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This study examined the role of service convenience in the formation of perceived value and store loyalty in two different retail formats in China. Building on the hedonic-utilitarian theory, a mall-intercept study of shoppers (n = 400) in full-service department stores (i.e., hedonic setting) and self-service supermarkets (i.e., utilitarian setting) was conducted. The study tested the impact of the five service convenience dimensions on outcome variables such as perceived value and store loyalty. In department stores, perceived value was predicted by decision, transaction, and benefit convenience, but for supermarkets, decision, transaction, and post benefit convenience were significant. Decision and post benefit convenience were significant in predicting store loyalty in department stores, while decision and access convenience emerged as important contributors in supermarkets. The findings showed that shoppers seek different shopping experiences in each retail format. The paper presents the theoretical and managerial implications and concludes with various limitations of the study and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a field experiment, this paper examines how salespeople adjust their effort when coworker's ability changes, under different compensation contracts in a retailing context. When salespeople with heterogeneous sales abilities are assigned into teams, how do they adjust effort as the abilities of their coworkers change? We investigate this question using a field experiment that spans 29 retail booths and 116 salespeople at a major department store in China. Each booth compensates salespeople using either an individual-based commission (IB) or a revenue-sharing (RS) incentive and employs four salespeople, with two salespeople per shift. Our field experiment randomly assigns salespeople to work shifts, thus exogenously varying the ability of a salesperson's coworker. The results show that under the IB incentive, the lower-ability salesperson will strategically decrease effort as the ability of the coworker rises; correspondingly, the higher-ability salesperson reduces effort as the coworker's ability decreases. In contrast, under the RS incentive, the sales pattern suggests that the lower-ability (higher-ability) salesperson increases effort when the coworker's ability increases (decreases). These empirical results provide broad support to our theory that accounts for the effect of social preferences on salespeople's effort decisions. We also examine the revenue implications of team composition on firm performance under different sales incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and the consumer market in China. As a developing country, China (as well as underdeveloped countries) are associated with inefficient marketing and distribution of products. The traditional distribution system of China was known as a "fen pei" or allocation system. China's retail trade was also dominated by state owned stores which were supplemented on a limited scale by small private and individual retail operators. China's Ministry of Commerce managed and controlled distribution channels for all types of consumer products. The author notes that since China's department stores have enjoyed greater autonomy in matters of merchandising, more domestic and foreign funded factories are selling directly to them.

Accompanying the many changes in circumstances, China department stores are eager to find the right way to improve their competitiveness. Department stores belong to the service industry and with a retail format, they should reexamine total quality management content which embodies the specialty of the retailers’ mix offers. First, the article proposes that the goods quality and the service quality should be equally managed and controlled and well-aimed at creating the most customer value for the target customers. Second, the article is trying to draft the retailer total quality management model based on the customer value and to present the special management significance. Finally, the article provides advice about how to improve the competitiveness of China department stores based on a total quality management model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methylsiloxanes are synthetic molecules with versatile and extensive applications. Because of their volatile properties, they are easily released from manufactured products and contaminate indoor environments, causing high human exposure. However, available information on their presence in specific microenvironments, and on the related potential risks for human health, is limited. We conducted a survey of sixteen methylsiloxanes species, including three cyclic (D 4 –D 6) and thirteen linear (L 4 –L 16) chemicals, in indoor dust samples from twenty-eight stores representative of six store categories in Beijing, China. Total methylsiloxane concentrations in store dust were 176–54,825 ng/g, depending on the store, with a median of 2196 ng/g. Linear chemicals represented a median proportion of 90.8% of total methylsiloxanes. The measured methylsiloxane concentrations in this study were marginally higher than those reported previously for standard living and working environments. The highest linear and total methylsiloxane concentrations were measured in electronic stores, while the highest cyclic methylsiloxane concentrations were measured in department stores. The presence of methylsiloxanes in the store dust samples was attributed mainly to their release from chemical additives in marketed products. Estimated median total exposure doses under normal and worst-case exposure scenarios were 0.237 and 0.888 ng/kg bw/d, respectively. Further investigation is needed to characterize methylsiloxane distribution in other microenvironments and to evaluate the associated health risks. • Distribution of 16 siloxanes in indoor dust from typical stores were reported. • Our reported concentrations were marginally higher than those in homes and offices. • Linear siloxanes dominated in the indoor dust from the investigated stores. • Levels and compositions of siloxanes depended largely on their addition in