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This empirical research, adopting an international retailing perspective, aims to examine the parenting advantages offered by emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) in luxury fashion retail sector.

The researchers adopted a qualitative case study, and the qualitative data were collected through ten semi-structured interviews with senior managers.

It is a win–win situation for the EMNCs as parent groups of Western luxury fashion brands, as the EMNCs can access critical assets including advanced brand management expertise, retailing know-how, and the services skills needed for higher income consumers. Meanwhile, the subsidiary brands benefit from a high degree of autonomy, intra-group resource utilisation, a competitive brand portfolio and most importantly economies of scales in the value chain, particularly in production. The perceived risks of EMNCs ownership include potentially restricted autonomy and the uncertainty over corporate development activities in the future, as well as the risks of diluting brand image caused by the inconsistency between country of origin and country of ownership.

Very few EMNCs have moved into luxury fashion retailing to date, which means that the sampling frame was small. The findings were generated from China, which is perceived to be of considerable psychic distance in terms of culture and policies compared to other emerging markets that have been heavily influenced by colonialism.

This paper suggests that practitioners, particularly EMNCs, support their subsidiary luxury fashion brands through parenting advantages and develop their own high-end fashion brands through internationalisation.

This empirical study contributes to the current international retailing literature by offering in depth insights of parenting advantages offered by EMNCs in luxury fashion retailing. It also enriches the EMNC literature, which has mainly adopted an international business scope, by extending this understanding into luxury fashion retailing.

This paper, with part 1, aims to investigate the opinions of professionals working in the fashion industry on the future (i.e. next ten to 20 years) of fashion production and retailing.

Data in the form of essays were collected from 62 professionals. The constant comparative method and open coding were used in analysis of the data.

Advances in technology were identified as a driving force behind changes in fashion production and retailing. The total automation and wide adoption of mass customization were foreseen, along with continuous improvement to information technology. Some participants predicted that most production would continue to be sourced offshore. Others believed that apparel production would remain and even grow within the USA. To counter global competition, several strategies were identified. While online shopping was predicted to increase, brick and mortar stores would remain. Through the combination of different types of stores, new types of store would emerge, and consolidation of retail businesses would continue. Future consumer preferences as well as strategies to become competitive retailers were identified.

The findings can help academics in developing research ideas and making curricular decisions.

The examination of professionals' opinions in this paper may provide insights into the future useful for making decisions on career directions, selecting educational experiences, making investments, and planning strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the origins and the business model of department stores in Mexico between 1891 and 1910.

Primary and secondary source material support an historical and comparative study of retailing and marketing evolution in a market on the global periphery.

This paper finds that Mexico's vanguard position in establishing the first purpose‐built department stores in Latin America is closely linked to the strong presence of an immigrant entrepreneurial class from the Barcelonnette region of France in the retailing and textile manufacturing sectors. Mexican department stores followed Parisian models, policies, and innovations closely, yet accommodated local customs and conditions. The stores served as showcases for the success of the national government's economic and cultural modernization program and as cultural primers for Mexican consumers.

Scholarly work on department stores, consumerism, and the influential French community in Mexico is extremely limited, especially so in English. This is the first work that brings these together and analyzes them within – and in relation to – the context of Mexico's rapid modernization during the era of President Porfirio Díaz from 1876 to 1911. It also undermines the notion that the USA is the first and most influential foreign influence on modern Mexican consumer culture.

There have been significant developments in the field of retailing with digitalization. One of these developments is the emergence of omnichannel retailing. Although this has affected both firms and consumers considerably, the literature is dominated by the studies dealing with omnichannel retailing from the firms’ perspectives. The studies dealing with omnichannel retailing from the consumers’ perspectives have recently begun to attract the attention of researchers. For this reason, this study conducted a literature review to examine various consumer behaviors mentioned in the studies aimed at explaining consumer behaviors in the omnichannel retailing context. The distribution of these studies according to years and journals, research methods used, theories adopted, and the related five-stage consumer decision-making stages are summarized. Additionally, this review addresses future research avenues.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers and barriers to omni-channel retailing in China, and attempts to understand how companies formulate their business strategies during their transformations to omni-channel retailing.

This study adopts an exploratory case study approach to investigate the omni-channel retailing transformations of two well-established Chinese fashion apparel retailers. The study draws on multiple sources of evidence, comprising: interviews with eight business executives from three major operational departments; on-site observations in firm’s retail stores, factories and distribution centres; and secondary data review of firm business reports, news, whitepapers and archival records. The findings are established through a consistent within-case data analysis and cross-case comparison.

The study reveals that the two retailers formulated different strategies in developing their omni-channels, and exhibited different degrees of success. The similarities and differences in the drivers, as well as the barriers, were analyzed and compared in this study. Operational variations (i.e. enablers and inhibitors) due to the unique context of the Chinese market were also explored. The findings reveal that coherent leveraging firm resources and capabilities from the three perspectives – marketing, logistics and supply chain, and organizational management – is critical to the full implementation of omni-channel retailing. They provide relevant managerial insights that can assist firms in formulating appropriate strategic action plans during the transformations.

