IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/agribz/v13y1997i2p123-135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The food distribution system of the future: Convergence towards the US or UK model?

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald W. Cotterill

    (W. B. Young 318, Department of Agribusiness Economics, University of Connecticut 1376 Storrs Road, U-21, Storrs, CT 06269-4021)

Abstract

This article presents and analyzes a hypothesis that is of fundamental importance for the organization and performance of food systems. That hypothesis is that food manufacturing and distribution systems are converging to a common organizational structure. Two polar opposite organizational structures are the US manufacturer-led model and the UK retailer-led model. The article explains reasons for convergence, compares the US and UK models, and argues for expository purposes only that developed nation food systems well converge to the US manufacturer-led model. The paper discusses key parameters that identify how convergence will occur. The author, however, is not convinced that the US model should win. The UK retailer-led model with its extensive private label program probably offers superior benefits to consumers. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald W. Cotterill, 1997. "The food distribution system of the future: Convergence towards the US or UK model?," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 123-135.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:13:y:1997:i:2:p:123-135
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6297(199703/04)13:2<123::AID-AGR3>3.0.CO;2-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Franklin, Andrew W. & Cotterill, Ronald W., 1993. "An Analysis of Local Market Concentration Levels and Trends in the U.S. Grocery Retailing Industry," Research Reports 25173, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    2. Jagmohan S. Raju & Raj Sethuraman & Sanjay K. Dhar, 1995. "The Introduction and Performance of Store Brands," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(6), pages 957-978, June.
    3. George J. Stigler, 1951. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59, pages 185-185.
    4. Alex Hughes, 1997. "The changing organization of new product development for retailers' private labels: A UK-US comparison," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 169-184.
    5. Chevalier, Judith A, 1995. "Capital Structure and Product-Market Competition: Empirical Evidence from the Supermarket Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 415-435, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michelle Lowe & Neil Wrigley, 2010. "The “Continuously Morphing” Retail TNC During Market Entry: Interpreting Tesco’s Expansion into the United States," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(4), pages 381-408, October.
    2. N Wrigley, 1997. "Foreign Retail Capital on the Battlefields of Connecticut: Competition Regulation at the Local Scale and its Implications," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(7), pages 1141-1152, July.
    3. Unknown, 2005. "Antitrust Analysis of Supermarket Retailing: Common Global Concerns that Play Out in Local Markets," 2005 Conference (49th), February 9-11, 2005, Coff's Harbour, Australia 137831, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    4. Regmi, Anita & Unnevehr, Laurian J., 2005. "Convergence or Divergence in Food Demand: Comparison of Trends in the EU and North America," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24687, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Cesar Revoredo‐Giha & Alan Renwick, 2012. "Retailers Price Behavior in the UK Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 451-468, September.
    6. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2007. "Buyer power and supplier incentives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 647-667, April.
    7. Regmi, Anita & Unnevehr, Laurian J., 2006. "Are Diets Converging Globally? A Comparison of Trends Across Selected Countries," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 37(1), pages 1-8, March.
    8. Neil Wrigley, 1997. "Exporting the British model of food retailing to the US: Implications for the EU-US food systems convergence debate," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 137-152.
    9. Chimhundu, Ranga & McNeill, Lisa S. & Hamlin, Robert P., 2015. "Manufacturer and retailer brands: Is strategic coexistence the norm?," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 49-60.
    10. Ian Clarke & Malcolm Kirkup & Harmen Oppewal, 2012. "Consumer Satisfaction with Local Retail Diversity in the UK: Effects of Supermarket Access, Brand Variety, and Social Deprivation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(8), pages 1896-1911, August.
    11. Regmi, Anita & Takeshima, Hiroyuki & Unnevehr, Laurian J., 2008. "Convergence in Global Food Demand and Delivery," Economic Research Report 56449, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Bergès-Sennou Fabian & Bontems Philippe & Réquillart Vincent, 2004. "Economics of Private Labels: A Survey of Literature," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-25, February.
    13. Maksymilian Czeczotko & Hanna Górska-Warsewicz & Wacław Laskowski, 2020. "Towards Sustainable Private Labels—What is the Consumer Behavior Relating to Private Labels in the UK and Poland?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-18, July.
