Retailer Effort Research Articles

ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATE OF RETAIL ADVERTISING: A SYSTEMATIC MAPPING STUDY

Retail advertising is a vital part of the marketing efforts of retailers to attract and retain customers. However, there is a lack of comprehensive synthesis of the key themes and research gaps in the field. To address this gap, this paper uses a systematic mapping approach to provide an overview of the current state of retail advertising. The study synthesizes findings from various types of literature, including comprehensive reviews, meta-analyses, and future research agendas, to identify the major themes and trends in retail advertising. The systematic mapping approach involves a rigorous and structured process of searching, screening, and synthesizing relevant literature. This approach ensures that the study includes all relevant literature and provides a comprehensive overview of the field. The study identifies the effectiveness of various advertising strategies, such as price promotions, sales, and emotional appeals, and the impact of technological advancements on advertising channels and formats. Despite the abundance of research on retail advertising, several research gaps remain, including the role of emotions in advertising, cross-channel advertising integration, and the impact of advertising on ethical consumer behavior. The study concludes by identifying potential areas for future research in retail advertising, such as the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the impact of social media on retail advertising, and personalization in advertising. The findings of the study can guide future research and provide insights for retailers and advertisers seeking to enhance the effectiveness of their advertising efforts.

СТИМУЛИРОВАНИЕ СБЫТА МОЛОЧНОЙ ПРОДУКЦИИ – АНАЛИЗ СОВРЕМЕННОГО СОСТОЯНИЯ, ПОИСК ПУТЕЙ ПОВЫШЕНИЯ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ

The article is devoted to the problem of improving the consumption of milk and dairy products by the population of the Russian Federation, since their actual consumption is only 70% of the rational norm recommended by the Ministry of Health. The state of the domestic dairy market is analyzed – both in terms of the dynamics of its volumes in value and in kind, and the range of products sold. The main trends of changes in consumer demand in the context of a decline in real disposable incomes of the population are revealed. The main methods of sales promotion used by grocery retail chains in relation to dairy products are investigated. The shortcomings of the practiced approach to sales promotion are revealed. It is shown that a significant increase in sales volumes can be achieved by increasing the consumer audience as a consequence of the development of collaboration of retail chains with the regional social nutrition system. Such cooperation can be especially effective when using a cluster approach, which ensures the unification of the efforts of producers, processors and retailers of dairy products with a balanced consideration of the interests of all participants in the process.

Equilibrium Optimization with Multi-Energy-Efficiency-Grade Products: Government and Market Perspective

This paper studies the multi-level supply chain network equilibrium optimization problem of multi-energy-efficiency products under different government subsidies and demand scales. In the equilibrium optimization problem, manufacturers determine the production volume of the energy-saving products; retailers decide the transaction volume with manufacturers, distribution volume for markets, and marketing efforts of energy-saving products; markets determine the transaction price. Firstly, the optimal decision-making behaviors of manufacturers, retailers, and markets are described. Simultaneously, the global optimization problem is transformed into a finite-dimensional variational inequality formulation. Then, the equilibrium conditions of the whole supply chain network are derived by the Euler method. Finally, a case study verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. Interestingly, we found that energy-saving subsidies and demand scales were negatively correlated with the marketing efforts of the subsidized retailers for high energy-efficient products and positively correlated with the marketing efforts of non-subsidized retailers for high energy-efficient products in the same market; the development of retailers in the same market tended to be consistent, and the differentiation of the demand scale eliminated the retailers without a competitive advantage.

Examining the impact of service recovery resilience in the context of product replacement: the roles of perceived procedural and interactional justice

PurposeGiven increasing customer expectations and disturbances to product returns management, capabilities such as supply chain resilience (SCR) can complement service recovery strategies in retail supply chains. This study utilizes procedural justice theory (PJT) to conceptualize service recovery resilience as a capability that allows firms to meet customer requirements when dealing with disruptions, and empirically investigates its impact on procedural and interactional justice and customer outcomes (i.e. satisfaction and loyalty) in the context of product replacement.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs two scenario-based experiments using a sample of 368 customers to explore the outcomes associated with service recovery resilience.FindingsThe investigation shows more satisfied and loyal customers when a retail supply chain can overcome service recovery challenges through SCR. The study shows that customers evaluate not only the process itself, but also their interactions with the retailer. Specifically, procedural justice and interactional justice have a significant influence on these relationships.Originality/valueThis study proposes service recovery resilience as a concept that bridges service recovery theory with supply chain strategy in the unique context of product replacement. Further, this study also notes how information enhances customer satisfaction with the retailer's effort to address disturbances in the recovery process. Finally, this study informs managers on the capabilities needed to face new customers' needs.

Efficiency and Foreclosure Effects of Vertical Rebates: Empirical Evidence

In many industries, upstream manufacturers pay downstream retailers for achieving quantity or market share targets. These “vertical rebates” may mitigate downstream moral hazard by inducing greater retail effort but may also incentivize retailers to drop competing products. We study these offsetting effects empirically for a rebate paid to one retailer. Using a field experiment, we exogenously vary the outcome of retailer effort. We estimate models of consumer choice and retailer behavior to quantify the rebate’s effect on retail assortment and effort. We find that the rebate is designed to exclude a competing product and fails to maximize social surplus.

Supply chain finance: The role of credit rating and retailer effort on optimal contracts

Supply chain finance aims at finding the best financing arrangements within a given buyer-supplier dyad. The source of capital can be internal (buyer or supplier) or external (financial institution) to the supply chain. So far, many studies have investigated the optimal mix of the sources of capital; our study aims at contributing to the recent literature that explores the interface of operations and finance extending the supplier-based financing models. As the Covid-19 pandemic hits economic activity, the financial constraints have ever greater importance; knock-on effects of the Covid-19 crisis urges on the critical role of a supply chain that should provide financial resources, along to the flow of goods, in the more efficient way.The proposed model considers a supply chain formed by a supplier and a retailer, both capital-constrained that can ask for a loan to a financial institution or resort on their internal reciprocal sources. Demand is uncertain, retailer, that acts as a price taker, may also affect her product demand applying some effort in increasing sales. Both retailer and supplier can fail. The model optimizes the supplier and retailer's’ profit varying their contract parameters; doing this, the research allows to understand the interplay between supply chain operational and financial issues when retailer's sales effort is at work, and its findings can support retailer in the suppliers selection basing on their credit rating. Our findings show how operational (retailer's effort) and financial (trade credit conditions) issues can synergically interact also in supply chain with low working capital or conversely how retailer with high working capital can perform better working with low rating supplier, however boosting the chance to successfully compete in the Covid-19 pandemic era.

The supply chain coordination model based on sales return and efforts

Taking a two-stage supply chain model of a single manufacturer and a single retailer as the research object, this paper initially proposes the random demand function of retailers’ effort to establish an integrated supply chain model based on dual factors of retailer effort and selling price. Then it discusses how to optimize the reward and punishment contracts to realize the win-win situation of supply chain members under decentralized decision-making by analyzing the coordination and optimization of supply chain under centralized and decentralized conditions. Finally, the conclusion is verified by numerical simulation experiment, effort and quantity will decrease along with the increase of the distribution coefficient and will increase with the increase of the buy-back price’s coefficient.

A Coordination Mechanism of Supply Chain with a Retailer and Two Competitive Suppliers

To deal with coordination problem of a supply chain consisting of two competitive suppliers and a dominant retailer, considering these factors such as cooperation effort degrees and competition on the supply chain members, we establish a two-stage model considering cooperation effort degrees and competition of the suppliers from the perspectives of decentralized decision and centralized decision and exploit it to discuss the optional decisions and explore the impact of cooperation effort degrees on the profits of supply chain members. Then, we use a group negotiation model to establish a coordination mechanism. The results reveal that the decision variables and overall profit of the supply chain of suppliers and retailers under centralized decisions are better than those under the decentralized decisions. Besides, the degree of competition and price sensitivity have positive and negative effects on the efforts of suppliers and retailers, respectively. Meanwhile, the degree of cooperation between suppliers and retailers affects the profits of supply chain members and the whole supply chain in different degrees. Finally, the proposed value-added profit distribution mechanism can effectively deal with conflict problem and guarantee supply chain members and supply chain to maximize their profits and adopt the centralized decision.

Interesterified fats: What are they and why are they used? A briefing report from the Roundtable on Interesterified Fats in Foods

AbstractInteresterification rearranges the position of fatty acids within triacylglycerols, the main component of dietary fat, altering physical properties such as the melting point and providing suitable functionality for use in a range of food applications. Interesterified (IE) fats are one of a number of alternatives which have been adopted to reformulate products to remove fats containing trans fatty acids generated during partial hydrogenation, which are known to be detrimental to cardiovascular health. The use of IE fats can also reduce the saturated fatty acid (SFA) content of the final product (e.g. up to 20% in spreads), while maintaining suitable physical properties (e.g. melt profile). A novel analysis was presented during the roundtable which combined data from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2012/2013–2013/2014) with expert industry knowledge of the IE fats typically used in food products, to provide the first known estimate of population intakes of IE fats among UK children and adults. IE fats were found to contribute approximately 1% of daily energy across all ages. The major contributors to overall IE fat intakes were fat spreads (~54%) and bakery products (~22%), as well as biscuits (~8%), dairy cream alternatives (~6%) and confectionery (~6%). Increasing use of IE fats could contribute towards reducing total SFA intakes in the population, but would depend on which food products were reformulated and their frequency of consumption among sub‐groups of the population. Studies comparing the effect of IE and non‐IE fats on markers of lipid metabolism have not shown any consistent differences, either in the fasted or in the postprandial state, suggesting a neutral effect of IE fats on cardiovascular disease risk. However, these studies did not use the type of IE fats present in the food supply. This issue has been addressed in two studies by King's College London, which measured the postprandial response to a commercially relevant palm stearin/palm kernel (80:20) IE ‘hard stock’, although again no consistent effects of the IE fat on markers of lipid metabolism were found. Another study is currently investigating the same IE hard stock, consumed as a fat spread (blended with vegetable oil), and will measure a broader range of postprandial cardiometabolic risk factors. However, further long‐term trials using commercially relevant IE fats are needed. Subsequent to the roundtable, a consumer survey of UK adults (n = 2062; aged 18+ years) suggested that there is confusion about the health effects of dietary fats/fatty acids, including trans fats and partially hydrogenated fats. This may indicate that providing evidence‐based information to the public on dietary fats and health could be helpful, including the reformulation efforts of food producers and retailers to improve the fatty acid profile of some commonly consumed foods.

Why do we feel bored with our clothing and where does it end up?

AbstractBoredom reflects the dynamic nature of consumer tastes and preferences. Understanding the role of boredom in clothing disposal is of particular importance given that consumers often dispose of clothes they feel bored with, leading to harmful environmental consequences. Despite its substantial influence on postacquisition behaviours, boredom has received insufficient attention in the disposal literature. In this paper, we explore the factors that lead to boredom and the effect of boredom on retention, recycling and discarding of clothing. We use a sequential mixed‐methods approach, consisting of a first qualitative phase that uses in‐depth interviews to generate hypotheses, followed by a second quantitative phase that tests the hypotheses using survey data. In two phases, we identify the oldness of clothing, decreased social fit and purchase of new clothing as drivers of boredom, which implies that the physical and aesthetic attributes of the clothing, social meaning ascribed to the clothing and situational factors collectively influence feelings of boredom towards owned clothing. As boredom intensifies, consumers are less inclined to keep the item and more inclined to recycle or discard it. Furthermore, we find that attachment and resource input (i.e., money, time and effort) moderate the effect of boredom on decisions regarding disposal methods. The results add to our understanding of emotion‐laden disposal by revealing the role of boredom in clothing disposal. Finally, our findings call for the collective efforts of consumers, retailers, campaigners and policymakers to break away from an increasingly extravagant and wasteful culture of clothing consumption.

