我国通道费的经济学分析与规制政策评述

零售商滥收通道费恶化了工商关系,阻碍了零售业的可持续发展.本文首先对我国的通道费进行了分类,并通过建立模型,认为通道费作为一种分担新商品风险的经营模式有其合理性;文章后半部分从供应商、零售商的竞争者、消费者三者福利盈亏角度,对各类通道费进行了经济学分析;最后对最近颁发的<零售商供应商公平交易管理办法>进行了评述,并提出规制建议.     

通道费与大型零售商盈利模式研究:基于双边市场的视角

文章基于产业组织研究领域新兴的双边市场理论,分析在零售商主导的市场环境下消费者、零售商、制造商三者的利益关系,理论上证明了大型零售商已经演变为双边市场中的交易平台。在此基础上,构建主导零售商定价策略模型研究通道费的各种影响因素,并针对我国零售市场特点,提出了对通道费进行规制的相关原则。研究结果表明：通道费是大型零售商为平衡制造商与消费者利益,将外部性内部化的重要机制,具有一定的合理性。     

产品质量、议价能力与通道费

零售商通道费的产生机理和福利效应是理论界研究的热点,而零售商现有货架上的在售商品对潜在厂商交易条件的影响却少有研究。文章在货架稀缺的视角下,以包含产品质量的经典效用函数为起点,基于现实中零售商普遍采用的预付费合约和相应商务谈判过程的实际,建立了量化零售商产品质量和议价能力的渠道博弈模型,考察了通道费的产生条件、作用机制和福利效果,并探讨了预付费合约本身的现实基础和例外情况。结果表明：当预付费模式是一种刚性的制度安排时,通道费是否产生取决于零售商的议价能力和现有产品质量,只有议价能力和产品质量都很低的零售商才无法收取通道费;当零售商有能力在预付费模式和买断模式之间选择时,预付费一定实现为通道费,代理费必然不会产生。对生产商而言,通道费迫使低质量厂商退出市场,客观上起到了产品质量筛选的作用。这一筛选机制也决定了消费者福利的损益。     

大型零售商收取通道费合理吗?——来自信号传递模型的解释

文章对通道费的相关理论进行了总结,并通过一个包含批发价格和通道费的信号传递模型,分析了非对称信息下通道费的渠道结构优化机制。在零售商的销售成本充分高的情况下,通道费构成了不完全信息动态博弈中剔除劣战略均衡的合约安排的必要条件,能够有效地区别高市场需求和低市场需求的制造商。因此,通道费并不必然是零售商滥用市场势力的工具,在众多的情况下通道费为合理配置货架空间,优化商品流通渠道,以及调整制造商的产品结构提供了有效的信息甄别工具。     

The Ethics of Slotting: Is this Bribery, Facilitation Marketing or Just Plain Competition?

The practice of manufacturers' payments of fees to retailers for the display and sale of their products has become a common practice. In the grocery retail business, the fees paid by manufacturers are called slotting fees, or a payment made for a slot on the shelf. The same practice is used now in the retail book industry. Large book chains command high fees from publishers for the prominent display of books. Entrepreneur's products are often precluded from stores and markets because slotting fees are prohibitive. The fees are non-uniform and often paid in cash, creating an atmosphere that has already spawned illegal activity on the part of retail executives. This article examines the ethics of slotting fees.     

通道费的生产及其对生产商利润影响——基于品牌价值视角的研究

通道费的收取引起了渠道冲突和零供关系紧张,“效率促进论”和“市场势力论”两大阵营从自己的领域进行了研究,但对于通道费对生产商利润影响没有一致的结论。文章尝试从品牌价值的视角重新研究通道费的生产,解释了通道费的存在基础--零售商市场势力及其来源,并在此基础上研究了零售商品牌价值对零售数量和生产商利润的影响,最后通过我国制造业的数据说明通道费没有降低生产商利润的结论,这一研究不但具有理论研究的重要意义,更具有指导政策方向的现实价值。     

我国的通道费:理论发展与规制策略

Under normal market competition, charging suppliers for slotting fees by retailers is a normal business practice. Although it is prevalent in China, the rationalities of slotting fees for established products and linear slotting fees are doubtful. The relevant departments of governments need to supervise and regulate these types of slotting fees. There are two available regulation formulation strategies: we can either learn from Japan to ban explicitly certain types of slotting fees, or learn from America to adopt an attitude of laissez-faire towards slotting allowances. Translated and revised from Guanli Shijie 管理世界 (Management World), 2007, (7): 164–165     

Manufacturing for overseas private labels: A win–win strategy for retailers and producers

Abstract

The study discusses the use of private labels, both for retailers and manufacturers, within the context of international markets. It is proposed that agreements between manufacturers and retailers from different markets may solve or mitigate some abiding frictions and serve the interest of both parties. Using data collected through 101 in-depth interviews among marketing managers, qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to explore producers' attitudes and behaviour in regard to agreements to manufacturing for overseas retailers' private labels. The study revealed that lower transaction costs, quicker penetration into new markets and retailers' reputations among customers are the dominant motivators while short-term strategy, appropriate mainly for grocery items, increases dependency on retailers and deters manufactures from contracting with overseas retailers' private labels. The study also found that gaps exist between manufacturers' perceptions and actual behaviour, mediated particularly by firm size and product categories. The findings, which reflect observed practice, are interpreted through theoretical propositions related to earlier studies. Managerial implications are provided.     

