Networks of organisational learning and adaptation in retail TNCs

In this article we contribute to a growing body of literature concerned with the socio-cultural dynamics of learning and adaptation inside firms. Specifically, we apply a ‘competence-based’ view of the firm to a newly emerging breed of retail-industry transnational corporations (TNCs). We situate these firms within the context of ‘relational networks’ and then consider – from a geographical perspective – the complex interplay between ‘extra-firm’ networks and ‘intra-firm’ networks, and between store-based learning and organizational adaptation. We argue that the competitiveness of the retail TNC increasingly rests upon its ability to adapt the portfolio of retail formats to different and rapidly changing business environments by mobilizing and blending knowledge from multiple locations. This, it is suggested, is leading to the emergence of a ‘reflexive’ or ‘hybridized’ model of retail globalization.