Research and managerial issues on global retail competition: Carrefour/Wal‐Mart

Abstract

Looks at the development of Carrefour‐Primodès and Wal‐Mart, the world current leaders in terms of turnover and employment. Presents seven issues of particular interest to leading managers and researchers and examines how these are dealt with by the two leaders. Concludes that Wal‐Mart and Carrefour present two different models which stand in opposition on many points, and questions whether a convergence of the two will not result in a perfect model.

Exploring Technological Trends in Logistics: Topic Modeling-Based Patent Analysis

“…As a result of this, it is possible to interpret that the use of technologies related to a database are receiving increased focus in logistics. This is in line with the practice of an increasing number of companies who are paying attention to the use of big data and a data-based approach to intelligent logistics [58,59,61]. In fact, there could be a lot of different sub-topics in databases within the logistics fields.…”

New logistics technologies in improving customer value in retailing service

“…Kotler (2003) agrees with this statement suggesting that competitive advantage over the competitors could be achieved in managing all materials flow and physical distribution, abetted by information technology in an effective manner. Colla and Dupuis (2002) point out that one of Wal Mart's great strengths is its sophistication in real-time data gathering from its network, which has helped it to develop sophisticated data warehouse tools and computerized data exchanges with suppliers, thus providing impressively accelerated stock turnover. For retailers it is no longer a question of buying from companies or of placing orders with shippers, it is rather a question of managing a process which covers everything from the sources to the delivery to the stores.…”

When Global Expansion Meets Local Realities in Retailing: Carrefour's Glocal Strategies in Taiwan

“…First, Carrefour is the second largest global retailer after Wal-Mart and therefore, it is argued that the significance of Carrefour as a global retailer makes it an appropriate focus for case study analysis. Despite the scale and growth of Carrefour as an important global retailer, the focus of many researchers has been on the global strategies and activities of US retailer, Wal-Mart (for example, Colla and Dupuis, 2002;Arnold and Fernie, 2000;Hallsworth and Clarke, 2001;Fernie and Arnold, 2002;Goetz and Swaminathan, 2006) and mostly in Europe. Only modest attention has been attributed to Carrefour especially in East Asia, in the academic literature (see Chang and Dawson, 2006;Chung and Yahagi, 2002 for a recent example).…”