109 research outputs found

    Three Essays on the Effect of Scarcity on Consumer Behavior and Firm Performance

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    Studies have consistently shown that scarcity plays a significant role in shaping decision making. Under conditions of scarcity, individuals tend to behave impulsively, and firms are inclined to redefine their set of priorities and strategies, ultimately impacting their performance. Considering the scant investigation of the mechanisms and effects of scarcity in the supply chain management literature, this dissertation aimed to investigate the roles of scarcity in shaping consumer behavior and firm strategy in three essays. The first essay investigated the effect of post-stockout scarcity disclosures on consumer responses to stockouts through the lens of product scarcity and signaling theory. The results of the experimental analysis indicate that post-stockout disclosures increase consumer perceived scarcity, reduce consumer satisfaction with the stockout situation, yet increase consumer purchase intention. However, the results of a time-effect analysis show that consumers\u27 perceived scarcity and purchase intention decrease over time when stockouts persist. These results indicate that effectively communicating the reasons for the stockout, as well as actions being undertaken for replenishing the product can serve as a powerful tool to retain customers exposed to stockouts. The second essay explored the role of retail product rationing (limit buys) in preventing stockpiling of essential products at retail stores during natural disasters through the lens of regret theory and anchoring effect. Results of an experimental investigation through manipulation of the number of items a consumer can buy and the presence/absence of disclosures highlighting social norms – or nudges, indicate that when consumers\u27 needs were less than the retailer\u27s set purchase limit, the purchase limit increased consumer stockpiling propensity. Additionally, though no significant effect of social nudges in the presence of a purchase quantity limit was found, social nudges significantly reduced consumer stockpiling propensity when no limits were placed. The third essay studied the effect of a firm\u27s financial and operational slack on its green supply chain management (GSCM) performance by using the natural resource-based view and conceptualizing slack as a capability needed by a firm to reach its green supply chain goals. Results of a random effect model analysis indicate that the firm\u27s absorbed slack and unborrowed slack (financial slacks), and capacity slack (operational slack) have a positive effect with diminishing returns on its GSCM performance. In contrast, inventory slack (a different kind of operational slack) has a negative effect with diminishing returns on a firm\u27s GSCM performance. Moreover, we found that the firm\u27s operating environment scarcity positively moderates the relationship between inventory slack and absorbed slack on GSCM performances GSCM performance. Environmental scarcity promotes a more efficient use of slack resources in the pursuit of green SCM efforts

    Staying ahead of the global pack : [creating sustainable competitive advantage in the marketing of South African table grapes to the United Kingdom in the deregulated era]

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    Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-237)

