Global and Entrepreneurial Perspectives for Enhancing Retailing Education: Development of a Hybrid Graduate Course Focused on U.S. and Indian Small Businesses.

This paper provides an approach, based on global and entrepreneurial perspectives, to enhance retailing education. The approach was operationalized through a hybrid graduate course, co-taught by U.S. and Indian faculty members, which focused on engaging Bloom\u27s higher order cognitive skills in learning about the operation of small retail businesses in U.S. and Indian cultural contexts. The courseincluded interactive learning modules, learning activities, and a student service-learning project. The project required the application of module content in the development of business enhancement plans for small retail businesses and in assessing the plans applicability to small businesses in an Indian contex

Drivers and technology-related obstacles in moving to multichannel retailing

Today, multichannel retailing is a key strategic issue for most retailers. Yet, while there are many drivers associated with retailers going multichannel so too are there technology-related obstacles, however, few prior empirical studies explore these themes. In light of this, by using a multi-case approach to understand the key drivers and technology-related obstacles associated with retailers moving to multichannel retailing our study makes two key contributions. First, we extend prior theory by providing novel empirical insights into the main drivers underpinning retailers using a multichannel strategy. We find that meeting customer needs and increasing sales were the primary drivers behind retailers using the strategy, although there is diversity in the way retailers respond to these motives. Second, we provide empirical support for a proposed theoretical framework which summarises the key technology-related obstacles retailers encounter when going multichannel, by stage of implementation. The framework reveals that retailers face technology-related obstacles when implementing a multichannel strategy due to the need to switch/acquire resources and achieve channel integration. Furthermore, the framework highlights that these resource and channel integration issues are often interrelated with each other and with other staff engagement and cultural issues, vary by retailer and stage of implementation, and pose greater obstacles to retailers using new and multiple channels than the extant literature suggests

Sustainable Value Generation Through Post-retail Initiatives : An Exploratory Study of Slow and Fast Fashion Businesses

The dialogue between slow and fast fashion has gained great prominence in recent years particularly in terms of sustainability. In the forward value chain, fast fashion companies are most often considered to be unsustainable whereas the slow fashion brands are comparatively more planet-friendly. However, the discussionon the trade-off between sustainability and “speed of fashion” (classified into slow and fast fashions) in the post-retail segment is still limited. A deeper understanding, however, would not only contribute towards conceptualizing the post-retail initiatives, but would also shed light on how these are differentially undertaken by various types of fashion businesses in terms of generating sustainable value. This study proposes sustainable value generation in terms of closing the material and responsibility loops. It further reveals that the trade-off in post-retail is not as rigid as itis in the forward value chain. However, fast fashion offers the lowest potential todisplace the purchase of new clothes to close the material loop whereas the redesign brands offer the highest; moreover fast fashion is less liable to take extended responsibilities compared to the slow fashion brands. It can be concluded that fast fashion is somewhat “stuck in the middle” in comparison to the slow and redesign brands in terms of generating value through closing the loop activities

Fast fashion, fashion brands & sustainable consumption

The phenomenon of fast fashion chains is due to the way this business model manages its production chain and supplies. Combining the quick response to the agile, lean retailing and leagile processes, it is possible to deliver products to retail outlets in a few weeks, in response to growing consumer demand for new goods. The excessive consumption of fast fashion is also due to social media involves issues such as sustainability in fashion consumption and work practices within companies and their suppliers. On the other hand, the awareness of the concern with the consequences of this consumption gives rise to new ways of consuming and producing fashion causing less impact both environmental and social