Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? A vending retail study

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to identify which elements of the vending marketing mix are the main sources of competitive advantage for the industry, how they impact vending profitability, and what are their related synergistic effects.Design/methodology/approachA full factorial experiment was developed to determine the effect of eight marketing mix scenarios on the profitability of a new vending channel in a French university library and assess the synergistic effects among three elements of a marketing mix (i.e. product quality, payment system, internal location) identified in a focus group as new sources of industry competitive advantage.FindingsAlthough the main effects of product quality and payment system were weak-to-modest and insignificant, their interaction effect significantly impacted the daily net profit of the vending channel and generated the highest net synergy. The results partially challenge the marketing synergy axiom as internal location separately had a stronger impact on profitability than product quality and higher-order interaction effects do not necessarily translate into higher synergistic effects.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was conducted in a real-life setting and has its limitations, which future researchers can overcome by extending the temporal, geographic and product scope of the study.Originality/valueThe distinction that we introduced between gross and net synergy allowed us to partially challenge the prevailing marketing mix assumption that synergy is always positive (i.e. that a vending retailer can achieve synergy by selecting a combination of marketing mix elements instead of relying on them separately). Moreover, by demonstrating that marketing synergy is not a uni- but a bi-dimensional concept, we provide vending retailers with a better methodological understanding of why they may have already fallen into the synergy trap and how to avoid it in the future.

Sustainability-oriented commerce innovation: How does it influence consumer satisfaction?

“…, 2020, Table 1). However, based on the idea that the whole is greater than the sum (Stoyanov, 2023) and taking the synergy between innovation and sustainability into account, our current study goes further. We point out that it is possible to define a unique construct, SOCI, combining innovation and sustainability in a multidimensional concept and which simultaneously influences consumer satisfaction with commercial settings.…”

“…Secondly, the literature in retail has already shown that either innovation or sustainability or both, as independent variables, are factors that generate competitive advantages for retail businesses (Fuentes-Blasco et al, 2017; Mar ın-Garc ıa et al, 2020, Table 1). However, based on the idea that the whole is greater than the sum (Stoyanov, 2023) and taking the synergy between innovation and sustainability into account, our current study goes further. We point out that it is possible to define a unique construct, SOCI, combining innovation and sustainability in a multidimensional concept and which simultaneously influences consumer satisfaction with commercial settings.…”

“…In this vein, the retail literature has still not taken into consideration the synergies that may stem from analysing innovation and sustainability from a holistic perspective. Because the whole is different from its constituent parts (Stoyanov, 2023), we need to better understand how the synergy between sustainability and innovation influences consumer satisfaction in retail. Indeed, it remains unclear how consumers react when retailers implement sustainable innovations or introduce practices combining innovation and sustainability.…”

Sustainability‐oriented innovation in retailing

“…These authors point out the importance of measuring these dimensions as a global variable, where the effect of one dimension stimulates another and vice versa, also adapting their analysis to the different economic sectors to capture the specificity that characterizes them (Calabrese et al, 2021). In the context of marketing, the literature also indicates that the result obtained when considering the variables as a whole may be greater than when done individually (Kehal & El Alfy, 2021; Stoyanov, 2023). The IPMA thus prioritizes the factors identified by generating an index, but simultaneously relating all the factors to each other, which directs the retailer's management toward priority areas, taking into account the information related to all the factors involved in SOI‐r.…”