Marketing Sustainable Consumption within Stores: A Case Study of the UK's Leading Food Retailers

Sustainable consumption is a core policy objective within the UK Government's Sustainable Development Strategy and there is a growing awareness that retailers have a vital role to play in promoting more sustainable patterns of consumption. This article explores how the UK's top ten food retailers are communicating sustainable consumption agendas to their customers within stores in the towns of Cheltenham and Gloucester. The findings reveal that while these retailers are providing customers with some information on sustainable consumption the dominant thrust of marketing communication within stores is designed to encourage consumption. The article concludes with some reflections on how sustainable consumption fits into the large food retailers' business models.     

The Externalisation of Producer Services Debate: The UK Computer Services Sector

This article uses a variety of evidence from the UK computer services industry to inform debates surrounding externalisation processes and the nature of growth in contemporary producer service sectors. While it has been argued that growth in such industries is predominantly demand-lead and independent from the disintegration of businesses in client sectors, in the computer services sector the direct transfer of activity from client firms to independent computer service providers is an increasingly important component of growth at an aggregate, national scale. Growth in this segment is being fuelled by the de-regulation of public sector IT procurenment in the UK.     

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.     

Small versus large retail stores in an emerging market—Mexico

As emerging markets open, they attract large domestic and international retailers, which compete with traditional local small stores. This study investigates whether this influx of large stores is inevitable, by focusing on consumers' motivation for selecting a retail store, and the association between these motivation dimensions and the shopping patronage. The results from an empirical study conducted in Mexico indicate that consumer's preference for small stores is positively motivated by functional benefits and familiarity with small stores; and negatively associated with the functional benefits offered by large stores. These motivational dimensions are also positively associated with the share of wallet spent at small stores. While gender exhibits mixed effect on preference for small stores and the share of wallet, women do feel that large stores provide better functional benefits and support for the local economy. Finally, the study details the research and managerial implications of the findings.     

Tourists' purchase intentions: impact of franchise brand awareness

This study examines how an intention on the part of tourists to purchase items for daily use is determined by their awareness of franchise-branded stores, the image of those brands, and the perceived risk of purchase from non-franchised stores within Taiwan. In that country franchised chains are an important component of the retail mix, and their presence in tourist destinations can influence shopping patterns. The results indicate that positive relationships exist between intentions to purchase items from franchise convenience stores and perceived risk of buying from unfamiliar retail outlets. Equally familiarity with the destination acts as a moderating variable, and this variable facilitates higher patronage of non-franchised stores by tourists. The results indicate a general preference for purchases from well-established franchised outlets than locally independent owned stores. Managerial implications for both types of stores in tourist zones are discussed.     

When nature calls: The role of customer toilets in retail stores

The scarce previous literature indicates that the customer toilet facilities influence shopping value and should be a concern for retailers. However, customer toilets are often inadequately capitalised in retail stores. This study aims to provide a scientifically robust argument about the critical role of customer toilets in retail stores. The explanatory survey data (n=655) from a Finnish out-of-town department store is examined to explore (1) the importance that consumers place on the customer toilets and (2) the effect of toilet usage on actual shopping behaviour. The results support the assumptions of previous literature by suggesting that customer toilets are considered as an important store attribute and, more importantly, the use of toilets is associated with prolonged in-store time which, in turn, increases spending. The findings offer both academic and managerial contribution and encourage academics and practitioners to regard customer toilets as more than mere an unwanted property expense and discover their full marketing potential.     

An Illustrative Application of Multi-Unit Franchise Expansion in a Local Retail Market

Abstract

Retail expansion in a local market offers many challenges, and given the sensitivity of survival to location mistakes, it is imperative to develop site models that incorporate realistic impediments to that expansion. Small independent businesses or local area franchisees facing limits on all forms of capital rarely can open additional units without delays. In this paper, we test the benefit of using Kaufmann, Donthu and Brooks' (2000) multi-unit site selection model that incorporates the reality of delays in the opening of new stores as well as the recognition that local retail chains can face competition from many hard to identify sources. We use data from the actual introduction of a small set of stores in a major United States metropolitan market to estimate the potential for improvement over a pure sequential expansion strategy. When compared to the sequential strategy actually used by the retailer, we estimate that performance could have been improved by 15.5% if a model that anticipated the delays in opening the stores and competition from secondary sources would have been used.     

Comparing managerial careers,management development and management education in the UK and the USA: some theoretical and practical considerations

This article explores some of the issues surrounding changing patterns of managerial careers, management development and management education in the UK and the USA. It addresses three lines of questioning: the new rhetoric of careers in the new economy, the evidence on changing organisational forms and the implications for careers and management development and education, and the future of management education and the role of business schools. The article is intended as a ‘think piece’ and acts as a backdrop for a comparative study of management development in Scotland and California currently being undertaken by the authors.     

