COMPETENCE ACQUISITION IN RETAIL FOOD: EFFICIENT CONSUMER RESPONSE AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Alfred Marcus, Brian Spielmann and Lu Qu

No 14345, Working Papers from University of Minnesota, The Food Industry Center

Abstract: Based on interviews with retail food store managers and a subsequent survey, this paper traces the pathways that spawn competence acquisition in the retail food industry. It finds that having an essential capability for learning, that is, obtaining new ideas, concepts, methods, tends to breed competencies in a number of areas which are of both business and social significance. In this study, the capacity of this essential capability to generate competencies in efficient consumer response (ECR) and environmental management (EM) are examined. These competencies have attracted the attention of the retail food industry in its efforts to become more competitive with alternative retail food channels. The results show that firms possessing the essential capability of generating new ideas are more likely to have higher sales per square foot. Ties with suppliers lead to higher sales per square foot through improved environmental practices and more consumer education. Technical assistance helps retail grocers acquire a social competence in environmental management.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Environmental Economics and Policy; Industrial Organization; Marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29
Date: 1997
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/14345/files/tr97-07.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:umrfwp:14345

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.14345

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Minnesota, The Food Industry Center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().