Local projections in business history: The case of Inditex

Abstract

This article has two objectives. On the one hand, it attempts to delve into the sources of competitive advantage of Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer, by considering the evolution of the company’s strategies over the last two decades and relying on an econometric technique, Local Projections, to complement the qualitative analyses. On the other hand, the article presents and explains this quantitative technique, which can help to solve some of the problems that arise when attempting to apply quantitative methods in business history, such as small sample sizes, causality analysis or endogeneity.