The Knowledge Transfer of Tesco UK into Korea, in Terms of Retailer Brand Development and Handling Processes
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- Journal of Distribution Science
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- v.9 no.2
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- pp.13-24
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- 2011
With the increasing market share of retailer brands, many authors have paid considerable attention to retailer brands. Before market liberalisation in 1996 in Korea, retailer brand market was led by the supermarket retailing format, although the first retailer brand product was developed by the department store format. In parallel with the entry of foreign multiple retailers, the retailer brand market has experienced rapid growth. Particularly, the expansion of Tesco UK with well-established retailing know-how into Korea has encouraged Tesco Korea to actively get involved in retailer brand program. As a result, Tesco Korea has led retailer brand market in the Korean marketplace. The research starts with the question of why Tesco Korea has achieved such a higher retailer brand share. Accordingly, this study is to explore how Tesco UK has transferred its own retailing knowledge into Tesco Korea, in terms of retailer brand program development. In order to explore why the retailer brand share of Tesco Korea is higher than that of its counterparts, the author adopted in-depth interview with prepared-questions and store observation as a research methodology. To examine working process as well as information flows within Tesco Korea and from UK to Korea, in-depth interview method is one of the most suitable research methodologies, because of the difficulty of quantifying information or data related to work flows. In addition, to increase the validity of information, the researcher had interviews with Tesco Korea supplier and store personnel. Based on these research techniques, this research explored how Tesco UK has influenced or advised Tesco Korea, particularly, from the point of view of knowledge transfer. Since the entry of Tesco UK into Korea as a joint-venture, the retailer brand market share of Tesco Korea has continuously increased. It would be expected that Tesco UK has helped Tesco Korea to settle down in the Korean market. During interviews with Tesco and a Tesco supplier, the researcher found that Tesco Korea has obviously taken an advantage of retailing know-how created by Tesco UK. Furthermore, the retailer brand development and handling process of Tesco Korea has been operated with the help of Tesco UK. This might mean that Tesco UK has directly or indirectly an impact on the improvement of Korean retailer brand development skills. As a mechanism to transfer retailing knowledge developed in the home market into the host market, one of the international retailers, Tesco UK has adopted many different ways such as annual meeting, trading meeting to import or export own retailer brand products, offering of operation manual developed by Tesco UK and buyer cooperation between Tesco UK and Korea, in order to share information. Through these communication techniques, the knowledge of Tesco UK has been transferred to Tesco Korea. This research accordingly suggests that retailer brand market share is apparently related to how sophisticated or advanced the knowledge of the retailer brand development and handling process of retailers are. It is also demonstrated by this research that advanced development and handling skills make a considerable contribution to increasing retailer brand share in markets with a lower share or no presence of retailer brands.
This paper aims at examining the regional difference of changes in the business organization of retailing in the Seoul metropolitan areas, as an attempt to understand regional structure of retailing within metropolitan areas showing the trend of suburbanization. On the national level, retail sales have concentrated on the large metropolitan areas, especially on the Seoul metropolitan area, with the concentration of population and income. Within metropolitan areas, the suburbanization of retailing has made the larger structure of retail and multi-store retail appeared. In order to confirm such phenomenon, this paper is to analyze and to compare the industrial composition of retailing using industry data of 1979 and 1991. And this paper is to analyze the regional changes in the characteristics of business organization of retailing, with the index including the percentages of establishments with less than under four employees, juridical establishments, employees of ordinary times, and the annual sales per establishment of detailing. The characteristics of business organization of retailing in analyzed by principal components analysis, and the types with component in each district (city, county, ward) is analyzed by cluster analysis(Ward method). The data of 1979 were obtained from the statistics in the Census of Wholesale and Retail Trade published by the National Bureau of Statistics of Economic Planning Board, and that of 1991 were obtained from the statistics in the Report on Establishment Census (Vol.3 Wholesale and Retail Trade) published by the National Statistics Office. The following are resultant findings. 