Abstract

"The Evolution of Department Stores in Semi-Colonial China: Diversity and Innovation, 1880s to 1940s"

Guting Shen, University of Birmingham (giovannashen1@gmail.com)

After the First Opium War (1839–1842), the imposition of an unequal treaty system dragged China into a century-long era of semi-colonialism. This period was characterized by the erosion of Chinese sovereignty, the disruption of indigenous social and economic structures, and the country’s deeper integration into the global economy. Large treaty ports such as Shanghai and Hong Kong emerged as burgeoning metropolises, where modern-style department stores started to appear. This study has employed theoretical concepts such as first-mover advantages (FMAs) and late-mover advantages (LMAs) to construct a historically grounded and theoretically informed analysis of the development of department stores between the 1880s and the 1940s. It has demonstrated how three distinct types of actors—foreign-owned department stores, Chinese-owned stores offering both global and domestic products, and domestic-products department stores specializing exclusively in domestic products—shaped the competitive dynamics of this emerging industry. The study advances the application of FMA and LMA theories to the context of semi-colonial China, revealing a distinct trajectory in which Chinese latecomers outperformed early foreign entrants through adaptive innovation, effective mobilization of resources and capabilities, and strategic responses to market shifts. By integrating these insights into a broader historiographical analysis, the study addresses previously overlooked categories of foreign-owned and domestic-products department stores, while also expanding the geographic focus beyond Shanghai to include other coastal and inland cities.