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Conference Title: Research on National Brand & Private Label Marketing – International Conference

Conference Dates and Venue: June 17th-19th, 2020, Barcelona, Spain.

Deadline for paper submission: January 10th, 2020

Conference Chairs: Els Breugelmans (KU Leuven, Belgium), Francisco J. Martínez-López (University of Granada, Spain), and Juan Carlos Gázquez-Abad (University of Almería, Spain).

Conference Review Board (alphabetical order): Kusum L. Ailawadi, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (USA); Nawel Amrouche, Long Island University (USA); Chris Baumann, Macquarie University (Australia); José J. Beristain, University of the Basque Country (Spain); Enrique Bigné, University of Valencia (Spain); James Brown, West Virginia University (USA); Cristina Calvo-Porral, University of La Coruña (Spain); Ioannis E. Chaniotakis, University of the Aegean (Greece); Liwen (Brandon) Chen, City University of Hong Kong (China); Alexander Chernev, Northwestern University (USA); Chan Choi, Rutgers Business School (USA); Gérard Cliquet, Université de Rennes 1 (France); Giuseppe Colangelo, Catholic University of Milan (Italy); Ronald W. Cotterill, University of Connecticut (USA); Barbara Deleersnyder, Tilburg University (Netherlands); John Dawes, University of South Australia (Australia); Els Gijsbrechts, Tilburg University (Netherlands); J. Tomas Gomez-Arias, Saint Mary’s College of California (USA); Oscar González-Benito, University of Salamanca (Spain); Csilla Horváth, Radboud University (The Netherlands); Marco Ieva, University of Parma (Italy); Eugene Jones, The Ohio State University (USA); Robert Paul Jones, The University of Texas at Tyler (USA); Lien Lamey, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium); Elisa Martinelli, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy); Mercedes Martos-Partal, University of Salamanca (Spain); Sebastián Molinillo Jiménez, University of Malaga, Spain; Dirk Morschett, University of Fribourg (Switzerland); Martin Natter, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Magdalena Nenycz-Thiel, University of South Australia (Australia); Nicoletta Occhiocupo, Oxford Brookes University (UK); Michael Pepe, Siena College (USA); William P. Putsis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA); Anne Roggeveen, Babson College (USA); Natalia Rubio-Benito, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain); Hanna Schramm-Klein, University of Siegen (Germany); Fiona Scott Morton, Yale University (USA); Raj Sethuraman, Southern Methodist University (USA); Randall Shannon, Mahidol University (Thailand); Ian Clark Sinapuelas, San Francisco State University (USA); Jay I. Sinha, Temple University (USA); Yaron Timmor, Arison School of Business (Israel); Rodolfo Vázquez-Casielles, University of Oviedo (Spain); Gianfranco Walsh, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena (Germany); María Jesús Yagüe Guillén, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain); Jie Zhang, University of Maryland (USA); Cristina Ziliani, University of Parma (Italy); Pilar Zorrilla, University of the Basque Country (Spain).

Conference Sponsors: So far, this conference is sponsored by these institutions: University of Barcelona; IRI Spain; IMD Business School, and the Spanish Association of Commercial Codification (AECOC).

Conference Publication: 1) Conference papers will be published as a conference proceedings book entitled “Advances in National Brand and Private Label Marketing. Seventh International Conference, 2020” by the prestigious publisher Springer. Conference papers will also be accessible online through Springer’s online platform, for quick and effective dissemination of the conference participant’s research work. 2) A selection of the best papers will be invited to prepare extended, full paper versions to eventually appear, after a successful review process, in a special section to be published in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (Elsevier), and co-edited by the conference chairs.

Call for Papers:

Conference’s main topic: Adapting to a new landscape: Manufacturer-retailer relationships in the digital era

Disruptive forces like digital and mobile technology as well as major trends in the composition of the population bring many opportunities but also multiple challenges to manufacturers and retailers that are operating in the current retail landscape. Strengthened by mobile technology, consumers nowadays have access to several channels that are used simultaneously and sometimes even interchangeably in their purchase decision process. Consumers are no longer shopping in the same way as they did a few years ago, and how they interact with manufacturers and retailers has changed fundamentally.

Manufacturers and retailers are being compelled to more frequently rethink and adapt their organizations, strategies and even business models to satisfy, retain as well as grow their customer bases. These adaptations oftentimes aim to optimize the customer’s experience with the manufacturer’s brand or the retailer’s brand throughout the whole customer journey, thereby increasing the chances of the company to survive in the new retail landscape.

At the same time, some of these adaptations have significantly altered the relationship between retailers and manufacturers. A few decades ago, the purchase path of consumers was clear: manufacturers produced products and these products were sold via (offline) retailers to the end-consumer. Retailers and manufacturers were thus partners in the supply chain with each of the partners having its own strengths. Manufacturers are champion in producing and marketing strong brands that consumers desire, while retailers excel in bringing products at a place and time where consumers prefer to purchase (multiple) products (and categories). Via their private labels, retailers also gave consumers the option to sell a (high-quality) product at a low(er) price.

While retailers and manufacturers are still partners in many interactions, their relationship is put under pressure as a result of opportunities offered by the digital era. Manufacturers, for instance, have the possibility to directly sell to end- consumers, via manufacturer-owned webshops or platforms where manufacturers can offer (part of) their assortment on a third-party-owned website. Such disintermediation acts, where retailers are excluded in the supply chain, have a significant impact on manufacturer-retailer relationships: manufacturers that used to be partners all of sudden become competitors too. Also other technological innovations implemented by retailers or manufacturers can challenge manufacturer- retailer relationships. Think of voice-assisted techniques as Alexa, where companies (in casus Amazon) restrict the choice set of consumers to a very limited, if not only one brand (of their own). Or, initiatives like food boxes where for instance, a retailer decides which brands to (not) include, or subscription services where a manufacturer delivers (their) brands on a regular basis directly at a consumer’s doorstep.

As companies continue to look for ways to adapt to the new retail landscape, it is essential to understand the impact of the digital era and the resulting transformations on manufacturer-retailer relationships as well as on the ability to build strong (manufacturer and retailer) brands that create market value. In keeping with its established objectives, this conference welcomes papers on topics related to any retailing, private label, or national brand issues.

In keeping with its established objectives, the conference welcomes papers on topics related to the above, but also to any private label and/or national brand issues in retailing.

In order to submit a paper to the NB-PL 2020 conference you must register as an author at the conference management system at Easychair; click .

All papers must be formatted according to the conference’s format guidelines and submitted through the conference management system.

Important Dates:

• Conference Paper Submission date: January 10th 2020
• Authors Notification date: February 15th 2020
• Accepted Papers camera-ready: March 20th 2020
• Conference Dates: June 17th-19th, 2020

For further information and updates, please check the conference’s website:

We really look forward to meeting you in Barcelona and having a great time, sharing ideas and experiences in an amiable gathering.

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