First foreign grocery retailer enters the Finnish market—a stakeholder model

Abstract

Finnish grocery retailing has until recently been dominated by four major domestic retail groups. The first totally foreign grocery retailer, hard discount chain Lidl, was the first entrant into the Finnish market. This paper describes and analyses the entry process of Lidl from the perspective of the stakeholder groups in the host market. The stakeholder model of foreign retailer entry is used as a framework in exploring the stages of the entry as well as the reactions, roles and motives of the relevant stakeholders. Secondary data was collected from articles published in newspapers and business magazines and minutes of the municipal board meetings. The three stakeholder attributes—power, legitimacy and urgency—characterize the reactions of the stakeholders.