Search results

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of demand chain management (DCM) by investigating how it has been structured and executed in an international manufacturing company.

The main emphasis has been on producing descriptive results and the applied research strategy has been an embedded single case study. The case organization originates from Sweden, but it has significant international presence. Empirical data have been collected mainly from in‐depth interviews with key persons representing senior management in the case company.

This research shows that DCM is about developing synergies between the demand creation and the demand fulfillment processes. A completely implemented DCM approach should incorporate all the major demand creation and fulfillment processes. This kind of fully implemented approach probably does not exist in real life today but some companies have started to develop versions including some of the major processes, and this research provides an example of this. The ultimate goal of DCM is to gain competitive advantages by differentiating not only the products, but also the delivery process. This is necessary in markets characterized of intensive competition, high product variety, large amounts of customer‐adapted products, and short product life cycles. It can be concluded that DCM is not another name for demand driven supply chains (SCs) or a fad. It is rather a way to finally benefit from decade long marketing discussions on how to achieve customer focus. It highlights the interplay between marketing and supply chain management (SCM) as an enabler of value creation.

This research work is limited to one Swedish company; however, the case company has large international presence and is in top three in their industry measured by sales, which provides some ground for the generalization of the research.

This paper gives an insight for managers and practitioners to the value of coordinating marketing and SCM to develop a truly customer‐driven organization and SC.

Several studies have addressed the synergies between marketing and SCM but failed to address how to in some detail realize this in practice. This paper contributes by discussing how to realize this coordination in practice.

In the premium price range, retailer collaboration and showroom decoration as well as information dissemination play an important role in the consumer sector, particularly in furniture sales. The purpose of this research is to report findings from Swedish wholesaler and its process to improve sales of order driven furniture business.

A large case study including 26 companies follows in longitudinal manner the retailers' contribution to value creation based on a value gaps model. Both qualitative and quantitative data are used. Approach was chosen as wholesaler needed to change its business strategy due to high competition.

Innovative products may lose consumer perceived value, if information of the product is distorted by the retailers. It is of course so that the number of display pieces in retailer outlets play important role, but actually the way these are presented is most critical. Only one retailer in this study followed wholesaler's guidance, but again this retailer was able to show best sales. In turn, some retailers performed much lower than expected, as they were not interested from new sales concept implemented due to strategy change at wholesaler.

The service quality gaps model has been adjusted and is presented as a value gaps model that may be used to understand, how value creation is not limited to a single company in a supply chain. However, the authors would like to emphasize that the observations are not necessarily enough as only one wholesale company and its retailer network in Sweden was followed.

The common practice for wholesalers to focus on display pieces is not sufficient. The retailers' ability to contribute to value creation needs to be considered, and this starts from collaboration at showroom level. This particularly concerns items in other than low cost product groups.

The research introduces information distortion as a concept to understand, how consumer perceived value might be reduced by value gaps in a supply chain. Research is also unique in a way that it reports business strategy in other than low end segment (lowest costs), but still wholesaler procures products from Asia (China), and develops models in Sweden.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the current understanding and knowledge of the demand‐supply chain management (DSCM) concept by determining its elements, benefits, and requirements, and by illustrating its occurrence in practice.

This research has utilized a literature and case study research strategy. The case study has involved an international manufacturing company from the appliance industry. Empirical data have been collected mainly from in‐depth interviews with key persons representing senior and middle management in the case organization.

This research has established that the main elements of DSCM include market orientation, coordination of the demand and supply processes, viewing the demand and supply processes as being equally important, as well as value creation, differentiation, innovativeness, responsiveness, and cost efficiency in the demand and supply processes. It has also been revealed that the main benefits of DSCM include enhanced competitiveness, enhanced demand chain performance, and enhanced supply chain performance, while the main requirements of DSCM include organizational competences, company‐established principles, demand‐supply chain collaboration, and information technology support.

