Efficient Consumer Response

The interorganizational structures necessary to implement and achieve the logistical performance improvements identified in the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiative and related supply chain management concepts are difficult to develop. Firms continue to struggle to implement integrated programs and techniques, particularly with respect to changing operating structures, relationships, and mindsets to facilitate true supply chain integration. This research explores the logistical strategies and structures used by selected food and consumer goods firms to integrate their supply chains. It illustrates effective integration strategies and identifies critical success factors and barriers to successful ECR implementation. A framework is used to guide managers in developing the competencies essential to integrating the supply chain and to establishing the relationships necessary to operate in an ECR environment. The framework, entitled Supply Chain 2000, depicts supply chain value c...

Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce (B2B EC) technologies have been widely adopted by organizations in developed countries to improve the management of supply chain activities. However, organizations in Middle Eastern countries have been slow in adopting B2B EC technologies. To enrich our understanding of the reasons for this slow uptake, this exploratory study compares the experience of Bahraini and Australian organizations with the adoption of B2B EC technologies. This study employs a multiple case study with a total of 14 organizations from the grocery industry of both countries. From the case comparison, we identify some reasons for the reluctance of organizations in Bahrain to adopt B2B EC technologies, although the national environment and the organizational capability generally support the adoption. We particularly highlight the importance of the positive mutual interactions between organizations and their trading partners within the industry for the adoption of B2B EC, which is currently lacking within the Bahraini grocery industry.

Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is a grocery industry supply chain management strategy designed to make the industry more efficient and responsive. Although ECR originated in the US, the concept has been adopted in many regions. Despite the many potential benefits obtainable from ECR, however, many studies indicate that the ECR diffusion rate has been slow, which is attributable to a number of factors. To enrich the findings of the studies conducted in the US and Europe in this respect, this paper examines ECR adoption in Australia, which presents another unique case. For this purpose, a survey of the Australian grocery industry was conducted. The findings suggest that in Australia, ECR diffusion has also been slow. Differences in barriers, perceptions of ECR, and benefits experienced were discovered among different sub-groups within the retail industry, which affect their ECR involvement level, satisfaction level, and ultimately the ECR diffusion rate. These differences further suggest that manufacturers are largely passive followers of an ECR initiative led by retailers.

The adoption of efficient consumer response (ECR) has been slow in many regions, despite its many potential benefits to supply chain participants through reduction of inventory level and operating costs. There has not been any well‐developed theory that can explain this slow uptake. Argues that the inherent characteristics of ECR have actually created barriers to its own adoption. As an inter‐organisational system (IOS), ECR adoption requires co‐operation and trust between trading partners, which are unlikely to happen unless costs, benefits and risks of ECR implementation can be mutually shared. Shows, using a case study conducted within one supply chain, that an unequal distribution of costs, benefits and risks among manufacturer, distributor and retailer is inherent in the implementation of cross‐docking, which typifies the overall ECR program. The findings of this study lead to a new direction in understanding the barriers to adoption of ECR and IOS in general.

Efficient consumer response (ECR) is an electronic commerce (EC)‐enabled grocery industry supply chain management strategy, which is designed to make the industry more efficient and responsive. Despite the many benefits obtainable from ECR, the adoption rate has been slow in many regions. At this stage, there is no well‐developed theory of adoption of technologies at this wide scale that can explain this slow uptake. This paper explores the experiences of the Australian grocery industry with ECR adoption. In order to obtain a more reliable snapshot of ECR adoption practices, barriers and perceptions, this study employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Since the Australian grocery industry has a unique structure, important observations obtained from this study enrich previous ECR adoption studies.

In order to sustain competitiveness companies need to adopt electronic commerce enabled inter-organisational systems to improve the efficiencies of the entire supply chain. Adoption of inter-organisational systems by companies, however, has proved to be difficult, since such systems span organisation boundaries. Understanding this lack of success is hampered by the lack of sound theoretical analysis of inter-organisational systems adoption. In this study, which uses Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) as an example, we describe and contrast two different approaches to modeling adoption. The first relates ECR characteristics, organisation characteristics, and certain external driving forces to ECR adoption, and is a familiar factorstype model. Then, recognition of the importance of the inter-orgaisational context of ECR adoption leads to a reconsideration of the causal links in this model and to the formulation of a new model of the proccesual kind. Case studies of ECR adoption in Australia are presented to demonstrate that the revised model captures more of the complexity of ECR adoption experiences and outcomes.

