Retail operations strategies: Empirical evidence of role, competitive contribution and life cycle

The purpose of this study is to examine the role and contribution of an operations strategy for the retailer.

The methodology is mainly qualitative empirical research.

Analyses of the data collected reveals that the respondent organisations had a number of strategic aspirations and these objectives could be isolated, described and classified. It became apparent that the development and deployment of an operations strategy was closely related to these longer‐term business aims. The research was able to establish clear correlations between the application of these strategies and the achievement of both strategic and tactical objectives over a period of time.

The work demonstrates support for the contention that the use of an operations strategy is important to fuel the success of these organisations. It also questions the lack of emphasis given to this aspect in the strategic literature and most conceptual models of strategy.