Positioning of retail stores in Central and Eastern European accession states : Standardization versus adaptation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the retail store decision criteria of customers in founder member states of the European Union and customers in Central and Eastern European (CEE) accession member states. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the literature review we theorize that significant differences will exist between founder member state customers and CEE accession member customers and that retailers would be wise to forego a standardized retail mix in favour of strategies more precisely adapted to individual national markets. Utilizing a well‐established retail customer decision criteria scale, the authors collected data from 1,221 Eastern and Western EU customers. Findings – It was found that CEE shoppers hold very high expectations of what they desire in a retail store. Indeed, their expectations were higher than those of founder member state customers on 21 of the 22 dimensions measured. Research limitations/implications – Because of the convenience nature of the data collection method utilized in the current study, future research that examines these two groups might want to employ a more stratified sampling approach across all the countries. Other limitations that provide fertile ground for future studies include specific explorations of the retail decision criteria with more complex measurement scales, which tap each sub construct more thoroughly. Practical implications – It is apparent that retailers should thoroughly evaluate new target markets, especially when they are distant and unfamiliar and they should pursue country‐adapted strategies when entering the new CEE accession states. Originality/value – The paper presents some of the first empirical research that examines the diversity of retail preferences across the enlarged EU.