Potential impacts of an establishment of Ikea in Göttingen on retail and centrality

Project management: Dr. H.-D. von Frieling
Project period: October 2008 to April 2007

Project objectives:
The project's objective was to assess potential impacts of a projected establishment of an Ikea furniture store (sales area: 18,000 sqm) and a Furniture Competence Center (FCC) (sales area: 10,000 sqm) in Göttingen on the local and regional structure of the retail sector. The analysis was based on regional planning procedures, probabilistic gravity models for the calculation of regional spending capacity flow (Huff-Models), and own surveys on sales area. As expected the model predicted shifts of regional spending capacity flows for the benefit of Göttingen. However, the crucial magnitude of the shifts is driven by the parameters of the model. A further objective of this project, which started in conjunction with a course in economic geography, was to show how sensitive results of Huff-Models change dependent on small changes in the model parameters.

Appendant documents:
The project report is currently not available.

Appendant links:
Urban development concept Göttingen (in German)
Ikea – Facts & Figures