Revisiting the Big Middle: An fsQCA Approach to Unpack a Large Value Market from a Product Specialist Retailer's Perspective
Revisiting the Big Middle: An fsQCA Approach to Unpack a Large Value Market from a Product Specialist Retailer's Perspective
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重新审视大中型：从产品专业零售商的角度分析大价值市场的 fsQCA 方法
DOI：
10.1108/ijrdm-10-2021-0496
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发表时间：
2022
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
東 伸一・横山 斉理・金雲鎬
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Makoto Morisada;Yukihiro Miwa;Wirawan Dony Dahana;東 伸一・横山 斉理・金雲鎬
目的近一个世纪以来，识别零售制度变迁的模式引起了零售学者的兴趣。大中型假设是类似理论的最新混合版本之一。报告称，寻求零售业主导地位的零售商可以通过专注于产品种类广泛的大市场，或专注于特定产品类别并同时满足多个细分市场的需求，进入最大的细分市场“Big Middle”。本研究通过对日本服装专业零售巨头优衣库的案例采用模糊集定性比较分析（fsQCA），为后一个命题提供了实证证据。设计/方法/途径作者设计了一项调查来评估（1）消费者对优衣库商店属性的看法和（2）他们对优衣库与潜在竞争对手之间的感知距离。作者使用 fsQCA 程序来识别导致不同细分市场的消费者对优衣库进行高水平惠顾的多重因果条件汇合。 研究结果表明，优衣库在大中型市场的主导地位不仅源于占领了相当大的同质市场，还源于聚合了多个具有不同类型差异的异质细分市场。这一发现解释了专卖店零售商如何实现其大中型地位。研究局限性/影响从 fsQCA 收集的发现在统计上不具有普遍性。因此，有必要确保在不同的时空设置下是否观察到类似的现象。就研究范围而言，本研究的发现仅与大中型假设的一部分相关。未来的研究需要涵盖大中型的其他维度，包括综合零售商的大中型案例。 实际意义本研究的结果可能会提供一个有价值的工具，以加深零售商对以下方面的理解： (1) 顾客光顾其零售产品的多重因果关系；(2) 其商店的纯粹粉丝是谁；(3) 在消费者心智空间中，其主要竞争对手是谁；(4) 以实现大中型为目标的整体市场地位。它将让零售经理深入了解如何设计、实施和搅动高效且有效的 RBM。 原创性/价值 该研究的原创性在于对大中型假说所预示的零售变革机制的一部分进行了实证审查和阐述。
PurposeIdentifying the patterns of retail institutional change has piqued the interest of retail academics for nearly a century. The Big Middle hypothesis is one of the most recent and hybridized versions of similar theories. According to it, retailers seeking a dominant position in retailing can migrate into the Big Middle, the largest market segment, by specializing in a large market with a broad product assortment or by focusing on a specific product category and simultaneously catering for multiple segments at the same time. This study provides empirical evidence for the latter proposition by employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on the case of UNIQLO, a Japanese clothing specialist retailing giant.Design/methodology/approachThe authors devised a survey to assess (1) consumers' perceptions of UNIQLO's store attributes and (2) their perceived distance between the UNIQLO and potential competitors. The authors used fsQCA procedures to identify multiple confluences of causal conditions that led to a high level of consumer patronage for UNIQLO from various market segments.FindingsThe findings show that UNIQLO's dominance in the Big Middle stems not only from capturing a sizable homogeneous market but from aggregating multiple heterogeneous market segments with disparities of various types. This finding explains how a specialty store retailer achieves its Big Middle position.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings gleaned from fsQCA are not statistically generalisable. It, therefore, is essential to ensure whether similar phenomena are observed under different spatiotemporal settings. Concerning the scope of the research, this study's finding is pertinent to only one part of the Big Middle hypothesis. Future studies are required to cover other dimensions of the Big Middle, including the generalist retailer's cases of the Big Middle.Practical implicationsThe results of this study may present a valuable tool to deepen retailers' understandings on; (1) the multiple causal recipes of customer patronages to their retail offerings, (2) who the pure fans of their stores are, (3) who their principal rivals are in the mind space of the consumers, and (4) their overall market position upon aiming to realise the Big Middle. It will give retail managers an insight into how to design, implement, and churn an efficient and effective RBM.Originality/valueThe study's originality is in empirically scrutinizing and elaborating a part of the mechanism of retail change heralded by the Big Middle hypothesis.