Sustainable Competitive Advantage through Disintermediation with Special Reference to Supermarket Chains in Sri Lanka

Abstract

There has been a significant improvement in the Sri Lankan retail industry over the last ten years. Supermarkets have become increasingly popular, along with other modern retail outlets offering a wide variety of products under one roof. Therefore, the market is becoming highly competitive day by day and it is a common aim of each and every supermarket entity operating in Sri Lanka to increase their profitability mainly by reducing costs and to improve their market share. Disintermediation in supply chain eliminates the position of middlemen between producers and customers, which avoids conventional distribution channels and the business goes direct to the consumers, making the supply chain processes more transparent and straightforward while generating many benefits for both the Supermarket chains and to the customers. This study was conducted to explore how the disintermediation is related to obtaining sustainable competitive advantage by supermarket chains in Sri Lanka. Both quantitative and qualitative studies have been done to achieve the research objectives. A questionnaire comprising of relevant questions has been developed and distributed among 103 respondents and also 5 supermarket managers were interviewed in-depth for greater precision. The results of the multivariate analysis found that social impact has the highest influence towards disintermediation on sustainable competitive advantage. Further, disintermediation can be recommended for supermarkets as an efficient and effective practice to adapt with the modern market conditions, and it has many benefits towards stakeholders in achieving sustainable competitive advantage in the industry.