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1 – 10 of over 16000Ashis Mishra and Javeed Ansari
The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for measuring retail productivity. It intends to identify all the constituents of retail productivity exhaustively, along with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for measuring retail productivity. It intends to identify all the constituents of retail productivity exhaustively, along with their measures and integrate them with a comprehensive model.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper summarizes the significant empirical works from the literature along with their study methods and identifies the gaps. The proposed methodology is a combination of various exploratory methods consisting of secondary data analysis, group interviews, depth interviews, observation and questionnaire survey.
Findings
A regression‐based conceptual model including each of the output and input variables of retail productivity. It also provides conception logic and measurement method for each of the variables. It identifies the control parameters too and proposes to handle them in the model. The empirical validation provides the significance of various input parameters.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical validation is restricted to one retail format and one vertical (medium‐sized stores and apparel‐life style vertical). However, it provides significant input regarding the way to utilise retail productivity and the strategic directions to improve store level productivity.
Practical implications
The most significant usage of the model is the standardization of retail productivity concept as a performance measurement tool and its applicability in individual retail stores (micro level). Hence, it is possible to determine the reasons for performance of retail stores and develop appropriate as well as effective strategies. The identification and elaboration of the various parameters of retail productivity would help retailers to redefine and focus on key decision areas.
Originality/value
The paper presents the exhaustive framework for retail productivity with data from the Indian retail sector that is applicable at micro level. It provides direct measure of value component (services) in retail output determination.
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The purpose of this study is to propose a comprehensive efficiency evaluation approach to measure the efficiency of the retailers and to determine the relative importance of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to propose a comprehensive efficiency evaluation approach to measure the efficiency of the retailers and to determine the relative importance of a wide variety of apparel retail-specific factors that support efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
The first stage of the proposed approach is the measurement of the relative efficiency of the apparel retailers by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) for identifying the best practice frontier and determination of the improvement ratios. The second stage is the prioritization of the factors that are important in the apparel retail efficiency using analytical hierarchy process (AHP).
Findings
The findings of the study revealed that the quantitative criteria to be considered for efficiency through input minimization and output maximization were “number of employees” and “profit before tax,” respectively, however, focusing on output maximization was found to be more critical. In addition, it was seen that the most important qualitative components of efficiency were satisfied customers, qualified staff and branding.
Practical implications
The managerial actors in the apparel retail industry can be alerted for new strategic actions to adopt best practices or take precautions for future inefficiencies with the help of the results obtained. The customized hierarchical structure allows determining the priority areas that need to be focused on for increasing the performance of apparel retailers.
Originality/value
In this study, DEA and AHP were combined to build a comprehensive efficiency evaluation approach in the apparel retail industry for the first time in the literature. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative variables that are important in apparel retail efficiency were put forward and evaluated. The originality of the hierarchical structure in AHP was its customization to the apparel retail industry.
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Adejimi Alli Adebayo, Paul Greenhalgh and Kevin Muldoon-Smith
The retail property market is constantly adopting to the continuous demand of retailers and their consumers. This paper aims to investigate retail property market dynamics through…
Abstract
Purpose
The retail property market is constantly adopting to the continuous demand of retailers and their consumers. This paper aims to investigate retail property market dynamics through spatial accessibility measures of the City of York street network. It explores how spatial accessibility metrics (SAM) explain retail market dynamics (RMD) through changes in the city’s retail rental values and stock.
Design/methodology/approach
Valuation office agency (VOA) data sets (aspatial) and ordnance survey map (spatial) data form the empirical foundation for this investigation. Changes in rental value and retail stock between 2010 and 2017 VOA data sets represent the RMD variables. While, the configured street network measures of Space Syntax, namely, global integration, local integration, global choice and normalised angular choice form the SAM variables. The relationship between these variables is analysed through geo-visualisation and statistical testing using GIS and SPSS tools.
Findings
The study reveals that there has been an overall negative changes of 15 and 22% in rental value and retail stock, respectively, even though some locations within the sampled city (York, North Yorkshire, England) indicated positive changes. The study further indicated that changes in retail rental value and stock have occurred within locations with good accessibility index. It also verifies that there are spatial and statistical relationship between variables and 22% of RMD variability was jointly accounted for by SAM.
Originality/value
This research is first to investigates changes in retail property market variables through spatial accessibility measures of space syntax. It contributes to the burgeoning research field of real estate and Space Syntax.
