International Business: Witnessing a Strong Business Opportunity - Essay Example

New Project – 1058437 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Question 5 Question 2. 7 Question 3. 9 Question 4. 12 Conclusion 14 References 16 Bibliography 18 Executive Summary The world of the 21st century is moving at a rapid pace. Steady development and continuous changes are the most important factors that keep on generating the momentum and helps in maintaining the forward pace of the modern day society. It is important to highlight that the technological development and high level penetration of communications technology has played a major role in bringing a positive change in the development of the society in the modern times. The technological penetration in various markets around the world has transformed the world in to a well connected single entity. Because of this technological advancement and penetration, the access to information have increased and consumers are becoming more aware in terms of their needs and wants. Well informed consumers in the markets of the developing as well as the developed nations are becoming more demanding in regards to their needs for various products and services. Witnessing a strong business opportunity, organizations around the world are increasingly focusing on catering to the needs of the well informed consumers in various markets and hence are naturally venturing into many foreign markets. In this particular assignment, the focus is on US based retailer Wal-Mart and its outcomes when it ventured into different foreign markets. Introduction Wal-Mart is a US based retail giant, which started its business operations in the year 1962, in Arkansas, USA. The company had a humble beginning under the Sam Walton, who started the retail business from a very basic level. With the passage of time, the firm has grown expansively in the domestic American market as well as the multiple international markets. The company is widely known in its business markets for its implementation of a every day low pricing (EDLP) model. In regards to the current times, the company’s financial performance is highly impressive. As of the year 2013, net sales for the US market stood at over 274 billion USD while for the international market, it stood at over 135 billion USD (Walmart.com, 2013). Source: Walmart.com, 2013 In this particular assignment, the focus is on the US retailer’s mode of expansion into the various international markets around the world, and the associated successes and failures in those markets. Question 1. The US based retail organization Wal-Mart has grown steadily over the years and in the course of responding to different dynamics in its domestic market, has ventured in to multiple international markets around the world. It is important to highlight that for a business organization to expand into international markets, there are different motives that are associated with it. In the academic context, five major motives are identified that motivates an organization to enter into the international markets. The first motive propelling the desire to enter an international market is the demand oriented internationalization. Under the demand oriented internationalization concept, companies enter foreign markets by focusing on the scope of increasing the volume of sales for the companies’ products and services. The increase in sales volume provide the venturing firm with the opportunity to attain better economies of scale in regards to costs associated with manufacturing and procurement. The second motive associated with international market expansion by firms is in regards to supply oriented internationalization. Because of rapid technological development, increased market level competition, and shortening product life cycles, the need for critical resources as well as expert business support are becoming very important factors for a firm, which is focusing to retain its competitive advantage in the global marketplace. As per this concept, the desire of a firm to gain access to critical raw materials as well as cost efficient human resources and other important business support like technology and managerial expertise, distribution channels leads them to venture into the foreign markets. Liberal trade laws along with flexible policies related to foreign direct investment also play a catalytic role for firms to tap into markets under this particular concept. The third motive behind an internationalization strategy adopted by a firm is the desire to focus on the customer. Talking on these lines, it has to be highlighted that firms today are a part of an integrated value chain and they often share a highly interconnected relationship with their respective suppliers, customers and other key stakeholders. So naturally to keep generating value for the desired target audience, the firms which are basically suppliers of various key manufacturing components has to adopt to the market trend and has to follow their customers in the foreign markets as well. The fourth motive for an internationalization endeavour of a firm is to follow the competitor. As the modern day firms owing to changing market conditions are sharing a direct or an indirect relationship with the other competitors in the market, hence a competitor’s move into high potential foreign market has to be followed by other firms competing in the same arena as well. The final motive related to internationalization effort of a firm is the financial resources. Change in cash flow as well as operating profits for an organization in a particular market also acts as a strong motivator to push firms into international expansion of their businesses (Glowik and Smyczek, p 8-14 ). Now in relating the motives behind expansion in to international markets by the firms with that of the points highlighted in the case study, it can be said that Wal-Mart