This research is explorative in nature, and more empirical data, from similar and other research settings, are needed to further validate the findings. Another limitation of the research is that it is limited to one Swedish company; however, the involved case company has a large international presence and is among the top three in its industry, which provides some ground for the generalization. A final limitation of the research is that the involved company only represents one industry.

This paper provides insights useful to researchers and practitioners on how to develop a demand‐supply oriented business. It highlights that firms should organize themselves around understanding how customer value is created and delivered and how these processes and management directions can be coordinated. The demand and supply processes have to be considered as equally important and the firm needs to be managed by the demand side and supply side of the company jointly in a coordinated manner.

The need to coordinate the demand and supply processes has been emphasized in both the demand and supply chain literature but still remained relatively unexplored; thus, this paper contributes by investigating this matter further.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that provides insights into major environmental and organizational forces underlying greater levels of organizational responsiveness to the environmental sustainability imperative by a growing number of firms, worldwide.

The paper is conceptual in its focus, and the proposed framework builds on extant literature from multiple literature streams.

Societal progress toward environmental sustainability is a shared responsibility of consumers, corporations, and the government at various levels. A potential avenue for societal progress toward environmental sustainability is fostering a macroenvironment that is conducive to the elimination of consumption certain products, reduction in consumption certain other products, and redirection of consumption of still other products from ecologically more harmful to ecologically less harmful substitute products (and relatedly, demand elimination, demand reduction, and demand redirection).

An implication for corporate sustainability responsibility is that firms while planning and formulating strategies for increasing their market footprint must also concurrently plan and formulate strategies for decreasing their environmental footprint. An implication for government sustainability responsibility is that even under conditions of high levels of commitment by a large and growing number of firms and consumers to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviors, in the absence of supporting infrastructure for engaging in such behavior, they may find it necessary to engage in environmentally unsustainable behaviors.

Issues relating to environmental sustainability have been the focus of a large body of recent research in a number of academic disciplines including marketing. A cursory examination of numerous articles published in scholarly journals on issues pertaining to environmental sustainability, and in the business press pertaining to the myriad environmental sustainability initiatives of firms worldwide is indicative of its growing importance.

The effects of reductions in Canadian tariffs on imports from thirty non‐OPEC Third World countries are estimated using quarterly data for the period 1972–79. Estimates of total trade expansion, trade diversion and trade creation are obtained using linear and a log‐linear specification. The results imply that the trade diversion effect is in general and for most commodity groups larger than the trade creation effect.

This case study aims to examine the role of demand management in balancing distribution efficiency and responsiveness to customer needs in the downstream of a retail supply chain.

A major machine part supplier in Australia is used as a case study to investigate the challenges faced by the industry in distributing goods to customers. The use of demand management techniques to help improve distribution efficiency without significantly impacting on responsiveness is also explored.

The findings of the case study reveal that appropriate demand management measures, such as customer segmentation and price discrimination, can help improve overall distribution efficiency of the supply chain while providing the required responsiveness to meet genuine customer needs. Other management attempts, such as vendor‐managed inventory and rationalisation of retail network, can facilitate demand aggregation and improve vehicle utilisation in distribution with minor impact on customer service. These changes require a full understanding of customer requirements and supply capabilities of the company as well as corresponding adjustments in business strategy, leadership style, and organisational culture.

This study lends insight into the use of demand management techniques to improve efficiency in downstream wholesale and retail distribution, thereby enhancing sustainability and profitability of business. To serve mainly as a case study and an illustration of the approach, the scope of the study is limited to six stores in the distribution network of the case company.

Retailers can explore the use of demand management techniques to increase distribution efficiency and hence competitiveness of the company. The approach can also assist managers in adopting best practices among stores and facilitate more effective allocation of distribution resources to serve different market segments.

Using demand management techniques to increase distribution efficiency can reduce delivery frequency and total travel distance. This will help lessen energy usage, carbon emission, traffic congestion, and other negative impacts on the environment.

