<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Are there significant regional differences in regional retail development in Serbia? This was the main research question at the beginning of writing this paper. The main goal of this paper was to analyse regional differences in retail development based on existing statistical data. The idea was to point out regions with underdeveloped retailing and the one with endangered retail competition. Thorough desk research has been performed. It included both literature review and data collection from available official sources. Existing retail data have been analysed. However, the lack of data at lower levels of aggregation (regional and local) prevents the authors from getting strong conclusions. In addition, the lack of data also altered the main research question, which has now become adequacy of data in the retail sector and potential solutions for that problem. The noted lack of crucial data and solutions for solving this problem were the main purpose of this paper. The main finding is that decision makers in Serbia do not have adequate information about retail network. This is a problem because it is very hard to prove anticompetitive actions or to plan (stimulate) retail development without relevant data from both government and business point of view. Retail census would help getting key indicators about development of retailing in certain regions and municipalities. However, the solution needs to be sustainable. Therefore, some legislative requirements should provide information for census update.</p></abstract>

Are there significant regional differences in regional retail development in Serbia? This was the main research question at the beginning of writing this paper. The main goal of this paper was to analyse regional differences in retail development based on existing statistical data. The idea was to point out regions with underdeveloped retailing and the one with endangered retail competition. Thorough desk research has been performed. It included both literature review and data collection from available official sources. Existing retail data have been analysed. However, the lack of data at lower levels of aggregation (regional and local) prevents the authors from getting strong conclusions. In addition, the lack of data also altered the main research question, which has now become adequacy of data in the retail sector and potential solutions for that problem. The noted lack of crucial data and solutions for solving this problem were the main purpose of this paper. The main finding is that decision makers in Serbia do not have adequate information about retail network. This is a problem because it is very hard to prove anticompetitive actions or to plan (stimulate) retail development without relevant data from both government and business point of view. Retail census would help getting key indicators about development of retailing in certain regions and municipalities. However, the solution needs to be sustainable. Therefore, some legislative requirements should provide information for census update.

Regional Retail Sector Development in Serbia – Key Performance and Development Indicators’ Gap

Economic Themes

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Are there significant regional differences in regional retail development in Serbia? This was the main research question at the beginning of writing this...

Regional Retail Sector Development in Serbia – Key Performance and Development Indicators’ Gap

Published Online: Sep 26, 2019

Page range: 335 - 356

Received: Apr 13, 2018

Accepted: Jul 04, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ethemes-2018-0020

Keywords
Retailing, Regional development, Information base, Competition, Serbia, Retail network

© 2018 Stojković Dragan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Regional Retail Sector Development in Serbia – Key Performance and Development Indicators’ Gap

Published Online: Sep 26, 2019

Page range: 335 - 356

Received: Apr 13, 2018

Accepted: Jul 04, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ethemes-2018-0020

KeywordsRetailing, Regional development, Information base, Competition, Serbia, Retail network

© 2018 Stojković Dragan et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Retailing, Regional development, Information base, Competition, Serbia, Retail network