IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v29y1997i3p405-417.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market Change, Distribution, and New Firm Formation and Growth: The Case of Real-Ale Breweries in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • C M Mason
  • K N McNally

Abstract

Many of the most influential accounts of the growth in the numbers of new businesses being started and the general increase in the economic significance of the small-business sector draw upon flexible specialisation theory, which explains such trends in terms of the breakup of the mass market for standardised goods and services and the consequent emergence of a variety of smaller niche markets capable of exploitation by new or small businesses. In this paper our purpose is to suggest that the opportunities for new firm formation and growth arising from such changes may be more circumscribed than have hitherto been acknowledged. Drawing upon evidence from the UK brewing industry, which has seen the creation of many hundreds of new breweries during the past twenty years, we highlight the role of distribution channels as a significant barrier to the growth of the small-business sector. Changes to the regulatory environment (the Beer Orders) in an attempt by government to improve the competitiveness of the UK brewing industry have, paradoxically, had the opposite effect to that intended, and so have failed to increase market opportunities for microbrewers. Future research must give greater attention to the role of distribution in order to achieve a better understanding of the changing structure and spatial organisation of production.

Suggested Citation

  • C M Mason & K N McNally, 1997. "Market Change, Distribution, and New Firm Formation and Growth: The Case of Real-Ale Breweries in the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(3), pages 405-417, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:29:y:1997:i:3:p:405-417
    DOI: 10.1068/a290405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a290405
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a290405?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N Wrigley, 1992. "Antitrust Regulation and the Restructuring of Grocery Retailing in Britain and the USA," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 24(5), pages 727-749, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alan Hallsworth & David Evers, 2002. "The Steady Advance of Wal-Mart across Europe and Changing Government Attitudes towards Planning and Competition," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 20(2), pages 297-309, April.
    2. R Shackleton, 1998. "Exploring Corporate Culture and Strategy: Sainsbury at Home and Abroad during the Early to Mid 1990s," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(5), pages 921-940, May.
    3. Alex Hughes, 1997. "The changing organization of new product development for retailers' private labels: A UK-US comparison," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 169-184.
    4. David T. Merrett, 2020. "The Making of Australia's Supermarket Duopoly, 1958–2000," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 301-321, November.
    5. Alex M. Mutebi, 2007. "Regulatory Responses to Large-format Transnational Retail in South-east Asian Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(2), pages 357-379, February.
    6. A Hughes, 1996. "Retail Restructuring and the Strategic Significance of Food Retailers' Own-Labels: A UK—USA Comparison," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 28(12), pages 2201-2226, December.
    7. L Sparks, 1996. "Challenge and Change: Shoprite and the Restructuring of Grocery Retailing in Scotland," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 28(2), pages 261-284, February.
    8. N Wrigley & A Leyshon, 1993. "Commentaries," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 25(11), pages 1545-1557, November.
    9. Leigh Sparks, 1997. "From Coca-colonization to copy-Cotting: The Cott corporation and retailer brand soft drinks in the UK and the US," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 153-167.
    10. I L Head & V A Lawson & N Komninos & L G Smith & M Reed & G R McBoyle & A Blowers & R Gascoigne & A G Phipps & S J Smith & A Kellerman, 1994. "Reviews: North, South and the Environmental Crisis, Viva: Women and Popular Protest in Latin America, Technology in the Gardens: Research Parks and Regional Economic Development, Achieving Environment," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 26(1), pages 153-166, January.
    11. A Hughes, 1999. "Constructing Competitive Spaces: On the Corporate Practice of British Retailer—Supplier Relationships," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(5), pages 819-839, May.
    12. Nebahat Tokatli & Yonca Boyaci Eldener, 2002. "Globalization and the Changing Political Economy of Distribution Channels in Turkey," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(2), pages 217-238, February.
    13. Gareth Shaw & Andrew Alexander & John Benson & Deborah Hodson, 2000. "The Evolving Culture of Retailer Regulation and the Failure of the ‘Balfour Bill’ in Interwar Britain," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(11), pages 1977-1989, November.
    14. Steve Wood, 2001. "Regulatory Constrained Portfolio Restructuring: The US Department Store Industry in the 1990s," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(7), pages 1279-1304, July.
    15. Brett Christophers, 2014. "Competition, Law, and the Power of (Imagined) Geography: Market Definition and the Emergence of Too-Big-to-Fail Banking in the United States," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(4), pages 429-450, October.
    16. Venturini, Luciano, 1998. "Countervailing Power And Antitrust Policy In The Food System," Conference Papers 14489, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
    17. N Wrigley, 1997. "Foreign Retail Capital on the Battlefields of Connecticut: Competition Regulation at the Local Scale and its Implications," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(7), pages 1141-1152, July.
    18. Alex Hughes, 2005. "Corporate Strategy and the Management of Ethical Trade: The Case of the UK Food and Clothing Retailers," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(7), pages 1145-1163, July.
    19. Nicky Gregson & Louise Crewe & Kate Brooks, 2002. "Discourse, Displacement, and Retail Practice: Some Pointers from the Charity Retail Project," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(9), pages 1661-1683, September.
    20. Neil M Coe, 2004. "The Internationalisation/Globalisation of Retailing: Towards an Economic – Geographical Research Agenda," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(9), pages 1571-1594, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:29:y:1997:i:3:p:405-417. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.