on the determinants of high-performance manufacturing in automotive assembly, carried out through IMVP, is featured centrally in the books The Machine That Changed the World and After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Auto Industry. In other research, he examines the diffusion of lean production as an alternative to mass production; the impact of human resource systems and work organization on economic performance; collaborative problem-solving within and across firms; managing people over distance; and whether new disruptive technologies will change product and organizational architecture. This research is published in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Industrial and Corporate Change, Management Science, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, California Management Review, and Harvard Business Review.
His research and commentary on the disruptive innovations affecting the automotive industry and the emerging mobility ecosystem are featured in such outlets as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, and on National Public Radio and Knowledge@Wharton on Sirius XM. He directs a technology forecasting tournament, carried out with Good Judgment Inc., that utilizes crowdsourcing to anticipate the pace, scope, and consequences of disruptive vehicle and mobility innovations on firms, consumers, and societies.
Professor MacDuffie works closely with Wharton Executive Education to lead courses on strategy, innovation, and organizational change. Custom clients from the automotive industry have included Chrysler, Daimler-Benz, Nissan, Shanghai Automotive, and Toyota. He served as Academic Director for Toyota’s Global Executive Development Program from 1999-2009.
Professor MacDuffie is a founding board member of the Industry Studies Association; a member of the Automotive Experts Group at the Federal Reserve Bank; and is a member of the Automotive Industry Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum.