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.     

The ‘online high street’ or the high street online? The implications for the urban retail hierarchy

The U.K. has the greatest proportion of online sales in Europe. This study seeks to explore the differential effects of online retailing on the (evolving) hierarchy of shopping centres by examining current trends and underlying forces. The overall objectives of the paper are to qualify and explore the influence of online retailing in the decision-making processes of leading retailers today; and to assess how virtual influences become manifest in the tangible built environment and have impacted the retail hierarchy? It differentiates online retail trends by sector and retailer size, and examines the consequences for different types of shopping centres. The empirical research is based on the changing location of stores of a major fashion retailer and interviews with three of Britain’s leading retailers that have seen the more substantial increase in online turnover in recent years. Major retailers are found to have integrated online offerings, such as click and collect, into a ‘multi-channel’ retailing approach. Online retailing has therefore become an inherent and central element within large retailers’ business and therefore real estate strategies, with considerations such as online marketplace penetration and possible ‘cannibalisation’ coming to the fore in decision-making about store location. Online retail sales are, to a degree, drawing sales away from shopping centres but its impact on the existing shopping hierarchy is largely to reinforce established long-term trends driven by the motor age and the shift to out of town retailing. This is symbolised by the largest ‘high street’ fashion retailer now having more branches in retail parks than town centres. Out of town shopping centres for example are benefitting because of the ease of goods collection offered by these locations.     

Retail-center viability and urban form: a micro analysis

Location is commonly axiomatically stated as the most important real estate feature. However, little attention is given to the urban system that reveals how location is configured, and how that configuration sustains the viability of site-specific retailing activity in the metropolitan region. In this paper, we use block-level, GIS-aided spatial data that reveal the physical qualities of the retail center’s built environment as well as employment and business activity. Thereby, we examine a hypothesis that retailing viability is linked to urban form and set out to determine a statistical relationship. Retail sales data indicate the viability of businesses in two matched shopping centers, urban and suburban, each anchored by an identical big-box retailer downsized to a neighborhood supermarket, with pedestrian-friendly orientation and proximity to housing. The paper concludes with regression estimates of the urban form determinants of business viability by various distances from the retail center.     

Predicting resilience in retailing using grey theory and moving probability based Markov models

The level of resilience for an urban retail system is referred to as the ability of diverse types of retailing to adjust to any modifications, crises or shocks, which can adversely influence the system equilibrium, without compromising on performing its’ functions in a viable way. We use the case of retailing in an urban environment, considering a town center, and observed the resilience factors in retailing. Apart from that, we propose a methodology to measure and predict the level of retail resilience of urban town centers. The idea and theory of grey prediction models and moving probability based Markov models are used in this research for predicting the retail resilience of town centers using several identified indicators. Here, the retail resilience of a case town center, which is located in an Indian city, is evaluated based on the five indicators of retail resilience. From the results of prediction, an increasing trend in the level of retail resilience is observed for the case during 2020. This is perceived as per the results of predictions from the grey model of the first order and with one variable (GM (1, 1) model) and the grey moving probability state Markov model-based error correction. Managers can acknowledge the level of retail resilience and the stage of the adaptive cycle, where the town center stands in resilience, for improving the future trends in the resilience of the town center. Also, the policy implications points in the direction to mend or amend strategies to fit the town center within the adaptive cycle of resilience, as discussed in the paper.     

Retail internationalization and retail failure: issues from the case of Marks and Spencer

Notwithstanding the importance of retailing to urban economies, the role of retailing in the marketing of urban places has been an area neglected by both academics and practitioners alike. It is acknowledged that the principles of marketing can be applied (albeit with modification) to the context of urban places. The theoretical implications of this are considered using Corsico's () metaphors of the city as enterprise, market and commodity. Such issues are considered via a survey of place marketing actors within the specific context of the marketing of towns and cities as shopping destinations in urban places classified as sub-regional and above. Particular attention is paid to responsibility for the marketing of the retail provision, the emphasis given to retail in the marketing/promotional activities of various urban stakeholders, the perceived role of retailing, and the factors influencing the nature of the urban retail provision. Promotion of retailing was found to be important for all urban stakeholders to a greater or lesser degree. However, prime responsibility lay with town centre managers and shopping centre managers. The implications for both theory and practice are discussed.     

Equity ownership and control of international joint ventures in the retail sector

Abstract

This study examines the relationships that exist between consumers' perceptions of a retail environment and their emotions, satisfaction and behavioural intentions with respect to that shopping setting. A model of these relationships is developed and then tested in two distinct retail settings—shopping centres and traditional retailing areas. The results show that, in general, positive perceptions of a retail environment have a positive influence on positive emotions, on repatronage intentions, and on the desire to remain longer in the shopping area in both retail settings. However, some interesting differences emerge between shopping centres and traditional retailing areas: (i) the internal environment has a stronger effect on emotions in shopping centres than in traditional retailing areas; and (ii) the internal environment has a negative effect in shopping centres on the disposition to pay more.     

Valuing spatial accessibility to retailing: A case study of the single family housing market in Hillsboro,Oregon

Recently, urban planners in the US have been working to encourage Location Efficient Developments that enhance residential spatial accessibility to retailing. In this paper, we explore how spatial accessibility to retailing is valued by households in a single family housing market. We first use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to develop an Accessibility Index which measures single family residential units’ accessibility to retail stores. We show that our Index can measure accessibility in a more thorough way than previous measures. We then incorporate this Index into a hedonic price analysis evaluating the effects of enhanced access to retailing in a single family housing market in the City of Hillsboro, Oregon. We find that greater spatial accessibility to retailing is capitalized into residential property values. However, we also conclude that amenity effects associated with nearby retail stores diminish when a store is too close to adjacent residences.     

The Retail Park: Customer Usage and Perceptions of a Retailing Innovation

Recently described as a ‘peculiarly British innovation’, retail parks are an increasingly important element of the UK's urban retail structure. Yet relatively little is known about customer usage and perceptions of this innovative retail form. A study of the Abbey Trading Centre, an unplanned retail park on the outskirts of Belfast, reveals that the complex is patronised by middle-class families of one-stop-shoppers. The perceived advantages and disadvantages of shopping in the retail park are also explored and it is argued that these may help explain the evolution of retailing innovations.     

The structure of the Philadelphia trading community on the transition from colony to state

This article explores the extent and nature of retail change in the eighteenth century. In focusing on a single region, it places retailing in its spatial, economic and social context; by adopting different scales of analysis – shop, town and region – it reveals much about the spatiality of retailing. The study shows that retail change had penetrated all aspects of retailing and all parts of the regional urban hierarchy by the end of the eighteenth century. However, any retailing revolution was a patchy and conditional process: the pace of change varied, and the gap between large and small towns apparently widened in the early nineteenth century.     

A Dixonian analysis of petrol retailing in the U.K. – 1880-2000

The development of the retail petroleum industry in the U.K. has received only sporadic attention by academics. Whilst the retail petroleum industry in the U.K. is usually thought of as an oligopoly, with a small number of companies controlling the production and movement of products through vertical integration, there is evidence of significant high-level changes in the global industry resulting in the loss of retailing sites belonging to the major companies, and a rise in the number and influence of competitors. These constitute both multiple retailers such as supermarket chains, and at the ‘competitive fringe’, a rise in the number of smaller independents. In this paper, we identify the changes and then analyse the factors underlying them using the Dixonian system model of macromarketing. In contrast to the usual fine-grained approach of the marketing mix, the Dixonian system comprises an hierarchical, systematic view of the product market which suits an analysis of the complexity of the factors in this sector.     

‘The Municipal Store’: Adaptation and Development in the Retail Markets of Nineteenth-Century Urban Lancashire

This essay employs a case study of Lancashire's nineteeth-century retail markets in order to reassess the impact of economic and urban growth on retail forms. By revealing the resilience of markets in a county which experienced some of the most intense industrial and urban development of the period, it challenges those models of retail change which present an inverse relationship between economic and urban change on the one hand, and ‘traditional’ modes of retailing on the other. It examines the ways in which the region's markets responded to the new problems and opportunities generated by their changing physical, economic and social environment, focusing in particular on their management, their trade and their temporal and physical organisation. It reveals how, contrary to undergoing displacement by ‘fixed’ forms of shop retailing, markets adopted some of their characteristics and evolved as modern, profitable, daily, undercover ‘municipal stores’.     

The dimensions of assortment: A proposed hierarchy of assortment decision making

Abstract

The merchandise assortment plays a fundamental role in retailing; it conveys the positioning of the retailer, and is a key determinant of image and patronage. However, existing literature covering a 50-year period is somewhat fragmented. A key problem with the literature is that it does not distinguish between different levels and dimensions of assortment, causing potential ambiguity in their interpretation in the modern retailing context. The lack of standardised terminology could potentially inhibit future assortment research in, for example, assortment measurement. In reviewing the literature, the critical dimensions of assortment are clarified with conceptual definitions and a hierarchical classification of assortment being proposed. Further, the assortment research is examined, identifying an imbalance between operational and strategic assortment research. As retail assortments expand and saturate, the need for assortment measurement research is argued with associated implications for retail management.     

Brand personality appeal in retailing: Comparing fashion- and grocery retailing

In a mature retail market, branding can offer retailers opportunities for setting themselves apart. This study examines the construct ‘brand personality appeal’ (BPA; Freling et al., 2011) in retailing. Two consumer surveys are administered, on fashion retailing (n = 104) and grocery retailing (n = 101), focusing on (1) store personality, (2) BPA, and (3) retailer brand equity. A SmartPLS estimation shows that ‘enthusiasm’ is a personality trait that appeals to consumers regardless of the retail context, whereas ‘sophistication’ matters more in fashion retailing and ‘unpleasantness’ in grocery retailing. BPA is a significant driver of retail brand equity, regardless of the retail context.     

