That’s not exactly the question a couple college professors ask in a new booked called, “The Physics of Business,” but it might as well have been. The authors suggest the forces of scale and efficiency are trumping innovation at U.S. companies of which Walmart is the largest.

The retail industry has long been chastised for not moving fast enough when it comes to technology innovation.

Former IBM engineers Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver are among this year’s inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.