• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.43-53
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• 2014

Purpose - This study suggested a practical model for super supermarkets (SSMs) and small- and medium-sized stores to grow together. Super centers expanded their business. However, after the retail distribution law was revised in 2009, mutual cooperation between large and small enterprises resulted in social issues and people raised the issue of profitability. Research design, data, and methodology - This study investigated cases of regulation over distribution in Japan, France, and other countries to reveal implications and recommendations. Results - This study demonstrated how SSM and middle and small supermarkets could grow together by franchising and using cooperative society law. Franchising was a mutual growth model whereby the franchiser provided franchisees with large enterprise systems and utilities while franchisees could provide the franchiser with local information. They could thus build trust in each other to facilitate a mutual growth model. Further, the voluntary franchise system's model facilitated the mutual growth model. Conclusions - This study demonstrates that the franchise system and cooperative society could constitute an ideal model whereby large enterprises and middle and small stores could rely upon each other and grow together.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2012

Despite the enforcement of SSM control laws such as 'the Law of Developing the Distribution Industry (LDDI)' and 'the Law of Promoting Mutual Cooperation between Large and Small/medium Enterprises (LPMC)' stipulating the business adjustment system, the number of super-supermarkets (SSMs) has ever been expanding in Korea. In France, however, Super Centers are being regulated most strongly and directly in the whole Europe viewing that there is not a single SSM in Paris, which is emphasized to be the outcome from French government's regulation exerted on the opening of large scale retail stores. In France, the authority to approve store opening is deeply centralized and the store opening regulation is a socio-economic regulation driven by economic laws whereas EU strongly regulates the distribution industry. To control the French distribution industry, such seven laws and regulations as Commission départementale d'urbanisme commercial guidelines (CDLIC) (1969), the Royer Law (1973), the Doubin Law (1990), the Sapin Law (1993), the Raffarin Law (1996), solidarite et renouvellement urbains (SRU) (2000), and Loi de modernisation de l'économie (LME) (2009) have been promulgated one by one since the amendment of the Fontanet guidelines, through which commercial adjustment laws and regulations have been complemented and reinforced while regulatory measures have been taken. Even in the course of forming such strong regulatory laws, InterMarche, the largest supermarket chain in France, has been in existence as a global enterprise specialized in retail distribution with over 4,000 stores in Europe. InterMarche's business can be divided largely into two segments of food and non-food. As a supermarket chain, InterMarche's food segment has 2,300 stores in Europe and as a hard-discounter store chain in France, Netto has 420 stores. Restaumarch is a chain of traditional family restaurants and the steak house restaurant chain of Poivre Rouge has 4 restaurants currently. In addition, there are others like Ecomarche which is a supermarket chain for small and medium cities. In the non-food segment, the DIY and gardening chain of Bricomarche has a total of 620 stores in Europe. And the car-related chain of Roady has a total of 158 stores in Europe. There is the clothing chain of Veti as well. In view of InterMarche's management strategies, since its distribution strategy is to sell goods at cheap prices, buying goods cheap only is not enough. In other words, in order to sell goods cheap, it is all important to buy goods cheap, manage them cheap, systemize them cheap, and transport them cheap. In quality assurance, InterMarche has guaranteed the purchase safety for consumers by providing its own private brand products. InterMarche has 90 private brands of its own, thus being the retailer with the largest number of distributor brands in France. In view of its IT service strategy, InterMarche is utilizing a high performance IT system so as to obtainas much of the market information as possible and also to find out the best locations for opening stores. In its global expansion strategy of international alliance, InterMarche has established the ALDIS group together with the distribution enterprises of both Spain and Germany in order to expand its food purchase, whereas in the non-food segment, it has established the ARENA group in alliance with 11 international distribution enterprises. Such strategies of InterMarche have been intended to find out the consumer needs for both price and quality of goods and to secure the purchase and supply networks which are closely localized. It is necessary to cope promptly with the constantly changing circumstances through being unified with relevant regions and by providing diversified customer services as well. In view of the InterMarche's positive policy for promoting local partnerships as well as the assistance for enhancing the local economic structure, implications are existing for those retail distributors of our country.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.107-128
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• 2013

When Korea's retail industry was liberalized, new store formats such as large discount stores and Super Supermarket(SSMs) have grown. New types of business have borne significant influence on traditional market. Traditional markets have been in gradual decline since they fail to meet to consumer's purchasing behavior. The South Korean government has been making sustained efforts to revitalize the modernization of traditional markets since 2004. This research is conducted to analyze how changes in the distribution of different types of distributors influence the consumer's purchasing behaviors depending on the changes in the market environment. The purpose of this research is to present a policy to invigorate consumer-oriented traditional markets by analyzing the consumption behavior among major retail channels at a point when competition among retail channels is becoming intensified. In order to examine the effect of the spatial competitive landscape among major retail channels on consumption behavior, an empirical analysis was conducted with 613 consumers in 6 cities nationwide, using the multiple regression model. This research identified three main areas of factors. The analysis result indicates that the physical factor (time required to go to the traditional market), socioeconomic factors (the number of vehicles owned and average monthly income), and competitive factors (intensity of competition in spatial locations and average monthly spending in supermarkets) have significant influence on consumption patterns of consumers. The findings present that the Korean government should go ahead with policies aimed to revitalize traditional markets, keeping in mind the factors that influence the consumption patterns of customers based on these results. We propose that the policy supporting traditional markets need to be a customized-strategy, considering traditional market's characteristic.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.39-57
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• 2012

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.69-94
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• 2010

With the liberalization of distribution services industry since 1996 as well as changes in customers' appetite to spend and consumer behaviors, new forms of distribution services have mushroomed such as superstores and SSM(Super Supermarket), online shopping, TV shopping channels. On the contrary, traditional markets have sunk into a swamp of stagnation. As this stage of stagnation of markets negatively affects tradespeople's employment, livings, and local economy, the Korean government has conducted policies to support improvement of market facilities and management since 2004. However, the government has separated facility improvement from management improvement. As of June 2008, there are 1,550 traditional markets in Korea and among these there are 388 public markets which local governments have established and managed. Public markets have possibilities to be developed as successful models of market revitalization since they can get all-expenses-paid supports for facility improvement, control of merchandise assortment, educational program for merchants. Such successful (strategic hub) markets could become the benchmark for other neighboring markets and tradespeople which could lead other successful cases. In order to produce such effects, the market should have optimized facilities, merchandise and services, co-marketing strategies with nearby markets, group purchase strategies. The hub market could play a critical role in distribution of local goods and developing high value products.

• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.85-96
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• 2007

In Korea, with a dramatic growth of Super Supermarket (SSM) in the wake of opening up the retail market and diversifying distribution, the consumer's purchase behavior about food and consumer goods changed. In order to investigate this change, this study was carried out through collecting and analyzing questionnaires from 190 men and women consumers at ages between twenties and sixties, living in Ulsan and Pusan. The result suggested that in overall features, men were mainly affected by design factors such as packaging design, color, and product design, whereas women were mainly affected by cost factors such as price and configuration. As for product properties, it was suggested that women put importance on the price concerning ail products, but men didn't. In addition, it was identified that women were impressed by advertisements on TV, and men and women both often purchased the product after confirming its information among the displayed products. Considering these results, we concluded that for a product whose main target is men in particular, the product development should focus on design. Moreover, as the packaging design and display affect on both men and women as important factors, hereafter a complementary study on the effects of the packaging design and display of manufacturers related to the products in this study is to be proceeded with greater interest.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.101-109
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• 2015

Purpose - A traditional retail market is a place that offers economic opportunity to employees and employers alike it also is a place where the community can meet. The Korean government has invested three trillion won to improve physical and non-physical aspects in traditional retail markets since 2004. However, little research on this has been conducted. We explore this research gap that could lead to theory extension. We analyze consumption behavior with respect to traditional retail markets through an empirical analysis, thus overcoming limits in previous research. We empirically analyze policy effects of traditional retail market projects supported by the Korean government. Research design, data, and methodology - We propose a traditional retail market improvement plan via the relation between cause and effect resulting from the analysis. More specifically, logit analysis was carried out with 1,754 consumers in 16 cities nationwide. In order to analyze consumer consumption behaviors nationwide, the probability was analyzed using a logit model. This research analyzes the link between support and non-support by the Korean government using binary values. The dependent variable is whether Korean government support is implemented; the binomial logistic regression is used as the statistical estimation technique. The object variables are:1 (support) or 0 (nonsupport), and the prediction value is between 1 and 0. As a result of the factor analysis of questions related to attributes of service quality, four factors were extracted: convenience, product, facilities, and service. Results - The results indicate that convenience, product, and facilities have a significant influence on consumer satisfaction in accordance with the government's traditional retail market support. Additionally, the results reveal that convenience, product, facilities, and service all have a significant influence on consumer satisfaction in a traditional retail market's service quality and consumer satisfaction. Finally, the analysis indicates that the highly satisfied traditional retail market customer has a significant influence on revisit intention. Moreover, the results reveal that the highly satisfied traditional retail market customer has a significant influence on recommendation intention. Conclusions - This research focused on consumers nationwide to measure policy effects of traditional retail markets compared to previous research that focused on one traditional retail market or a specific area. We verified the relationship of service quality and customer satisfaction and consumer behavior based on service quality theory. The results indicate that consumer satisfaction of traditional retail markets supported by service quality factors has a significant impact. In a concrete form, the results indicate that these effects are from facility modernization projects and marketing support projects of the Korean government. The results also imply that these facility and management support effects from the Korean government have been consistent. We realize that the Korean government has to selectively support traditional retail markets in major cities and small and medium-sized cities. To that end, the Korean government needs to select a concentration strategy for the revitalization of traditional retail markets.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.63-84
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• 2011

There are about 1,500 small or large traditional markets in Korea. Those conventional markets have been struggling for survival in rapidly changing market environment with highly intensified competition by accelerating the entrance of the Large-scale Discount Store and Super Supermarket which are managed and supported by Large companies like Samsung and Lotte. The loosing power of conventional markets have threatened the local merchants' survival and have influenced local economics falling down. To create better value for the customers who have more preference for department store and discount stores than conventional markets, conventional markets should have market orientation, which has three sub dimensions; customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordinations. First objective of study is to find the appropriate roles of conventional markets in local areas. Second is to find out the market orientation functions for conventional markets to be survival in local markets in the long terms. Finally, this study will suggest some policies for the appropriate types of successful conventional markets considering various local situations. To achieve those objectives, we did the following procedure. First, we review the previous reports and studies of policies for conventional markets and local economy development, and propose some pros and cons of the previous policies. Secondly, we develop a market orientation framework of conventional markets, in which we suggest the developmental types and functions of market-orientation of conventional markets in accordance with the characteristics of local market and economic conditions of local areas. Then we formulate and discuss the study's contributions, managerial implications, and directions for future policy development. Especially for the policy development, we suggest the efficiency and economical effects of policy, human being development and management system, and the role of government and protection of local merchants in the development process.