Preview was written by Ling Zhang and Yehua Dennis Wei
Q: What is the main purpose of your study?
A: Our study examines the spatial expansion pattern of retail 
transnational corporations (TNCs) in China, the impacts of home and host economies on local embeddedness, and the structural paradox between enforcing standardization and conducting localization.
Q: What are the practical, day to day implications of your study?
A: Our study implies that international retailers should pay special attention to the differences between Western and Chinese institutions and culture while expanding in China.
Q: How does your study relate to other work on the subject?
A: Our study applies the concepts of embeddedness in the hypermarket retailing sector in China.
Q: What are two or three interesting findings that come from your study?
A: Foreign retailers expanded in two directions: from the eastern coastal region to the central and western hinterland, and along China’s urban hierarchy from large cities to smaller cities. Successful foreign hypermarket retailers have actually focused more on small and medium sized Chinese cities to expand their store network.
Q: What might be some of the theoretical implications of this study?
A: Our study highlights the vital importance of local embeddedness for the distribution-based retail industry and warns that localization might lead to the structural paradox with standardization.
Q: How does your research help us think about Geography?
A: This research helps us to understand the spatial dynamics of TNCs in developing countries and the importance of geography in the business field.
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