Scoping and conceptualising retailer internationalisation

The impacts and activities of international retailers have beenlargely ignored in the globalisation discourse. A possible reasonfor this is the absence, in international retailing, of conceptand theory that does not hang on the coat-tails of internationalproduction. The paper attempts to consider international retailingin its own right. Three linked questions are explored. Has theinternationalisation process of the large retailers resultedin an increase in the global concentration of sales? In whatways does the process of retailer internationalisation differfrom the internationalisation of production? What does the committedinternational retailer transfer to the host country during theinternationalisation process?     

Towards Robust Development of Retail Planning Policy: Maintaining the Viability and Vitality of Main Street Shopping Precincts

The deregulation of shopping hours has created a fluid environment where time-poor, affluent and mobile households can access shopping opportunities away from traditional retail precincts. The consequence has been the substantial decline of the viability and vitality of many main streets in eastern Australia. This greater temporal fluidity, however, requires stronger land use regulations if traditional town or suburb main streets are to maintain economic viability and social vitality. A suite of simple definitions of retail form are suggested and a number of assessment guidelines are proposed as meeting the requirements for more robust retail development assessment, including considerations of the geography of localities, place and the built form environment.     

广州地铁沿线零售商业形态与空间分布探讨

选取我国地铁发展速度最快的城市之一的广州作为背景,以地铁沿线商用物业的核心圈层为对象,本文在调查分析地铁沿线零售商业的串珠状组团式的空间分布特征和以百货店为主的多业态并存的业态结构特征的基础上,探讨了地铁沿线商业业态聚集的空间等级和各等级的业态空间类型,分析了其内部和外部因素,并揭示了地铁对零售空间分异、商业热点的形成及零售客流的影响作用。     

Enthusiasm,craft and authenticity on the High Street: micropubs as ‘community fixers’

The retail recession has left a legacy of vacant shops on many shopping streets, with closures having significant consequences for local populations. But several new ‘pop-up’ formats are bucking this trend by bringing community-oriented forms of consumption back to the High Street. The micropub is a notable example, a small-scale venue selling real ale that has taken over a vacant shop premise, usually in smaller and struggling town centres. The rapid take-up of the micropub concept has attracted considerable attention, suggesting a model for retail regeneration based on community-mindedness and a close relationship between owner and customer. Based on ethnographic research in micropubs, alongside interviews with landlords, this paper suggests that their success is dependent upon the enthusiasm of landlords and customers alike, with such ‘cultures of enthusiasm’ encouraged via the nostalgic motifs of craft, tradition and Britishness that inform the curation of these seemingly ‘authentic’ spaces. The paper concludes that the micropub offers a form of socially-connective consumption highly valued by some, but stresses that there are clear limits to the ability of such spaces to be ‘community fixers’ given enthusiasm for real ale remains a distinctly white, male, and middle-aged pursuit.     

Gendering boundary work: exploring excluded spaces in supermarket job rotation

The article explores the establishment of gendering divides in organisations by bridging Hernes' (2004) typologies of physical, social and mental boundary work with notions on the practice of gender as negotiated in everyday organisational activities. In the investigated Swedish supermarket, the pre-store, a narrow, front-stage space in which only women worked, was excluded from the job rotation that otherwise dominated the organisation of work in the store. This study examines: (1) how and on what grounds the divides of the pre-store were established in the supermarket and (2) how spatial divides were incorporated into the practice of gender and work in the supermarket. The findings suggest that the divides that are visible through the exclusion of the pre-store from the job rotation involved not only the allocation of work and space but also multiple and complex physical, social and mental spatial negotiations undertaken by both employees and managers. Together, these factors neutralised the divides as an aspect of the activities. First, the notion that gender was irrelevant for organisational decisions makes gender a non-issue for the organisation of the pre-store activities. Second, the notion that women and men are essentially different provided a ground for explaining why, despite being an organisational non-issue, work and workers were in fact organised along gendered lines in the supermarket. The study contributes with qualitative insights regarding the micro-political practices that make gender into a neutralised non-issue in organisations and, in particular, the intertwinement of spatial practices and negotiations.     

郊区化与美国购物城的兴起

零售业集中反映了城市空间结构的变化,是衡量城市发展水平的一个重要指标,值得专门研究.本文通过对美国郊区化和购物城兴起关系的探讨,发现两者有很深的内在联系.在美国已成为郊区居民为主的情况下,购物城仍将存在下去,并保持兴盛局面.这对美国现代社会生活产生了很大的积极影响,但同时它也强化了居住区隔离现象,加深了美国社会两极分化的鸿沟.     

Freedom of Establishment Versus Retail Planning: The European Case

Studies on retail planning in European Union (EU) Member States tend to be nationally oriented and, at best, compare national retail planning systems. They also appear to be based on an implicit assumption that retail planning should not be designed to fit the Single European Market (SEM). This paper analyses a series of judgments by the European Court of Justice and activities undertaken by the European Commission and concludes that this assumption is misguided and incorrect. The bottom line is that retail planning can interfere with freedom of establishment—one of the fundamental EU freedoms laid down in the Treaty of Rome—by limiting the realization of new shopping outlets and by redirecting retail to preselected locations. Such restrictions may be allowable if the Member State in question is able to demonstrate that they are non-discriminatory, appropriate and proportional on the basis of the interpretations of these fundamental principles in European Law. There is a European Retail Action Plan which aims to organize national retail planning systems in such a way that they are compatible with the principles of the SEM.     

Internationalisation at Stellenbosch University during the international academic boycott of the apartheid era (1948–1994)

In this article, we address the international dimension of Stellenbosch University (SU) during the apartheid era, most notably during the academic boycott of South African universities between the early 1960s and the early 1990s. Based on information gathered from the documentary sources of the university and interviews with key role players at the university, the findings of the research will put some of the well-established hypotheses on South Africa’s academic isolation and an increasing localism in higher education during that period into perspective. The article will show that prior to 1990 there were different kinds of international activities going on at SU, despite the academic boycotts.     

全球化浸入中国城市的时空演化过程及影响因素分析——以8家大型跨国零售企业为例

本质为地理过程的全球化与跨国公司相伴而来,其浸入区域、城市具有时空差异性。本文以八家大型跨国零售企业为例,研究全球化浸入中国城市的时空演化过程及影响因素。研究发现:第一,全球化浸入表现出明显的空间推移规律,即稳定的"沿海-内陆"深度格局,以及"东广西疏"转向"南袤北稀"广度格局;第二,全球化浸入中国城市遵循规模等级推移规律,包括人口规模、经济发展水平以及行政等级;第三,人口规模、对外交流水平对全球化的浸入影响显著性稳定,开放政策、城市区位因素弱化,居民收入水平影响增强。     

地铁站点可达性、客流与站点商圈零售商业结构关系研究——以广州市为例

地铁与城市商业地域的结构存在极大关系。实地调查获取广州15个地铁站点商圈零售商业营业面积、地铁网络等数据,利用栅格分析方法计算不同地铁站点的可达性程度的差异性。运用回归模型分析不同地铁站点可达性、客流与站点商圈零售商业空间结构的相关关系。以广州天河市级商业中心为例,微观上分析地铁站点客流对商业中心空间结构的影响。结果表明:地铁站点交通可达性、客流量与站点零售商业营业面积存在较强关联性,但换乘站点的可达优势与客流优势在商业上未能完全体现;地铁客流与较高等级的商业存在较大的相关性,而与低等级的商业相关性小,甚至负相关;客流的增加促进了地铁附近的商业形态从传统零售业向更高级业种演化。