Editorial

Citation

Towers, N. (2013), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 41 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm.2013.08941haa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 41, Issue 8

This issue includes a broad international retail and distribution management flavour with four distinctly different geographical contexts. The submissions include an understanding of the presence of royalties in a number of retail distribution contracts, an investigation of recent Malaysian hypermarket retailing developments, traces the modernisation of the retail structure of Vietnam from a closed market to one that is increasingly open to Western retail formats, and to compare perceptions of retail logistics service quality among Romanian and Tunisian customers.

The first contribution by Fadairo aims to understand the presence of royalties in a number of retail contracts, recognising that some distribution networks do not use this monetary provision. It provides an econometric analysis of recent French data using the main theoretical explanation concerning the presence of royalties in distribution contractual relationships. The evidence suggests that the presence of royalties in distribution contracts depends on the management by the producer of the brand value: the transmission of concepts and know-how to retailers and advertising and promotional campaigns. This paper offers an understanding of the presence of royalties in the contractual relationships between producers and retailers, providing practitioners with a better basis for making decisions in designing distribution contracts.

The second paper by Hassan, Sade and Rahman focuses on recent Malaysian hypermarket retailing developments that could be used as sources for a definition. The hypermarket industry in Malaysia has created a huge momentum for modern retailing concepts and the word hypermarket seems in need of a new definition. There is an overlap of the definitions for hypermarket, supermarket and shopping mall. Malaysian hypermarkets were found to need revised definitions using retail developments within the industry. This industry can also be expanded further through product brand extension, service experience enhancement, self-checkout technology, coupons promotion, online hypermarket, and one district one industry (SDSI) market intervention programme.

The third contribution by Nguyen, Wood and Wrigley traces the modernisation of the retail structure of Vietnam from a closed market to one that is increasingly open to retail transnational corporations’ entry and associated Western retail formats. Examining the retail changes through the analysis of a wide range of governmental and industry secondary data – much of which has not entered western academic debate given the challenges of access and translation. As a country encountering the 3rd wave of supermarket proliferation within emerging markets, we find that Vietnam’s experience broadly fits the models of retail Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) entry and retail ‘modernisation’. The retail change process was affected by a slow, progressive creep of market liberalisation where, as late as 2009, a foreign partner could hold only up to 49 per cent of capital in a joint venture. While our analysis of the evidence suggests some retailers flouted these laws or employed creative approaches to mitigating their effects, such regulations clearly underpinned a less intense initial influx of retail FDI than had been experienced elsewhere in Asia and maintained a high domestic ownership level in the retail market. Retail modernisation has intensified in recent years with greater international entry, expansion and retail format proliferation diffusing from cities to more rural locations though the top five grocery operators still account for a minority of the grocery market.

The final contribution by Bouzaabia, Bouzaabia and Capatina aims to compare perceptions of retail logistics service quality among Romanian and Tunisian customers, and to determine which dimensions of logistics service quality make the greatest influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires from two convenience sample of hypermarket customers (100 in Romanian and 100 in Tunisian). Logistics service quality was measured using two dimensions: the relational LSQ (The perception of Carrefour employees’ assurance, responsiveness and caring) and the operational LSQ (Carrefour reliability). Data were analyzed by using confirmatory factor analysis, ANOVA and linear regression. Respondents in both countries reported high levels of perceived logistics service quality in Carrefour. However, Romanians reported higher perceived logistics service quality than Tunisians for all two dimensions. In the Tunisian sample, relational LSQ was the most important predictor of satisfaction, and the most important predictor of loyalty was the operational LSQ. While in the Romanian sample relational LSQ was the most important predictor of both satisfaction and loyalty.. The present study compares perceptions of logistics service quality between consumers in two countries – Romania and Tunisia that have different economic and cultural environments. Our study shows that logistics service quality is an essential factor in satisfying and retaining retail customers in the retail sector.

Neil Towers