Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Empirical And Analytical Essays On The Relationship Between Inventory And Transportation, Rodger David Swanson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between inventory cost (IC) and transportation cost (TC). The association of the two has been recognized for over a hundred years; accordingly, managers and academics have believed that these costs have offsetting properties such that combinations of inventory and transportation expenditures can be altered to fit different strategic objectives. However, the behavior of this relationship in practice has not been tested. The essays of this dissertation examine this relationship through multiple theoretical lenses and with multiple data sets. Essay 1 examines aggregate IC and TC in the United States from 1960-2009. This period coincides with …