Editorial

Citation

Broadbridge, A. (2005), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 33 No. 12. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm.2005.08933laa.001

Editorial

Welcome to the final issue of 2005. In this issue we present a variety of articles.

Peter Jones and colleagues present an article on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the top ten retailers. They outline what is meant by CRS providing various definitions. They describe the stages in CSR reporting, arguing that nowadays there is a strengthened social audit via the introduction of externally set and certified standards. They outline the key drivers which have influenced the increasing business focus on CSR. Their paper moves on to examine CSR within the top ten UK retailers. It provides an overview of some of the initiatives if these retailers. As such it could be a useful teaching aid, as an introduction to the debate on CSR perhaps with students being encouraged to consider the strategies adopted by these retailers, their objectives and criticisms therein. They could also undertake their own preparation by examining some retailers most notably the Co-op who might be considered to be the benchmark against which CSR standards are met.

In their paper Gary Warnaby, David Bennison and Barry Davies argue that there has been a lack of research into the management and marketing of planned shopping centres, yet this is needed as the competitive environment escalates. They argue that promotional activities are crucial in developing a centre’s image, and in turn, consumer patronage. Utilising a combination of semi structured exploratory interviews followed by a questionnaire to shopping centre managers, the authors examined the nature of the process by which marketing/ promotional activities were planned and the actual marketing activities used by the shopping centre managers. They found that market targeting decisions are informed by extensive marketing research. Consumers are segmented demographically and spatially. The key communications objectives are the provision of information, persuasion and reminding. For the majority of shopping centre managers the proportion of total budget spent on marketing /promotional activity is between 5-14 per cent of the total marketing budget. The most commonly used promotional elements were local and regional press and radio advertising. Events and festivals, and leaflets and other promotional literature were also popular forms. The messages being conveyed were general awareness raising and promoting specific initiatives. The shopping centre managers believed that evaluation of marketing communications activities was crucial although admitted that their efforts could be more rigorous.

In their article, Fujun Lai, Joe Hutchinson and Guixian Zhang provide a succinct overview of how RFID works. Through a series of in-depth interviews with 13 retail managers, they examine the opportunities and challenges of RFID in china. They perceive there to be many opportunities within China for RFID including, apart from the size of the market, a new development towards China’s economic growth. They see it being used in various ways including debit and credit cards, invoice printing, fraud prevention (the provision of a safe and secure supply chain), but also to track blood bags in the healthcare industry. In the logistics area it can help to provide better service to customers, as well as better quality control and financial management, and a reduction in logistics costs. They argue that Chinese manufacturing industries had a propound influence on the RFID application market. Of the bonuses to RFID implementation in China, the costs of implementation, the costs of tags and the lack of standards appear to be the greatest. The authors go on to provide an example of RFID application in China, that of the rail industry. They conclude that the companies who implement RFID early will achieve long-term advantages while the risk-averse ones face the potential loss of market share to those companies that adopt RFID.

John Pratten’s article examines pubs, their structure and ownership. He discusses the development of leased pubs (operated by individual traders) which employ business development managers to help individual outlets and planning and improving their pubs. Formerly area managers, these business development managers were to sell the brewery’s products. Pratten likens it to franchising. However, he reveals that the licensees’ perceptions of the role of business development managers can be somewhat different form that of the pub owing company. By interviewing eight business development managers he found that business development managers felt unable to advise and assist licensees. They saw their first responsibility as being to their employers. While they were proud of their achievements, many had become disillusioned and unhappy believing that licensees ignore their recommendations. When he spoke to licensees about their business development managers, it was apparent that in line with what business development managers said themselves, that licensees regarded them as having a major role in chasing debts. The role of business development managers was not viewed s important by the licensees, although most stated that they had a reasonable relationship with their business development managers.

Adelina Broadbridge