ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the main modelling techniques used by certain retailers, especially the larger corporate giants. It examines the factors which might best explain a set of revenue figures for selected McDonald's and Burger King Stores in the USA. The chapter introduces a simple form of modelling - the analogue technique. Regression modelling represents one of the more scientific methods of network planning and builds on the philosophy of the analogue procedure. Improvements in information technology, the development of geographic information system (GIS) software, increases in quality and quantity of data and the challenges of identifying potential new sites combined to offer a new, favourable environment for spatial modelling techniques. The validation, or calibration, of a spatial interaction model (SIM) is an important process to assess the ability of the model to replicate known data sets. In the 1970s a number of spatial modellers began to build critiques of SIMs because of their lack of behavioural content.