Supply chain coordination under trade credit and retailer effort

In this paper, we study the role of trade credit in coordinating a Capital Constrained Supply Chain in the presence of retailer Effort (CCSCE), essentially because of the impact of its related default risks on the relationship between the chain’s members. We consider a CCSCE consisting of a supplier and a retailer where the retailer may exert costly promotional efforts to increase the market demand but has limited capital and no access to bank financing due to low credit rating. Conversely, the supplier has adequate funds to offer trade credit to the retailer without borrowing from external channels. We then examine whether the existing coordination contracts can still coordinate the CCSCE under trade credit. Our result shows that these contracts can achieve coordination of the supply chain when the interest rate of trade credit is competitively priced. Nevertheless, this position cannot always be reached. That’s why we propose a generalised contract based on risk compensation to coordinate the CCSCE. Using our proposed coordinating contract, the supplier perfectly coordinates the retailer’s decisions for the largest joint profit, and arbitrarily allocates the maximised joint profit among supply chain members. Finally, the numerical study allows to verify this finding. From managerial insights, our results provide the supply chain managers with novel insights on how to combine trade credit with the existing coordination contracts in order to improve the profitability of the entire supply chain as well as the individual member.

When does store consolidation lead to higher emissions?

The design of retail networks has potentially significant impact on their emissions. While having fewer “big-box” stores is usually more emission-efficient for a retailer, it leads to longer shopping trips for consumers and thus higher consumer travel related emissions. This interaction is further complicated by consumers' price sensitivity and aversion to travel. In the last decade, retailers are increasingly exerting efforts to reduce their emissions either voluntarily or motivated by policies such as penalties on emissions. In this paper, we explore the impact of a retailer's emission reduction initiatives on the emissions of the consumers and its supply chain. Scenarios under which the retailer either acts as a price taker or a price setter are investigated. In both scenarios, we show that increased retailer effort to reduce its own emissions can lead to higher consumer emissions and in turn higher total supply chain emissions. This phenomenon is most likely to occur and most significant when consumers' fuel efficiency is low, and when consumers' perceived travel cost and/or cost sensitivity is low. Furthermore, we show that supply chain emissions may increase with an emission penalty under practical penalty values.

Dynamic cooperative promotion models with competing retailers and negative promotional effects on brand image

Abstract This paper considers the cooperative promotion in a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and two competing retailers. In particular, the promotion efforts of retailers have a positive impact on their demands, but a negative impact on the manufacturer’s brand image. Meanwhile, we allow both myopic and far-sighted strategic behaviors of retailers. Three strategic models, i.e., two far-sighted retailers (FF), one far-sighted retailer and one myopic retailer (MF/FM) and two myopic retailers (MM), are analyzed by differential game and the feedback Stackelberg equilibrium of three models are derived via HJB equation. The finding is that the manufacturer as well as the supply chain always prefers the retailer with same strategic behaviors, despite the fact that retailers do not always stick to the same behaviors. We further extend our model into the scenario of asymmetric retailers.

Supplier Encroachment and Retailer Effort

We propose simple dual-channel models in which an upstream manufacturer trades with a downstream retailer that is able to engage in cost-reducing activities. When the manufacturer determines whether to encroach on the downstream market after observing the retailer's effort level, the threat of manufacturer encroachment can work as a disciplinary device to induce the retailer to aggressively engage in cost reductions, after which the manufacturer refrains from encroaching further on the downstream market. The disciplinary device is more likely to improve consumer welfare and social welfare, although the encroachment itself can harm social welfare.

Why do suppliers choose wholesale price contracts? End-of-season payments disincentivize retailer marketing effort

Although theoretical work has shown that end-of-season payment contracts, which allow suppliers and retailers to share the cost of unsold inventory, increase total profit, most suppliers and retailers today still use simple wholesale price contracts. In a series of experimental studies, we show that supplier preferences for wholesale price contracts can be explained by their concern that end-of-season payments contracts will disincentivize retailer marketing effort. Moreover, suppliers’ pessimistic predictions regarding reduced retailer effort are confirmed by retailers’ reduced investment in marketing effort in our experiments. Our results suggest that for suppliers and retailers to benefit from end-of-season payments contracts, retailers should publicize their demand-enhancing marketing practices.

