Abstract
In this chapter, first of all the importance of small and medium-sized towns for rural households in relation to shopping, working and living in five European countries will be described. This analysis demonstrates the different functions towns can perform in different European contexts. With the help of a regression analysis we explore the determinants of local orientation in shopping behaviour. We then turn our attention to households in a selection of six Dutch towns and describe their spatial shopping behaviour. A multinomial logit model is used to explain the choice of households to shop in town, or in the direct hinterland, or further away. We relate rural spatial-economic conditions, such as the accessibility and supply of shops, to the local households’ socio-economic characteristics, such as place of work, age, and income. This helps us to understand which factors are important for the households’ choice to use the town, or the hinterland, or a place outside the region for their shopping.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
On average, 70% of T-HH purchases are bought in town, and 30% of H-HH purchases are bought in the hinterland.
- 2.
These vehicles are mostly cars.
- 3.
This share is fairly high because of a relatively large group of farmers in the database, who most of the time work close to their residence.
- 4.
Distance to the nearest place with a shop of considerable size in the zone concerned. For grocery shopping a shop of considerable size was set at a floor space of 60 m2, and for fun and goal shopping it was 160 m2.
- 5.
That is, floor space of shops in the nearest place with a shop of considerable size in the zone concerned.
- 6.
Brown (1993) looked at rural community satisfaction and attachment in mass consumer society, and found that community satisfaction is primarily affected by length of residence. In this analysis he also included age, which was not significant. In many studies, community satisfaction is seen as an important variable for inshopping (e.g. Pinkerton et al. 1995). However, Brown did not find a significant relationship with inshopping.
- 7.
However, the bivariate-correlation is only 0.47.
References
Arentze, T., Borgers, A., & Timmermans, H. (1993). A model of multi-purpose shopping trip behaviour. Papers in Regional Science, 72(3), 239–256.
Brown, R. B. (1993). Rural community satisfaction and attachment in mass consumer society. Rural Sociology, 58(3), 387–403.
Cadwallader, M. (1975). A behavioral model of consumer spatial decision making. Economic Geography, 51(4), 339–349.
Countryside Agency. (2000). England’s Market Towns Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century. Gloucestershire: The Countryside Agency.
Courtney, P. L. & Errington, A. (2000). The role of small towns in the local economy and some implications for development policy. Local Economy, 15(4), 280–301.
Courtney, P. L., Mayfield, R., Tranter, P., & Errington, A. (2007). Small towns as ‘sub-poles’ in English rural development: Investigating rural-urban linkages using sub-regional social accounting matrices. Geoforum, 38(6), 1219–1232.
Evers, D., van Hoorn, A., & van Oort, F. (2005). Winkelen in Megaland. Den Haag: Ruimtelijke Planbureau.
Gauntlett, E., Hugman, R., Kenyon, P., & Logan, P. (2001). A meta-analysis of the impact of community-based prevention and early intervention action. Canberra: Department of Family and Community Services.
Gorter, C., Nijkamp, P., & Klamer, P. (2003). The attraction of out-of-town shopping malls: a case study on run-fun shopping in the Netherlands. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 94(2), 219–229.
Hensher, D. A., Rose, J. M., & Greene, W. H. (2005). Applied choice analysis: a primer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Higgs, G. & White, S. D. (1997). Changes in service provision in rural areas. Part 1: The use of GIS in analysing accessibility to services in rural deprivation research. Journal of Rural Studies, 13(4), 441–450.
Klemmer, P. (1978). Methods for the determination of centrality. In R. Funck & J. B. Parr (Eds.), The analysis of regional structure: essays in honour of August Lösch. London: Pion Limited.
Miller, N. J. & Kean, R. C. (1997). Factors contributing to inshopping behavior in rural trade areas: implications for local retailers. Journal of Small Business Management, 35(2), 80–94.
Moseley, M. J. (2000). England’s village services in the late 1990s. Town Planning Review, 71(4), 415–433.
Nielsen, T. A. S. & Hovgesen, H. H. (2008). Exploratory mapping of commuter flows in England and Wales. Journal of Transport Geography, 16(2), 90–99.
Oppewal, H. & Holyoake, B. (2004). Bundling and retail agglomeration effects on shopping behaviour. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 11(2), 61–74.
Papadopoulos, N. G. (1980). Consumer outshopping research: review and extension. Journal of Retailing, 56(4), 41–58.
Pinkerton, J. R., Hassinger, E. W., & O’Brien, D. J. (1995). Inshopping by residents of small communities. Rural Sociology, 60(3), 467–480.
Powe, N. A. & Shaw, T. (2004). Exploring the current and future role of marjet towns in servicing their hinterlands: a case study of Alnwick in the North East of England. Journal of Rural Studies, 20, 405–418.
Satterthwaite, D. & Tacoli, C. (2003). The urban part of rural development: the role of small and intermediate urban centres in rural and regional development and poverty reduction. London: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Schenk, T. A., Löffler, G., & Rauh, J. (2007). Agent-based simulation of consumer behaviour in grocery shopping on a regional level. Journal of Business Research, 60, 894–903.
Titheridge, H. & Hall, P. (2006). Changing travel to work patterns in South East England. Journal of Transport Geography, 14(1), 60–75.
van Ommeren, J., Rietveld, P., & Nijkamp, P. (1999). Commuting: in search of jobs and residences. Journal of Urban Economics, 42(3), 402–421.
Western, J., Stimson, R., Baum, S., & van Gellecum, Y. (2005). Measuring community strength and social capital. Regional Studies, 39, 1095–1109.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Leeuwen, E.S. (2010). Multifunctionality of Towns: Exploration of the Spatial Behaviour of Households. In: Urban-Rural Interactions. Contributions to Economics. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2407-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2407-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Physica-Verlag HD
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-2406-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-7908-2407-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)