Service Management
Resume:
RYAN W. BUELL
Soldiers Field Road phone: 734-***-****
Morgan Hall 480 email: ******@***.***
Boston, MA 02163 http://people.hbs.edu/rbuell
education
**** - ******* ******* ******** ****** BOSTON, MA
Doctoral candidate in DBA in Technology and Operations Management Program. (Expected
graduation, June 2012)2005 - 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL BOSTON, MA
Master in Business Administration with High Distinction. George F. Baker Scholar.1996-2000 STEPHEN M. ROSS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ANN ARBOR, MI
Bachelor of Business Administration, with High Distinction, focus on Computer Information
Systems and
Marketing. Phi Beta Kappa and James B. Angell Scholar.
research Exploring how operational tradeoffs in service contexts affect customer actions
and firm performance; the role of
interests technology in service delivery.
publications Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei, Are self -service
customers satisfied or stuck? Production
and Operations Management (forthcoming).
working Buell, Ryan W., Michael I. Norton, The labor illusion: When operational
transparency increases perceived value.
papers Under review.
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. How do incumbents fare in the face
of in creased service
competition? In progress.
Buell, Ryan W., Richard B. Chase, Frances X. Frei, and Scott E. Sampson, Customer
Contact for the 21st Century
In progress.
conference Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei (20 10). How do
incumbents fare in the face of increasing
presentations service competition? Paper presentation at the Institute for Operations
Research and the Management Sciences
(INFORMS) Annual Conference. Austin, Texas.
Buell, Ryan W. Michael I. Norton (2010). The labor Illusion: How operational transparency
increases perceived
value. Paper presentation at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management
Sciences (INFORMS) Annual
Conference. Austin, Texas.
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei ( 2010). How do incumbents fare in
the face of increasing
service competition? Paper presentation at the Manufacturing and Service Operations
Management (MSOM) Annual
Conference. Haifa, Israel.
Buell, Ryan W. Michael I. Norton (2010). The labor Illusion: How operational transparency
increases perceived
value. Paper presentation at the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM)
Service Management
SIG Meeting. Haifa, Israel.
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei (2010). How do incumbents fare in
the face of increasing
service competition? Paper presentation at the Production and Operations Management
Society (POMS) Annual
Conference. Vancouver, Canada.
Buell, Ryan W., Michael I. Norton (2010) The labor illusion: When waiting increas es
liking. Poster presentation at
the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Conference, Las Vegas,
NV.
Buell, Ryan W., Michael I. Norton (2009) The labor illusion: When waiting increases
liking. Paper presentation at
the Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei (2009) Which customers are
vulnerable to service
competition? Paper presentation at the Institute for Operations Research and the
Managemen t Sciences (INFORMS)
Annual Conference. San Diego, CA,
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei (2009) Are self-service customers
satisfied or stuck? Paper
presentation at the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) Annual Confe
rence. Boston, MA.
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei (2009) Are self-service customers
satisfied or stuck? Paper
presentation at the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Annual
Conference. Orlando, FL.
