Determinants of international retail involvement: The case of large US retail chains

Although retail operations traditionally have been considered poor candidat es for international expansion, firms in mature retail markets are increasi ngly turning to international markets as a means for strategic growth. In t his study, the authors examine how internal determinants affect the interna tional ventures of large U.S. retail chains, comparing infernal characteris tics of international and domestic firms. The authors use the behavioral in ternationalization paradigm to develop a model of international retail invo lvement, which serves as a conceptual framework for the study. Through a lo gistic regression model, the results support the relevance of six of eight explanatory determinants of international retail involvement. The findings highlight the powerful influence of the strategic management characteristic s, competitive advantages related to retail concept and logistics, and a re tailer's size. In contrast, neither previous experience in direct foreign s ourcing nor competitive advantages related to retail merchandise were signi ficant in this model.