British multiple retailing during the Golden Age, 1976-1994: a quantitative approach

"This paper examines the growth of multiple retailing during the ‘golden age’ in Britain: growth which transformed the high street and transformed the structure of retailing. Explanations for the rapid rise in importance of multiple retailers and their consequent impact on retail hierarchies and processes have been the focus of a significant amount of academic study, particularly within the disciplines of management and human geography. Yet surprisingly little quantitative analysis based upon analytical techniques has been published on these important changes. More specifically, no regression based quantitative studies have been undertaken to examine the determinants of growth among large-scale retailers in what has been described as ‘the golden age’ of British retailing. The academic literature to date has concentrated on geographies of store distribution, strategies of individual firms, and the impact upon competition of these structural changes within the industry. Through the use of quantitative data this study aims to shed light, for the first time, on the determinants of growth in large-scale multiple retailing during this golden age. The growth of real turnover is examined with respect to the growth in large-scale multiple retailing from 1976 until 1994. The paper examines for the first time the determinants of this growth against a variety of supply and demand variables. It finds that the importance currently attached to capital investment in previous studies of the golden age is not justified by the data."