Market Information Sharing in Channel Relationships Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences

Efficient Consumer Response, Supply Chain Management, Quick-response, Vendor-Managed Inventory, Collaborative Planning and Forecasting zijn allemaal namen voor arrangementen in distributiekanalen waarin retailers en leverancier met elkaar samenwerken om de aanbodketen te veranderen in een vraag-gestuurd kanaal dat beter, sneller en tegen lagere kosten op steeds veranderende consumentenbehoeften kan inspelen. Essentieel voor een goede kanaalsamenwerking is wel dat retailers en leveranciers elkaar informeren over de laatste ontwikkelingen in de consumentenmarkt. Dit proefschrift gaat over het delen marktinformatie in distributiekanalen. In het onderzoek naar de onderliggende eigenschappen van marktinformatie-delen wordt duidelijk dat het belangrijk is onderscheid te maken tussen de manier waarop informatie tussen de twee bedrijven wordt uitgewisseld, en welke marktinformatie er wordt doorgegeven een elkaar. Een andere belangrijke les is de inhoud aan marktinformatie een hierarchische opbouw kent. Dat betekent dat er een rangorde is in de gedeelde informatie, die stelt dat partijen pas meer vertrouwelijke en stategische informatie delen slechts nadat ze operationele informatie met elkaar uitwisselen. De dissertatie laat verder zien in welke specifieke antecedents retailers en leveranciers meer geneigd zijn om strategische informatie op een collaborative manier met elkaar uit te wisselen. Bovendien bevat het proefschrift twee studies met een verschillende onderzoeksmethodologie die laten zien dat het delen van marktinformatie leidt tot een beter resultaat voor het gehele distributiekanaal. Dit proefschrift geeft niet alleen meer inzicht in de achterliggende processen van marktinformatiedelen, maar ook geeft het marketeers duidelijke richtlijnen om effectieve marktinformatieovereenkomsten met hun kanaalpartijen te ontwerpen.

Efficient Consumer Response, Supply Chain Management, Quick-response, Vendor-Managed Inventory, Collaborative Planning and Forecasting, are all names for channel arrangements in which retailers and suppliers actively work together to transform the supply chain into a demand-driven channel in order to fulfill consumer wishes better, faster, and at lower costs. For collaborative channel arrangements it is essential that retailers and suppliers keep each other informed about the latest consumer market developments. This dissertation focuses on market information sharing practices in retailer–supplier channel relationships. By investigating the underlying nature, it finds that it is important to separate sharing mode from the shared content. The sharing mode in the information sharing arrangement is the way in which information is communicated between the retailer and the supplier. One important lesson is that the content shared in a channel relationship follows a hierarchical structure, meaning that channel members share more confidential and strategic information only after sharing more superficial operational information. The dissertation also exposes the circumstances in which channel firms are most inclined to share strategic information in a more collaborative manner. Furthermore, two studies with different methodologies demonstrate that market information sharing leads to a better channel performance. This dissertation not only provides an in-depth insight into market information sharing practices, but also gives marketers precise guidelines to design effective market information sharing arrangements.

Willem Smit (Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, 1972) is currently working as a Research Fellow at IMD - International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. Prior to this, Willem graduated with a Master’s degree in Marketing from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He also studied management at McGill University in Montréal, Canada. After several years in business, he returned to academia and started his PhD at the Erasmus Research Institute of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has presented his research on marketing at different academic and professional conferences in both Europe and North America. All through his PhD research, Willem teamed up with three communities. First, he worked with the business community on several research and consulting projects, such as future retail formats of car dealers (with Automotive), online retailers’ market intelligence (with Thuiswinkel.org), future competitiveness of garden centers (with Dibevo), supplier involvement in the fashion industry, and soccer clubs’ fan loyalty (with Sparta and Excelsior). Second, he internationalized EPAR, the Erasmus University’s PhD Association, to better represent his fellow PhD candidates’ community and third, he served the academic community as an ad-hoc reviewer for Marketing Science, IMP conference, and Industrial Marketing Management. At IMD he expands the field in research on market-driven and market-driving channels. He also works closely with IMD faculty on related research themes such as supply chain management, collaborative market learning, and market orientation. For updates on his research: www.justtherightstuffontheshelf.com