Fall 2008
    (updated Dec 10, 2008 - 9:05 AM)

    Professor Thrall, Business Geography GIS at Univ Florida

    GEOGRAPHY 4620 & Geo 6938
    Business Geography Integrating Theory


      

    important notices

    2nd Exam Grades and course grades are available here
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    Section 3673X
    Periods:
    T 5-6 (11:45-12:35, 12:50-1:40),
    R 6 (12:50-1:40)
    This course provides the general integrating theory to business geography. It is one of the four courses in the core Business Geography stream.
    This course is a prerequisite for advanced courses in the business geography stream, Geo 5605 and 6509 in the Department of Geography at University of Florida. Geo 5605 and Geo 6509 are open to undergraduates after completion of Geo 4620 and Geo 3602, or prior permission of instructor.
    Department of Geography,
    University of Florida

    Classroom: 3018 Turlington
    Professor Grant Ian Thrall

    3121 Turlington Hall
    1-352-392-4652
    thrall@geog.ufl.edu

    Return to Professor Thrall's University of Florida WWW Page

    Course Outline

      1. What is so important about business geography
      2. What is business geography
      3. Business Geography Data
      4. Examples Geographic Market Analysis
      5. Understanding geographic markets and submarkets
      6. Business Decisions Across Geographic Markets
      7. Unifying Urban Land Use and Land Value Theory
      8. exam 1
      9. General business geography methods
      10. Trade Areas
      11. Business geography methods applied to
        1. housing
        2. office
        3. retail
        4. hotel
        5. mixed use
      12. Project Management
      13. exam 2

      Prerequisite: A 3000 level course or above in Economics, Real Estate, Marketing, Management, Human/Social Geography, or Urban Planning. A university course in quantitative methods that covers basic quantitative methods is recommended.

      "Business geography integrates geographic analysis, reasoning, and technology for the improvement of the business judgmental decision. Without the demonstrated ability to improve the business decision, there is no business geography. This differentiates business geography from the traditional descriptive or explanatory objective of economic and urban geography (Thrall, 2002, i)."

      Business geography is important to marketing, decision and information sciences, real estate, economics, and other business subjects. Business geography is also relevant to urban planning, particularly those who desire career paths to become economic development officers.

      This class integrates ideas, methods, technologies, and objectives in an opportunistic manner to achieve the goal of providing information to improve the business decision. This class provides an overview and general theory of geographic markets and submarkets.


