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The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of small retailers’ new product acceptance criteria using a grounded theory approach in an emerging market, India.

Empirical research on retailers’ new product acceptance either takes survey design or modeling approach. This study uses grounded theory approach to systematically collect and analyze data to generate a model for the small retailers’ new product acceptance in an emerging market, India. In depth interviews with ten small retailers, five situated in small market town and five in a metro were conducted.

Retail margin on offer is the first and foremost criteria considered while accepting a new product along with product and market-related factors. The small retailers spelt out the tradeoff decision on retail margins while accepting a new product. The tradeoff criteria that emerged during the analysis are trade and promotional support, sales potential of the product, salesperson relationship with the retailer, aspects of fairness in the relationship, corporate reputation, relevant product information, and availability of the product with other retail competitors.

The study suggests that marketers have to maintain healthy relationship with the channel partners especially the retailers who are in direct contact with the final consumer. The findings of the study suggest that marketers specifically need to take into consideration aspects of fairness and encourage salespersons to build and foster relationships with small retailers.

This study is one of the few study which uses grounded theory approach to propose a retailer’s new product acceptance model.

During the COVID-19 crisis, diversified attitudes and behaviors of structural equation modeling (SME) retailers were observed in using social media marketing that could have helped mitigate the adverse effects of this crisis on businesses. This paper aims to present a thorough investigation of these perceptions and limited acceptance of social media marketing among SME retailers in a developing country during a crisis.

The investigation was designed using a mixed-method design. A qualitative investigation, as the first part, explored SME retailers’ perceptions of the use of social media marketing when they were faced with mandatory lockdown that stifled their business activity. The insights from qualitative study and literature helped devise the second part of the study, a quantitative study using the technology acceptance model (TAM). Analysis of responses from a sample of SME retailers (n = 149) was done using SEM in this study.

In the qualitative study, SME retailers were found to have a varying outlook toward social media marketing. Some ventured into social media marketing while others were impeded by their limited understanding. The second (quantitative) study showed the general applicability of TAM such that perceived ease of use through perceived usefulness influenced SME retailers’ attitudes toward the usage of social media marketing during the COVID-19 crisis. An important finding in both studies was that business owners’ education level influenced their perceptions of social media marketing.

The investigation, albeit a comprehensive one, was conducted in a particular market and for SME retailers. This opens avenues for conducting similar studies in other segments of entrepreneurs to generate insights based on comparative analysis across segments and scenarios.

Limited or no marketing in the physical marketplace amid lockdown meant almost an existential crisis for entrepreneurs, especially SME retailers, in developing countries during the COVID-19 crisis. While technology acceptance by SME retailers has been discussed in the literature, there are limited discourses on technology acceptance among entrepreneurs and SME retailers during a crisis. These findings from the COVID-19 crisis explicate the possibilities and limitations of technology usage as a means to mitigate challenges faced by entrepreneurs during a crisis.

Responding to the store brand (SB) introduction by the retailer, the manufacturer may adopt the strategic choice of incorporating the fairness concern behavior of the retailer. This paper aims to examine how the manufacturer can counteract the retailer’s SB introduction by strategically choosing to or not to incorporating the retailer’s fairness concern.

This paper considers the SB introduction problem in a two-echelon supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer with fairness concern behavior. This paper resolves the pricing strategies under four strategic scenarios regarding fairness concern incorporation and SB introduction and examine the influences from the fairness concern on pricing strategies and profits. This paper further investigates the strategic choice equilibrium of the manufacturer and retailer on fairness concern and SB introduction decision.

The results show that the retailer can be better off by the introduction of the SB only when the acceptance degree of the SB is high enough. And whether the manufacturer should incorporate the retailer's fairness concern depends on the consumer's acceptance of the SB: Only when the consumer's acceptance is moderate, the manufacturer is able to counteract the SB by strategically not incorporating the retailer’s fairness concern behavior. Otherwise, the manufacturer cannot prevent the retailer from introducing the SB and can be better off by incorporating the retailer’s fairness concern behavior.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining whether the manufacturer can adopt the strategic incorporation of the retailer's fairness concern to counteract the retailer's SB introduction.

