Editorial

Citation

Towers, N. (2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 42 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-12-2013-0222

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 42, Issue 4

This issue includes five submissions from a variety of retailing topics including the leadership role of expatriate management, young consumers’ innovativeness and their hedonic/utilitarian attitudes toward cool clothing, the concept of co-location, impulse buying behaviour, and an alternative definition of store convenience.

The first contribution by Jones, Lyu, Runyan, Fairhurst, Kim and Jolly investigates international expansion of retailers with respect to expatriate management and their leadership role. Issues of home market saturation and the economic climate are forcing more and more retailers to look beyond their borders for revenue. This study was designed to uncover various factors which may lead to expatriate retail management success through utilizing extensive in-depth interviews as the primary data gathering and analysis tools. The construct of Universal Leadership is proposed comprising the reflective sub-dimensions of Ability, Adaptability, Ambassadorship, and Awareness (Self). The study develops a theoretical platform for expatriate leadership success allowing for cultural and business variation. Awareness is introduced as a critical attribute in achieving success as an expatriate success. The universal leadership model proposes attributes beneficial for training and the also selection which is critically under examined in the literature.

The second paper by Noh, Runyan and Mosier investigates the relationship between young consumers’ innovativeness and their hedonic/utilitarian attitudes toward cool clothing and the effect of income on this relationship. Based on college students enrolled in 11 different courses at a major American university the findings were that innovative young consumers are more likely to have stronger hedonic cool attitudes toward clothing than non-innovative young consumers. It is also suggested that in contrast, innovativeness and utilitarian values of cool products are not interrelated for young consumers. Finally innovative, high-income young consumers desire to purchase cool products to reflect their personality, individuality, and self-identity. These findings provide commercial marketers with some valuable information about young consumers’ purchasing behaviours toward cool products, which then allows them to develop strategies to increase sales of new products targeted to young consumers based on a more in-depth understanding of perceptions of cool.

The third contribution by Öner and Larsson explores the concept of co-location and what kinds of retailing activities are co-located. The paper analyses the co-location of different types of retail stores in Sweden by using geo-coded data and then factor analysis to nest these retailing activities under relevant categories based on their co-location pattern. The findings suggest that there are four major factors for the squares with retail stores in which several kinds of retail activities are nested. Capturing a general tendency for the location of different kinds of retailing activities reveals an important information for both policy makers, as well as for sector actors. Both parties can implement the very same method for their retail market to improve their understanding of the spatial market and modify their policies/strategies accordingly.

The fourth contribution by Chang, Yan and Eckman investigates direct and indirect effects of apparel store environmental characteristics and consumers’ positive emotional responses to the environment on impulse buying behaviour. It also examined how situational variables interact with consumers’ positive emotional responses in influencing impulse buying behaviour. The study found direct effects of ambient/design characteristics on consumers’ positive emotional responses and direct effects of consumers’ positive emotional responses to the retail environment on impulse buying behaviour. Money availability and task definition moderated the relationship between consumers’ positive emotional responses and impulse buying behaviour. Managing appealing store design characteristics may increase consumers’ positive emotions and impulse purchases. Displays designed to attract impulse purchasers should target browsers without restricted budgets.

The purpose of the final contribution by Reimers is to empirically develop an alternative definition of store convenience. Despite an increasingly convenience-oriented society, very few empirical studies have identified convenience as a salient determinant of store patronage. The empirical analysis provides strong support for the alternative definition, with respondents indicating that 25 of the test attributes serve as convenience attributes in the context of a department store. This study provides store managers with a list of 25 tools they have at their disposal to help save their customers’ time and effort and help mamnage the challenge of the Internet retailing.

Neil Towers
Business Management, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK