Verbraucherverhalten und Supply Chain Management: Herausforderungen für Unternehmen des Agribusiness

Abstract

Throughout recent decades, floods of new approaches to better integrate individual behaviour of market actors into marketing and microeconomic theory have been developed. In agribusiness practice, however, these approaches have not yet been recognized: Throughout the supply chain, price is commonly viewed as the most important parameter, be it on the consumer side at the end of the chain or on the supply side in the relationship between farmers and the processing industry.The German meat and dairy sectors traditionally have been and still are very cost-driven. Recent notions such as hybrid buying behaviour , multioptional buying , or smart shopping show a necessity to analyse consumer behaviour in a more differentiated way in order to optimse value creation; this has broadly been neglected in the mass-market oriented agribusiness sectors. On the supplier side, it can be observed that formerly stable relationships between dairy farmers and milk processors become more and more vulnerable to external crises; at the same time the traditionally antagonistic and seldomly contractual relationship between pig farmers and slaughterhouses is more long-term oriented than suggests the institutional framework.The basic assumption of this dissertation is that through this exclusive concentration on prices and the neglect of soft factors of cooperation, the firms in the milk and meat sector renounce on potentials for value creation, in marketing towards consumers as well as in relationship marketing towards suppliers. In addition to the attempt to confirm this hypothesis, it is the aim of this dissertation to provide first concrete hints on how to overcome these challenges. This dissertation is devided into two parts, which both consist of four articles dealing with the above mentioned issues: Consumers meat buying behaviour on the one hand and supplier relationships in the meat and dairy sector on the other hand.The first part begins with the description and discussion of current developments in meat consumption. Trends in nutrition, buying and eating behaviour are discussed intensively from a microeconomic, sociological and psychological perspective. In the following three articles, concrete questions of meat marketing, i.e. choice of type of packaging choice of store type are analysed empirically based on a quanitative survey. Animal husbandry, which is more and more in the focus of societal disscussions in the field of food consumption, is also analysed empirically. All studies show a clear polarisation of consumers. Besides the often cited price orientated mentality ( costiveness is cool ) there are also highly sensitive consumers, who perceive a high risk when buying food and are ready to pay more when trust and credibility are communicated. A detailed analysis of the different target groups shows approaches to optimise consumer marketing.The concept of trust is also essential in the second part of this dissertation, which is dedicated to relationships between farmers on the one hand and milk and meat processors on the other: Which form of coordination is appropriate, and which impact do soft factors have on supplier bonding? First it is shown that in the predominant market for standard quality, coordination forms close to spot-markets represent appropriate ways to cooperate: Only where higher requirements towards process quality have to be met, contractual (longer term) arrangements are recommended. Irrespective of the formal arrangement of the cooperation, further empirical analyses in the milk and meat sector show the high relevance of behavioural constructs such as satisfaction, trust, and commitment also for the success of less strictly coordinated business relationships. These constructs represent an important basis for the ability of partners to cooperate.All in all, this dissertation confirms, on the basis of extensive literature research and with the help of empirical analyses, to major deficits of agribusiness supply chains and provides first approaches to overcome them. The analysis of individual behaviours as well as social interactions along the supply chains therefore is an important tool to reach an increased total chain value in agribusiness. Only by that means, the problem of ignorance of consumer behaviour and wishes on the one hand and lack of cooperation between the actors within the supply chain on the other hand can be solved. Behavioural sciences, and especially research on the concept of trust, can provide an important contribution to this end.