RETAILING WITHOUT FRONTERS: The emergence of transnational retailers Available to Purchase

The writer has recently been engaged in a research project addressing the theme of retailing internationalisation. The thrust of the research has been an identification of the extent and geographical orientation of cross‐frontier retailing, and the strategies employed by major retailers to enter and subsequently operate in overseas markets. This paper reviews the recent activities of a number of major retailers, principally from the UK and continental Europe but also from North America, Australia and Scandinavia, to have developed such an international presence. The writer suggests that in considering the location of their overseas interests together with the strategies employed to enter foreign markets, a number of distinct groupings are identifiable. Furthermore, these groupings are, to some extent, indicative of the way in which retailers will pursue their international ambitions in the future. The research presented in this paper was funded by Coopers & Lybrand as part of a joint programme of research into the retail trades being conducted by Coopers & Lybrand and OXIRM.