Research in retail distribution efficiency to date focuses mainly on delivery optimisation through routing and scheduling. Attempts to link demand with supply and use demand management techniques to improve distribution efficiency are relatively limited. This paper fills the gap in the literature by investigating the value of demand management in distribution and explores empirically the significance of the approach to achieve higher wholesale and retail distribution efficiency.

The study aims to present demand chain management (DCM) modeling of Indian apparel retailers. This will result in a structured model presenting contextual interrelationship among DCM variables so that retailers can proactively manage their demand chain.

The research follows an exploratory research design. It initially involves identification and analysis of influential factors of the implementation of DCM practices through the review of literature. Then, these variables were analyzed using total interpretive structural modeling or TISM followed by a statistical verification and case-based validation of the model.

The major findings of the paper are: top-management commitment and support, information management and supply chain agility in supply chain are the most significant enablers with the highest driving power. The other apparel retail specific significant variables are assortment planning, category management and marketing orientation. The model also indicates that the firms that implement customer-centric DCM practices do well in terms of organizational performance and thereby achieve differential advantage over their competitors.

Because the literature on DCM is still in nascent stage, the study bases itself on interpretive method; that is, TISM of analysis with a limited number of experts. Future studies may consider larger sample with more advanced statistical tools such as structural equation modeling for further validation of the findings.

The novelty of the paper lies in the study of an emerging supply chain philosophy; that is, DCM and its key practices per se. It has rarely been studied from the theory building perspective hitherto. Moreover, TISM-based approach is applied for the first time to study the DCM practices and its drivers vis-à-vis dependents.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Journal of Product & Brand Management is split into ten sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing strategy; Customer service; Pricing; Promotion; Marketing research; Product management; Channel management; Logistics and distribution; New product development; Purchasing.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured demand chain design framework that can be linked with gateway and corridor management practices.

The model in this paper presents supply and demand thrusts that could leverage Canada's position in international food trade.

Since a direct correlation exists between the wealth of a nation and how it consumes food, the paper first presents five utilities and several factors that are perceived differently by customers once a nation becomes affluent. Then it presents supply and demand thrusts that could leverage Canada's position in international food trade. Finally, a demand chain design framework is suggested.

The framework is meant to be organically generic and not applied to one specific commodity or market, as all commodities and targeted markets necessitate an idiosyncratic approach. Although it is met to be applicable to topographies that offer logistical challenges such as Canada.

It has been recognized that agriculture and food companies have a long tradition of being commodity‐driven, with an emphasis on production technology, high volumes, and quality consistency. In the context of global hyper‐competitivity, the ability to understand customer needs and adapt to a wider variety of customer situations will become crucial.

Without being specific to a targeted market or commodity, a demand chain management framework for food products is presented which provides an integrative approach for demand chain design based on food marketing practices, and which requires continuous evaluation of perceived utilities by customers.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to demonstrate the phenomenon of strategic inertia in organizations and the impact this has on the type of renewal process that is undertaken; to differentiate between environmental and organizational adaptation strategies and synergies; to apply practical steps of renewal by outlining the influential forces and distinct stages of the process; and to create a practical framework that organizations can use as a guideline for sensing and reacting to changes in the business environment.

The case study examines the strategic renewal processes of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) for the period 2012–2019. Amplats is the world’s largest producer of platinum group metals (PGMs). Despite the adversarial business environment of the South African PGM mining industry, six years into its new strategy, the organization had emerged debt-free and was poised to be sustainable. This posed a unique dilemma in strategic decision-making, namely, how to maintain a strategic renewal process. Chris Griffith, CEO of Amplats, was about to retire, but realized that the organization had yet to fulfil its potential. The ambition of the organization was to redefine the industry benchmark for performance across multiple pillars of value for different stakeholders, and to become the most valued mining company by 2023. Set in 2019, the case invites students to look back at the symptoms of strategic inertia at the time of Griffith’s appointment as CEO, and to define the nature and stages of the renewal that the organization underwent. This will provide insights that will enable an examination of the application of a framework for continual strategic renewal.

Postgraduate business students

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy