European Retail Research

The aim of EUROPEAN RETAIL RESEARCH is to publish interesting manuscripts of high quality and innovativeness with a focus on retail researchers, retail lecturers, retail students and retail executives. As it has always been, retail executives are part of the target group and the knowledge transfer between retail research and retail management remains a part of the publication?s concept.

The discussion about Multi-Channel-Systems in retail business might not be new - but it has gained momentum against the background of consolidations and mergers, the devel- ment of information and communication technologies (ICT) and experiences of disillusi- ment with pure e-commerce players (Dohmann et al. 2002; Barth et al. 2007). This is additionally evidenced by the increasing number of academic publications and the gain in importance of multi-channel distribution in retail-practice - where many pure e-players have augmented their structure of distribution with alternative channels (Tang/Xing 2001; Schögel et al. 2004). Despite the lively discussions on the part of academic researchers and the growth of experience in practice, there is still an unsatisfactorily low level of knowledge - which might be the reason why companies often fail in the realization or achieve only suboptimal levels of channel in- gration - even though the domination of multi-channel companies in the B2C e-commerce s- tor (with the exception of a few companies, e. g. eBay or Amazon) implies a great potential for success (Hudetz/Baal 2005; Emrich 2008). For this reason most authors seem to agree upon the potential as well as the relevance of multi-channel distributors. Hudetz/Baal identify mul- channel companies a good starting base to get even more dominant in the future (Hudetz/Baal 2005, p. 136). Emrich agrees that multi-channel strategies might become crucial to survive (Emrich 2008, p. 1), and Ahlert/Hesse (2003) substantiate with empirical studies the preference that customers have for multi-channel distributors.

Autorentext
Prof. Dr. Peter Schnedlitz, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Austria

Inhalt
Interactive Web 2.0 Applications in the Multi-Channel Marketing for Retailers.- How to Maintain a Process Perspective on Retail Internationalization: The IKEA Case.- Trade Credit Periods in Retail Commerce for Products of Mass Consumption: An Application to Spanish Legislation.- Customer Satisfaction with Loyalty Card Programs in the Austrian Clothing Retail Sector - an Empirical Study of Performance Attributes Using Kano's Theory.- Clustering Customer Contact Sequences - Results of a Customer Survey in Retailing.- The In-Store Antecedents and Consequences of Perceived Shopping Value for Regularly Purchased Products.- Strategic Differentiation in the Japanese Convenience Store Business. The Example of Lawson's Format Variation.- Retailing in the United Kingdom - a Synopsis.- The Danish Retail Market: Overview and Highlights.