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The purpose of this paper is to outline the origins and nature of the pop up retail phenomenon, examine the development and characteristics of pop up shops within the UK and offer some reflections on the impact of pop up shops within the UK’s town and city centres and on the role of pop up shops within the wider retail economy.

The paper begins with a brief review of the pop up retail phenomenon and this is followed by an examination of the development and characteristics of pop up shops in the UK. The information on which the paper is based is drawn from the corporate websites of pop up shop operators and property management companies and agencies.

The paper reveals that pop up shops have been developed in a variety of formats and locations within the UK and a number of factors driving pop up shop development are identified including high retail vacancy rates in shopping centres, relaxations in planning regulations, the opportunity for retailers and entrepreneurs to market test products and brands and changes in customer behaviour and consumer culture. Looking to the future pop up shops may make but a small physical contribution to increasing the number of retail units on the High Street but by enhancing the experiential environment for consumers, they may make an important contribution to the quality of shopping.

The paper provides an accessible review of the origins, development and possible impact of pop up shops within the UK and as such will interest property professionals, academics and students interested in changes in the retail environment.

The recent advent of betting exchanges, which allow customers to bet against each other, rather than against the bookmaker or betting shop chain, may herald a change in the nature of customer relationships within the sports betting market. This article outlines the size and current characteristics of the sports betting market, describes the emergence and operation of betting exchanges and discusses the possible impact that these exchanges may have on traditional sports betting transactions and markets.

Purpose built multi leisure complexes have become an increasingly common feature in the urban landscape in many parts of the UK. This paper describes the principal characteristics of these complexes and provides an outline of their rather catholic pattern of locational development in and out of town and on both greenfield and brownfield sites. The paper then goes on to explore a number of the planning issues – trade impact, accessibility and transport considerations, environmental concerns and urban regeneration – raised by proposals for the development of multi leisure complexes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on the sustainability reports published by the two market leaders in ocean cruising industry.

The paper begins with short reviews of the growing interest in the commitment to corporate sustainability and of the growth and market structure of the ocean cruising industry by way of setting the context for the commentary. This commentary is based on a review of the most recent sustainability reports published by the two leading ocean cruising companies which account for almost 75 per cent of total industry revenues.

The findings of the paper reveal that the two major ocean cruising companies, namely, Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, published extensive sustainability reports covering a wide range of environmental, social, economic and governance issues. The other leading ocean cruising companies posted limited information on their approach to sustainability on their corporate websites and some posted no information on sustainability. However, the authors suggest that given that the two major cruising companies account for 70 per cent of ocean cruising passengers, the industry compares favourably in its sustainability reporting with other players in the hospitality industry and the service sector. That said, the authors also suggest that approaches to sustainability within the cruising industry, which are based on continuing growth, present testing management challenges for the leading cruising companies.

The paper provides an accessible commentary on current approaches to sustainability in the ocean cruising industry, and as such, it will interest professionals working in the cruise industry and more generally in the hospitality industry as well as academics and students interested in hospitality management and sustainability.

The purpose of this commissioned paper is to offer some personal reflections on sustainability within the hospitality industry.

The paper opens by identifying sustainability as a teasing paradox for the hospitality industry and a short discussion of the characteristics of sustainability. It then explores the growing interest in corporate sustainability and offers a review of the range of academic research into sustainability within the hospitality industry literature. More generally, the authors suggest three fundamental sets of issues that currently face the industry, namely, defining sustainability within the industry, materiality and independent external assurance and sustainable consumption and the industry’s commitment to continuing economic growth.

In addressing these three sets of issues, the authors make a number of suggestions. First that definitions of sustainability within the hospitality industry can be interpreted as being constructed around business imperatives rather than an ongoing commitment to sustainability. Second that materiality and external assurance are not treated comprehensively within the industry, which undermines the credibility of the sustainability reporting process. Third that the concept of sustainable consumption and any critique of the industry’s commitment to economic growth are conspicuous by their absence in the both the research literature on sustainability and in sustainability reporting within the industry.

The paper suggests that the hospitality industry may need to examine how it defines sustainability, to extend its sustainability reporting to embrace materiality and external assurance and to address the issues of sustainable consumption and continuing economic growth if it is to demonstrate a worthwhile and enduring commitment to sustainability.

The paper provides some accessible personal reflections on sustainability within the hospitality industry and, as such, it will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners interested in the hospitality industry and more widely within the business and management community.

