Collaboration forms, information and communication technologies, and coordination mechanisms in CPFR

Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) programmes seek to improve the ability to anticipate and satisfy future demand by enhancing collaboration among companies within the supply network. Despite the existence of a detailed and comprehensive process model—published by the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards Committee—in practice CPFR can take a number of different forms. This paper aims to investigate differences in CPFR implementation as to the type of inter-company collaboration put into practice, and the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and coordination mechanisms adopted to perform CPFR. Moreover, it seeks to analyse the relationships between these dimensions in order to comprehend and explain the rationale behind the managerial choices that lead companies to implement different CPFR configurations. The multiple-case study method is adopted to investigate the research questions. In particular, the implementation of CPFR in seven supply networks is examined. This research identifies six types of collaboration that can be performed to implement CPFR. Then, using this taxonomy as its starting point, it accounts for differences in the adoption of the ICTs and coordination mechanisms necessary to support CPFR. The paper’s conclusions summarize the research’s main theoretical and managerial contributions.