Assessment of business potential at retail sites: empirical findings from a US supermarket chain

We address the problem of estimating retail business potential at alternative sites, with concern for assessing performance relative to potential in existing markets and for identifying the best sites for expansion into new markets. At question is the utility of information typically used in formal retail patronage models, in comparison with additional information considered important by retail executives. Relevant data are gathered from secondary sources and intensive in-store surveys are conducted to produce a portfolio of information about neighbourhood demographics, store ambience, variety and quality of products and services, relative prices of selected products, etc. for stores in a retail grocery chain and competitive stores in the chain's markets. We experiment with alternative statistical models for store performance to determine the consequence of restricting the types of data available when constructing the models. Our findings suggest that while information about store location and surrounding areas, store characteristics and competitive position are all required to obtain the best assessment for business potential at a site, a few key variables on each dimension offer the bulk of explanatory power. Further, the spatial-locational variables affect all measures of store performance in intuitive directions, whereas the effects of other variables differ according to performance measure and reflect the store's market position.     

International Retail Restructuring and Divestment: The Experience of Tesco

A key purpose of this study is to explore the lessons learned from international retail divestment and market withdrawal experiences. Drawing on 33 in-depth interviews with leading investment banks and key retail executives at Tesco, the study investigates the company's international restructuring and divestment activities in Ireland and France during the mid -1980s and 1990s. It has been demonstrated that, despite the progressive merger and acquisition wave sweeping through the corporate retail landscape recently, international retail divestment is quite widespread. The main conclusion from this study is that Tesco originally did not envisage divestment or de-internationalisation as part of the original internationalisation strategy process in either the acquisition of Three Guys in Ireland or Catteau in France. There was no appreciation from Tesco during their early period of expansion of the fact that exit pressures might arise during the course of market entry. In this regard, the case study provides insights into the relationship between investment and divestment within the context of international retail restructuring. The case evidence also demonstrates the positive impact of the Three Guys and Catteau divestments which helped management to refocus and rejuvenate the company's internationalisation process.     

The density–satisfaction relationship revisited: The role of scarcity and consumers affective reactions in a crowded retail situation

This article examines how individuals react in crowded utilitarian settings and investigates the specific role of scarcity in the density–dissatisfaction relationship. This paper also highlights the mediating role of affective states (i.e. positive and negative) in determining consumers' satisfaction or dissatisfaction in these contexts. The results suggest that the scarcity of the situation can reduce the extent to which consumers perceive negative experiences in a dense retail situation. In addition, it supports the critical role played by affective states in mediating the relationship between density perceptions and negative reactions. The article provides potential explanations and managerial insights on how managers can deal with crowding in diverse retail and services situations.     

Chief executive officers' dispositional optimism,host country's rule of law,and foreign market equity mode choice of Ghanaian small and medium‐sized enterprises

Despite a growing interest in the influence of managerial characteristics on firms' strategic decision‐making process, scholarly knowledge is limited with regard to how and when psychological attributes of executives affect firms' foreign entry mode decision. Building on behavioral decision‐making theory, we address this gap by investigating the effect of chief executive officers' (CEOs') optimism on firms' foreign market equity mode choice. In addition, we examine the moderating influence of the host country's rule of law on this relationship. Using primary data from 227 small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana, we found that increases in the levels of CEOs' optimism are related to the increases in preference for equity entry mode. This relationship is amplified when CEOs perceive the host country to have stronger rule of law. The findings have theoretical, managerial, and policy implications for SMEs' foreign market entry mode strategy.     

How to create a realistic customer journey map

Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer journey maps are critically flawed. They assume all customers of a particular organization experience the same organizational touchpoints and view these touchpoints as equally important. Furthermore, management lacks an understanding of how to use CJM as a cross-functional, strategic tool that promotes service innovation. This article proposes a solution to the unwieldy complexity of CJM by linking customer research to the CJM process and by showing managers how to develop a customer journey map that improves a customer's experience at each touchpoint. Using the case of an actual retail mall, we show that common CJM assumptions about the equal importance of all touchpoints are fundamentally wrong, and how easy it is for retail managers and strategic planners to make incorrect judgements about customer experience. This article demonstrates through a case study how customer research helped a mall's strategic management team understand which touchpoints were more or less critical to customer experience. It also shows key strategic initiatives at each touchpoint, resulting in cross-functional input aimed to advance service innovation at the mall.     

