IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/recgxx/v82y2006i1p61-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Strategic Localization of Transnational Retailers: The Case of Samsung-Tesco in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Neil M. Coe
  • Yong-Sook Lee

Abstract

This article contributes to the small but growing geographic literature on the internationalization of retailing by exploring the strategic localization of transnational retailers. While it has long been recognized that firms in many different sectors localize their activities to meet the requirements of different national and local markets, the imperative is particularly strong for retail transnational corporations (TNCs) because of the extremely high territorial embeddedness of their activities. This embeddedness can be seen through the ways in which retailers seek to establish and maintain extensive store networks, adapt their offerings to various cultures of consumption, and manage the proliferation of connections to the local supply base. We illustrate these conceptual arguments through a case study of the Samsung-Tesco joint venture in South Korea, profiling three particular aspects of Samsung-Tesco’s strategic localization: the localization of products, the localization of sourcing, and the localization of staffing and strategic decision making. In conclusion, we argue that the strategic localization of transnational retailers needs to be conceptualized as a dynamic that evolves over time after initial inward investment and that localization should be seen as a two-way dynamic that has the potential to have a wider impact on the parent corporation.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil M. Coe & Yong-Sook Lee, 2006. "The Strategic Localization of Transnational Retailers: The Case of Samsung-Tesco in South Korea," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(1), pages 61-88, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:82:y:2006:i:1:p:61-88
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2006.tb00288.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2006.tb00288.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2006.tb00288.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Morelli, Carlo, 2009. "Modern British Retailing in the Late 20th Century: Increasing Value?," SIRE Discussion Papers 2009-59, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    2. Mark Palmer & Martin Owens & Leigh Sparks, 2006. "Interdisciplinary (Retail) Research: The Business of Geography and the Geography of Business," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(10), pages 1775-1783, October.
    3. Lisa Qixun Siebers, 2017. "Hybridization practices as organizational responses to institutional demands: The development of Western retail TNCs in China," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 1-29.
    4. Altenburg, Tilman & Kulke, Elmar & Reeg, Caroline & Peterskovsky, Lisa & Hampel-Milagrosa, Aimée, 2016. "Making retail modernisation in developing countries inclusive: a development policy perspective," IDOS Discussion Papers 2/2016, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. Park, Jeong-Yang & Harris, Simon, 2014. "Microfoundations for learning within international joint ventures," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 490-503.
    6. Martin Hess & Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, 2006. "Whither Global Production Networks in Economic Geography? Past, Present, and Future," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(7), pages 1193-1204, July.
    7. Nunez-Picado, Adriana & Martinus, Kirsten & Sigler, Thomas, 2022. "Junior Miner internationalisation in the globalising mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Frasquet, Marta & Dawson, John & Calderón, Haydeé & Fayos, Teresa, 2018. "Integrating embeddedness with dynamic capabilities in the internationalisation of fashion retailers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 904-914.
    9. Janghee Cho & Hyunbae Chun & Yoonsoo Lee, 2023. "Productivity dynamics in the retail trade sector: the roles of large modern retailers and small entrants," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 291-313, January.
    10. Kulke, Elmar & Suwala, Lech, 2015. "Internationalization of grocery retailers in emerging markets – general considerations and economic impacts," EconStor Preprints 247642, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    11. Swoboda, Bernhard & Morbe, Lukas & Hirschmann, Johannes, 2018. "International strategy’s effects on retailers’ local implementation and performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 642-653.
    12. Janghee Cho & Hyunbae Chun & Yoonsoo Lee, 2022. "Productivity Dynamics in the Retail Trade Sector: The Roles of Large Modern Retailers and Small Entrants," Working Papers 2202, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    13. Owens, Martin & Palmer, Mark & Zueva-Owens, Anna, 2013. "Institutional forces in adoption of international joint ventures: Empirical evidence from British retail multinationals," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 883-893.
    14. Neil M Coe & Yong-Sook Lee & Steve Wood, 2017. "Conceptualising contemporary retail divestment: Tesco's departure from South Korea," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(12), pages 2739-2761, December.
    15. Aarti Krishnan, 2023. "Embeddedness beyond the lead firm in global production networks: Insights from Kenyan horticulture," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(8), pages 1859-1883, November.
    16. Li, Shenyu & Popkowsky Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Qiu, Chun, 2023. "International retailer performance: Disentangling the interplay between rule of law and culture," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 193-209.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:82:y:2006:i:1:p:61-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/recg .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.