European publishing companies are quickly digitizing their businesses to achieve cost savings, and increased market reach and penetration. IT is increasingly affecting the ways in which the whole value chain operates. Interaction and collaboration costs have been slashed. Physical assets are no longer the cornerstone of competitive success and value propositions.

This situation became more critical mainly due to continuous increase in consumer expectations, longer demand chain, conventional mechanism for information flow resulting into poor information visibility, and use of traditional demand forecasting methods. All above issues increase marketing and distribution costs significantly resulting into under performance of firms in the hyper-competitive scenario. Electronic markets are still far from reaching a state of maturity resulting in a difficult task to safely predict the possible transformation in the distribution system structure in the IT environment. This research is an attempt to develop a strategic IT enabled demand chain management model for European publishing companies to enhance efficiency for longterm performance and gaining sustainable competitive advantage. Major results of the study are as follow:

• Brand management is the most important function of marketing for the present followed by distribution channel management, advertising, sales promotion, logistics, sales administration and management, and demand forecasting and management.

• Main objectives behind the growing importance of distribution are higher growth and long-term performance of business, greater market dominance and coverage, sustainable competitive advantage, cost containment, and partnering channel 7 relationships. It is because of the fact that product, price and promotion no more bring long-term competitive advantage. Distribution channel strategy is always a wellstructured system, meant for long-term and based on the philosophy of relationships, which is very difficult to copy by competitors.

• Traditionally, advertising was used for brand building and management. But in the prevailing new emerging environment, emphasis is more on sales promotion and trade promotion instead of advertising. In other words, focus of promotion is more on point-of-sale brand building and management.

• Information technology (IT) further complicates the whole gamut of distribution. It provides an additional channel of distribution as well as increases the magnitude of competition. It is also a new and powerful information medium for producers, wholesalers and retailers to conduct business among each other enhancing interactivity, productivity, transaction efficiency, and relationships facilitating firms in optimization of resources and containment of total cost.

• Marketing intermediaries add two types of values namely, logistical and marketing values addition. Intermediaries closer to the firm add high logistical value and less marketing value. Whereas, intermediaries closer to consumers add high logistical as well as marketing values to prevent stock-out.

• Multi-tier distribution system is prevailing in most of the industrial sectors barring publishing industry. In the new environment, there is every possibility of transformation in the distribution channel structure. These changes may be in the form of disintermediation and/or reintermediation. Disintermediation can be partial or complete (cybermediation). Whereas, reintermediation can be in the form of infomediary and intermediary empowerment.

• European publishing firms do not prefer cybermediary for mass marketing. Some firms have Internet distribution system but only for niche markets like, institutional markets, highly premium products/brands. In the situation of partial disintermediation, most of the firms would like to prefer C&F agents in the case of publisihing companies. In no case, they have chosen retailers/dealers. The concept of infomediary is not prevailing in Europe at present but consumer respondents prefer to collect information from the Internet and then physically verify books at stores before 8 making purchase decisions. Hence, there is a bright future of infomediary in Europe. Most of the European publishing companies are in the process of integrating their demand chain members (C&F agents and stockiest) on the web for their empowerment. The overwhelming highlights of this system include containment of costs, working methodology, transparency and real-time availability of information regarding order-status, shipment schedules, replies of inquiries, credit status, stockstatus, etc. making them feel significant and committed to achieve predetermined objectives, team spirited, and excited about their work.

• Partnering channel relationships is an important issue of demand chain management. It is essential to keep channel members happy, loyal and well motivated for higher growth and long-term performance of business. Furthermore, all publishing firms under study have integrating by negotiation strategy for resolution of channel conflicts. Altogether 21 factors have been identified for partnering relationships. These factors have been grouped in nine key relationship factors (KRF) on the basis of nature and characteristics. Accordingly, 5.76 is the maximum value assigned to various aspects related to availability of products and minimum value 4.36 given to zero-defect delivery. Out of nine factors, two factors (prompt information sharing about changes in product profile, sales policy and promotional schemes, and point-topoint information about order status, shipment/delivery schedule and tracking of movement of shipment) are having information components solely. Whereas, the efficiency of remaining seven factors can be significantly improved by the extensive use of information technology. These factors include quick responsiveness for regular availability of products as per normal and unforeseen requirements, no stock-out and fulfillment of delivery commitment, consistency in trade related service quality, prompt logistics system for recovery from defective delivery, reasonable return on investment and infrastructure, fixed and smaller replenishment cycle time, commitment for long-term association, and zero-defect delivery.

IT enabled Demand Chain Management Business Model On the basis of above results, a new business model has been proposed for demand chain management taking into consideration existing issues and challenges in the new 9 environment. Value proposition of the model has been redefined in terms of “RESPECT” (Reasonable return, Efficiency, Speed, Economy of Scale, Collaboration, and Trust). For the fulfillment of above value proposition, the requirement of information will be comprehensive and its speedy flow across the demand chain, which also needs interface with firm’s ERP and SCM systems. Hence, proposed business model is an IT enabled demand chain management. The highlights of this model are hyper-responsive, partnering relationships, shared value and knowledge, and value-added service. This model also addresses the scope of disintermediation and reintermediation, prevention of unnecessary stockpiles across the demand chain, and cost reduction. The proposed IT enabled demand chain management solutions are based on certain underlying philosophical principles. It includes minimize the number of layers, adopt pull based push strategy, provide a common view of demand, have business intelligence for optimization, develop multiple supply network, continuous replenishment in small quantity, and information transparency and visibility across the demand chain.

The proposed model is being validated for its feasibility, scope for use and successful implementation in the European publishing sector. On the basis of opinion of experts (top corporate executives heading distribution function), various strategic initiatives have been proposed for successful implementation of new demand chain management system. It includes collaborative planning and scheduling, training and education to demand chain members, demand chain partnering relationships, pro-active demand-driven breakthrough culture, vendor managed inventory system, and customer portfolio management. It is uniquely hyper-responsive linkage between major demand chain partners. To transcend this, however, it requires a broad understanding of marketing and distribution, sharing of information between parties and the development of personal rapport between mangers at a number of levels in all organizations of demand chain for real time quick response. Information technology can support internal operations and collaboration between demand chain members. By the use of high-speed data networks and databases, firms can share data with its business partners to better manage the whole value chain. That is why, the effective use of this technology is a key aspect of firm’s success. All information systems are composed of technology that performs three main functions namely, data capture and communication, data storage and retrieval, and data manipulation and reporting. Various IT enabled managerial processes have been proposed for the optimization of the value of the new model. It include order management, demand planning and forecasting system, inventory management system, transportation planning and scheduling system, leveraging relationship system, advance planning and scheduling system, ERP system, and SCM system.

For the evaluation and control purposes, a performance scorecard has also been proposed addressing various strategic and functional aspects. Strategic factors include return on assets to firm, return to channel members, order/replenishment cycle time, demand forecast accuracy, profit margin, on-time shipment, inventory turns, cash conversion cycle, sales growth, and marketing and distribution costs. Functional factors deal with frequency of stock-out, defective delivery, real-time information sharing and quality of decision, transparency of system, shared value and customer loyalty, frequency of channel conflict, effectiveness of promotional policies, collaborative planning, scheduling and innovation, resource pooling and risk sharing, and customer support for excellence.