Editorial

Citation

Broadbridge, A. (2007), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 35 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm.2007.08935iaa.001

Editorial

The importance of retail and marketing to the field of management research is acknowledged by the growing number of researchers in the field and certainly over the last few years this journal has published articles from a variety of new researchers. This issue of Retail Insights is devoted to papers from the track on “Retail and Marketing” at the British Academy of Management Conference (BAM), held at The Waterfront Hall and Hilton Hotel, Belfast in association with the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast on 12-14 September 2006 (http://bam.ac.uk/conference2006/). The general conference theme focused on Building International Communities through Collaboration looking at the way in which “management” as a field of study adds to our knowledge and understanding of how individuals, groups and organisations can work together in a way that promotes enhanced performance.

The retail and marketing track provided a forum for researchers to present and discuss their research. New and established scholars alike were welcomed to participate in the track to present their papers. The track aimed to examine a variety of issues:

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  consumer behaviour;

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  e-tailing and multi-channel delivery;

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  HRM in retailing;

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  internationalisation;

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  location and out-of-town retailing;

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  merchandising (retail operations);

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  pricing;

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  promotion and visual merchandising;

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  segmentation, targeting and positioning;

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  services in retailing and the retailing of services;

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  strategy and planning; and

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  supply chain management and logistics.

The call for papers attracted various submissions and each paper was subject to a blind review process. This resulted in 14 papers being presented at the conference. The sessions were very well attended throughout the duration of the conference and Charles Dennis, Track Chair, made everyone most welcome. Thanks are also due to the individual session chairs who included Emilio Foxell, Riyad Eid, Sascha Kraus and Tamira King.

Papers covered a wide variety of topics including experiences, perceptions and expectations of UK retail employment, the impact of food advertising on children, SME retailer internationalisation, web consumer behaviour, and choice of shopping destinations.

The British Academy of Management Conference prize for the best paper for the “retail and marketing” track was awarded to Emilio Foxell and Tony Kent for their paper entitled “The role of the flagship store in retail branding”. In this issue of Retail Insights we include four papers from the track, and a fifth paper related to retailing but presented in the Creative Industries track of the conference.

The first paper is by Laura Wells, Heather Farley and Gillian Armstrong, all of whom are based at the University of Ulster. Utilising a participant observational approach at two Tesco stores in Northern Ireland, the paper investigates the importance of packaging design for a UK premium own-label food brand – chilled desserts. In so doing, it provides an insight into consumers shopping behaviour, identifying the factors that influence their purchase decisions so as to provide an overall understanding of how consumers evaluate own-label packaging. Packaging certainly played a major part of the decision-making process, with three-quarters of interviewed consumers stating that they relied on packaging to aid their decision-making process at the point of purchase.

The second paper is also by scholars from the University of Ulster: Laura Hollywood, Gillian Armstrong and Mark Durkin. In their conceptual paper entitled “Using behavioural and motivational thinking in food segmentation” the authors propose that the utilisation of consumer purchase motivation and decision-making models can help identify specific customer clusters to improve marketing strategy. The paper applies a new theoretical perspective of segmentation techniques to predict consumer purchase behaviour of liquid milk through the development of a conceptual model which integrates motivation, and decision-making models within a food industry context. To test this model they propose a combined methodology of both qualitative and quantitative methods consisting of interviews, focus groups and a consumer questionnaire.

The third paper is by Yusniza Kamarulzaman from Cardiff University and is entitled “Adoption of travel e-shopping in the UK”. This study identifies the profile of internet shoppers and the antecedents of internet shopping adoption for travel services. It proposes a model for the prediction of internet shopping adoption, with inclusions of individual characteristics, perceived risk and trust. The framework is used to explain three basic issues: who actually shops via the internet, what makes consumer adopt internet shopping, and which attributes are relatively important to adoption? Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in the research design. The findings show a profile of travel e-shoppers in terms of demographic, geodemographic and buying patterns. Through structural equation modelling the results explicitly clarified several key contributions and implications to marketing theory and practice.

The fourth paper which adopts a case study approach to the management of deshopping and its effects on service is from colleagues at Brunel Business School: Tamira King, Charles Dennis and Joanne McHendry. Deshopping, which is prevalent and a growing consumer behaviour, is defined as the return of products, after they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were borrowed. In this paper the authors examine deshopping from a retail perspective. Using the case of a large womenswear mass-market retailer, a series of interviews were conducted in order to investigate their awareness and management of this growing behaviour. The outcomes of the interviews outline some fascinating findings which are complemented in the text by some rich quotes. The findings illustrate the beliefs, attitudes and emotions of the different levels of employees towards deshopping and demonstrate their attempts to manage deshopping and combat the negative affects of this on customer service. The research concludes with the implications of deshopping and its management and makes recommendations on how to implement a more effective anti-deshopping and consumer-friendly approach to returns.

In the next paper, “Creative space: design and the retail environment” Tony Kent explores the concept of creativity in the context of the retail store environment and the function of design in shaping this environment. He adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to review theoretical approaches to creativity, and their relevance to the retail industry. The paper demonstrates the complexity of creativity as a concept, and the opportunities to create retail spaces through design-led approaches. In so doing it provides guidance on how retailers can organize their organizations to engage with design projects.

I hope this collection of papers from the conference will bring some new perspectives and assist in understanding some of the contemporary research themes ongoing within the retail field today. The next BAM conference will take place between 10-13 September 2007 at the University of Warwick. Details of the conference and the Retail and Marketing track can be found at: http://bam.ac.uk/conference2007/

Adelina BroadbridgeUniversity of Stirling