What makes neighbourhood-level commercial centres attractive for neighbourhood residents?

Neighbourhood commercial centres (NCC) are dynamic hubs that provide essential goods, promote community bonds and drive economic growth. Despite numerous studies on shopping behaviour, there remains a notable gap in understanding how transportation and shopping centre-related factors collectively shape the attractiveness of the NCCs, especially in developing countries like India. This research aims to understand why some NCCs outperform others in terms of attractiveness. This study proposes the neighbourhood commercial centre attractiveness index (NCCAI), which is developed by collecting 455 samples from 13 NCCs with the help of a primary survey to understand how different factors influence the attractiveness of NCCs in the Indian planned city context. The study used principal component analysis (PCA) and identified five major components that significantly contribute to NCC's attractiveness. Further, the weightage of the components was determined through two distinct approaches: one based on PCA results and the other utilising the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with expert opinion data. Finally, the more reliable weights from these two methodologies were selected using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The NCCAI can help urban planners, store owners and retail managers, providing data-driven insights to enhance overall NCC attractiveness. The decomposable nature of NCCAI allows for component score breakdown, enabling planners and policymakers to allocate resources strategically.