Key relationship principles for retail tenants and shopping centre management

Abstract

Many regions are thoroughly saturated with shopping centres, and trends are changing so quickly that many retail property owners feel confused about what to do next to stay competitive and maintain consumer satisfaction and interest. Today, tenants and consumers are more price-conscious than ever, and demand that malls use the latest technological applications to communicate with them and adapt to their ever-changing needs. The purpose of the study was to identify the key principles that would contribute to maintaining satisfactory relationships between tenants and the management of regional shopping centres, in order to ensure sustainability for both role-players. The theoretical underpinnings were based on two models: the Mohr and Spekman and the Morgan and Hunt relationship models. These models addressed the empirical testing of relationship quality and were used as the fundamental theoretical base for this study. The study required the implementation of a descriptive research method and both a qualitative and quantitative research approach was used. The target population comprised independent mall tenants and shopping centre management of regional shopping centres in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. All questionnaires were hand-delivered and a sample size of 93 was realised. The results from the study indicated that the tenants believe that trust is the primary component of a possible long-term relationship. Management needs to build personal relationships with the individual tenants by sharing experiences and ideas in order to learn more about each other. If shopping centre management applies the proposed recommendations, this could potentially improve their relationship with tenants. This could also potentially improve retail tenant satisfaction, loyalty, and retail tenant retention.