Inovações, produção do espaço e estratégias corporativas: a difusão espacial do modelo cash and carry nas múltiplas escalas do Brasil

Abstract

The multiplication of new supermarket formats around the world, especially led by global retail corporations, has generated a series of debates: ranging from the impact on competition to the threat to sustainable food systems. However, many studies fail by not allowing a systematic overview of the nature of the innovations produced and their diffusion process. The thesis discusses the spatial diffusion of innovations in globalized supermarket retailing, considering the expansion of the cash and carry model by the French corporations Carrefour and Casino in Brazil (2007-2023). Not abandoning the classic studies on spatial diffusion, but pointing out their limits, it establishes a renewed look based on the dialog between the production of space and corporate strategies, understanding space as an inseparable set of systems of objects and actions. The study raises the question: : what are the logics and mechanisms that guide the spatial diffusion of innovations by global retail corporations operating in the supermarket segment? It analyzes the history of spatial diffusion of innovations in Brazilian food retail, starting with supermarkets, defining three periods: initiation (1953-1968), maturation (1969-1995), consolidation (1996-present). It systematizes 25 annual reports of Carrefour (1999-2023) and 19 of Casino (2005-2023), and traces the evolution of the strategic interests of these corporations in different countries, classifying and quantifying three types of innovations: organizational; product; marketing. In Brazil, it analyzes the diffusion patterns and spatial distribution of 370 Carrefour cash and carry stores (Atacadão) and 295 Casino stores (Assaí), comparing regions, states, city hierarchies, as well as the intra-urban space of 17 cities in the northern region. It argues that the spatial diffusion of innovations in globalized supermarket retail manifests itself as a strategic impulse in the production of space, at different levels and scales, driven above all by the growing power exercised by large retail corporations through new mechanisms that modulate innovations in space and time in order to obtain competitive advantages in the face of complex and accelerating economic, political and cultural changes that materialize differently in the multiple socio-spatial formations. These strategies are channeled through three common spatial practices: concentrated relocation of capital; production of innovative space; acceleration of innovation. Together, they complexify the patterns of spatial diffusion and distribution, since the multiple barriers (competitive, logistical, tax, real estate) represent challenges and opportunities whose responses are woven differently by corporations, which requires going beyond the classic patterns of spatial diffusion and locational theories, thus making it necessary to simultaneously understand the production of space and the particular universe of corporate strategies, revealing space as an active element. It shows that the competitive “race” for “atacarejos” in Brazil: reproduces contradictions and conflicts on multiple scales; paradoxically elucidates the strength of national, regional and local groups; expresses the complex way in which the spatial diffusion of innovations in globalized retail tends to reinforce the growing power of corporations. The conclusions: systematize the main ideas; elucidate the difficulties encountered and; indicates analytical improvements for future studies.