John Dawson

Specialist in Retail Innovation

Philosophy

Research undertaken on the various themes reflects a particular research philosophy that has evolved over several years as insights have been gained into the retail sector.

First and foremost, this philosophy is based on the idea of retailing consisting of a series of processes, particularly ones of marketing, with complex, often non-linear, relationships amongst the various interacting elements. The processes are strongly affected by situational factors.

Whilst it is trite to suggest simply that 'retailing is a response to culture' because there are some general processes, nonetheless, the conditions in local markets have a major influence on the way many retail processes operate. Thus, for example, whilst the principles of pricing through a retailer's product mix might be generalisable the actual prices on the shop floor are often influenced by local conditions of consumer culture and values, local competitive conditions, local opening hours, etc.

The process and the situation in which it operates is a basic dimension to understanding theory and practice in retailing.

Secondly, the distinction between the processes of the firm and those of the sales unit (shop, vending machine, market stall, internet site, mail-order catalogue, etc.) is a particularly important one in retailing. If any substantial retail function is considered, for example pricing, merchandising, promotion, security, etc. then the processes differ as between firm and sales unit. This distiction is deep-seated in theory, application and policy based research.

A third strand to the research philosophy used is the belief that processes are directed marginal decisions such that understanding the mechanisms of decision making of participants is vital to to describing and explaining the processes. It is believed there are key decision-makers, who despite the large numbers of employees and customer in even a medium sized firm, have influence and impact on processes way beyong their position as individuals.

A final strand of the research philosophy is a belief that the processes can be measured, modelled and ultimately the outcomes of the processes are forecastable.

In retail research generally there is some way to go before we have a realistic model of the retial sector, as can be seen by the highly aggregated way that retailing is dealt with in the economic models of the economy. We can not yet provide an adequate model of the retail firm. Few of the retail proceses have yet been measured or modelled in ways that we can be confident are robust. Even more fundamentally we have an inadequate framework to define the elements of the processes.

The retail sector, although one of the oldest areas of commercial endeavour, continues to present a very large number of research challenges.

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