The most important decision, which to a great extent determines the success of any retail outlet, is the choice of its location. In order to achieve the best possible capture of customers from the location we choose, our choice should be led by our knowledge about the store choice behaviour of customers in the trade area of our new outlet.Since Hotelling (1929) and Christaller (1933), economists have tried to derive the optimal number, size and placing of retail outlets by assuming that utility maximising individuals will shop at the closest store and tend to minimise the costs of shopping. Yet every day we observe that customers travel to very distant sites to shop just because of its particular features that differentiate it from other stores, so we may assume that an individual's utility is affected by the characteristics of the store where they shop.The main aim of this analysis is to identify the main determinants of store choice behaviour that cause these observed deviations from the predictions of simple models, with empirical evidence obtained by research about the store choice behaviour of hypermarket customers in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The survey amongst 240 households is conducted in Sarajevo, one of the fastest growing markets in transition and one of the least concentrated retail markets, which raises its attractiveness for the entrance of new international chains.The model employed for this purpose is the Retail Gravity Model, augmented by the inclusion of the MCI coefficient. The model incorporates both the attraction influences of stores' attributes and the deterring influence of the distance between store and customer on the customer's store choice behaviour, and the interaction of these two influences to estimate the probability of patronisation of particular stores by customers from particular areas.Since this analysis of the determinants of hypermarket store choice was conducted for the first time in Sarajevo,
Abstract:In this paper, we have investigated the list of determinants that influence customers to create a short-term preference to a particular store. A survey among 240 households in Sarajevo was conducted in order to reveal their preferences. The results of the MCI model have identified several main stores' characteristics which have a key influence on customers' patronage decisions. The findings also suggest that customers, in making their patronage decisions, and hence making their preferences to a particular store, choose among a limited list of alternatives, which implies that competition among outlets is more space limited than had been expected.
This paper analyses the effects of remittances on the educational enrolment of children in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where a process of forced migration made the relocation decision exogenous.Accordingly, this study has no need of methods to address the endogeneity of remittances. Hence, the approach taken means that our measure of educational enrolment is regressed on a set of individual and households level variables. In addition, we introduce a new approach to estimation, whereby the effect of remittances is calculated for each income quintile. We find that the relationship between remittances and educational enrolment is strong among households from the fourth quintile, which includes households immediately outside the risk of poverty, while for those in poorer quintiles the effect is not significant.
This paper investigates the relationship between income inequality and
different welfare state trajectories that three countries of the former
Yugoslavia ?south of the Alps? have taken over the three decades since the
breakup of the country in 1990. It is remarkable that three countries
emerging from a common (socialist) system have experienced diametrically
opposing outcomes regarding inequality. Slovenia has one of the lowest
levels of income inequality in Europe, Croatia an average level of
inequality, and Serbia one of the highest levels. The paper first examines
the extent and nature of income inequality in the three countries before
examining the determining causes of inequality, rooted in the evaluation of
labour markets, education systems, and tax-benefit systems. It concludes
that the divergent transition paths have created the different inequality
outcomes observed in the three countries. <br><br><font color="red"><b> This article has been corrected. Link to the correction <u><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/EKA2024129E">10.2298/EKA2024129E</a><u></b></font>
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