How to Maintain a Process Perspective on Retail Internationalization: The IKEA Case

The retail industry has witnessed fast international growth during the last couple of decades and various models and theories have been proposed for how to best explain the process and why some firms succeed while others fail. Recently researchers have argued that not only do we need more in-depth longitudinal case studies, and case studies from different sectors, but we also need to understand the core activity of internationalization, namely the learning processes of how to manage the complex process of entering and operating in different markets. While much research has focused on market and marketing aspects of internationalization, organizational aspects have received less attention. This article aims to fill that gap by focusing on the international home furnishings retail firm, IKEA, and their organizational routines for ensuring and managing a process perspective on their so-far-successful international expansion