BALTIC JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT

The Retail Sector: Technology, Competitiveness, and Consumer Insights

Guest editors

• Dr. Brent McKenzie, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada (bmckenzi@uoguelph.ca)
• Prof. Steve Burt, University of Stirling, Stirling, the UK (s.l.burt@stir.ac.uk)
• Dr. Igor Dukeov, Stockholm School of Economics Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia (Igor.Dukeov@sserussia.org)

About the special issue

The retail sector represents one of the most overt indicators of the change in the service sector over the past quarter century. It can be argued that the retail sector continues to aid in the economic, cultural, and social growth of many countries and regions. Although prior publications have examined different aspects of retail trade, the focus has been within the larger context of services marketing. It is suggested that a specific focus on retailing theories and practices will highlight and better explain the challenges being faced in this highly competitive sector. The importance of the retail sector to both the Baltic region and beyond continues to be strong. From the entrance of new players into non-traditional retail sectors, to the dominance of global retail brands such as Walmart and Amazon, to the ever changing, and increasing demanding retail shoppers, requires innovative insights and strategies to both predict and measure retail success.

We are looking for the following submissions

Manuscripts therefore should focus on management and operational themes relative to the following:

• The historic and future role of technology in the retail sector – both in-store as well as back-end divisions such as supply chain and logistics
• The evolving retail shopper and how to both attract and retain target consumers – an examination of how key constructs such as service quality and customer loyalty and how their related strategy formulation has occurred over time
• Insights into the ability of both retail firms, and retail suppliers, to develop operational and management strategies to compete domestically, internationally, and in the digital world
• The role of retailer and stakeholder relations. How retailers can best work with and encourage key governance issues as they pertain to the retail sector – an emphasis on local and regional constraints and opportunities
• Cutting Edge Retail Education – the challenges and opportunities of teaching retail operational and management skills and the promotion of retail careers
• Boomers, Generation X, Y and Millennials – how can retailers adapt and attract to these changing demographics
• The future of the retail sector – what will be the major management issues for retail firms moving into the 2020’s.
• Both conceptual and research papers will be considered for publication.

Submission deadlines

• To be considered for publication in the special issue full manuscripts should be submitted by May 1, 2017
• We recommend that authors send an abstract to the editors prior to submission to ensure the relevance and receive preliminary feedback in good time before the submission deadline.
• Anticipated publication date of the special issue is 2018

Manuscript submissions

• Authors should submit their manuscripts through BJM’s ScholarOne portal
• Please select the correct special issue from the dropdown menu when submitting your manuscript
• Each paper will bereviewed by the guest editors and, if found suitable, will be sent to at least two independent referees for double-blind peer review

Manuscript preparation

• Manuscripts should be prepared following the journal’s author guidelines
• For any queries please email Editorial Office at bjm@ism.lt. For any further issues, please contact the Corresponding Guest Editor Dr. Brent McKenzie at bmckenzi@uoguelph.ca

 

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