Biography
Raul Chao is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business, where he teaches operations management, innovation, and new product development courses in Darden’s MBA and Executive Education programs.
Raul’s research is focused on understanding how innovation, new product development, and R&D processes operate in large organizations. Much of his research is based on fieldwork and case studies conducted at companies such as 3M, Microsoft, Whirlpool, and Lockheed Martin, among others. Prior to joining the Darden faculty, Raul worked as a management consultant serving U.S. and Latin American organizations in a wide range of industries including pharmaceutical, biomedical, healthcare, financial services, hospitality, and media among others.
He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in Operations Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife Cristina and their children, Carolina Isabel and Tomas Raul.
Teaching Materials
"The Ins and Outs of Open Innovation," Darden School of Business Technical Note, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1495 (2013).
"Prototyping Exercise," Darden School of Business Classroom Exercise, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1470 (2012).
“Arcadia Medical Center: Emergency Department Crowding”, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1468 (2012).
“Innovation Strategy at Microsoft: Clouds on the Horizon”, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1387 (2011).
“Husk Power Systems: Scaling Up a Start-Up”, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1415 (2011).
“New Product Development: Search for the Best Alternative”, Darden School of Business Multimedia Exercise, UVA-OM-1414S (2010).
“The Collaborative Innovation Game”, Darden School of Business Multimedia Exercise, UVA-OM-1401S (2009).
“The United States Patent and Trademark Office: Closing the Gap on Pendency in Class 705 Business Methods”, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1358 (2008).
“United Beverages: Product Development Genius or One-Hit Wonder?”, Darden Business Publishing, UVA-OM-1335 (2007).
“R&D Portfolio Management at Lockheed Martin”, Darden School of Business Teaching Case (in preparation).
"Google Goes Global: Vendor Sourcing in an Emerging Technology Environment," Darden School of Business Teaching Case (in preparation).
Expertise
- Innovation, New Product Development, R&D
- R&D Portfolio Management
- Organization Design and Incentives
- Complex Adaptive Systems
MBA Courses
Operations Management (MBA Core)
Developing New Products and Services
General Management and Operations Consulting
Executive Education Courses
3M Corporation, United Technologies Corporation, AES
Corporation, Saudi-Arabia/Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance, Lockheed
Martin Space Systems Company, McIntire School of Commerce, Henkel Group
Research
Peer Reviewed Publications
Hutchison-Krupat, J. and Chao, R. (2013), "Tolerance for Failure and Incentive for Collaborative Innovation," Forthcoming in Production and Operations Management.
Chao, R. and Kavadias, S. (2013) "R&D Intensity and the New Product Development Portfolio," Forthcoming in JEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
Lichtendahl, K., Chao, R. and Bodily, S. (2012), “Habit Formation from Correlation Aversion," Operations Research, Vol. 60, No. 3, p. 625-637.
Chao, R., Kavadias, S. and Gaimon, C. (2009), “Revenue Driven Resource Allocation: Funding Authority, Incentives, and NPD Portfolio Management,”Management Science, Vol. 55, No. 9, p 1556-1569.
Chao, R. and Kavadias, S. (2008), “A Theoretical Framework for Managing the NPD Portfolio: When and How to Use Strategic Buckets,” Management Science, Vol. 54, No. 5, p. 907-921.
Working Papers
Bendoly,
E. and Chao, R. (2013), “Stage Time Reduction in NPD Cycles: Context Specific
Impacts on Market Gains and Strategic Caveats”, Goizueta School of Business
Working Paper, invited to revise and resubmit for Production and Operations Management.
Oyama,
K., Learmonth, G., and Chao, R. (2013), “Modeling Co-evolutionary Dynamics in
New Product Development”, UVA Systems Engineering Working Paper.
Chao, R. and K. Lichtendahl and Y. Grushka-Cockayne (2013) “Incentives in a Stage-Gate Process," Darden School of Business working paper, under 3rd round review to Production and Operations Management.
Chao, R. and Erat, S. (2012), “Competition and Effort in Contests with Evaluation Uncertainty,” Darden School of Business working paper, invited to revise and resubmit for Management Science.
Oyama,
K., Learmonth, G., and Chao, R. (2012), “Applying Complexity Science to New
Product Development: Modeling Considerations and Implications”, UVA Systems
Engineering Working Paper, under review at Journal
of Engineering Technology Management.
Chao, R., Lipson, M. and Loutskina, E. (2012), “Financial Distress and
Risky Innovation”, Darden School of Business Working Paper.
Chao, R., Lipson, M. and E. Loutskina (2012), “How Organizational Complexity Impacts R&D Portfolio Decisions and Technological Search Distance”, Darden
School of Business working paper.
Other Publications
Chao, R.
(2012) “Lockheed Martin’s Innovation Via Strategic Buckets”, The Washington Post, July 21, 2012
Chao, R. (2012) “The Ins and Outs of Open Innovation”, Forbes, May
7, 2012. Reprinted with permission on crowdsourcing.org and Darden Business Publishing. Named one of the “top ten” articles on open
innovation for 2012 by Open Innovation
Community.
Chao, R. (2012) “To Scale Up a Start-Up Business, Focus on Internal Operations”, The Washington Post, March 12, 2012.
Chao, R. (2011) “Why Grassroots Innovation Hasn’t Worked at Microsoft”, The Washington Post, May 15, 2011.
Kavadias, S. and Chao, R. (2008) “Resource Allocation and NPD Portfolio Management”, in Handbook of New Product Development Management, C. Loch and S. Kavadias (eds.), Elsevier Press, Oxford UK, p. 135-163.
Chao, R. and Kavadias, S. (2004) “Strategic NPD Portfolio Management in Complex Environments”, in Operations Management as a Change Agent, L. Van Wassenhove, A. De Meyer, et al. (eds.), INSEAD Press, Fontainebleau France, p. 701-710.
Basole, R. and Chao, R. (2004) “Location-Based Mobile Decision Support Systems and Their Effect on User Performance”, Proceedings of the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), N. Romano et al. (eds.), Association for Information Systems (AIS) Publishers, New York, p. 2870-2874.
Research in Progress
“Sourcing Services in an Emerging Technology Environment”
“How Competition Impacts Creativity”, joint work with S. Erat
“Grassroots Innovation Processes”
“Aggregating Bounded Rationality in R&D”
“Old Habits Die Hard: A Model of Innovation Culture and Routines”