Internationalization is one of the most important trends in retailing today. This process is not new, however hasaccelerated in the last two decades. It was less than 30 years ago that almost all of the world’s retail firms were purenational firms with a negligible share in foreign markets....

Due to increasingly globalized markets and internationalization, the food retail business has undergone a number of structural changes. Former nationally oriented retailers have suddenly become global. This process in the retail sector affects also new structures in the agribusiness, most...

Nowadays food products are produced in vertically collaborating networks. The questions of how such chain networks have to be designed and which governance structure fits best have been addressed in several well known articles. However, questions dealing with chain strategy and management are...

The most striking consequence of recent food scares was that food quality is no longer the concern of a single firm, but instead the whole food chain has to work together in order to deliver the new quality. For the agri-food business there is evidence that the majority of these more highly...

In order to manage supply chain relationships effectively both aspects - the need to align the actions in order to coordinate the network and the alignment of interests of cooperating actors – are important. Therefore, the coexistence of both cooperative and competitive constructs should be...

Nowadays, consumers usually do not just consider the functional use of a product. At least equally important are the emotional experiences that are tied up with the product and that are sated with non-material elements of a product. Which non-material elements of a product are considered...

This paper investigates various modes of vertical coordination, with the focus on small farm integration in the Romanian dairy chain. It draws on results from a World Bank study based on semi-structured interviews conducted in spring 2009. The findings indicate that large and prosperous dairy...

Research on consumer behaviour has revealed that the prospect of reaching a personal value is the virtual buying motive. Bearing this in mind, the researcher, as well as the marketer, is not only able to observe whether one product is preferred to another, but also to understand why this product...

This paper investigates the relationship between the chosen quality strategy and the vertical co-ordination mechanism of a focal company by using new institutional economics, as well as strategic management approaches. The theoretical findings are tested using evidence from 19 of the largest...

Nowadays food products are increasingly produced in supply chain networks that involve numerous firms. Due to their pyramidal-hierarchical structure, such networks possess a focal company that coordinates the network. The managerial task of the focal company is to work out collective strategy...