Abstract-The adoption of ECR has been slow in many regions, despite its many potential benefits to manufacturers, distributors and retailers within a supply chain through reduction of inventory level and operating costs. There has not been any well-developed theory that can explain ...

The adoption of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) by the grocery industry has become increasingly important in order to stay competitive. Due to the inter-organizational nature of ECR, its adoption involves various parties with different and conflicting objectives and requires the concerted effort of supply chain members. Thus, third party organizations may be important in ECR adoption, but the exact roles they play have received little research attention. Employing a multiple case study, this study uncovers five roles third parties play and extends a previously published model of ECR adoption to include third parties as mediators in the ECR adoption process. The results are important theoretically for understanding the complexities of inter-organizational systems adoption general, and practically to promote the growth of ECR in particular. .

In this issue of International Commerce Review, Nestlé CEO Paul Bulke provides one clear perspective. The foundations of sustainable success lie in creating shared value -and the trick is knowing how to do so in an integrated, systemic way. Thus, Nestlé food products don't only aim to taste good, they also seek to deliver health and wellness. The process of making them provides jobs and, if organized properly, environmentally sustainable economic development. And if this is done well, the net result is consistent delivery of shareholder value too. Understanding value chains in these terms has far-reaching implications for the whole industry.

Substantial research that examines the adoption of IT-enabled initiatives by organisations has been conducted in the context of western countries. Existing research shows that IT systems and their adoption are largely shaped by the characteristics of organisations, organisational culture, and business environment. To address the limited understanding of IT adoption practices in developing countries, this paper investigates facilitators and challenges related to technological, organisational and environmental contexts for IT adoption. For this purpose, a case study was conducted with a local Malaysian retail company which experiences enormous competitive pressure from influential international retail giants operating in Malaysia. The findings of the study offer important lessons for organisations operating in developing countries.

Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce (B2B EC) technologies have been widely adopted by organizations in developed countries to improve the management of supply chain activities. However, organizations in Middle Eastern countries have been slow in adopting B2B EC technologies. To enrich our understanding of the reasons for this slow uptake, this exploratory study compares the experience of Bahraini and Australian organizations with the adoption of B2B EC technologies. This study employs a multiple case study with a total of 14 organizations from the grocery industry of both countries. From the case comparison, we identify some reasons for the reluctance of organizations in Bahrain to adopt B2B EC technologies, although the national environment and the organizational capability generally support the adoption. We particularly highlight the importance of the positive mutual interactions between organizations and their trading partners within the industry for the adoption of B2B EC, which is currently lacking within the Bahraini grocery industry.

The interorganizational structures necessary to implement and achieve the logistical performance improvements identified in the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiative and related supply chain management concepts are difficult to develop. Firms continue to struggle to implement integrated programs and techniques, particularly with respect to changing operating structures, relationships, and mindsets to facilitate true supply chain integration. This research explores the logistical strategies and structures used by selected food and consumer goods firms to integrate their supply chains. It illustrates effective integration strategies and identifies critical success factors and barriers to successful ECR implementation. A framework is used to guide managers in developing the competencies essential to integrating the supply chain and to establishing the relationships necessary to operate in an ECR environment. The framework, entitled Supply Chain 2000, depicts supply chain value c...

Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is an industry‐wide initiative that is commonly believed to have fallen far short of its promised efficiencies and value. Many believe that unrealistic expectations among grocery industry participants are primarily at fault for this shortcoming. The level of internal and external change required to make desired outcomes a reality have been underestimated and poorly understood by prospective participants. While change has been slower than desired, many firms have collaborated effectively and achieved significant results through coordinated supply chain activities. This research uses case studies to illustrate successful collaboration in the grocery supply chain and explores the success factors inherent in such efforts.