    Transportation interoperable planning in the context of food supply chain

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    L'alimentation est une nécessité de base de l'être humain, dont la survie dépend de la quantité et de la qualité de la nourriture ingérée. L'augmentation de la population requiert de plus en plus de nourriture, tandis que la qualité est associée aux contraintes des produits alimentaires comme une courte durée de vie ou la sensibilité à la température. L'augmentation de la demande entraîne une augmentation de la production alimentaire, répartie entre plusieurs sites de production appartenant à plusieurs entreprises de taille variée, qui peuvent utiliser les produits d'autres sites pour fabriquer leurs produits finaux. En outre, certains produits alimentaires doivent être transportés entre les sites et les produits finaux distribués à des détaillants et des consommateurs lointains en tenant compte des contraintes de produits alimentaires. Les activités exercées par ces entités incluent entre autres la production, la distribution, la vente, etc. et ces entités forment conjointement dans l'environnement de l'écosystème alimentaire une chaîne pour le traitement, l'emballage ou la livraison de nourriture. Ce réseau s'appelle une chaîne logistique alimentaire (FSC). En raison de leur nature distribuée, les FSC héritent des problèmes classiques des chaînes logistiques, mais doivent en plus gérer les problèmes découlant de la périssabilité des produits. Cette périssabilité rend extrêmement important le traitement d'enjeux tels que le maintien de la qualité, la prévision de la demande, la gestion des stocks (éviter les ruptures de stock ou les stocks excessifs), l’amélioration de l'efficacité du réapprovisionnement, de la production et du transport, la traçabilité et le suivi pour réagir aux perturbations. Il est donc nécessaire d'établir une collaboration entre les entités principales de l'écosystème alimentaire pour traiter tous ces enjeux. En outre, depuis l'arrivée des entreprises de transport spécialisées, un nouveau acteur a émergé appelé transporteur ou fournisseur de logistique. Ces transporteurs doivent collaborer avec les producteurs, les détaillants et même d'autres transporteurs afin de prendre en compte la demande future et les tendances, afin d'organiser leur réseau et les ressources, pour livrer des produits alimentaires en assurant sécurité et qualité. Ainsi, la collaboration est devenue vitale pour les FSC. La collaboration implique une bonne compréhension des informations échangées afin de minimiser les déplacements, le coût et la pollution environnementale. Des problèmes d'interopérabilité surgissent lorsque les partenaires impliqués utilisent des systèmes hétérogènes et différentes normes et terminologies. Les approches de collaborations existantes comme "Vendor Managed Inventory" (VMI) ou "Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment" (CPFR) ne prennent en compte que deux acteurs de la FSC : le producteur et le détaillant (acheteur et vendeur). En outre, elles ne considèrent pas la planification de la production et des transports comme des tâches de collaboration. En tenant compte des limitations ci-dessus, nous proposons, dans une première partie de cette thèse, une extension du modèle CPFR prennant en compte les aspects production et transport. Ce nouveau modèle C-PRIPT (Collaborative -Planning Replenishment Inventory Production and Transportation) inclut le transporteur et considère la planification de la production et des transports comme des activités de collaboration. Dans la deuxième partie, nous proposons un modèle distribué et interopérable I-POVES (Interoperable - Path Finder, Order, Vehicle, Environment and Supervisor) pour réaliser la planification des transports en collaboration avec les producteurs, les transporteurs et les détaillants, visant à une meilleure utilisation efficace des ressources de transport. Enfin, nous illustrons le fonctionnement du modèle I-POVES en l’appliquant sur un cas étude de chaîne logistique alimentaire. ABSTRACT : Eating is human’s basic necessity whose survival depends on both quantity and quality of food. Increasing population requires increasing in quantity of food, while quality is associated with the food product constraints like short shelf-life, temperature sensitiveness, climate etc. Increasing demand causes increase in food production, which is distributed between several production sites involving several distinct entities from small to large enterprises, where sites may use the intermediate products of other sites to produce the final products. Moreover, food products need to be transported between sites and final products to be distributed to faraway retailer sites and consumers considering the food product constraints. Activities performed by these entities include but not limited to: production, distribution, sales, etc. and these entities form jointly in the environment of food ecosystem a chain for food gathering, processing, packaging, delivery etc. This distributed network of enterprises is called food supply chain (FSC). Due to FSC’s distributed nature, it inherits not only the common problems also faced by other supply chain, but in addition has to deal with the problems arising from the perishability of food products. This perishability nature makes extremely important for FSC, the handling of issues such as maintaining the quality of food products, forecasting the product demand, managing the inventory according to the forecast to reduce out of stock or excessive inventory of products, improving the efficiency of replenishment, production and transportation, taking into account product future demand and tracing and tracking to react to disturbance. Finally, it is necessary to institute collaboration between the main entities of food ecosystem to deal with all of these issues. Furthermore, since the advent of specialized transport enterprises, a new actor has emerged called transporter or logistics provider in the FSC. These transporters have to collaborate with producers, retailers and even other transporters within FSC to take into account product future demands and trends to organise their transport network and resources to make possible the delivery of the food products with security, while maintaining the quality of the food products. Thus, collaboration became vital for FSC. Collaboration involves a good understanding of exchanged information in order to minimizing number of transport travels, cost and environmental pollution. Interoperability problem arises when each of the partners involved in FSC uses heterogeneous systems and uses different standards and terminologies for representing locations, product constraints, vehicles types etc. Furthermore, existing collaborative approaches like Quick Response, Efficient Consumer Response, Vendor Managed Inventory, Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), etc. take into account only two types of actors of FSC: buyer and seller (producer and retailer). Additionally, they don’t consider the production and transportation planning as collaborative tasks. Taking into account above limitations, we propose, in the first phase of this thesis, an extension of CPFR model, which take into account production and transportation aspects. This new model C-PRIPT (Collaborative -Planning Replenishment Inventory Production and Transportation) includes transporter actor and elaborates production and transportation planning as collaborative activities. In the second phase, we propose a distributed and interoperable transportation planning model I-POVES (Interoperable - Path Finder, Order, Vehicle, Environment and Supervisor) to realise collaborative transportation planning by collaborating producers, transporters and retailers, aiming at a better use of transport resources. Finally, we illustrate the functioning of I-POVES model by applying it on a case study of food supply chain

    SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

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    The automotive industry is one of the world\u27s most important economic sectors in terms of revenue and employment. The automotive supply chain is complex owing to the large number of parts in an automobile, the multiple layers of suppliers to supply those parts, and the coordination of materials, information, and financial flows across the supply chain. Many uncertainties and different natural and man-made disasters have repeatedly stricken and disrupted automotive manufacturers and their supply chains. Managing supply chain risk in a complex environment is always a challenge for the automotive industry. This research first provides a comprehensive literature review of the existing research work on the supply chain risk identification and management, considering, but not limited to, the characteristics of the automotive supply chain, since the literature focusing on automotive supply chain risk management (ASCRM) is limited. The review provides a summary and a classification for the underlying supply chain risk resources in the automotive industry; and state-of-the-art research in the area is discussed, with an emphasis on the quantitative methods and mathematical models currently used. The future research topics in ASCRM are identified. Then two mathematical models are developed in this research, concentrating on supply chain risk management in the automotive industry. The first model is for optimizing manufacturer cooperation in supply chains. OEMs often invest a large amount of money in supplier development to improve suppliers’ capabilities and performance. Allocating the investment optimally among multiple suppliers to minimize risks while maintaining an acceptable level of return becomes a critical issue for manufacturers. This research develops a new non-linear investment return mathematical model for supplier development, which is more applicable in reality. The solutions of this new model can assist supply chain management in deciding investment at different levels in addition to making “yes or no” decisions. The new model is validated and verified using numerical examples. The second model is the optimal contract for new product development with the risk consideration in the automotive industry. More specifically, we investigated how to decide the supplier’s capacity and the manufacturer’s order in the supply contract in order to reduce the risks and maximize their profits when the demand of the new product is highly uncertain. Based on the newsvendor model and Stackelberg game theory, a single period two-stage supply chain model for a product development contract, consisting of a supplier and a manufacturer, is developed. A practical back induction algorithm is conducted to get subgame perfect optimal solutions for the contract model. Extensive model analyses are accomplished for various situations with theoretical results leading to conditions of solution optimality. The model is then applied to a uniform distribution for uncertain demands. Based on a real automotive supply chain case, the numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses are conducted to study the behavior and performance of the proposed model, from which some interesting managerial insights were provided. The proposed solutions provide an effective tool for making the supplier-manufacturer contracts when manufacturers face high uncertain demand. We believe that the quantitative models and solutions studied in this research have great potentials to be applied in automotive and other industries in developing the efficient supply chains involving advanced and emerging technologies

    A framework for supplier selection in the Nelson Mandela Bay retail industry

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    The success of business firms operating in the retail industry is largely dependent on the performance rendered by their supply base. Choosing the incorrect supplier could have dire consequences for the retailer’s performance, as suppliers are generally considered an extension of the retailer. Organisations base their operational expertise on the key performance objectives of cost, service, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility, which becomes the basis of their selection criteria when evaluating suppliers. The primary objective of this study was to develop a framework that guides retailers in their supplier selection process with the ultimate goal of formulating strategies to improve Nelson Mandela Bay’s (NMB’s) retail performance. In support of the primary objective, it was necessary to identify the current supplier selection criteria used in the NMB retail industry and the challenges that retailers face when selecting suppliers. The study set out to assess the effects of utilising established supplier selection criteria on retailers’ performance, as well as to identify strategies that retailers should employ to improve their performance. A quantitative research approach was utilised to collect data from a sample of 248 retailers and procurement and logistics managers. The empirical findings of the study identified flexibility, timeous delivery and reliability as the most important supplier selection criteria identified by retailers in NMB. The findings also revealed that utilising established supplier selection criteria has a significantly positive effect on retailers’ performance. Lack of collaboration between suppliers and retailers, lack of transparency between suppliers and retailers and suppliers’ limited knowledge of the criteria by which they are judged were identified as the most significant challenges facing retailers in NMB. The empirical findings also identified an increase in a retailer’s competitive advantage and revenue as the benefits of utilising supplier selection criteria to improve a retailer’s performance. The conclusions and implications of the empirical findings are provided and recommendations made. The study advances a framework to assist in guiding the retailers and procurement and logistics managers, retail researchers and policy makers when selecting suppliers. The study suggests that retailers should identify the most important supplier selection criteria, inform potential suppliers of the importance v of those criteria, select suppliers based on those criteria and utilise those criteria to evaluate the suppliers’ performance

    Sourcing strategies and competitive advantage : an empirical analysis utilising resource based theory

