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On being local and being successful in Korea: Tesco and E‐mart
Author(s) -
Kim Woohyoung,
Hallsworth Alan,
Kim Hyun
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12442
Subject(s) - business , marketing , product (mathematics) , industrial organization , mathematics , geometry
Tesco withdrew from the Korean market in September 2015. The withdrawal of Tesco has not generally been seen as being due to management failure, but instead as a strategic reallocation of resources by Tesco in the UK . Yet there may still be more to understand about this development. The tale of Tesco's arrival in and departure from Korea has not ended. We consider the relative performance of Tesco (Homeplus) stores and those of rival E‐Mart. We find that, in attempting to be authentically local, Tesco may have hampered its own long‐term success in an important overseas market. In an empirical study, we utilised the Logit model to contrast selection factors employed by local consumers in respect of both Tesco/Homeplus and E‐Mart. Our analysis reveals that product range (including private brands), store accessibility and convenience were the main factors on which consumers discriminated between these rivals.