Networks of organizational learning and adaptation in retail TNCs

Abstract

In this article we contribute to a growing body of literature concerned with the socio‐cultural dynamics of learning and adaptation inside firms. Specifically, we apply a ‘competence‐based’ view of the firm to a newly emerging breed of retail‐industry transnational corporations (TNCs). We situate these firms within the context of ‘relational networks’ and then consider – from a geographical perspective – the complex interplay between ‘extra‐firm’ networks and ‘intra‐firm’ networks, and between store‐based learning and organizational adaptation. We argue that the competitiveness of the retail TNC increasingly rests upon its ability to adapt the portfolio of retail formats to different and rapidly changing business environments by mobilizing and blending knowledge from multiple locations. This, it is suggested, is leading to the emergence of a ‘reflexive’ or ‘hybridized’ model of retail globalization.

Geographic Variations in the Early Diffusion of Corporate Voluntary Standards: Comparing ISO 14001 and the Global Compact

“…First and foremost, this is likely to derive from the role of travelers as cross-border carriers of new information (Bunnell and Coe, 2001;Currah and Wrigley, 2004). In their meetings, conversations and dealings, foreign business visitors may well convey information about the existence, uses and wider commercial benefits of particular standards (Bryson, 2000).…”

Multiple sustainability dimensions of retail sector in Serbia until 2013

“…Retailing globalization has an enormous impact on the market structure in transition and developing countries (Currah and Wrigley, 2004;Wrigley et al, 2005) and it has influenced the development of trade in these countries, their industry and their consumers. The supermarket revolution has imposed its own rules and changed the institutional and organizational food processing system in these countries, thus forcing them to, among other things, adjust their system of standards relating to food quality and safety.…”

Short waves of supermarket diffusion in Turkey

“…assortment, retail format, price) and process-based (e.g. expansion strategy, IT systems, logistics, supplier relationships) knowledge (Currah, Wrigley, 2004). In essence, "Retailers by the nature of competition provide a relatively high level of transparency in respect of their front of store operations with commercial success encouraging less innovative retailers to copy the formula" (Dawson, 2007, 391).…”

“…In essence, "Retailers by the nature of competition provide a relatively high level of transparency in respect of their front of store operations with commercial success encouraging less innovative retailers to copy the formula" (Dawson, 2007, 391). Thus, process-based knowledge is of strategic importance for retailers to gain a competitive edge (Currah, Wrigley, 2004).…”