Beyond adoption: sustaining online shopping

Online retailing has the potential to offer remote areas a wider marketplace for their retail products and also a concomitant increase in income. Drawing on secondary Internet-based research, this paper considers the fortunes and future of online retailing in a number of the remote British Overseas Territories. It will become apparent that Internet retailing is an important strategic option for retailers in such isolated locations, but greater attention needs to be paid to issues surrounding operations and logistics, payment systems and merchandising. It is also seen how, despite its apparent ‘placelessness’, the Internet and associated online selling cannot escape the realities of space and distance.     

Urban place marketing and retail agglomeration customers

Abstract

Through identifying the attributes of a place that have an influence on the patronage behaviour of urban retail customers, this paper presents a conceptual model that proposes direct and indirect antecedents regarding the different retail-related dimensions associated with urban place attractiveness. An empirical study was conducted whereby the model was tested by surveying approximately 500 actual customers at the time they visited a particular town centre for the purposes of shopping. The results showed that the retail tenant mix, the merchandise value, and the atmosphere had a direct impact, and the product range and the sales personnel an indirect impact upon the evaluation of attractiveness. Furthermore, a number of additional effects towards these antecedents were identified with respect to parking conditions, the non-retail tenant mix, manoeuvrability, and orientation. This revealed that retailing activities were a major driver of attractiveness for an urban place. The practical implication of these findings suggests that place marketing activities should be proactive in supporting and enabling retailers in fulfilling their roles.     

Segmenting consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) toward marketing practice: A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach

The way consumers make decisions across online and offline channels according to their perceptions of retailers׳ marketing practices is not well understood in the current literature. A few empirical studies have examined consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) and marketing practice among online and shopping mall consumers. This research endeavors to understand CDMS as market segments on the perception of marketing practice across retail channels. A total of 315 online and paper–pencil-questionnaires were collected to conduct the statistical analysis for the measurement and structural model using the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach, a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Six consumers׳ characteristics–perfectionist, brand consciousness, price conscious, fashion conscious, recreational and impulsive shoppers–were assessed in respect of retail products, price, advertising and retailing across-channels. The study contributes to retailing management by enabling it to implement effective retail segmentation and cross-channel strategy according to CDMS. The study limitations and implications are discussed.     

Innovations in Retail Business Models

A retail business model articulates how a retailer creates value for its customers and appropriates value from the markets. Innovations in business models are increasingly critical for building sustainable advantage in a marketplace defined by unrelenting change, escalating customer expectations, and intense competition. Drawing from extant strategy and retailing research, we propose that innovations in retail business models are best viewed as changes in three design components: (1) the way in which the activities are organized, (2) the type of activities that are executed, and (3) the level of participation of the actors engaged in performing those activities. We propose six major ways in which retailers could innovate their business models to enhance value creation and appropriation beyond the levels afforded by traditional approaches to retailing. We also describe the drivers of business model innovations, the potential consequences of such innovations, and numerous examples from retail practice that highlight our concepts and arguments. In doing so, we provide a starting point for academic research in a domain that is deficient in theoretical and empirical research, and offer retailing managers a framework to guide retail business model innovations for sustainable competitive advantage.     

Aisles of life: outline of a customer-centric approach to retail space management

The article argues that well-established principles of urban design are highly relevant for retail management and applicable in regards to a much needed customer-centric turn in space management within retailing management. In particular, supermarkets, hypermarkets and larger retail chains are governed by a space management tradition that heavily draws on principles of utilitarianism and instrumental rationality. Yet, any physical retail space accommodates a separate and distinctive, but not independent, social space which must equally be addressed if attractive retail spaces are to be grasped, created and maintained. In fact, the standardized and repetitive design of many larger retail environments such as supermarkets appears to build on uncontested traditions of space management and tenacious myths about consumer behaviour and preferences that are challenged as urban design studies are consulted. In reference to current urban design research, the article concludes by suggesting five propositions and measurements for the customer-centric quality of retail spaces that take as a starting point the appreciation of the social space that any retail space management presupposes.     

From Multi-Channel Retailing to Omni-Channel Retailing: Introduction to the Special Issue on Multi-Channel Retailing

The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. The advent of the online channel and new additional digital channels such as mobile channels and social media have changed retail business models, the execution of the retail mix, and shopper behavior. Whereas multi-channel was in vogue in the last decade in retailing, we now observe a move to so-called omni-channel retailing. Omni-channel retailing is taking a broader perspective on channels and how shoppers are influenced and move through channels in their search and buying process. We discuss this development conceptually and subsequently discuss existing research in this multi-channel retailing. We also introduce the articles in this special issue on multi-channel retailing and position these articles in the new omni-channel movement. We end with putting forward a research agenda to further guide future research in this area.