Christoph Loch

Research interests

How organisations make innovation happen; this includes innovation in products as well as processes and practices, and it focuses on what happens on the ground rather than just strategising at an aggregate level. The topic is interdisciplinary and stretches from project management and processes (operations), to strategic portfolios and strategy deployment (strategy), to organisational structures and cultural habits (sociology), and to the motivation of educated and autonomous personnel (psychology).

Specifically, research interests span six broad areas:

1. Concurrent engineering and coordination in complex systems
2. Managing highly novel, uncertain and ambiguous initiatives
3. Resource allocation, portfolio management, and strategy deployment
4. Performance measurement in R&D and uncertain projects
5. Incentives, motivation and cultural evolution (behavioural economics)
6. Manufacturing management and strategy deployment

Professional experience

Director of the INSEAD Israel Research Center (2008-2011) and Dean of the PhD Programme (Sep 2006-Aug 2009), INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Associate (client consulting team member), McKinsey & Company, San Francisco, USA, and Munich, Germany (Oct 1991-Dec 1993). Strategic Analyst (competitor and industry analyses), Siemens AG, Munich, Germany (Summers 1986-1989). Lecturer (evening MBA course on Management Science and undergraduate course in Operations Management), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA (Jan-Jul 1987). Non-executive Director of educational software start-up company Prendo (2000-present).

Professor Loch has been the Chairman of the Behavioral Operations Management section of INFORMS (2008-2010), Department Editor for both Management Science (R&D and Innovation department) (2004-2009) and Production and Operations Management (2003-2007, and the special issue on behavioural operations management in 2011), and Associate Editor of Management Science, (2000-2004, 2009-2011), Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM) (2003-2011) and Operations Research (1998-2004).

Previous appointments

Prior to joining the School, Professor Loch was the GlaxoSmithKline Chaired Professor of Corporate Innovation (2006-2011), Professor of Technology and Operations Management (2001-2011) and Assistant and Associate Professor (1994-2001) at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. From 2009 to 2010 he was Visiting Professor of Operations Management at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, and in 2002 and 2003 was Visiting Professor in the Information Dynamics Lab at Hewlett Packard Labs in Palo Alto, California.

Awards & honours

• Elected Fellow of the POMS Product Innovation and Technology Management College, 2010
• Emerald Excellence Award for one of the 50 most cited papers, 2008
• ECCH Best Case Award for the case "Gemstone", 2000

Selected publications

Here are a selection of Christoph Loch''s publications. Please see the "Selected publications" tab above for a more comprehensive list.

Loch, C.H. (2017) "Creativity and risk taking aren''t rational: behavioral operations in MOT." Production and Operations Management (DOI: 10.1111/poms.12666) (published online Nov 2016; forthcoming in print)

Kim, Y.H., Sting, F.J. and Loch, C.H. (2014) "Top-down, bottom-up, or both? Toward an integrative perspective on operations strategy formation." Journal of Operations Management, 32(7-8): 462-474 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2014.09.005)

Loch, C., Sengupta, K. and Ghufran Ahmad, M. (2013) "The microevolution of routines: how problem solving and social preferences interact." Organization Science, 24(1): 99-115 (DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1110.0719)

Cui, Z., Loch, C., Grossmann, B. and He, R. (2012) "How provider selection and management contribute to successful innovation outsourcing: an empirical study at Siemens." Production and Operations Management, 21(1): 29-48 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1937-5956.2011.01237.x)

Wu, Y., Loch, C.H. and Ahmad, G. (2011) "Status and relationships in social dilemmas of teams." Journal of Operations Management, 29(7-8): 650-662 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2011.03.004)

Loch, C.H., Sting, F.J., Bauer, N. and Mauermann, H. (2010) "How BMW is defusing the demographic time bomb." Harvard Business Review, 88(3): 99-104

Journal articles

Huberman, B.A. and Loch, C.H. (1996) "Collaboration, motivation, and the size of organizations." Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 6(2): 109-130 (DOI: 10.1080/10919399609540272)

Loch, C.H., Stein, L. and Terwiesch, C. (1996) "Measuring development performance in the electronics industry." Journal of Product Innovation Management, 13(1): 3-20 (DOI: 10.1111/1540-5885.1310003)

Terwiesch, C., Loch, C.H. and Niederkofler, M. (1998) "When product development performance makes a difference: a statistical analysis in the electronics industry." Journal of Product Innovation Management, 15: 3-15 (DOI: 10.1111/1540-5885.1510003)

Loch, C.H. and Terwiesch, C. (1998) "Communication and uncertainty in concurrent engineering." Management Science, 44(8): 1032-1048 (DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.44.8.1032)

Loch, C.H. and Terwiesch, C. (1999) "Accelerating the process of engineering change orders: capacity and congestion effects." Journal of Product Innovation Management, 16: 145-159

