In September 2003, Athens University of Economics & Business hosted the third in a series of international research symposia held under the a- pices of the ECR Europe Academic Partnership and ECR Journal: Inter- tional Commerce Review. Held first in Cambridge in 2001 and then at WHU Koblenz in 2002, the Symposia have become important, unique - casions in the international calendar of business research. No other event brings together in a university environment distinguished academics, bu- ness practitioners and consultants to explore the development of the c- sumer goods industry through collaborative management. The papers c- lected here, first presented in Athens, represent an important contribution to the research literature of modern business. The wide-scale institutional development of collaborative practices in the European consumer goods business began in 1994 with the creation of ECR ("Efficient Consumer Response") Europe, a joint initiative of ma- facturers and retailers working together to improve the quality and p- formance of the value chain. At the heart of ECR was a business envir- ment characterised by dramatic advances in information technology, shifts in consumer demand, and the increasing movements of goods across int- national borders. This new reality required a fundamental reconsideration of the most effective way of delivering the right products to consumers at the right price.

Emerging Techniques and Technologies for Supply Chain Management

Improvement Opportunities in Retail Logistics
A Dynamic Real-Time Vehicle Routing System for Distribution Operations
Bargaining and Alliances in Supply Chains
Last-Mile Supply Chain Integration: Easy Connection and Information Exchange between Suppliers and Retailers
Multichannel Retailing: Relationships, Integration and Electronic Transformation
Multichannel Retailing and Brand Policies
Designing Alternative Store Layouts for Internet Retailing
In Search for Viable e-Solutions
Beyond CPFR: Defining the Future of Supply Chain Collaboration
On Shelf Availability: An Examination of the Extent, the Causes, and the Efforts to Address Retail Out-of-Stocks
Increasing Shelf Availability Through Internet-Based Information Sharing and Collaborative Store Ordering
Towards the Development of an Algorithm to Discover Out-Of-Shelf Situations
Food Value Chain Analysis
Extending ECR into Product Innovation
Beyond RFID: Supporting Supply Chain Management with Intelligent Tagging
Turning Signals into Profits in the RFID-Enabled Supply Chain
Shopping in the 21st Century: Embedding Technology in the Retail Arena
Towards 'smarter' Supply and Demand-Chain Collaboration Practices Enabled by RFID Technology.