Search results

Retail management has acquired the attention of scholars and practitioners, with many international and prestigious journals specifically relating to the topic. Also, top-tier journals in other disciplines have proposed special issues on the new advances in retailing, with emphasis on the role of new and smart technologies. On the one hand, the research in retailing seems to be prolific; on the other hand, the interest in retail education (from a research and university perspective) seems to be more limited. The purpose of this paper is to capture the (mis)match between the leading universities' offerings and job demand in the UK. In this way, the paper identifies opportunities for educators and researchers to educate future career-ready professionals in retailing and improve research in retail education.

The research evaluates the offer of UK retail education in terms of programmes/courses, focusing on the Russell Group universities for the academic year 2020/2021 (September starts) and the demand of certain skills and competences by the largest retailers in the UK. The study utilizes secondary data based on the courses/programmes specifically related to the retail sector and on the job opportunities through the leading UK grocery retailers.

The findings reveal the extent of the gap between the university educational offerings and the requirements from retailers.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to capture and compare multiple evidence bases related to academic curriculums and employers' requirements for specific retail competencies.

Increased market segmentation is likely to be an emerging trend in management education in Australia. To date management education has been “production oriented”, concentrating on functional areas such as accounting, marketing and human resource management. The formal, institutionalised management education industry has sought to turn out functional specialists (B. Com., B. Bus. (accounting)) or generalist managers (M.B.A., B. Bus. (management)) with an underlying assumption that these graduates will function effectively in any industry.

For generations retailing has had to fight against its image as a second‐class occupation. Successive governments have tended to regard it as less important than manufacturing industry, and this view has been reinforced by careers officers who, in the palmy days when school‐leavers were in the privileged position of having an element of choice in their jobs, adopted a condescending if not dismissive attitude to “working in a shop”. If anything this attitude has been even more marked at graduate level; as our contributor writes, retailing has been generally neglected by universities, and even by many management centres and business schools. There are, of course, some exceptions. One of the most notable of these is the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology; UMIST was one of the first in the UK to develop courses in retailing, and these are described here in some detail. The author is only too well aware that there are a number of universities and polytechnics whose retail courses have not been mentioned in this feature; equally that there are personnel officers who will justifiably feel that they are not guilty of the charges levelled against them in the section entitled “Graduate Retailers”. We welcome correspondence from educational organisations or individuals who desire to put the record straight.

The purpose of this study is to investigate patterns in the social construction of occupational jurisdiction and related professional career identity. It examines the agency associated with framing messages that influence perceptions about the professional nature and value of retail management careers. The aim is to identify sources which produce influential messages about perceptions about retail management careers and the content of these messages.

This study utilises a qualitative research methodology (focus-group interviews) to explore the observations of people involved with the monitoring and management of career messages. Two focus groups were conducted with a) nine Canadian retail practitioners and b) seven post-secondary educators from retail management education programmes.

The focus groups identify five sources of influential messages including (1) part-time retail work experience, (2) educational institutions, (3) parents, (4) retail industry/practitioners and (5) media. They also identify three content themes presented by these sources including (1) the importance of educational requirements, (2) the nature of occupational roles and (3) the value of the career.

The significance and generalisability of the results are limited by the size and nature of the sample.

This study makes a practical contribution by identifying potential career awareness strategies.

This research makes a theoretical contribution by expanding understanding of the role of communication with career perceptions and with the related constitution of career professionalisation.

Throughout the 1980s, UK retailers have sought competent managers of graduate calibre for their management training programmes. Most of these graduates were non‐specialists recruited from a variety of higher education establishments. In recent years, however, a number of institutions have provided specialist retail courses to meet the needs of industry. Currently five degree programmes are in operation with two others due for approval in 1990/1991. The main features of each of these undergraduate courses are reviewed.

Reports on the results of a questionnaire survey into the perceptions of retailing as a destination career. While some students are attracted to the industry, overall a neutral or negative perception prevails. This is conveyed from a general ignorance as to what a retail management job involves or the variety of career opportunities it provides. Often, students have only their experiences as consumers or as part‐time employees in forming their perception of it as a future career. Personal, and word of mouth, work experience can help either to persuade or to dissuade the perceptions of retailing as a destination career. Reports on the work of various bodies such as BIR, CORTCO and CRU in fostering the partnership between industry and educational providers in order to raise the image of retailing as a graduate career. Also provides recommendations on how to raise the profile of the industry.

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise entrepreneurial capacity-building as an integrated approach within the international higher education sector. Whilst university–enterprise collaboration is recognised as being essential to promoting graduate employability and entrepreneurship, the lack of an integrated approach towards embedding entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial capacity-building with an entrepreneurial skill and mind-set prevails in the higher education sector. With reference to the retail sector, increasingly competitive job markets and the need for entrepreneurial capacity-building place growing pressures on universities to nurture career-ready graduates with entrepreneurial acumen.

The theoretical paper presents a rationale for embedding entrepreneurship education into university curricula and for promoting university–business collaboration. Secondly, it reviews the extent to which entrepreneurial capacity-building is institutionally embedded to foster graduate entrepreneurship, university–business collaboration and business incubation within one strategic framework. Finally, the paper proposes five propositions within a tripartite approach that can foster graduate entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial skills and mind-set, useful for existing enterprises and start-ups. The implications for these propositions are discussed.

The authors propose five propositions with a tripartite approach that can foster graduate entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial skill and mind-set, skills for creating enterprises and university–enterprise collaboration within one strategic framework.

Increasingly competitive job markets and the need for entrepreneurial capacity-building place growing pressures on universities to nurture career-ready graduates with entrepreneurial acumen in social science (e.g. retail, business management and accountancy) and science (e.g. pharmacy, architecture and engineering) programmes centred within the tripartite approach.

Whilst university–enterprise collaboration is recognised as being essential to promoting graduate employability and entrepreneurship, the tripartite integrated approach embeds entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial capacity-building with an entrepreneurial skillset and mind-set in the international higher education sector.

Despite the availability of retail management graduates, retailers continue to recruit graduates from any discipline. A key issue, therefore, is to what extent are retail degrees developing the competences of prime importance to retailers? Conversely, considering retailer graduate recruitment objectives, how well do students understand retailers’ priorities amongst competences in graduate selection? As a relatively recent management profession, do the retail competences differ from other more established management disciplines such as finance? This paper examines these issues through the results of a survey of employer and undergraduate perceptions of competence development in undergraduate degrees. Findings suggest that retail degrees provided a high level of perceived competence development. However, the strongest focus was not necessarily on those competences the retailers most wished to see in applicants. Furthermore, the competence profile of placement work was no closer to the retailers’ selection priorities than that of academic work. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main implications for retailers and retail management degrees.

THE AMERICAN lead in retail education was shown only too clearly at a Conference held at Scheveningen, Holland, from 16th–18th May 1962, under the auspices of the Office for Economic Co‐operation and Development.

Sociology has received little attention in the UK′s first generation of undergraduate retail degrees. Suggests that in some ways this is a surprising omission and offers some simple thoughts on the links between sociology and retailing. Stresses the importance of shopping as a social activity and offers some outline explanations for the lack of sociological dimensions in existing retail curricula. Discusses the introduction of more explicit sociological dimensions into retail degrees.