The long-term survival of companies depends strongly on successful new product introductions. However, insufficient customer new product acceptance (NPA) often leads to high failure rates for manufacturers. Retailers, as intermediaries between the company and the customer, often obtain a crucial role as primary touchpoint. Previous research shows that customers’ perception of a company is transferable to its products and thus influences NPA. Family firms, as successful company type, are supposed to positively influence NPA. The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether manufacturers achieve a strategic advantage regarding NPA when choosing retailer that are perceived as family firms.

Conducting an online survey, the authors tested whether the family firm image (FFI) of a retailer’s brand influences customers’ belief in the trustworthiness of a new product brand and their purchase intention, which reflect two components of NPA.

The results indicate that a strongly perceived FFI has a direct positive effect and, through perceived trustworthiness, an indirect effect on NPA. Those effects are moderated by the customers’ perceived uncertainty about the product. The authors show that aside from increasing trustworthiness, a retailer’s FFI creates a substantial strategic advantage that increases NPA and hence decreases manufacturers’ failure rates.

This paper is the first to investigate retailer brand influence on NPA. By providing a new definition and measurement of customers’ family firm perception, this study represents the first quantitative intent to assess the consequences of such perception.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role that retailers play in innovation in the food sector.

Analysis is based on interviews with retailers and food suppliers from Belgium, Denmark and the UK.

The findings show that in different ways retailers act both as caretakers of consumer interests and as barriers to innovation. Retailers are not interested in new technologies per se, but whether new technologies and the products made using them provide clearly identifiable benefits to consumers. These products must carry minimum risk for the retailer and there is a clear need for benefits to be communicated in commercial rather than technological terms to both retailers and consumers.

The main limitation is that the study is based on interviews with retailers and suppliers in three countries.

Food suppliers developing new products based on novel technologies need to identity and communicate clear benefits to consumers if their products are to be adopted by grocery retailers.

This paper extends the understanding of the important role that retailers play in the diffusion of new innovative food products, services and technologies to consumers.

Considers marketing information and channel relationship issues raised by the commercialization of EFTPoS systems. Discusses the role and experience of the retailer, banker and consumer, and their evolving relationship in the context of electronic payment systems. Drawing on previous analysis of information flow within channels, where a dyadic relationship has been described, considers the triadic relationship created through the use of electronic payment systems at the point of sale, and the impact that consequent access to information will have on the relationship between bankers and retailers.

The aim of this research is to investigate the adoption and implementation of SCM practices by small retail firms. Past research has established the benefits of SCM practices on performance of large enterprises, but the impact of these practices on small retailers merits attention due to the importance of this sector in the economy and organizational difference due to scale.

A survey instrument based on existing scales is developed and distributed to small retailers in Upstate New York. A total of 79 valid responses were received. A theoretical model is developed relating implementation of supply chain management practices to performance at both retail and supplier levels. The theoretical model was tested using partial least squares (PLS) methods.

This research suggests that supply chain management practices are positively related to performance at both the retail and suppler levels. Moderate implementation levels of supply chain management practices are reported among the small retailers studied.

This research employed perceptual performance measures. Future studies can expand on this research by examining objective data on performance metrics at both the retail and supplier level to better quantify costs and benefits of supply chain management in this context.

This research is the first paper to attempt to empirically test supply chain management practices among small retailers, thus generalizing our understanding of the supply chain management practices in a context not previously studied. Implications for suppliers and retailers are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how manufacturers' brands benefit retailers and how these benefits affect retailer evaluations of the brand.

The researchers develop a conceptual framework, from a literature review and qualitative interviews, which outlines the benefits of manufacturers' brands for retailers. A series of hypotheses tests the effects of these brand benefits on retailer brand attitudes. Data are collected using a survey of supermarket category buyers and analysed with structural equation modelling in order to validate this framework.