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The purpose of this study is to address three managerial issues in a retail network under a centralised regime, including resource allocation, expansion and downsizing. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to address three managerial issues in a retail network under a centralised regime, including resource allocation, expansion and downsizing. In particular, this study investigates how to optimise resource allocation across retailers and how to decide the optimal size of a retail network for an empirical case, where 27 retailers belong to an automobile parts supplier in Taiwan.
Design/methodology/approach
The centralised data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is used to optimise resource allocation among retailers and to seek the possibility of either an expansion and/or downsizing for a retail network.
Findings
The case company knows the best way to (re)allocate its available resources and (re)arrange the outcome goals for its own retailers. The 27 retailers are assigned specific targets for input and output adjustments to become Pareto or technically efficient units. Besides, an experiment is designed to measure how changing the number of retailers affects the group efficiency of the retail network. To keep the current aggregated output level of the retail network, the centralised supplier needs at least 24 retailers. However, the retail network with 37 retailers can achieve maximal group efficiency.
Originality/value
Centralised resource allocation is an inherent feature of most supplier-retailer relationships, where the supplier is usually a central planner with the power to allocate available resources among its own retailers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess retail performance under a centralised regime.
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Carlos Pestana Barros and Carlos Alberto Alves
This paper analyses the efficiency of individual retail stores belonging to a Portuguese multi‐market hypermarket retailing chain, employing data envelopment analysis (DEA). The…
Abstract
This paper analyses the efficiency of individual retail stores belonging to a Portuguese multi‐market hypermarket retailing chain, employing data envelopment analysis (DEA). The use of DEA for the analysis of intra‐chain comparative store efficiency can be of value in examining the competitiveness of the chain as a whole. Competitiveness should be based on benchmarking the retail outlets which compose the chain. We conclude from our research that some outlets are at the frontier of best practice, while others are inefficient. Managerial implications arising from the study are considered.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to benchmark store performance for the purpose of rationalising retail distribution network.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to benchmark store performance for the purpose of rationalising retail distribution network.
Design/methodology/approach
As an illustration of the approach, DEA is applied to a sample of front stores of a major retailer in Australia to compare their relative efficiency in distribution. Together with other techniques such as customer segmentation and spatial distribution of demand, this paper shows that DEA can provide an objective basis for distribution network rationalisation and be a suitable analytical tool to facilitate continuous improvement.
Findings
Based on the DEA results, it is concluded that overall distribution efficiency of the part of the retail network under study can be improved by either closing the less efficient stores or merging them with the others in the same service areas to streamline the network. Such rationalisation will help aggregate demand and improve vehicle utilisation for distribution with minor impact on current level of customer service.
Research limitations/implications
This study lends insight into the use of DEA, together with other analyses, for distribution network rationalisation. This approach is less data hungry and relatively easy to implement than full‐fledged optimisation through integer programming. To serve mainly as a proof of concept and an illustration of the approach, the scope of the study is limited to six stores in the retail network with relative performance in distribution evaluated on a single input and a single output variables.
Practical implications
Managers can use DEA to benchmark the distribution performance of their stores against the best performers in the retail network so as to identify areas for improvement. The approach can also assist in the adoption of best practice and facilitate more effective allocation of resources across the entire retail network.
Social implications
Retail network rationalisation through benchmarking with DEA can facilitate continuous improvement in distribution efficiency. This will help reduce fuel consumption, carbon emission, as well as other pollutions such as noise and traffic congestion.
Originality/value
Research in retail network performance using DEA to date is mainly on comparative performance of supermarkets within or between chains. The focus is mainly placed on the relationship between floor area, workforce, and sales. This paper fills the gap in the literature by applying DEA in distribution network rationalisation instead of mere performance comparison of individual stores. It focuses on distribution costs rather than store attributes and supplements DEA with other techniques to obtain a fuller picture of the overall network efficiency in terms of distribution. It also contributes to a better understanding of how demand management can affect distribution efficiency of the retail network.
