An exploratory discussion of the global expansion strategy of a health sector business in the COVID-19 pandemic: A Perspective of economic security.

Abstract

This paper uses the example of Holland and Barrett (H&B), a multinational health food retailer, to critically analyse and evaluate the challenges in the company's strategy to expand its sales channels into new markets in Europe, to identify key points for developing corporate expansion strategies in the post-coronavirus disease 2019 era. Holland and Barrett has enjoyed a strong corporate reputation and recognition for more than 150 years and is the largest provider of health and food supplements in Europe (H&B 2020). However, even for a company that has had a good reputation in the international marketplace in the past, the current COVID-19 pandemic presents new issues to consider, as well as calls for the expansion of new perspectives in business strategy planning to support business sustainability. The main feature of this paper is that it proposes the inclusion of an economic security perspective as a direction for future research. That is, we propose the theme of re-examining the nature of product development and product deployment in a global market in light of uncertain and unstable market trends. The topic of ‘economic security’ is still in its infancy and there is no clear consensus on a definition of the term. Economic security is a multifaceted concept that, although still only vaguely understood, is considered to refer to the challenge of achieving national security from an economic perspective. However, there have been few attempts to situate this issue in the context of business internationalisation strategies. The authors of this paper address the issue of economic security using a hypothetical case study of H&B's overseas spending. Finally, we propose that economic security be adopted as a theme for future research.