Suppliers' roles in category management: A study of supplier–retailer relationships in Finland and Sweden

Resource alignment in the category management of builders’ merchants

“…To limit the number of activities included, and to make the activities as mutually exclusive as possible, I describe the remaining activities as either related to marketing or to inventory management. Several authors mention different forms of shelf space allocation, or what product to place where in the store, as a part of category management (Chen et al, 1999;Gruen and Shah, 2000;Desrochers, Gundlach and Foer, 2003;Campo and Gijsbrechts, 2005;Larson, 2005;Bandyopadhyay, Rominger and Basaviah, 2009;Lindblom et al, 2009;Subramanian et al, 2010;Kurtuluş and Toktay, 2011;Hübner and Kuhn, 2012). As seen in Table 1, this is classified as a marketing activity, as it intends to make the products in the store look more attractive for the customer.…”

“…This include timely deliveries (Gruen and Shah, 2000), procurement (Basuroy, Mantrala and Walters, 2001), stock-out management (Campo and Gijsbrechts, 2005), inventory replenishment (Lindblom et al, 2009), logistical activities (Gooner, Morgan and Perreault, 2011) and replenishment decisions (Hübner and Kuhn, 2012). Inventory management is here defined as the tasks of delivering the right products, in the right quantities and at the right time.…”

“…Inventory management is here defined as the tasks of delivering the right products, in the right quantities and at the right time. Category management has been viewed as the demand-side strategies of efficient consumer response (Dupre and Gruen, 2004;Lindblom et al, 2009), and some authors argue that supply-side activities, such as inventory management, are not part of category management (e.g. Dupre and Gruen, 2004;Subramanian et al, 2010).…”

Tactics at the category level of purchasing and supply management: sourcing levers, contingencies and performance

“…In a category management approach, firms use dedicated purchasing agents; so called 'category managers' that responsibly manage most sourcing activities within one sourcing category (Ateş, 2014;Driedonks, 2010;Sundtoft and Sigurbjornsson, 2013). The category management concept developed in a retail context, where similar consumer goods were grouped for joint marketing, product offerings and to optimise the overall product portfolio, cross-sales and shelf management (Leeflang and Parreño-Selva, 2012;Lindblom et al, 2009). In purchasing, category management mainly builds on portfolio theory, used to place purchasing goods into a limited number of four or nine portfolio cells (Gelderman and Semeijn, 2006;Nellore and Söderquist, 2000).…”

“…The category management concept developed in a retail context, where similar consumer goods were grouped for joint marketing, product offerings and the optimisation of the overall product portfolio, crosssales and shelf management (Leeflang and Parreño-Selva, 2012;Lindblom et al, 2009;Nagashima et al, 2015;O'Keeffe and Fearne, 2002). In a purchasing context, category management mainly builds on portfolio models that place purchased goods into a limited number of four or nine portfolio cells (Gelderman and Semeijn, 2006;Nellore and Söderquist, 2000).…”