focused on entering the international markets in the early 1990, since growth slowed down in the US market, and it was impacting the sales and thereby the profit of the company. The internationalization as a response to financial requirements can be seen as a major strategic reason for Wal-Mart to enter the foreign market of Mexico. Another strategic reason of significant importance that led to the expansion of Wal-Mart, especially in the foreign market of Mexico is the belief that the retail chain would be able to alter the consumer behaviour of the masses of Mexico, thereby enabling it to replicate the America based success model. Now in discussing about the environmental reasons, which can be associated with Wal-Mart’s expansion in to international markets, the focus has to be given on the issues of withdrawal from the markets of Germany and South Korea. In the year 2006, owing to very difficult competitive environments, because of strong influence of powerful local rivals who have highly synchronized offerings that fit the specific market requirements, the American retail chains aborted its business operations in Germany and South Korea. It has to be noted that because of the pullout from the German and South Korean markets, the international retail chain was actively looking forward to tap markets, where the number of local competitors are low and the lower pricing of products has a high appeal. This led to the entry of the US based retail chain to enter the foreign market of China. While discussing about the potential risks associated with the moves made by Wal-Mart to enter the foreign markets, attention has to be given to both the strategic as well as environmental reasons. Talking in regards to the risk of the strategic reason, which led Wall Mart to enter the Mexican market, it has to be pointed out that the market has been developed by the American retail giant on the principles of low product pricing as well as adoption of an American consumption culture. Now, in the event of a slowdown in the economy of the region, while low product price can continue to be an appeal for pulling consumers to the stores, the high consumption culture of America which has been imbibed among the Mexican consumers will leave them with a lower purchasing power during the slowdown period. This will have the ability to seriously impact the sales of the Wal-Mart stores in Mexico. Now, in discussing the risk associated with environmental reason, which powered the international retailer to enter the market of China, it has to be cited that as of the year 2012, China has a growing middle class, which comprised over 50% of the entire population. Source: Barton and et.al, 2013 However, as the middle class consumers over the passage of time will move to the segment of upper middle class, the attraction for low priced products might eventually fall off. This will lead to the eradication of the primary competitive advantage in the Chinese market and will pave the way for premium brand product and services. Another important risk factor for the American retail store is the competition coming from other international retail chains that have a strong presence in the Chinese markets (PTI, 2013). Question 2. The US based retail player in order to tackle slow growth in its domestic market focused on tapping the foreign markets, which provided significant room for retail growth. To start tapping the growth potential existing in the foreign markets, Wal-Mart focused on entering the high potential Latin American markets. (Ovcina, 2010, p. 2-3). It is important to highlight the strategy by which Wal-Mart penetrated the Mexican market in the year 1991. In the previous days, the US based retail chain mainly conducted its business operations through three types of retail formats like Wal-Mart stores, Sams Clubs and Supercenters. Because of slowed down growth in the US market, the US retailer was forced to look for alternate markets, which had the ability to complement its big box, low price model. While opting for the foreign markets, Wal-Mart also had to take into account its constraints in regards to resources and expertise in the domains of financial, organizational as well as managerial. While the emerging markets had consumers with low disposable incomes and provided the perfect fit for its low pricing business model, yet Wal-Mart targeted the Latin American markets. An intensified look in to the market selection will bring into light some very critical points. While the Asian markets could have provided the perfect platform for replicating the American retailer’s successful business model, yet the markets had significantly large geographical distances along with large differences in terms of culture. To have a successful presence in the Asian markets would have required a considerably higher allocation of financial resources and manpower expertise on the part of Wal-Mart, thereby making the entire move excessively costly for the firm. On the contrary, Mexico with its location based proximity and a significantly large population among many Latin American markets, formed a very appealing platform (Govindarajan and Gupta, 2002). Owing to successful North American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA) negotiations, the US based retail giant entered the Mexican market through a joint venture with Mexican retail giant Groupo Cifra SA (Moreton, 2012). It also has to be highlighted that the move of the American retailer to enter the Mexican market through the joint venture of an already existing firm is rational as the retailer lacked exposure in terms of income as well as cultural differences of Mexico. The underlying strategic objective of Wal-Mart for entering the Mexican market is to serve various consumer segments of the region through a multi-format strategy and thereby fulfilling their diverse needs (Mun and Yazdanifard, n.d., p. 3). Other strategic objectives of Wal-Mart comprised of expanding into the international markets along with creating a high level of customer satisfaction and simultaneous brand reputation in the international markets (Hayden and et.al, 2002, p. 11). Now in discussing the staffing strategy that is being followed by Wal-Mart for Mexico, it has to be highlighted that a strong focus was given on manpower. Much like its manpower related concept for the US operations, the firm, while selecting its manpower for the Mexican operations focused on attracting talents, who can be well trained and can be provided with a great place to work under the company’s domain (Bergdahl, n.d.). Now in relating to the examples of staffing, which is being highlighted in the case study, it can be said that Wal-Mart adopted a localized strategy in regards to manpower. When the American retailer faced challenges in penetrating the Mexican markets because of differing consumer behaviour and mindsets, the firm switched to recruiting local managers, who have the skills and experience of dealing with the Mexican market. It is important to point out that after recruiting the local managers, the firms adopted a decentralized strategy for executing its business operations in the Mexican market. As a part of the decentralized execution strategy, the firm provided the local managers of Mexico with the power to control the merchandising strategies of the region along with the liberty to open smaller stores, where the people can have the liberty to walk around and purchase fresh produce. The local managers were also highly instrumental in developing a strong distribution channel in the region, thereby enabling the retailer to significantly reduce costs and providing the customers with the benefits of lower product prices. It has to be noted that the staffing strategy of recruiting local managers, with the experience to deal with local markets provided beneficial in the long run as Mexico became one of the most important markets for Wal-Mart in the current times. Data from other sources also provide light on the staffing strategies that are adopted by Wal-Mart in Mexico to fulfil its strategic objectives. A comparative assessment of employment contracts and benefits offered by Wal-Mart in Mexico revealed that despite the American retailer’s negative reputation in terms of low payments in the domestic market, the reputation of the firm in terms of employee payments is quite different. In Mexico, Wal-Mart is known for offering comparatively attractive pay rates in the entire retail industry. Additionally, talking in regards to the fringe benefits, it can be said that the retailers lags to some extent in this particular arena as compared to other competitors in this particular domain. Though the international retailer followed the strategy of paying annual bonus twice of what is mandated by the laws of Mexico, yet it offers only those fringe benefits to its employees, which are mandated strongly by the labour law of Mexico (Tilly, 2005, p. 9 - 10). Question 3. Wal-Mart owing to slow growth in the domestic market focused on tapping the business opportunities that existed in the foreign markets. In the year 1991, the American retailer took its first step into foreign expansion by venturing into Mexico through a joint venture format. It is important to note that despite the difference in consumer behaviour trends and mindsets in Mexico, the firm was able to successfully penetrate the Mexican market. Over the passage of time, Wal-Mart has developed a very strong foothold in the Mexican market. With the success in penetrating the Mexican market, the US based retailer focused on entering the markets of Germany and South Korea. The move to enter the markets of Germany and South Korea did not turn out to be successful. An in-depth analysis of the US retailer’s move to enter Germany revealed important insights. The insights help in understanding the reasons that triggered the failure of Wal-Mart in the region. Wal-Mart’s entry into the German market was a part of its strategy to develop its presence in the European arena. While UK had a greater cultural linkage with that of US, the factor of Germany being the third largest economy in the world with a population of 80 million people at that time, created a significant temptation for the management. Wal-Mart made it entry in the year 1997 through the purchase of 21 stores from the retail chain Wertkauf. It is important to point out that the timing of entering the German market by Wal-Mart was mistimed as the retail spending was stagnating in Germany and was in the process of entering into a period of decline with slowing down of the economy in the year 2000. The method of entry also proved to be repelling as in Germany, Wertkauf was considered as a second class category in the retail domain. Along with it, the factor of restriction in building big stores in Germany provided a strong advantage to strong competing local chains like Aldi and Lidl, who had small as well as medium sized stores in multiple key locations. Another key factor that resulted in failure is that though Wal-Mart was widely popular for its low product pricing model, yet it could not compete with the local rival retail chains of Germany who continued to charm the customers, with higher price cuts on the products. The issue of cultural difference also has to be taken into account. The American low priced retailer practices customer friendly approach in all its retail formats. This came in direct contrast with that of the German cultural trends (Needle, 2010, p. 2-4). Male German consumers perceived that the smiling and friendly attitude of the store employees as equivalent to flirting. The difference in consumer mindsets also has to be factored into while evaluating the retreat of Wal-Mart from Germany. German consumers don’t like the Wal-Mart employees to