The Study On Contributors To China's Retail Enterprises Performance

Based on a fundamental theory framework, with theoretical and empirical analysis, this dissertation presents an in-depth systematic study on the performance status, the performance contributors and the ways to enhance performance advantages of China retail enterprises.This dissertation consists of four parts, with eight chapters in total. Part One defines the concepts used in this study, presents a theoretic survey and establishes the theoretical analysis framework for this study, consisting of Chapter 1,Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical and practical importance of studying the performance and performance contributors of China's retail enterprises. This chapter defines this study Following a survey of related domestic and international researches by economic and management specialists,Chapter 2 presents a survey of theoretical schools on enterprise performance contributors, and points out that there are currently three main theoretical schools-- the theory holding that enterprises performance advantages come from the internal, the theory holding that enterprises performance advantages come from the external, and the theory holding that enterprises performance advantages come from dynamic capabilities of enterprises. This theory survey provides the foundation for the study on contributors to retail enterprise performance advantages and also for the proposed solutions.Based on the analysis described in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 establishes a model for the study on retail enterprises performance advantages development mechanisms.Chapter 3 proposes that retail enterprises performance advantages come from three main sources :1.the market structure and the changes of enterprise conducts.2. customer value core resources and capabilities with consumers at the center; scale value core resources and capabilities with suppliers at the center.3. Enterprise Positioning and Building Retail Networks withCustomer Value at the Core. Part Two consists of Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6. This part focuses on the empirical analysis of contributors to enterprises performance advantages.With the preceding analysis framework in mind, retail enterprises performance is studied from the perspective of the market structure external to enterprises and the perspective of enterprises internal core competences.Chapter 4 discusses the changes of market structure metrics from the year 1990 to the year 2005, and finds out that during the 1990-2005 period, the market structure of China's retail industry evolves from a atomic structure to a monopoly structure with low-medium concentricity. Retail enterprises are changing from market recipients into market influencers, and the changes of retail enterprises performance are closely related with the changes in market structure and enterprises conducts. So this dissertation holds that market structure is one of the contributors to retail enterprises performance. The market structure influences enterprises conducts, and enterprises conducts influence their performance.Taking major joint-stock retailers in China as the sample, this dissertation finds out further that with the same market structure, different enterprises may vary significantly in performance. This also means an enterprise's performance advantages are influenced not only by the external market structure, but also by the enterprise's internal core resources and capabilities—even being decisive.In chapter 5, with ten well-performed retailers as the sample, the customer value competence ,ie,the marketing and management capabilities—one of the possible performance advantages contributors—is empirically studied. The result shows that China's retail enterprises are not competitive enough to achieve performance advantages by meeting customers'demands with good marketing and management, so they are not able to make profit via customers.Chapter 6 discusses the retailers performance, the scale resources such as the revenue and assets, as well as the retailers scalability from the perspective of scale value. This empirical study shows that China's retailers are comparatively strong to obtain scale value from suppliers, but this non-constructive cooperation leads to acute conflicts between the retailers and their suppliers. So efforts should be made to improve this performance contributor.Chapter 7 is the third part of this dissertation, which focuses on solutions. Based on the theoretical framework and empirical study presented in the preceding chapters, Chapter 7 discusses the possible solution from the perspective of improving China's retail enterprises performance—based on external environment and internal capabilities, retail enterprises should position themselves properly and establish retail networks, with customer value at the core.Chapter 8, the forth part of this dissertation, concludes this study and points out some further work.