James Cash Jr.

James Cash Jr.
Born	1947 (age 76–77)
Nationality	American
Board member of	General Electric, Microsoft, Chubb Corporation, Wal-Mart, Veracode

James Ireland Cash Jr. (born 1947) is an American businessman who is a member of the board of directors of several corporations, including General Electric, Microsoft (2001-2009), The Chubb Corporation, Phase Forward, Inc., Wal-Mart, and Veracode. Cash is also a member of the Boston Celtics ownership group.

James Cash holds James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus.

Professor Cash received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Texas Christian University (TCU); a Master of Science in Computer Science from Purdue University Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences; and a Doctor of Philosophy in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Purdue University Krannert Graduate School of Management. He joined the Harvard Business School faculty in 1976, and has taught in all the major HBS programs - MBA, Program for Management Development (PMD), Program for Global Leadership (PGL), and Advanced Management Program (AMP). Among his administrative assignments he has served as Chairman of the MBA Program (1992 to 1995), during the school's project to redesign the MBA Program - MBA: Leadership and Learning, and as Senior Associate Dean and Chairman of HBS Publishing. Cash retired from the Harvard Business School faculty in 2003 . He also serves as a trustee of the Bert King Foundation, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Partners Healthcare and the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation.

Current Research Areas: The Role of Information Technology in the Provision of Services James I. Cash Jr. is exploring the role of information technology in service management. Specifically, he is studying the implications of the ubiquity of information technology at three levels in service-providing organizations. (In the United States today, service firms account for fully 70 percent of information technology sales.) At the level of the individual, the portability of communicating technologies has led to their increasing deployment among front-line service providers.

How effective is such deployment for customers and employees, and do they perceive the effectiveness? At the level of the organization, applications of information technology are transforming traditional approaches to communi-cation and coordination and control of business activities and work processes. Is the orientation of these applications empowerment or control?

If empowerment, of whom: customers, employees, or both?

At the interorganizational and industry levels, perhaps the most prominent effect of information technology is the blurring of traditional company and industry boundaries, which is facilitating disintermediation and new forms of market access, as illustrated by the growing use of the Internet for business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and intrabusiness communication. What does the shift from face-to-face to screen-to-face delivery of information-based services mean for the average person?

To what extent is individually customized service delivery enabled? Besides attempting to answer these and other crucial questions, Cash is also considering the organic nature of interlinked information systems that accumulate experience over time. The continually growing database implicit in such systems promises to be an important source of competitive advantage in service businesses.

References

• Who's Who in America, 2008 Edition, p. 742
• James Cash's Harvard Business School Profile
• Video on YouTube