This paper employs two basic approaches: fuzzy location-orientation method based on neighborhood facilities and fuzzy multiple attribute decision making (MADM) method. The study focuses on spatial agglomeration analysis of e-shops which have tangible stores at Taobao website. The Taobao e-shops located in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tianjin have six categories of goods: digital products, household collections, clothing, skin care, stationery and sports. These e-shops can be divided into four location types: complete, overlapping, transitional and partial. Based on these four types, this paper reveals the biased characteristics of location-orientation of various e-shops and the changes of location orientation influence factors in information era, and further explores the optimal location choices of digital product e-shops which have obvious location distribution. The research findings are as follows. (1) Different goods categories have significant differences on e-services network location choice (ESNLC), and decentralization and agglomeration coexist. Agglomeration only happens at precious commodities such as digital categories and it still relies on traditional neighborhood facilities. By contrast, the majority of ordinary commodity e-shops barely have overlapping location layout, and have already shown a new location-oriented regular pattern, which no longer follows the traditional location theory. (2) The e-services network location choices under different commercial models differ from each other. The influences on ESNLC of c2c e-commerce model tend to be more different from the traditional location choice, which indicates that c2c e-commerce is the foundation of changes of location-orientation influence factors of e-shops. In addition to the old transmission network, sources of supply, market concentration factors, skilled labor factors and trust factors would become the mainstream. (3) Triangular fuzzy numbers can be used to calculate the optimal location of precious goods e-shops, such as digital product category, which have aggregated neighborhood facilities and obvious location orientation. The optimal location is selected from the overlap location to complete location. The larger the number of neighborhood facilities is, the stronger the location-orientation is. (4) In the electronic age, the traditional location theory will be extended or improved to be fully interpreting the location phenomenon of electronic service network.
LU Zi, LI Xiaonan, YANG Lihua, YANG Dong, DENG Lili
. Location Orientation of E-shops in China's Major Cities Based on Neighborhood Facilities: Case Studies of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Beijing[J]. Acta Geographica Sinica, 2011
, 66(6)
: 813
-820
.
DOI: 10.11821/xb201106010
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