products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese entrepreneurship in department store retailing differed from that seen in other emerging economies before 1940. Rather than the leading examples of the format being owned by advanced economy firms, in China a small group of Cantonese entrepreneurs established what became known as the ‘Big Four’ department stores in Shanghai. By 1940 the ‘Big Four’ department stores were among the most famous stores in China, and among the biggest businesses in China. None of these Chinese entrepreneurs had any prior experience in department store retailing. Rather this article explains how their success in department store retailing was dependent on a business model that enabled these Chinese entrepreneurs to act as informal investment bankers (or ‘shadow’ banks) for the thousands of overseas Chinese wanting to invest surplus savings in mainland China, so creating large indigenous business groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The village as trope represents “tradition” in contrast to “modernity,” periphery in contrast to core, and the past in contrast to the present. This paper explores Pai Tau Village, a settlement in the Shatin District of Hong Kong. While it is recognized by local heritage organizations as an ancestral village, Pai Tau is neither distant nor separate from emblems of Hong Kong as a major cosmopolitan city, but rather is located at the edge of a large mega-mall – a center of commerce, consumerism, fashion, and business. This article suggests that the relationship between modernity and tradition is not necessarily oppositional, but symbiotic. Via an exploration of this duality, it also addresses globalization and transnationalism via consumer exchanges among Japan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, and addresses contemporary contradictions in anthropological fieldwork and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to expand the scant literature related to retail branding ideology and the application of mythotypes to flagship stores within the Chinese setting. The study explores the transplantation of a retail brand ideology in the form of complex home-country cultural content to a host culture whose local retail narratives differ significantly from those of the brand enterprise. Design/methodology/approach – This is an ethnographic study that spans the two years of the focal store's existence. With the help of native-speaking graduate assistants, store visits, interviews with Chinese locals and internet mentions and secondary information were collected. Data include fieldnotes, interview transcripts, photographs, news articles, blog comments and website information. Findings – The paper details the mythotypic mistuning of marketscape and mindscape that contributed to the failure of this flagship store and build theory concerning the implementation of retail brand ideology and retail theatrics. The paper concludes that successful themed flagship brand stores encapsulate ideology in stories composed of mythotypes and encourages the enactment of that ideology through multiple, interrelated brand experiences. Misalignments of these mythotypes can impede the acceptance of retail brand ideology and the diffusion of the retail theatre concept. Originality/value – While foreign and domestic flagship brand stores have flourished in China, cultural propriety of these stores includes a host of physical design cues that must mesh with the local culture's sensibilities and the brand's provenance. To translate the retail brand ideology into customer-centric meaning is challenging. The presence or absence of mythotypes comprising the servicescape profoundly affect their success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the arrival of the low-carbon economy, numerous enterprises have realized the significance of a transformation to the low-carbon operation. With regard to department store in China, which is closely related to our daily life, seems not up to the expectations. Through in-depth interview, field survey and low-carbon questionnaire survey, this paper has induced common problems existing in department stores and puts forward a path to realize their low-carbon operations in order to provide some references for the transformation of service industry in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This is the only English language summary report on the major and rapid developments that have taken place in China's book publishing industry during 2010. The key companies and individuals who have been the change agents are presented in context of the developments in traditional and digital book publishing. The transition to capital investment and shares sold in the major Chinese stock markets is described including specific examples of this completely new business practice. The further dramatic growth of the mobile phone market with related information delivery for publishers is presented with financial data for the past, present and future trends for the installed base. The new roles of the General Administration for Press and Publications (GAPP) is described in relation to the reorganization of smaller publishing companies into groups with outside capital investments. Also, the role of GAPP in relation to the new requirements of copyright for digital and electronic publishing is covered. Very interesting is the emergence of three major players in e-commerce selling both consumer products and books as a form of online department stores. Finally, the emergence of Chinese language publishing as a regional language including the mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan is a welcome new development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the retail industry in Shanghai, China, particularly the Shanghai Department Store and the strategies that it implemented to increase its sales output. It is thought that the strategies employed by this store impacted consumer culture. In order to attract consumers, retail stores lowered the prices of their goods but then made to make up the decrease in profits by offering a more frequent change in the goods that they offered to shoppers in order to appeal to a wider audience.

