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In this paper, we want to describe the current trends in distribution and distribution research in the Netherlands. Because this is an extensive area, we restrain ourselves and focus on general economic developments that apply to shopping behaviour; on the regional distribution of stores and concentration trends; on shopping centre developments, on functional versus fun shopping for convenience goods and shopping/speciality goods, respectively; on price vs. service distribution and on store image research. In the discussion section, we conclude that psychological variables are necessary complements to economic variables in distribution research, and that only a few studies investigate actual shopping behaviour instead of perceptions and evaluations only.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

In the discount store area, foreign large retailers such as Wal‐mart, Carrefour, and Costco fight hard with domestic retailers in Korea. The Korean customer is a judge in the centre of such a difficult fight. Therefore, foreign retailers who are willing to win the game should pay attention to what Koreans say and respond to the complaint as fast as they can. This study monitored e‐complaints of customers towards Korea Carrefour through analysing contents of the bulletin board in an anti‐Carrefour site. Upon examining e‐complaints by category and retail attributes, there were found to be more complaints in electrical goods and food and groceries by product category, and in employee attitudes and store atmosphere by retail attributes. The implications for successful retail strategies of foreign discount stores in Korea are discussed and further research is suggested.

This paper aims to propose an operation policy of multi-capacity room service robots traveling within a hotel. As multi-capacity robots can serve many requests in a single trip, improved operation policy can reduce the investment cost of robots.

Using a mathematical model-based optimization technique, an optimal set of robots with minimum installation cost is derived while serving the entire room service demands. Through testing a variety of scenarios by changing the price and function of robots to be installed, insights that consider the various situations are offered.

Though the increase in capacity saves much time for room service at a lower capacity level, the amount of time saved gradually decreases as the capacity increases. Besides, the installation strategy is divided into two cases depending on the purchase cost of robots.

Currently, the studies focusing on the adoption of service robots from an operations view are rarely be found. To reduce the burden of investment cost, this study takes the unique approach to improve the operation policy of service robots by using the multi-capacity robots.

This study guides the hotel to install an adequate set of robots. The result confirms that the optimal installation set of robots is affected by various factors, such as the room service information, the hotel structure and the unit execution cycle.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, people avoid face-to-face contact and interest in non-contact service is growing. This paper deals with the efficient way to implement non-contact delivery through logistic robots, a timely and important topic.

As the population grows, one of the major global crises is the management of human settlement. A proper solution to deal with this issue is mass housing. Given the variable needs in these projects, two constraints of height and volume of construction play an essential role in fulfilling success criteria. Hence, this paper aims to choose the most appropriate building method to satisfy time, cost, quality and safety factors considering the volume and height of construction.

In this research, the proper construction methods in mass housing projects in two volumes of up to 1000 (small) and 1000-3000 (medium) residential units in three ranges of the height of 5, 5-10, and higher than ten floors were determined with a focus on the success criteria based on real experiences through questionnaires and interviews.

The results show that steel bolt and nut and tunnel framework systems in higher than five-floor building projects act better than other methods, while in up to five-floor building projects, LSF saves time and cost and steel bolt and nut provides higher quality and safety.

Given the extent of work, the results of this research can be considered as a benchmark in the mass housing industry.

This study aims to analyze whether and how condominium shared utilities and facilities (e.g. community spaces), of which buyers assume a share of the ownership upon acquisition of a residential unit, affect the condominium unit price over time.

The transaction price of each unit reflects the quality of the residential unit and the properties of the shared facilities. Based on the hedonic pricing method, this study assesses the impact of shared amenities on unit resale prices, using an original data set on condominium unit resale transactions and the status of housing characteristics for both condominium units and condominium buildings.

Results show that holding other conditions constant, a meeting room and an external space that can host events increase the unit resale price by approximately 7 and 16 per cent, respectively. Some community amenities such as a meeting room may increase its impact later in the condominium’s lifetime.

Because of the proprietary nature of data, the analysis focuses on high-end condominium properties in central Tokyo. Although it is difficult to single out the shared amenities’ effects on condominium resale prices from potentially confounding factors, this study partially overcomes this issue by including explanatory geographical variables (e.g. ground heights).

The results suggest that a shared facility that hosts social interactions among residents significantly affects the resale market value of housing units and that their magnitudes may change over time.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study provides the first empirical evidence of the impacts of shared structures on condominium unit sales using micro-level transaction data in Japan.

This paper presents the manufacturing methods used in the assembly of electronic circuits with surface mount components on planar printed wiring circuits. The manufacturing process flow is explored as a function of the design of the circuit as well as the selection of surface mount components. Equipment evaluation criteria are presented along with facilities' requirements in the area of utilities and floor space.

“The Human Face of Retailing” was one of the major themes of the 12th Annual European Conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC), held at Monte Carlo in March. There was the usual impressive spread of speakers from major companies in continental Europe, some of which we summarise in our special report on the following pages. Peter Spriddell of Marks & Spencer referred obliquely to his company's out‐of‐town initiative with Tesco by drawing attention to the shopper's need for a better environment, which means good car parking, and pointed out that “both out of town and city centre retailing have their place” — an assertion that only a couple of years ago would have been more than a little startling from a Marks & Spencer spokesperson. Francis Rigotti, from another highly prestigious company, Migros, talked about his company's search for “produits vivants”, by which he means articles which decorate the lifestyle and affirm the personalities of the “me‐generation”. We are celebrating the demise of the mass market, he implied; quality has supplanted quantity in modern life. And what of the retail pattern in Germany? Professor Dr Bernd Falk described the importance of the role of the shopping centre, whilst at the same time explaining the difficulties of the department store. And we offer our congratulations to the designers of the Kö‐Gallerie in Dusseldorf, which won this year's ICSC design award in the category of large centres, and which we feature on our front cover. Described as a “beautifully developed dream”, it was conceived, designed, developed and leased by Walter Brune of Dusseldorf. RDM was represented at the conference by David Sands.

The relationship between people and their home environment has always been an important research theme. Cooperative works of different disciplines and research areas, such as environmental psychology, social psychology, community psychology, home environment studies, urban planning and architecture have developed an understanding of relationships between quality and residential spaces. In this study an attempt has been made to analyze quality issues in housing environments by providing a general review related to quality housing research and by establishing a model that can be used to evaluate the concept of quality in housing. Focusing on a specific housing settlement as a case study, the goal here is to open a debate based on design concepts and their social and spatial consequences in architecture and to provide important data for future housing projects in Turkey. In the scope of the work, the Belerko Housing Settlement in the City of Trabzon has been selected as a research area. Aim of the study is to develop an understanding of the social, psychological and the physical characteristics that contribute to spatial quality in this specific housing environment.