Wal-Mart's entry into Japan as discussed in three domestic trade journals

Abstract

Wal-Mart entered Japan in March 2002 by taking control of Japanese retailer Seiyu and has since then made significant efforts to reorganize the company. In the course of its entry into Japan, Wal-Mart has become a catalyst for innovation and change in the Japanese retail sector. In this process, Japan's trade journals, with their detailed and diverse coverage, are playing an important role. While at first sight they just seem to be spreading information, at second sight they offer a platform for retailers and suppliers to communicate amongst themselves and with each other. This article looks at the coverage of Wal-Mart's activities as seen in three leading Japanese trade journals. The applicability of Every Day Low Price policies, store development, retailer-supplier relationships and general aspects of the reorganization of Seiyu were identified as the main areas of discussion, and it is shown how the entry of Wal-Mart has led to a broad reassessment of the Japanese retail industry as a whole.

Retail internationalisation from emerging markets: case study evidence from Chile

“…Furthermore, the retailing literature has predominantly been based on evidence from the activities of retail firms from developed markets (Sparks, 2000;Clarke and Rimmer, 1997;Arnold, 2002;McGurr, 2002;Gerhard and Hahn, 2005;Picot-Coupey, 2006;Hutchinson et al, 2006;Meyer-Ohle, 2007). Only a few studies consider retail industries from emerging markets, and these are either descriptive studies (Blois et al, 2001;Alexander and de Lira e Silva, 2002;da Rocha and Dib, 2002;Goldman, 2000;McDonald et al, 2000), or focus on how foreign retailers enter emerging markets (Welsh et al, 2006;Bianchi and Arnold, 2004).…”

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