The Role of Place Marketing as a Competitive Response by Town Centres to Out-of-town Retail Developments

Following a consideration of the development of regional shopping centres (RSCs) and issues relating to place marketing activities by town centres, this paper details the collective response of a number of town centre management (TCM) schemes in the north west of England to the opening of the Trafford Centre RSC in September 1998. This response incorporated a public relations-led place marketing campaign to promote the advantages of shopping in town centres. The scope of the campaign was later extended to incorporate a more explicit and overt urban regeneration focus. The paper concludes with an evaluation of both elements of the campaign and a discussion of its implications in terms of the role of public relations in place marketing activity, and also in terms of the further development of the concept of town centre management in the North West and more generally.     

Towards rebuilding the highstreet: Learning from customers’ town centre shopping journeys

Patronage in town centres has been fluctuating over the past few years, indicating that consumers are buying elsewhere in pursuit of better and more fulfilling shopping experiences. This is concerning as patronage is considered an indicator of high streets vitality and viability. To help understand the changing patterns of patronage, especially related to the growth in online retail spending, this study sheds light on key touchpoints that influence the town centre shopping experience. Using the customer journey framework and drawing insights from datasets of two central UK regions, we provide new contribution to town centre research by capturing significant and specific physical and digital touchpoints in the town centre shopping journey, thus developing our understanding of the determinants of the town centre shopping experience. Consequently, this work provides recommendations for town centre management to help improve town centre patronage by developing customers’ experience with shopping-specific touchpoints.     

Understanding the town centre customer experience (TCCE)

This research enhances the understanding of consumer behaviour and customer experience in the context of town centres. First, it defines town centre customer experience (TCCE) as a multifaceted journey that combines interactions with a diverse range of public and private organisations, including retailers and social and community elements; this results in a unique experience co-created with the consumer across a series of functional and experiential touchpoints. Second, combining qualitative and quantitative insights, this research reveals a series of specific functional and experiential TCCE touchpoints, which underpin the consumer internal response (motivation to visit) and outward behaviour (desire to stay and revisit intentions) in the town centre. In addition to enhancing town centre and customer experience knowledge, these findings offer important new insights to those managing town centres and seeking to retain customer loyalty in the high street. Above all, these findings can help identify the touchpoints that need to be reinforced and/or improved to differentiate a town from its competing centres and to create tailored marketing strategies. Taken together, such initiatives have the potential to positively impact the revitalisation of the high street and the town centre economy.     

Conceptualising town centre image and the customer experience

Abstract

Compared with store image literature, the town centre is underexplored as a retail image context. This paper examines what is meant by town centre image by conducting an empirical study of 536 consumers to elicit top-of-mind images of five town centres. Following extensive content analysis and rigorous replication, the findings reveal a broader, holistic image construct than previously assumed in the literature. New psychological, intangible elements of town centre image are identified, confirming the need to measure image specific to the retail context. Further, drawing on the customer experience framework, a conceptual model of town centre image is developed. The model provides the basis for future conceptualisation and operationalisation of town centre image, combined with an approach for managing the customer experience in town centres.     

Food shopping and town centre vitality: exploring the link

Retail decentralization is associated with town centre decline and a concern for revitalization. Using the case of Llanelli, South Wales, the effects of a new food superstore on shopping behaviours and opinions are explored. Surveys in 1997, 1999 and 2001 reveal a dramatic change in patterns of food shopping, but no real change for purchases of clothing or DIY goods. Disadvantaged consumers, the carless and the elderly, were already heavily reliant on town centre shops before the opening of the new superstore and changes in their shopping patterns were no different from other shoppers. The 'social' vitality of the town centre increased, as did shoppers' satisfaction with town centre shopping, but major spin-off shopping or 'economic' vitality has not yet occurred.     

乡镇企业建立现代企业制度的思考

结合中国乡镇企业经营组织和管理的现状 ,分析加入WTO后 ,中国乡镇企业可能遇到的冲击 ,研究在中国乡镇企业建立现代企业制度的有关问题 :因企业制宜 ,确定产权制度改革模式 ,抓好老企业改制 ;坚持规范原则 ,建立产权的运作方式和工作程序 ,精心组织 ,搞好资产评估。     

Seaside tourism in Europe: Business,urban and comparative history

This article explores aspects of the relationship between business history and urban history through a discussion of the seaside resort as a type of town that might also be regarded as a business (as might other kinds of town specialising in leisure and tourism). In the process it looks comparatively at aspects of the development of such towns across Europe, at the range of ways in which an understanding of seaside tourism contributes to a more satisfactory grasp of how businesses and societies function, and at the reasons for the enduringly marginal status of research in this sector and its limited integration into the perceived ‘mainstream' of all kinds of history, including business history.     

Contingency factors on the success of services for social integration and job placement schemes

The success of a strategy depends, to a large extent, on the contingency factors that condition the functioning of an organisation. This study presents empirical research to contrast the existence of a significant relationship between the implementation of a particular strategy (in this case, related to the management of job placement and social insertion schemes) and a set of given structural parameters or contingency factors, in particular, the organisational structure of the firm such as time with the firm, firm size, technology used and organisational culture. The empirical analysis is applied to the strategies used by local development and employment officers with regard to the management of job placement and social integration schemes.     

Consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility in town shopping centres and their influence on shopping evaluations

This paper investigates the effects of retailer and town centre actions to demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers’ evaluations of town shopping centres. Examples of CSR actions are donations to charities, support for schools or cultural or sports events and demonstrations of concern for the natural environment. Recent research literature suggests such actions can have positive effects on the attractiveness of retail stores, and hence are a potential basis of competitive advantage. This paper investigates if similar effects occur for evaluations of town shopping centres. Hypotheses about the mediating and moderating effects of CSR are tested in two conjoint experiments conducted on shoppers in the UK. The results shows that the explanatory and predictive performance of destination choice models for shopping can improve if they include indicators of a centre's CSR performance but the effects of CSR attributes are small compared to the effects of non-CSR attributes.     

闽南马巷古镇文化保护及其未来发展路径研究

古镇马巷地处闽南金三角腹地，不仅拥有丰厚的历史文化资源及传统工业，又深受辛亥革命的影响。随着社会的发展，马巷的文化遗存并没有得到相应有效的保护，逐渐消失在历史前进的脚步中。有效保护马巷的历史文化遗存，使之与马巷镇的发展相适应，将有利于促进马巷古镇整体健康、持续发展。可通过保护当地的传统文化和民俗风情，深化对台民间文化交流与合作，加强文化遗存的产业化经营以及旅游开发等措施，保护马巷古镇文化遗存，提升马巷古镇的未来发展竞争力。     

Creating markets for eco‐labelling: are consumers insignificant?

The proliferation of voluntary certification and labelling schemes for environmentally and socially responsible production is often seen as driven by companies and consumer demand. Through a careful examination of the initiation and spread of such initiatives in the fishery and forestry sectors, this paper challenges a rational–economic perspective that sees the spread of nonstate governance schemes primarily as a market‐driven phenomenon. Drawing on a political consumerism perspective, the paper argues that transnational environmental group networks and their targeting of firms were key to the emergence of nonstate eco‐labelling schemes, and that most firms decided to support or participate in such schemes only after intensive environmental group pressure. The paper opposes the view that nonstate governance challenges traditional state authority, by showing that states, through public procurement policies and support, contributed to create markets for forestry and fishery labelling in many countries. Although some states have been more sceptical of fishery labelling, largely because of the way fishery resources are managed, they have come to accept it as a helpful supplement to public rules and regulations.     

The more,the merrier? An exploratory study into managing channels in UK financial services

Abstract

Following the emergence of retail parks in the late 1970s in Britain, they have grown in number, scale and degree of retail specialisation. Some continue to form concentrations offering primarily ‘bulky goods’ shopping, while others have diversified to offer traditional ‘high street’ functions from stores indistinguishable from their town and city centre equivalents. Consequently, in some cases the emergence of new ‘high streets’ in the suburbs can be posited. In view of the potential impact such developments might have on traditional shopping centres, this study reviews the development of retail parks in Britain in recent years, and examines the commercial impact of a retail park in the process of transition towards a suburban ‘high street’. Evidence from surveys in 2003 and 2004 of the Fforestfach Retail Park in the greater Swansea area indicates that the transition towards a suburban ‘high street’ is beginning to impact significantly on traditional shopping centres of all types. It was evident that even small additions of ‘high street’ functions between the two recent survey dates elicited a statistically significant strengthening of their trading impact. Consequently, it is suggested that upgraded retail parks are likely to become stronger competitive threats to the full range of district, town and city centres if ‘high street’ functions continue to be added to retail parks.     

Application of production standards in complex organizations under uncertainty

This article explores the optimal determination of production (quantitative) standards under alternative assumptions concerning the ability of complex organizations to adjust variable inputs as the price of output becomes known.The model allows for transaction costs associated with ex ante and ex post input acquisitions (e.g., contracting for labor services). When such input transaction costs are not observable by top management, pecuniary incentive schemes based on ex post performance are considered. We show that standard-based compensation schemes can be built into the ex post optimization model so that the profit-maximizing production standards and the incentive designs are simultaneously determined.     

