Walton, Abram
Abram Walton
Professor | Nathan M. Bisk College of Business
Director of Center for Innovation Management and Business Analytics
Contact Information
Personal Overview
Dr. Abram Walton was recently named as one of 4 under 40 by Lead Brevard, was a winner of the 2019 "Under 40" business professionals for Space Coast Daily, and is a Professor of Management, specializing in Technology and Innovation at Florida Tech. He is a U.S. Delegate for ISO 56000 - Innovation Management System standards and has been actively researching in the fields of Innovation Management, Business Analytics, and Product Lifecycle Management for the past decade. He currently serves as the founding Director of Florida Tech's Center for Innovation Management & Business Analytics (CIMBA) and was the founding Director for Florida Tech's Center for Lifecycle & Innovation Management (CLIM), which together with the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design (CAMID), brought millions of dollars to Florida Tech for Lifecycle management work. He was also previously the Director for the Center for Ethics and Leadership. He has authored over 100 publications and conference proceedings, and his textbooks on Leadership and Management have sold over 15,000 copies. His corporate innovation efforts and grantsmanship has yielded over $27mm in funded research and gifts to universities. His research efforts focus on impacting technology-sensitive industries by creating sustainable, lean business models through the deployment of innovative continuous improvement methodologies. He takes a unique systems-thinking approach to innovation and technology, lean, healthcare, and product lifecycle management, which has cultivated multi-disciplinary collaborations, generating research and scholarship on innovative organizational strategies and best practices for engineering and innovation initiatives.
He received his Bachelors of Science in Management Information Systems at Northwest Nazarene University (2001), and his Masters of Science (2006) and Ph.D. (2009) in Technology, Leadership, and Innovation at Purdue University. He was awarded Purdue’s top Graduate Student Excellence award in 2009 for his combined efforts in research, teaching, engagement, and grantsmanship. Dr. Walton joined Florida Tech in 2012 and was the leader in helping Florida Tech obtain access to the cutting edge PTC Creo and Windchill Technologies through his Center for Lifecycle and Innovation Management.
He is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Innovation Science, an academic journal cited by most major indexing organizations and available at thousands of libraries throughout the world. He also serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the International Association of Innovation Professionals, and is the Founding Chairman of the Space Coast Economic Development Commission's Innovation Council. He was an invited Fellow for the National Knowledge and Intellectual Property Management Task Force, and achieved certification for Research Commercialization from the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer Dr. Walton has developed a number of academic programs related to new product development and innovation and helped launch Florida Tech's academic programs related to Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Before his academic life, he was a Fire Fighter and EMT, and he later held leadership positions as a Manager of Wal-Mart Stores. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is the Principal of a boutique technology commercialization consulting firm, serves as a Senior Consultant to several DOD firms, and enjoys dabbling in real estate investments. He also serves as a consultant for an Intellectual Property and Patent Management Organization (PMO). He frequently consults for Fortune 500 firms, such as GE, Harris, Bristol Myers Squib, and Delta (formerly Northwest Airlines) on a variety of topics, including leadership, lean process improvement, six sigma, innovation strategies, technology commercialization, product lifecycle management, and new product development. He has successfully helped launch several new technology ventures and works with companies on early-stage technology commercialization efforts, new product development, and leadership development.
Educational Background
Ph.D. - Purdue University, Organizational Development and Engineering Management
M.S. - Purdue University, Technology Leadership & Innovation
B.S. - Northwest Nazarene University, Business and Computer Science
Professional Experience
Director of Center for Innovation Management & Business Analytics
Formerly - Director of Center for Lifecycle and Innovation Management
Formerly - Director of Center for Ethics and Leadership
Deputy Editor-in-Chief -- International Journal of Innovation Science
Chairman of the Innovation Council -- Space Coast Economic Development Commission
Executive Board Member -- Space Coast Economic Development Commission
Executive Board Member -- International Association of Innovation Professionals
Advisory Board Member - Groundswell Startup Incubator
Advisory Board Member - Space Coast Fab Lab
Current Courses
Organizational Behavior Management
Corporate Innovation and New Ventures
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Technology Commercialization
Intellectual Property Management
Selected Publications
Walton, A.L.J., Tomovic, C., Ncube, L. (2016). Product Lifecycle Management: Measuring what is Important – a Product Lifecycle Implementation Maturity Model (PLIMM). International Journal of Business and Social Science. Accepted.
Walton, A., Glassman, B., Sandall, D. (2016). Increasing Innovation through Engagement: A critical review of an idea stock market and idea management system. International Journal of Innovation Science, 8(4). 293-310.
Laux, C., Walton, A., Van Epps, A., Sandall, D., & Cooper, D. (2015). Gateway experiences to engineering technology: Development of an introductory course. Journal of STEM Teacher Education, 50(1), 91-103.
Perez, E., Walton, A., Cooper, D., & Pacheco, M. (2014). Unpacking Organizational Attraction: A Process Model. International Journal of Business and Social Science. 5(10-1), 108-120.
Vrgović, P., Glassman, B., Walton, A., Vidicki, P. (2012). Open innovation for SMEs in developing countries – an intermediated communication network model for collaboration beyond obstacles. Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice, 14(2).
Walton, A., DeVaney, S., & Sandall, D. (2012). Graduate students' perceptions of privacy and closed circuit television. International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, 7(3). (in press).
Vrgovia, P., Glassman, B., Walton, A., Nikola, S., & Vidicki, P. (Aug 2010). Market driven inventions in SMEs: A model for growing economies by connecting entrepreneurial inventors with local companies. International Journal of Engineering - Annals of Faculty Engineering Hunedoara, VIII(2), 219-224.
