Inventory strategies and performance of food and beverage processing industries

The purpose of the paper is to examine how inventory strategies influence the operational performance of food and beverage processing industries in Ghana. The partial least square-structural equation modelling analysis was used to understand how key inventory strategies affect operational performance of the food and beverage industries. The study found inventory strategies including economic order quantity and strategic supplier partnership to significantly influence operational performance, whereas just-in-time strategy had no significant influence on operational performance. This paper is an area biased, however, some insightful managerial implications could be deduced to properly manage inventory among food and beverage firms in similarly unstable business environments. The authors identified key inventory strategies, therefore helping managers in developing such strategies to improve operational performance. The paper contributes to the existing literature on inventory strategies and provides empirical evidence of key strategies and their corresponding effect on operational performance in a developing country.