Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore how market factors (pertaining to institutions, competition and resources) shape the international strategies of an online retailer.

A single qualitative case study research design is employed to conduct in-depth analyses of a Swedish internationalising small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in the retail business.

The findings show that online retailers can use partnerships to tackle industry dynamics and break into foreign markets. This type of “piggy-back internationalisation” can be an effective strategy of handling foreign market dynamics in the entry phase: that is to say, the short term. Reliance upon relationships, however, may paradoxically inhibit retailers’ abilities to stay competitive in the post-entry phase (i.e. the long term) since they become cut-off from the first-hand market learning.

The authors provide propositions based upon the findings to support further research in the international marketing and international retailing literature.

The findings enhance the understanding of how electronic commerce affects SME internationalisation. They also generate new insights into the use of possible international expansion strategies for managers in retail SMEs.

This study introduces a new theoretical perspective to build upon international retail research and contributes to the international retail literature with relevant insights into both advantages and disadvantages of using partnerships to overcome challenges related to international online retailing.

The innovation of meaning paradigm is a strategy to radically innovate product and service meanings. While researchers have focussed on the role of product and retail space meanings as interlinked in the pursuit of innovation, no investigation has been directed towards understanding when the two meanings differ. This research explores how companies can manage two different meanings offered through their retail services and the products sold.

Due to the highly intangible and subjective nature of meaning, as well as the exploratory aim of the research, a case study approach has been adopted. In particular, the research compares two case studies of similar companies in the beauty industry. Data were triangulated across three different sources: a panel of experts, ethnographic research in the two companies' stores and extensive academic and practitioner publications.

Findings suggest that innovating the service meaning can be a viable strategy to differentiate a retail offering the product meaning which is no longer perceived as different with respect to competitors.

The study applies the innovation of meaning concept to retail services, distinguishing the meaning given to the store from that given to products, thereby offering managers a strategy to innovate a suffering retail format.

The Covid-19 pandemic has a strong effect on societies, business and consumers. Governments have taken measures to reduce the spread of the pandemic, such as social distancing and lockdowns. The latter has also resulted in a temporary closure of physical stores for “non-essential” retailing. Covid-19 thus has a profound impact on how people live. The period of relative isolation, social distancing and economic uncertainty changes the way we behave. New consumer behaviors span all areas of life, from how we work to how we shop to how we entertain ourselves. These shifts have important implications for retailers. This paper aims to discuss the potential structural effect on shopping behavior and retailing when Covid-19 measures are no longer needed and society moves back to a normal situation.

The paper synthesizes empirical and conceptual literature on the consequences of COVID-19 and introduces a conceptual framework along with a set of predictions that can be investigated with empirical data.

This study suggests that Covid-19 shapes both consumer needs and behavior and how retailers respond to these changes. Moreover, it suggests that this will not only affect market outcomes (i.e. retail sales and market share online) but also firm outcomes (i.e. customer experience, firm sales) and importantly the competition between online and offline retailers.

In the conceptual framework, this study aims to advance knowledge on longer-term outcomes (vs immediate outcomes such as panic buying) and how COVID-19 is changing the competitive landscape of retail.

Taking into account retailers' critical position in the value chain, their sector's economic significance and environmental externalities, in addition to the institutional agenda, this paper aims to explore the drivers influencing retailers to shift to more sustainable business models.

The paper utilises the institutional competing logic, including in-depth interviews with major supermarket retail chains and one expert group discussion. The data gathered in Germany and Lithuania were complemented by desk research analysis, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and management reports.

The paper provides empirical insights into how multiple drivers through institutional competing logic are brought about influencing the shift to more sustainable business models. The results show that retail chains in both countries implement their sustainability based on triple environmental-legal-financial drivers. However, different types of retail chains–namely premium retailers, typical retailers and discounters–implement their sustainability discourse differently.

Because of the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

Interestingly, retailers “shift” their responsibility to the consumers rather than encourage themselves to make more sustainable choices. The authors observe a more passive and responsive role of retailing chains because of the inherent trade-off between revenue growth and sustainable consumption.

The original contribution lies in exploring how retail chains adapt institutional competing logic and are influenced by multiple drivers when implementing their sustainability activities. In addition, the authors propose a conceptual model for retailers' sustainability management, as well as formulate three research propositions.

This study investigated factors in the retail supply chains that were disrupted by the flow of the product distribution process from suppliers to retail stores and finally to consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This qualitative study involved 12 key informants from two manufacturing industries and three retail industries in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the analysis of empirical conditions employed qualitative content analysis to discover facts of the inbound and outbound supplies in retail supply chains.

This study revealed high demands for certain products and a shift in consumer purchase trends during the pandemic screwed merchandising planning in retail stores. These conditions have brought continuous impacts on the production processes of manufacturing industries that also faced constrained raw material supplies. Container shortage in the global supply chain has increasingly aggravated the crisis of retail supply chains. 10;

Retailers and all related parties are ready to anticipate the changing of the supply chain by preparing strategies to overcome the crisis.

A contribution is made to the global retail supply chain in times of crisis and can serve as a framework for further research in each region.

Augmented reality (AR) technology currently plays a central role in the retail sector, rapidly changing consumers’ behaviours and retailers’ strategies. The purpose of this paper is to identify the behavioural changes that have occurred due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the retail sector, and how AR technology can be used as a valid and useful response to these new consumer habits.

