Stanley Lim

Stanley Lim is an associate professor of supply chain management in the Department of Supply Chain Management and a faculty affiliate with the Evolution and Future of Work Research Initiative at Michigan State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Cambridge, a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.B.A. from Warwick Business School. Stanley's research addresses operational challenges in downstream, or so-called "last-mile," supply chains. By adopting a cross-domain perspective that integrates operations management, marketing, and economics with customer behavior analytics, his goal is to advance both the theory and practice of retail logistics. He provides organizations with actionable insights on how to distribute their products and services to end consumers efficiently, under various conditions. Recognized for his data-driven, interdisciplinary approach and strong grounding in real-world applications, Stanley's work has been honored as a finalist for the INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize and as a semi-finalist for the INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award.

His research contributes to the understanding of the economics of distribution services in both digital and nondigital retail. This encompasses the four core services, or the "four A's," that retailers provide to reduce consumers' search and transaction costs: (1) accessibility of product and information, (2) availability of product and information, (3) assurance of product delivery, and (4) assortment planning. Current areas of application include local package delivery, retail operations, and food waste reduction. He regularly provides expert commentary on these topics for major media outlets, including Fox News, the Associated Press, NBCUniversal, The Detroit News, and Detroit Free Press.

Based on this research agenda, Stanley has developed analytical models for store network and facility location design, service zoning, workload and job assignments, volunteer management, and new service policies. These include, for example, models to predict failed delivery attempts and incorporating the predictions in routing, estimate the opportunity cost of product stockouts for inventory planning, determine the optimal return window for consumer return policies, and evaluate spatial competition to guide store market area design. Additionally, he has explored the impact of contract terms on the bargaining power and economic outcomes of retailers and suppliers, the relationship between drivers' workload and delivery performance, the influence of subscription models on consumer behaviors, and consumers' sensitivities to lead times and their product return behaviors across digital and nondigital channels. 

His research appears in Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review. He serves as an associate editor for a special issue on responsible retail operations at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. He has previously co-edited a special issue on innovations, technologies, and the economics of last-mile operations, and served as an associate editor for a special issue on omni-channel retailing at Journal of Operations Management. Stanley reviews for leading journals, including Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Decision Sciences Journal, Naval Research Logistics, and Service Science. For his reviewing activities, he has received reviewer awards, including the 2024 Decision Sciences Journal Best Reviewer Award, 2023 Management Science Distinguished Service Award, 2024 and 2023 M&SOM Meritorious Service Award, and the 2025 and 2022 Academy of Management's Operations and Supply Chain Management Division Outstanding Reviewer Award.

Stanley regularly organizes and chairs sessions on empirical retail operations and economics of retail distribution services at INFORMS and POMS annual conferences. He served as Chair of Research (Research Tracks) for the 2024 DSI Annual Conference, and has co-chaired research tracks, including the Empirical Research in Operations Management track at the 2025 Annual POMS Conference, Retail Operations track at the 2024 Annual POMS Conference, the POM-Economics Interface track at the 2023 Annual POMS Conference, and the Supply Chain Management track at the 2023 DSI Annual Conference. He is a member of the INFORMS 2025 and 2026 Daniel H. Wagner Prize Committee, President of the POMS College of Supply Chain Management, and Co-Chair of the Supply Chain Management track at the 2026 Annual POMS Conference and Chair of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chains track at the 2026 DSI Annual Conference. He welcomes opportunities for new collaborations.

*** I am actively looking for post-docs/visiting PhDs/research assistants to work with me across causal inference, structural estimation, optimization, and advanced machine learning with applications in retail, logistics, and food supply chains. Please contact me if you are interested. ***

Huang, J., Lim, S.F.W.T. and Akturk, M.S. 2024. Third-party delivery platforms. Management Science (Under revision after major revision decision).Wang, L., Lim, S.F.W.T. and Rabinovich, E. 2024. Stem distance and impact on courier choices. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (Under revision after major revision decision).Akturk, S., Chintapalli, P. and Lim, S.F.W.T. 2024. Return window and opportunistic consumers in retail. Production and Operations Management (Under second-round review after major revision decision).Lim, S.F.W.T. 2024. Multichannel return behavior. Production and Operations Management (Under review after major revision decision).Carlsson, J., Lim, S.F.W.T., Liu, S. and Yu, H. 2025. Data-driven delivery zoning for last-mile logistics. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.Zhao, Y., Luo, Z., Lim, S.F.W.T., Chen, C. and Sim, M. 2025. Service oriented considerate routing: Data, predictions and robust decisions. Management Science, forthcoming.Lim, S.F.W.T. 2025. How grocery retail innovations change customer behavior. MIT Sloan Management Review, 67(2): 23–25.Lim, S.F.W.T., Rabinovich, E., Lee, S. and Park, S. 2025. Estimating stockout costs and optimal stockout rates: A case on the management of ugly produce inventory. Management Science, 71(4): 3106–3126.
Lim, S.F.W.T. 2024. Cutting last-mile delivery costs: New tactics can boost profitability and satisfaction with subscription services. MIT Sloan Management Review, 66(2): 15–17.Lim, S.F.W.T., Gao, F. and Tan, T.F. 2024. Channel changes choice: An empirical study about omnichannel demand sensitivity to fulfillment lead time. Management Science, 70(5): 2954–2975.Lim, S.F.W.T. 2023. Research: Why so many packages don’t get delivered. Harvard Business Review. Available  at https://hbr.org/2023/11/research-why-so-many-packages-dont-get-delivered.Lim, S.F.W.T., Wang, Q. and Webster, S. 2023. Do it right the first time: Vehicle routing with home delivery attempt predictors. Production and Operations Management, 32(4): 1262–1284.
Lim, S.F.W.T., Richards, T.J., Rabinovich, E. and Choi, M. 2022. Scan based trading and bargaining equilibrium: A structural estimation of supply chain profit. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 24(4): 2328–2348.Lim, S.F.W.T., Rabinovich, E., Park, S. and Hwang, M. 2021. Shopping activity at warehouse club stores and its competitive and network density implications. Production and Operations Management, 30(1): 28–46.Lim, S.F.W.T. and Winkenbach, M. 2019. Configuring the last-mile in business-to-consumer e-retailing. California Management Review, 61(2): 132–154.Lim, S.F.W.T. 2025. How grocery retail innovations change customer behavior. MIT Sloan Management Review, 67(2): 23–25.