    14. Vickner, Steven S. & Davies, Stephen P. & Fulton, Joan R. & Vantreese, Valerie L., 2000. "Estimating Market Power And Pricing Conduct For Private-Label And National Brands In A Product-Differentiated Oligopoly: The Case Of A Frozen Vegetable Market," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 31(2), pages 1-13, July.
    15. Hökelekli, Gizem & Lamey, Lien & Verboven, Frank, 2017. "Private label line proliferation and private label tier pricing: A new dimension of competition between private labels and national brands," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 39-52.
    16. Venturini, Luciano, 1998. "Countervailing Power And Antitrust Policy In The Food System," Conference Papers 14489, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
    17. Holleran, Erin & Bredahl, Maury E. & Zaibet, Lokman, 1999. "Private incentives for adopting food safety and quality assurance," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 669-683, December.
    18. Digal, Larry N. & Ahmadi-Esfahani, Fredoun Z., 2002. "Market power analysis in the retail food industry: a survey of methods," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(4), pages 1-26.
    19. David T. Merrett, 2020. "The Making of Australia's Supermarket Duopoly, 1958–2000," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 301-321, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dutta, Shantanu & Bergen, Mark & Levy, Daniel, 2002. "Price flexibility in channels of distribution: Evidence from scanner data," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(11), pages 1845-1900, September.
    2. Kim, Sang-Joon & Bae, John & Oh, Hannah, 2019. "Financing strategically: The moderation effect of marketing activities on the bifurcated relationship between debt level and firm valuation of small and medium enterprises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 663-681.
    3. Toivanen, Otto & Waterson, Michael, 2000. "Empirical research on discrete choice game theory models of entry: An illustration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(4-6), pages 985-992, May.
    4. Klaus Friesenbichler, 2013. "Firm Growth in Conflict Countries: Some Evidence from South Asia," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 3, pages 33-44, May.
    5. Chan Choi, S., 2017. "Defensive strategy against a private label: Building brand premium for retailer cooperation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 335-339.
    6. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2006. "Better Rules or Stronger Communities? On the Social Foundations of Institutional Change and Its Economic Effects," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(1), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Emilio Depetris-Chauvin & Ömer Özak, 2020. "The origins of the division of labor in pre-industrial times," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 297-340, September.
    8. Argyres, Nicholas S. & Liebeskind, Julia Porter, 2002. "Governance inseparability and the evolution of US biotechnology industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 197-219, February.
    9. Gambardella, Alfonso & Conti, Raffaele & Novelli, Elena, 2018. "Specializing in Generality: Firm Strategies When Intermediate Markets Work," CEPR Discussion Papers 12782, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Yang, X. & Liu, P.W., 1999. "Division of Labor Transaction Cost, Emergence of the Firm and Firm Size," Papers 10, Chicago - Graduate School of Business.
    11. Yingjue Zhou & Tieming Liu & Gangshu Cai, 2019. "Impact of In-Store Promotion and Spillover Effect on Private Label Introduction," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 96-112, June.
    12. Alain-Désiré Nimubona & Bernard Sinclair-Desgagné, 2011. "Polluters and Abaters," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 103-104, pages 9-24.
    13. Ali, Ashiq & Klasa, Sandy & Yeung, Eric, 2014. "Industry concentration and corporate disclosure policy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 240-264.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4cufqrm9749dbol0m0bsfeopka is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Thijs Raa & Edward Wolff, 2001. "Outsourcing of Services and the Productivity Recovery in U.S. Manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 149-165, September.
    16. Ronald W. Cotterill, 1998. "Estimation of Cost Pass Through to Michigan Consumers in the ADM Price Fixing Case," Food Marketing Policy Center Research Reports 039, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    17. Fabian Bergès & Zohra Bouamra-Mechemache, 2012. "Is producing a private label counterproductive for a branded manufacturer?," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics, vol. 39(2), pages 213-239, April.
    18. Salvatore Piccolo & Giancarlo Spagnolo, 2014. "Debt, Managers and Cartels," CSEF Working Papers 365, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    19. David E. Wildasin, 2003. "Fiscal Policy, Human Capital, and Canada-US Labor Market Integration," Public Economics 0309006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Fay, Marianne & Martimort, David & Straub, Stéphane, 2021. "Funding and financing infrastructure: The joint-use of public and private finance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    21. Antonietti, Roberto & Cainelli, Giulio & Lupi, Claudio, 2013. "Vertical disintegration and spatial co-localization: The case of Kibs in the metropolitan region of Milan," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 360-363.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:agribz:v:13:y:1997:i:2:p:123-135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1520-6297 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.