Organisational rigidities and marketing theory: examining the US department store c.1910–1965

Wood, Steve

doi:10.1080/02642060902960784

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…Studies on the history of retailers and retail structure show mixed support for this model. Wood [8] finds support for the wheel of retailing in explaining the rise of the department store in the United States from 1920-1965, essentially steps 1-2 in Figure 1. Other researchers note that the market power of large firms has created barriers to market entry for innovative and low cost retailers in the past [16] and that some retail firms start at step 2, as specialty stores and department stores offering greater service and more expensive merchandise [10].…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Other researchers such as Evans [23] argue that the wheel of retailing forces organizations to consider how they will adapt to both competition and market conditions, as there are always emerging opportunities for growth from rival firms at both the high and low cost end. What is not clear, apart from historical analysis [4,8], is how the movement of the wheel can be affected by the advent of shopping malls and competition from online retailers. The object of the paper is to get a deeper understanding of this by applying a simulation of an ecosystem, which has competing species with differential growth rates, to the retail landscape of shopping malls.…”

Section: Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Trying to understand the changing nature of retailing has been an important area of research for managers, policy makers and researchers since the 1960s [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. One of the most popular and wide ranging explanations offered is the "wheel of retailing" [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using the Simulation of Ecological Systems to Explain the Wheel of Retailing

Ducan

Bossomaier

D’Alessandro

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence

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I. ABSTRACTUnderstanding the change in retail structure has been a distinct challenge for many managers and policy analysts since the 1950s. Research has focused on concepts such as the wheel of retailing. However, this theory is more descriptive than explanatory of changes in market structure. In this paper we argue that changes in retail structure (discount stores, specialist stores, department stores and even malls versus online shopping), can be modelled using the ecological simulation concept of competing sessile species, with different growth rates and overgrowth rates based on changing suitability to the environment. Our results show that the application of the COMPETE model [see 1, 2] produce different results for retail coverage between larger and smaller shopping malls

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 97%

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Using the Simulation of Ecological Systems to Explain the Wheel of Retailing

Ducan

Bossomaier

D’Alessandro

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence

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“…Path dependence contributes to our understanding of cumulative causation, with the observation that "extraneous features of the initial conditions, the historical context in which organizations are formed, can become enduring constraints" (David 1994, p. 214). Indeed, in his study of US department stores from 1910-1965, Wood (2011 found "lockin" to the traditional downtown locations "posed significant obstacles" to adaptation and progress, and contributed to their ultimate decline.…”

Section: Environmental Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Retailing

McArthur

Weaven

Dant

2016

Journal of Macromarketing

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The evolution of retailing has interested academics across a range of disciplines including economics, history, geography, and marketing. Due to its interdisciplinary appeal, the corpus of knowledge on retailing is composed of many disparate variables of analysis-from transaction costs, and entrepreneurs, to environmental factors, and the dispersion of stores. In consequence, the literature that attempts to explain retailing evolution presents as a patchwork, and extant theories remain disconnected because of their narrowness of focus. This literature review applies a macro and systems theory approach to the multi-discipline literature, and links together bodies of work that, until now, have remained conceptually unconnected. This provides a meta typology of six factors that could explain change in retailing: economic efficiencies; cyclical patterns; power inequities; innovative behaviour; environmental influences; and interdependent parts of the system in co-evolution.

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Decision-making authority in British supermarket chains

Alexander

2015

Business History

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I would like to acknowledge the important contribution of the late Professor Arieh Goldman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel to the conceptual discussion presented in this paper. I would also like to express my thanks to Niamh Dillon and her colleagues at the National Life Stories Project, British Library, London for their help with regard to the collection 'Tesco: An Oral History', and to Clare Wood and her colleagues at the J. Sainsbury Archive, Museum of London, for their assistance during my visits to that archive.I would like to acknowledge the help of all those who I have interviewed as part of the wider project from which this paper is drawn, and also the valuable comments of the referees on earlier versions of this paper. I would like to thank Professor Leigh Sparks, University of Stirling, for providing the English language version of his chapter "TESCO: Every Little Helps."The usual disclaimers apply Decision-Making Authority in British Supermarket Chains AbstractThis paper analyses the authority of store managers for the stocking and merchandising of British supermarkets in the period between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s. Using oral history and business archive data, the paper assesses the case of two broadly similar retail chains. It identifies variations between the firms in relation to the extent of centralised versus decentralised control at the start of the study period. It then shows how the firms came to operate an essentially similar approach by its conclusion. Explanations for the changes identified are drawn from an assessment of the retail environment, and differences between the firms in terms of corporate culture.Key Words: Retail History; Retail Strategy; Management Decision-Making; Supermarkets. IntroductionThis paper considers management decision-making authority in British supermarket chains. It analyses the decision-making authority of store managers for the stocking and merchandising of 'their' store, and in relation to Head Office and regional-level management. This places the empirical focus of the paper at the intersection between marketing and operations. The paper presents a conceptual discussion which provides the basis for consideration of two retailer case studies. Among the questions explored are: what approaches to the control of management decision-making authority were employed by retailers operating supermarket chains during the period between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s; how did these approaches influence the firm's resource deployment and capability development; and how and why did approaches differ between firms and over time? Such questions are highly pertinent both to the study of business history and to contemporary business and management studies.Historical analysis of the supermarket format in post Second World War Britain has provided surprisingly few studies concerned with issues of management control.1 Instead most emphasis has been placed upon spatial and structural aspects of the emergence of self-service and supermarket retailing practic...

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Organisational rigidities and marketing theory: examining the US department store c.1910–1965

Cited by 6 publications

References 65 publications

Using the Simulation of Ecological Systems to Explain the Wheel of Retailing

Using the Simulation of Ecological Systems to Explain the Wheel of Retailing

The Evolution of Retailing

Decision-making authority in British supermarket chains

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