116 Int. J. Strategic Change Management, Vol. 3, Nos. 1/2, 2011 Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. An examination of Chinese own brand development model: a resource perspective Wei Song* Department of Management School of Business and Economics, Thompson Rivers University, 900 McGill Road, P.O. Box 3010, Kamloops, BC, Canada V2C 5N3, Canada Fax: (250) 828-5051 E-mail: wsong@tru.ca *Corresponding author David D. Schein Reginald F. Lewis School of Business, Virginia State University, P.O. Box 5135, Midlothian VA 23112, USA Fax: (866) 522-4715 E-mail: dschein@vsu.edu Abstract: The resources leading to retailers developing own brands have not been well examined in the non-Western literature. This empirical work presents a study that was conducted in Shanghai, China. Two types of resources relevant to Chinese own brand development are identified and discussed by adopting Hunt’s resource-advantage theory. A qualitative research method is employed with the interview data from a panel of ten retail experts. Some managerial implications are explicated and the limitations of this study and directions for future studies are provided. Keywords: Chinese; retail; grocery sector; Chinese own brand; differentiation advantage; resource-advantage theory; R-A theory; country of origin; COO; region of origin; RO; place of origin; PO; organisational resources; relational resources; China. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Song, W. and Schein, D.D. (2011) ‘An examination of Chinese own brand development model: a resource perspective’, Int. J. Strategic Change Management, Vol. 3, Nos. 1/2, pp.116–126. Biographical notes: Wei Song received her PhD in Management from the University of Edinburgh, UK. She has had a solid international experience, including teaching at a range of universities and working at a major US corporation. She is a regular Visiting Professor at Chinese institutions while holding an Assistant Professor post at Thompson Rivers University, Canada. Her research interests are in the areas of resource-based innovation in retail strategy, the UK own brand strategic model in emerging markets, Chinese consumer own label buying behaviour and Chinese own brand strategy. She conducts research and publishes papers regularly. In a consultation capacity, she serves as a Senior Academic Advisor for both US and Chinese educational firms.