      Topic

      Motivation

      Technology

    • Why do we care about business geography - why do we do it?
      1. JREPM v13, n3, 2007. Tony Hernandez and Grant Thrall
      2. Lawrence E. Estaville, Brock J. Brown, Lisa Keys-Mathews and William R. Strong, 2005. Business Geography: Development of a Curriculum Model. Papers of the Applied Geography Conference, vol 28, 292-300. Also in GeoSpatial Solutions, May 2006
      3. Elaine Misonzhnikcommentary in Retail Traffic, 2006
      1. GIS Buffer Application
      2. Housing Bubble?
      3. Related Careers
      4. Bye Bye Boomers
      5. Is Florida Over?- WSJ article 29 Sept 2007
      1. Miller, Ch 1, Mkt Opportunities
      2. "Analyze This: GIS Offers Ways To Pinpoint and Evaluate Land Before The Competition Does" Builder News, May 2004, Frank Rockwood and Grant Thrall
    • What is business geography
      1. Introduction to Business Geography
      2. "Stages of GIS Reasoning" What is GIS and how does it relate to the discipline.
      3. Thrall 2002, preface & ch. 1
      4. Business of Business Geography
        1. "Mapping the Geospatial Community, Part 1" Grant Thrall and Matias Campins
        2. "Mapping the Geospatial Community, Part 2" Grant Thrall and Matias Campins
        3. "Mapping the Geospatial Community, Part 3" Grant Thrall and Matias Campins
        4. "Mapping the Geospatial Community, Part 4" Grant Thrall and Matias Campins
      1. Interview in Florida Sun
      2. Interview in Florida Trend Magazine (html version at floridatrend.com)
      1. Wharton School Marketing:
        Hot Today, Not Tomorrow: Retailers Face the Terrible Teens
      Miller, Ch 1, Getting Started With GIS
    • Business Geography Data
      1. Atlantic Monthly article on segmentation and profiling
      2. ZIP Code Demographics
      3. Segmentation Overview - ESRI Tapestry
      4. ESRI web page on "Tapestry" lifestyle segmentation profiles (Enter a ZIP code)
        1. LSP by surname - http://www.spatial-literacy.org
          1. Example-Thrall
          2. Map Thrall 1881
        2. For some fun - human migration up to about 8K years B.P.
      5. Business Geography Data Resource
      6. Geospatial OneStop (GOS)
      7. Data issues (Thrall 2002, ch 10)
      8. Property Data
        • Layout of the Florida Department of Revenue 12D.8 N.A.L. Record File
        • Alachua County Parcel Polygon ESRI SHP File with 12D.8 Property Assessment Characteristics
                                 Note, this is a 16MB password protected ZIP file
      1. What are we reading, where?
      2. Electorial College 2008 interactive map at Wall St. Journal
      3. Example of GEOCODING
      4. Kohl's Demographics
      Miller, Ch 2, Tapestry Data
    • Examples of Geographic Market Analysis
      • Spatial Analysis, Political Support, and Higher Education Funding July 1, 2003 Geospatial Solutions By: Grant Ian Thrall , Noelle Mecoli Business geographic analysis can convey to legislators the importance of a university and help garner political support for adequate funding. http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=61493
      • Trade Areas and LSPs: A Map for Business Growth April 1, 2003 Geospatial Solutions By: Grant Ian Thrall , Michelle Fandre By correlating trade areas and customer profile data, retailers can visualize market penetration and assess options for future expansion. http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=52685
      1. FannieMae Housing Report #1
      2. FannieMae Housing Report #2
      3. FannieMae Housing Report #3
      Miller, Ch 2, Tapestry Data
    • Understanding geographic markets and submarkets
      • Thrall 2002, ch. 2
      • National vs Local Markets - subprime example
        • Link to text of interview with with Wharton faculty Joseph Gyourko & Todd Sinai
        • Link to audio MP3 interview with with Wharton faculty Joseph Gyourko & Todd Sinai
      • Why California's housing submarket matters to the nation
      • How we calculate market and submarket boundaries
      • New US Census Core Based Statistical Area Classification System (Getting to the Core of CBSAs by Bob Hamilton and Grant Thrall)
      • Census data quality
      • Local Goverrnment Data
      • US Census Demographic Report
        • JREPM v12, n3, 2006. Page Mueller, and Asli Ball
      • Price Trends
        • IAAO List of Online Assessment Databases
        • Alachua County Property Data
        • Price trends over time for Rock Creek Subdivision

      1. Florida Realestate History
      2. * Thrall interview in Sarasota newspaper on codo trade areas and importance in calculating market analysis * Link to the Sarasota Herald Tribune article on the newspaper web site
      3. Article on education relevant to discussion in Thall (2002, ch 2) on public vs private goods.
      4. Sept 2006 Florida Trend article on education with quote from Thrall
      5. Newspaper article on linkage between housing markets and general economy
      6. International Mega-Markets and Sub-Markets
      Miller, Ch 3, Targeted Promotion
    • Business Decisions Across Geographic Markets
      Geographic diversification
    • Miller, Ch 4, Strategy
    • Unifying Urban Land Use and Land Value Theory
      • Thrall 2002, preface, ch. 3
      • Von Thunen rent theory
      • Consumption Theory Of Land Rent (CTLR)
        • Grant Thrall, 1987. Land Use & Urban Form, Routledge/Methuen.
        • CTLR (Thrall, 1987, ch 1,2,3)
      • Production Theory of Land Rent (PTLR)
      • time budget and location preferences
        • lawn care
        • manufactured goods versus intangible goods
      • further specification of the CTLR model
        • foundations of the
      1. agriculture and the importance of access to marketsarticle on taxes in which spatial equilibrium is implied
      2. article on student apartments going to the Ritz
      3. article on bank reserve ratio and FL real estate mkt with quote by Thrall   PDF
      4. Management and Implementation
      5. Newspaper article on housing affordability
      6. Risk - Beach Example Texas