Independent Retail and Grocery Shops in Zimbabwe: Survival and Demise in a Crisis and Post-Crisis Era

Research on independent retail and grocery shops has largely been confined to more advanced markets such as those of the United States and the United Kingdom, ignoring trends in this sector in other markets such as Africa. Findings from these previous studies have established increasing pressure for survival faced by these independent retailers due to the dominance of big local supermarket chains and increased foreign competition. This research investigates the impact of increased local and foreign supermarket retail competition on independent retailers in Zimbabwe during the turbulent hyperinflation crisis era and the post-crisis recovery dollarization era. Key findings from the study focus on the impact of the changing retail landscape on growth and demise of these retailers. The study outlines constraints faced by the retailers and coping strategies that are being used to address the changing landscape and constraints. Implications for marketing practice and policy are then outlined.     

The geography of lifestyle center growth: The emergence of a retail cluster format in the United States

Just as geographers have given much attention to the evolution of shopping malls and power center retail complexes, it is equally important for research in business geography to continue to provide developmental evidence as new and distinctive retail cluster formats emerge and grow. The lifestyle center is a unique type of retail complex that has experienced much expansion across the United States yet has not received much research attention from location researchers. This study provides answers to basic questions, including the geography of lifestyle center development, the relationship of lifestyle center development to traditional mall activity, and the characteristics of lifestyle center market areas in comparison with the trade areas of their mall counterparts. The results show that lifestyle centers are developing in distinctive locations and markets within American cities that are not well-served by traditional malls. The study results also establish that lifestyle centers have a significant bias toward location in large cities, representing a clear contrast with traditional malls and their locational orientation toward smaller centers. The study summarizes these findings and argues that the emergence of the lifestyle center format has important implications for retailers, commercial property developers, and local economic development officials.     

Hypermarkets and the Small Retailers in Malaysia: Exploring Retailers' Competitive Abilities

The emergence of multinational retailers, especially in grocery retailing, has changed the retail scenario in Malaysia over the last decade. In the past, grocery retail formats such as supermarkets, minimarkets, and night markets dominated the Malaysian retail scene, consumers are now given the choice of shopping in large retail outlets where new retail formats such as hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, and superstores now thrive and are increasingly gaining in popularity. Interestingly, large retail concepts are predominantly associated with multinational retailers such as Carrefour, Makro, Giant, and Tesco. The presence of large retailers brings with it the question of dominance and implications of changing customer preferences. This study assesses the perception of small retailers toward their abilities to compete effectively in an industry where large, multinational retailers appear to be dominating. It appears, however, that the small retailers possess distinctive qualities in relation to their strategic inputs that can essentially differentiate them from their larger competitors. It is suggested that some regulatory measures especially by local authorities are necessary, but this must not be to a point of curbing healthy competition among the different types of retailers.     

Large format retailing in the US: a consumer experience perspective

Proponents of relationship marketing seek to develop and maintain long-term ties to their customers in the hope of having a loyal customer base. In this paper we examined large format retailing from the perspective of consumers’ experiences in these stores. Focus group interviews were conducted in two major US metropolitan areas and one medium size market. After analyzing the focus group content, several themes emerged related to patronage of large format retailers. These included the accuracy of prices when products were scanned and loyalty to store personnel based on familiarity. Large format supercenters were especially chided for their bigness and potential negative impact on smaller retailers. Attending to the details of the food retail business (accurate pricing, product availability, continuity of personnel) are ways in which consumers’ experiences in retail stores might be improved. Numerous choices and a diverse array of retail formats are available to consumers in the US market. Managerial implications are discussed in the light of a changing retail landscape.     

Why Private Label Grocery Brands Have Not Succeeded in Asia

Abstract

Lower disposable income among Asian grocery shoppers, heavily discounted private label grocery brands, relative to national brands, and a favorable retail distribution structure would seem to predispose the former to success. But this has not been the case. To learn why private label grocery brands have not succeeded in Asia, two identical shopper surveys were conducted in Wichita, Kansas (United States) and Prakanong-Bangna, Bangkok (Thailand) to examine possible factors relating to retail grocery shopping differences. The authors found that poor market knowledge, and the tendency of Thai consumers to infer product quality by using extrinsic cues such as high price were salient. Additionally, Thai choices were influenced more by social factors than Americans, making them less prone to bargain hunting. The paper concludes with the discussion of managerial implications and offers recommendations to retail chain owners operating in the region.     

