This paper analyzes the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban growth and models its spatial determinants in China through a case study of Suzhou, a rapidly industrializing and globalizing city. We conducted spatial analysis on land use data derived from multi-temporal remote sensing images of Suzhou from 1986 to 2008. Three urban growth types, namely infilling, edge-expansion, and leapfrog, were identified. We used landscape metrics to quantify the temporal trend of urban growth in Suzhou. During these 22 years, Suzhou’s urbanization changed from bottom-up rural urbanization to city-based top-down urban expansion. The underlying mechanism changed from TVE (town village enterprise) driven rural industrialization to FDI (foreign direct investment) driven development zone fever. Furthermore, we employed both global and local logistic regressions to model the probability of urban land conversion against a set of spatial variables. The global logistic regression model found the significance of proximity, neighborhood conditions, and socioeconomic factors. The logistic geographically weighted regression (GWR) model improved the global regression model with better model goodness-of-fit and higher prediction accuracy. More importantly, the local parameter estimates of variables enabled us to exam spatial variations of the influences of variables on urban growth in Suzhou.

Purpose: The paper aims to investigate the new market entry strategy of the international grocery retailers Aldi Süd and Costco in China; analyzing if and how their prior-online market entry reflects a strategic response to organizational challenges in the Chinese market, which is a pioneer in the use of digital technologies and the provision of digital services.Design/methodology/approach: The article identifies major challenges faced by international grocery retailers in China and discusses these with the help of the conceptual approach of embeddedness. The paper is based on expert interviews with senior executives of the two international retailers and other retail specialists and consultants.Findings: The prior-online market entry by Aldi Süd and Costco represents a strategic response to organizational challenges that have to be faced in an increasingly challenging and highly digitalized Chinese market. Prior-online market entry allows the two retailers to experiment with the unique and heterogeneous Chinese market and build network and territorial embeddedness to facilitate the establishment of the physical store network. Both retailers utilize online stores to build relation and network with suppliers and customers and to understand Chinese consumer preferences. Yet, the localization strategy of Aldi Süd and Costco vary greatly.Originality/value: Grocery retailers' prior-online expansion strategy has not yet been the focus of academic research. In regard to global grocery retailers, such as Aldi Süd and Costco, previous research argued that they were prepared to accept a lower expansion speed in order to expand at minimum risk and cost and mainly in countries which are regarded as having higher cultural proximity. The paper reveals the potential of the prior-online market entry strategy to change the internationalization behavior of grocery retailers. In addition, it contributes to the understanding of the evolution of market entry strategy into advanced digital economies in the coming new decade.

The increasing wildfire activity and rapid population growth in the wildland–urban interface (WUI) have made more Americans exposed to wildfire risk. WUI mapping plays a significant role in wildfire management. This study used the Microsoft building footprint (MBF) and the Montana address/structure framework datasets to map the WUI in Montana. A systematic comparison of the following three types of WUI was performed: the WUI maps derived from the Montana address/structure framework dataset (WUI-P), the WUI maps derived from the MBF dataset (WUI-S), and the Radeloff WUI map derived from census data (WUI-Z). The results show that WUI-S and WUI-P are greater than WUI-Z in the WUI area. Moreover, WUI-S has more WUI area than WUI-P due to the inclusion of all structures rather than just address points. Spatial analysis revealed clusters of high percentage WUI area in western Montana and low percentage WUI area in eastern Montana, which is likely related to a combination of factors including topography and population density. A web GIS application was also developed to facilitate the dissemination of the resulting WUI maps and allow visual comparison between the three WUI types. This study demonstrated that the MBF can be a useful resource for mapping the WUI and could be used in place of a national address point dataset.

European grocery retailers, once the most internationalized players in the global economy, have increasingly disposed of their Chinese subsidiaries since 2010. This paper examines the dynamics of European grocery retail divestment in China between 2010 and 2020. Based on secondary data of company documentation and news reports, we analyse the processes and drivers of these divestments within a holistic framework of foreign divestment in the retail sector. Our findings identify both retail format specific and common factors for European grocery retailers’ divestments. Financial pressure in the home market or other overseas markets, competition from indigenous retailers in physical stores, online retailing and the ‘New Retail’, changing consumer dynamics and growing operational costs are the major drivers of divestment activities. This paper identifies the divestment from China by European grocery retailers as a step in their ongoing de-internationalization process.