handle their grocery at the checkout areas and also preferred shopping on a daily basis in the local markets (Lutz, 2013). Another critical point in regards to the consumer mindsets is that the Germans prefer spending less time for shopping and preferred to have an easy visual on the discounts that are being offered on different products (Kottoli, 2006). Wal-Mart’s inability to decode these multiple critical issues triggered the withdrawal from the German market. Now in evaluating the possible reason that led to the retreat of Wal-Mart from South Korea, it has to be highlighted that the entry in this particular market was because of the firm’s plans to make a presence in the Asian markets. In the South Korean market, Wal-Mart focused on implementing its American strategies, which interesting came in direct contrast with the mindsets, preferences and consumer behaviour of the masses. The South Koreans have highly differing consumer mindsets as compared to the Americans. The South Korean consumers preferred to focus on product quality rather than low price. Also, they possess a high sense of patriotism which led them to giving preferences to a localized product than that of an international product (Asthana, 2012). Talking about the shopping preferences, it has to be highlighted South Koreans prefer going to the big retail stores for purchasing foods and beverages, and not for purchasing everything ranging from clothing to electronics (Berfield, 2013). In discussing the consumer behaviour of the South Korean masses, it has to be highlighted that the South Koreans preferred buying fresh foods on a regular basis. A walk down the aisle, while viewing frozen fish as well as not so green vegetables and packed meat was a major turn off for the consumers. Also, the consumers of the market of South Korea has a different kinds of demands for various products, which naturally came in sharp contrast with the retail choices provided by Wal-Mart (asianconsumerinsights.blogspot.in, 2012). The failure of Wal-Mart to decode the different consumer preferences, mindsets as well as consumer behaviour of South Korean consumers triggered the retreat of Wal-Mart from this market. In highlighting the differences that existed between the markets of Germany and South Korea with that of Mexico, focus has to be given on issues ranging from consumer behaviour, consumer mentality as well as market competition. As mentioned in the case study, the US based retailer faced difficulty in the Mexican market as it failed to fully understand the consumer behaviour. However, with the understanding that the Mexican consumers preferred to buy fresh products in smaller quantities, Wal-Mart altered its strategy and thereby became successful in gaining a successful entry in the market. Talking about the consumer behaviour of the Germany and South Korean markets, it can be said that the German consumers did not like the idea of being assisted in their shopping and often interpreted the action as harassment, while the South Korean consumers are willing to purchase fresh products on a daily basis. Now discussing about the difference among the markets on the lines of consumer mentality, it can be said that the Mexican consumers with the passage of time gradually started realizing the benefits of American style shopping and gradually adopted it. On other hand, owing to cultural issues, German consumers did not like the overly smiling faces of the employees at the checkout counters as well as the idea of their grocery being handled by some third person at the checkout areas. The Chinese consumers along with a strong sense of patriotism preferred local products over the international ones and did not even like the idea of compromising on the quality of a product for the sake of low prices. Finally in harping on the angle of market competition, it can be said that in Mexico, Wal-Mart faced considerably lower competition as compared to Germany, where local retail chain had a significant stronghold, an advantage which helped the local chains to aggressively lower the prices. In China, the factor of patriotism greatly altered the level of competition for international markets as compared to the localized ones. Question 4. In the academic context, the term culture is defined as the knowledge, laws, morals, beliefs, customers and other capabilities which help in distinguishing one group from another. In a simpler and realistic tone, it can be said that the culture is a way of life for a society. The extent of a culture for a region, nation, country or an organization often includes symbols, behaviour, knowledge, superstitions, motives as well as traditional ideas and achievements. It is important to highlight that the concept of culture is an internal phenomena, which tend to evolve over the passage of time. The core components of a culture are comprised of language, social structure, values, religion, attitude, customs and aesthetics (Neelankavil and Rai, 2009, p. 41). In the modern day world, the concept of culture is evolving continuously and trying to keep pace with the changing dynamics of consumer thought process, business requirements as well as market dynamics. The term can be considered as a storehouse of all the acquired insights of a particular group or society (Ferraro, 2006, p. 20). While trying to analyse the role of culture in international business, it is important to focus on the concepts of Hofstede’s framework of cultural dimensions as well as the different kinds of cultural orientations that are followed by firms that are engaging in international businesses. Hofstede’s framework of cultural dimensions takes into account some very important factors. The first dimension is related to individualism or collectivism, which highlights the extent to which an individual focuses on the needs of the self or that of the entire group. Experts of international business