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Commercial Geography is a discipline that studies geographical phenomena and laws of commercial activities.Business geography is one of the earliest branches of human geography. From the perspective of discipline development, it is also the predecessor of economic geography.It mainly studies the geographical distribution of commercial activities;The relationship between commercial activities and the natural, economic, social and cultural environment;The spatial organization or regional structure of commercial activities and other regional characteristics of commercial activities.
The formation and development of commercial geography is directly related to the emergence and development of ancient commercial economy.Since the emergence of commodity exchange in human society, there have been sporadic geographical records of commerce.For example, Shangshu Yugong in the Warring States Period of China has recorded the production and marketing regions and transportation routes of major commodities;Sima Qian's Records of the Historian · Biographies of Cargo Colonies in the Western Han Dynasty and Ban Gu's Records of the Han Dynasty · Records of Food and Goods in the Eastern Han Dynasty have detailed descriptions and comments on the distribution and regional differences of population, economy, products, transportation, commerce and cities.
After the 15th century
After the 15th century, great geographical discoveries andcapitalist economyWith the rapid growth of productivity, many countries in Europe (especially in Western Europe) continue to expand their export of goods, and their business activities correspondingly extend to vast areas overseas.This has attracted many scholars in Western Europe to conduct extensive research on geographical environment, resources and products, economic distribution, transportation and business centers around the world.The books that mainly describe the distribution of products, trade relations, urban ports and transportation routes in various countries and regions around the world have been published successively, greatly enriching the knowledge of world commercial geography.On this basis, ancient geography began to differentiate, and one of the earliest disciplines was commercial geography.
Late 19th century
The early commercial geography mainly explained where to buy cheaply and what to sell at a high price, that is, commodity geography.Many geographers have compiled many regional geographical works with commercial geography as the main content, among which the most systematic one is Britain in 1989ChizemThe Handbook of Business Geography, reprinted many times, has become the representative work of this subject.
World War I
the First World WarSince then, due to the rapid development of industry and agriculture in many countries in the world, the world economic relationship has been expanding day by day. In addition, due to the promotion and application of modern science and technology in production, and the close dependence between various sectors of the national economy, it has expanded to the field of comprehensive research on a series of economic phenomena in various countries and regions, such as production, consumption, trade and transportation,So business geography gradually becameSectoral Economic GeographyA branch of science.
Early 20th century
In the early 1930s, Christal proposedCentral place theoryThis paper expounds the relationship between settlement and market distribution, which makes the traditional business geography begin to transform into the category of modern geography.
After World War II
the Second World WarSince then, location theory, quantitative methods of geography and behavioral science have been introduced into the study of commercial geography, and a large number of theories and methods related to the spatial analysis of commerce and services have emerged.The important ones are Berry's research on commodity flow, market center and retail business;Murphy's research on CBD, Vance's research on commercial structure and market distribution;Wilson's research on retail model;Maurer's research on urban commerce;Boge Ganier's research on market geography;Pokshiewski's research on service circle geography, and McKay's research on artistic conception map and consumer behavior, etc.
basic content
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classification
Theoretical commercial geography: study the basic mode of spatial organization of commercial activities;
Sectoral business geography: discuss the specific layout types according to the business and service sectors;
Urban commercial geography: study the commercial points, lines and networks of specific regions;
At present, commercial geography not only analyzes and explores the geographical problems of international commodity circulation and trade relations in the world from a macro perspective, but also focuses on the study of commodity circulation between national internal affairs regions.Its main content is to study the theoretical commercial geography of the basic mode of spatial organization of commercial activities;According to the commercial and service sectors, discuss their specific layout types of sectoral commercial geography;Study the commercial points, lines, networks and urban commercial geography of specific regions;Regional commercial geography for comprehensive research.
basic task
The basic task of business geography is to participate in the production layout and regional planning, reasonably select commodity circulation channels, reasonably organize urban commercial outlets, select the optimal or appropriate location of wholesale, retail business and storage facilities, and set up business and service centers according to residents' consumption level and behavior.
Research focus
At present, the research of business geography focuses on:
① Spatial analysis of business activities.It includes the spatial behavior of consumers, the object of commercial activities, and analyzes consumers' response to market location and its demand characteristics. Its research approaches include normative spatial model (central place theory and spatial interaction model), theoretical behavior model, empirical behavior model, cognitive behavior model, etc;The carrier of commercial activities - the spatial structure of commercial centers, fairs, various commercial institutions and facilities, and concentrated research on the hierarchy, market areas, commercial networks, etc. of commercial centers;
② Regional study of commercial activities.It mainly involves the interregional connection and regional commercial geography centered on commodity flow, including the regional distribution of food, industrial raw materials, energy and important mineral resources, various important industrial production, transportation conditions, and regional differences in modern commercial activities such as trade and markets in the current international economy.
Related disciplines
Commercial activities are affected by the natural environment, regional economic structure and layout, as well as social, cultural, ethnic, religious and social behavior. Therefore, commercial geography is closely related to various disciplines of human geography that study these contents.The impact of production and transportation on commercial activities is particularly important, making commercial geography, economic geography andTransportation geography The relationship is closer.In addition, business economics, marketing and other disciplines play a guiding and reference role in the study of business geography.
Different genres
Since the 1920s, according to various theoretical development periods and research methods, foreign commercial geography research can be divided into three theoretical schools:
Second, in the 1950s and 1960s, the school of spatial analysis led by the quantitative revolution, represented by Berry;
Third, in the 1960s and 1970s, the behavioral school, led by consumer behavior, cognitive research and socio-economic class research, was represented by Reston.
Key noun
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commercial centre
Commercial Center includes two meanings: one is the central city that undertakes the commercial functions of a certain region;It also refers to the commercial activity concentration area within a city.The central cities responsible for commercial functions, according to their scale, have the grade difference between national commercial centers and local commercial centers. They are generally growing up from small towns, and their common feature is that they have a good geographical location that is easy to become commodity distribution centers.For example, the confluence of rivers, such as Tianjin and Hankou;Estuary of rivers into the sea, such as Shanghai and London;Railway intersections, such as Zhengzhou and Chicago;Transit ports for land and sea transportation, such as Dalian and Jinshan;International free ports often become commercial centers beyond the national scope due to their traffic location and free trade conditions in Hong Kong and Singapore.
market
Fair mainly refers to a rather common form of trade organization in the era and regions where the commodity economy is underdeveloped.Up to now, in some underdeveloped regions and countries in the world where transportation is difficult, commodity exchange is still held regularly or on traditional festivals.In the form of fairs.
hinterland
Hinterland refers to the inland area behind the port city to provide export goods and sell imported goods.The breadth of hinterland area and its economic potential are usually affected by the terrain, climate, rivers, natural resources and other natural conditions of the inland area behind.
Research progress in China
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Division of Research Stages of Business Geography in China
The record of commercial geography in China is relatively early, but when did the study of commercial geography begin?Some scholars believe that the preface should be the Records of the Historian · Biographies of Merchandise Colony compiled by Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty, while others believe that Yugong should be the beginning of the study of China's business geography, and the author takes the Warring States Period as the starting point of the division of research stages.
(1) The Enlightenment Period of Business Geography Research (Warring States Period~1840)
China's early business records can be traced back to the Warring States Period's Shangshu Yugong, which describes the main products of Jiuzhou.The subsequent Book of Changes also explained the process of commodity exchange at that time in a popular way: "When the market is in the middle of the day, the transaction will retreat, and each will have his own place".In the Western Han Dynasty, Sima Qian's Historical Records · Biographies of Merchandise Colonies also discussed the production, natural endowment of circulation, regional division of labor and commercial center of major properties in China and various regions.However, the discussion of commercial geography in this period was mostly about the geographical structure of products, and the analysis of the causes of products and the economic structure of the region where they were located was relatively small, and the necessary theory of commercial geography was lacking, which can only be said to be the enlightenment period of commercial geography.
(2) The formative period of commercial geography research (1840 ～ 1949)
Opium WarLater, the development of the world's colonies and the dumping of commodities by the great powers promoted the development of product geography into commercial geography.At the same time, due to the influence of reformists, reformists and other ideological movements, plusWesternization MovementThe industrial movement promoted the development of commercial geography in China. From 1910 to 1936, nine influential monographs on commercial geography were published.Until the 1950s, the main achievements of business geography were only reflected in the emergence and publication of textbooks for business schools.But generally speaking, the research scope of business geography in this period has made great progress, and business geography began to take shape.
(3) The Depression Period of Business Geography Research (1949 ～ 1984)
Since the 1950s, China's academic development has been greatly influenced by the former Soviet Union, which replaced human geography with economic geography and paid less attention to commercial geography. At the same time, the later period of this period was also in the period of China's Cultural Revolution.Therefore, the progress of business geography in China is very slow. It can be said that the research results are rare, and the impact of the results is not large, which has not been able to set off a related research boom.The whole period can be said to be the depression period of China's business geography.
(4) The gestation period of commercial geography research (1984 ～ 1998)
The spring breeze of the development of China's business geography began with the establishment of the China Business Geography Research Association in 1984.In 1988, the China Commercial Geography Commission joined the newly established International Geography Commission and became a member of it.Influenced by the theories and methods of foreign commercial geography, especially by the theories of foreign urban structure and theCentral place theoryIn the following years, there was a small climax in the study of Chinese business geography.During this period, China's commercial geography published some monographs, and the research level was generally concentrated in countries and regions.asYang WuyangHe was the first to introduce the theories and research methods of western market geography, and made pioneering attempts at the commercial centers of several cities and towns in Beijing and North China.Subsequently, Chinese scholars used relevant theories and methods to study some large cities in China, which gradually shifted the study of commercial geography to the study of commercial activities within cities.There are also relevant theoretical introductions, including the research progress and methods of business geography abroad, and the introduction and discussion of Chinese scholars on the disciplinary nature and application prospects of business geography.However, the later research results are relatively few.In general, from 1984 to 1998, the number of treatises on business geography increased year by year in China, about 70 kinds, and the research perspective began to make new breakthroughs. Therefore, the author believes that it is in the gestation period of development.
(5) The Active Period of Business Geography Research (1999~Now)
Since 1999, business geography has been warming up, which is an active period of development.The main sign is the significant increase of relevant research achievements during this period, and the published papersMaster's ThesisThere are more than 100 articles and dozens of related works.At the same time, in this period, the perspective of business geography research has also been greatly broadened, not only staying in the traditional commercial regional structure and commercial network layout, but also developing into interdisciplinary, quantitative geography, informatization and other fields.Therefore, it can be said that there has been a new upsurge of research in business geography in China, which is basically reasonable as an active period of development.
Review of the Research Contents of Business Geography in China
As early as the 1920s, some works on business geography appeared in China, but it was only in recent years that we began to engage in real research.At present, the basic task of China's commercial geography is to participate in the work of production layout, and gradually open up the situation in the research work of reasonable production and marketing links of commodities, urban regional structure, the function of trade center, urban and rural commercial network, rural market system, regional commodity development, interregional commodity exchange, and foreign trade.The main purpose of commercial geography work is to seek the optimization of the spatial organization of commercial activities through various surveys, studies and scheme comparisons, so as to continuously improve the overall economic benefits, while also taking into account the social and ecological benefits of commercial layout.
