William J. Abernathy (November 21, 1933 – December 29, 1983) was an American professor at the Harvard Business School.
[3] He was the first William Barclay Harding Professor of Management and Technology at the Graduate School of Business Administration.
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.
[3][4] Abernathy was an early key contributor to the influential International Motor Vehicle Program.
[5] 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.