Understanding e-commerce strategies anew : What happens when everyone turns hybrid?

• Even though current research literature pays much attention to e-commerce as an aspect of retailing, relatively few strategic approaches elaborate on the fact that many contemporary retail firms are hybrid firms, which implies offering products both online and offline. Notably, much of extant research sets off from the premise that traditional retail chains adopt e-commerce to complement the physical stores. An important observation is that today also ‘pure’ e-tailers open physical stores, which means that hybridization develops from different vantage points. Current strategic understandings of hybrid firms’ strategies do not necessarily take into account the different and sometimes contrary approaches to what it means to be a hybrid firm. The purpose of this article is to develop a two-dimensional model of strategic choice in hybrid firms. It makes it possible to identify different strategies along the dimensions of a) locality (of the physical store) and b) the role of the physical store when it comes to distribution. Through this approach, a deeper strategic understanding is reached, for example with regard to the physical distribution aspect of hybrid firms.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

E-commerce

Hybrid

Market-orientation

Multi-presence

Retail

Strategy

Supply-orientation

Uni-presence

Business Studies

Företagsekonomi

Företagsekonomi

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