This article focuses on the design and characterization of management model for MSMEs, based on ecommerce and the GS1 international e-com standard. The first part contextualizes electronic commerce and its impact on domestic industry, and briefly describes the B2B e-commerce model used in Colombia. Subsequently the first step to apply the model is presented, which corresponds to the design of a diagnostic methodology that evaluates the technological, technical, commercial and administrative aspects of the organization; after that are exposed the results of the pilot experiment performed on a MSME from Bogota, and finally will be explained the procedures for the implementation of the model.

The adoption of inter-organisational system (IOS) has become important for many organisations because of its many benefits, which can be categorised into operational, managerial and strategic benefits. While some organisations have gained many benefits, some have experienced very limited benefits from IOS adoption. Existing studies have identified a number of factors affecting the achievement of IOS benefits. This is a research-in-progress study that is aimed at assessing the relevance of factors identified from the literature in explaining the benefits obtained by Australian organizations from IOS adoption, using four case studies conducted with two pharmaceutical and two grocery manufacturing companies.

In today's competitive market, service industry increases its scale to provide affordable and quality services to the customers. In supply chain there are various techniques and tools that can improve the output and productivity of supply chain process of a healthcare organisation. In this paper evaluation of vendor managed inventory is done by using ANOVA technique. Twenty persons from different 10-50 bedded small to medium size hospitals has been surveyed on different variables. Survey was done by personal interview and a questionnaire. That was based on the important variables of vendor managed inventory. Then mean of variables were calculated and were analysed graphically. A scattered diagram represents the variables graphically to find most and least important variables. Then ANOVA technique was applied on the variable and checked for significant value to evaluate the importance of vendor managed inventory and also analyse most and least important variable among selected.

In today's competitive market, service industry increases its scale to provide affordable and quality services to the customers. In supply chain there are various techniques and tools that can improve the output and productivity of supply chain process of a healthcare organisation. In this paper evaluation of vendor managed inventory is done by using ANOVA technique. Twenty persons from different 10-50 bedded small to medium size hospitals has been surveyed on different variables. Survey was done by personal interview and a questionnaire. That was based on the important variables of vendor managed inventory. Then mean of variables were calculated and were analysed graphically. A scattered diagram represents the variables graphically to find most and least important variables. Then ANOVA technique was applied on the variable and checked for significant value to evaluate the importance of vendor managed inventory and also analyse most and least important variable among selected.

The adoption of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) by the grocery industry has become increasingly important in order to stay competitive. Due to the inter-organizational nature of ECR, its adoption involves various parties with different and conflicting objectives and requires the concerted effort of supply chain members. Thus, third party organizations may be important in ECR adoption, but the exact roles they play have received little research attention. Employing a multiple case study, this study uncovers five roles third parties play and extends a previously published model of ECR adoption to include third parties as mediators in the ECR adoption process. The results are important theoretically for understanding the complexities of inter-organizational systems adoption general, and practically to promote the growth of ECR in particular. .

In order to sustain competitiveness, companies need to adopt electronic commerce (EC) enabled inter-organizational systems (IOS) to improve the ef®ciencies of entire supply chains. Adoption of IOS by companies, however, has proved dif®cult since such systems span organizational boundaries. Understanding IOS adoption is hampered by a lack of theory that can capture the complexity involved in IOS adoption since previous studies mostly employ the factor approach. In this paper, using Ef®cient Consumer Response as an example of an EC-enabled IOS, we demonstrate that the acknowledgement of the inter-organizational context of these systems naturally introduces the need for the processual approach and different notions of causality. We also show how the factor and the processual approaches to theorizing IOS adoption can be used in a complementary way.

