A channel of distribution consists of different channel members each having his own decision variables. However, each channel member's decisions do affect the other channel members' profits and, as a consequence, actions. A lack of coordination of these decisions can lead to undesirable consequences. For example, in the simple manufacturer-retailer-consumer channel, uncoordinated and independent channel members' decisions over margins result in a higher price paid by the consumer than if those decisions were coordinated. In addition, the ensuing suboptimal volume leads to lower profits for both the manufacturer and the retailer.

This paper explores the problems inherent in channel coordination. We address the following questions.

---What is the effect of channel coordination?

---What causes a lack of coordination in the channel?

---How difficult is it to achieve channel coordination?

---What mechanisms exist which can achieve channel coordination?

---What are the strengths and weaknesses of these mechanism?

---What is the role of nonprice variables (e.g., manufacturer advertising, retailer shelf-space) in coordination?

---Does the lack of coordination affect normative implications from in-store experimentation?

---Can quantity discounts be a coordination mechanism?

---Are some marketing practices actually disguised quantity discounts?

We review the literature and present a simple formulation illustrating the roots of the coordination problem. We then derive the form of the quantity discount schedule that results in optimum channel profits.

This article was originally published in Marketing Science, Volume 2, Issue 3, pages 239--272, in 1983.

Managing Channel Profits

Supply chain coordination: Perspectives, empirical studies and research directions

Supply chain collaboration: making sense of the strategy continuum

Supply chain management (SCM) practices have flourished since the 1990s. Enterprises realize that a large amount of direct and indirect profits can be obtained from effective and efficient SCM practices. Supplier selection has great impact on integration of the supply chain relationship. Effective and accurate supplier selection decisions are significant components for productions and logistics management in many firms to enhance their organizational performance. This study pioneers in using the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to find influential factors in selecting SCM suppliers. The DEMATEL method evaluates supplier performance to find key factor criteria to improve performance and provides a novel approach of decision-making information in SCM supplier selection. This research designs a fuzzy DEMATEL questionnaire sent to seventeen professional purchasing personnel in the electronic industry. Our research results find that stable delivery of goods is the most influence and the strongest connection to other criteria.

Fuzzy DEMATEL method for developing supplier selection criteria

Sustainability has increasingly become important to business research and practice over the past decades as a result of rapid depletion of natural resources and concerns over wealth disparity and corporate social responsibility. Within this realm, the so-called triple bottom line seeks to evaluate business performance on its impacts on the environment and interested stakeholders besides profitability concerns. So far, Management Information Systems research on sustainability has been somewhat constrained in the realm of green IT, which focuses mostly on the reduction of energy consumption of corporate IT systems. Using the resource-based view as the theoretical foundation, the manuscript develops an integrated sustainability framework, illustrating the integration of human, supply chain, and IT resources to enable firms develop sustainability capabilities, which help firms deliver sustainable values to relevant stakeholders and gain sustained competitive advantage. Particularly, the role of automate, informate, transform, and infrastructure IT resources are examined in the development of sustainability capabilities. The work calls for a bold new role of IT in sustainability beyond energy consumption reduction. Implications for future research and management practice on IT and sustainability are also discussed.

From green to sustainability: Information Technology and an integrated sustainability framework

http://eio.usc.es/eipc1/base/BASEMASTER/FORMULARIOS-PHP/MATERIALESMASTER/Mat_192405_trabajo%20para%20Borja%20Lafuente.pdf

Buyer vendor coordination models in supply chain management

Coordination and profit sharing between a manufacturer and a buyer with target profit under credit option

Coordination of a single-manufacturer/multi-buyer supply chain with credit option

On a pair of nonlinear mixed integer programming problems

Literature on integrated inventory models has shown that both buyer and manufacturer can be better off by adopting the joint optimum order quantity. However, the implementation of a joint optimal policy requires coordination and cooperation between the members of the supply chain. A critical assumption made throughout the integrated inventory models literature is that the manufacturer/supplier has complete information about the buyer's cost structure. But in the actual supply chain, this assumption is seldom to be satisfied. In this paper, a model for coordination between the two independent members of the supply chain through credit option is developed when the firms are not willing to share cost related information including the desired profit target from the business. A procedure for negotiation is developed to divide the surplus generated due to coordination. Finally, the developed procedure is illustrated through a numerical example.

D. Acharya

Papers

Buyer vendor coordination models in supply chain management

Coordination and profit sharing between a manufacturer and a buyer with target profit under credit option

Coordination of a single-manufacturer/multi-buyer supply chain with credit option

On a pair of nonlinear mixed integer programming problems

Two-stage supply chain coordination through credit option in asymmetric information environment