t
h
ou
g
ht
l
e
a
de
rs
46 DC VELOCITY JULY 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
Matthew A. Waller is a trailblazer. The
new dean of the Sam M. Walton College
of Business at the University of Arkansas is
believed to be the first supply chain educator
to be appointed to such a position at a major
university. He also holds the prestigious Sam
M. Walton Leadership Chair in Business.
A teacher, researcher, and administrator
at the Walton College for more than 20
years, Waller became chair of the department of supply chain management when it
was established in 2011. Prior to his current appointment,
he served as interim associate dean for executive education
and as interim dean.
Waller’s research focuses on retail supply chains, and he
is co-owner of a patent for optimizing inventory and merchandising shelf-space utilization. He is co-editor-in-chief
of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’
Journal of Business Logistics and co-author of the textbook
The Definitive Guide to Inventory Management: Principles
and Strategies for the Efficient Flow of Inventory across the
Supply Chain.
Q You’re co-author of a forthcoming paper with the intriguing title “Full Steam Ahead: Firms in the U.S.
Economy Adjust Inventory for Changes in
Transportation But Not the Reverse.” What
was the paper’s main finding?
A Theory would predict that if inventory becomes more expensive, either because
there is more of it or because the opportunity
cost is higher, then firms should spend more
on transportation to reduce the cost of that
inventory. For example, you could use a faster mode or a more reliable carrier. Similarly,
if transportation becomes more expensive,
you would spend more money on inventory—you might
want to ship in bigger quantities or use slower modes, both
of which will increase inventory. Our question was, Do
firms actually behave optimally in this way? We used 40 or
50 years’ worth of data, looking at spending on inventory,
transportation, and some other things. What we found was
that when transportation costs change, firms adjust their
inventory levels, but when inventory costs change, they
don’t adjust their transportation practices.
Q Tell us about your efforts to develop supply chain programs at business schools throughout the country.
A The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) asked us to start something
Matthew Waller
