Internationalization of Large Retailers and Cross-Cultural Determinants – The Singular Trajectory of Carrefour in Romania

This article discusses the large retailers’ internationalization strategy. It deals more particularly with the way in which international expansion proceeds on the level of operations management and the application of strategies used on the domestic market: does the retailer choose a universalistic perspective, thanks to the export of a well-managed retail format (the superstore format, the supermarket format), or does it opt for an adjustment to the cultural conditions of the target country, and this, even in the operational dimensions of management? To answer this question and to take part in the current debates about the stakes of international marketing, a case study was conducted on the Carrefour Group in Romania, while using a structural analysis of narrative. The research associates, for the first time, three theoretical frameworks: the internationalization of the retailer, the management of relationships in the marketing channel and the management of the cross-cultural variable. The authors bring to light a three-stage managerial cycle around a double-cultural filtration phenomenon which questions the usually used dichotomous approach to analyze the internationalization of the large retailer: universalism vs. culturalism.