A Review of the Research Contents of Business Geography in China
The study of China's commercial location is most influenced by the neoclassical school, because the central place theory is directly concerned with the commercial structure, which provides a theoretical reference for understanding the advantages and locations of commerce, retail and service industry more comprehensively than the latter two schools.Of course, domestic business research using the theories and research methods of the latter two schools also exists.According to the statistics of relevant works in China, the author makes the following comments on the five main aspects of the research field of business geography in China in the order of the emergence of research hotspots.
1. Commercial location and regional structure
(1) Macro research
In 1964Yan ChongminPut Christaller's“Central place theory”After being introduced into China, it was soon introduced into the macro regional empirical research by Chinese scholars, such as Yang Wuyang's research on small town business centers in Beijing and the North China Plain.At the same time, some scholars have published some monographs on business geography, but the regional level of these studies mainly focuses on the national and regional level.asWang XilaiCui Jiali's "China Business Geography" takes the distribution law of China's commodity production regions, the network distribution law of commodity spatial displacement, and the regional combination law of commodity sales geographical location as the main research objects. It analyzes the factors affecting the regional distribution of commodity production and the layout mode of commodity circulation spatial form, but in terms of content, it is more regional description and analysis.
Chen Fuyi's research on commodity circulation and regional distribution of products in Hunan Province.Commercial Geography - Theoretical Basis and China's Commercial Geography by Yang Wuyang and others strengthened the systematic discussion of the theoretical basis of commercial geography research, including the development of commercial geography, the research object, nature of commercial geography and its relationship with adjacent disciplines, as well as the spatial layout model of commercial service industry. However, in terms of production and sales of major commodities,It repeated the work of Wang Xilai and Cui Jiali.
The Commercial Geography by Sui Xishan and Tang Yong emphasized the relationship and contradiction between commercial economic activities and geographical environment, and added specialized argumentation in theory, method and application, but the theoretical method system has not yet formed norms.The Chinese Commercial Geography, edited by Lu Dazhuang, did not repeat the previous work in theory and method, but emphasized China's central commercial cities and their radiating economic regions in content.
Commercial Geography, edited by Wang Xilai and Wu Lan, has changed the disadvantages of similar textbooks and economic geography textbooks in the past. It focuses on the layout or spatial organization of commercial economic activities, and enters the middle and micro regions in terms of research scope.At the same time, the book summarizes the theoretical achievements of business geography in China and the West, combined with the "quantitative revolution" analysis method, transferred to the research on the layout of the commercial streets and commercial districts in the urban interior space, and for the first time involved the general characteristics of different commercial forms in the urban commercial layout (Wu Zongqing. Research on the spatial structure of commercial activities in Beijing. Peking University doctoral thesis. 2000)。After that, the theory of business geography began to expand to specific areas and regions, such as Shi Yishao's research on the theory and practice of Chinese rural fairs.
In the research of macro business geography, the research of business market geography has been gradually warming up in recent years.For example, Shi Yishao once described the characteristics and geographical distribution differences of China's commodity gathering market in different historical periods, pointed out that market layout and management are the two key points for scientific operation of the commercial market, and some scholars have made similar studies on the historical evolution of local markets.After that, it studied the formation, development, characteristics, evolution mechanism and other theories of the commercial market community and its practice in China, concluded that the market community has a great relationship with regional industries, enterprise communities, urban networks, market systems and urban planning, and pointed out the importance of market planning, market management and construction in the rational distribution and operation of the commercial market,It is concluded that the sustainable development of businessmen is the foundation of the sustainable development of the market.
While studying the commercial market, some scholars are also interested in the regional migration of businessmen, including the demographic characteristics and spatial distribution of businessmen, the reasons and characteristics of mobility.
