John Paul MacDuffie, ISA Board of Directors

Professor MacDuffie is Associate Professor of Management at the Wharton School and Director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI) at Wharton's 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.

Prof. MacDuffie’s research examines the diffusion of lean or flexible 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; and the relationship between product and organizational architecture. His global research on the determinants of high-performance manufacturing is featured centrally in the books The Machine That Changed the World and After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Auto Industry. His research and commentary on the global automotive industry and trends in employment systems are featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, and on National Public Radio and Knowledge@Wharton. He is a founding board member of the Industry Studies Association; a member of the Automotive Experts Group at the Federal Reserve Bank; and a member of the Automotive Industry Agenda Council for the World Economic Forum.