• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.193-209
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• 2011

The fast expansion of super supermarket(SSM) in Korean retail industries has attracted serious social attentions and some types of regulations to slow down its growth are prepared. However, the regulations are hardly justified because they attempt to establish entry barriers which are not recommendable economic policy. Accordingly, the regulations should be justified at least on the basis of social and political causes. The study interprets the social and political causes as the effects of entry of SSM on trading ares where SSM is located. The study is distinguished from the past studies which focused only on intertype and intratype competition between retailers Another goal of the study is to complement the weakness of past studies and provide additional information to settle the issues. More closely, the study investigates the relationships between the changes in sales of convenience stores, which may be a surrogate measure of the viability of a local economy, and the changes in the composition of business types within 500m radius of a SSM. Further, the study investigates the effects of the establishment of SSM and the retail sales index on the sales of convenience stores. The study analyzed the panel data and adopts Swamy's random coefficient models. The results show that the effects of the establishment of SSM on the sales of convenience stores are not statistically significant. The relationship between the change in the portion of restaurants among the local business and the change in the sales of convenience stores is positive. On the other hand the relationship between the change in the portion of retailers in the composition of local businesses and the change in the sales of convenience stores is negative. In conclusion, even though any negative effects of the establishments of SSM on local economies are expected, as long as other types business especially restaurant businesses fill the space left by retailers, the net effect on the local economy may not be signification or even positive.