Exploring the Roles of External Parties in ECR Adoption: An Australian Study

The adoption of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) by the grocery industry has become increasingly important in order to stay competitive. Due to the inter-organizational nature of ECR, its adoption involves various parties with different and conflicting objectives and requires the concerted efforts of supply chain members. As a result, ECR adoption has proved to be extremely difficult in many regions. Employing a multiple case study, this study demonstrates that external parties within the grocery industry play a major role in assisting organizations within the Australian grocery industry to adopt ECR and, therefore, have the potential to promote the growth of ECR. A number of possible roles that external parties can play in promoting ECR are discussed in the paper