Shopping Center Management

Introduction

Shopping Center Management is a specialty course oriented towards students at bachelor and masters level within retail management, marketing and real estate broker's business.

The modern shopping center is today not only a place for shopping of goods and services, but increasingly also a place for social encounters and experiences. As a center manager you not only have to make strategic plans, but also have to function as a theater manager and advisor to urban managers and planners.

Shopping center management is about economic and cultural value creation in place based service systems: Shopping centers, department stores, retail parks, super centers and other types of retail destinations. Shopping centers play a major role within the retail industry. In 2016 there were 300 shopping centers in Norway with a sales area above 5000 sq.m., and total sales (excl. sales tax) of 133 billion kroner, and 10 400 tenants (mainly stores). Shopping center management as a management area is important because value creation in such formats is, and ought to be, something more than the sum of the value creation in the separate stores if these had operated independently by themselves.

Shopping center management is a unique management area which stands out as something quite different from store management, where the marketing strategy is mainly concerned with choice of location, assortment and profile, in order to satisfy a given market segment. For a shopping center, location is given, and the center will, due to its size, have to adjust to several consumer segments in its catchment area. At the same time, it has often little control over the tenants, which have to be motivated to secure increased value creation. The shopping center management also faces considerable and unique challenges with regard to information systems and decision support.

The course is to great extent based on the results from recent research within several disciplines and contributions from visiting lecturers from leading center organizations. The main elements of the course are:

1. Historical development of shopping centre format. Defining characteristics.
2. A framework for strategic management of shopping centre.
3. Shopping center management in practice.
4. Revitalization of existing centers.

These four elements form the basis for the following grouping of expected learning outcomes.

Course content

Present day shopping centers and other centers will have to adapt to basic changes within the retail geography, demography and shopping behavior. This refers to:

• The basis for shopping center development
• Development of the department store
• Development of the shopping senter format
• A framework for strategic management of shopping centers
• Market analysis
• Senter analysis
• Situational analysis
• Strategy implementation
• Marketing
• New directions for development and revitalization
• Revitalization based on new leasing formats
• Revitalization based on experience and life styles
• Revitalization with big box formats
• The shopping centre as a social meeting place
• Shopping center and retail business as a part of place and business development
• Town center Management and marketing