(2) Meso and micro research
In 1984, some scholars began to use the "central place theory" to analyze the internal business service geography of big cities, listed the total convenience index of business centers, and first divided Beijing's business center into five levels.In the same year, Ning Yuemin used the cluster analysis method to classify the urban centers of Shanghai, and then discussed the structure, scale, grade and relationship of various commercial centersThe result of the comprehensive effect of five factors, including the distribution of residents' income.Influenced by their research theories and methods, some scholars in the 1980s respectively discussed the commercial regional structure of Guangzhou and Changchun, and conducted empirical research on the classification and spatial distribution differences of urban commercial space. However, they emphasized the role of large shopping malls, large hotels and large hotels in approaching the commercial center according to the actual situation of China and the general landscape of the commercial center,And consciously combine the business center with the hexagonal model of the central place theory.
In the mid and late 1990s, Chinese scholars continued to conduct empirical discussions on the regional structure of commercial services in Beijing, Kunming, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen and other cities, exploring the characteristics of urban commercial regional structure under different historical and development backgrounds, such as the doctoral thesis of Wu Zongqing of Peking University,He constructed the framework and technical method route of the research on the spatial structure of urban commercial activities.It is the first time to establish a multi-dimensional classification system for business activities, reconstruct the Parato formula, and establish a two-way index for the scale grade distribution of business activities in terms of "balance degree" and "structural capacity".Moreover, taking into account the travel behavior of urban residents and other aspects, it opens up space for further development of the spatial structure of urban commercial activities.
While Chinese scholars are carrying out empirical research, some foreign geographers also come to China to introduce foreign related theories and developments. For example, Pierre Bach of the Department of Geography of the University of Bordeaux, France, explained the city center and its evolution in a special lecture on human geography in Kunming in 1988, most of which involved the central business activities in commercial geography.After that, the academia translated a large number of foreign related literature, including the development process and new phenomena of business geography in France, Japan, Britain and the United States.At the same time, through learning and international exchanges, it introduced the research progress and characteristics of western business geography to China.
Influenced by western theories, some scholars put forward the theories and methods of location theory, quantitative geography and behavioral geography to be used in the establishment of commercial service outlets, and pointed out some directions of China's commercial geography research in the future. At the same time, some scholars carried out a series of research on the commercial geographical structure and theoretical frontier based on China's actual situation,Some achievements have been made in the adjustment of commercial structure, the application of GIS in commercial geography and the commercial spatial structure within cities, which has played a great role in guiding the development of commercial geography in China.
Both theoretically and empirically, although there are many repetitive studies, there are also some new research perspectives and methods.If used by scholarshistorical geographyBased on the analysis of Shanghai's commercial spatial structure and Beijing's market changes, this paper proposes the evolution of the central place structure of the market spatial distribution in different historical periods and the main factors affecting the market location at that time.However, there are also some differences in the cognitive concepts of different students' research. For example, as the structure of Beijing's commercial center is the same, Gao Songfan (1989) tried to apply the central place theory to the research of historical geography, preferring Xidan and Wangfujing as two equal first class commercial centers to build a regular hexagon, while Yang Wuyang (1990, 1994)It emphasizes the influence of the Palace Museum on the contemporary commercial service center, and points out that the three first level commercial centers, Xidan, Wangfujing and Qianmen, are relatively first level centers. In fact, the center is in the Palace Museum. Therefore, the hierarchical structure model of different Gaosongfan commercial centers is obtained.
Some scholarsMethods of quantitative geographyIn the research, for example, the population and business distribution patterns are discussed.The study of commercial space influenced by the school of quantitative geography has the following characteristics: first, it changes from text description to data processing, and uses statistical and mathematical analysis methods to analyze and explain problems;Secondly, the research results are somewhat predictable, but the abstract research methods easily make the research divorced from the reality of urban development, making some scholars obsessed with technology and logical theory system.
