Strategic market behaviour in the internationalization of food retailing – Interpreting the third wave of Sainsbury’s US diversification

A two‐component framework for strategic marketing research, focused on the corporate level and the business‐unit level, to structure an interpretation of the strategic dimensions of the acquisition in November 1998 of Star Markets, a Boston, USA‐based food retail chain, by J. Sainsbury plc the UK’s second largest food retailer. Set within a broader context of the wave of acquisition‐driven consolidation rapidly transforming the US food retail industry during the late 1990s, the paper considers the extent to which the acquisition of Star Markets represented a strategic fit with Sainsbury’s existing US business, the alternative strategies available to the company at the time of the acquisition, and the resulting strategic centrality of the US business to Sainsbury’s corporate future. Focuses on the highly contested nature of the retail internationalization process and issues of sustaining international expansion during periods of retrenchment and strategic reassessment. Highlights the tensions which can be created within the portfolio of business units of a large multidivisional firm during the internationalization process, and the stresses in the relationship between management and the capital markets which can develop if the internationalization process is perceived, correctly or incorrectly, to threaten the strategic credibility of the firm.