| An area
of international marketing that has received minimal recent attention is
retailing. Yet, there are a number of marketing-related international
retailing questions that offer substantial research potential. For
example, why have the leading independent department stores in the major
European cities failed to form linkages, either through buying groups or
acquisitions, much as Federated began in the U.S.? Clearly, in today's
high distribution cost environment, the potential for savings via such
linkages would make combinations attractive.
While we see the growth of hypermarkets as
a major global trend, the question of "how global can 'big retailing' be?"
is beginning to rise again. Wal-Mart entered China, but to-date has
avoided India. When one notes the problems that Sainsbury's had in
Egypt, i.e., the public attacking the corporate giant, the question of
negative reactions to "big retailing" is again on the forefront.
How would India, another nation characterized by the small shopkeeper,
react to Wal-Mart or to Carrefour? (Carrefour reportedly plans to enter
Egypt in 2002). And are there other global markets where bigness
provokes similar reactions to Sainsbury's experience in Egypt? Are these
reactions economic or cultural?
What theoretical paradigms can be employed
to understand these issues? Would Williamson's (1975, 1981, 1985) transaction
cost analysis be appropriate for the study of these issues? Could the resource-
(Barney 1991; Peteraf 1993) or market-based (Srivastava, Shervani and Fahey
1998) views of the firm add insights for retailing academics and practitioners
here? Would a dynamic capabilities perspective (Eisenhardt and Martin 2000;
Teece, Pisano and Shuen 1997) be helpful in explaining successful and unsuccessful
retailers in these cases? Would foundation marketing theories, such as
those exploring assortment, distribution and cost management, explicated
by Alderson (1957), Balderson (1964), or Vaille, Grether and Cox (1952),
be helpful? Are our current theories adequate to explain these issues?
Or, is theoretical development warranted?
Questions such as the above lend themselves
to both quantitative and qualitative research. Some argue that current
articles in leading journals often fail to provide the "whys" that should
be expected from scholarly research. Limited managerial (and even
theoretical) insights offered in the implications and/or conclusions section
of too many articles support these critics. For many studies, one
suggestion would be to conduct qualitative research to augment the quantitative
research, thus adding theoretical insights to the support, or refute, of
the hypotheses tested. This could greatly enhance the value of the findings.
Would a combined research approach lead to a better understanding of the
success or failure of retail expansion and the integration of "big retailing"
into a society? |