With the development of other research fields and disciplines, business geographers' sharp perspectives have expanded their research fields and directions.Some scholars have noticed the phenomenon of the marginalization of commercial facilities and carried out some discussions, which has made a beneficial attempt to China's commercial suburbanization.Some scholars have also conducted research on the layout and management of community commerce, and others have combined the development of commercial space and urban recreation space to achieve a win-win situation for commerce and tourism.Combined with the hot research of urban logistics industry, business geographers have also strengthened the research on the commercial regional structure of logistics industry in the context of globalization.Under the influence of the ideas of "human text" and "characteristic design", some scholars proposed that the commercial layout should reflect the local cultural characteristics and pay attention to the internal and external forms, and put forward the consideration of optimizing the allocation of commercial land in view of the chaotic situation of China's commercial land.
Although the achievements of the business research oriented by the central theory are relatively obvious, the lack of its theoretical roots also makes the research achievements have certain limitations:
First, the central place theory is completely based on the rational economic point of view, without considering the differences in consumer behavior, but only from the scale and the number of facilities and functions, which leads to the limitations of the theory;
Second, the central place theory believes that the emergence and existence of the central place comes from the requirements of the surrounding areas for goods and services, and its development also comes from the development of the service place. This bottom-up development mode causes the closeness of the central place theory.Therefore, from the perspective of commercial location alone, the research content is relatively monotonous.
2. Consumer behavior and its impact on business layout
Since the 1960s, the importance of consumer behavior to commercial space organization has gradually been recognized by foreign scholars.The behavioral school believes that the econometrics school materializes the relationship between man and land, ignoring the role of man in shaping the spatial structure, and emphasizes that the analysis of spatial form should first start from the needs of consumers and consider the impact of consumer behavior differences on commercial spatial organization.After the 1980s, it was in this context that consumer behavior and psychology began to be applied in the study of business geography.
In terms of theory, someone analyzed the correlation between urban consumption characteristics and the development mode of retail business, and concluded that the difference of urban residents' consumption characteristics in different periods had an impact on the commercial layout.In the empirical aspect, some scholars have studied the commercial spatial structure of Guangzhou, Shanghai and other cities in combination with consumer travel behavior, fully considered the impact of consumer characteristics, including demographic characteristics, such as age, occupation, education, etc., and put forward good suggestions on the location of commercial outlets and the development of retail industry.Some scholars introduced behavioral methods into rural market research to reveal the behavioral characteristics and preferences of consumers and businessmen in rural market.Also used by scholars in 1992Retail Gravity Model, entropy maximization model, correlation analysis, cluster analysis and other quantitative methods, focusing on a relatively systematic study of consumer behavior geography in Northeast China.At the same time, some scholars have also done a lot of empirical consumer behavior research.
In recent years, relevant national fund projects have also received support for similar research projects.It makes the theories and methods related to behavioral school flourish in China's commercial geography research.However, influenced by the behavioral school, business studies understand the formation and development of urban commercial spatial structure from the perspective of consumer behavior and socio-economic attributes. They believe that the hierarchical structure of commercial space not only comes from economic laws, but also comes from consumer behavior and socio-economic attributes, which is the biggest contribution of this school's theory,However, they regard commercial space as a self-contained closed space system, ignoring the influence of external top-down development power, which is a major limitation of behavioral school in studying commercial geography.
3. Business circle theory and method in business
At the beginning of the 1990s, China's economy grew at a high speed, investment increased significantly, and commercial prosperity prompted China's business geography to further turn to practicality.In 1992, when introducing the research progress of business geography in Japan, it was pointed out that business districts were one of the two main research fields in Japan.So the business circle theory began to enter China, but the impact was small.What is valuable is that some scholars began to put forward that the layout of commercial enterprises should attach importance to the application of business circle theory.The early research on business districts mainly focused on the theory and method determination of business districts. Theoretically, it involved the nature and function of business districts, and analyzed the structure and type of business districts.Methodologically, it was influenced by the "quantitative geography" of the space school, and absorbed several foreign methods, such asMarket saturationRayleigh's Law, etc.Under the influence of informatization development, business types and development have been greatly affected. The research on the combination of business district theory and informatization technology has developed to the model of business district analysis using GIS technology components.Some scholars use the business circle theory to carry out exploratory research on the layout of commercial outlets, such as empirical research on the layout of commercial and retail outlets in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.But at present, some people confuse the business district with the business district, that is, confuse the geographical attraction of the store with the geographical area of commercial concentration, which is not conducive to the development of business district research.
