David Zhang from Beijing/China remembers in an interview with retail4.education how he started his visits with retail experts to Germany and EuroShop: "We first met in Köln in May 2002; Prof.Dr.Hallier took the group of Chinese retailers to see many retail stores in the Koln area, including Aldi, Lidl, Ekeka, Rewe, Real etc. ; then Hallier did send me also to the International HQ of SPAR as he was of the opinion that first of all we should prepare a wholesale-system as a backstage for modern retail in China. He was also the first international expert who told Chinese retailers about discount retailing, private labels, and food safety issues, along with many other interesting topics. That was the starting point of Chinese retailers' international experiences. In 2019 we were very happy to host Prof.Hallier and his wife to visit on a 5-weeks-tour all through China with many of those companies who partly already had been as the second generation of those Europe tours and who are now Chinese retail entrepreneurs" (see also)Link ChinaYouTube

David Zhang compares the situation of China in 2002 and the present level of retail companies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgistan and Usbekistan which nowadays have also to cluster their competences and power to survive within the increasing competition : "A visit of a group of retailers for EuroShop and Store checks should be under the motto Exploring how to learn from Retail in Western Europe for Eurasia : what had been the roots of success ? What is common and what is different in food and non-food ? What are the risks of internationalization ? How can the Retail Knowledge be institutionalized by an Eurasian Retail School ? " ( see also : YouTube EuroShop EuroShop/EuroCIS )
 

In the post-socialistic area the Comenius University in Bratislava - the oldest and one of the most renown universities in Slowakia - started to support the transformation by a collection of terms like "marketing", "POS", "Store Segmentation" Prof.Dr.B.Hallier remembers those early days. "Within the distribution system of the COMECON-states as well as in teaching all those terms had been new for students and even for most of the professors. We had to find at first a common language to exchange our visions".

Today the journal Marketing Science & Inspirations is a very well accepted journal under its Editor-in-Chief Prof.Dr.Peter Starchon . The emphasis of its four editions per year is put on current trends and issues relevant for both theory and practice. "MSI is an ideal platform for Applied Sciences and also for Students to learn to publish their articles. Writing can be only learnt by writing - and therefore publishing should be part of the academic education" Hallier stated while contributing himself an article about his latest research about innovation cycles.
 

The Czestochowa University of Technology together with its partners invite for the 1st International Scientific Conference entitled "Multidimensional Management in the 21st Century". The Scientific Committee has a scope of 32 professors from 10 countries ; Germany is represented by the ERA-President Prof.Dr.B.Hallier.

"The aim of the Conference is to present scientific achievements of students/doctoral students/young scientists and to exchange views of representatives of science and practitioners" Hallier said "creating by this dialogue new cooperation networks for Applied Sciences. Additionally it is a chance to be visible internationally by the Conference Abstracts and partner publications like site

The honoured personality 2023 of the European Retail Academy is Ivo Andric (1892 -1975) who was born in Travnik/today Bosnia - but also studied in Zagreb, Vienna, Kracow and Graz : he is an example of the pan-Balcan area of higher education in the Habsburg times. In 1961 Andric was honoured by a Nobel Award in Literature for his work as a pioneer of intercultural conflict analysis in context with the permanent clashes between Orient and Occident (Ottoman and Habsburg Empires). Prof.Dr.B.Hallier sees his books as a key for understanding the outbreak of World War I in Sarajewo and still the present frictions at the Balcan, the Middle East and even partly Eurasia due to the fact that never a real holistic peace-treaty between the many ethnic minority groups of those former large Empires was designed. More : YouTube Pan Balcan Initiative: "PanBalkan Initiave"

But Ivo Andric was not only a writer but also a transformer himself: after World War I he became politically active working in the Zagreb National Council uniting Serbs, Croatians and Slowenians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. For Hallier such persons for reconciliation would be needed urgently especially in times of big disruptions like in the twenties of this century. "International cultural education could be the basis for the stabilization of our ethical understanding of a global Civil Society : Ivo Andric's approach is eternally" Hallier said at the appointment of Ivo Andric for the Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy.

In December 2022 in Romania the Rector of the Romanian-American University (RAU) , Professor Costel Negricea, and the Rector of the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPH), Professor Remus Pricopie, concluded a long-term cooperation between the two institutions based on the principles of university autonomy.

The President of the European Retail Academy, Professor Bernd Hallier welcomes this initiative : " The last two years with so many disruptions teach us to check our business-models - this has to be true also for the University Sector. To offer me-too-lectures or -research is a waste of time and money. To share knowledge by joint digital platforms, by Microsoft- or Zoom Workshops or Conferences, by sharing digital magazines to publish research results to empower the citation ranking of the university by the multiplication of clicks is the future" Hallier summarized the potential of this new cooperatin. "For many years Professor Theodor Purcarea from RAU is pioneer of digital publication by the magazine Holistic Marketing Management : we watch very closely the positive effects of this for Central Europe and beyond this scope" Hallier added.