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The starting premise of the case study is to describe the ongoing interventions and experiences within the observed public marketplaces' organization. The objective of the research is to examine specified aspects of social and economic perspectives and the role of marketplaces in changing the local surroundings and economy of the Serbian capital and its largest city – Belgrade.

Multiple methods of analysis, such as archival investigation, participants' observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted. To inspect the research questions, the case implemented qualitative research that sampled 21 employees in the examined public company which manages all the analyzed urban marketplaces.

This case study will describe the city-sponsored organization, the Public Utility Company (PUC), that sustains marketplaces and the implications of that city sponsorship. Additionally, the outcomes describe the social and economic impact of marketplaces in placemaking around the region.

The most imperative implications of the manuscript are twofold: (1) the research results have shown that the potential of the city marketplaces can be increased through the support of the PUC and the city government; (2) as one of the first empirical projects about the social organization of the marketplaces in this part of Europe, the findings provide an overview of the contemporary market processes, and market outcomes. This study can affect other future research to explore similar aspects of the markets' organization.

This research can encourage comparable future examinations to explore other components of the market, varying in the regional diversities on one hand, and the manifold prospects for the community development with fewer benefits, on the other.

The study analyzes all the local markets in the selected urban area. This is the first empirical research on the social perspective and the role of marketplaces in the process of changing the modern society and economy in Belgrade. Moreover, it may contribute to future analysis in the field of social perspective and economic directions in future strategies of city planning.

In an age when a tourist’s gaze is more involved in the daily lives of locals, it is evident that traditional food markets are being rediscovered as a space for recreation. Yet, the pressure of tourism development may result in retail gentrification to the point of losing the sense of local identity. Focusing on the “boutiquing” process at Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, this paper aims to measure the physical change in the marketplace, to understand merchants’ attitudes towards tourism development, and to differentiate merchants based on their responses to these changes.

Two main research methods were used: comparative mapping of the business mix and in-depth interviews with merchants. The first method was used to characterize the physical change in the market, and the second method was used to examine merchants’ attitudes and responses to tourism development.

There has been a significant physical change in the business mix of the market, with displacing mainly of traditional uses. A strong link between the merchants’ responses to tourism development and their stall ownership status has found.

The limitations of the study lie in its nature as a qualitative study of a case study; there is difficulty in generalizing and drawing universal conclusions.

Add to existing knowledge regarding merchants’ responses in traditional food markets to tourism development in the context of retail gentrification.

This study aims to analyze the impact of radio advertisements on urban commuters towards buying behaviour in retail stores and attempts to determine the role of radio advertising on dissemination of information on the sales promotions. The impact of radio advertisements on the store choice and buying preferences are analyzed based on empirical investigation.

This study is based on the empirical investigation of urban commuters who acquire information on sales promotion by listening radio advertisements during travel time. The sample respondents selected for the study frequently commute to their workplaces from the residential areas located in the southern, northern and suburban habitats in Mexico City. Data were collected by means of personal interviews during 2007‐2009 in different festival seasons broadly categorized as three seasons: April‐June (Spring sales following the occasions of Easter vacations, Mother's day and Father's day), July‐August (Summer sales) and November‐January (Winter sales following prolonged Christmas celebrations), when retailing firms including supermarkets, departmental stores and shopping malls advertise sales promotions frequently on radio.

The study reveals that shopping behaviour of urban consumer at retail stores in response to radio advertisements is highly influenced by the physical, cognitive and economic variables. Radio advertisements propagating promotional messages on sales of products have quick response to the supermarkets and department stores. Listeners of radio commercials are attracted towards advertisements, which are more entertaining while disseminating the message. This study on impact of radio advertisements on consumer behaviour revealed that advantage shopping at retail stores in response to radio advertisements is highly influenced by the physical, cognitive and economic variables.

A large number of people listen to radio while commuting in urban areas and respond to the broadcast of various commercial messages. There are limited studies available on radio advertisements and their socio‐economic impact. This study contributes to the existing literature on the subject.

This paper aims to deliver new models of brand management in bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid (BoP) markets, considering the personality traits, image, technology and reputation of firms associated with the brands.

Reviewing the previous research studies, the paper advocates new strategies for enhancing the performance of global brands in BoP market segments, improving brand‐positioning approaches, measuring brand performance and consumer value, evaluating brand attributes, and underlining brand dynamics in the competitive marketplace.

The study argues that the performance of global brands in low‐profile consumer market segments is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the brand promotions, consumption and consumer value chain. Hence, firms looking towards managing brands in BoP market segments need to reduce brand costs by increasing the volume of sales and augmenting consumer value. Brands of BoP market segments are socially and culturally embedded. They are co‐created by consumers and firms, and positioned with the influence of brand equity of the premium market. Unlike traditional brands, BoP brands may be sufficiently malleable to support brand interpretations in the rural and suburban consumer segments.

Acquired brands need to be merged into the existing structure, especially where these brands occupy market positions similar to those of existing brands. A balance needs to be maintained between the brand name and its equity. Managers should keep themselves better informed about consumer needs, market changes and company initiatives, thereby enabling staff to help consumers to improve service quality, which in turn can improve market positioning.

In today's rapidly changing product markets, a firm needs to focus on a limited number of strategic brands in international markets in order to consolidate and strengthen its position and enhance brand power. The paper offers new business strategies to managers on brand positioning and targeting in suburban and rural markets with convenience packaging, pricing and psychodynamics.

New initiatives to manage global brands in BoP markets comprising suburban and rural markets that need to be implemented in the existing organizational culture are discussed.

