Quelles lectures en management international des sorties de marchés des grands distributeurs ? Illustration par le cas de Carrefour en Asie

While they are as numerous as cases of international entry, market divestment have received little interest from academic research and have often been assimilated to commercial, strategic or financial failures, through analyzes empirical studies often limited to organizational and national levels. In this qualitative empirical research based on a collection of external data (press and activity reports) and applied to the Carrefour entry in Asia, we analyze the entry-exit movements of the French distribution firm in a longitudinal perspective (2000 -2020) in order to explain its main exits from Asian markets. In the space of 20 years, the French group exits from almost all Asian countries (Japan, India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, etc.) even though this region was considered as a priority in the early 1990s. The results confirm the need for a combined analysis of exit motives and modalities and suggest the integration of a macro-regional and multi-level view of internationalization. Finally, this research offers several complementary readings. Our results suggest explanations of international divestment in terms of links between entries and exits, an analysis by the strategic actions-reactions of groups and competitors and outline the contours of a "step by step" model of firms' exits from the international markets.