Contact Information

Biography

Dr. Kathryn Marley is an Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, including Supply Chain and Operations Management and Supply Chain Process Improvement. She served as the Accounting, Information Systems and Technology, and Supply Chain Management Department Chair from 2021-2024. 

Dr. Marley's work has been published in Decision Sciences, Business and Society, Managing Service Quality, Operations Management Research, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spreadsheets in Education, and Journal of Education for Business.

Dr. Marley is an ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Prior to joining Duquesne University, she was an Assistant Professor at Ohio University.

Education

  • Ph.D., Business Administration, Ohio State University
  • M.A., Business Administration, Ohio State University
  • M.B.A., University of Akron
  • B.A., Grove City College

Research Interests

Dr. Marley's research interests are in the areas of lean management, supply chain disruptions, sustainability within supply chains, and teaching methods.

Lean management influences Dr. Marley's teaching style and academic research. One paper describes how lean management can be effectively be taught within a core operations management or supply chain management course and involves analysis of survey data to develop a lean teaching agenda.

Her papers also examine how the implementation of lean management can protect firms from experiencing supply chain disruptions. To accomplish this, she uses organizational accident theories that focus on the relationship between high levels of interactive complexity and coupling (or buffering), and a high propensity for experiencing accidents. Dr. Marley uses empirical data to suggest that high levels of complexity makes a firm more vulnerable to experiencing disruptions and that implementing lean management can serve as an effective mitigation strategy. 

In the future, she would like to apply these ideas to the service industry, particularly in the area of healthcare. 

Dr. Marley was awarded a research grant from the School of Business to explore the relationship between sustainability and supply chain performance using KLD and Compustat data.

School

Palumbo-Donahue School of Business
  • Eugene P. Beard Outstanding Service Award, 2019-2020
  • Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2019-2020

External
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), Sigma Alpha Pi, 2018-2019

Articles in Journals

Atkins, R., Sener, A., Drake, M. J., & Marley, K. (2023). Predictors of Burnout Among Supply Chain Management Professionals. International Journal of Value Chain Management, 14(1), 62-81.

Marley, K., Vogt, J., & Mileski, J. (2019). Contextual Effects on the LSS Implementation in Networked Service Environments: A Critical Realism Case Study for the Port of Houston. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 37(5), 755-780.

Marley, K., Hartzel, K., & Spangler, W. (2016). On-Line Social Network Adoption: A Cross-Cultural Study. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 56 (2), 87-96.

Marley, K. A. (2014). Eye on the Gemba: Using Student-Created Videos and the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy to teach Lean Management. Journal of Education for Business, 89 (6), 310-316.

Marley, K. A., Ward, P. T., & Hill, J. A. (2014). Mitigating Supply Chain Disruptions - A Normal Accident Perspective. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 19 (2), 142-152.

Marley, K. A. & Ward, P. T. (2013). Lean management as a countermeasure for normal disruptions. Operations Management Research, 6 (1), 44-52.

Marley, K. A., Stodnick, T. M., & Heyl, J. (2013). Comparing textbook coverage of lean management to academic research and industry practitioner perceptions. Journal of Education for Business, 88 (6), 332-338.

Marley, K. A. & Stodnick, T. M. (2012). A Longitudinal Study of the Zone of Tolerance. Managing Service Quality, 23 (1), 25-42.

Marley, K. A. & Weber, J. (2012). In Search of Stakeholder Salience: Exploring Corporate Social and Sustainability Report. Business and Society, 51 (4), 626-649.

Marley, K. A. & Drake, M. J. (2010). A Simulation to Illustrate Periodic-Review Inventory Control Policies. Spreadsheets in Education, 4 (2).

Marley, K. A., Collier, D. A., & Goldstein, S. M. (2004). The Role of Clinical and Process Quality in Achieving Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals. Decision Sciences (Journal of), 35 (3), 349-369.

Chapters

Marley, K. & Drake, M. (2014). A Century of the EOQ. EOQ Inventory Problems: Stochastic and Deterministic Models and Applications (pp. 3-22). New York, NY: Springer.

Marley, K. & Anand, G. (2013). Pizza Station. In M. Drake, The Applied business Analytics Casebook: Applications in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, and Operations Research. Upper Saddle Hill, NJ: Financial Times Press.

Marley, K. & Drake, M. (2013). The Evolution of Quick Response Programs. In T. Cheng & T. Choi, Innovative Quick Response Programs in Logistics & Supply Chain Management (pp. 3-22). New York, NY: Springer.