Corporate social responsibility and downstream price competition with retailer's effort

This paper examines the optimal degree of upstream firms' concern over CSR and its influences in a vertically related market with imperfect substitute products. The setting is composed of two profit-maximizing downstream retailers and two upstream firms in which one of them or both may act consumer-friendly. It considers wholesale versus retail pricing strategy of upstream firms with retailers' effort in a simultaneous game under such setting. It shows that under different pricing rules, the impacts of a higher upstream firms' concern over CSR on market equilibrium outcomes either with symmetric case (two consumer-friendly upstream firms) or asymmetric case (one consumer-friendly upstream firm) are different. In particular, it finds that higher concern over CSR is beneficial to upstream consumer-friendly firm(s) both under wholesale pricing and retail pricing, except in the case of one consumer-friendly upstream firm with strategic leverage under retail pricing, who will benefit. It also compares the corresponding consumer and social welfare under different pricing rules and finds that the retailers' efforts play a key role.

Families of supply chain coordinating contracts in the presence of retailer effort

In this paper we study supply chain coordination in the presence of promotional effort. A single retailer chooses the level of promotional effort to increase demand and the quantity ordered from a single supplier, who may also exert demand promotional effort. This paper is the first to study all possible coordinating contracts for the model with demand promotional effort(s). Specifically, we classify all coordinating contracts as belonging to one of five mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive families. For each family we find the necessary conditions and/or the sufficient conditions for the existence of a coordinating contract, as well as the minimum number of parameters required for a contract in that family. We show that different contract families have different levels of efficiency, flexibility, and required information for coordination. In addition, we show that no linear combination of “simple-format contracts”, defined as wholesale price contract, buy-back contract, and revenue sharing contract, can achieve coordination except the extreme case where the retailer obtains zero profit. We also investigate two extensions: one in which the retailer has other decisions besides order quantity and effort, and one in which both parties exert demand promotional efforts (hence the decisions structure is changed). We find that coordinating contract design is not significantly influenced by the number of the retailer׳s decisions or demand function formats, but by the decision structure.

Store-window creativity's impact on shopper behavior

Store windows offer an opportunity for retailers to influence consumers who are in the vicinity of their stores. However, little is known about the effects of store windows on shopper behavior. This study examines store window creativity and its effects on store entry. In line with advertising creativity research, the present study hypothesizes that window displays that are more creative will be more successful in attracting store visits and that this effect is mediated by store window attitude, product beliefs, and perceptions of retailer effort. The study proposes that shopping frequency moderates this effect. The study tests these hypotheses in two empirical studies: one large-scale field study (n=1,834) and one experimental online study (n=480). The results, which support all the hypotheses, contribute to a better understanding of the impact of (creative) store window displays.

Don't ask, don't tell: Sharing revenues with a dishonest retailer

When different supply chain parties have private information, some form of information sharing is required to improve supply chain performance. However, it might be difficult to ensure truthful information transfer when firms can benefit from distorting their private information. To investigate the impact of dishonest information transfer, we consider a single-supplier single-retailer supply chain that operates under a contract with a revenue sharing clause, providing the retailer incentive to underreport sales revenues. In practice, suppliers utilize audits based on statistical tools that, for example, compare the retailers’ sales reports and order quantities to limit, but not necessarily eliminate, cheating. We investigate the impact of such limited cheating on the different supply chain constituents. We show that when the retailer can exert sales effort, a supplier might benefit from the retailer's dishonesty. Our findings also suggest that if the retailer's negotiation power is high or if retailer effort is effective, the supplier should reduce the retailer's revenue share and absorb some of the demand risk to increase retailer participation. When facing a less powerful or less capable retailer, the supplier might be better off extracting profitability upfront through a higher wholesale price.

A study on the factors governing retailer–customer long-term relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model of retailer–customer relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using questionnaires administered at organized grocery retail outlets in India. A total of 612 customers were surveyed. Findings – Empirical evidence suggests that perception of merchandise quality depends upon perception of quality of services. It is also found that apart from store-level attributes, customer-level attributes also play an important role in retailer–customer long-term relationships. Practical implications – Retailers would be benefited by an in-depth knowledge of factors that determine long-term relationships with customers. The finding of the study implies that efforts of retailers to retain customers should be directed toward the right set of customers. In the present study, details about customer-level attributes will benefit retailers to target the right set of customers. Academicians would be benefitted by developing in-depth und...