The Establishment and Development of Brick-and-Mortar and E-Commerce Businesses

Abstract

My thesis explores how external environmental forces such as market size and its level of competitiveness, the regulatory environment and its conditions, and consumer behavior and its adoption of digitalization influence the strategic decisions that brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses make across their stages of establishment and development, with the Hungarian market acting as the reference context. The result is that both business types operating under the same external environmental conditions diverge in their establishment strategies while reaching a converging point in their development strategies, leading to omnichannel integration. A limitation of this thesis is that the analysis relies on secondary sources; however, this is mitigated by the use of a diverse collection of academic sources alongside governmental statistical data. The contribution of this analysis is the concept of non-identical equivalence, which argues that neither business type is inherently better or worse than the other, as each faces structurally different challenges of equal demands. Ultimately, successful retail businesses, regardless of their type, are those that maintain alignment between their business model, strategic positioning, and evolving environmental conditions. This work offers strategic and valuable insights to businesses, entrepreneurs, and managers navigating the ongoing transformation of the retail market in the digital era.