著者

白 寅秀

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, no.3, pp.49-75, 1999-12-25 (Released:2009-11-06)

被引用文献数

1

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This article examines the evolution of Korean retail forms since the 1970s and compares them to those in Japan. Particular emphasis is placed on the issues of changing markets, competition among retail forms, and its relation to the operating system.First, the discussion focuses on supermarkets in Korea during the 1970s and reveals why, in contrast to Japanized GMS (General Merchandise Store) transformation, supermarkets underwent low growth. Two reasons are given for this : the presence of the traditional market as a powerful competitor to the supermarket, and the weakness of the wholesale market compared to its Japanese counterpart.These characteristics of the Korean market serve to underpin the second issue, namely the growth of department stores from the late 1980s to the early 1990s during the emergence of the mass market. In the absence of competition from other modernized retailing, department stores exhibited significant retail growth through the adoption of multiple store operation and personnel dispatch systems.The third issue is about the rapid growth of convenience and discount stores since the 1990s. This part examines why, despite contradictory retail types in terms of margin and location, the two retail forms were introduced and developed around the same time. The year 1990 is identified as a watershed year in that it was around then that producers began to comply with retail price proposals and the government initiated the competition principal in the domestic retail market for foreign companies.This article clearly demonstrates that although the dynamics of retail forms in later developed country show retail innovations, plural paths of adaptation in each retail form are created across national boundaries because of differences in market, competition, and operating system.