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Digitalization and multi-channel strategy have appeared as recurrent themes in retailing for years, yet some major international as well as domestic mass retailers have chosen to retain a single, physical channel focus for customer transactions. These retailers, despite the digital mindset preoccupying the retailing sector, have chosen to rely fully, or predominantly, on their stores to generate revenues. A number of questions arise from this approach. This paper aims to understand the rationale for marketing and strategic practices which appear to go against the dominant, strongly digitally oriented, discourses and practices in the field of retailing. Why do some retailers choose not to add a digital transactional channel? Are there defensible reasons for this choice? Can such a strategy successfully create value?

This research is based on a qualitative, multiple case study of the strategies adopted by Primark (fashion) and Aldi (food), two major retailers that retain a largely single-channel transaction focus, in France and the UK.

This research suggests that some retailers may still be able to succeed by maintaining a single-transactional physical channel to avoid a cost trap which extensive moves towards digitalization of transactions might mean for them. In such circumstances, refusing to adopt a digital value proposition may be a means of preserving the success of their original business model.

Despite the weight of academic and practitioner discourses on the urge to undertake digital transformation, this work provides a comprehensive illustration of the rationale for sticking to a single physical channel to preserve the profitability of a traditional store-based business model.

The purpose of this paper is to present 13 propositions about how internal strategic fit (often referred to as fit) impacts the business performance of low cost and differentiated services. It then uses these relationships to develop two “fitness ladder” frameworks to help practitioners understand how to improve fit given their business strategy (low cost or differentiation) and performance objectives (operational, financial or competitiveness).

In total, 11 strategic business units were studied that perform differently and provide a range of low cost and differentiated services to understand how changes in internal strategic fit impacted business performance over a 7 year period.

The findings suggest aligning systems with market needs does not improve performance. Instead, firms serving low cost markets should first focus managers’ attention on processes and centralise resources around key processes, before reducing process flexibility and automate as many steps as possible to develop a low cost capability that is difficult to imitate. By contrast, firms serving differentiated markets should first focus managers’ attention on customers and then locate resources near them, before increasing customer contact with their processes and making them more flexible so they can develop customer knowledge, relationships and services that are difficult to imitate.

Some significant factors may not have been considered as the study only looked at the impact of 14 internal strategic fit variables on 7 performance variables. Also, the performance changes may not be a direct result of the strategic fit improvements identified and may not generalise to other service organisations, settings and environments.

The strategic fit-performance relationships identified and the “fitness ladder” frameworks developed can be used by organisations to make decisions about how best to improve fit given their different market needs, business strategies and performance objectives.

The findings offer more clarity than previous research about how internal fit impacts business performance for low cost and differentiated services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the approaches and metrics used to measure supply chain (SC) performance, and to understand the relative perceived importance of such measures.

This research is based on empirical data captured through a survey of SC professionals in a variety of business sectors.

The research confirms the importance of the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach, with BSC, SCOR and economic value added being the most commonly used tools. Economic metrics dominate, focused on cost and customer service. While social and environmental-related measures are of emerging importance, they appear to be of similar importance to economic metrics only when backed up by a legal obligation.

The small sample of 51 companies was based on access and the group is not wholly representative of all businesses. Respondents were mainly managers from EU countries involved in procurement, logistics and transport activities. Surveyed companies included manufacturing, automotive, retail, logistics services and wholesaling businesses.

The common key performance indicators (KPI’s) are identified. These include measures related to: quality, efficiency, responsiveness, health and safety, employees, emission, natural resources utilisation, waste and recycling. Issues that influence the usage of measurement systems as well as the company and SC levels are ranked.

Implementation of a monitoring system and subsequent usage of the collected data may help to reduce negative external impacts on society and the environment.

The field of SC performance management is still developing, with growing empirical work. Nevertheless this paper is one of the first attempts to carry out such an analysis focused on metrics and their usage. The survey instrument has been tested and can now be applied to other contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce sustainability as a new dimension of information systems (IS) evaluation. Customers, policymakers and business partners increasingly require the monitoring and reporting of the organisational impact on sustainability. However, traditional IS evaluation approaches are not able to capture the impact of information technology (IT)/IS on sustainability, especially in relation to social and environmental dimensions, so the authors want to stimulate discussion and research related to this area.

This paper is conceptual. However, it is based on the results of an existing related research project focussed on supply chain evaluation.

In order to stimulate discussion and research, the authors propose a framework that was originally developed to evaluate supply chain practices, in which IS often play a major role. The framework is built on three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – which are divided further into three sub‐dimensions. It can be used as a starting point to develop a framework for sustainability‐oriented IS evaluation.

The framework was originally developed for supply chain evaluation; however, it has generic features that can be adjusted or modified in order to be applied to a whole range of IT/IS initiatives

Sustainability and its new dimensions create new challenges for information systems evaluation. Companies require frameworks and tools that can help them to measure and evaluate the impact of IS on sustainability. The researcher's role is to answer such needs and focus on this emerging research topic; this paper aims to stimulate such research.

