ABSTRACT
The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola) is the world’s largest beverage company. It has pioneered the franchise model, which permanently changed how soft drinks are produced, marketed, sold and consumed across the world. This chapter examines the strategy and structure of the Coca-Cola business system, with a particular focus on its activities in China, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing beverage markets. It studies the way in which Coca-Cola undertakes systems integration activities to enhance competitive advantage in a large developing market. The chapter pays particular attention to the ways in which Coca-Cola interacts with local businesses in order to evaluate the extent to which the company has transformed local economies in the world’s largest developing country.
