OXIRM undertakes a range of both commissioned and public domain research with direct relevance to practitioners but which is nevertheless grounded within rigorous academic thought. The Institute's members publish widely and our most significant academic publications can be found on members' profle pages.
The main themes of OXIRM's research relate primarily to:
- Innovation and Entrepereneurship in Retailing
- Planning, Location and Development for Retailing
- Analysis of International Retail Performance
- Retailing, Marketing and Technology
- Retail Supply Chain Management; and
- Retail Marketing and the Changing Consumer.
The Institute is selective in the projects for which it bids; choosing projects with the most significant potential for improving retail knowledge and policy formulation. Our track record in producing influential conceptual, policy-relevant as well as empirical research over this period is well-established. A sample of these achievements is listed below.
- Our work on the Effects of Major Out of Town Retail Development sponsored by the then UK Department of the Environment in 1992 provided a formative input into the last fifteen years of UK planning policy guidance for retailing, and members of the Institute are regularly consulted concerning public policy development in various countries. The Institute’s first ESRC grant in 1985 funded an investigation of the economic impact of regional out of town shopping centres, which marked the start of an extensive series of projects in understanding the impact of new forms of retail development. In 2007, most recently, we undertook a strategic examination of the future for retailing in central London on behalf of the Greater London Authority and Transport for London, building upon this experience.
- Our examination of trends in ‘teleshopping’ in the late 1980s and early 1990s, funded by Coopers & Lybrand and the establishment of a ‘practitioner consortium’ (which included Tesco and Argos), predated contemporary concern over e-commerce by some ten years. Indeed, OXIRM’s founding director was carrying out world wide research advising Tesco on the desirable characteristics of an e-commerce service as early as 1980, before the inception of the Institute.
- Our rolling programme of research with KPMG on understanding the role of loyalty cards, private label products and electronic media led to a series of thought-leadership publications that helped to lead both external thinking and internal practice within the company. This flexible research programme ensured that resource was available for focusing on the issues of the day as they developed without the need for costly project set up time and delay. Furthermore, much of the work was global in scope and so the OXIRM network of trusted research partners was used extensively, in North America, Australasia and Asia.
- Our work on retail productivity for the Department of Trade & Industry’s Retail Strategy Group in 2003-04 challenged preconceptions about the nature of, and reasons, for apparent productivity gaps between retailing in the UK, the US and France. This work has been extended at the request of governments and commentators in France and Spain and we are active members in the ESRC/CNRS seminar programme in productivity and globalisation.
- Our research on scenarios for retail growth and development formed part of the DTI’s work on technology foresight during the late 1990s and again in 2005. Similarly, our work for NESTA/BERR on innovation in retailing in 2007-08 as part of the Government’s Innovation in Services initiative sought new conceptualisations, measurement approaches and analyses of the nature of innovation within the sector. In addition, we completed a study for the British Council of Shopping Centres on the Future of Retail Business Formats.
- Working with Amdocs on the Intentional Customer Experience programme enabled the company to clarify their thinking and so develop new systems that aim to significantly alter the shape of the mobile telecommunications market in the years ahead, moving from an engineering focused, supply industry to a consumer focused, retail sector.
- Our research for the European retail association CIES in 2004 demonstrated the economic, social and political impact that the industry has across Europe and addressed issues of image and reputation.
- OXIRM is the retail sector and UK academic partner in a €3mn collaborative European Commission project under the 6th Framework, BestLog, which seeks to disseminate retail logistics best practice throughout Europe.
The Institute is experienced and has been successful in raising research funding from a wide range of organisations in both the public sector (e.g. NESTA, the GLA, BERR, Transport for London, DCLG, European Commission) as well as the private sector (e.g. Tesco, Mars, ACNielsen, Alliance Boots, IBM, KPMG, Amdocs, International Group of Department Stores, Telewest). The Institute has also collaborated as a partner in both national and international projects with academic, private sector and consulting organisations (such as the Norwegian School of Management (BI), Universita di Parma, Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners, the British Council of Shopping Centres, London Economics and CIES – the food industry forum). For example, we worked successfully with the British Council of Shopping Centres in 2007 as one partner in the Future of Retail Property project – the largest collaborative project on the subject ever commissioned by an organization of this kind.