As a theoretical contribution, this paper identifies a set of drivers and barriers for omni-channel retailing in the developed market, and classifies them into three categories: marketing; logistics and supply chain; and organizational management. The empirical-based qualitative analysis reveals the key factors impacting on omni-channel retailing within the Chinese market, and suggests a series of practical implications for local retailers planning to embark on omni-channel retailing.

Investigates changes in retail‐supply relations by drawing on empirical research into the retail‐supply chain for two product areas: women′s hosiery and bread. Discusses the implications of changes in retail‐supply relations for three specific, though interdependent, areas: the balance of power – between the major retailers and their suppliers, between different retail capitals, and among manufacturing suppliers in a particular product area; the consequences for the geographical organization of the supply chain and the counter‐tendencies of internationalization and localization of contract supply; the impact of retail‐supply relations on the sectoral and geographical distribution of employment. Concludes by briefly addressing some of the implications of changes in the retail‐supply chain for local economic development strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine challenges and opportunities that occurred in the Polish ultra‐high temperature (UHT) milk market after Poland entered the European Union.

Through an in‐depth analysis of the Polish UHT market and by interpreting statistical data, this paper analyzes the retailing, production, and distribution channels, branding, and potential changes in the marketing perspective of the UHT market in Poland. To understand the nature of the market, this paper employs a marketing science method, marketing persistence analysis, to explore the relationship of short‐term marketing efforts and long‐term market response in Polish UHT milk market.

Based on empirical testing of ten Polish brands, results show that the UHT milk market in Poland presents marketing persistence, which means that short‐term marketing efforts can generate long‐term revenue effects.

If marketing spending data are available, causality tests can be performed to see what are most effective marketing means (e.g. TV advertising or sale promotion) in Polish dairy markets.

Combining the empirical findings with the facts that previous marketing activities in Poland are relatively low, and it is now a historic transition for Poland after joining the homogenous market of Europe, the authors suggest that existing marketers increase the marketing investment to strengthen brands, gain market share, and build long‐term customer relationships. International marketers also have good opportunities now to enter Polish UHT markets through intensive marketing campaigns.

This study is the first attempt to apply marketing science techniques to examine the Polish market and the findings enable both academic researchers and industrial practitioners to understand this market better and explore its potential business opportunities.

This paper aims to explore how omni-channel data flows should be integrated by specifying what data, omni-channel agents and information and digital technologies (IDTs) should be considered and connected.

A multiple case study method is used with 17 British companies. The studies are supported by 68 interviews with the case companies and their consumers, 5 site visits, 4 focus group meetings and the companies’ archival data and documentations.

This paper provides novel frameworks for omni-channel data flow integration from consumer and business perspectives. The frameworks consist of omni-channel agents, their data transactions and their supporting IDTs. Relatedly, this paper formalizes the omni-channel data flow integration in the forms of horizontal, vertical and total integrations and explores their contributions to the adaptability of omni-channel, as a complex adaptive system (CAS). It also discusses that how inter-organizational governance mechanisms can support data flow integration and their relevant IDT implementations.

The breadth and depth of the required IDTs for omni-channel integration prove the necessity for omni-channel systems to move toward total integration. Therefore, supported by CAS and inter-organizational governance theories, this research indicates how data flow integration and IDT can transform the omni-channel through self-organization and autonomy capability enhancement.

This research’s recommended frameworks provide a robust platform to formalize data flow integration as the omni-channel's core driver. Accordingly, it moves the literature from a basic description of “what omni-channel is” and provides a novel and significant debate on what specific data should be shared at what levels between which agents of the omni-channel, and with what type of relationship governance mechanism, to assure omni-channel horizontal, vertical and total integrations.

Discusses the restructuring of the food production, processing and retailing sectors in the USA. Describes different methods of vertical and horizontal integration that have occurred. Goes on to discuss the consolidation of business in retailing in particular. Refers to the relationships that are being formed between the supermarket chains, for example Wal‐Mart and Kroger, and dominant food‐chain clusters. Considers whether or not smaller retail chains and wholesalers should feel threatened by this consolidation. Takes the dairy sector in the USA as a case study in the restructuring of the retailing and processing sectors.

A startegic management approach is used to assess the nature of business environments affecting seafood distribution in Japan. Notions of environment ‘textures’ described in an influential paper by Emery and Trist are used to determine the current degree of environmental turbulence and the implications for export strategies. The environment as a whole is found to exhibit ‘medium turbulence’, and the sectors of importing, wholesaling, and food retailing/service are ‘medium’ to ‘high’ turbulence'. To cope with such environments, firms must undertake extensive real‐time market research (e.g. using POS information accessed via computer); develop flexible structures and operating systems (to become more responsive); and focus on improving communication and meeting the changing customer needs.