Exploratory research was conducted to determine how AR has helped people shop differently than they did before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by evaluating two retail-sector AR applications (apps). In-depth interviews were conducted and assessed using thematic analysis.

This paper identifies a new paradigm involving COVID-19 and AR by identifying several factors that are related to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and have modified consumers’ shopping habits. Additionally, it shows how interactive technologies, such as AR, are useful tools that can be employed to overcome retailing crises driven by external environmental factors, such as COVID-19, and enhance shopping experiences.

This research reveals the role of AR technologies in transformed economic and social contexts. By investigating the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated consequences, i.e. isolation, quarantines and lockdowns; the fear of contracting the virus and the new needs of people to shop while social distancing, this study enriches AR research with a fourth characteristic, augmented social distance.

This study presents the applicability of a model-based approach for loyalty program forecasting using smartphone app in the digital strategy of the retail industry.

The authors develop a dynamic model with the cyclical structure of customer segments through customer experience. They use time-series data on the number of members of the loyalty program, “Seven Mile Program” and confirm the validity of the approximate calculation of customer segment share, customer segment sales share and aggregate sales performance. The authors present three medium-term forecast scenarios after the launch of a smartphone payment service linked with the loyalty program.

The sum of the two customer segment shares for forecasting (the sum of the quasi-excellent and excellent customer ratios) is about 30% in each scenario, consistent with an essential customer loyalty (true loyalty) share obtained in the existing empirical study.

Digital strategy in the retail industry should focus more on estimating and forecasting average amounts of customer segments and the number of aggregated customers through the digitalization on the customer side than on individual customer journeys and responses.

Multi-scenario evaluation through simulation of dynamic models from a systemic view can be used for decision-making in retailing digital strategies.

This study builds a model that integrates the cyclicality of customer segment transition through customer experiences into a loyalty matrix framework, which is a method that has previously been used in the hospitality industry.

Given increasing customer expectations and disturbances to product returns management, capabilities such as supply chain resilience (SCR) can complement service recovery strategies in retail supply chains. This study utilizes procedural justice theory (PJT) to conceptualize service recovery resilience as a capability that allows firms to meet customer requirements when dealing with disruptions, and empirically investigates its impact on procedural and interactional justice and customer outcomes (i.e. satisfaction and loyalty) in the context of product replacement.

This research employs two scenario-based experiments using a sample of 368 customers to explore the outcomes associated with service recovery resilience.

The investigation shows more satisfied and loyal customers when a retail supply chain can overcome service recovery challenges through SCR. The study shows that customers evaluate not only the process itself, but also their interactions with the retailer. Specifically, procedural justice and interactional justice have a significant influence on these relationships.

This study proposes service recovery resilience as a concept that bridges service recovery theory with supply chain strategy in the unique context of product replacement. Further, this study also notes how information enhances customer satisfaction with the retailer's effort to address disturbances in the recovery process. Finally, this study informs managers on the capabilities needed to face new customers' needs.

Incumbent retail organisations need to develop new capabilities to adapt with the increasingly competitive retail landscape. Despite the growing relevance of innovation in retail practice, the strategic management of innovation in retailing is still vastly under-researched. This explorative study thus aims to investigate how incumbent retail firms can organise for innovation from an organisational ambidexterity perspective.

A single-case study of an established Swedish retail firm was conducted from December 2016 to July 2018 and followed up in June 2021. The authors followed the process of implementation of organisational changes aimed to increase innovation in the company, particularly the introduction of a digital marketing initiative and a corporate innovation hub. Data collection was based on nine semi-structured interviews and participant observations and unstructured interviews from 13 meetings and workshops. An abductive approach to data analysis was followed, iteratively comparing theoretical concepts and empirical data using open, axial and selective coding to distil findings into aggregated themes.

Given the inherently limited formalisation of innovation processes in most retail organisations, structural ambidexterity appears to be necessary when the aim is radical, strategic retail innovation. Structural mechanisms are able to safeguard the space and resources to focus on long-term research and projects with higher risk and uncertainty; however, integration of innovation activities to the mainstream organisation is critical. Pursuing contextual ambidexterity, wherein instead of structural solutions, employees are empowered to divide employees' time between innovation-related and efficiency-related tasks, is more likely related to retail innovations that are incremental and operational.

The paper contributes to the emerging topic of strategic management of innovation in retailing, by explicating how incumbent retailers can organise for innovation depending on the type of innovation that is aimed for, using organisational ambidexterity as a novel perspective.

The study aims to propose a comprehensive overview of the Omnichannel phenomenon by identifying its theoretical foundations as well as future research directions.

In order to systematize Omnichannel-centered contributions and identify future research directions for post-Covid-19, this study adopted a mixed-method study, combining a systematic literature review, a bibliometric co-citation analysis and a panel discussion by field experts.

In Study 1, the authors traced extant literature on Omnichannel back to its theoretical foundations, which led to the identification of four research areas in which the concept of Omnichannel is rooted. Contributions pertaining to the aforesaid research areas were discussed and submitted to a panel of experts (Study 2) after the lockdown periods. The experts gave various insights into both the past and future of Omnichannel research. Finally, a framework synthesizing theoretical foundations of Omnichannel, literature gaps and opportunities for future research is provided.

To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to combine mixed methods study in Omnichannel research and to involve a panel of experts in order to discuss the findings of a literature review and evaluate future research directions. This choice allowed us to investigate both incumbent academic and managerial challenges raised by Omnichannel and to provide guidance for the post-pandemic recovery.