The impact of a gasoline crisis on retail sales

The gasoline crises of the 1970s demonstrated the need for including gasoline prices and gasoline shortages in models explaining retail sales. In this article, a model is constructed that incorporates the aforementioned variables, other variables, and a lagged sales figure as independent variable. The results indicate a high degree of explanatory power in predicting retail sales for a specialty store chain with a preponderance of their stores in large regional malls that sell a product which lends itself to unplanned purchase behaviour.     

Unlocking the padlock: Retail and public policy in Belgium (1930–1961)

Abstract

During the inter-war and post-war decades, until the dawn of the 1960s, the Belgian retail sector remained very traditional and overcrowded. In that context literature usually points to the Belgian law of 1936/1937 restricting the expansion of department stores. This article outlines the history of this so-called Padlock Law (Loi de Cadenas/Grendelwet), and evaluates its effectiveness and impact. It tries to answer the question as to why the public debate on retailing in Belgium was caught in a deadlock and, specifically, why prohibitive measures against big distribution remained intact for such a long period. It demonstrates how the political dossier of the Padlock was interlinked with a much broader societal debate, that of the survival of the independent classes moyennes/middenstand. The Padlock became a highly symbolic issue, pitting small, family enterprises against big, capitalistic businesses, with all this linked to powerful social perceptions and powered by the dichotomy of modernity versus tradition. In the highly segmented and pillarised Belgian society, reaching a consensus on the modernisation of retailing was only possible after clearly incorporating small independent enterprises into the post-war neo-corporatist welfare state and into its structures of collective bargaining.     

Locally-owned convenience stores and the local economy

The convenience store sector in the UK has been growing strongly in recent years. Anecdotal commentary and media coverage claims that locally-owned stores are more advantageous for community coherence and resilience, being embedded socially and economically more strongly (than chain stores) in their local community. This paper extends our understanding of this. Following a review of the literature on social and economic aspects of convenience store operation, a multi-stage mainly qualitative research process was undertaken. Using four case stores in Scotland, this research demonstrates the local engagement of locally owned convenience stores and points to a stronger awareness and detail of the economic rather than the social aspects of this engagement. Differences with corporately owned convenience stores are identified. In policy terms the research shows that more work needs to be done to identify, quantify and then promote the advantages of local ownership of stores.     

Ethical positioning and political marketing: the ethical awareness and concerns of UK voters

There is clear evidence of increased voter awareness and concern for environmental and other ethical issues, leading many organisations to reappraise and communicate more effectively their ethical credentials. The manifestos of the three main political parties in the UK show clear differences in their positioning on ethical issues.

Following a qualitative investigation using in-depth discussions and ZMET, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a representative UK sample of 1,000 consumers. This included a measure of awareness, concern and action on 16 ethical issues, the scale developed from the Stages of Change concept within the transtheoretical model.

Using principal components analysis, ANOVA and chi-squared analysis, differences are identified in the ethical positions of voter groups affiliated with the three main parties. These differences are not consistent between different sets of issues, suggesting further scope for ethical targeting and positioning by political marketers.     

The organisational learning system within small UK manufacturing firms

Organisational learning is increasingly being mentioned in the literature as a mechanism for assisting the market performance of small firms. There exists, however, limited empirical evidence on the learning systems utilised to manage the process. A survey was undertaken to acquire data on whether a relationship exists between learning style and the nature of learning systems used by small UK manufacturing firms. The results suggest that as firms move from single towards double-loop learning this is accompanied by the adoption of a more formalised learning system inside the organisation. The implications of these finding are discussed and proposals presented on the needs for further research.     

An empirical examination of performance in the clothing retailing industry: A case study

This article estimates the efficiency of the 40 retail stores of a prestigious clothing company that operates in the Portuguese fast-fashion retailing market. The study compares the performance among the stores and provides insights into ways of improving performance in the retail clothing industry. A two-stage approach is used in this article. In a first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques are used to evaluate the performance of each store and to rank the stores. The input-oriented model was used to assess the summer and winter collections between 2010 and 2013. The results show that the total technical efficiency of the company decreases over time. Except for the year 2013, over 90% of the stores show increasing returns to scale during 88% of the period analyzed. The company faces a clear problem of productivity in its retailing operations. This deficiency seems to be intrinsic to the firm as it involves more than 60% of the stores. In a second stage, a quantile regression technique was used. This showed primarily that for the lowest quantiles of the efficiency score conditional distribution the coefficients on experience are very low, even close to zero, which suggests that the efforts taken by the stores in terms of experience are barely recognized by consumers in this fast-fashion retailing chain.     

Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation - Problems and Possibilities

The aim of the article is to discuss and analyse the strategy for quality introduced by a Swedish daily-ware retailer and especially what role organisational rationality, irrationality and gender plays for some aspects of this strategy. The strategy was motivated by the intense competition. One of its key components was work rotation in the stores. Six out of 90 stores were studied. In five of these work rotation was selective: the most female-labelled duty, cashier work, and the most male-labelled, butchering, were excluded. In the sixth store the work rotation was total. Before analysing the results, the national, sector and company contexts are presented. The analytical tools and concepts are drawn from different feminist organisational researchers. The main conclusions are that decisions made by top managers are necessary but not sufficient to create changes in organisations. The importance of middle management is emphasised although it is obvious that power is present everywhere. These findings indicate that there is not one all-embracing decision behind the outcomes but rather many small decisions made by both women and men on all hierarchical levels. The outcome also suggests that economic rationalities are weaker than gender rationalities, an outcome which ought to influence organisational theories.     

Memory in the Small: Combining Collective Memory and Task Support for a Scientific Community

Many forms of memory exist embedded within the processes and tasks of an organization or community. Memory in the small, or memory utilized in the performance of an institutionally important task, serves as an effective task support mechanism. By basing memory on tasks (and basing task support on memory), memory systems can provide additional and necessary support services for organizations and communities. As an example of memory in the small, in this article we describe a software system, called the ASSIST, that combines memory with task performance for a scientific community. The ASSIST utilizes and stores the collective memory of astrophysicists about data analysis, and is used worldwide by astrophysicists. In this article, we also consider the architectural and theoretical issues involved when combining memory with task performance.     

A Test of Perfect Competition in the UK Retail-banking Deposit Market

This article presents a test for perfect competition in the deposit market of the UK retail-banking sector. The model employed draws from the New Economic Industrial Organisation (NEIO) technique forwarded by Hannan and Liang [1993]. The test is applied to a sample of eight UK retail banks between 1992-97. The presence of perfect competition is rejected for all banks. The empirical evidence does not support qualitative evidence of increasing competitiveness amongst UK retail banks.     

Consumer satisfaction in retail stores: theory and implications

The substitution of small retail stores by the large stores has been a topic of debate among academics, practitioners, retailers and general public, especially in the context of foreign firms entering emerging markets such as China and India. The purpose of this research is to find out the determinants of consumer satisfaction in small and large retail stores in an emerging market, with a sample from India. Data were collected using a 39‐item structured questionnaire developed by the authors. The sample consists of 225 consumers who shop at retail outlets (Convenience sample of 125 consumers from small and 100 consumers from large stores respectively). Exploratory factor analysis grouped the 39 variables into 14 factors. Further, regression analysis revealed that six of the factors (Social desirability, staff friendliness, shopping economy, shopping ambience, family shopping and deal proneness) were major predictors of consumer satisfaction as they were found to be significant at 5% level. The significance of factors such as social desirability and staff friendliness imply that many consumers prefer those typical features of small stores, which in turn results in the likely coexistence of small retail formats in spite of the entry and proliferation of large retail stores from different countries. We posit three theoretical propositions to stimulate further research in this area.     

The role of business ethics: where next? Is there a role for academics?

In his address to the conference Norman Bowie contrasted the business ethics climate in the US with that of the UK. He highlighted the adversarial nature of US corporate cultures and the heavy emphasis on compliance‐based programs, and contrasted this with the more collaborative relationships in the UK – and in Europe generally – which lead to partnerships with NGOs as a way to resolve ethical issues. However, the growing insistence that business ethics should pay is common to both business environments. Professor Bowie raised two further issues of concern. One was the increasing professionalisation of the business ethics 'business', and the other was the reluctance of students to opt for business ethics courses. Taking these factors together suggests that the role of academics in business ethics is shrinking fast.     

‘Fair play for the small man’: Perspectives on the contribution of the independent shopkeeper 1930–c.1945

Detailed accounts of the social role of the independent shopkeeper rarely go beyond 1914. This article identifies a perception that his value in providing both a personal and community service endured beyond this date. Consultation of a variety of documentary sources from the 1930s and 1940s demonstrates that the independent shopkeeper remained an integral part of retailing and society in Britain in this period. More widely, the article contextualizes the continued support for the small shopkeeper in relation to theories of retail institutional change derived from the marketing literature. Acknowledging an open-systems perspective, it assesses the influence of the social and political environment in explaining the persistence of small shopkeeper support.