This article analyzes the Chinese retailing industry since 1981. Three phases of development are identified. Phase I (1981-1990) was dominated by state-owned retailers and the system of planned economy was the key force driving the dynamics of the sector. Phase II (1991-2000) witnessed diversification in terms of ownership structure and format of operation. Market mechanism gained the central position in attracting investments from various sources and opening chain stores was the most popular practice in business expansion. Phase III (2001- 2005) featured the profound momentum for globalization. As domestic and international players became more active and aggressive, retailing in China experienced more concentration, with merger and acquisition applied as the primary means of expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late nineteenth century, while China was being subjected to various forms of Western imperial expansion, luxury Chinese items such as embroidered robes and carved wood furniture were widely available to British shoppers through the Oriental section of department stores. This article explores how such Chinese things were sold in London department stores between 1890 and 1940, in a survey of the catalogues of Liberty, Whiteley's and Debenhain and Freebody. In a re-examination of the way in which theories of Orientalism have been applied to department store histories, the specific city of Sino-British relations during the early twentieth century, and the socially exclusive nature of some of the Chinese goods being marketed, reveals the multivalent role of Chinese products in the generation of a range of British identities. The femininity of the department store context is mapped against notions of the Orient, and notions of 'good' and 'bad' design, where London's West End shopping space was also imperial space. In particular, the notion of a colonial nostalgia for 'old China' becomes especially relevant in the articulation of a dynamic set of British class identities, constructed through the ownership of culturally elite Chinese products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more retailers in Mainland China are trying to differentiate their services through quality improvement. In this paper, we report upon the application of SERVQUAL in service quality improvement at a department store in Tianjin, a city in Northern China. We shall also assess the reliability and validity of the SERVQUAL instrument using data collected from this department store. The improvement effort included comparisons of service quality as perceived by both external customers and internal employees, identification of areas for improvements through focus group discussion of the survey results, and development of a plan for improvements. Statistical analyses of the survey response from this company were also performed to test the validity of the SERVQUAL instrument and the applicability of the five dimensions of service quality in the Chinese retail industry. The results indicate that the gap scores did not merge into five dimensions of service quality; rather, the perception scores roughly merged into six dimensions. The findings from this study indicate that the SERVQUAL instrument and the five dimensions of service quality may not be applicable to the retail sector of Mainland China and further research is necessary to understand service quality in Mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that, by the early 1990s, an estimated half of all non-restaurant food sales in Hong Kong went through supermarkets. Local independents and small local chains cater to the lower end of the market. Two large local chains focus on Hong Kong's broad middle class and control over half of packaged food sales. Some Japanese supermarkets also target the local Chinese middle class. They define the two major local chains as their main competition, and make little attempt to maintain their Japanese identities. Other Japanese supermarkets are niche marketers. They maintain their Japanese identities more strongly, and give more weight to Japanese products. These stores are located in major shopping districts rather than in the main residential districts. They target expatriates, who may account for 30 to 40 per cent of customers. Finally, one Japanese store has positioned itself as the top quality supplier for the upper end of the market, and presents an international, not Japanese, image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a study of a market now largely dominated by international retailers; the empirical results evaluate the positioning of Japanese department stores in Hong Kong, vis-a-vis that of a British store chain. The Hong Kong department store market presents a valuable case study of internationalization, with most participants well pleased with the results achieved. The British chain Marks & Spencer has also successfully repositioned to that market, helped by the established acceptance of its St Michael merchandise. It tends to be regarded as operating department stores, rather than "variety" stores, and has even been classified as such. Accordingly, the range appears rather narrow compared with the ranges of the Japanese stores but Marks & Spencer has become successfully positioned as a high quality, well organized and reliable store, albeit fairly expensive and more conservative than the Japanese stores. The particular success of the Japanese store has been in attracting younger shoppers with a strong fashion image. There is clearly no need for playing down Japanese origins within this market, as Japan appears to symbolize high technology, affluence, modernity and efficiency.

China's biggest department store chain, Hualian, is now an approved centre for the Chinese version of the new International Vocational Qualification in retailing. The store has joined seven Chinese universities as an approved City and Guilds delegated authority and, following a piloting programme, it is hoped that provision will be extended to other stores throughout the country. The retail sector has boomed and downtown Beijing is looking more and more like London or Milan, with stores offering a range of international designer goods. The number of incoming tourists is also increasing significantly and retail assistants need the knowledge and skills to deal with both the changing products and the differing expectations of customers.