1. Abstract We assess the closeness of perceptions between managers and customers of two small family-owned businesses ("FBs") and two larger non-FBs in Sardinia, Italy, in exploring how local retail shops may compete against international superstores. While the decline of small, High Street businesses has been widely reported, we present a more nuanced perspective of their competitiveness by
... [Show full abstract] suggesting how these typically family-run businesses may in fact hold a competitive advantage over larger non-FBs based on a well-developed "perceptive concordance" with their customers. Perceptive concordance can result from a process of customer feedback and informed action that produces deep, tacit knowledge of customers' preferences. Drawing on this knowledge, owner-managers of our two non-FBs were able to anticipate and stock products that were most sought by their customers. By contrast, competing non-FBs offered a large, generic range of products that was less popular with their customers. Our view has scholarly and managerial implications in the way that both FBs and non-FBs may gain competitive advantage by developing their perceptive concordance with customers to secure their ongoing support.