Internet Retail Operations : Integrating Theory and Practice for Managers

The increasing popularity of online shopping makes Internet retailing a megatrend that cannot be ignored. The collaboration of two co-authors bringing academic rigor and broad consulting experience into the mix, Internet Retail Operations: Integrating Theory and Practice for Managers offers enduring insights on operational issues and principles for the management of internet supply chains.

Covering a range of emerging issues supported by a variety of case studies, the book details the evolution of information technology’s role in retail supply chain networks, its impact on supply chain networks, and how this has changed service operations. It addresses information technology in relation to service and retail industries, then explores how supply chain dynamics impact traditional service and retail delivery, the costs involved, and customer satisfaction and loyalty. It includes tables, vignettes, and graphs that make the content practical and relevant.

As you will learn, many attempts at internet retail do not succeed, some because they fail to appreciate the fundamentals, others may have simply been ahead of their time. Many years of experimentation and growth lie ahead. Drawing equally on theory, research results, and real-world experience, the book provides strategies for overcoming the challenges of building operations capability in the evolving world of Internet retailing.

Elliot Rabinovich serves on the faculty at the W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University and brings deep expertise in academic research with a focus on e-commerce and supply chain management. His award-winning research has generated over 20 articles to date in leading academic journals including California Management Review, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Operations Management, and the MIT-Sloan Management Review. In 2005, he designed and started an annual MBA course on e-commerce and supply chain and service operations management at the W.P. Carey School of Business. He earned a BS in Civil Engineering from the School of Engineering of Antioquia, and a Ph.D. in Logistics-Supply Chain Management from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

Tim Laseter brings twenty years of industry experience in operations strategy and supply chain management as both an industry practitioner and consultant to leading companies. In 2002 he transitioned to academia by leaving his partnership position at Booz Allen Hamilton to complete his doctorate and join the Darden Graduate Business School at the University of Virginia. He now works as an independent consultant while serving as a visiting professor at Darden, the London Business School, IESE Business School in Barcelona, the Stern School at NYU, and Emory’s Goizueta School in Atlanta. A prolific writer for practitioners, he has authored two previous books and currently serves as a contributing editor for Strategy+Business which features his column "Operating Strategies" in every other issue.