      Exam
      First Exam - Tuesday, October 14
      40 MC/TF questions and one GIS exercise problem
                        Click here for sample.         
              Click here for grades

    • CTLR (Thrall, 2002, ch 3)
      • lecture notes #1
      Urban radius - St Petersburg Times Interview With Dr. Grant Thrall Miller, Ch 5 Integrated Marketing
      Miller Ch. 6, Prospect Profiling
    • Back to the Unifying Urban Land Use and Land Value Theory
      • Transportation Systems
        • transportation cost (Thrall, 1987, ch 5)
        • transportation effort (Thrall, 1987, ch 6)
        • transportation nodes (multi nodal city) (Thrall, 1987, ch 7)
      • Government Revenue
        • tax expenditure overview (Thrall, 1987, ch 8)
        • article on "tax reform" including mortgage interest deduction
        • property, sales and income taxes; interest rates and mortgage interest deductions (Thrall, 1987, ch 9, 10, 11)
        • news article on tax roll back
        • news artcle on interest rate change
        • news article on Alachua County's proposed impact fee (PDF)
        • Oct 31, 2007 - G'ville Sun, Editorial On Proposed Property Tax Legislation
      • Government Services
        • planning (Thrall, 1987, ch 12)
        • externalities (Thrall, 1987, ch 13)
          • WSJ article on hurricanes

        Summary overview of "direct effects"

      1. National Association of Realtors analysis by urban submarket of the prospects of a housing bubble
      2. Phelps on innovation

        Property assessment portability
      3. Home Prices - Fall 2006
      4. Neighborhood externality impact from foreclosures
      Miller, Ch 7, International Mkt Assessment
      General business geography methods
      • Back to some demographics
        • Big picture of demographic trends (NAREIM presentation by G Thrall)
        • Lend Lease Metro Employment Report
      • Conducting Real Estate Market Analysis - Thrall (2002), Ch 4
        1. Overview of Part II of Thrall (2002)
        2. Supermarkets 101 (by Tom Dwyer)
        3. Patel, Fik Thrall, 2007 ARES Award Winning Real Estate Market ANalysis Manuscript
      1. Thrall Commentary On Springhills Development (also see here)
      2. ESRI Psychographic Analysis by ZIP of Buffalo NY
      3. Ikea Trade Area, article in G'ville Sun on Orlando Ikea Opening - PDF

      _____

      1. Energy & Petrol Prices
      2. Grocery Store Change
      3. Forbes City Ranking
      4. Florida Slowdown
      Miller, Ch 8, Retail Site Selection
    • Trade Area
      1. Delineating Hospital Trade Areas: It's Practically Brain Surgery July 1, 2002 Geospatial Solutions By: Grant Ian Thrall , Edward Borden , Susan Elshaw Thrall Arising from concerns about possible discrimination at hospitals in Long Island, New York, the State of New York Department of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Justice contacted lead author Grant Thrall in early 2000 and asked him to demonstrate how GIS might be used to calculate hospital trade areas and service to a "diverse" population. http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=22173
      2. MarketEdge TrendMaps: Deriving Trade Areas November 1, 2001 Geospatial Solutions By: Grant Ian Thrall , John J. Casey Trade area refers to the geographic region in which a business' customers are located. In practice, deriving trade areas can be complex and resource intensive. Some multibranch retail firms allocate hundreds of staff hours to hand-digitize trade areas, and manual digitizing can result in inconsistent trade-area definitions and operator errors. http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=1348
      Commercial Retail Location Software
      1. Geovue's iPLAN Lynx

