Christoph Teller

Value‐adding partnerships and co‐opetition models in the grocery industry

Leading representatives of the European grocery industry formed the European efficient consumer response initiative in 1995. The goal of this strategic alliance is set to reengineer the way in which business is done in the industry by implementing cooperative strategies between retailer and manufacturer in order to fulfill consumer wishes better, faster and at less cost. Efficient consumer response appears thereby in many facets, from a “simple” dyadic value‐adding partnership to a sophisticated form of co‐opetition, where supply chain members have both relationship types – competition and cooperation – at the same time. Our paper discusses these issues first on theoretical bases and then presents empirical results of a comprehensive analysis within a selected European efficient consumer response initiative showing the success factors of managing efficient consumer response partnership relations.

DEVELOPMENT AND EMPIRICAL TEST OF A GROCERY RETAIL INSTORE LOGISTICS MODEL

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model of instore logistics for retail stores.Design/methodology/approach – The model attempted to give a picture of all logistics processes that are carried out within a retail outlet from an incoming dock to the check out. The model has afterwards been empirically validated by analyzing the instore logistics processes of dairy products in 200 stores in the Austrian grocery retail sector.Findings – The findings of the survey show typical problem areas within store operations and identify the impact of instore logistics as a key factor impacting on the success of retail business.Originality/value – The paper continues the work of Raman, DeHoratius and Ton in 2001, and Cachon, also in 2001 and the findings contribute to close the execution gap in retail operations.

Antecedents for the Adoption and Execution of Supply Chain Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model that includes drivers of supply chain management (SCM) adoption and execution identified in the literature, provide a set of measurement scales that operationalise constructs within this model, empirically verify a hierarchical order of antecedents that affects the adoption and execution of SCM, and assist management by providing a focus on those SCM conditions and processes that need to be prioritised to increase successful SCM adoption and execution.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model is tested empirically through a survey of 174 senior supply chain managers representing the biggest organisations within a central European country.Findings – Using structural equation modelling the hypothesised hierarchical order of three proposed antecedents is verified: “internal SCM conditions”, that affect “joint or external SCM conditions”, which in turn influence collaborative “SCM‐related processes”. Firms that adopt these steps sho...

Environmental retail supply chains: when global Goliaths become environmental Davids

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that evaluates the environmental elements in retail supply chains and to examine the environmental supply chain management initiatives of the worlds largest 100 retailing companies.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical evaluation has been undertaken through an investigative approach applying a web‐scan framework which included the analysis of web sites and publicly published documents such as annual reports and corporate social responsibility reports.Findings – The authors identified 34 environmental sustainability initiatives which were grouped into eight categories; they refer to “fundamental environmental attitude”, “use of energy”, “use of input material”, “product”, “packaging”, “transport”, “consumption” and “waste”. The level of environmental supply chain management can be characterised as very operational and very short‐term oriented (green operations). Long‐term oriented green design initiatives were hardly observed. Furthermore, th...

Urban Place Marketing and Retail Agglomeration Customers

Abstract Through identifying the attributes of a place that have an influence on the patronage behaviour of urban retail customers, this paper presents a conceptual model that proposes direct and indirect antecedents regarding the different retail-related dimensions associated with urban place attractiveness. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested by surveying approximately 500 actual customers at the time they visited a particular town centre for the purposes of shopping. The results showed that the retail tenant mix, the merchandise value, and the atmosphere had a direct impact, and the product range and the sales personnel an indirect impact upon the evaluation of attractiveness. Furthermore, a number of additional effects towards these antecedents were identified with respect to parking conditions, the non-retail tenant mix, manoeuvrability, and orientation. This revealed that retailing activities were a major driver of attractiveness for an urban place. The practical implication of these findings suggests that place marketing activities should be proactive in supporting and enabling retailers in fulfilling their roles.

A model for structuring efficient consumer response measures

Purpose – The 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/approach – This 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.Findings – Similarities 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.Research limi...

Web-based Surveys in Logistics Research: An Empirical Application

The use of surveys continues to lead logistics and supply chain management research. We discuss the use of Internet or Web-based surveys as an alternative to traditional survey methods in the context of a Web-based empirical study to identify advantages, disadvantages and limitations of this approach. We demonstrate that this approach has numerous technological and methodological advantages to improve not only internal validity but also external validity. Based on a literature survey, we identify different advantages and validate them by presenting the results of a Web-based survey that was conducted in a typical logistics research setting.

Patronage behaviour of elderly supermarket shoppers – antecedents andunobserved heterogeneity

This article investigates antecedents of grocery store format patronage behaviour of elderly shoppers. Based on a literature review, we set up a conceptual model that proposes effects between the perception of store attributes, satisfaction, patronage intention and behaviour. We test the model using a survey of more than 400 supermarket patrons aged 60 and over who live in a highly concentrated urban retail environment. Variance based structural equation modelling reveals that the product range and the price–value ratio have the most impact on patronage behaviour. Nevertheless, response based segmentation identifies unobserved heterogeneity in the overall modelling results. Unlike demographic characteristics of the respondents, the variables ‘availability of a car’ and ‘problems in walking longer distances’ explain the heterogeneity of the results between segments where significantly different impacts of accessibility and price–value ratio on patronage behaviour can be identified.

Supply chain management and hypercompetition

Firms nowadays face significant challenges in their operating environments, which have been characterised in two different ways. From a strategic management perspective these environments are in a state of hypercompetition while from a logistics or supply chain perspective these environments require market responsiveness predicated upon agile supply chains. However, firms must also rely on many inter-organisational relationships to ensure efficient and effective movements within their supply chains. This paper discusses the relationships among these concepts and proposes a research framework combining aspects of the hypercompetition and responsiveness and agility viewpoints.

Retailing in the United Kingdom - a synopsis

This paper illustrates the structure of, and trends in, the retail market of the United Kingdom (UK). This industry analysis describes the retail environment compared to continental Europe and considers the regulatory issues which have helped form this retail environment. By using secondary data we describe concentration and consolidation tendencies and explain specific features of the UK retail market. Major trends are identified and discussed, concluding with an outlook on future developments.