Michael Blakemore

One brand, three ways to shop: situational variables and multichannel consumer behaviour

To counter the growth in online retailing, high street retailers are increasingly adopting multichannel distribution strategies, seeking to target individual consumers via both physical and electronic channels as multiple routes to purchase. In order to develop successful marketing strategies within this environment, however, an understanding of consumer selection between available purchase channels is clearly needed. This paper explores the issue of shopping mode selection from an environmental psychology perspective, applying a traditional Belkian analysis of situational variables in a longitudinal study of consumer channel selection decisions. Preliminary findings from an empirical study of consumers of a leading UK fashion retailer are reported which reveal significant differences in the prevalence of different Belkian variables between shopping modes, suggesting a major role for situational influence during the channel selection process.

Cartography and geographic information systems

Now I know how boxers feel coming out of retirement for another three rounds. After a farewell statement last year another three years loom ahead! In future I shall adopt the film-makers’ ploy of leaving the plot open for a sequel. After that it would be nice to write a ’prequel’ and go back to write a 1984 review. Progress, using the conventional metric of published material, continues into 1988, with widening international horizons and an ever-growing literature. Let it be noted, however, that those obsessed with the inexact procedure of citation analysis should be cautious about using this form of review to assess the impact of the literature. Salutory studies such as Kenzar (1988) warn of the dangers of counting the number of times a paper is cited by others. The simplest way to ensure citation is to write a particularly controversial and error-prone piece of work, since it will be referenced by those seeking to correct it. So this year starts with a health warning: an inclusion in this review does not imply a statement of

Access to Public-Sector Information in Europe: Policy, Rights, and Obligations

The article reviews the debates and policies on access to public-sector information (PSI) in Europe in relation to the contests between policies of open access, rights of access to PSI by citizens and business, and the assessment of the cost benefits of PSI to the economy and society. The political dimension of these debates within the European Union is highlighted to demonstrate the complexities of the governance of information within a pan-European regulatory framework.

Teaching Geographical Information Handling Skills for Lower‐income Countries

Geographical Information Systems are seen by many as a quick ‘fix’ for the problems of lower-income countries and people in those countries have been encouraged to adopt this perception, along with the technology. As teachers of students from LICs, we seek to avoid reproducing a contextless transfer of technical skills and rather aim to promote an education based on the limitations of the technology and on the nature and construction of information. While identifying GIS as one of many components of ‘geographical information’, we emphasise the importance of including ‘non-GIS’ staff in the education process. We advocate a ‘problem-posing’ approach to the teaching of ‘Geographical Information for Development’ and discuss some of the challenges which this raises, both for teachers and students.

High or low resolution? conflicts of accuracy, cost, quality, and application in computer mapping

Abstract The advent of microcomputer mapping has led to a large number of claims as to its general utility in computer mapping. While discussions take place about high- or low-resolution displays, more fundamental aspects of spatial information processing are being obscured. This paper considers the nature of spatial information in a digital environment and examines institutional and professional influences which impinge upon development.

Users of official European statistical data investigating information needs

Reports the findings of a research project, undertaken by r•cade (the Resource Centre for Access to Data on Europe) into the needs of users of European statistical data. The aim was to assist r•cade with the future development of its own services and to disseminate the research findings and their implications to the wider data-providing community, through partnership in the EU Info 2000 MADAME project (Methods for Access to Data and Metadata on Europe) (http://www.info2000-madame.org/) . The study involved focus groups, a questionnaire survey, helpdesk logging data, and feedback questionnaires from academics attending a training programme in 1999. The consultation process revealed the complex environment in which r•cade operates and the extent to which any disseminator of official statistics has little control over the data supply chain. The mixed customer focus group clearly highlighted the considerable variation in service expectations. While Eurostat is the sole source of official harmonized statistics for the European Union, the potential market is enormous and very complex. Eurostat has to balance its service delivery between different, and sometimes conflicting, customer and supplier groups, while at the same time balancing access rights versus data protection; harmonization versus specificity; and high resource demands versus a complex supply chain.

UK education and research in GIS: A selective review of the provision, integration and analysis of geographic information

Abstract This paper presents a brief overview of some of the main education training and research issues current in GIS within the UK. It focuses on issues of data provision, institutional structures, the realtionship of government, academia, and the private sector. Salient research themes are discussed.

Book Review: Mapping. Ways of representing the world

petty constraints of international law and ‘true’ justice, equating ‘legal rules and procedures with pejorative, feminised attributes: pettiness, feebleness and lack of pro p o r t i o n a l i t y. In contrast, both justice and Canada were masculinised’ (p. 38). But space also is explicitly present in the book. Although Cooper has not read that widely within the formal geographic literature, her critical spatial imaginary is well developed. The relation of law to place and belonging in her account was particularly welcome. Take, for example, her discussion of the ‘eruv’ designed so as to delimit an area which can mitigate some of the obligations of Jewish law concerning activities on the Sabbath. A p roposal by orthodox Jews to establish an eruv in Barnet was met with a deep resistance from non-Jews, as well as nonorthodox Jews. How can ‘eighty poles and some thin, high, invisible wire,’ she asks, ‘generate so much fear, hostility and distress?’ (p. 141). In large part, she argues, the answer lies in the ways in which the eruv was seen as spatializing a set of problematic legal and cultural claims within a particularly English site. English space, for some, was threatened by an alien disfigurement, while public and private spaces were being redrawn in inappropriate ways. For me, one omission from her collection was that of legal violence. For theorists as diverse as Locke and Derrida, the sine qua non of state legality is its monopoly on organized violence. And yet commentators have been very reluctant to explore the ways in which law and legitimate violence are interdependent. This raises some knotty ethical and practical questions, not only about visible forms of violent excess, such as police brutality, but also about the ways in which other legal violences are re n d e re d legitimate or invisible. The massive increases in the prison population in countries such as the USA, sustained by and instantiated by violence, whether actual or implied, begs careful scrutiny. There are some problems with this collection. It reads, on occasion, like a series of diverse re s e a rch projects that only now are being stitched together as a book; the Introduction, with its rather tedious organizational lists, bears this out. Lawyers also tend to feel the need to close with some sort of prescription, and Cooper’s, while interesting, was rather thin. Still, I liked this book. Geographers interested in the state (local or national), law, governmentality and cultural politics will also profit from reading it.