Analysis on Preceding Study of Consumer's Store-Choice Model: Focusing on Commercial Sphere Analysis Theories

Purpose - There are numerous theories for retail trade area analysis which are designed to select candidate locations for new stores. In this study, comparative analysis on the characteristics from those of the theories are shown, and the explanation for the power in consumers' store-choice behaviors and their limitations are examined. Also, plans for improving commercial sphere analysis are explored. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is based on literature reviews with normative research methodology. Among many researches regarding the analysis on the location and commercial sphere for launching a new store, researches relying on statistics are excluded in this study since they belong to the marketing research area,. Results - In the Law of retail gravitation, Huff's model multinomial logit model and etc. are mutual complementary mathematical techniques for analyzing commercial spheres and each of them has its own characteristics. These theories rely on the same hypothesis in which consumers are all believed to be behaving rationally under a similar behavioral system. However, the trial in explaining or estimating behavior of choosing a store with only a select size of the population that is objectively estimated by some major properties has limits in its credibility. Conclusion - Research on consumer's spatial behaviors can be fully illustrative and explainable when it has both quantitative approaches such as 'law of retail gravitation', 'logit model' and etc., and qualitative approaches like consumer's 'cognitive structure', 'learning status', 'image formation', 'attitude' and etc.