Terwiesch, C. and Loch, C.H. (1999) "Managing the process of engineering change orders." Journal of Product Innovation Management, 16(2): 160-172 (DOI: 10.1111/1540-5885.1620160)

Loch, C. and Huberman, B. (1999) "A punctuated equilibrium model of technology diffusion." Management Science, 45(2): 160-177

Terwiesch, C. and Loch, C. (1999) "Measuring the effectiveness of overlapping development activities." Management Science, 45(4): 455-465

Loch, C., Huberman, B. and Stout, S. (2000) "Status competition and performance in work groups." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 43(1): 35-55

Loch, C., Pich, M., Terwiesch, C. and Urbschat, M. (2001) "Selecting R&D projects at BMW: a case study of adopting mathematical programming models." IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 48(1): 70-80

Huchzermeier, A. and Loch, C. (2001) "Project management under risk: using the real options approach to evaluate flexibility in R&D." Management Science, 47(1): 85-101

Loch, C. Terwiesch, C. and Thomke, S. (2001) "Parallel and sequential testing of design alternatives." Management Science, 47(5): 663-678

Loch, C. and Bode-Greuel, K. (2001) "Evaluating growth options as sources of value for pharmaceutical research projects." R&D Management, 31(2): 231 - 248

von Branconi, C. and Loch, C. (2002) "Contracting for major projects: eight business levers for top management." International Journal of Project Management, 22(2): 119-130

Loch, C. and Tapper, S. (2002) "Implementing a strategy-driven performance measurement system for an applied research group." Journal of Product Innovation Management, 19(3): 185-198

Loch, C. and Kavadias, S. (2002) "Dynamic portfolio selection of NPD programs using marginal returns." Management Science, 48(10): 1227-1241

Loch, C., Mihm, J. and Huchzermeier, A. (2003) "Concurrent engineering and design oscillations in complex engineering projects." Concurrent Engineering Research and Applications, 11(3): 187-200

Mihm, J., Loch, C. and Huchzermeier, A. (2003) "Problem solving oscillations in complex engineering projects." Management Science, 49(6): 733-750

Kavadias, S. and Loch, C. (2003) "Optimal project sequencing with recourse at a scarce resource." Production and Operations Management, 12(4): 433-444

Lovejoy, W. and Loch, C. (2003) "Minimal and maximal characterisic path lengths in connected sociomatrices." Social Networks, 25(4): 333-347

Terwiesch, C. and Loch, C. (2004) "Collaborative prototyping and the pricing of customized products." Management Science, 50(2): 145-148

Demeester, L., Eichler, K. and Loch, C. (2004) "What the biological cell can teach us about manufacturing." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 6(2): 115-132

Huberman, B., Loch, C. and Önçüler, A. (2004) "Status as a valued resource." Social Psychology Quarterly, 67(1): 103-114

Lenfle, S. and Loch, C.H. (2010) "Lost roots: how project management came to emphasize control over flexibility and novelty." California Management Review, 53(1): 32-55

Loch, C.H., Sting, F.J., Bauer, N. and Mauermann, H. (2010) "How BMW is defusing the demographic time bomb." Harvard Business Review, 88(3): 99-104

Mihm, J., Loch, C.H., Wilkinson, D. and Huberman, B.A. (2010) "Hierarchical structure and search in complex organizations." Management Science, 56(5): 831-848

Wu, Y., Loch, C.H. and Ahmad, G. (2011) "Status and relationships in social dilemmas of teams." Journal of Operations Management, 29(7-8): 650-662 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2011.03.004)

Cui, Z., Loch, C., Grossmann, B. and He, R. (2012) "How provider selection and management contribute to successful innovation outsourcing: an empirical study at Siemens." Production and Operations Management, 21(1): 29-48 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1937-5956.2011.01237.x)

Loch, C., Sengupta, K. and Ghufran Ahmad, M. (2013) "The microevolution of routines: how problem solving and social preferences interact." Organization Science, 24(1): 99-115 (DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1110.0719)

Kim, Y.H., Sting, F.J. and Loch, C.H. (2014) "Top-down, bottom-up, or both? Toward an integrative perspective on operations strategy formation." Journal of Operations Management, 32(7-8): 462-474 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2014.09.005)

Loch, C.H. (2017) "Creativity and risk taking aren''t rational: behavioral operations in MOT." Production and Operations Management (DOI: 10.1111/poms.12666) (published online Nov 2016; forthcoming in print)

Books, monographs, reports & case studies

Loch, C., De Meyer, A. and Garg, S. (2008) "Eurotunnel: eyes wide shut." European Case Clearing House (ECCH).

Book chapters

Loch, C.H. and Kavadias, S. (2011) "Implementing strategy through projects." In: Morris, P., Pinto, J. and Söderlund, J. (eds.) The Oxford handbook on the management of projects. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.224-251