      Trade area calculation

      1. Patel Fik Thrall 2008
      Miller, Ch 9, Manageing Sales Territories
    • Business geography methods for different real estate product types
      1. Housing (Thrall 2002, ch 5)
      2. Office & Industrial (Thrall 2002, ch 6) - (also see WSJ video)
      3. Retail (Thrall 2002, ch 7) (also see http://www.vexray.com/ )
      4. Hotel and Motel (Thrall 2002, ch 8)
      5. Mixed Use (Thrall 2002, ch 9)

      Multi-part series "Florida Future - Baby Boomers" by Michael Pollick, Sarasota Herald Tribune
      1. Part 1
      2. Part 2
    • Getting Started (Data and Project Management)
      • (Thrall 2002, ch 10)

      • Last words on equilibrium & disequilibrium
        • Short Video - Greenspan on Schumpeter's "Creative Destruction"
        • Economy in 12001
        • Jobs
       Second Exam (last double period class of semester, Dec 9)
      40 MC/TF questions and one GIS exercise problem

                      Click here for exam scores, and grades when available.


  • REQUIRED READING
      • Purchase: Grant Thrall, 2002. Business Geography and New Real Estate Market Analysis, Oxford University Press: London and New York. ISBN # 0195076362.
        • This is a required text. Information on where to purchase here.
        • Students will read chapters 1-5 of Thrall (2002) in this course in detail.
        • Chapters 6-10 will be covered, but in more depth in
          Business Geography and New Real Estate Market Analysis - Geo 4938 & Geo 5157 / GIS 5540
          offered in the spring semester. Students that complete Geo 4620 are encouraged to enroll in Geo 5157.

      • Purchase: GIS Tutorial For Marketing by Fred L. Miller available here
      • Available at no charge on the Internet
        • Grant Thrall, 1987. Land Use & Urban Form, Routledge/Methuen.
          • This is a recommended. Lectures will be taken from this book
          • This book is available at no charge at here.
        • Grant Thrall, 1991. "The Production Theory of Land Rent," Environment and Planning A., vol 23, pp. 955-967.
        • Additional reading items for each topic of the course may be placed on reserve or copyright permitting placed for your access at this www site.


  • IMPORTANT DATES
      • see UF's www page


  • GRADING
    Students are expected to behave in a mature adult manner. Any class disruptions will result in the reduction of your letter grade by one full grade for each disruptive occurrence. Disruptive behavior includes, while in class, sounds and use of beepers and celular telephones, and PDAs, accessing web pages that are not class materials. Professor Thrall is the sole judge of disruptive behavior.

      There will be a midterm and a final exam. The exams will be a mixture of multiple choice, true/false, and a short essay and GIS computer exercise based upon Miller. Students will not be admitted to exam after exam begins. Students arriving late will be counted as being not present without an excuse. Be on time.

      Study questions 2003

      • MC/TF Study Questions For Thrall (2002)


  • OPTIONAL TERM PAPER*
    • Students have an option to write a term paper or complete a sequence of exercises. This option is worth 20% of the total grade. The midterm and final exams will each be reduced by 10%.
      • Term paper option. The topic of the term paper must be approved by Dr. Thrall no later than ten calendar days after the midterm. The term paper will apply a topic covered in this course to a local issue. The optional term paper is to be a minimum of six pages, and no more than eight pages, double spaces, 12 pt. font, one inch margines, excluding the cover/title page and any figures or maps. The term paper must be submitted in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format, via email attachment, no later than the hour of the second midterm exam. Follow all standard university rules on writing style, spelling, and layout. If the topic is applied to a location, the location must be within Alachua County.

      * Students enrolled for graduate credit must complete the term paper. Graduate credit students may also complete the Exercise option.




    (c) 2005-2008. Grant Ian Thrall, all rights reserved. Gainesville FL.