Simone Peinkofer, a doctoral candidate in supply chain management at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, was selected to receive the George and Marion Plossl Research Fellowship for 2015.

The fellowship was awarded by the APICS Supply Chain Council, a professional organization for supply chain and operations management.

Peinkofer won the award for her dissertation, which researches "omni-channel retailing," she said. 

Many stores have services that allow customers to order products online and then pick them up at a physical location. Omni-channel retailing is a blending of online and brick-and-mortar retailing, where customers may visit physical locations stocked with goods that can be purchased online through on-site kiosks, for example. 

"For my dissertation, I focus on how these different omni-channel fulfillment operations are impacting different members in a supply chain," Peinkofer said. "A supply chain is just a chain of companies and the end customer, so I am looking at how these fulfillment operations are impacting suppliers, retailers and consumers."

The fellowship will fund additional research, which relies on interviews that then must be transcribed. "I'll use the money to collect my data for my dissertation," she said.

Peinkofer has already published two papers in the Journal of Business Logistics that focus on "how consumers respond in an online retail environment when the product is out of stock."

Peinkofer's dissertation proposal, which she completed over the summer, was a key asset to the award application process. Her completed dissertation will consist of three essays. To complete the application, Peinkofer wrote a 10-page executive summary providing an overview of her dissertation work 

She found out about this award through Richard Redfearn, Walton College grant programs manager, who pointed her in the direction of the award using the Pivot Funding Opportunities Database.

Peinkofer's dissertation committee includes Walton faculty Terry Esper and Brent Williams of the supply chain management department and Ronn Smith of the marketing department.