Economics of Spatial Configuration: A Conceptual Framework for Tenanting Decision of Shopping Malls
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22232/stj.2025.13.01.02Keywords:
Agent based simulation (ABS);, Metric mean shortest path angle (MMSPA), Tenant-mix, Through vision (TV), Tenant-mix, Through vision (TV);, Tenant-mix, Through vision (TV).Abstract
A shopping mall is an agglomeration of discrete tenant stores with varied capacities of rental payment. The complexity of mall management lies in fulfilling the profit maximizing objective of the individual tenant stores and the mall as a whole. This two-step objective of profit maximization is attained through tenant-mix decision. Tenant stores of suitable size and rental payment should be placed in a shopping mall to generate maximum profit for that store and to earn maximum revenue for the shopping mall at the same time. The location and area allocation decisions are essentially spatial but no parameters of spatial configuration are used in predicting the tenanting decision. The mall management handles this decision in a subjective and generalized way. Only spatial variable acknowledged in retail literature is metric distance which predicts the most significant variable for tenanting decision, foot fall. Syntactical analysis of spatial configuration in the field of built environment on the other hand attempted to predict movement and foot fall within a built space. The results of studies in these two disciplines are end in themselves. The findings from one discipline do not help decision making in another. This research attempts to bridge the gap between retail management and syntactical analysis of space and attempts to include spatial parameters in taking strategic decisions.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Sumanta Deb, Sarbani Sarkar
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