THE EMERGENCE OF INTERNATIONAL RETAILING IN CHINA

This book contributes to the conceptualize of retail internationalization from a historical perspective. It integrates, adapts and synthesizes the general international business theories to the peculiarities of retail sector to explain international retailing activities in one emerging country China from 1840 to 2005. The findings suggest only in the supermarket sector did overseas Chinese founded retailers fail to transform their first mover advantages into superior performance. This implies that the technological content of international retailing is now much higher than before so that copying the technology (together with superior market knowledge) is no longer sufficient to base a competitive strategy on. Instead the technological content of modern supermarkets/hypermarkets makes the technological leaders hold the advantages, despite not knowing much about the Chinese market, despite being late entrants. Such kind of phenomenon is the same as other sectors. In other words, from a technology transfer perspective, international retailing can be treated as an important sub-field in international business rather than as an independent field.

Autorentext

Dr. Haiming Hang is currently a Research Fellow in Henley Business School at the University of Reading in England.