MBA Courses
Operations Management (MBA Core)
Developing New Products and Services
General Management and Operations Consulting
Executive Education
3M Corporation, United Technologies Corporation, AES Corporation, Saudi-Arabia/Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, McIntire School of Commerce, Henkel Group
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
“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).
“New Product Development Prototyping Exercise”, Darden School of Business Classroom Exercise, (in preparation)
“R&D Portfolio Management at Lockheed Martin”, Darden School of Business Teaching Case (in preparation).
“Arcadia Medical Center: Emergency Department Crowding”, 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
Research
Peer Reviewed Publications
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.
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.
Lichtendahl, K., Chao, R. and Bodily, S. (2011), “Habit Formation from Correlation Aversion”, Forthcoming in Operations Research.
Working Papers
Chao, R. and Erat, S. (2012), “Competition and Effort in Contests with Evaluation Uncertainty”, Darden School of Business working paper, under review at Management Science.
Hutchison-Krupat, J. and Chao, R. (2011), “Tolerance for Failure and Incentives for Collaborative Innovation”, Darden School of Business working paper, invited to revise and resubmit for Production and Operations Management.
Chao, R. and K. Lichtendahl and Y. Grushka-Cockayne (2011) “Incentives for Complex R&D Projects”, Darden School of Business working paper, invited to revise and resubmit for Production and Operations Management.
Chao, R. and Kavadias, S. (2011) “R&D Intensity and the NPD Portfolio”, Darden School of Business working paper, invited to revise and resubmit for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
Chao, R. and E. Loutskina (2011), “How Complexity Impacts R&D Portfolio Decisions and Technological Search Distance”, Darden School of Business working paper.
Other Publications
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”