Measuring distributive and procedural justice: An exploratory investigation of the fairness of retailer-supplier relationships

by Duffy R.; Fearne A.; Hornibrook S.

British Food Journal, Volume 105, Number 10, 2003, pp. 682-694(13)

ABSTRACT

A report on UK supermarkets published by the Competition Commission in October 2000 concluded that there was evidence that multiple food retailers were abusing their position of power and engaging in practices that adversely affected the competitiveness of suppliers. To address these adverse effects it was recommended that a code of practice be introduced to govern retailer-supplier relationships. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is co-ordinating a project that is designed to monitor the extent to which multiple retailers are complying with the principles set out in the code of practice. This paper presents the findings of exploratory research, conducted as part of this project, to investigate suppliers' current perceptions of the fairness of their trading relationships with the multiple retailers.  

Available for download here

See also:

Justice in UK Supermarkets, Buyer-Supplier Relationships

by Andrew Fearne (Imperial College London), Rachel Duffy and Susan Hornibrook
(Canterbury Business School)

Kent Business School Working Paper Series No. 69, August 2004

ABSTRACT

A review of the Supermarkets' Code of Practice by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in 2004 noted the continuing dissatisfaction with, and lack of evidence regarding, the impact of the Code on retailer-supplier relationships. This paper reports the findings of a survey sent to supermarket suppliers five months after the supermarkets' Code of Practice was introduced in March 2002. to gain their views of the integrity and fairness of their trading relationships with the UK supermarkets. The results were used to compare and rank supermarkets' performance in their terms of trade with suppliers as part of a 5 year project co-ordinated by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), designed to benchmark and track comparative supermarket performance. The results provide evidence that some retailers operate with integrity and fairness and do not abuse their position of market power in their relationships  with suppliers, but show that for others, there is considerable room for improvement. They also show that since the introduction of the Code of Practice there has been no change or improvement in buying practices providing evidence that the code is ineffective.

Paper available for download at http://www.kent.ac.uk/kbs/pdf/Duffy-and-Hornibrook-and-Fearne-No-69.pdf