A study conducted by UN Habitat (2020) revealed that financing of investment in African growing cities has become an impediment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Close to USD 93 billion is needed to finance urban development in Africa. The prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the independence of African cities to raise revenue or incur long-term debt to finance their development. Several local governments in African cities are not positioned enough to ensure quality standards of living for their people. This is because many local authorities in African cities cannot intervene in various emergencies or crises which pose a danger to people given the COVID-19 pandemic era where strategic government interventions are essential to save the lives of the people. Burdened by the need to respond to COVID-19, many African governments have diverted their attention from the smart city ideology which demands stable financial revenues and redirected their efforts towards mitigating the scourge of the pandemic. Drawing from this background, therefore this chapter reports on the three selected African cities (Johannesburg, Lagos and Accra) because of their experiences regarding COVID-19, and their responses to the pandemic towards achieving a smart city in Africa. The chapter is guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the unintended consequences of COVID-19 on the achievement of Smart Cities in three African Cities; to assess the opportunities and challenges of achieving smart cities amid COVID 19 in three African Cities; and to determine how rapid urbanisation affects the achievement of Smart Cities amid COVID-19 in three African Cities. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse data acquired from secondary sources.

This paper aims to address procurement, logistics management, inventory control and distribution of perishable items, i.e. vegetables, fruits, flowers and fishes, during the social isolation period of the Covid-19 era to identify conflicting interests among the channel members; present inventory and information sharing scenario; and reveal organizational dispute and existence of redundant, nonessential and corrupted members in the supply chain.

This study uses an exploratory investigation to evaluate the relations among the members of the supply chain of perishable food items. In this context, it is designed to investigate the field, observe the members of the existing supply chain from rural and remote places and capture their interviews to accomplish the objectives.

This study identified that although the supply chain of perishable food items is controlled truly by private parties, from a realistic view, the private–public partnership is essential where the government should play the coordinating role. In this context, continuous interaction, coordination and information sharing among the members to establish an optimum and scalable network and remove any redundant nodal points is a key success factor for managing an efficient supply chain.

Theoretical and managerial implication of this research is enormous. The existence of functional and dysfunctional conflicts in the same supply network and how it can be detrimental to the performance of the members are exposed in this study, which can be an excellent source to be investigated. Practitioners and researchers can gain a greater understanding to identify the root causes of conflicts in the existing structural dynamics, shedding light on organizational interactions, power and group behavior during the Covid-19 era.

From the light of management and inter-organizational conflicts, this is a pioneer study that has detected the redundant channel members, their source of power and how their removal can present an optimum channel with group coherence and synergistic interest.

The article offers a study of the central food marketplace in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The purpose of the study is to explore how changes in the marketplace reflect transformation of urban food systems resulting from neoliberal restructuring during the final decades of the twentieth century.

Drawing on long-term qualitative research conducted during the late 1990s and early 2000s, including ethnographic and survey methods, the article illustrates how central urban marketplaces offer a window into transitions in both international and domestic food economies.

Research findings illustrate that the marketplace in Santiago operated in a state of economic hybridity, intermixing long established regionally produced domestic crops such as yuca, plantains and pigeon peas deeply rooted in Dominican agrarian culture with products dervived from liberalization of the Dominican economy such as imported rice, beans and eventually numerous Dominican food staples.

The study is limited by the scope of analysis which is one urban marketplace. More sites for researching marketplaces could be added for more comparative analysis.

The research findings have implications for how governments define social and economic policy that impacts domestic food producers and intermediary brokers that aggregate and debulk food to feed cities.

The scholarship raises questions about how the social and economic organization of urban marketplaces in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere reflect historical transitions in local, national and global economies.

The “pop-up” epithet has become a synonym for virtually any temporary event in a range of commercial, non-commercial and cultural contexts within the urban spatial arena. This paper aims to discuss the role of the pop-up concept within urban space, to address the question articulated in the Call for Papers for this special issue, of whether “everywhere needs to become a marketplace”.

The authors review a range of sources – both academic, popular press and practitioner publications and reports – to inform our critique of the use of the pop-up activities in urban space.

The authors identify four ways in which the pop-up concept can be valorised – pop-up stores and experiences, pop-up agglomerations, pop-up service facilities and pop-up space brokerage services.

Adopting a critical perspective, the authors address pop-up’s implications, especially the impact on urban places and the people within them. This study concludes by discussing the potential for an increased use of pop-up within urban spaces impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which could be focused as much on social as economic value.

After reading and discussing the case, the participants would be able to: apply 7S and VRIO framework for online furniture retail; evaluate the profitability of horizontal versus vertical marketplaces for selling furniture online; articulate the challenges faced by online furniture retailers; discuss the applicability of technology to enhance customer experience in online furniture retail; and discuss the omni-channel strategy which online furniture companies can adopt.

Although furniture has traditionally been an unorganized category, the online furniture platforms have been on an upward curve since past few years. Digitization of economy and usage of smartphones to access internet had given a thrust to online purchases. This case on Wakefit Innovations Private Limited is intended to provide the readers with the business and marketing insights of selling furniture using online platform. The readers will be able to understand how retailing furniture using e-commerce is full of challenges and how various marketing activities have helped Wakefit improve their customer base. The readers can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of horizontal versus vertical e-commerce marketplaces and various challenges associated with online furniture retailing. Whether Wakefit should continue setting up experience centres and the benefits that could accrue by usage of virtual reality, augmented reality and data analytics are additional dimensions which can be discussed by the readers. The case will benefit the professionals in understanding the challenges and marketing strategies used by online furniture retailers and the same can be replicated by other players in this sector.

This case is suitable for students enrolled for full credit course on e-commerce at post graduate level. The case can be discussed towards the middle of the course once the students have studied different formats of e-commerce marketplace.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.