Municipal social entrepreneurship: Retail consolidation in Stockton-on-Tees (North-East England) to maintain place-based shopping center benefits

Forces of creative destruction have led to the decline of the traditional retail role within urban centers. To maintain retail within urban centers it is crucial to directly address the underlying structural oversupply of property. Conceptualized as a social entrepreneurial process, this case study of Stockton-on-Tees town center (North-East England) illustrates the consolidation of two struggling shopping centers into one successful center. This consolidation has provided a sounder basis upon which the remainder of the town center can build. This opportunity emerged from a shift in thinking from growth to consolidation and from brand name attraction to the retention of preexisting businesses. A social entrepreneurial form of municipalization has been used to deliver retail consolidation, where the local authority purchased private sector specialist skills on a contract for service basis, thereby avoiding the need for partnership. In the context of an emerging literature on new municipalism, this paper explores municipal statecraft through a social entrepreneurial lens, providing a new conceptual and practical perspective on municipal involvement in the regeneration of struggling places.