Conceptualising innovative customer-facing responses to planning regulation: the UK food retailers

Alexander

2016

Environ Plan A

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This article uses a relational lens to explore the conflict between the regulatory state and a leading food retailer seeking store expansion within one catchment in south-east England over an eight year period. The research highlights the relational power geometries which play out in context between regulators and a regulated corporate firm to emphasise the role of power, resources, and scale. The research teases out how the power of the state to uphold an interpretation of market rules is compromised by a lack of responsiveness compared to both the proactive and reactive tactics of the well-resourced corporate retailer. It recognises how multiple regulatory agents of the state with divergent goals, sometimes situated across different spatial scales of governance, can produce markedly different judgements resulting in outcomes that are not in the public interest. Such situations require swift and coherent regulatory responses and can reveal the need for changes to the organisation of the regulatory infrastructure itself.

Section: The Role Of Uk Retail Land-use Planning Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation in practice: Power, resources and context at the local scale in UK food retailing

Alexander

2016

Environ Plan A

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“…As Wrigley (2000, p 306) put it at the time, the largest of these firms had the ability 'to leverage their increasing core-market scale and free cash flow for expansionary investment ... in order to secure the longer-term higher growth opportunities offered by the emerging markets'. In turn, this was strengthened by the 'regulatory push' from many home markets that were nearing saturation, something related to competition and land-use planning regulation (Wood et al, 2010). The leading operators quickly developed first mover advantages in key emerging markets, further strengthened with codified and transferable sets of operational, sourcing and marketing competences.…”

Section: Conceptualising the Retail Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emerging food retail structure of Vietnam

Nguyen

International Journal of Retail &Amp; Distribution Management

Wrigley

2013

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to trace the modernisation of the retail structure of Vietnam from a closed market to one that is increasingly open to retail transnational corporation (TNC) entry and associated Western retail formats. Design/methodology/approach -The authors undertake this study of retail change through the analysis of a wide range of governmental and industry secondary data -much of which has not entered western academic debate given the challenges of access and translation. In doing so, this period of adaptation is related to well-known studies concerning the diffusion of western forms of retailing discussed across the social sciences. Findings -As a country encountering the third wave of supermarket proliferation within emerging markets, Vietnam's experience is found to broadly fit the models of retail foreign direct investment (FDI) entry and retail "modernisation" suggested by Natawidjaja et al. and Dries et al. The retail change process was affected by a slow, progressive creep of market liberalisation where, as late as 2009, a foreign partner could hold only up to 49 per cent of capital in a joint venture. While analysis of the evidence suggests some retailers flouted these laws or employed creative approaches to mitigating their effects, such regulations clearly underpinned a less intense initial influx of retail FDI than had been experienced elsewhere in Asia and maintained a high domestic ownership level in the retail market. Retail modernisation has intensified in recent years, with greater international entry, expansion and retail format proliferation diffusing from cities to more rural locations, though the top five grocery operators still account for less than 4 per cent of the grocery market. Originality/value -Studies within retail management of retail internationalisation have tended to focus on fully liberalised countries that have attracted high rates of retail capital. In contrast, this paper focuses on understanding the emergence of one of the countries somewhat later to these trends.

“…For example, this saw some departments working with Property teams to devise workable modifications to store development schemes on constrained town centre sites in the context of UK land-use planning law (see Wood et al, 2010). Such developments included stores with sales floors on two levels or being set on stilts with car parking located below.…”

Section: 'Proactive' Location Planning Departmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Intrafirm Context of Retail Expansion Planning

Reynolds

2011

Environ Plan A

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The benefits that rigorous analysis can have for retail store portfolio management in guiding and informing investment decisions (store expansion; closure; extension; refascia and acquisition) is well established within the economic geography research literature. However, studies of retailers addressing location planning in practice have identified wide variation in the sophistication of techniques and resources employed as well as in terms of the credibility that such research and analysis receives from senior management within the firm. By drawing on a qualitative research project involving some 40 location planning analysts, consultants and managers at UK-based retailers, we differentiate between three approaches to store portfolio decision-making that differ in terms of resource allocation, sophistication and legitimacy. We seek to explain those differences that are embedded within the context of intra-firm relations and social communities by drawing on theories from strategic management concerning core rigidities, lock-in and legitimisation, and review the challenges that location planners face in gaining legitimacy within the organisation, along with strategies appropriate for increasing their acceptance and influence across the firm.