Small Independent Merchants and Transnational Retail Encounters on Main Street: Insights from Bangkok
Assistant Prof. Alex M. Mutebi, National University of Singapore
and
Research Associate Rashid M.Ansari, INSEAD-Singapore Campus
Abstract
The aggressive expansion of retail transnational corporations (TNC) is changing the face of the urban environment in much of emerging Asia and prompting policymakers to consider responses. Using crosssectional survey data from 30 districts in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, this paper explores two issues: (i) the impact of transnational, largeformat retail on small, independent merchants; and (ii) the ways in which the latter are attempting to cope with the stress associated with the arrival of the former, based on selfreported subjective measures of immediate marketing responses, sustained marketing efforts, and organizational performance. The findings suggest that surviving incumbent merchants compete in different and mostly unfavorable environments compared to the status quo ante, with the overwhelming majority of these incumbents reporting negative impacts which primarily took the form of decreases in business. In addition, we find that the various responses of many of the incumbent independent merchants suggest that the latter might not be enough to reverse the impact of the large retailers’ arrival.
Key words: Competitiveness, Multinationals; Global networks; Enterprise; Retail; SMEs; Southeast Asia; Thailand
