ADVISE OR CONTROL: CENTRALISATION VS DE‐CENTRALISATION IN RETAIL CHAIN MANAGEMENT Available to Purchase

A report made to the CIES ten years ago on the subject of centralisation vs de‐centralisation found that centralisation acted as ‘a very real motivator for growth’, but that this motivation would reach its limit if the process were carried too far. Another study was recently sponsored by Philip Morris International to gather the views of European members of the CIES on the same subject, and the summary results, printed on the following pages, were presented to the CIES Annual Congress in Estoril, Portugal during May of this year. The results largely echo the findings of the 1968 study, showing a wide variation in the degree of central control to be found in retail chains across Europe, but suggests that to get the best out of managers at local level less, rather than more, centralisation may be needed.