A " manufacturing based supply chain" containing a broad spectrum of partners, including manufacturers, third party logistic providers, distributors and retailers, all of whom, have mixed modes of value adding processes (Chauhan & Proth, 2005). An important success factor for this type of supply chains is the ability for the partners to identify and track products moving through the supply chain, using the latest information technologies (IT). However, these value enhancements would vary substantially according to the nature of the partners' business requirement. As such, the flexibility of managing the IT infrastructure for supporting value adding activities is of the utmost importance. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless communication technology for precisely identifying objects. It uses radio-frequency waves to identifying information between tagged objects and readers without line of sight, thus enabling automatic tracking and tracing. Passive RFID can track products in supply chains from the supplier to the distribution centre, warehouse, and point of sale. RFID technology is increasingly used in supply chain management (SCM). However, like most emerging technologies there are different vendors, standards, systems, applications, appliances and processes that exist today. Therefore, potential increase in productivity is heavily offset by huge capital expenses on assets which may be obsolete in a few months' time. As a consequence, most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) simply wait until such time that they feel the technology is mature and stable enough to be integrated into their existing operations. Traditionally, supply chain network is built on existing IT infrastructure of the companies involved in the supply chain. Since major companies have IT policies that naturally channel data in a global fixed network structure, the supply chain information backbone is built based on the assumption that communication will be directed to the Internet. Typical examples are the two Australian national scal e p r o j e c t s t h a t w e r e s u p p o r t e d b y t h e Australian government to investigate the properties and limitations of electronic product code (EPC) technology for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chains (Mo et al, 2009b). In Europe, the project " Building Radio frequency IDentification solutions for the Global Environment" (BRIDGE) was supported by the European Community sixth framework programme to resolve the barriers to the implementation of the EPCglobal Network in Europe (Soppera et al, 2007). The BRIDGE project aimed to develop easy-to-use technological solutions for the European business communities, including the SMEs. These

Background: The King chilli cultivation in Peren district is very common practice in Nagaland state, which influence the socioeconomic status of the family due to daily diet, so the present research work have been highlight the marketing cost and price analysis. Methods: The present research investigation for data collection works was carried out during the agricultural year 2019 to 2021 with a total of 60 King chilli respondents; selected by following a multi-stage stratified simple random sampling technique to known about the factors responsible for the production. Result: Study reveals the overall benefit-cost ratio over total cost on the sample farm was 3.27: 1. Total four marketing channel were identified and the marketing efficiency by Acharya's method was higher (0.13) on channel A.

The phenomenon of user acceptance of technology including Internet has become one of the key research themes by various researchers. The emergence of Internet has brought changes in traditional methods of marketing communications almost for every sector including the pharmaceutical industry. Previous researchers have mentioned that the Internet adoption among the physicians (especially in developing countries context) is need to be examined by deploying predominantly established models like TAM, IDT and TRI. Therefore an extensive review of literature emphasizing on IDT, TAM and TRI studies has been conducted, also the studies which examined physicians adoption of technology have been reviewed. The review of literature indicates that the prominent model and theories like TAM and IDT has some limitations in explaining user acceptance and these limitations could be tackled by integration. The literature also supported that integrated models of TAM and IDT and TAM and TRI have explaine...

The purpose of the paper is to provide information-based on surveys conducted in several European countries-about how consumers and retailers perceive or expect mountain quality food products (MQFP). It uses surveys collected in the context of the "European Mountain Agrofood Products, Retailing and Marketing" (EuroMARC) project and uses principal components to assess consumers and retailers perceptions of mountain food. Although the analyses are explorative in nature, they indicate that there are clear and interpretable dimensions behind both consumer's and retailer's perceptions concerning mountain food products. The different factor analyses underlined three main dimensions behind the diverse sets of perceptions: local, business and market. From these, the cultural/local dimension seems to be the clearest component behind both consumer's and retailer's perceptions.

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The notion of progression in the adoption of Interorganisational Information Systems (IOS) has increasingly received attention from various researchers in the field of technology adoption, but currently there is still a limited understanding of how to address this important concept. Guided by our proposed IOS adoption maturity model, in this study we investigate the IOS adoption progression experienced by organisations within the Australian grocery industry through a multiple case study involving eight dyads. Our model focuses on the two way influence between dyadic relationship and IOS sophistication in the course of IOS adoption progression. This is the first study that provides empirical support for illustrating the notion of IOS progression. This study has important implications to both research and practice.

The Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a new industry sponsored lab charged with researching and developing automated identification technologies and applications. The Center is creating the infrastructure, recommending the standards, and identifying the automated identification applications for a networked physical world. All technologies and intellectual property developed at the Auto-ID Center are freely distributed. This white paper outlines the Auto-ID Center’s key conclusions and research progress after its first year of research.

