Importancia del asociacionismo para el comercio de las ciudadescaso de La Rioja (España)

Abstract

The commercial activity constitutes one of the main foundations of the vitality of the cities. Therefore, the development of initiatives that promote this revitalization of the city and commerce requires a great collaboration between merchants and public and private institutions. The commercial association is an interesting way to improve the competitiveness of independent trade and with it the image and life of cities. The present paper studies the commercial associationism in the retail trade of La Rioja, with the objective of analyzing its characteristics and its role in the development of independent city trade. For this, primary information has been collected through a questionnaire applied personally to the presidents of the commercial associations of La Rioja. The main results show that the perceived importance of associationism by presidents is very high, that the involvement of members is quite low (less than 40% attend meetings) and that the main perceived advantages of belonging to an association are: a brand image of the association that benefits its associates, improve the bargaining power vis-à-vis financial entities and suppliers and carry out joint commercial actions