Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 42, Issue 7.
There is a strong international retail emphasis throughout the six submissions to this issue. The topics of the submissions include the perception and attitudes of urban consumers in the UK towards local food; focuses on customer-based store brand value by comparing three different retailing formats in Spain; the extent of greening retail taking place in an Indian context;the effects of shopper loyalty and perception towards shopping malls in Malaysia; the characteristics of a pop-up store in an international context, to investigate the motivating factors for its choice as a Foreign Operation Mode (FOM) and to analyse its role in the French retail internationalization process; and the implementation of a benchmarking process that jointly measure the efficiency of franchise chains and determine their optimal organizational form in the French franchise sector.
The first contribution by Penny and Prior explores the perception and attitudes of urban consumers in the UK towards local food. Four focus groups were conducted with participants from Birmingham, UK. A pre-focus group questionnaire was issued to participants to gather demographic data and to provide participants with the Heart of England Fine Foods’ (HEFF) definition of local food. The results of the study revealed that despite urban consumer interest in local food, this did not necessarily translate in to purchase behaviour. Convenience of the “one-stop” offered by supermarkets along with availability, price and food labelling were found to be key barriers to the purchase of local food. Alternatively, key drivers were identified as freshness, health benefits and improved quality. The findings support the need for supermarkets to increase their offering of local food for the urban consumer. In addition, it is suggested that supermarkets should improve merchandising, signposting and labelling of local food to encourage increased levels of purchase behaviour from the urban consumer.
Store brands have grown exponentially in the past decade worldwide, and a further increase is expected due to economic downturn,which makes up an increasingly competitive market with great research interest. The second paper by Calvo-Porral and Lévy-Mangin focuses on customer-based store brand value by comparing three different retailing formats – supermarkets, hypermarkets and discounters – in order to assess how store brand value stems from and to understand the store format influence. Respondents were randomly selected and data were collected using an on-line structured questionnaire, focusing on Spanish large retailers. Then, hypotheses were tested performing structural equation modelling. The results suggest that perceived quality, price image along with store commercial image have significant positive influence on store brand value and purchase intent. Moreover,store brands’ performance in the marketplace depends on different variables across the analysed retailing formats. The study adds to the growing literature in retailing a cross-store format comparative analysis, remaining a deeper understanding on how store brands create value from the consumers’ standpoint, based on an empirical research in a European developed market.
The third contribution by Kumar aims to understand the extent of greening retail taking place in an Indian context and identifies its core groups of green retail practices. A questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from retailers of green products, and caselets were developed. Nine core groups of green retail practices are identified – distinctness of green products,promoting sustainable business practices, use of environmental keywords, promotion for awareness, promotional offers for sale,ensuring availability and visibility of green products, approval for environmental claims, environmentally friendly appeal of store and consumer involvement approaches. The findings of the study should be useful in understanding greening retail concept.
The purpose of the fourth contribution by Khong is to examine the effects of shopper loyalty and perception towards shopping malls. A survey using a systematic random sampling method was conducted on mall shoppers in major shopping malls in the most developed urban centres of Malaysia. Using a series of multivariate techniques, a stochastic model was developed to measure the impact of perception of malls on patronage loyalty. The model also estimated the mediating effects of brand trust and brand affect on patronage loyalty. Reliability and validity tests were conducted to measure the internal consistency and validity of the constructs. The results provided support for the hypothesised relationships between perception and loyalty. The results also suggested that malls generally have their own loyal patrons who not only perceive the malls positively but also stay loyal.
The objective of the fifth contribution by Picot-Coupeyis to describe the characteristics of a pop-up store in an international context, to investigate the motivating factors for its choice as a FOM and to analyse its role in the retail internationalization process. A multiple-case study was adopted using secondary data sources, social media measurement and semi-structured interviews with senior managers in charge of the international development and management of pop-up stores. A conceptualizing content analysis was conducted both manually and with NVivo software. The main results discuss key location characteristics, choice motivations and the FOM role in the retail internationalization process. The research provides guidelines for international retail managers wishing to choose a pop-up store as a FOM. And it also gives new insight into the characteristics, choice motivations and management of a pop-up store in an international context.
The final contribution by Piot-Lepetit, Perrigot and Cliquet develops a new model allowing the implementation of a benchmarking process that jointly measure the efficiency of franchise chains and determine their optimal organizational form. The methodology is based on a non-econometric technique developed by management scientists on economic concepts for evaluating the performance of decision-making units and implementing a benchmarking process. An extended model is developed in the paper for evaluating the efficiency and determining the optimal percentage of company-owned (PCO) of each franchise chain. First the results showed that the PCO has a positive impact on franchise chain efficiency, even if other chain characteristics have a larger impact. Second, the optimization of the PCO allows for additional improvements in efficiency. By developing a model that allows for the joint evaluation of franchise chain efficiency and optimal PCO, this study offers to franchisors a new benchmarking process allowing for both a competitive and functional benchmarking.
Neil Towers