often consider this dimension as the most important one. In individualistic societies, the focus of individuals remains largely on themselves as well as their immediate family, while in societies preaching and practicing collectivism, the people are bound by groups and their collective wellbeing. The second dimensions is uncertainty avoidance, which highlights whether the people feel threatened because of uncertainty or ambiguity and prefer to avoid such situations, which have a high dosage of them. The third dimension is power distance which brings into focus the consequences of authority relations as well as power inequality in the society. It can be said that the power distance plays a very strong role in influencing hierarchy as well as dependence based relationships in a society. The fourth dimension is related to the issue of masculinity and femininity. A society which has a masculine culture provides a strong emphasis on individual achievement or success while a feminine culture promotes a caring attitude and a better quality of life. The fifth dimension is long term orientation, which generally represents for the fostering and nurturing of virtues associated with future rewards (Soares and et.al, 2006, p. 280 - 281) In relating Hofstede’s cultural dimensions with examples from the case study, it can be said that in the markets of Mexico, Germany as well as South Korea, the consumers have a highly individualistic attitude and looks after the satisfaction of their individual needs. Talking in details, it can be said that since the consumer of Mexico attained benefits because of Wal-Mart’s low cost pricing model, the American retailer flourished in a great way in that particular market. On the contrary, since the German consumers were getting better value for money from the local retail chains, which had the power of compete with Wal-Mart in terms of cost cutting of products, the retail giant of the US was forced to abandon its operations in Germany in order to stop incurring negative impacts in terms of cash flow. Also, the dimension of masculinity-femininity can be well related with that of the consumer behaviour noticed in the markets of Germany and South Korea. In Germany, consumers probably because of their masculine nature, feel harassed when Wal-Mart employees try to assist them in their shopping. In South Korea, the focus on quality rather than cheap priced products can be associated with that of the caring attitude of the consumers. Now, in discussing about the different cultural orientations, it can be said that there are four different kinds of cultural orientations that are often implemented by firms managing international businesses. The first one is ethnocentricism, under which the strategy is an outcome of global integration and the power of decision making is lies with the headquarters. The profits generated under ethnocentricism are sent back to the home country and this retains the culture of the home country. The second one is polycentricism, under which a national level strategy is designed and implemented and the power of decision making is provided to the subsidiary. The profits generated are retained with the subsidiary under this kind of an arrangement and this has the culture of a host country. The third kind of orientation is regiocentric in nature. In this kind of a scenario, the strategy implemented is of regional integration and has a national level of responsiveness along with a regional culture. The power of decision making rests with the regional headquarters while the profits are often redistributed within the operating region. The geocentric orientation is the fourth kind of orientation, where global integration and national responsiveness are merged together to design the strategy. A collaborated decision making takes place and a global culture is followed in this kind of a scenario (Aswathappa, 2010, p. 205). As per information provided in the case study, it can be said that the US based retailer focused on using different kinds of cultural orientations while entering the different international markets. While entering the market of Mexico, Wal-Mart first focused on using the ethnocentric approach but in order to tackle the initial hurdles, later on shifted to a polycentric one. Also for tapping into the markets of Germany and South Korea, Wal-Mart used the ethnocentric orientation approach. Conclusion Wal-Mart as a result of its focus on international expansion has ventured into multiple global markets. However, while venturing into foreign markets, it is important for a firm to understand the drivers and the market dynamics that has a positive impact on the markets. Also, an analysis of the consumer preferences, consumer behaviour and regional culture is very important in order to successfully penetrate and develop a stable business operation in the foreign markets. While the entry into Mexico was complemented by adopting local tactics to meet the consumer preferences, the venturing into unsuccessful markets of Germany as well as South Korea lacked such tactics in a great way. A proper understanding of the consumer demands as well as their behaviour and psychology and thereby making significant changes in the strategy associated with business operations would probably have resulted in generating a positive impact for Wal-Mart in the said foreign markets. Finally, it can be said that the US based retailer’s approach to deal with unions in the Chinese market helped the retailer to develop a strong foothold in China. References 1. Walmart.com, 2013. Our Financial Mission.[Online] Available at: http://stock.walmart.com/microsites/annual-report-2013/ourPerformance.aspx [Accessed 20 April 2014] 2. Glowik, M. and Smyczek, S. International Marketing Management: Strategies, concepts, cases in Europe. Muchen:Oldenbourg Verlag. 3. 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