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Organisational restructuring, knowledge and spatial scale: the case of the US department store industry

Organisational restructuring, knowledge and spatial scale: the case of the US department store industry
Organisational restructuring, knowledge and spatial scale: the case of the US department store industry
Recent economic geography literature has underlined the role of tacit/local knowledge in embedding firms within their locales, characterised by the work on 'learning regions', 'territorial embeddedness', 'institutional thickness' and 'new industrial spaces'. This paper contributes to this theoretical debate, using evidence from organisational restructuring of the US department store industry to argue that, in contrast, retailers are using codified/universal knowledge, supported by tacit/local knowledge to successfully operate their retail operations across a range of spatial scales. As such, no one form of knowledge is exclusively relied upon but rather a blend of knowledges reduces costs and increases responsiveness across space.
organisational restructuring, scale, retail, knowledge
0040-747X
8-33
Wood, Steve
c21cde08-332e-4002-93e2-aad09a7f4ea9
Wood, Steve
c21cde08-332e-4002-93e2-aad09a7f4ea9

Wood, Steve (2002) Organisational restructuring, knowledge and spatial scale: the case of the US department store industry. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 93 (1), 8-33. (doi:10.1111/1467-9663.00180).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Recent economic geography literature has underlined the role of tacit/local knowledge in embedding firms within their locales, characterised by the work on 'learning regions', 'territorial embeddedness', 'institutional thickness' and 'new industrial spaces'. This paper contributes to this theoretical debate, using evidence from organisational restructuring of the US department store industry to argue that, in contrast, retailers are using codified/universal knowledge, supported by tacit/local knowledge to successfully operate their retail operations across a range of spatial scales. As such, no one form of knowledge is exclusively relied upon but rather a blend of knowledges reduces costs and increases responsiveness across space.

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Published date: February 2002
Keywords: organisational restructuring, scale, retail, knowledge

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Local EPrints ID: 178217
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/178217
ISSN: 0040-747X
PURE UUID: 8729f8f1-c686-4f36-98c2-e91130b1b233

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Date deposited: 24 Mar 2011 09:39
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:45

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Author: Steve Wood

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