Philippe Rebière and Olivier Braun
The purpose of this paper is to explain to what extent digitization is an opportunity to international development of the firm by drawing on the international expansion of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain to what extent digitization is an opportunity to international development of the firm by drawing on the international expansion of the French Decathlon group. The retailer and manufacturer have adopted a number of interesting strategies, following “specific movements,” as the authors have noted.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using the Europress database. The authors compiled press articles about the development of the Decathlon company and discussed the various stages of the brand's growth to enhance understanding and propose refinements to the current knowledge of companies' internationalization.
Findings
The findings support the idea that digitization of the distribution and production chain reduces transaction costs and accelerates the conquest of market share. Digitization brings new experiential knowledge to companies and facilitates internationalization. Decathlon's success lies not in its resources or in the art of managing its internal capabilities, but rather in the ability to combine organizational resources with key external capabilities (development of technological partnerships).
Originality/value
The originality of this research lies in the logic of deepening the steps of companies’ internationalization integrating new technologies that shift current comprehension of this phenomenon. After the COVID-19 period, digitization is accelerated and represent threats and probably opportunities to break down barriers to companies’ abroad expansion.
Details
Keywords
Philippe Rebière and Hareesh Mavoori
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents, internal/external drivers and circumstances that diminish the importance of reputation and permit it to be…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents, internal/external drivers and circumstances that diminish the importance of reputation and permit it to be circumvented in the context of a fusion (Monsanto-Bayer) and propose a comprehensive stakeholder perception-molding (“sense-giving”) model to counter reputation-damaging factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study is a longitudinal case study of merging entities using an intra-organizational evolutionary perspective combined with external analysis.
Findings
Reputational hurdles can be successfully circumvented by a multifaceted strategy leveraging timely and tailored combinations of cognitive, conative and linguistic perception-molding strategies for effective management of diverse stakeholder perception processes spanning across identity orientation, legitimacy, posture, consistency, commitment, justification and transparency.
Research limitations/implications
The research is susceptible to the general limitations of case studies such as omission bias in terms of focusing on only two purposefully chosen market-leader firms involved in a merger, though every effort was made to track competitor movements, broad trends in markets and the micro- and macro-environments.
Practical implications
The proposed heptagonal reputation circumvention perception-molding framework (Figure 1) summarizes various actionable strategies to help managers develop a global vision and portfolio of strategies to proactively or reactively manage attacks on reputation.
Originality/value
An in-depth and multi-decade study of antecedents and internal/external drivers of the successful mega-fusion of two companies with a long history of reputational shocks was leveraged to provide unique insights into the interplay of various strategies targeting diverse stakeholder perceptions. These insights were then generalized to create a comprehensive perception-molding strategic framework to help firm managers circumvent reputational tarnishment hurdles.