The nature of international retail divestment: insights from Ahold

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the nature of divestment within the context of retailer internationalisation. Design/methodology/approach – It focuses on the activities of the Dutch food multinational retailer Royal Ahold (Ahold). Drawing on 37 in‐depth interviews with investment banks and executives, this paper provides a number of insights into Ahold's international retail divestment activities within the context of a broadly successful international investment strategy. Findings – It offers some new insights into the multidimensional nature of international retail divestment construct in terms of the operational as well as more subtle and less visible non‐operational international retail divestments. It is concluded from this study that, rather than portraying strategic and opportunistic approaches as binary opposites, a retail firm may have varying degrees of approaches to international retail divestment, and these may not necessarily be isomorphic across different countries. Research limitations/implications – The paper explores international retail divestment from a rather broad perspective, although it is hoped that these parameters can be used to raise a new set of more detailed priorities for future research on international retail divestment. Practical implications – This paper raises a number of interesting issues such as whether retailers initially take divestment seriously and the degree to which this is actually possible during market entry. Originality/value – As called for in the literature, this study examines divestment in the broadest possible fashion, thus addressing a major gap in our understanding of the whole internationalisation process.