Relationship Commitment and Ethical Consumer Behavior in a Retail Setting: The Case of Receiving Too Much Change at the Checkout

In this study, we conducted two experiments to examine the effect of relationship commitment on the reaction of shoppers to receiving too much change, controlling for the amount of excess change. Hypotheses based on equity theory, opportunism and guilt were set up and tested. The first study showed that, when the less committed consumer is confronted with a large excess of change, he/she is less likely to report this mistake, compared with a small excess. Conversely, consumers with a high commitment towards the retailer are more likely to tell when they receive too much change, especially when the amount is large. The second experiment provided an explanation for these findings: the less committed consumer is driven by opportunism, whereas guilt-related feelings play an important role in a high commitment relationship. These results have several implications for both retail management and future research.     

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.     

我国零售业竞争优劣势分析

以竞争优势理论为基础，以“钻石体系”为框架，从生产要素、需求条件与企业战略、相关与支持产业发展、市场结构与竞争角度对我国零售业的竞争优、劣势进行分析。     

Pricing dynamics in US fresh produce channels: new empirical evidence

Despite many valuable contributions, prior research has not completely explained retail pricing behavior. This study employs scanner data for 36 fresh produce items analyzing the relationship between costs of goods sold and retail prices to provide further insight into retail pricing behavior. Implications include: (1) where ‘natural’ variation in produce prices do not already exist from the supplier, retailers appear to introduce the variation themselves, independent from shipping point price; and (2) to the extent that supplier-retailer contracts for fresh produce develop, the resulting stabilizing influence on costs may have the preserve effect of increasing retail price variability to consumers.     

我国大型家电连锁企业物流创新策略研究

在中国进入WTO与国际全面接轨以及网络信息化技术高速发展的今天,零售业面对全面对外开放接受国外竞争者严峻挑战,这对家电连锁企业的经营提出了新的要求,发展现代物流已成为大势所趋。企业物流能否快速、准确、低成本的进行成为各个家电连锁企业能否占有更大的市场份额,赢得更多消费者的关键。现在物流要求大型家电连锁企业将信息化与物流结合起来,利用先进的信息技术实行全方位管理,实现现代物流与电子商务紧密结合及货流、资金流、信息流和人才流的统一。     

Allocating a hybrid retailer's assortment across retail stores: Bricks-and-mortar vs online

This paper develops an IP model to determine item allocation for a hybrid retailer's store network, comprising bricks-and-mortar and online stores. Products with low carrying costs are distributed between the bricks-and-mortar stores and the online store. Products with high carrying costs can be withdrawn from the bricks-and-mortar stores and made available exclusively at the online store where the inventory carrying costs are comparatively lower. This strategy assists the hybrid retailer to not only improve the profitability of its bricks- and-mortar stores but also to retain the custom of the market segment that is loyal to the items withdrawn from the traditional stores. In this framework, the online channel complements rather than competes with traditional channels. This model is used to conduct an extensive simulation study to analyze the impact of important business factors on system profitability.     

Should retailers harmonize marketing variables across their distribution channels? An investigation of cross-channel effects in multi-channel retailing

Retailers with more than one channel of distribution have to decide whether marketing variables such as conveyed image, price, and assortment should be harmonized across channels. This article presents an integrative model and survey results that shed light on this question; its focus is on stores, online shops, and catalogs. The results show that harmonization of marketing variables has advantages and disadvantages: on the one hand, it correlates positively with overall customer loyalty and cross-channel customer retention, i.e., one channel causes more sales in other channels. On the other hand, it also correlates positively with cannibalization within the distribution system. This suggests that general recommendations strictly favoring or disfavoring harmonization do not account sufficiently for the complexity of the problem and retailer heterogeneity.     

Slotting Fees for Organic Retail Products: Evidence From a Survey of U.S. Food Retailers

Based on a survey of U.S. food retailers, our study finds that almost one third of U.S. food retailers charge slotting fees for certified organic food products, a retailing area where slotting fees had not previously been well documented. Econometric results from both ordered response and binary response models suggest that a number of firm-level attributes do influence the presence and/or relative size of organic slotting fees in a manner that is mostly consistent with an economic efficiency rationale and partly consistent with a market power/strategic behavior rationale for slotting fees.     

全渠道零售：演化、过程与实施

近年来,传统零售企业业绩持续下滑,迫使其重新思考并创新现有零售渠道模式,全渠道零售受到理论界及企业界越来越多的关注,但很少有学者对全渠道零售行为过程进行全面而深入的剖析。梳理零售渠道演化过程可以发现,全渠道零售是零售渠道从单渠道、多渠道向跨渠道发展演化的高级阶段,零售企业的零售过程可分布于不同的零售渠道类型中,且多个渠道的零售过程可以任意相互整合,最后构成消费者完整的全渠道零售购买过程。在全渠道零售中,消费者在购买过程的每个阶段都面临着多种类型的渠道选择,其排列组合非常复杂,以消费者为中心的全渠道零售的实施可以更好地契合新的消费行为,为消费者带来更高的体验价值。为更好地实施全渠道零售,全渠道零售企业可基于全渠道零售过程的各个阶段,从全渠道信息传递、全渠道订单管理、全渠道支付、全渠道物流配送、全渠道服务以及全渠道数字客户关系管理等方面入手加以改进和完善。     

The Impact of Market Orientation on the Internationalization of Retailing Firms: Tesco in Eastern Europe

This paper investigates a Western retailer's market orientation levels in two emerging markets. We examine whether the market orientation-company performance link holds true for retailers in emerging economies, despite environmental differences. By using concepts from key studies we have assimilated a fully representative model - applied through interviews with top management from Tesco and its subsidiaries and affiliates in Hungary and Slovenia. Using this example, we find that the market orientation-business performance link is valid for Western retailers in emerging economies. Here, the retailer applied market orientation predominately through; the use of matching with suppliers of own brand goods; top management emphasis on market orientation and risk taking. Intelligence generation and dissemination was exercised via global processes such as brand review.