The Dynamics of Guanxi and Ethics for Chinese Executives

This study empirically examines how Chinese executives perceive the role of guanxi and ethics played in their business operations. By factor-analyzing 850 valid replies collected from a comprehensive survey, the present study identifies three distinct ethics-related attitudes and two distinct guanxi-related attitudes for Chinese executives. The cluster analysis of the composite scores of these five attitudinal factors further indicates the existence of three distinct groups of Chinese executives that vary in their ethics and guanxi orientations. The three groups are unethical profit seeker (UPS), anti-governance, guanxi-cultivator (AGGC), and apathetic executive (AE). The three groups are also found to be significantly different in such demographic characteristics as age and the ownership structure of the serving organization. Specifically, the inter-group comparison suggests that younger Chinese executives, and those working for privately-owned firms and joint ventures are more inclined to engage in unethical activities for profits. These findings provide useful insights for international investors to formulate their human resource and negotiation strategies in China.     

Understanding the usability of retail fashion brand chatbots: Evidence from customer expectations and experiences

The existing literature suggests that chatbots tend to provide automated and generic responses that may not fully address complex customer inquiries, particularly when additional guidance is required. To improve the usability of retail fashion brands, this study examines how socially constructed experiences and expectations influence customer interactions. Data was collected from various sources, including online reviews, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions, to enhance the credibility of the results. The research reveals that individuals in the retail industry demand a broader variety of fashion products and more sophisticated capabilities to bolster the reminiscence of their shopping experiences. Retail fashion chatbots hold potential in recommending items that align with customers' preferences and goals, yet it is crucial for developers and brand managers to address numerous usability challenges and provide multilingual assistance to boost user engagement. Moreover, optimizing fashion retail chatbots is vital to reduce battery consumption, curtail instances of conversation window freezing, and hasten response times. This study provides a novel research framework that offers valuable insights on how to enhance the retail customer experience by improving interactivity, compatibility, credibility, and other factors that promote the use and adoption of retail fashion chatbots.     

Modelling Intuition in Retail Site Assessment (MIRSA): making sense of retail location using retailers' intuitive judgements as a support for decision-making

Analogues are used by retailers as a forecasting method and as performance benchmarks for new sites. This paper outlines an innovative analogue method that uses the ‘intuitive’ field-level judgements of retail directors obtained through cognitive mapping to classify sites according to their similarity to store analogues. The paper also discusses the problems of existing methods of site assessment relating to their tendency to underplay managerial judgements; outlines an innovative qualitative clustering method that mirrors decision-makers' knowledge to identify analogues by their degree of similarity to a new site; and assesses its value with reference to user responses in a live ‘real-time’ decision situation.     

Evaluating store location and department composition based on spatial heterogeneity in sales potential

In this paper, we extend a retail location evaluation model with the possibility to include the effect of department size adaptation at the store level. We relate department-level store sales to a store's competitive and demographic environment, thereby providing richer insights into the drivers of department sales than a model of just aggregate sales. Further, we accommodate heterogeneity in consumer characteristics over space by using zip code level data and unobserved spatial effects in department sales by including spatially autocorrelated error terms.Using spatial panel data for 30 clothing stores belonging to one Dutch retail chain, we demonstrate how to use the modeling approach to analyze and predict sales performance of new and existing stores. We show that the predictive performance of our model is superior to that of a benchmark model that does not include spatial autocorrelation.     

CRM in Data-Rich Multichannel Retailing Environments: A Review and Future Research Directions

Many retailers have collected large amounts of customer data using, for example, loyalty programs. We provide an overview of the extant literature on customer relationship management (CRM), with a specific focus on retailing. We discuss how retailers can gather customer data and how they can analyze these data to gain useful customer insights. We provide an overview of the methods predicting customer responses and behavior over time. We also discuss the existing knowledge on the application of marketing actions in a CRM context, while providing an in-depth discussion on CRM and firm value. We outline future research directions based on the literature review and retail practice insights.     

国内连锁超市的核心竞争力分析

连锁超市核心竞争力是指连锁超市所拥有的超越其他零售业态或其他企业能使自己保持长期竞争优势并获得稳定发展的能力。在后WTO时代,中国的连锁超市若要在国内同行的竞争和外资洋超市的冲击中求得生存和发展,必须尽快提升自己的核心竞争力。核心竞争力是连锁超市生存和发展的基础,为提高核心竞争能力,连锁超市必须对影响其核心竞争力的因素进行分析,在分析的基础上做出正确的决策。本文分析了连锁超市在中国的发展现状,核心竞争力的影响因素,以及在目前环境下该如何提升国内超市的核心竞争力。     

A Map Is Not a Territory—Making Research More Helpful for Sustainable Consumption Policy

The need to make consumption patterns more sustainable is widely acknowledged, yet effective policies for sustainable consumption are lacking. This article examines Nordic policy makers' views on why sustainable consumption research is difficult to apply in policy practice. We draw on the knowledge brokering literature to outline how the challenges of knowledge utilization in policy are connected to knowledge communication practices and to the types and scales of policy problems. Our empirical material is based on in-depth interviews with Nordic civil servants working with sustainable consumption issues. Our findings identify problems in sustainable consumption policy that are well documented in other fields, such as policy makers' lack of time and the inconclusiveness of research findings. However, we also identify more fundamental problems, which relate to administrative fragmentation and to the status of social science in policy making, as well as to the linear model of knowledge use in policy making in which administrators are forced to serve as knowledge brokers between researchers and policy makers. Our research suggests that better forms of knowledge dissemination are not sufficient to overcome these problems. New forms of knowledge co-production are needed, in which researchers, administrators, politicians, and other stakeholders work together to solve real-life problems and build up a shared knowledge community. We conclude by highlighting the implications for researchers aiming to promote change toward more sustainable consumption patterns.     

