Forecast Collaboration in Grocery Supply Chains: Developing and Testing a Model of Prerequisites and Outcomes of CPFR

Much research has been done on CPFR. All contributiuons address in different ways some of the issues of implementation levels and activities of CPFR, the necessary preconditions as well as benefits to be obtained. However, only very few conributions test relations between these issues beyond anecdotal evidence, case studies and qualitative interviews. The purpose of this paper is therefore to develop and test a causal model of CPFR pre-requisites, CPFR activities and CPFR outcomes.
Based on a literature review the paper develops a model and pypotheses of the relationships between necessary pre-requisites, degree of forecast collaboration, demand related contingency factors and outcomes/KPIs based. The hypotheses are tested in a survey among Danish grocery suppliers.
The survey findings provide evidence of a positive effect of collaborative orientation and retailer competencies and trustworthiness on the degress of forecast collaboration. Also, campaign frequency as a demand related contingency variable is found to positively affect degree of forecast collaboration. Finally, the survey findings provide evidence of a positive effect of degree of forecast collaboration on inventory levels and forecast accuracy, whereas service levels to retailers are unaffected by the degree of forecast collaboration.