Tomovic, C. L., Ncube, L. B., Walton, A., Grieves, M. (2010). Development of product lifecycle management metrics: Measuring the impact of PLM. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 19(3/4), 167-179.
Tomovic, C.L., Walton A. Ncube, L. Grieves, M., Birtles, B., Bednar, B. (2008). Measuring the impact of product lifecycle management: Process plan, waste reduction and innovations conceptual frameworks, and logic model for developing metrics, 1-14. In Tomovic, M. and Wang, S. Product Realization: A Comprehensive Approach. New York: Springer.
Selected Book Chapters Published
Walton, A., Grieves, M., Sandall, D., & Breault, M. (2017). Analyzing the Value of Product Lifecycle Management from Grounded Theory & Models, in Harik, R., Rivest, L., Bernard, A., Bouras, A., & Eynard, B., eds. Product Lifecycle Management, in IFIP AICT. Springer publishing. (in press)
Glassman, B., & Walton, A. (2014) Idea Evaluation and Management, in Gupta, P., and Trusko, B. (2014), eds. Global Innovation Science Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
Vrgovic, P., Walton, A., & Shulkin, R. (2014). Improving Open Innovation: Challenges for Managing Communication and Creative Ideation. Chapter II in Engineering Management – Challenges for the Future, pp. 19-36, H.-J. Bullinger & D. Spath (Eds.), published by Faculty of Technical Sciences (Novi Sad, Serbia), Fraunhofer IAO (Stuttgart, Germany) and DAAAM International (Vienna, Austria), ISBN 978-3-902734-01-3
Glassman, B., Walton, A. & Sandall, D. (2012) Venture valuation. In Marvel, M. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of New Venture Management (pp. 465-466). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishing.
Selected Funded Technical Publications
Dr. Walton’s scholarship has received funding 27 times, totaling $565,000, to conduct research and produce technical publications for industry who consider these reports proprietary and do not allow them to be published in the public domain.
Walton, A. (2015). GE Strategic Innovation Consulting, Phase I - Innovation Audit and Analysis. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A. (2015). GE Strategic Innovation Consulting, Phase II – Product Mapping and Proof of Concept Development. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A. (2015). GE Strategic Innovation Consulting, Phase III – Market Modeling and Business Case Development for IRAD. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A. (2015). GE Strategic Innovation Consulting, Phase IV – Customer Development, Validation, and Product Fulfillment Forecast Modeling. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A., Grieves, M. (2013). Harris 2020 – Product Lifecycle Management Business Excellence. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A., Benjamin, S. (2013). Mainstream Engineering Market Research Report for Commercialization of HVAC technology. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A., Benjamin, S. (2013). Mainstream Engineering Market Research Report for Commercialization of fan-coil technology. Melbourne, FL.
Walton, A.L.J., Powell, C.E. (2012). Undergraduate Research Experiences. The development of lean processes, facility layouts, and production plans for rapid prototyping systems. Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems, Anderson, IN.
Walton, A.L.J. (2011). Rapid prototyping and production planning for counter-IED war fighting systems. Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems, Anderson, IN.
Sandall*, D.L. & Walton, A.L.J. (2011). Final industrial report: PLM cross-functional certification and training: Efficacy and competency profile. Submitted to the Product Lifecycle Management Center of Excellence; West Lafayette, IN.
Walton, A.L.J. (2010). Final industrial report: Product Lifecycle Management: Strategic technology road mapping for sustainable business models. Submitted to the Product Lifecycle Management Center of Excellence; West Lafayette, IN.
Knotts, T., Vandeveer, R., Walton A., Hountz, D., & Coyle-Rogers, P. (2008). Washington County Memorial Hospital: Improvement of Billing Process, ED Patient Flow, and Satisfaction.
Leonard, B., Walton, A., Vandeveer, R., Braswell, M., Coyle-Rogers, P., Hasan, I., & Turkcan, A. (2008). Schneck Medical Center: Improvement of Surgical Patient Flow.
Leonard, B., & Walton, A. (2008). Clarian Health: CPL Process Improvement.
Leonard, B., & Coyle-Rogers, P., Braswell, M., Walton, A. (2008). St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers: Development and Measurement of Metrics to Determine Effectiveness of Horizon Surgery Manager Implementation.
Vandeveer, R., & Walton, A. (2008). Symmetry Medical: Training on Leadership, Communication and Team Building.
Walton, A., Lopp, D. (2007). Northwest Airlines: Analysis and Optimization of Manpower Requirements for Flight Deck Operations. (Purdue University Aviation Technology Department Project).
Walton, A., Lopp, D. (2006). Northwest Airlines: Baggage Handling Value Stream Mapping and Improvement.
(Purdue University Aviation Technology Department Project).
Recognition & Awards
Named 2019 Space Coast Business Under Forty
Named Emerging Influential Award for the 2017 Space Coast Public Service Awards & Hall of Fame
Named 2017 Volunteer of the Year award by the Space Coast Economic Development Commission
Named “Top 4 Under 40” – Lead Brevard 2016
Named as “One to Watch” – Space Coast Business 2015
Named as “One to Watch” – Florida Today 2014
Fellow of the National Knowledge & Intellectual Property Management Task Force, 2010-2011
Honored as ‘Special Friend’ of the Center for Instructional Excellence, Purdue University, 2010
Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award, Purdue University, 2009
1st place in research competition for innovation, value, and impact: Advanced Manufacturing Summit Research Symposium, 2009
3rd place in research competition for innovation, value and impact: Advanced Manufacturing Summit Research Symposium, 2008
Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award, Purdue University, 2006