Knowledge and the transfer of the supermarket from North America to Britain, 1950-1970

"It is widely acknowledged that key retail innovations of the mid-twentieth century were self-service stores and more especially the supermarket. These innovations arose in North America and quickly spread to Britain in the aftermath of World War II. Whilst recent commentators have drawn increasing attention to the importance of the supermarket in social, economic and cultural terms, detailed research on how these retail innovations were spread is much more limited. The aim of this paper is to explore the diffusion of the supermarket from North America to Britain by examining two key themes; namely, the mechanisms of knowledge transfer and the management of such knowledge. In terms of the mechanisms of knowledge transfer the paper discusses the nature of knowledge and explores the ways in which both tacit and explicit knowledge was moved. The significance of a number of conduits of knowledge on 'modern retailing' is evaluated including the trade press, government ministries, and shop-fitting and store design firms. This is followed by a detailed discussion of the way in which such knowledge was managed. The role of 'interlocking directorates' is explored within this context. Recent research has increasingly stressed the value of such 'interlocks' as mechanisms of communication and even knowledge management. Such ideas are applied to an analysis of the role played by the Canadian owned Weston Group in the development of the supermarket in early post-war Britain. This is based on a detailed reading of the business records of various British grocery retailers which became closely associated with Weston's activities."