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The Role of Local Strategies on a Globalizing Market

An Exploration of Two Service Industry Cases

Stockholm University School of Business

Taking its stance in social embeddedness theory, this article questions the assumption that companies' adoption of the Internet implies a linear move from local embeddedness to placeless globalization. The aim of the article is to explore the role of local strategies in a multichannel service production context. In substantiating the argument, 20 in-depth interviews with managers representing the travel and banking industries are used. The article identifies six key roles of local strategies: developing a local market feel, exploiting employees' local explicit knowledge, exploiting employees' local implicit knowledge, developing relationships, using a local branding strategy, and applying a local branch design. This illustrates the way in which, in this context, the Internet has led to places being redefined and used for new strategic purposes, a process that, in the words of Lévy (1998), is referred to as a movement of reterritorialization.

Key Words: local strategies • deterritorialization • reterritorialization • globalization • Internet • production of space

Space and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 4, 397-417 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1206331207305830


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