The Role of Community-Led Food Retailers in Enabling Urban Resilience
1
Department of Management, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK
2
Business School, Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, UK
3
Department of Marketing, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Herculano Cachinho and Teresa Barata-Salgueiro
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7563; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147563
Received: 15 June 2021 / Revised: 24 June 2021 / Accepted: 1 July 2021 / Published: 6 July 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Retail Systems: Vulnerability, Resilience and Sustainability)
Our research examines the extent to which community-led food retailers (CLFRs) contribute to the resilience and sustainability of urban retail systems and communities in the UK, contributing to existing debates on the sustainability and resilience of the UK’s urban retail sector. While existing literature has predominantly focused on larger retail multiples, we suggest more attention be paid to small, independent retailers as they possess a broader, more diffuse spatiality and societal impact than that of the immediate locale. Moreover, their local embeddedness and understanding of the needs of the local customer base provide a key source of potentially sustainable competitive advantage. Using spatial and relational resilience theories, and drawing on 14 original qualitative interviews with CLFRs, we establish the complex links between community, place, social relations, moral values, and resilience that manifest through CLFRs. In doing so, we advance the conceptualization of community resilience by acknowledging that in order to realise the networked, resilient capacities of a community, the moral values and behavior of the retail community need to be ascertained. Implications and relevant recommendations are provided to secure a more sustainable set of capacities needed to ensure resilient, urban retail systems which benefit local communities.
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Keywords:
community resilience; food retailing; retail resilience; sustainability; moral values; urban
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MDPI and ACS Style
McEachern, M.G.; Warnaby, G.; Moraes, C. The Role of Community-Led Food Retailers in Enabling Urban Resilience. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7563. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147563
AMA Style
McEachern MG, Warnaby G, Moraes C. The Role of Community-Led Food Retailers in Enabling Urban Resilience. Sustainability. 2021; 13(14):7563. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147563
Chicago/Turabian StyleMcEachern, Morven G., Gary Warnaby, and Caroline Moraes. 2021. "The Role of Community-Led Food Retailers in Enabling Urban Resilience" Sustainability 13, no. 14: 7563. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147563
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