The purposes of this paper are to provide a preliminary examination of the extent to which Europe’s leading commercial property companies are embracing the concept of materiality and commissioning independent external assurance as part of their sustainability reporting processes and to offer some wider reflections on materiality and external assurance in sustainability reporting.

The paper begins with an introduction to corporate sustainability, an outline of the European property market and of the drivers for, and challenges to, sustainability for property companies and a review of the characteristics of materiality and external assurance. The information on which the paper is based is drawn from the leading European commercial property companies’ corporate websites.

The paper reveals that all of Europe’s leading property companies had either reported or provided information on sustainability but that only approximately half of these companies had embraced materiality or commissioned some form of independent external assurance as an integral part of their sustainability reporting processes. In many ways, this reduces the reliability and credibility of the leading property companies’ sustainability reports. Looking to the future, growing stakeholder pressure may force more of the leading European property companies to embrace materiality and commission external assurance as systematic and integral elements in the sustainability reporting process.

The paper provides an accessible review of the current status of materiality and external assurance among Europe’s leading commercial property companies’ sustainability reporting and as such it will interest professionals, practitioners, academics and students interested in the sustainability in the property industry.

Within the UK the past three decades have witnessed dramatic and continuing changes in the geography of retail provision. During this period the traditional supremacy of town and city centres at the top of the retail hierarchy has been increasingly successfully challenged by the development and diversification of out‐of‐town and edge of town shopping facilities. This ‘out of town exodus’ (Schiller, 1987) can be traced from the food superstores opened by grocery retailers from the late 1960's onwards through the development of retail warehouses, retail parks and regional shopping centres (Guy, 1994) to a more recent ‘fourth wave’ (Fernie, 1995) which include warehouse clubs, factory outlet centres and airport retailing. The cumulative effects of these developments are seen to pose a major challenge to retail businesses in town and city centres and perhaps more fundamentally to the centres themselves. The traditional spirit of the UK's town and country planning policies, first established some fifty years ago, was to positively support retail activity in town and city centres and to restrict out of town retail development (Guy, 1994). However, from the early 1980's onwards, such policies had only a limited effect in stemming the tide of retail decentralisation and they often seemed to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

Gambling is big business in the UK with an annual turnover of some £25 billion and for the past 40 years betting shops have been the most prominent and visible element within this market. This paper outlines the changes in the general locational pattern and the service environment of betting shops as a prelude to a description of the origins, characteristics and growth of sporting betting operations on the Internet. The paper then discusses some of the issues surrounding sporting betting on the Internet focusing particularly on the challenges it is seen to pose to traditional betting shop businesses.

Corporate social responsibility, sustainability and business ethics.

This case has been designed for undergraduate students, with two target audiences. The first is business and management students following modules in corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability and business ethics. Here the accent is on allowing the students to explore and debate how CSR agendas are emerging within a specific sector of the retail economy. The second is students pursuing fashion, clothing, textile, retailing and consumer studies degrees and here the focus is on how some of the leading fashion goods retailers are addressing CSR. More generally the case can also be used on “Contemporary Issues” modules within general business and management programmes.

This small case offers an exploratory review of the emerging CSR issues currently being publicly addressed by the world's leading fashion goods retailers. It includes a brief introduction to CSR; a brief thumbnail sketch of the fashion goods industry; details of the method of enquiry; a description of the CSR issues currently being publicly addressed by the top ten fashion good retailers on their corporate web sites; and some critical reflections on the CSR agendas being pursued by these retailers. The case study is novel in two ways. First, it focuses upon what is an emerging market issue rather than on emerging markets per se though a number of the issues raised in the case have major implications for emerging economies. Second, it addresses the CSR issues being addressed by a number of the leading fashion goods retailers and as such it a not a case which relates to individual decision making. While the case is principally focussed upon the retail sector it ranges across the whole of the supply chain.

The paper provides an accessible review of the CSR issues and agendas currently being pursued by the leading fashion goods retailers and as such it will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners who are interested in both the fashion industry and corporate sustainability.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian for access.

During the past decade research into retail regulation has become one of the key themes in the “new retail geography” but most of the work in this genre has been focussed on the retailing of goods and more particularly on food retailing. This paper is based in the retail services sector and provides a case study of local authority regulation of lap dancing clubs within the UK. The paper outlines the characteristics of lap dancing clubs, examines some of the issues that have influenced and informed the planning and licensing policies and regulations affecting such clubs, and discusses some of the issues raised by the regulation process.