Manufacturers' brands deliver four benefits to retailers: financial, manufacturer support, meeting customers' expectations and brand equity. Financial benefits and customer expectations have a stronger effect on retailer satisfaction with the brand compared to manufacturer support and brand equity. Retailer satisfaction with the brand is an antecedent to the retailer assessment of brand performance as well as trust and commitment of the brand. An alternative model shows that brand equity influences retailer commitment to the brand and that financial benefits affect retailer performance assessment of the brand.

Manufacturers should think of their brands as channel resources when dealing with retail buyers, and need to consider how to best utilise these four brand benefits to encourage channel support.

This study proposes a conceptual model and measures the influence of manufacturer brand benefits on longer term retailer attitudes towards the brand, which research has not previously addressed.

Given the increasing number of new products competing for limited shelf space, retailer acceptance of new products is crucial to both retailers and suppliers. However, limited empirical research has investigated what drives retailers to accept or decline a new product offering. Extant research on retailers' new product acceptance focuses mainly on product and market factors. Despite the growing importance of buyer‐supplier relationships in new product marketing, few studies have addressed their influence on retailers' acceptance of new products. This study aims to fill the research gap by proposing a model of retailers' new product acceptance that incorporates the buyer‐supplier relationship perspective.

This study develops an integrated research framework assessing the determinants of retailers' acceptance of new products. Four constructs were derived from the literature on buyer‐supplier relationship marketing and new products literature to investigate their influence on the retailer's decision to adopt a new product. The constructs include buyer‐seller relationship factors (relationship intensity and channel motivation) and non‐relationship factors (product advantage and market competitiveness). Hypotheses were developed and tested with a sample of retailers.

Owing to the lack of appropriate existing scales for the four constructs that influence retailers' adoption of new products, this study developed and validated multiple‐item scales through psychometric scale development procedures. Hypotheses were then tested with ordinary least squares regression analysis, and all factors were found to have a positive relationship with the retailer's acceptance of new products. Results further show that buyer‐supplier relationship factors are stronger predictors of retailer new product adoption than traditional non‐relationship factors.

This research represents an attempt to incorporate the buyer‐supplier relationship into the process of retailer new product acceptance. Future research directions are discussed, with an emphasis on two‐way viewpoints, multiple supplier choice, and product sales performance after acceptance.

The willingness of a retailer to stock a new product does not depend solely on product and market factors. In an age of intense competition and seemingly limitless product choices, suppliers must also consider the implications of the buyer‐supplier relationship before entering negotiations with retailers regarding the stocking of a new product.

This paper represents the first study to propose and empirically test a research model that incorporates the literature regarding both buyer‐supplier relationship marketing and new product literature. Suppliers can strengthen their competitive advantage by understanding and enhancing their performance in these factors.

The purpose of this paper is an attempt to design a proper incentive coordination mechanism to deal with the channel conflicts between the traditional sales and online direct sales.

With respect to the problems of channel conflicts between the traditional sales and online direct sales, to optimize the sale system and get more profits, considering the influences of consumer network acceptance, the authors establish demand and profit function based on consumer's utility, respectively. What's more, we exploit the game theory to analyze the optional decisions of the supply chain under the incentive coordination condition and no incentive coordination condition, and then we discuss the supply chain's optimal pricing, demand, profit and compensation incentive levels with the different effect of consumer network acceptance.

The level of compensation incentive provided by the manufacturer is influenced by consumer network acceptance and product cost. The lower the consumer network acceptance, the better the compensation incentive coordination effect of manufacturers. Manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers are all important players in real supply chain relationships. When a manufacturer exists as a dominant role, it should pay full attention to the impact of consumer behavior on supply chain decisions.

The research can clarify the influence and mechanism of consumer behavior on supply chain channel conflict coordination, and deal with channel conflicts.

The proposed incentive coordination can effectively realize supply chain channel conflict resolution, and provide decision-making ideas and methods for manufacturers to develop the supply chain management of online direct sales channels.