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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between national cultural values and retail structure.

The authors use a panel data set of 67 countries over the period 1999-2012.

The results demonstrate that national cultural values, measured with the World Values Survey’s traditional/secular-rational and survival/self-expression dimensions, affect retail structure.

While marketing scholars have examined the relationship between demographic and competitive factors and retail structure, there has been a substantial body of anecdotal evidence showing that national culture can also drive retail structure development. In order to enhance the understanding of the relationship between national culture and retail structure, the authors empirically examine the impact of national cultural values on retail structure.

This study is the first one to empirically examine the impact of national culture on retail structure. The authors thus help advance retail structure research the primary focus of which has been on investigating the impact of demographic and competitive factors on retail structure. This study is especially relevant to international retail managers who coordinate retail operations in multiple countries around the world. These managers need insight into the impact of national cultural values on retail structure in order to devise effective retail strategies for each host market.

This paper's aim is to identify structural and relational factors influencing the upstream channel management of organized retailers in India.

In‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 organized retailers and two manufacturers in India. Data were analyzed using the thematic network analysis technique from qualitative research. The authors use the framework of institutional theory to guide the discussion.

The findings suggest that government regulations influence the supply chain structure in India. Relational bonds offset the uncertainty borne of weak institutions. Informational transparency and long‐term orientation foster trust between channel partners. This trust, in turn, leads to collaborative partnerships.

The findings have implications for multinationals planning to enter the Indian retail industry. There is a need to understand complex regulatory and social institutions in India. The uniqueness of these institutions calls for adaptive strategies toward channel management.

The paper contributes to the literature on the supply chain structure in India. Despite growing interest in the Indian retailing industry, not many studies reflect on the specific B2B exchange structure in India. The paper fills this gap and also provides several marketing implications for multinational retailers planning to enter the Indian market.

As manufacturers and retailers aim to increase return on marketing investments, value- vs experience-related trade promotions gain attention. These two trade promotions become complicated in the presence of different retail format strategies (generalist vs specialist) and channel structures (direct to retailer vs distributors). Building on trade promotion literature, this study aims to show the main effect of value-related and experience-related trade promotions on retailers’ sales and the moderating role of different retail strategies and channel structures.

The authors use unique panel data from 8 personal care brands with 1,920 observations to test the hypotheses. The authors investigate how consumer goods manufacturer sells products using different channels structures and retail strategies. Estimated panel regressions provide the empirical evidence and robustness analyzes provide extra confidence to the findings.

Results reveal higher retail sales when the manufacturer invests in value-related trade promotions rather than experience-related trade promotions. The results also demonstrate how the manufacturer successfully invests in trade promotion by adequately accounting for channel structure and retail strategy. While temporary price reduction’s positive effect on retail sales is enhanced in generalist retailers (e.g. supermarket stores), shelf display’s positive impact is enhanced in specialist retailers (drug stores).

The authors used unique panel data accounting for 15 months, limiting the findings. The results supported the investment allocation decisions in each period. However, future research may evaluate the effectiveness over a longer period and thoroughly address each investment’s seasonal effects.

The authors unveil how retailers achieve higher sales with value-related trade promotions when compared to experience-related trade promotions. The authors also shed light on the way manufacturers design their relationships with generalist and specialist retailers by working in direct and indirect channels. Trade promotions yield better results when the direct channel structure couples with a retailer’s generalist strategy.

The empirical findings help manufacturers achieve success in trade promotions by developing an equitable evaluation to contrast value- and experience-related promotions accounting for generalist and specialist retail strategies and direct and indirect channels.

The research presented here builds a picture of the direction of international expansion and the merging of retail structures. The research aims to consider European cross border expansion by considering the flow of investment as represented by the operation of retail outlets.

The data used in this research relates to the international activity of retailers in 23 Western European countries. Data were drawn from industry sources which included national and international trade associations, retail company news releases, government departments, trade magazines, and direct contact with individual companies. This data were then used to plot the cross‐border operations of European retailers.

The patterns established from the data set suggest that retail internationalisation within Europe is occurring on a significant scale and that there is an emerging pan‐European retail structure. The findings presented here also show that there is strong evidence of intra‐regional linkages within Europe. That is there is a particularly strong flow of retail activity between markets that are geographically and culturally proximate.

