The Proactive Alignment of Sourcing with Marketing and Branding Strategies: A Food Service Case

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that a proactive sourcing strategy can be just as important as a proactive marketing strategy in achieving sustainable competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports on action research carried out in the UK beef industry, with a focus on the food service supply chain. The methodology is inductive and qualitative, using a multi‐case, multi‐site approach. The supply chains presented in the case were analysed from farm gate to consumer, interviewing multiple participants at each stage of the supply chain.Findings – This study offers some partial support for configuration‐based approaches. However, the case also raises some doubts about the validity of configuration thinking, as it is not the complexity or ambiguity of the relationships that is key in the case, but the fact that brand ownership and contracts create property rights for their owner that create a relatively permanent power resource for Pioneer, the case study company, in its m...

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