Considering Technological Impacts When Selecting Food Suppliers: Comparing Retailers' Buying Behavior in the United States and Europe

Purpose: The research investigates the impact of emergent technologies, specifically supply-chain technology and food-production technology (i.e., genetically modified organisms [GMO]), on global food retailers' supplier decisions.

Methodology/approach: Qualitative research is conducted to examine technology-related vendor selection criteria of food retailers in 5 European countries comparing to those in the US.

Findings: Our findings show that global food retailers view supply-chain technology as a competitive advantage and is integrated as an important selection criteria; however, selection criteria differ for food-production technology between the United States and the European countries. European food retailers explicitly oppose food-production technology (GMO), while U.S. food retailers implicitly accept food-production technology. Emerging from this opposing view, global food retailers establish similar criteria for organic food (non-GMO) supplier selection: reliability, distance, consistent quality, and relationships with suppliers.

Research implications: Applying the supplier choice criteria framework (Lehmann and O'Shaughnessy 1982 Lehmann, D. R. and 'Shaughnessy, J. O. 1982. Decision criteria used in buying different categories of products. Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, 18: 9–14.  [Google Scholar]) to further analyze organic food suppliers, we find that reliability (adaptive criterion), distance (integrative criterion), consistent quality (performance criterion), and relationships with suppliers (economic criterion) are essential, but price is not.

Practical implications: This study suggests that to sustain competitiveness in the global food market, food suppliers not only need to ensure technological compatibility in supply-chain, but also adapt to the local food-production restriction (GMO) and organic food selection criteria preferences.

Originality/value/contribution: Supply-chain technology is strategically important and is adopted by global food retailers for competitive advantage; yet, there are dramatic differences regarding the acceptance of food production technology. This research contributes to the better understanding of how technologies exert significant and strategic weight in the food supplier selection process.