Title: Information technologies in retail supply chains: a comparison of Tesco and Asda

Authors: Ying Xie; Colin Allen

Addresses: Business School, University of Greenwich, SE10 9LS, London, UK ' Business School, University of Greenwich, SE10 9LS, London, UK

Abstract: This paper synthesises knowledge about information technologies (ITs) by outlining their functionalities and features, and reflecting on the strategic and operational opportunities and challenges they present to a retail supply chain (SC). The research is developed from empirical case studies, and literature on IT development and applications. It is acknowledged that, while implementation and integration of the ITs across the SC will enhance the overall SC performance in terms of cost, response efficiency and customer satisfaction levels, challenges still have to be addressed, including high setup costs, implementation complexity, and privacy and security issues. Better understanding of these opportunities and challenges will enable participants in the retail SC to transform challenges into opportunities. Drawn from primary and secondary resources, a comparison is conducted to compare the deployment of ITs for the two UK retailers (Tesco and Asda).

Keywords: information technology; ICT; retail supply chains; supply chain management; SCM; Tesco; Asda; UK supermarkets; United Kingdom; UK retailers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPSCM.2013.051648

International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, 2013 Vol.5 No.1, pp.46 - 62

Received: 07 Nov 2011
Accepted: 27 Jul 2012
Published online: 30 Jan 2014 *

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