NRWC 2016

Special Issue

We are happy to announce that the Special Issue of International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research featuring papers from NRWC 2016 has been published.

Read more about the contents of the journal  >>

About a 100 researchers in the field of retail and wholesale gathered in Aarhus in November to meet, discuss papers, listen to key note speakers and enjoy a bit of Aarhus at the NRWC 2016. Lars Esbjerg and Birger Botrup Jensen, Aarhus BSS, Department of Management, Aarhus University, were chairs of the conference.

At an academic conference like this the wide spectrum of topics and interests in this field really become apparent. Some of the different themes that were discussed were digitalization, smart phones, logistics, economic geography, innovation, pricing, consumer behaviour, management, work and employment, omni-channel, sustainability and atmospherics.

The first key note speaker was Kenneth Nielsen, Executive Vice President, E-commerce & Digital, from Dansk Supermarked Group, with previous experience from Apple and Amazon, who talked about the digitalization of a retailer.

– In this new and fast changing environment it’s important that we learn continuously and that we allow mistakes so that we are open to try new things, said Kenneth.

The conference dinner was held at ARroS Art Museum with a guided tour of some of the interesting contemporary art works exhibited in the museum before the dinner with a view of Aarhus by night.

The second key note speaker was the well-known Professor Leigh Sparks, University of Stirling, and he focused on sense of place – specifically retail and the high street crisis.

– The problem when it comes to city centres in small towns losing their retail to external locations is often categorized as a retail problem, but we need to see it through a wider lens and talk about the town centre as a whole, said Leigh.