The Global Innovation of Retail Format in Emerging Countries

This research addresses the question of how a retail format like convenience store can modify adapting to several differentiated circumstances in global markets. To this end, we studied the development of local retailers, the modification of a retail format and sometimes even the creation of a new retail format through the global retailers’ localization strategies and the mutual competition process with local retailers in local markets. This research contributes to the literature in two ways. First, a theoretical framework is proposed that can help to develop localization strategies in an emerging market. Second, it reveals that local retailers can survive in the competition with global retailers by ascertaining local circumstances to embed their retail format in different markets from their home country, while highlighting the role of experiential knowledge in retailers’ globalization process (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977).