---
id: "entity-rodney-thomas"
type: "entity"
entityType: "person"
canonicalName: "Rodney Thomas"
aliases: []
source_timestamps: ["byline", "Readers Also Viewed These Items"]
tags: ["author", "academic"]
related: ["entity-org-university-of-arkansas"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
source_title: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
sources: ["attention"]
isSpeakerEntity: true
---
## Segment 4 — attention

## Article 71 — a071

# Rodney Thomas

**Profile.** Rodney Thomas is an associate professor of supply chain management and advisor to the Customer Centric Leadership Initiative at the [[entity-org-university-of-arkansas]] (Sam M. Walton College of Business).

**Role in this source.** Co-author of the study behind this article. His customer-centric-leadership focus reinforces the article's argument that retailers must adopt a *customer-service mindset* toward suppliers once the [[concept-buyer-seller-role-inversion]] takes hold.

**Attributed contributions.** As a co-author he shares in every author-attributed finding: the central thesis and [[claim-rmn-failure-is-relational]]; [[claim-rmn-as-a-tax]] and [[claim-end-of-exploratory-budgets]]; the [[framework-five-pillars-of-rmn-success]]; and the author-voiced quotes [[quote-fee-not-strategy]], [[quote-problem-is-relational]], and [[quote-earn-supplier-dollars]].

**Canonical reference.** University of Arkansas faculty profile and biography; positioned as a supply-chain scholar with an interest in retail/customer-facing operating models.