earticle

영어

This study analyzes Atomy’s entry and expansion in China’s highly regulated direct selling environment using the SER-M framework. China’s long-term suspension of direct selling licenses and strengthened compliance requirements created institutional barriers that made traditional license-driven expansion infeasible. Through a qualitative case study supported by multi-source data-including interviews, policy documents, and quantitative indicators such as sales performance, tax contribution, and investment scale-this research examines how Atomy constructed a feasible market-entry mechanism under these constraints. The findings show that Atomy employed a resource-driven environmental innovation mechanism (RSE), in which existing headquarters resources-mature product lines, manufacturing partnerships, a standardized GSGS (Global Sourcing, Global Sales) sourcing system, and principle-centered governance-were mobilized to reinterpret and reconstruct the Chinese institutional environment. Three mechanisms played central roles: first, institutional adaptation and channel innovation through a hybrid model of foreign direct investment (FDI), bonded-zone cross-border e-commerce (CBEC), and a distributor system; second, product and supply-chain restructuring based on global-local resource integration; and third, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) embedding to build legitimacy and long-term trust. These mechanisms jointly enabled Atomy to achieve legal landing, rapid localization, and sustained growth, transforming China from a consumption market into a dual consumption-production hub within its global network. The study contributes to the literature by extending the SER-M model to a regulation-intensive, consumer-facing industry and providing insights into how multinational firms can achieve compliant and sustainable development in high-friction institutional environments.