Abstract
Distribution channel activities account for a large share of economic activity, and innovation in distribution is recurrently shown to hold great potential for efficiency-improvement and restructuring. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in innovations and their role in economic change. A growing body of work uses an evolutionary economic approach to these questions. Empirically, this research has primarily been directed towards innovation in product design or production processes, while innovation in distribution channels has remained a relatively unexplored area of study within evolutionary economics.This study was inspired by the possibility to use the emerging evolutionary economic theory to improve our understanding of innovation in distribution channels. The evolutionary framework is combined with theory on distribution channels, and the adapted framework applied to two cases of innovation in Swedish grocery trade. These two innovations, the introduction of the self-service format and the development of a vertically and horizontally coordinated, channel organisation, the so-called all-channel, have both been important in shaping distribution channel structures.In addition to providing some new insights into these historical developments, the study makes a contribution to the theory of distribution channels with regard to innovations. The role of the environment in shaping the characteristics of the innovation is an addition to conventional views of innovation in channel theory. The interdependent nature of actors and processes in distribution channel is acknowledged, and the possibilities for modularising the system is advanced as an important strategic tool in facilitating the adoptability of distribution innovations. However, the success or failure of an innovation is found to depend on the adopting actors’ ability to mobilise system-wide effects.