The digital transformation of local owner-operated retail outlets

Abstract

In a growing market environment, local owner operated retail outlets (LOOROs) are obliged to adapt their own business models to the intense competitive situation in the retail sector. LOOROs seem to be threatened in their very existence by both the pressure of digitalization due to online and offline competitors and the changing shopping habits of the customers. Despite their limited resources (e.g., lack of time and knowledge as well as of human and financial resources, etc.), LOOROs are not defenselessly exposed to this development. This cumulative dissertation examines LOOROs passive behavior towards digitalization and aims to deliver insights that will help the public sector as well as the owners and managers of LOOROs in order to support its digital development.