William J. Abernathy (November 21, 1933 – December 29, 1983) was an American professor at the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. With his empirical studies of the automobile industry, Abernathy contributed to explaining the

industrial decline Deindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially of heavy industry or manufacturing industry. There are different interpre ...

of the US automobile industry and influenced management thinking to pay more attention to innovation and long-term strategic decision making.Chakrabarti, Alok K., and Lilien, Gary (1984). "In Memory of William J. Abernathy", ''Interfaces'', 14(2)

Early life

William J. Abernathy was born on November 21, 1933, in

Columbia, Tennessee Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee. The population was 41,690 as of the 2020 United States census. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area. The self-proclaimed "mule capital of the world," Colum ...

."William Abernathy, 50, Dies; Harvard Business Professor"
''The New York Times'', December 30, 1983 He graduated from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He went on to receive a Masters in Business Administration degree in 1964 and a doctorate degree in 1967 from the

. One of his mentors was Professor

Wickham Skinner C. Wickham Skinner (February 20, 1924 – January 28, 2019) was an American business theorist. He was the Emeritus James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and has been called "the father of manufactur ...

Career

He was the first William Barclay Harding Professor of Management and Technology at the Graduate School of Business Administration. With his colleagues, he was among the first who pointed out that the management of the US industry was to blame for industrial decline instead of emerging Japanese competition or increasing labor struggles. In his research, Abernathy studied the automobile industry and emphasised the intermingled relation between product and production. Introducing the notion of the 'productivity dilemma', he criticised the focus of US managers on short term profits at the expense of innovation and technological competitiveness. Abernathy was an early key contributor to the influential

International Motor Vehicle Program The Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI) is the oldest and largest international research consortium aimed at analyzing the global automotive industry. History PVMI, founded as the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) at the M ...

. His influence on European researchers, among others, is noticeable in that his critique of the dominating mass production was readily picked up and extended to inform theories on innovation and integrated product design.Whipp, Richard, and Clark, Peter (1986). "Innovation and the auto industry", Francis Printer (Publishers), London

Personal life

He was married to Claire Abernathy. They had two daughters, Evelyn and Jannine. They resided in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was firs ...

Death

He died on December 29, 1983, in Boston, Massachusetts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abernathy, William J. 1933 births 1983 deaths People from Columbia, Tennessee University of Tennessee alumni Harvard Business School alumni Harvard Business School faculty American business theorists