A framework for a generic retail charter in South Africa

Abstract

This research was conducted against the background that managers of retail businesses have a difficult and complex task managing their businesses successfully to satisfy the expectations of all their relevant stakeholders in order to receive their support. Large retail businesses are mainly public companies that are formally accountable to a broad range of stakeholders, and they normally do some formal planning to satisfy their stakeholders. Small and medium retailers, which comprise more than 90% of all retail business in South Africa, are mostly private companies, close corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietors that are not formally accountable to their stakeholders, and lack formal planning to satisfy stakeholder expectations. The research problem is that there is no formal and comprehensive guide in South Africa for retail managers to assist them in aligning their business operations and strategic direction to achieve stakeholder satisfaction and support. Charters are commonly used as a guide for institutional operations to achieve pre-set objectives. Since there is no retail charter in South Africa, the aim of this research was to develop a framework for a generic retail charter that could serve as such a comprehensive guide for retail managers. All retailers and retail associations could use this framework for a generic retail charter as a guide to develop their own customised retail charters to ensure stakeholder satisfaction and support. The research design and methodology used Hevner’s Design Science Research approach (Hevner, 2007:88). Firstly, relevant literature on retail business management, the retail sector, the nature and components of various charters and stakeholder satisfaction theory were analysed. These analyses were used to develop a draft structure, which included detailed elements for a generic retail marketing charter, as well as a retail stakeholder charter for South African retailers. The draft structure and elements of a generic retail stakeholder charter were submitted for verification, in term of relevance, correctness and completeness, to selected academic subject matter and practitioner experts. The feedback from the academic and practitioner experts was analysed and used to develop a second draft retail stakeholder charter. This second draft was submitted as a second round Delphi process to some of the same experts for their comments on all additions and changes to the first draft. The second draft was also submitted to international expert academics and practitioners to test the international relevance of the charter elements. The outcome of this research is a proposed framework for a generic retail stakeholder charter that could be utilised by retail businesses and retail associations as a guide to develop their own customised retail stakeholder charters. The application of this framework could guide retail businesses to meet the compliance and satisfaction expectations of all their relevant stakeholders and also provide them with “excitement” experiences to gain their support. The proposed framework for a generic retail stakeholder charter could also be used by future researchers to develop retail charters for specific types of retail business and functional areas of a retail business.