Retailing in the Transition Economies of Poland and Romania: A Comparative Analysis

This research compares and contrasts the current state of development in the retailing industry in the transition economies of Poland and Romania. Two issues examined in this research are (a) the process of market reforms and resulting developments in store-based and non-store retailing, including the competition among large multinational retail chains and small local retail stores, and (b) the structure of the retail industry in terms of market share of 17 different categories of retailers within their respective sectors, namely, grocery retailers, specialty retailers, and non-store retailers, and overall growth registered by these retailers in the last 5 years (2004–2009). Managerial implications of the findings in terms of the opportunities and challenges in different categories of retailing business in the two countries are discussed, and directions for future research are identified.     

Attitudes towards computer technology: comparison of retail buyers and apparel manufacturers in the U.S.A.

Apparel retailers and manufacturers are incorporating advanced technologies such as CAD/CAM systems and electronic data interchange into their businesses. Attitudes held by key personnel toward these new technologies can enhance or hinder implementation. This study was designed to investigate and compare the attitudes of manufacturers and buyers towards computer technology. Fifteen Likert-type attitude statements were developed by the researchers. A pilot test of the instrument resulted in minor changes. A total of 105 usable questionnaires were returned: 57 from manufacturers and 48 from retail buyers. t-test results indicated that buyers' and manufacturers' attitudes differed significantly on five of the 15 attitude statements. A discriminant analysis showed that the same five statements significantly discriminated buyers from manufacturers. Manufacturers' responses were more positive than buyers' on four of these statements. Overall, the results indicated that apparel manufacturers and retail buyers held favourable attitudes towards computer technology.     

Grocery pickup creation of value: Customers’ benefits vs. spatial dimension

This article examines an Internet grocery shopping model very frequent in the UK and in France: the grocery pickup system. It strives to answer this research questions: does this system create value for consumers? The methodology relies on in-depth interviews with retailers and data from French retail grocery industries. The exploratory approach through experts’ interviews concerning the content of retailers’ selling propositions for consumers reinforces the theoretical framework related to customers’ value and grocery pickup. It appears that long term value could exist through the satisfaction of functional, experiential and relational benefits responsible for the uniqueness of the retailer's positioning. Given the asymmetry between retailers approach and consumer's one, the second part is focused on a particular aspect of the functional benefit: closeness in retailing. Then, an entropy measurement in a French context from two large samples of 1576 hypermarkets and 1473 grocery pickups are conducted. Results show that grocery pickup locations fulfill this sine qua non successful condition. Nevertheless, it is made evidence that this new channel is most of the time developed in overstored areas.     

The effect of concentration and market power on food prices: evidence from Finland

This research examines empirically the relationship between economies of scale, concentration, and market power in food retailing. With unique, local market data available Finland, the analysis could investigate the impact of both local concentration and industry-wide concentration (which can be interpreted as multimarket contact) are taken into account in the evaluation of grocery retail competitiveness. The results show that the main factor affecting market power is the size of the retail firm. Larger share grocery retailers, for both the local and the national markets, carried higher mark-ups. At the same time, no firm-level scale economies were found from these larger firms. I conclude from these findings that the main purpose of large grocery retail mergers is to gain market power not efficiency.     

Challenges to Retailing Systems—Lessons from the People's Republic of China

Abstract

Based on an investigation of market leader manufacturers and consumers, this pilot study focuses on an analysis of the phenomena of “squeezing” retailing activities in China as a result of the double pressures from both producer and consumer. Based on this study, and in the context of the fierce international competition in the market place in China, the conclusion has been reached that (a) “In the market place, the manufacturers and consumers are one-step-ahead of retailers; (b) The large-scale production-retailing-consumption system is important to China's market economy and its future development; and (c) Marketing is the key for manufacturers and retailers to succeed in China today and in the future.”.     

Little Retailers and Friends Target Big Retailers in the U.S., China,Japan, and Germany

Abstract

Wal-Mart isn't the only large retailer facing new obstacles to their operational policies and expansion plans, and the United States (U.S.) isn't the only country where resistance is growing to big chain store operations. Some consumers, unions, special interest groups, and governmental entities are erecting roadblocks for a number of large retailers in the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany. They're busily attacking retail brands using consumer images and perceptions of large stores as a fulcrum to portray the retailing whale as a shark. Some competitors even go so far as to say the problem isn't that the big stores want some of their business, the problem is that they want allof it.     

Food Waste and Food Retail Density

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the relationship between food retail density and municipal solid waste. We test for correlations between the volume of solid waste and the number of food-at-home retailers (e.g., grocery stores) and food-away-from-home retailers (e.g., restaurants) at the county level in the state of Mississippi over 2007–2012. Since food scraps comprise the largest share of post-recycling municipal solid waste in the United States, we control for the overall level of economic activity to account for other sources of solid waste, as well as demographic factors, county, and time effects. We find that increases in food-at-home retailer density are negatively correlated with solid waste volume. Conversely, we find that increases in the number of food-away-from-home retailers lead to more waste. While we do not explicitly investigate the mechanisms, we discuss possible avenues such as increased food access in the case of food at home, and increased portion sizes and substitutability in the case of food away from home.