Christina Holweg

Social Marketing Innovation: New Thinking in Retailing

Retail marketing has been a well-established research stream in academic literature for several decades. As social marketing takes ideas from commercial marketing, this article proposes to transfer the retail-marketing concept of social supermarkets (SSMs), a real- world application, to social marketing. Social supermarkets can be seen as an innovative example of social entrepreneurship, as well as a best-practice benchmark of “new thinking” in social marketing. Social supermarkets sell food and consumer goods that they receive free from retailers and manufacturers for a discount of up to 70% to people who are in or at risk of poverty. The contribution of this article is in defining the concept of social supermarkets founded on social marketing and retail marketing literature and in describing the development and current status of the social supermarket sector in a European country.

What a Waste! Exploring the Human Reality of Food Waste from the Store Manager's Perspective

Food waste is a major problem in industrialized nations, and thus a better understanding of this phenomenon and its inherent complexity is imperative. As gatekeeper to the food supply chain, the retail and wholesale sector is a crucial actor in the pursuit of minimizing food waste. The authors draw on the perspective of marketing as exchange to provide a holistic exploration of food waste in retail and wholesale stores while taking into account the interconnectedness of the entire food supply chain. Through 32 semistructured interviews with store managers, the authors shed light on the issues of food waste and its human reality. The findings reveal the questionable ethics of discarding food; the societal, regulatory, and systemic constraints leading to the occurrence of food waste in stores; and the resulting moral burden on store managers. Building on these factors, the authors outline public policy recommendations in the areas of education and law and provide managerial recommendations for the better management of food waste.

Unsaleable Grocery Products, their Residual Value and Instore Logistics

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the complexities of regularly implemented as well as irregularly occurring – sometimes improvised – instore logistics processes related to products which are declared unsaleable; and second, to identify the challenges and opportunities in managing instore logistics processes related to unsaleable products in grocery stores. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply an embedded case study approach. Within each case, i.e. dominant store format, the authors investigate the instore logistics processes of 32 retail and wholesale stores and focus further on those processes related to products declared unsaleable. The case study research methodology comprises in-depth interviews with store and category managers, point of sale observations and secondary data research. Findings – The authors identified four different specific instore logistics processes depending on the residual product value of unsaleable products. The analysis of these proce...

Social Supermarkets-a New Challenge in Supply Chain Management and Sustainability

This article discusses the recent phenomenon of social supermarkets (SSMs) founded in Austria in the late 1990s. In essence, SSMs receive food and consumer products that are still consumable but no longer of merchantable or saleable quality from supermarkets and food processors for free, and sell them to customers who are people living in poverty or at the risk of poverty. Products are sold at significantly reduced prices thus providing an indirect support for a socially disadvantaged group. From a logistics and supply chain management perspective SSMs impose several challenges for all parties involved in the operations. In addition to traditional logistical requirements such as timely information sharing and prompt distribution, the recollection of product also affects reverse logistics and flows.

The importance of key supplier relationship management in supply chains

Purpose: This paper investigates the impact of key supplier relationship management (KSRM) – understood as an aggregated supply chain management (SCM) process in the upstream direction – on the overall level of the execution of SCM within organizations. Methodology: A conceptual model is developed from a theoretical framework and proposes the capability to do KSRM as a mediator between internal and external SCM resources and SCM execution. A survey of 174 managers representing different supply chain stages is used to test the model through variance-based structural equation modelling. Findings: The findings reveal that external SCM resources directly affect the capability to do KSRM. Nevertheless, internal resources show a considerable indirect impact through external resources and can thus be considered an indirect determinant. The capability to do KSRM in turn impacts upon the level of SCM execution, measured in terms of the integration of business processes, directly and substantially, as well as mediating the effect between SCM resources and the level of SCM execution. Value: The main contribution of this paper is to empirically demonstrate the potential of KSRM for enhancing the level of SCM execution within organizations and consequently the level of integration in supply chains, leading to higher customer and shareholder value.

An Examination of Food Waste as a Corporate Social Responsibility of the Retail and Wholesale Sector

Food waste is a major problem in industrialized nations. In order to develop efficient mechanisms for minimization, a better understanding of the complexities involved in food waste is necessary. This chapter takes a marketing system perspective to provide a holistic exploration of the edible food waste phenomenon on a retail and wholesale store level. By means of 32 in-depth interviews with store managers, we gain insights into the relevance of food waste occurrence, avoidance, and redistribution. The data reveals various factors influencing the occurrence of food waste along formal, informal, and philosophical antecedent classes. We find that managing edible food waste is closely connected to the triple bottom line: reducing its occurrence and enabling processes to redistribute edible food waste can create economic, ecological, and social benefits. Against this background, we propose a dormant sustainability potential in the management of food waste and advance recommendations for realizing these benefits. We suggest that food waste is a key priority area in the realm of corporate social responsibility for retail and wholesale organization. The chapter draws on a framework for public policy change and provides a discussion about how different processes can help reduce edible food waste among various market actors.

Sozialmärkte als innovatives Beispiel für gelebte CSR im Lebensmittelhandel

Der vorliegende Beitrag beschaftigt sich mit der Entstehung, Erscheinungsform sowie dem CSR-Beitrag von Sozialmarkten in Europa aus Perspektive der Handelswissenschaft. Sozialmarkte bieten finanziell schwachen Personen ein begrenztes Sortiment an Lebensmitteln zu stark reduzierten Preisen. Dieses erhalten Sozialmarkte uberwiegend kostenfrei von Handels- und Industrieunternehmen. Da es sich um die Weitergabe von noch verzehrbaren, aber oftmals nicht mehr verkauflichen Produkten handelt, ist dies im ersten Ansatz eine innovative Moglichkeit zur Abfallreduktion. In anderen Worten agieren Sozialmarkte nach dem CSR-Gedanken okonomisch sowie okologisch verantwortlich. Da sich das Angebot exklusiv an finanziell schwache Personen richtet, ist daruber hinaus auch die CSR-Komponente der Verantwortung gegenuber der Gesellschaft angesprochen. Die mehr als 1000 Markte in Europa sowie das Bestehen der ersten Sozialmarkte seit uber 25 Jahren, belegen deren Bedeutung aus wirtschaftlicher, okologischer und gesellschaftlicher Perspektive.

Sozialmarkt - Imagegewinn oder Gefahr für die Marke?

Sozialmarkte verkaufen Guter und Lebensmittel des taglichen Bedarfes zu maximal 30 Prozent des Kurantpreises an finanziell schwache Personen. Die Waren werden kostenlos von Herstellern und Industrie zur Verfugung gestellt. In der wissenschaftlichen Marketing- und Handelsdiskussion erfolgte bislang nach Kenntnis der AutorInnen keine Diskussion von Fragestellungen, die sich mit dem Thema Sozialmarkt auseinandersetzen. Daher wurde im vorliegenden Projekt ein explorativer Forschungsansatz gewahlt. Bisher wurden drei empirische Projekte realisiert. Nach einer ExpertInnenbefragung (n=18) folgten eine KonsumentInnen- (n=514) sowie eine Herstellerbefragung (n=18). Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden ausgewahlte Ergebnisse mit dem Schwerpunkt „Sozialmarkt “ Image “ Marke“ prasentiert.