The rise and demise of a supply chain

Abstract

This article investigates the global ‘retail revolution’ through the path chosen by key people in the Norwegian trade network called Technical Supplies Partner (TSP). The story is told from the perspective of a single entrepreneur working closely together with an A-team of fiercely independent shop-owners who helped transform TSP from a voluntary association into a market-leading Scandinavian retail chain. The trade network then became a global supply chain, before finally nearly going bankrupt. Three main points are made. The first is that the ‘retail revolution’ occurred as the result of new technology and market liberalization, but only as these were mediated through people’s efforts at new venture creation. The second point is that entrepreneurship itself changes the conditions for entrepreneurship, and the third that ethnography is a good method for investigating how entrepreneurship changes the conditions for entrepreneurship.