There is common theme within the literature that a store represents the tangible andintangible values of the company's commercial and retail organisational philosophy. Given this, it could be considered as a brand, with all the associated competitive advantages that correspond to this entity. Operationally, a store's brand competitiveness can be viewed from the image it transmits and the impact it has in the minds of consumers. However, as markets and consumer tastes vary between countries, there have been calls for further inquiry into how the domestic store brand image, with its inherited competitive advantage, can be transferred abroad. A means for achieving this is via a standardised transfer strategy. In the international marketing literature, standardisation is referred to as the identical offering of the entire marketing mix in several different countries. Likewise, within the context of retailintenationalisation, standardisation is defined as the faithful replication of a successful domestic store concept abroad. Despite all the citations found within the wider literature on international retailing the notion of standardisation lacks of clear definition when concern upon the transfer of store brand image. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to provide an insight into the debate of store brand image standardisation in international retailing. From the limitations identified in the existing literature, a new research framework isproposed for examining store brand image standardisation. The framework includes theconventional 'Store Image per se' comparative process, where examination isundertaken from a store image attribute perspective between markets. In addition, twonew elements are introduced. First, the comparative process of 'Relative Marketplace', where a comparison of the domestic and foreign store image is conducted within their relative markets. Second, the 'Store Image Dimension perspective', where the two comparative processes, 'Store Image per se' and 'Relative Marketplace', are examinedafter the store image attributes have been aggregated into broader dimensions. This proposed framework was employed to examine the store image transferability of the Spanish limited line food discounter DIA. Through a pluralist methodologicalapproach of both qualitative and quantitative methods, a shopper survey was conducted in Spain (the home market) and Greece (a host market) to measure the company's store brand image between and within its marketplaces. From the juxtaposition of the three components of the proposed framework, the results indicate that store brand image standardisation should be examined from an 'Absolute,'and 'Relative' standpoint. Moreover, depending on the standpoint undertaken toexamine the transfer of the store brand image, standardisation can be conceptualised in three ways. 'Absolute Standardisation': A standard to be applied by faithfullyreplicating the store's domestic image into a host market; 'Core Standardisation': Astandard to be secured by faithfully replicating the store's domestic unique selling proposition, that satisfies the needs of global markets while maintaining intact the company's entire concept; and 'Relative Standardisation': A standard to be achieved by faithfully replicating the store's domestic positioning into the host market. It is argued that these three aspects of store brand image standardisation should not be viewed as distinctive concepts, but rather as a transitional process of two ends of the same continuum.