Exhibit 8. Example of a Vendor Scorecard 33 VI 2) to identify the individuals in retail organizations who influence the order fulfillment process, both in the merchandising and distribution divisions; 3) to identify how retail organizations typically measure the performance of these key decision makers; 4) to identify the extent of retailers' preferences for various performance enhancing distribution practices and use of electronic technologies now and in the future; 5) to document how retailers measure suppliers' performance relative to order fulfillment; 6) to forecast how retailers expect all of these key factors to change in the future. This report should provide value for both retailers and their vendors. Retailers, on one hand, have an interest in comparing what they currently do, and how they expect to change with the benchmarks Food Industry Management Program CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Internet shopping is generally considered to grow in the future, however, the forecasts about the growth rate vary a lot (US Department of Commerce, 1998; OECD, 1998). So far the main focus in electronic shopping has been on the marketing, ordering, and paying processes. Logistical processes have most often been based on the existing distribution structures causing additional costs to the consumers. In this paper we argue that the major restricting factor for the growth of electronic shopping is physical distribution and supply chain management. Internet shopping facilitates significant redesigning of the entire supply chain from the factories to the households. It also enables expanding ECR (Efficient Consumer Response) systems to the households by changing the logistics control principles. Leading edge companies in the electronic grocery shopping sector such as Streamline and Homeruns are already experimenting with new kinds of supply chain configurations.

In today's competitive market, service industry increases its scale to provide affordable and quality services to the customers. In supply chain there are various techniques and tools that can improve the output and productivity of supply chain process of a healthcare organisation. In this paper evaluation of vendor managed inventory is done by using ANOVA technique. Twenty persons from different 10-50 bedded small to medium size hospitals has been surveyed on different variables. Survey was done by personal interview and a questionnaire. That was based on the important variables of vendor managed inventory. Then mean of variables were calculated and were analysed graphically. A scattered diagram represents the variables graphically to find most and least important variables. Then ANOVA technique was applied on the variable and checked for significant value to evaluate the importance of vendor managed inventory and also analyse most and least important variable among selected.

The firm Konyoka Multi-Purpose Organic Agriculture Farm was incorporated in 2016 in lines of farmers producers organisation with twin objectives of creating livelihood opportunities through integrated organic farm practices and reviving the barren flood plains of Jia Bhareli river. The academic aim of this case study is to analyse strategic decision of the firm in reviewing its supply chain and provide alternatives with a horizon of 05 years to 10 years in creating possible linkages and sustaining interest of its members. This case study discusses consumer behavior, food sovereignty, relationship between poverty, distressed selling, long-term business relationships, e-Commerce and CFPR practices, traditional supply chain, efficient logistic practices, organic farm produce markets, Government policy on farm subsidy and institutional support in organic farming in India vis-a-vis North Eastern India. Opportunities for the firm Konyoka discussed includes commercialization of plant varie...

The research represents a comprehensive study of retail operation. The paper elaborates a broad perspective of a demand and supply chain which interacts with macro and micro environmental factors and translates it into a customer requirement. The authors describe on different techniques and tools on demand and supply planning which leads to an optimized level of inventory, less cash outflow, higher product varieties and a greater customer satisfaction. Eventually fulfilling all these ensures increase in sales and profits to stakeholders; an ultimate objective of a firm. This paper demonstrates a holistic view on how a firm's supply chain operates as a whole. In addition, this study also highlights some retail examples in the US as well as in Bangladesh which unlock further frontiers for the practitioners and prospective researchers to replenish their practices as well as expertise in the retail industry respectively.

In this article we seek to identify how diverse community and economic development tools in the Extension portfolio might be adapted to the assessment of local food and farming developments. We report on an assessment of the economic development opportunities and impacts of local food system development in Knox County, Ohio. The data and analysis are drawn from several different sources, including

Many of the classical retail chains attempt to counter discounters' aggressive expansion strategy by introducing low-priced private label product assortments. In this paper we analyse the relationship between consumers' price behaviour and their reactions towards the classical retailers' low price products. Based on survey data we first develop a taxonomy of customers' price behaviour. This taxonomy is built from several dimensions of consumers' price behaviour. We then analyse if the price behaviour cluster consumers' belong to has an impact on their response to classical retailers' low-price products. The paper closes with a discussion of the results and directions for future research.

