Institutional and economic determinants of transnational retailer expansion and performance: a comparative analysis of Wal-Mart and Carrefour

In the context of a wave of retail foreign direct investment and increasing recognition acrossmany disciplines of the profound developmental implications of transnational retail within the globaleconomy, this paper examines the institutional and economic factors determining the performance oftransnational retailers via a comparative analysis of the two global leaders in the industry, Wal-Martand Carrefour. A conceptual framework is offered for explaining the heterogeneity of retailer perfor-mance in international markets, and three types of explanation are considered: the timing and modeof market entry and subsequent expansion, factors that allow the exercise of upstream market power,and sensitivity to issues of labour organization and standards. The two retailers are found to bedifferentially impacted by those factors, indicating the need to consider a process of institutionalhybridization as central to the explanation of transnational retail performance.