George Ball
Assistant Professor of Decision and Information Technologies | Indiana University, Kelley School of Business
Bloomington, IN, UNITED STATES
Assistant Prof. George Ball is an expert in the causes and effects of product recalls, lean manufacturing and quality management.
Spotlight
Secondary Titles (1)
- ArcelorMittal Supply Chain Faculty Fellow
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Biography
George Ball is an Assistant Professor and the ArcelorMittal Supply Chain Faculty Fellow in the department of Operations & Decision Technologies. His areas of expertise include causes and effects of product recalls, lean manufacturing and quality management.
Industry Expertise (2)
Manufacturing
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (3)
Quality Management
Product Recalls
Lean Manufacturing
Accomplishments (9)
Trustee Teaching Award, Kelley School of Business
2018
Alpha Kappa Psi Teaching Excellence Award, Kelley School of Business
2017
Trustee Teaching Award Nominee, Kelley School of Business
2017
Trustee Teaching Award Nominee, Kelley School of Business
2016
Alpha Kappa Psi Teaching Excellence Award, Kelley School of Business
2016
Kristy Cua Doctoral Student Excellence Award and Fellowship
2014
Roger and Marlene Schroeder Doctoral Research Grant
2013
Carlson School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2013
Carlson School of Management Teaching Excellence Award
2013
Education (3)
University of Minnesota: Ph.D. 2015
University of Minnesota: M.B.A. 2003
United States Naval Academy: B.S. 1994
Media Appearances (6)
More Women on Boards, Fewer Dangerous Products
The Wall Street Journal online
2020-04-07
One reason the plot of “A Christmas Story” works so well is that it is centered on a familiar maternal instinct. Unlike obviously dangerous products like the Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle Ralphie covets, many supposedly safe products turn out not to be. A group of researchers found that the presence of female board directors made it much more likely that companies do something about that.
Academic focus limits business schools’ contribution to society
Financial Times online
2020-02-23
On subjects from climate change to knife crime and racism in recruitment to kidney transplants, business school professors are conducting research geared towards making a positive impact on society.
Why Companies Should Try Harder To Prevent Product Recalls
Forbes online
2019-03-07
Stern, along with Indiana University Assistant Professor George P. Ball and Georgetown University Professor Jeffrey T. Macher, set out to quantify the innovation risks and opportunities that recalls pose in one of the most R&D-intensive industries, medical technology. Product failures in medtech, where the cost to bring a device to the market can top $90 million, can not only hobble a firm, but cause catastrophic harm to patients.
Study finds that generic drugs suffer more recalls
IBJ online
2018-06-06
Promoting the availability of more affordable medication “has some unexpected risks that regulators and lawmakers may not have foreseen when pushing for cheaper drugs,” George Ball, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and the study’s lead author, said in a written statement.
Can Samsung survive its exploding-phones crisis?
CBS News online
2016-10-11
“Volkswagen, which did some pretty devious things, has gone way above and beyond to communicate clearly to the consumer and to compensate them very generously for the harm that they have caused to the environment,” Ball said. “In contrast, what we have read and studied from Samsung from a communications standpoint is very shoddy. The retailers have been getting one message. The consumers have been getting a different message.”
Expert: Pressure to lower drug prices may lead to recalls, particularly of generics
News Wise online
"Extreme price competition in the generic pharmaceutical market has some unexpected risks that regulators and lawmakers may not have foreseen when pushing for cheaper drugs," Ball said. “There's a downside to cheaper drugs: You can't guarantee that they're going to be of the exact same quality," Ball said. "This research demonstrates that regulators and insurers may want to temper their intense public pressure placed upon pharmaceutical companies to bring prices down. Such pressure may come at a cost: poorly manufactured drugs"...
Articles (6)
The Influence of Female Directors on Product Recall Decisions
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
2020 The influence of female directors on firm decision-making and performance is a frequently studied research topic but has received limited attention in operations management. We investigate if adding female directors to a firm’s board of directors changes whether and how quickly the firm recalls defective products.
Does social media elevate supply chain importance? An empirical examination of supply chain glitches, Twitter reactions, and stock market returns
Journal of Operations Management
2020 We build upon supply chain management and social media research by exploring the Twitter response to supply chain glitches and how this response may moderate the relationship between supply chain glitches and stock market returns. We analyze data on 213 supply chain glitches for 150 firms across 5 years and over 2 billion tweets on publicly traded firms.
Product competition, managerial discretion, and manufacturing recalls in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry
Journal of Operations Management
2018 Empirical research examining whether and how competition influences product recalls is limited. We address this important research gap by creating a novel measure of product competition using data from the Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book, and combining it with product recall data across a 12‐year period. Our results show that product competition is positively associated with manufacturing‐related recalls, providing evidence of a possible downside to competition in the pharmaceutical industry.
The decision to recall: A behavioral investigation in the medical device industry
Journal of Operations Management
2018 The decision to recall a product can significantly affect an operations manager's career, the credibility and financial performance of the firm, and the safety of customers. Despite the importance of this decision, there has been little behavioral research on what influences judgment in this task. Leveraging insights from interviews with regulators and professionals in the medical device industry, and supported by behavioral theory, we identify a set of factors that may influence the recall decision.
Do Plant Inspections Predict Future Quality? The Role of Investigator Experience
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
2017 Plant inspections enable firms to manage their quality risk in global supply chains. However, surprisingly little research examines the relationship between such inspections and future product quality. In this paper, we study how well plant inspection outcomes predict the hazard of a future recall and analyze how investigator experience affects this predictive relationship.
Plant Operations and Product Recalls in the Automotive Industry: An Empirical Investigation
Management Science
2016 While there is overwhelming support for the negative consequences of product recalls, empirical evidence of operational drivers of recalls is almost nonexistent. In this study, we identify product variety (measured as the number of factory installed options), plant variety (measured as the number of models per assembly line in a plant), and capacity utilization as drivers of subsequent manufacturing-related recalls.
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