published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Housing Management

The modern consumer expects a consumption experience with both hedonic and utilitarian rewards during a single visit to the mall. The orchestrating of both hedonic and utilitarian benefits in one visit challenges mall management and retailers to deliver the maximum shopping experience. This study seeks to reveal relationships among six variables: demographic characteristics, mall shopping orientation, mall perception, hedonic satisfaction, utilitarian satisfaction, and mall consumption. The intercept survey was conducted at a major entertainment-themed mall in north Texas. Multiple regression analyses (N = 202) indicate that demographic characteristics and mall shopping orientation were significant predictors of mall perception. Also, two mall perception factors (Sensation and Physical Environment) were predictors of hedonic and utilitarian mall shopping satisfaction. However, hedonic and utilitarian mall shopping satisfaction were found not to predict mall consumption in terms of cross-shopping, money spent, and time spent.

This research explores the current situation of the Sanitary Provision in medium to large shopping malls. It outlines the develop process on the Sanitary Provision Ratio in Hong Kong, the History, Development and the Current Situation. This research also studies how the relationships between sanitary provisions and the operation / performance of shopping malls. The research involves a review of relationship between the revenue or the customer satisfying rate and the sanitary provision. The researcher tries to make suggestions for sanitary provision in future shopping mall and compare the benefit with the falter reasons. The benefit is quantified to the revenue & customer service in particular shopping mall while comparing to the expense on offering a better sanitary provision facility. After the comparison, suggestions would be drawn on the form of sanitary provision in the future shopping mall in order to achieve a balance between Cost (extra installation on the sanitary provision) and Benefit (Good impression from the customer and Shopping Mall Revenue). / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Hong Kong is an international metropolis and “Shopping Paradise”. Therefore, shopping in Hong Kong becomes one of the popular and important customary activities for the people. To compete with the keen and rapid change of market competition and shoppers’ living style and prevent old and deteriorated mall image, it is important for mall owner and operator to upkeep mall’s competitiveness by refurbishment work and repositioning exercises. To examine the repositioning strategies of Shopping Mall in Hong Kong, case study of New Town Plaza would be the selected mall in this research for further evaluation. Face to face interviews were conducted with Shoppers and Tenants respectively regarding their perception of mall image and competiveness attributes, including mall image, shopping environment and accessibility attributes among selected shopping mall-New Town Plaza before and after refurbishment work. At last, it found that mall repositioning exercise had drawn a great influence on different stakeholders. Based on research result, it showed that interviewees generally recognized that brand image of tenants, mall’s image and competiveness were improved after mall refurbishment. Also, more high-ended shoppers were attracted to visit and shop in the mall. As comparing with before refurbishment work, Interviewees were visited more and stayed longer due to its freshness image and modern design. Although mall refurbishment work and repositioning exercise brings lots of positive feedbacks for different stakeholders and extend the product life of the mall, it does not represent such exercise appropriate for applying in all shopping mall. Therefore, mall owner or operator was reminded to take further consideration for planning such work and finally recommendations were suggested for them in considering the repositioning and refurbishment work in the future too. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Shopping centers is vital in our daily life. In this paper, the importance of provision of entertainments will be analyzed in details and this would be useful for owners or management companies of shopping malls if they are planning for renovations or implementing new shopping malls. Six research questions are analyzed in this paper through conducting surveys through questionnaires, and they will be categorized into two categories, which is to determine the impact of entertainments to the success of the shopping malls and to determine the impact of the various means of entertainments to the success of the shopping malls. Convenience sampling is adopted for the data collection of questionnaires and two sets of questionnaires will be distributed only to people who lives or works in Tsuen Wan and have ever visited all of the shopping malls used for case study, that is CityWalk, Tsuen Wan Plaza and Emperor Plaza. After performing the detailed data analysis, it is found out that most people think that provision of entertainments is an important factor that affects people’s decision to visit and shop in the shopping centers, but this factor is not as crucial as factors like location, variety of shops and provision of open spaces. Also, this factor is important to both the newly-built shopping centers and renovated old shopping centers. Also, it is found out that differences in age groups and genders may have variations in determining the importance of provision of entertainments in general for the individual’s shopping preference. Young people relatively regarded provision of entertainments as more important factor that affect people’s decision, when compared to older people. Male also regard provision of entertainments as more important than female. Differences in age groups and genders may also show different priorities for the importance of each means of entertainments in shopping centers. Hence, we have to know the target group of the customers and to invest suitable means of entertainments or otherwise, the shopping centers cannot sustain with a high profit. For example, since there are more old people than the young people in Tsuen Wan, it is not practicable to invest a large sum of money on provision of means of entertainments which cater for the young and male more, such as the video game counters. However, it is always recommended to include the means of entertainments like the cinemas, fitness and spa centers and toy shops as investments from the owners or the management companies of the shopping centers towards these means of entertainments is relatively small, when comparing to other means of entertainments. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

M. Tech. Business Administration / Malls posed some threat to traditional retailers, but many retailers defended successfully by using niche, differentiation and customer focus strategies to dodge and defend competition from the malls. These strategies were however, weakened by new forms of competition which emerged from new retailers who located their businesses in the residential area of Soshanguve. Most of these new retailers were from other African countries in origin mostly from Somalia. It was not clear how these new retailers managed to attract a significant size of the market. This study attempted to investigate the threat of emerging shopping malls established inside Soshanguve as competitors of the traditional retailers of the township, which are mostly small in size. The study further investigated the causes of failure of many such traditional retailers and the development of robust strategies they could adopt in order to offset this new competition.

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Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 9, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Located in Central America, Guatemala is the most populated country of the area with around 15 million inhabitants. The capital, Guatemala City has 923,000 inhabitants and is currently home for 55% of the country’s urban population. Guatemala City, with its 42% of territorial extension consisting of green, is considered a green capital. The city has a very characteristic geographical composition called ravines which creates the ecological and green belt of the city. Currently, there are efforts being made to create more projects relating to the green and public spaces of the city, but we still have a long way to go.  As many other cities in Latin America, Guatemala is facing a constant challenge regarding public spaces. The use of public space has been decreasing for years due to factors such as feeling of safety,  difficulty in accessibility, poor distribution of public spaces in the urban grid, and poor condition of the infrastructure. These challenges have shaped new social patterns. Nowadays, shopping malls have become the new public space. These spaces provide more than just shopping, they provide experiences. On the other hand, they also limit and control who can access them and when, under which conditions, and following a set of rules.  These challenges have made me question; Where do we meet equality? How can we provide proper urban public spaces that meet their function? How will shopping malls transform over time and how can we adapt these new social dynamics created by the shopping malls to the public space?  Throughout this project I attempt to challenge these questions with the idea of bringing people back to the streets so that they can engage with the city and the streets on an everyday basis. To achieve it I have proposed the following manifesto with 3 main statements: “- Equality manifested through the city’s urban structures which start on the streets.     Everyone can access them; in them we are all equal.  - Streets are places to be, to share, to experience. Spaces to live outdoors, to enable interaction.  - Shopping Malls are spaces of constant transformation that will progressively change its functions. “ The aim of the project is to explore in a challenging way how the relationship between shopping malls, green and public space can be addressed and interact in a process of transformation in Guatemala City.