Toward Moral Responsibility Theories of Corporate Sustainability and Sustainable Supply Chain

Earth’s life-support system is facing megaproblems of sustainability. One important way of how these problems can be addressed is through innovation. This paper argues that responsible innovation that contributes to sustainable development (SD) consists of three dimensions: (1) innovations avoid harming people and the planet, (2) innovations ‘do good’ by offering new products, services, or technologies that foster SD, and (3) global governance schemes are in place that facilitate innovations that avoid harm and ‘do good.’ The paper discusses global governance schemes based on deliberation as a means to foster such responsible innovation. These schemes can provide voluntary soft-law regulations that complement and extend national and international hard-law regulations and facilitate collective innovation that contributes to SD goals. The article addresses the facilitative role of governments and international organizations in overcoming problems of deliberation and offers illustrative examples of such governance schemes.     

The Growth of Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains: Mission Impossible for Western Small- and Medium-Sized Firms?

Multinational corporations (MNCs) have come under pressure to adopt private regulatory initiatives such as supplier codes of conduct in order to address poor working conditions in global supply chain factories. While a well-known literature explores drivers and outcomes of such monitoring schemes, this literature focuses mainly on large firms and has ignored the growing integration of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into global supply chains. Furthermore, the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in SMEs primarily emphasizes domestic initiatives and not global challenges. Focusing on the Business for Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), this article examines the positions of private actors, who demand and supply private regulation as well as the positions of those firms, who are the targets of such schemes. As the BSCI has grown its membership, MNCs increasingly request that SMEs meet BSCI requirements in global supply chains even though compliance is a “mission impossible” for many smaller firms. As a result of this development, the private regulatory system is facing growing strain.     

成都地区古镇民俗旅游广告现象分析——以洛带、黄龙溪、赵镇为例

目前,成都的古镇民俗旅游业发展方兴未艾,其中民俗旅游广告起到了巨大的推动作用。以成都市的三个古镇为倒,其民俗旅游广告可分为匾联招幌型、市声招徕型、风土人情展示型、盛大民俗活动型等四大类。从目前来看,成都地区古镇民俗旅游广告市场有了长足的发展,但也存在着广告形式同质化、广告内容重复等问题,需要广告业者整合资源、统筹推广,同时还需要把广告的内容和形式与其核心诉求互融,把古镇民俗旅游广告与阶段性民俗主题活动和整合营销活动相结合,使其更适应民俗旅游业的发展。     

浅析高校图书馆管理模式引入物流管理

随着信息技术的发展、市场竞争的加剧,图书馆管理模式、服务范围等亟待升级。本文就高校图书馆管理模式引入物流管理进行探讨,试图提出自己建设性的观点,即高校图书馆如何改变传统的管理模式,怎样适应广大的读者日益增长的文化需要,怎样培养市场竞争的意识。用科学的物流管理指导图书馆改革管理模式。     

积极实施村账镇管促进农村经济发展

在农村原有的账务管理模式中存在各种弊端,迫切的需要进行改革,通过实施"村账镇管"政策后,受到试点乡(镇)广大人民群众和当地党委政府的热烈欢迎,实行"村账镇管",是农村财务管理方式的一大变革,也是规范农村财务的一项得力措施.同时,也应该看到"村账镇管"还存有很多不足与问题,需要不断采取措施弥补完善.     

Parental Choice of Primary School: An Application of Q-Methodology

After rapid growth in off-centre retailing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the UK Government is now determined to concentrate future retailing within urban areas and, wherever possible, close to existing town and city centres. By their very nature, however, major retail developments are extensive users of land. This makes suitable sites hard to acquire within cities, especially as large urban sites normally have to be assembled from several ownerships, while those of the periphery can often be purchased from a single owner. Within this context, this article examines how the availability of large redevelopment sites for future retailing within or close to the centres of four British cities was significantly constrained by multiple land ownership. It contends that, while tighter planning restrictions on retail development in off-centre locations may well be effective in thwarting development considered unacceptable in policy terms, such restrictions by themselves will not serve to re-direct retail development pressure to central areas, unless multiple land ownership can be readily resolved. Without such action, retail planning policy will increasingly frustrate retail competition and ultimately to become self-defeating.     

论景宁县旅游品牌的创建与营销策略

景宁县旅游业发展得天独厚 ,潜力巨大。景宁必须充分发挥自身的资源优势 ,尽快培育起自己的核心能力 ,以此为基础 ,构筑起技术平台和市场平台 ,并通过品牌创建和市场营销等活动 ,不断巩固和拓展自己的发展平台。打造“华东民族名城 ,浙江休闲绿谷”是能够成功的。