"It's a retail revolution": The international challenges of digitalization

Although Sweden has long been a good breeding ground for global success concepts such as Hennes and Mauritz and IKEA, today's Swedish retail companies have difficulty scaling up their operations internationally. This project aims to examine the factors that can create increased international growth through e-commerce in small and medium-sized retail businesses.

Since sustainable economic growth is important for Swedish retail companies to survive in the long term, this is a much-needed project. Even though there is much research into how large and resource-rich retail companies are acting to make the most of the new digital economy, there is a lack of research into how smaller companies are managing the new opportunities and challenges that arise with increased e-commerce. I

n this project, the project-team will collect in-depth data about Swedish retail companies. This data allows for clearer comparisons between companies that have coped with structural change towards e-commerce better with companies that have fared worse. The project can thus provide new specific insights into how a smaller company should act to succeed in its digitalization strategy and thus increase its international growth. The ambition of the project is to contribute to the international research front and to generate new and useful knowledge for practitioners in the retail industry.

The project be conducted in retail firms with headquarters in Stockholm.

Project objectives

The project can provide new specific insights into how smaller companies should act to succeed in their digitisation strategies and thus grow into medium-sized international actors.