The research in this field began in the early 1990s, and was mainly concentrated in the middle and late 1990s. The research scholars mainly focused onUrban geographyandUrban PlanningIn the field.stayPlanned economyDuring this period, China's urban land was used free of charge, and the law of land economic value and the theory of land rent could not be effectively reflected, so there was little research on CBD during this period.
After the reform and opening upMarket economy systemUnder the influence of the transition, especially since the paid use of land began in 1992, the price of CBD land increased rapidly. Chinese scholars began to realize that there will be great changes and development in CBDE. Influenced by Murphy, J.E. Vance, Edward Ullman and Homer Hoyt, they began to theoretically explore the development mechanism, spatial evolution law and traffic organization of CBD in China.At the same time, some scholars have carried out empirical research on the functional characteristics, structural causes, spatial structure transfer and development of CBD in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Chongqing and Hangzhou, but the research technical route is relatively similar.
What is innovative is to determine the range of China's actual CBD through the survey of typical CBD regions and the calculation of the central business height index (CBHI) and the central business intensity index (CBII). Of course, the two indexes are different in different cities.Some scholars also discussed the land use and functional difference between the old and new business centers, and analyzed the urban land equilibrium price structure of CBD through modeling.In recent years, the planning circle has paid attention to the structural space and layout of the commercial pedestrian area in the city center. At the same time, there have also been works introducing the planning and development of foreign CBD, which provide a great reference value for China's CBD research.But generally speaking, the domestic CBD research is still in the preliminary stage, lacking systematic theoretical summary of the characteristics of China's urban CBD, which also affects the depth of empirical research to a certain extent.
5. Retail theory and network layout
At the end of the 20th century, China's accession to the WTO, as an important condition for its accession to the WTO, must gradually open the service trade market, and treat foreign investment according to relevant provisions such as market access and national treatment, so that China's business field has entered a new period of opening to the outside world.Foreign enterprises, especially foreign retail industry, such as Trust Mart in Taiwan, Wal Mart in the United States and Carrefour in France have entered the domestic market in succession.In addition, domestic large-scale supermarkets and the original large-scale department stores and other forms of retail industry competed on the same platform, which ultimately promoted the upsurge of empirical research on retail industry theory and network layout.It began to involve the operation organization and mode selection of general commercial formats, the site selection of large retail malls and retail stores, the market organization and development scale of retail outlets, and the impact on urban spatial structure.
Later, influenced by the spatial school of the "metrological revolution", some scholars used the method of metrological geography to explore the sales model of location selection for chain supermarkets and other businesses from the relationship between population and commercial outlets.During this period, some scholars also conducted empirical research on the distribution of urban retail outlets.So far, scholars have conducted in-depth research on the spatial layout and spatial evolution of commercial outlets in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Suzhou, Qingdao, Harbin and other cities.
DomesticSuburbanizationUnder the influence of the research, some scholars began to introduce the current situation, characteristics and reasons of suburban shopping malls in the United States. Under this influence, scholars noticed how to adapt to the development strategy of suburban chain stores, and some scholars gave some analysis on the "hollowing out of the center" of Beijing's central retail business district and the dispersion of Chongqing's commercial retail outlets.Although the suburbanization of retail outlets is not clearly proposed, it provides a good theoretical support and case analysis for the future research on suburbanization of domestic retail industry.With the development of the network and the renewal of the means of operation and management, the e-commerce form of the retail industry has also received certain attention.
