Gilles Paché

A transactional approach to global sourcing: application to French food retailers

Global sourcing is undoubtedly one of the major symbols of current worldwide strategies. Although much has been written on manufacturers’ ploys in searching for more competitive and/or reactive foreign suppliers, this is not the case for retailers, surely because retail buyers do not wish to speak about an issue deemed politically sensitive. The objective of this paper is to try and partially remedy this lack of information from field studies conducted on French food retailers. Based on Williamson’s (1975, 1985) “transactional paradigm”, the paper analyses how the retailers have known ‐ or not ‐ how to implement structures and to develop strategic behaviours to reduce the risk linked to global sourcing, from experience acquired in distribution channel management on the domestic market.

Speculative inventories in the food retailing industry: a comment on French practices

Examines the reasons driving French food retailers to build major speculative inventories through forward buying from their suppliers. First analyses the origin of the phenomenon and its strategic basis. Then, using the model of postponement‐speculation proposed by Louis Bucklin in the mid‐1960s, explains why forward buying does not conflict with a reduction of in‐store inventories. Finally, offers comments on the future of speculative inventories in the French context, which is characterized by permanently conflicting relations between manufacturers and distributors. To do so, reference is made to information collected in the course of interviews with the logistics managers of ten of the leading companies in the sector.

La coordination des chaînes logistiques multi-acteurs dans un context humanitaire : quels cadres conceptuels pour améliorer l’action ?

L’importance du bon déroulement des opérations logistiques lors d’actions humanitaires, liées à des catastrophes naturelles ou géopolitiques, est souvent soulignée par les médias. Il semble effectivement capital d’organiser de la manière la plus efficace, mais aussi la moins coûteuse, les différents approvisionnements en vivres, matériels et médicaments permettant le sauvetage de populations en détresse. L’accent est mis sur l’urgence extrême qui préside à la prise de décision, ce qui complique tout particulièrement la gestion des chaînes logistiques. L’article souhaite indiquer que, par delà la performance desmoyens mobilisés en termes de transport, de stockage, etc., l’enjeu est d’arriver à mieux coordonner les acteurs sur le terrain afin d’éviter d’inutiles redondances logistiques ou pire, de dramatiques ruptures de la chaîne. L’utilisation de cadres conceptuels issus du management, les strategies collectives agglomérées et la gestion des compétences collectives, ouvre des pistes de réflexion intéressantes pour améliorer l’action humanitaire.