Retail buyer segmentation based on the use of assortment decision factors

The purpose of this study is to provide detailed information about apparel retail buyers' buying behaviors based on their use of assortment decision factors. After interviews with five retail buyers and merchandisers, surveys were conducted in Seoul, South Korea for this exploratory study. Apparel retail buyers, merchandisers, and retail store owners, who are involved in assortment planning and buying, participated in the survey (N=378). Results of factor analysis created seven assortment decision factor groups. Based on the factor groups, four cluster groups were the best cluster result: (1) Least Factor Use Buyers, (2) Traditional Factor Use Buyers, (3) Consumer-Oriented Buyers, and (4) Most Factor Use Buyers. Because this study used convenience and snowball sampling methods in one country, the findings cannot be generalized to the general population of apparel retail buyers and merchandisers. However, the study provides researchers with planning factors and cluster information for retail buying behavior. The results offer insight to buyers for their decision-making by organizing assortment decision factors from the most to the least important, especially for younger buyers, who need guidance about assortment planning. Although assortment planning and trade-off decisions are known to be extremely important to retail success (e.g., Kok et al., 2008), no previous study identified a typology of retail buyers on the basis of their consideration of assortment decision factors. This study adds new information and confirms the application of traditional assortment decision factors from 1980s and 1990s to post-2008 era.     

Competitive price-cutting momentum and pricing reactions

In light of the increasing interest in understanding the behavioral side of competitive decision making, this paper examines how the price-cutting momentum (PCM) created by other competiors' reactions to an initiator's price cut influences pricing decisions. We explore the PCM construct and present the results of a study examining the effect of PCM on the price recommendations of retail grocery pricing executives. We find that PCM influences pricing reactions inboth low-search and high-search markets. Competing explanations of the results are considered.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Sponsored Programs and Research at the University of South Carolina and the Crane Professorship at the Ohio State University.     

Window displays and consumer shopping decisions

Window displays are an ubiquitous and prominent but under-researched element of retail strategy. This paper explores how the store and product category information communicated by a store's windows are related to consumers’ shopping decisions, such as store entry and product purchase, and how these relationships vary for consumer segments that differ in terms of their knowledge of the retailer's product(s). Results of a study conducted in the context of clothing retailers demonstrate that the store entry decision is related both directly as well as indirectly (through acquisition of inferred, store-related information) to the acquisition of observed, store-related information from window displays. However, it is product category-related information (e.g. fashion and product-self fit) rather than store-related information (e.g. merchandise and store image) that is more strongly associated with the product purchase decision. Moreover, consumers with medium levels of clothing knowledge are more influenced by windows in their shopping decisions than those with low or high levels.     

Latin American retail: where modernity blends with tradition

Latin America's retail landscape has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Attracted by deregulation and a sizable and growing market, modern retailers arrived looking for the next El Dorado. But signs of maturity appeared much before expected. Traditional retailers modernized their offer, while keeping their appeal to the emerging consumers. While chain retail has concentrated earlier than expected – and faster by the hand of crisis that are usual in emerging markets –, local chains have developed formats which add modernity to their understanding of their customers' base. By providing better access through convenience and credit to a broader range that even includes affordable design and quality, local chains are showing the way to the growing mass customers that form Latin America's new emerging middle class. And leveraging on this customer understanding, they are redefining concepts like convenience and crossing borders to grab the opportunity of the new emerging consumers. This article covers the evolution of retailing in Latin America over the past two decades, and provides insights on the segment that has brought the most significant growth: emerging consumers.     

Managing digital business platforms: A continued exercise in balancing renewal and refinement

Central to the evolution of a digital business platform is the organization’s ability to balance exploration (renewal) and exploitation (refinement) simultaneously. Drawing on prior research—including digital platforms, contradictory tensions, and organizational ambidexterity—and our own experience investigating digital business platforms in organizations, this article provides insights into how executives can manage this evolution successfully. More specifically, we present a framework recognizing three pairs of organizational capabilities (i.e., identifying-nourishing, expanding-legitimating, and augmenting-embedding) that enable balancing renewal and refinement of the platform over time. We close by providing critical managerial practices that executives can use in anticipating, adjusting, and evaluating the evolution of a digital business platform over time, including its initiation, development, and growth.