1. In Seoul metropolitan area, changes in the industrial composition of retailing with annual sales from, 1979 to 1991 show very higher composition rates of 'general merchandise stores' and 'retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations', but comparatively lower composition rates of 'retailing of food, beverages and tobacco', 'retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessaries', 'general retail trade, n.e.c.',and 'retailing of household fuel'. 2. The characteristics of business organization of retailing in Seoul metropolitan area presents the prevailence of small, personal business organization and especially larger employees of ordinary times. 3. Business components of retailing by principal components analysis in Seoul metropolitan area are follows: 1 All retaining industries are larger business scale. 2. Larger business take the 'retailing of taxtiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessories', 'retailing of furniture, home furnishing and equipment', and 'retailing of jewellery and watches' is main characteristic legal organization and employees of ordinary times. 4. Types changes in business organization of retailing in Seoul metropolitan area represent legal organization and employees of ordinary times taking the 'retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessories', 'retailing of furniture, home furnishing and equipment',and 'retailing of jewellery and equipment', and 'retailing of jewellery and watches', and legal organization taking 'general retail trade, n.e.c.' in 1979. All retailing industries are changed into larger business scale, in 1991. These phenomena of business changes appeared southeastern regions in Kyunggi-do(province). And larger business scale taking the 'retailing of textiles, clothing, footwear and apparel accessories', 'retailing of jewellery and watches', and 'general retail trade, n.e.c.; are appeared in the legal organization in 1979. 'Retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations' are appeared in employees of ordinary times in 1991. These phenomena of business changes in appeared in eastern and northern regions in Kyunggi-do. 5. Changes in the business organization of retailing in Seoul metropolitan area is appeared in legal organization and employees of ordinary times for some industries in 1979, larger business scale of retailing and employees of ordinary times in 'retailing of personal transport equipment and gasoline service stations' are the characteristics in 1991.
In retailing, it is very important to examine how consumers perceive and react to in-store design factors such as in-store space for walking, product arrangement styles, display types, and window sizes. Furthermore, consumers' perceptions to the various designs would be differentiated by consumers' shopping patterns such as actual shopping versus window shopping. This article investigates how various designs create different consumer reactions measured by consumer mood and store image depending on the types of consumer shopping (i.e. actual shopping vs. window shopping). It was found that design factors such as open, focused, and big created better consumer mood and consumer perception of store image than closed, unfocused, and small. Another finding is that consumer perceptions interact with consumer shopping patterns. Based on the research findings, managerial implications are also discussed
Traditional department stores have been struggling to attract customers for several years. Many retail stores have closed in recent years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The reinvention of in-store shopping value and experience is imperative to attract customers and reinvigorate retail business. The purpose of this study was to discover which in-store components can improve customer experiences and loyalty while also identifying dissatisfaction issues in consumer experiences in department stores. The data was collected from two consumer groups-luxury department store (Selfridges) customers and mid-market department store (Debenhams) customers-to identify the types of value and experiences they seek most often. The findings showed that to enhance their store patronage, Debenhams should reposition their brand image in a way that allows customers to connect with their self-image and lifestyle by improving efficiency and convenience and prioritizing the utilitarian and social value types. By contrast, Selfridges should enhancetheir store atmosphere, visual merchandising and sensory experiences by maximizing slow retailing experiences and emphasizing the aspirational self-concept image for symbolic and hedonic value. This research uncovered the existence of numerous overlappingvalue dimensions, each of which contributed to the enhancement of the others. Several young customers expressed their support for ecologically responsible, cost-effective second-hand luxury products. Instead of focusing merely on conventional value dimensions, department retailers should determine how environmental and ethical objectives can be fulfilled. This study explained how department stores can craft their in-store environments to appeal to their customers' preferred value types to ensure success in a competitive market.
This study empirically examines the impact of SSM market entry on changes in market shares among retailing types. The data is monthly time-series data spanning over the period from January 2000 to December 2010, and the effect of SSM market entry on market shares of retailing types is analyzed by utilizing several key factors such as the number of new SSM monthly entrants, total number of SSMs, the proportion of new SSM entrant that is smaller than