Research - Robert Chapman Wood

A key research question explored in Prof. Wood's work is:

"How can people in large systems innovate effectively, given that institutions (i.e., "rules of the game" (North, 1990)) limit what is possible?"

Forthcoming in European Business Review:

"Brain Science and the Tasks of the Manager," with Gerald A. Cory and Osvald M. Bjelland
All rights reserved. Do not cite or quote without permission.

Additional selected publications:

“An inside view of IBM’s Innovation Jam,” with Osvald Bjelland (University of Leeds and Xyntéo), M.I.T. Sloan Management Review. Fall 2008.*

“Five Ways to Transform a Business,” with Osvald Bjelland, Strategy and Leadership, May-June 2008.*

“How does this successful turnaround specialist rate as a manager,” (Review of The Turnaround Kid, by Steve Miller), Strategy and Leadership, Jan-Feb. 2009.

“Managers who can Transform Institutions within their Firms: Activism and the Practices that Stick,” with Liisa Valikangas, (Woodside Institute and Helsinki School of Economics), in D. Barry and H. Hansen, eds., Handbook of New Approaches to Organization Studies. London: Sage. 2008.

“How Strategic Innovation Really Gets Started,” Strategy and Leadership, January 2007.

“Best Practice: The World Bank’s Innovation Market,” first author with Gary Hamel (London Business School), Harvard Business Review, November, 2002.

IBM Network Technology, Harvard Business School case with Michael L. Tushman & Charles A. O'Reilly, 2002.

IBM Software Solutions, Harvard Business School case with Michael L. Tushman & Charles A. O'Reilly, 2001.

Integrated Management Systems, book, with Thomas H. Lee and Shoji Shiba, Wiley, 1999.

Managing Customer Value, book, by Bradley T. Gale with Robert Chapman Wood. Free Press. 1994.

"Total Quality and the Renovation of Basic Education," Parts One and Two, with Thomas H. Lee and Shoji Shiba, Center for Quality Management Journal, Vol. 3, Nos. 3 and 4, 1994.

“A Hero Without a Company,” Forbes, March 18, 1991. (Article showed that first U.S. winner of Deming Prize had been fired for poor performance.)

“A Lesson Learned and a Lesson Forgotten,” Forbes, February 6, 1989. (Understanding what Japan really learned from the U.S.)

"The Real Meaning of Japan's Fifth Generation Project," Technology Review (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), January 1988.

"The Prophets of Quality," Quality Review, Fall/Winter 1988.

"Micro Economics: Japan's Leading Import Barriers Are Its Tiny Houses and Stores," Policy Review, Fall 1987.

Faculty Core Team member, Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship (SVCE), 2004-2009 – key role in Neat Ideas Fair, in developing relationships with the College of Engineering and the School of Art & Design, and in providing opportunities for student members of the Entrepreneurial Society.

Developed Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship/Xyntéo Research Initiative on Crossing Organizational Boundaries with Information Technology.

 

*Papers produced through the Crossing Boundaries research initiative, carried out by the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship and the consulting firm Xynteo from 2005 through 2008.