The Evolution of Marks and Spencer

Davies, Gary

doi:10.1080/02642069900000030

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Phase I: Exporting It is hard to identify exactly when precisely M&S began selling products in Hong Kong. The corporate and other histories of the business (Sieff, 1970(Sieff, , 1986(Sieff, , 1990Briggs, 1984;Tse, 1985Tse, , 1989Bird and Witherick, 1986;Rees, 1969;Bookbinder, 1989;Goldenberg, 1989;Davies, 1999;Bevan, 2001) tend not to mention the event and available evidence from annual reports is unclear. M&S products have long been exported and sold around the world (including in Hong Kong) to UK military personnel and their families through the NAAFI.…”

Section: Retail Internationalisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retail internationalisation: Marks and Spencer in Hong Kong

Jackson

Sparks

2005

International Journal of Retail &Amp; Distribution Management

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Purpose - A case study of Marks and Spencer (M&S) in Hong Kong is used to explore aspects of the retail internationalisation process. Design/methodology/approach - The case study is developed from four main sources. First, national and trade press commentary on M&S's internationalisation. Secondly, M&S's publications and statements about their international activities. Thirdly, previous research on M&S in Hong Kong, including work by the authors. Finally, informal interviews with current and former M&S management involved in the Hong Kong development. The case study is organised into a description of phases of exporting, store development and crises. This is followed by a discussion of the key internationalisation issues raised in terms of market entry, maintenance and exit. Conclusions follow. Findings - The study emphasises that internationalisation is a non-linear, ongoing, dynamic activity involving developments, impacts and retrenchment at a variety of levels. Implications for future research in the area are drawn. Research limitations/implications - This is a case study of a particular retailer's internationalisation process in a particular country. The processes in other retailers operating other formats and selling other products and in other countries may be different. Further case studies will allow the generation of a wider understanding of the issues. Originality/value - The case study provides previously unpublished information on the retail internationalisation process as a whole. It encourages other comparative studies and further research into the topic

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Section: Retail Internationalisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retail internationalisation: Marks and Spencer in Hong Kong

Jackson

Sparks

2005

International Journal of Retail &Amp; Distribution Management

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“…Space precludes us from describing in detail the history of the development of Marks & Spencer from its family, market bazaar, fixed-price origins. A number of books by outside observers (Briggs, 1984;Rees, 1969;Tse, 1985), company leaders (Sieff, 1970(Sieff, , 1986(Sieff, , 1990 and internal officers (Bookbinder, 1989;Goldenberg, 1989) provide detailed insights into the development of M&S. There are also detailed (Bird and Witherick, 1986) and more superficial (Davies, 1999) academic attempts at exploring aspects of the company's development. Such was its image and success in the UK that its forays as Marks & Spencer abroad since the 1970s had become of interest to academics searching to understand the role of image in retailer internationalization (Burt and Carralero-Encinas, 2000;McGoldrick, 1998).…”

Section: Marks and Spencer: The Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploratory Study into Failure in Successful Organizations: The Case of Marks & Spencer

Mellahi

Jackson

Sparks

2002

British J of Management

117

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Marks & Spencer (M&S) was one of the world’s great retailers, enjoying legendary and iconic status, being often held up as one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world. Its ‘fall from grace’ has been spectacular and dramatic and the company is currently fighting for its life. Based on extensive in‐depth interviews with company managers and utilizing a case‐study approach, this paper provides an exploratory study into failure at M&S and presents this in the context of the wider literature on organizational and managerial failure. It concludes that whilst external factors in the various trading environments affected the business, there were internal aspects of the crisis which exacerbated the situation and the problems.

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“…Their decision to specialise in high quality fresh and convenience food products (Davies, 1999), culminating in the provision of premium-priced chilled ready meals, was to have important consequences for the management of the supply chain and for retailer"s relationships with suppliers in general (Whitehead, 1994). The long-term strategy of Marks and Spencer to differentiate on quality meant that it had been vital for them to forge close relationships with suppliers in order to guarantee standards.…”

Section: The Chilled Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The firm in the Information Age: organizational responses to technological change in the processed foods sector

Cox¹

2002

Industrial and Corporate Change

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The transformation of production processes that occurred across a range of manufacturing industries during the Industrial Age generated new and more complex requirements for the process of intermediation as well as for the production systems themselves. The development of hierarchical organizations provided firms with the ability to oversee directly many of these new tasks and to create markets that supported them. In contrast, the advent of the Information Age has tended not so much to require the creation of markets de novo but has rather altered the nature of existing relationships of intermediation in ways that have facilitated a much wider collection of organizational forms.2

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The Evolution of Marks and Spencer

Cited by 16 publications

References 6 publications

Retail internationalisation: Marks and Spencer in Hong Kong

Retail internationalisation: Marks and Spencer in Hong Kong

An Exploratory Study into Failure in Successful Organizations: The Case of Marks & Spencer

The firm in the Information Age: organizational responses to technological change in the processed foods sector

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