By looking at retail outlet numbers rather than the number of retail operations or fascias owned by international retailers in different markets, the paper adds a new dimension to understanding the development of pan‐European retail structures.

At a time when Michael Heseltine is proposing to undermine the authority of the structure plan in influencing local planning decisions, the authors of this paper find that it is the structure plan which offers most scope for a sane approach to retail planning. The existing system is one where there is either a lack of policy statements or where the plans are too limited in their scope, too localised to provide a sensible analysis of total retailing needs. This could have serious consequences for an industry so finely balanced, where the impact of new or redeveloped district centres has wide implications for the surrounding shopping centres.

This paper studies which aggregate socio‐economic factors determine the long run entry and exit process of the retail sector at the provincial level by using a data set of 30 provinces over eight years (1985–1992). The following results are obtained: (1) All predictor variables, especially population growth rate, average wage rate and employees per store, have statistically significant effects on the entry and exit process. Per capita national income, store per capita, average wage, mobility are significant in accounting for the variations in sales per store. (2) The 1988 austerity programme only affected the short run variable, sales per store but not the long run variable, store per capita. This suggests that the short run recession induced by the austerity programme could not affect the long term trend of the retail sector.

The changes in the Czech Republic brought by the transition process had a significant impact on all sectors of the economy and none more so than on retailing. Presents the initial findings of a long‐term longitudinal study of clothing retailing in the Czech Republic examining the retail format and merchandise assortment structure of clothing retailing in the period of 1994‐1999. The research focused on Czech towns and specifically excluded the capital city of Prague. From the analysis of the retail format development two broad conclusions emerge. First, the smaller towns appear to be more conservative in terms of structural change. Second, there appears to be more extensive changes in retail format patterns occurring in the larger towns. .

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of the entry of international wholesalers upon existing fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) channel structures and the relationships between channel members in Pakistan.

The paper draws on primary and secondary data. Industrial and published sources are used to describe the retail industry and traditional channel structures in Pakistan. Semi‐structured interviews with industry experts and channel participants (manufacturers, distributors, local and organised wholesalers and retailers) over the period illustrate the perspectives of different channel members.

Although currently holding small market share, the entry and growth of international, consolidated wholesale has opened alternative channel structures. This poses a threat to some channel members and creates relationships that alter the distribution of power in the channel. In this fluid situation, there is the possibility of substantial change in Pakistan's FMCG retail.

The nature of the Pakistan retail market creates difficulties in compiling statistics or generalising from observations. The paper uses published statistics, industry reports and interviews to nevertheless be able to comment on this important market.

The paper looks at an under‐researched market and comments upon the first steps in that market towards consolidation and internationalisation. In looking at the reactions of extant market players to this recent development, the paper provides useful insight and guidance to those (manufacturers, retailers and analysts) interested in retail in Pakistan.

Examines the influence of several size‐related factors on retail management′s choice of the organization′s functional division structure and multiunit operating system based on data collected from a sample of retail department store personnel managers in the United States. Suggests that the retail organization′s size and the number of functional divisions employed are directly related. After nearly two‐thirds of a century, department stores continue to use the basic functional‐division organization developed by Paul Mazur which has been modified into a model that includes: merchandising, publicity and promotion, store operations, finance and control, and personnel. The study further reveals a link between the organization′s size and retail management′s choice of a multiunit operating system. Implications are provided to assist management in evaluating the appropriateness of the firm′s functional division structure and operating system in response to several key factors.

The authors evaluate the preferences of retail investors with regard to the investment in structured financial products. The purpose of the paper is an analysis of the relative importance of key product attributes namely the issuing bank, the product structure, the associated costs and the disclosed risk.

The authors conduct a choice-based conjoint analysis, based on an online experiment. Participants judge their preferences for products which are presented by shortened key information documents according to the requirements of EU regulation.

Investors consider the costs and the product structure to be most important, whereas the issuer and information on risk are of less interest. Their preferences depend on their (self-evaluated) expertise: while inexperienced retail investors concentrate on costs, experienced investors pay more attention to the product structure.

The study is limited to a subsegment of the market, the discount certificates. For these products, issuing banks gain insight into the attractiveness of their products. Furthermore, the study carries implications for regulators: since investors emphasize the costs in their decisions, an unbiased disclosure of costs should be enforced.

While the recent literature has studied preferences for the investment in mutual funds, this is the first paper which directly analyzes the drivers of an investment in structured retail products.