awards and Society for Personality and Social Psychology Student Poster Award (2010)
honors George F. Baker Scholar, Harvard Business School (2007)
Phi Beta Kappa, University of Michigan (2000)
James B. Angell Scholar, University of Michigan (2000)
General Motors Global Internship Scholarship (1998)
Eagle Scout (1993)
teaching Teaching Fellow, First-Year TOM MBA Course, Harvard Business School (2009)
o Rating: 6.94/7.00, Responses: 110
Analytics Head Teaching Fellow, Quantitative Analysis, Harvard Business School ( 2009)
o Rating: 6.33/7.00, Responses: 91
Analytics Teaching Fellow, Accounting, Harvard Business School (2008)
o Rating: 6.14/7.00, Responses: 78
service Reviewer, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Conference (2010)
Student Mentorship Lead, Harvard Business School Doctoral Program (2008 -2010)
Doctoral Program Student Advisory Committee (2010)
Reviewer, Journal of Operations Management (2009 -2010)
Reviewer, Production and Operations Management Journal (2008 -2009)
Reviewer, Research Policy (2009)
Reviewer, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (2008)
Student Chairman, Harvard Business School Centennial Community Events (2008)
Technology Director, Harbus Foundation, Harvard Business School (2007)
Chief Marketing Officer, Cyberposium Conferen ce, Harvard Business School (2006)
Chief Technology Officer, Social Enterprise Conference, Harvard Business School (2006)
Organized HBS charity auction, rose $15,828 for Hurricane Katrina and Pakistan
Earthquake relief (2005)
selected Statistics, Economics and Methodology
doctoral Microeconomics Nolan Miller
coursework Game Theory Chris Avery
Experimental Economics Alvin Roth
Probability and Statistics William Simpson
Statistics for the Social Sciences William Simpson
Applied Econometrics Raffaella Giacomini
Advanced Quantitative Research Methodology Gary King
Design of Field Research Methods Robin Ely
Technology and Operations Management
Operations Management Noel Watson
Innovation and Organizations Michael Tushman
Departmental Seminar Michael Toffel
Human Behavior
Consumer Behavior John Gourville and Michael Norton
Administration and Human Behavior Rakesh Khurana and Kathleen McGinn
Ryan W. Buell 5/18/10 Page 2 of 4
employment
summer 2006MCKINSEY & COMPANY, INC. SEATTLE, WA
Summer Associate, High Technology Strategy P ractice
Member of team developing a holistic global strategy for a $1B+ vertical business of a
high technology company.
Created market opportunity maps for specific countries, triangulating market size and
growth potential, and
identifying hot spots for investment consideration. Presented findings to client
management team.
Conducted interviews with industry experts, surfacing key needs, and synthesizing and
communicating results.
Collaborated with client to develop in -depth profiles of surfaced product and program
opportunities.
2000-2005THE TOUR NOW NETWORK, LLC ANN ARBOR, MI
Founder, Business Development Manager
Founded and managed online company that provides virtual tours and related marketing
services for real estate
professionals throughout the United States and Canada.
Business and Strategic Development
Refined business model, acquiring over 3,300 agent accounts, and over 70 resellers
nationwide.
Developed relationship with Canadian partner, Welcome360.com, to introduce services in
Canada.
Forged alliances with industry leaders such as Homestore.com, Yahoo! Real Estate,
Homeseekers.com, and
RealBird.com to enhance customer value.
Promoted company s offerings through trade shows, onsite presentations, development of
online and print
advertising campaigns, and creation of sales website and offline marketing materials.
Operations and Client Management
Achieved average annual sales growth of 133% through the management of day -to-day
business operations,
including sales, customer support, finance, and ongoing market research.
Prioritized feature enhancements, and oversaw implementation of two system -wide
upgrades.
Advised clients about the Internet and online strategy, developing over 30 websites and
web applications.
1997-1999GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION FLINT, MI
Selected into GM s Global Internship Program. Worked in Delphi Automotive Systems
automotive components
division (spun off in 1999) as full-time employee during summer and part-time employee
during school year.
Supervisor of 3 Production Lines (1999)
Managed staffing, scheduling and logistical decisions on a daily basis.
Decreased internal defects by 25% and increased uptime by 3%.
Fixed Asset Analyst (1998)
Completed fixed asset inventories of six Delphi manufacturing facilities.
Tracked projects for engineers, and issued work orders for resource allocations.
Sales and Marketing Analyst (1997)
Redesigned Voice of the Customer, monthly self -evaluation report promoting customer
enthusiasm.
Researched competition and created competitor profiles on prominent automotive
components manufacturers.
references Frances X. Frei (Advisor) Michael I. Norton
UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management Associate Professor, Marketing
Harvard Business School Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall 411 Morgan Hall 189
Soldiers Field Road Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163 Boston, MA 02163
Dennis Campbell Ananth Raman
Associate Professor, Accounting UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics
Harvard Business School Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
391 Morgan Hall 437
Soldiers Field Road Soldiers Field Road
Boston, MA 02163 Boston, MA 02163
Ryan W. Buell 5/18/10 Page 3 of 4
abstracts Buell, Ryan W. Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei, Are self -service
customers satisfied or stuck?
Production and Operations Management (forthcoming).
This paper investigates the impact of self -service technology (SST) usage on customer
satisfaction and retention.
Specifically, we focus on disentangling the distinct effects of satisf action and
switching costs as drivers of retention
among self-service customers. Our empirical analysis examines 26,924 multi -channel
customers of a nationwide
retail bank. For each customer, we track channel usage, overall satisfaction, and actual
retenti on over a one-year
period. We find that relative to face-to-face service, customers who use self-service
channels for a greater proportion
of their overall transactions, are either no more satisfied or less satisfied with the
service they receive, dependin g on
the channel. However, we also find that these same customers are predictably less likely
to defect to a competitor if
they are heavily reliant on self-service channels characterized by high switching costs.
We demonstrate that when
self-service usage promotes retention, it does so in a way that is consistent with
switching costs rather than via
increased satisfaction. As a robustness check, we examine the behavior of channel
enthusiasts, who concentrate
transactions among specific channels. Relative to more diversified customers, we find
that self -service enthusiasts in
low switching cost channels defect with greater frequency, while self-service enthusiasts
in high switching cost
channels are retained with greater frequency. Managerial implications of these findings
are discussed, as well as
opportunities for future research.
Buell, Ryan W., Michael I. Norton, The labor illusion: How operational transparenc y
increases perceived
value. (under review).
A ubiquitous feature of even the fastest se lf-service technology transactions is the
wait. While conventional wisdom
and operations theory suggests that the longer people wait, the less satisfied they
become, we demonstrate that when
websites engage in operational transparency signaling the work in which they are
engaging people not only mind
the wait less, but actually value the service more. Due to what we term the labor
illusion, people can actually prefer
websites with longer waits to those that return instantaneous results, even when those
results are identical, provided
that the website provides evidence of the effort being exerted. In four studies which
simulated service experiences
in the domains of online travel and online dating we demonstrate the impact of the
labor illusion on ser vice value
perceptions, benchmark the labor illusion against other strategies for managing wait
times, and demonstrate that
perceptions of effort mediate the link between operational transparency and increased
valuation.
Buell, Ryan W., Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei. How do incumbents fare in the face
of increased
service competition? (in progress).
This work empirically investigates how incumbents fare in the face of increased service
competition. In particular,
we explore the circumstances under which cust omers are more likely to defect from an
incumbent in the wake of
service competition, which customers are disproportionately affected by service
competition, and how offering a
service level that exceeds the market median affects firm performance. We condu ct our
analysis by examining the
behavior of a panel of 83,292 customers transacting with a nationwide retail bank in 656
distinct markets from
2004 -
2006. We use data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to identify competitive
entry events withi n each
market and the J.D. Power and Associates Annual Retail Banking Satisfaction Study to
characterize the incumbent s
service position within each market and whether each entrant offers a superior or
inferior level of service. While we
find no relationship between superior service entry and customer defection in aggregate,
we find that when the
incumbent is positioned as a service competitor in the market (offering service levels
that are above the local market
median), its customers are more likely to d efect in the wake of service competition.
Moreover, we find that in such
markets, it is the firm s most valuable customers, who posses high tenure and high
balances, that are
disproportionately more likely to defect. Furthermore, we find that when the incu mbent
is not positioned as a service
competitor (offering service levels that are below the local market median), its
customers are more likely to defect in
the wake of inferior service entry (consistent with price competition). In such markets,
the firm s lowest balance
customers are disproportionately vulnerable. Finally, we compare market -level data from
propensity score matched
markets and demonstrate that sustaining an above -median service position relative to the
local market has a positive
effect on the average active balances of customers.
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