James R. Freeland
Sponsors Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Academic Area
Areas of Expertise
Education: B.S.I.E., Bradley University; MSIE, Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology
Sponsors Professor Emeritus of Business Administration James R. Freeland taught in the Technology and Operations Management area at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business for 40 years. He was involved in the teaching programs in the MBA full-time program, EMBA and in Executive Education Programs in operations, quantitative methods, and ethics. During his time at Darden, he served as chair of several committees and task forces associated with Promotions and Tenure, UVA Provost Search, Darden Dean Searches, and the MBA curriculum. He joined the Darden Faculty in 1979, coming from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences. At Darden he was chosen for the EMBA Transformation Faculty Award in 2016.
From 1993 to 2012, he served in the Dean's Office as senior associate dean for faculty and research, where he was chief strategist for faculty and research matters. Major accomplishments during his 19 years in the Dean's Office include hiring over 60+ new faculty, increasing the diversity of the Darden faculty substantially, having Darden consistently rated as the best teaching faculty in the world, significantly increasing the research productivity, and promoting evidence-based decision-making to create a climate of equity and transparency for the faculty.
Freeland is the author of numerous technical and managerial publications in management science and technology and operations management. In his last three years on the faculty, he worked with Professors Ed Freeman and Ed Hess to develop and teach an elective in the area of economic and opportunity inequality which focused on understanding the causes and effects of economic inequality, and how business can alleviate their negative effects. This course was a 2017 Ideas Worth Teaching award winner, given by The Aspen Institute.
Since retiring he has worked on several special projects for the Dean's Office. He continues to work as a volunteer assistant baseball coach for Western Albemarle High School (since 1988).
James R. Freeland's Ideas to Action Posts
Doing Well While Doing Good: 5 Lessons on Empowered Consumers and Responsible Business
Business, Ethics & Society
Selected Publications
Freeland, J. and Carraway, R.. MBA Training in Operations Management and Quantitative Methods. Interfaces, (July-August, 1989).
Freeland, J. and Bodily, S.. A Simulation of Techniques for Forecasting Shipments Using Firm Orders to Date. Journal of Operational Research Quarterly, (1988).
Freeland, J. and Porteus, E.. Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Method for Computing Approximately Optimal (s,S) Inventory Policies. Operations Research, (March April, 1980).
Freeland, J. and Bonini, C.. Forecasting by Smoothed Regression: Development and an Application to Predicting Customers' Utility Bills. Management Science on Forecasting, (Special Issue, 1979).
Freeland, J. and Stabell, C. Allocation of Managerial Effort: An Investigation of the Relationship between Decision Strategies, Environment and Performance. Behavioral Science, (July, 1978).
Freeland, J. and Moore, J.. Implications of Resource Directive Allocation Models for Organizational Design. Management Science, (June, 1977).
Freeland, J.. A Note on Goal Decomposition in a Decentralized Organization.Management Science, (September, 1976).
Freeland, J. and Baker, R.. Recent Advances in R & D Benefit Measurement and Project Selection Methods. Management Science, (June, 1975).
Freeland, J. and Baker, R.. Structuring Information Flow to Enhance Innovation.Management Science, (September, 1972).
Case Studies
Advancing knowledge through research that shapes business, Darden professors are recognized thought leaders in their fields. They are not only master case method teachers, they also author many of the cases used in Darden classrooms and around the world.
James R. Freeland's cases are available in the Darden Business Publishing website.