conclusion
(1) Up to now, China's business geography has basically gone through five stages: enlightenment, formation, depression, brewing and activity, and has gone through a process from hot to cold and then gradually warming up.The whole historical process of the study shows that China's business geography is in a state of fluctuating progress.The research perspective of business geography has also begun to expand to multiple fields, from the initial descriptive research to the research of simple business regional structure and layout to quantitative, interdisciplinary, humanistic and other directions;
(2) Business geography has changed from the early macro (regional) perspective to the meso (urban) and micro (community) perspective, but the research is still insufficient, especially the meso perspective needs further discussion;
(3) The commercial location, especially the commercial spatial structure within the city, is the main research subject of commercial geography, but the current research is more in a closed system, lagging behind the development of the openness of urban economy and consumer mobility;
(4) In the process of empirical research, the theoretical summary is not enough, and some articles only describe the phenomenon of commercial geography, which is not targeted;
(5) The research on the combination of commercial space and business type is not enough, and there are few achievements in the detailed study of its spatial layout according to different business types.In the research, too much attention was paid to the introduction of relevant theories and methods of geography, and the economic theory of business itself, corporate management and shopper behavior were not taken into consideration. Therefore, the phenomenon of business geography was not fully discussed;
(6) The data of business geography research is very scarce, first of all, the statistical work lacks the necessary statistical indicators, and then the relevant data is rarely published.The commercial census work is not deep enough, and the type, scale, benefit, location, etc. of commercial activities are lack of existing data, which requires researchers to conduct their own research, increasing the cost and difficulty of research.
expectation
In the process of China's economic system transition from a planned system to a market system, in the context of globalization, regional and urban commerce is developing faster and faster, and new features and phenomena are emerging in endlessly.Business geography has an inescapable research responsibility and broad research prospects in this field.
First of all, the traditional urban commercial location and regional structure are still the focus of research.The research in this area mainly focuses on the empirical research on the regional structure and spatial layout of urban commerce, the distribution and location of commercial outlets, especially large and medium-sized retail outlets, and the research related to community commerce and central business district (CBD).With China's accession to the WTO and the entry of foreign multinational companies, China's commercial formats, especially the retail industry, have gradually increased, from the early department stores and convenience stores to supermarkets, warehouse supermarkets, large malls and other different formats;How to meet the characteristics of commercial development in the new era and win in the competition, the discussion of the characteristics of various commercial forms, operating mechanism, store location and business circle has become an important research field of commercial geography;
Secondly, interdisciplinary research and the application of new methods.includeBehavioral geography、historical geographyTourism geography, traffic geography and business geography;At the same time, with the development of Internet and information technology, how to develop this virtual customer range, combined with the content of e-commerce, will also become a research hotspot.With the popularization of GIS technology, it has great research value in commercial layout and business circle analysis;
Thirdly, the study of suburbanization or decentralization of commercial activities in big cities.The suburbanization in foreign countries mainly began in the 1960s, and mainly experienced four stages: residential suburbanization, industrial suburbanization, commercial suburbanization and office suburbanization.At present, domestic scholars have proposed that the first two types of suburbanization have appeared in China's major cities.Although some scholars have conducted exploratory research on commercial suburbanization, it is not in-depth;
Finally, with the further development of globalization, internationalization, regionalization and mass transportation, the regional and urban logistics industry has also developed rapidly. However, at present, the research on logistics geography is still quite scarce, which provides greater room for future research on business geography.
Business geography is a discipline that studies the geographical phenomena and laws of commercial activities.Business geography is a sub discipline of economic geography and one of the earliest branches of human geography. From the perspective of discipline development process, it is also the predecessor of economic geography.It mainly studies the geographical distribution of commercial activities;The relationship between commercial activities and the natural, economic, social and cultural environment;The spatial organization or regional structure of commercial activities and other regional characteristics of commercial activities.Business geography studies the spatial characteristics of commercial activities such as the geographical distribution of commodity production, transportation conditions, trade and markets.
