Explores the importance of quality management in achieving global competitiveness. Emphasizes the need for developing countries to revitalize their economies through quality management practice. Uses Deming principles of quality management and dialectical materialism inquiry system to...

Investigates the entry of Wal‐Mart in Brazil, and subsequent moves of established retailers and new entrants with data taken from secondary sources and interviews with executives. First, internationalization of Wal‐Mart and its entry are discussed, which caused an impact on Brazilian...

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...

Franchising has become a major driving force in the globalisation of service businesses. Likewise, international retailing has become an important feature of global distribution systems. This has been brought about through changing socio‐economic patterns, favourable political and cultural...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a US retailer's decision to backward‐integrate its supply channel for global sourcing, based on the framework adapted from transaction cost analysis (TCA). Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual framework was developed based on the...

Purpose – Globalisation as a competitive marketing strategy can only offer a limited explanation for the behaviour of organisations. This is particularly applicable in the case of business and marketing strategies for small and medium‐sized organisations in the retail sector. Terms such as...