Sustainability is a new dimension in IT/IS evaluation. Current approaches do not include all sustainability dimensions (environmental aspects are excluded, evaluation of the social impact is limited).

The purpose of this article is to propose a common framework for the empirical analysis of supply chain performance measurement systems used in different supply chain contexts.

This is a conceptual paper, which includes an extensive literature review and an illustrative case study. The content, context, process framework is applied to structure the body of knowledge and the case study.

Supply chain performance measurement is a context‐dependent process, tailored to specific supply chain requirements. To understand how a performance measurement system in a supply chain has developed and is used there is a need to capture its context, process and content.

The framework is illustrated by a single case study. Further empirical research is required to fully appreciate the breadth of application of this framework.

The proposed framework can help to develop performance measurement systems that are suitable for certain organisational and supply chain contexts in which a company operates, as well as to compare different systems used across different supply chains.

The paper demonstrates an approach for analysing existing supply chain performance measurement systems that can be applied across different supply chains and sectors. This will create an opportunity to use a consistent data collection process across a variety of supply chain situations and thus generate data for further theory development.

This research aims to identify, categorise and compare supply chain measures and benefits listed in literature‐based case studies that were named as “best practices”.

The research applies iterative triangulation which is a method used to build theories from existing case studies. Selected case studies collected by project partners are used as a source of secondary data. The paper applies various approaches to classifying supply chains as well as identifying the difference between measures proposed in the literature and those used by case companies.

The analysis of the selected sample of cases indicated that the most common measures were related to economic aspects and to operational level activities. There is a lack of shared supply chain measures at the inter‐organizational level, while social and environmental aspects are largely ignored.

The majority of the measures identified in the collected cases were economic (relating to cost, time, quality and customer). Metrics at an operational level dominate, while supply chain metrics are hardly used. Findings indicate that current performance measurement approaches do not generally include social and environmental issues, which are becoming increasingly important in business.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between internal strategic fit and business performance, propose six classifications of internal fit using the “strategic map” managerial framework and identify how firms should best move from one classification to another and the impact that these changes will have on business performance.

Empirical research was conducted in 12 service organisations. Based on these findings, two fit‐performance relationships were identified and the “fitness map” framework was developed showing six classifications of fit.

The alignment of operations strategy within an organisation is significantly and positively related to market share, whereas, the alignment of the service delivery system is significantly and positively related to return on sales. However, neither the alignment of the operations strategy nor the service delivery system appears to have a relationship with return on investment. Six classifications of internal strategic fit emerged: poorly aligned organisations are either “understanding processes” or “understanding markets”, medium‐fit companies are “managing processes” or “developing service offerings” and well‐aligned firms are “leveraging services and process capabilities” or “leveraging markets and design capabilities”.

The fit‐performance relationships show how changes in the alignment of operations strategy and delivery system impact business performance differently. Using this knowledge, practitioners can use the “strategic map” framework to identify their classification of fit and understand how it has been created, benchmark their level of fit against other businesses, understand how to move from one level of fit to another and how these decisions will impact business performance.

The paper's findings start to address the gap in the literature on internal strategic fit within service organisations and meet the need for more management tools to help businesses develop strategies, understand the level of fit they create and how they can impact business performance.

The purpose of this research is to provide a theoretical explanation of the strategic and structural changes occurring in US omnichannel retail supply chains. Using longitudinal data, the research documents transitions in retailers' supply chain strategies, specifically related to the order fulfillment process. It further offers explanation for how and why these transitions occurred.

This research uses a process theory lens to explain the business model transformation of the omnichannel order fulfillment process. Using a case study approach, a longitudinal multicase study was conducted with six large US retailers over a span of 10 years. Within-case and cross-case analysis identifies the sequence and rationale of different strategic and structural shifts in retailers' omnichannel order fulfillment strategy.

The within- and cross-case analyses offer insight into how the transitions occur, at what rate they occur across several different retailers, and why the rate can differ across the stages of omnichannel transition among retailers. The research documents that retailers took varied approaches to strategically develop and structurally change their order fulfillment processes in their transition to omnichannel retail. The findings reveal that these approaches are dependent on retailers' store-based logistics capabilities and specific supply chain arrangements within their retail segment.

The longitudinal and theoretically driven approach provides researchers a better understanding of the business model transformation in US retail omnichannel operations. This approach builds theoretical context around why and how strategic and structural changes in omnichannel fulfillment occurred over time. It also explains the underlying omnichannel phenomenon more accurately than research focused on discrete changes at a single point in time.

The findings and managerial insights can assist practitioners in understanding how environmental changes have led to strategic and structural shifts across different stages of omnichannel fulfillment evolution. These insights also provide guidance to retailers that are currently in early stages of developing their omnichannel fulfillment strategy.

Logistics and fulfillment operations of retailers have changed dramatically over the last 10–15 years. The authors apply a process theory lens to explain how and why retailers have integrated their channels to achieve omnichannel success at the store level.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Digitalization has provided retailers with the option to expand operations to secure revenue from new channels. However, such firms must balance these additional opportunities against increases in costs and complexity to determine whether their business model should be based on a single or multichannel approach.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.