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Charles A. Ingene and Robert F. Lusch
Retail trade, an essential component in any industrialised marketing system, has received relatively little attention on a macro level. Rather, the formal study of retail trade…
Abstract
Retail trade, an essential component in any industrialised marketing system, has received relatively little attention on a macro level. Rather, the formal study of retail trade has been directed at helping retail managers improve the effectiveness of their decisions. Although such analysis is helpful to retail managers, it is of less use to government policy makers in formulating policy and to marketing academicians in their attempts to understand retailing on a broader level. If the retailing sector of the economy is to be better understood some major analytical questions which revolve around the productivity of retail trade must be answered. Importantly, the productivity of retail trade is not only of interest to government policy makers but also should be of interest to marketers because (1) the productivity of retailing is a significant component in influencing the cost of marketing goods, (2) as marketers we know almost nothing about the economic efficiency of retailing, and (3) it will give marketers the tools to help compare productivity in the retailing/marketing sectors of the economy to productivity in other sectors of the economy. The purpose of this paper is the estimation of a production function for department stores in the United States for the year 1972. During 1972, department store sales totalled $51·08 billion[l], comprising 11·1% of all retail sales. Only automobile dealerships, eating and drinking places, and food stores were a greater component of retail sales and only the latter employed more people. An understanding of one of the more important components of the US economy, retail trade, cannot occur in the absence of a thorough comprehension of its department store component (SIC 531).
Annibal Parracho Sant’Anna, Lidia Angulo Meza and Rodrigo Otavio Araujo Ribeiro
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of a method for combining multiple criteria based on the transformation of numerical evaluations into probabilities of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of a method for combining multiple criteria based on the transformation of numerical evaluations into probabilities of preference. It is applied to compare failure risks and to measure efficiency in the retail trade sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The main conceptual aspect of the method employed is taking into account uncertainty. Its other important feature is allowing for the combination of evaluations in terms of joint probabilities. This avoids the need of assigning weights to the criteria. In the context of failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) it provides a probabilistic derivation for priority scores. An application of FMEA to the sector of services is discussed. Another area of application investigated is the assessment of efficiency.
Findings
Details of the application of the probabilistic composition in the evaluation of modes of failure and in the comparison of operational efficiencies of retail stores are evidenced.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to the retail market. Other factors might be considered in the reliability analysis and other inputs and outputs might be added to the productivity evaluation. The extension of the study to other cases and sectors is straightforward.
Practical implications
Features of the evaluation of modes of failure and of productivity in the retail sector are revealed.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is showing how to use a probabilistic framework to measure efficiency in services management.
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Tony McGough and Sotiris Tsolacos
Applies the methodology adopted in contemporary business cycleresearch on establishing the stylized facts of aggregate outputfluctuations, in the context of the office, industrial…
Abstract
Applies the methodology adopted in contemporary business cycle research on establishing the stylized facts of aggregate output fluctuations, in the context of the office, industrial and retail building cycle. The objective of the study is to identify the degree to which cyclical regularities, which are in conformity with theoretical modelling, are identified across property sectors. Undertakes a statistical analysis of the cyclical properties of certain variables in relation to the building cycle in the respective commercial property sectors. The variables considered capture real economic conditions and trends in both the property and investment markets. The findings illustrate that certain variables display a cyclical pattern in relation to the property cycles which is in accordance with theoretical intuition. They also show that either other variables do not display any cyclical relationship to the commercial building cycles or the relationship does not conform to the predictions of the existing theoretical treatment of property development.
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Kwabena Mintah, David Higgins and Judith Callanan
Uncertainties in residential property investment performance require that real estate assets are designed in a flexible manner to respond to impacts of market dynamics. Though…
Abstract
Purpose
Uncertainties in residential property investment performance require that real estate assets are designed in a flexible manner to respond to impacts of market dynamics. Though estimating the cost of flexibility is straightforward, assessing the economic value of flexibility is not. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential practical application of real option analysis to determine the economic value of a switching output flexibility embedded in a residential property investment in Australia. The study involves the exploration of an optimal strategy for investment in a residential development through real option analysis and valuation of a mixed use investment.
Design/methodology/approach
The real option valuation model developed by McDonald and Siegel (1986) is adopted for the evaluation because the switching output flexibility is likened to a perpetual American call option with dividend payout.
Findings
Through real option analysis, the economic value of switching output flexibility of the mixed use building was determined to be higher than the initial upfront costs. Moreover, a payoff of about $4million was determined to be the value of the switching output flexibility, therefore justifying upfront investments in flexibility as an uncertainty and risk management tool.
Practical implications
This application is an important demonstration of the practical use of options pricing techniques (real options analysis) and delivers further evidence needed to support the adoption of real option valuation in practice. Flexibility can also enhance risks and uncertainty management in residential property investment better than the adjustment of discount rates.
Originality/value
There is limited evidence on the use of real options techniques for the valuation of switching output flexibility in practice, and this comes as an original application; both the case study and data are all initial applications of switching flexibility in the Australian property market.
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