Abstract
In contrast to most of its Southeast Asian neighbors, Myanmar still lacks a vibrant retail landscape. Yet, given the political and economic opening-up of the country and the abolition of many sanctions since 2013, commercial interest in Myanmar is growing rapidly. While political and economic reforms sweep across the country, retailers are now eyeing-up the formerly reclusive nation for opportunities. Still, the question remains as to how optimistic the outlook of the Myanmar retailing industry really is? This paper explores and analyses the developments of Myanmar’s retail sector to date. Within the decision making process, companies operate within an external and an internal environment that consist of political, cognitive and sociological elements. A company’s behavior and decision making processes are affected by both environments. This study applies institutional theory as a complementary framework in order to evaluate international retailers’ foreign market entry choices with special regard to Myanmar and evaluates the main factors influencing decisions for, or against market entry. It concludes by proposing institutional theory as complementary to, and not substitutive of, existing theories such as Dunning's eclectic theory or transaction cost analysis.
Highlights
Retailers, food retailers, have started late with their international expansion, they are increasingly recognizing developing markets as a means of strategic growth and are responding
How optimistic are the prospects for retailing in Myanmar? The article has two objectives: (1) To use the institutional theory as a framework to explain the possibilities for international retailers to enter Myanmar; (2) To assess the reasons why retailers have not entered the Myanmar market
Despite the growing attractiveness of the retail market in Myanmar, many retailers are hesitant to expand to Myanmar
Summary
Food retailers, have started late with their international expansion, they are increasingly recognizing developing markets as a means of strategic growth and are responding . Within the decision-making process they are influenced by internal and external framework conditions, which in turn consist of regulatory, normative and cognitive elements. The present study applies institutional theory as a complementary framework to assess the selection criteria of international retailers with regard to the Myanmar market. While political and economic reforms are sweeping through Myanmar, retailers are turning their attention to the formerly isolated nation. International heavyweights such as Burger King, Coca-Cola and others are entering a seemingly promising market. The question of the influence factors on the decision-making of the international expansion of the retailers in Myanmar is investigated by means of an institutional-theoretical analysis of the external company environment. Thereby, the present study builds upon earlier research by Huang and Sternquist (2007)
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