The Roles of Shop Owners in Boosting Conventional Markets

상권활성화에 있어서 상업자의 역할에 관한 연구

With the increasing interest in boosting conventional markets, many authors have paid considerable attention to the roles of shop owners, store image improvement, and how to attract or maintain customers. Nevertheless, it is not easy to find papers related to the relationship between shop owners and their contribution to trading areas, directly or indirectly, in the academic world. Accordingly, research for answering the following question has been initiated: what kind of roles do shopkeepers should play in revitalizing poor conventional markets? Based on the previous studies focusing on enhancing traditional markets, this research was approached from the new insights that have been obtained concerning how to boost conventional markets, that is, from the perspectives of a shop owner and a trader. Therefore, this research aims at identifying some resolutions associated with the roles of shop owners to enhance a shopping district in a specific area, classifying their business roles into a few categories, depending on the degree of their participation in improving the shopping environment. Compared with previous studies focusing on emphasizing the importance of improving customer services from a shopkeeper's perspective, this research provides a new insight as far as how to boost conventional markets. It is, furthermore, necessary to note how market participants, particularly shop owners as they are the key players, can contribute to rebuilding their business area together with their customers. As a research technique for effectively achieving the research goal, the authors adopted a documentation methodology based on a large amount of the existing literature for studying how to rebuild traditional markets. Concerned about the ways to revitalize conventional markets, many authors have proposed a variety of strategies, and have suggested more detailed action plans from a practitioner's perspective. By analyzing these research results, the authors will have accomplished the research aim. Rather than simply identifying the roles of shop owners, the author found that they had to understand their social contribution for enhancing their trading areas, as well as their functional roles, in forming a regional society. The conventional market should be, thus, regarded as the place to share regional culture. Consequently, the authors draw some conclusions from the research results. In order to answer the above question, it was found that the roles of shop owners have been considered as one of the most important ways for revitalizing traditional markets. With respect to their roles, it is evident that their business activities are closely related to the improvement of the trading area in terms of sociality, regional development, and market revitalization, by selling products or services to the customers visiting that area. In a word, this implies that shop owners have to actively take part in boosting conventional markets as a core player. Although the authors have properly achieved the research aim, this study has a limitation, like most other research, in adopting a documentation method. Because the research is based on existing data results provided by the prior research conducted a long time ago, whether the research findings are applicable in a contemporary market should be re-examined in future research from a practitioner's perspective, rather than from an academic's perspective.

도시의 얼굴로서 발전하여온 중심시가지와 상점가는 빈점포의 증가, 공터의 증가, 유동인구의 감소 등으로 인하여 대부분의 중심시가지가 쇠퇴의 일로에 있다. 상점가의 이용감소, 주거지의 교외화, 공공시설의 교외 이전, 집객시설의 이전 등으로 인하여 중심지는 더욱 쇠퇴해 지고 있다. 상업자는 상업의 본연의 기능으로서의 매매, 교환의 기능을 가짐은 물론 상업자의 외부성으로서 지역과의 커뮤니티성, 지역의 사회성을 지니고 있다. 상점가는 지역의 생활기반이면서 지역성을 결정짓는 지역의 얼굴이기도 하며 지역문화의 전승, 창조하는 공간이며 지역의 휴식과 지역 주민과의 정보 교류의 장으로서 공공적 역할을 담당하고 있다. 한편으로 지역에 진출하는 대형점이나 체인점들은 대부분 스크랩앤드빌드 및 균질화 매장으로 기능으로 지역에 대한 공헌성이 부족하나 도심 상점가는 지역의 공공적 요소로서 지역에 공헌하는 기능을 갖는다. 궁극의 소매상업자는 결국 상업 본연의 매매, 거래 기능을 가지면서 지역과 공존하여야 하는 사회성도 동시에 지니고 있는 특징을 가진다.