The use of GS1 data standards is envisioned to improve the efficiency of healthcare supply chain, as it did for retail. Care providers willing to adopt such a strategy in some or all of their operations often need to invest in process changes and technological installations or upgrades; however, they struggle to project returns on those investments and hence, find uncertain ROI a barrier to adoption. We present a hierarchical comprehensive model that helps potential adopters of various parts of the standards (what we term levels) evaluate their readiness requirements and quantify the impacts of their potential decisions in terms of non-monetary performance measures, such as productivity. The model design is showcased through practical examples.

Contemporary supply chains, operating the environment of the global economy, require that development and updating of knowledge, expertise, competences and skills possessed by professionals - logistics managers, keep pace with the development of new concepts, solutions and enabling technologies. At the same time a lot of employees are changing their job profiles, facing new challenges. It is evident that logistics

The current intense competition forces enterprises to pay attention to supply chain collaboration with their upstream and downstream partners. Different collaborative strategies such as Quick Response (QR), Efficient Consumer Response (ECR), Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) or Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) have been already proposed. The key to ensuring that the supply chain partners are progressing on the right track of creating the best-in-class practice lays on their ability to choose the appropriate strategy. The current paper proposes a framework, based on analysis grids and graphical representations, which help better characterizing these strategies. The analysis grids use several characterization criteria to express the collaboration nature and its extent. For a better understanding, this framework is then applied to the CPFR strategy.

This study aims to develop propositions about the factors that influence the purchase intention of private label products. These factors are: in-store promotion, visual merchandising, store image, and customer value. This study elaborates on some of the results of previous studies that have examined the factors that influence purchase intention of private label products that have been published on Google Scholar and indexed by Scopus between 1991-2020, to develop a proposition. This paper fills a lack of Studies which discuss purchase intention from a consumer behavior perspective. From the perspective of consumer behavior, purchase intention is influenced by three factors, namely: intrinsic factors including: consumer value, extrinsic factors including: in-store promotions, visual merchandising and store image, and consumer factors. This paper defines purchase intention as the effort and strong urge to buy a particular product in the future, the possibility of considering buying the product, the decision to rebuy the product and the desire to recommend the product. The main findings of this research are several propositions, namely: in-store promotion, visual merchandising and store image directly affect customer value and purchase intention. The following propositions are: In-store promotion, visual merchandising and store image influence purchase intention mediated by customer value.

The research represents a comprehensive study of retail operation. The paper elaborates a broad perspective of a demand and supply chain which interacts with macro and micro environmental factors and translates it into a customer requirement. The authors describe on different techniques and tools on demand and supply planning which leads to an optimized level of inventory, less cash outflow, higher product varieties and a greater customer satisfaction. Eventually fulfilling all these ensures increase in sales and profits to stakeholders; an ultimate objective of a firm. This paper demonstrates a holistic view on how a firm's supply chain operates as a whole. In addition, this study also highlights some retail examples in the US as well as in Bangladesh which unlock further frontiers for the practitioners and prospective researchers to replenish their practices as well as expertise in the retail industry respectively.

With the world's increased urbanization, the exchange process's view is fetching more efficiency in the shopping process. This trend is changing customer's intentions towards the retail stores. This article examines how the perception of access reshapes the customer's purchase decision in developing countries and how the retail stores' sustainable attractiveness intervenes in the purchase decision making. The point of sale convenience sampling technique is used with data from 669 urban retail customers' in the current study. The results have revealed that purchase intention and sustainable attractiveness of the retail store sequentially intervene relationship between the customer's access to the retail store and the purchase behaviour. Moreover, this study has also explored the vital link between purchase intention and purchase behaviour in Pakistan's urban organized retail stores. This study provides new insights for retailers and urban planners to m...