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    This thesis is concerned with establishing whether particular sourcing strategies lead to the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage, and the affect that the type of power relationships have on the situation. The theoretical framework for the study was grounded in the resource-based view. A survey was undertaken of twelve sourcing strategies within six organisations. The organisations varied in size and were from different industries. Furthermore, the sourcing strategies comprised six reactive and six proactive approaches and exhibited a varied mix of different power relationships. This enabled a thorough examination of the variables to be carried out. Three critical cases were then analysed in greater depth in order to investigate some of the contextual factors and second-order findings that were uncovered during the survey. The study found that proactive sourcing strategies may lead to sustainable competitive advantage, particularly when combined with buyer dominant or interdependent power relationships, but reactive approaches do not. However, a number of intervening variables were identified that also appear to influence the situation, such as the nature of the purchase, the objective of the sourcing strategy, and the degree of commitment to and investment in the sourcing strategy. A model is developed which explains the relationship between sourcing strategies and sustainable competitive advantage

    Supply Chain

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    Traditionally supply chain management has meant factories, assembly lines, warehouses, transportation vehicles, and time sheets. Modern supply chain management is a highly complex, multidimensional problem set with virtually endless number of variables for optimization. An Internet enabled supply chain may have just-in-time delivery, precise inventory visibility, and up-to-the-minute distribution-tracking capabilities. Technology advances have enabled supply chains to become strategic weapons that can help avoid disasters, lower costs, and make money. From internal enterprise processes to external business transactions with suppliers, transporters, channels and end-users marks the wide range of challenges researchers have to handle. The aim of this book is at revealing and illustrating this diversity in terms of scientific and theoretical fundamentals, prevailing concepts as well as current practical applications

    Retail brands in the emerging Malaysian market

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    Currently one of the most controversial innovations in grocery retailing in Malaysia is the introduction of retail brands. A retail brand can be defined as a product that retailers sell under their own brand name. These products may bear the name of the retailer selling them, such as 'Giant', 'Tesco' and/or 'Tesco Value', 'Carrefour', or may be sold under an entirely different name such as 'Aro'. The introduction of this brand may have a great impact particularly on consumer belief, which can lead to the modification in the relative efficacy of retail strategies for the hypermarkets concerned. This study provides a new opportunity for retailers particularly to reassess their retail strategies in order to gain a larger market share. Although Malaysia's grocery retailing was and still is dominated by manufacturers' brands, it is argued that developing a strong retail brand strategy can play an important role in competing and sustaining in the global market. Using one thousand systematic random samples from store-intercept technique from two major hypermarkets in Malaysia, this research investigates several attributes of retail brands that may affect consumers' overall perceptions. In addition, issues such as the situational factors, the shopping motives as well as the image of the store are also considered. Results are analysed and presented which show that while retail brands offer a lucrative market for retailers, as evidenced in the UK, retailers in Malaysia are struggling with these brands. The market indicates that Malaysia is more influenced by the manufacturers' brands. Malaysians perceived retail brands as inferior to manufacturer brands. In addition, certain aspects of the Tesco brands were not perceived as well as the Giant and the manufacturer brands. There is also some evidence suggestive of consumer confusion regarding the Tesco brand because it was introduced after, and possibly influenced by perceptions of the Tesco Value brand. The results also indicate some tactical problems being faced by Tesco. In addition, although situational factors, shopping motives as well as store image, provide significant relationships, the impact on the overall retail brands' perceptions is not strong. This demonstrates that consumers very often do not use explicit, concrete, rational factors to evaluate retail brand products, and thus their perceptions and motivation to purchase are not always easy to articulate. Nonetheless, the results conclude with an opinion of the responsibility that retailers could take in the delivery and strengthening of the advantage offered by retail brands. Retailers should convey their retail brand benefits' more on product functionality thus improving the brand attributes on a gradual basis; expanding on the retail promotion strategies; offering innovation and receptivity in-store environment; projecting store reputation clearly and finally managing their retail brands efficiently. It is argued that retail brands are not just about fulfilling basic consumer needs. Retail brands possess great power and the truly great retail brands will be those that learn to balance this power with responsibility. Incorporating a solid understanding of all aspects of consumer behaviour could assist retailers in their retail brand strategy. Hence, concentrating on one retail brand at a time in a store might be an ideal strategy for an immature market such as Malaysia

    Zara and Benetton: Comparison of two business models

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    The project analizes and compares two very important and diferent business models in fast fashion industry: Zara y Benetton models. Their models are so diferent but have been a great success, due to their capacity to respond quickly to demand of the market, then due to their flexibility. In this regard, the project also demonstrates how information sharing have a big role to the success of a company. It improves the efficiency of a company and helps to achieve the customer satisfaction . To achieve a good sharing information, it' s important a good and strenght relationship between manufacturer and retailer
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