Examination of the shopping centers? development in retail industry in the context of industry life cycle: Example of Turkey and the United States of America

The term `shopping center? has various definitions. In general, a shopping center is defined as a group of retail and other commercial establishments that is planned, developed, owned and managed as a single property. Nowadays, shopping centers are not only the places to meet many needs but they are also recognized as dynamic life centers. Over the years, shopping centers have been evolving from local shopping centers to organized malls.Industry life cycle model has four phases during its evolution: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Industry life cycle concept stems from the literature of product life cycle and different models related to the new product development in the 1970?s. The model was developed through the technology studies which were examined in the 1980?s.The aim of this study is to examine the changes of the Turkish shopping center industry which has been undergoing in the context of industrial evolution by doing comparision with the US shopping center industry that has already been the pioneer in the modern base of the industry.In order to achieve this objective, several institutional abstracts especially databases of the Turkish Council of Shopping Centers & Retailers and the International Council of Shopping Centers were used. Both industries were examined and compared to each other with the assistance of these secondary data. Within the parameters that were used, it is possible to say that Turkish shopping center industry is in growth phase while the US shopping center industry is in maturity phase of its life cycle.