All retailers are obliged to compete in an environment which is characterised by increasing competition, uncertain economic conditions and the increasingly sophisticated desires of consumers. In response, retailers have been prompted to improve not only the ranges of products which they offer, but the quality of their service as well. Some food retailers, however, have gained a reputation for the poor quality of their service. By contrast, those food retailers which consistently provide their customers with service which is perceived to be of high quality are usually rewarded with high levels of both satisfaction and loyalty among their customers, which tends to minimise the likelihood of customers defecting to competitors and ultimately results in the retailers concerned maintaining their profitability in a sustainable manner. On the assumption that the youth represents a significant market for any retailer, it is a central tenet of this paper that retailers which are able to attract and muster support among the youth would inevitably increase both their viability and their sustainability. Accordingly, the study upon which this paper is based sought to gauge the perceptions of the youth of the importance of receiving high quality service from the large food retailers which they patronised most. A quantitative research approach was adopted to gather the data from a final research sample of 176 first year students who were enrolled to study towards the National Diploma in Retail Business Management at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Students who were studying towards this particular qualification were purposively selected because it was assumed that they would be familiar with retail concepts and be acutely aware of concerns pertaining to service quality. A self-administered questionnaire was considered to represent the optimal means of gathering relevant and appropriate data. The findings suggest that although large food retailers were generally perceived as successfully providing high quality service in some respects, in others they were generally less successful. It was evident that the respondents perceived, to a very significant degree, that the physical attributes of large retail food stores were the most important determinants of service quality. Attributes which pertained to convenience received particularly high ratings from the respondents, as did the quality of the products which were offered by retailers. Those determinants of service quality which pertained to interactions with the sales staffs of the retailers received the lowest ratings. The fact that the respondents rated the quality of the products which were offered as being of greater concern than their prices suggested that they would be inclined to remain loyal to large food retailers which met their perceived requirements for overall quality, which would include that of the service which they received from the retailers concerned, even if their prices were higher than those of their competitors.

Grocery retailers increasingly view other retail formats, particularly mass merchandisers, as a competitive threat. We present an empirical study of household shopping and packaged goods spending across retail formats -grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and drug stores. Our study considers competition between these formats and explores how retailer assortment, pricing and promotional policies, as well as household demographics, affect shopping behavior and expenditures in these different formats. This research is made possible by a new panel dataset collected by Information Resources Inc. (IRI) which captures consumer packaged good purchases made at alternative retail outlets. These purchases have previously been missed by panels that use only purchases at supermarkets. We estimate a hierarchical multivariate tobit model which captures consumer decisions about "where to shop" and "how much to buy." We find that shopping and spending vary much more across than within formats, and that the retailer's marketing mix explains more variation in shopping behavior than travel time. Of the marketing mix variables considered, we find that expenditures respond more to varying levels of assortment (in particular grocery stores) and promotion than price. This is surprising in light of the grocery industry's efforts to reduce retail assortments. Price sensitivity is most evident at grocers. Shoppers at drug stores are more sensitive to travel time than other formats, perhaps due to the convenience orientation of drug stores. We also find that households which shop more at mass merchandisers also shop more in all other formats, suggesting that visits to mass merchandisers do not substitute for trips to the grocery store.

The adoption of efficient consumer response (ECR) has been slow in many regions, despite its many potential benefits to supply chain participants through reduction of inventory level and operating costs. There has not been any well‐developed theory that can explain this slow uptake. Argues that the inherent characteristics of ECR have actually created barriers to its own adoption. As an inter‐organisational system (IOS), ECR adoption requires co‐operation and trust between trading partners, which are unlikely to happen unless costs, benefits and risks of ECR implementation can be mutually shared. Shows, using a case study conducted within one supply chain, that an unequal distribution of costs, benefits and risks among manufacturer, distributor and retailer is inherent in the implementation of cross‐docking, which typifies the overall ECR program. The findings of this study lead to a new direction in understanding the barriers to adoption of ECR and IOS in general.

This study explores the business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B EC) technology adoption experience of organizations within the supply chain of the grocery industry in Indonesia using a multitheory perspective. Through a multiple case study with eight organizations, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the influence of adoption factors. This study shows the usefulness of complementarily deploying several adoption theories and offers important theoretical and practical implications for organizations as they extend their supply chains globally.

