Explaining and Testing the Aboriginal Model of Shopping Malls’ Success: (Case Study: Shopping Malls in Tehran)

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionIn the first place, it is necessary to achieve a single definition of shopping malls. According to what has occurred in the past century and now in the world, the shopping center or mall is an adaptation of the market in the twentieth century having a history. The shopping center is a collection of retail shops, the service sectors, and a place for parking customers' cars which all are designed, built and run by a management company that operates in the same sentence (Pentecost & Andrews, 2013; Ahmed et al., 2007).Shopping malls can have restaurants, banks, theaters, professional offices, service stations and other firms in addition to all mentioned before (Rahman et al., 2016). What distinguishes a complex from other buildings is not the beauty and majesty of the building and the number of different possibilities, but it is the success rate of the complex in the minds of specific and general consumers and audience (Cai & Shannon, 2012). In addition to these factors, terms such as "good location" and "to be known" and so on are considered among the most important factors of a shopping mall success in gaining the customers' satisfaction (Bozdogan, 2015).In recent years, we have witnessed more development in construction of shopping malls across the country. In contrast to the growing number of these complexes, only some of them could accommodate a large number of visitors, and other complexes, are constantly changing and evolving businesses. However, the demand shortage for commercial units in the form of a multi-purpose complex along with sweeping recession of the business environment in recent years have fueled these circumstances, as experienced in European and Asian countries. For example, in Turkey the competition of these shopping malls was so much that some shopping malls were doomed to failure and forced to change their business to a hospital or school (Erkip & Ozuduru 2015; Erkip, 2003). In Iran, the situation is not much different.Accordingly, this research is focused on the key success factors of shopping malls and offers the indicators and the success factors of this kind of complexes. Issues like studying the model of success of shopping malls, are among the issues that have been little studied, but in practice, have an undeniable role in the progress of shopping malls. In general, shopping malls should benefit both the owners and the customers (Rahman et al., 2016). Thus, the success and prosperity of complexes is one of the most important factors in this type of projects.The main purpose of this research is theorizing and testing the model of shopping malls' success. Grounded theory approach is used to provide the basic model and then confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used in order to test the proposed model. The success of these shopping malls greatly is affected by local conditions and culture of the country. So, the main problem of this study is to provide a model for shopping malls' success, considering the unique characteristics of Iran.In reviewing domestic research, a model that investigates and identifies the success of shopping malls was not found. Given the lack of scientific model in this regard, this research could contribute to the development of knowledge in this area. Most researches in this field were focused on the sale of business units, marketing subtleties, and financing whereas studying the success factors of shopping malls is essential and yet can be considered as a very new and novel concept. Therefore, the present study intends to answer these questions that which factors define shopping mall success? And how shopping mall can be improved in light of the findings of this research?Literature Review & Theoretical BackgroundIf the history of the shopping mall is traced back to the earliest enclosed complexes for trading goods, then the early bazaars of Asia cannot be left out. …