Strategic renewal in the consumer co-operative sector: An international study

Globally, consumer co-operation has experienced a difficult half century since the 1970s. Large-scale failures in France, Germany and Austria were accompanied by a loss of market share in the UK (including the failure of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society and takeover by its English counterpart). Although for many decades, strategy scholars have analysed the processes of change that an organization might undergo as it deals with competitive challenges, only recently have scholars come to use the term 'strategic renewal'. It is clear that where ambitious and creative strategic renewal policies have been enacted, co-operative retailing is capable of not only surviving but even flourishing, in spite of the highly competitive nature of retailing in general. On the other hand, we need to understand the nature of these responses to a highly challenging environment and the reasons why in some cases strategic renewal was not as successful as in other cases.