The Italian market of cactus pears has recently undergone deep product innovations, and changes in the production processes and organizational structures. The fresh-cut category of cactus pears seems to bring out the unique characteristics of these fruits, as shown by the continuous growth margins of related market. In this context, we performed an analysis of this business sector to broaden the existing knowledge on its marketing system, and a study survey to better investigate consumer satisfaction with the product, with the final goal of foreseeing possible future scenarios to guide operators in the sector. In particular, the recognition of existing fresh-cut production companies allowed us to analyse the degree of technology spread, the bargaining power of the same, the services and range of products offered, the organizational models and the growth potential of different market channels, in order to assess the possibilities for market penetration of new businesses.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a model which structures and links different types of efficient consumer response (ECR) measures; it does so by considering the use of both quantitative or “hard” and qualitative or “soft” measures in ECR, emphasizing the importance and causal role of “soft” measures throughout the ECR process.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviews the ECR and performance measurement literature and proposes a model that explains linkages from intra‐organizational, inter‐organizational and industry prerequisites through ECR activities to ECR outcomes; and highlights the role of performance, behavioural, attitude and capability measures. Two extant studies from Austria and Denmark are examined in the context of the model to exemplify some of its features.FindingsSimilarities regarding issues of inter‐organizational and intra‐organizational prerequisites were found, but the two studies also demonstrated variety in the use of measures in ECR research...

The main aim of the study was to analyze/determine how international modern retailers’ chains can achieve a competitive advantage by introducing private labels (PLs) in the organic category and in turn stimulate consumption of food produced with respect of sustainability principles. Following a review of the relevant literature data collection process involved two steps. First, to select retailers with organic private labels (OPLs) and producers delivering products under OPLs, there were conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with the representatives of the management board of 17 enterprises. A group of 6 enterprises was selected, including 3 retailers having OPLs, 2 producers delivering products under OPLs and one enterprise that was categorized as producer and distributor. Based on the results of the interviews, six sources of the competitive advantage of the OPLs were identified and further discussed. Second, to analyze more in depth assortment-based competitive adva...

The aims of this exploratory research are to investigate the viability of Aldi’s discount pricing strategy in the context of UK grocery retail and examine the impact of this approach on customer’s perceptions of and loyalty to the Aldi brand. Using 191 self-completed questionnaires with Aldi customers in Edinburgh, Scotland, the research found that discount pricing was a useful competitive strategy to drive footfall to the Aldi store particularly if combined with perceived value for money. The research revealed that price and value for money influenced brand perceptions but did not necessarily make customers loyal to the brand. With regards to the research hypotheses, H1 discount pricing plays an influential role in the brand loyalty of customers was not supported and H2 customers patronise Aldi because of price was supported. The variables age, gender, income, spending on groceries, preferred grocery retailer and frequency of shop proved significant in a customer’s patronage of Ald...

Category management holds great potential, but has several inherent barriers that can impede category performance. This study examines factors thought to impact category performance because of the critical role category management plays at the end of the supply chain in Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) relationships between manufacturers and grocery retailers. Two central factors, category plan objectivity and implementation of the plans, as well as five factors antecedent to objectivity and implementation, were identified through a qualitative study of retailer and supplier category managers. The interrelationships of these factors were tested in an empirical study of 128 supplier category managers. As a direct effect on performance, implementation of category plans had a stronger impact on category performance than did the objectivity of the plans. The retailer's trust in the category management process was found to be a critical component on the implementation of category plans. Preplanning agreement between the retailer and the supplier was found to impact both objectivity and implementation. The internal conflict between supplier's brand management and sales/category managers had only a minor impact on objectivity, and that effect was mediated by the supplier's overall opportunism. Several theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Category management was developed as a strategy for retailers to successfully compete in each retail category for the shopper's loyalty and dollars (Blattberg, 1995). As a cornerstone of the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiatives, category management is designed to help retailers provide of the right mix of products, at the right price, with the right promotions, at the right time, and at the right place. In the context of supply-chain