The Oxford Institute of Retail Management, based at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, combines industry knowledge with analytical rigour and objectivity. Established in 1985, the Institute has worked for 25 years to relate sound scholarship to the practical needs of retailers, service companies and public sector agencies. Members of the Institute run executive education programmes, carry out research with direct relevance to practitioners, and contribute to building a world-wide network of experts in retailing. The Institute's teaching and research is undertaken at national, European and global scales.
OXIRM's blog contains our reactions to and analysis of retail events, news of our research findings and extracts from the Retail Digest. Read it here and add your own comments.
Research Activities
OXIRM undertakes both commissioned and public domain research with direct relevance to practitioners but which nevertheless draws upon rigorous academic thinking. The main themes of OXIRM's research relate to those external influences affecting the retail industry:
- Analysis of international retail performance
- Retailing, marketing and technology
- Planning, location and development for retailing
- Supply chain management
- Retail marketing and the changing consumer
- Retail innovation and entrepreneurship
The Institute's research sponsors have included: the Nielsen Company, the British Council of Shopping Centres, the British Shops & Stores Association, CIES, ESRC, UK Department of Business,Enetrprise and Regulatory Reform, IBM, KPMG, National Retail Planning Forum, NESTA, the Norwegian School of Management, SOK, and Transport for London.
Publications and Information Resources
A report and publication plans for the Proceedings of the Institute's 5th Asia Pacific Retail Conference in Hong Kong can be found here. The Proceedings from the 4th Conference in Thailand are now available for download here. (Please note this is a 3MB PDF file.) OXIRM also produces a variety of other publications including the The Retail Digest, its flagship journal on retailing now celebrating its fourteenth year, together with occasional Oxford Reports on Retailing, distilling the results of its research projects in the public domain. Recent books published by the Institute’s members include Retail Strategy: the View from the Bridge and E-Business: a Management Perspective.