...The Fretful Euro Disneyland Abstract Wenhe Yue School of Management, Shenyang Jianzhu University Shenyang 110168, China E-mail: bobo1012@sina.com Euro Disneyland a theme park comprised of an updated, state of the art Disney's Magic Kingdom, is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company located outside Paris, France, and has experienced numerous complications from its inception. This article introduces the fretful of Euro Disney, analyzes the reasons why it goes to wrong and give the recommendation to overcome the rattrap. Keywords: Euro Disneyland, Cultural differences, Management hubris 1. Introduction Many companies throughout the United States and beyond are resorting to developing their business abroad. The Walt Disney Company was one of the American organizations to expand on foreign soil. Its first foreign venture Tokyo Disneyland proved to be so successful that the decision was made to further expand abroad. This next foreign expansion experience, named Euro Disneyland all hopes were high, with Michael Eisner, the chairperson of Walt Disney promising to make Euro Disney the “most lavish project that Disney had ever built”. He had an obsession with maintaining Disney’s high reputation, as Disney had already seen the success of California and Florida Disneyland. While Euro Disney did not prove to be the successful venture that had been anticipated by its creators. Euro Disneyland a theme park comprised of an updated...
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...Introduction: Euro Disneyland is a foreign venture of very successful American company known as Walt Disney Company which was established in 1923.The organization has been very successful over the years operating in USA, California and Florida and also expanded its business in Japan and Europe. Their operation in Europe widely known as Euro Disneyland was not successful for various reasons which include planning , cultural differences etc. Evaluating some of the areas that went wrong in case of Euro Disney: Walt Disney, a highly successful organization of US, comes up with a theme park, Euro Disney located outside of Paris, France. The Walt Disney Company was one of the American organizations which expand its business to the foreign soil. Doing a very successful and profitable business throughout US, California and Florida, the company established its first foreign venture Tokyo Disneyland, another winning and profitable business of Walt Disney. Being successful from Tokyo Disneyland, the company decided to further expand abroad and enhance its foreign presence, Euro Disney comes forward. But in case of Euro Disney, the company made some wrong steps in decision making which in turn experienced numerous complications from its inception. Below some areas are discussed critically that went wrong in case of Euro Disney. Location or area and environment selection were wrong in first place. Though French suggested to building the Euro Disneyland into the East Paris despite the...
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...Disneyland Resort Paris: Mickey Goes to Europe Case Study Prenae George January 21, 2012 MGT Organizational Theory Walt Disney opened in 1983, Disney US theme parks and had great success. Tokyo Disneyland soon became the most profitable Disneyland in the world. Because of the enormous success of Tokyo, and because Paris was the most visited tourist area in Europe The Walt Disney Company decided to open Euro Disneyland near Paris. Amidst intense criticism form Europe’s cultural elite, Euro Disney opened the Disneyland part and hotels to the public on April 12, 1992. The Walt Disney Company has such great success in the past with their other theme parks in Florida, Japan, and California; this was a recipe for greatness. Regrettably, Euro Disney story did not follow the Florida, Japan, and California drafts for success. After opening Euro Disney they were faced with much opposition such as financial difficulties. These oppositions forced the company to reassess their formula for success. Disney must produce techniques that will densely fit the needs of the European market in order for the Euro Disney to survive. Because Management practices are influenced by cultural valued, global management learning must recognize that successful practices in one culture may work less well in others (Erez, P. and Christopher, E.) Although Disney has been very successful in other countries they appear to have a lot to learn about management and organization...
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...existence, the studies of cultural differences, dimensions and attitudes have began to take place and different scientists and observers started coming out with their own set of discoveries and observations (McGregor, 2004). The main reason behind cultural difference and dimensions started when workers of different countries started working together on unified projects and conflicts started arising between the people of different races and culture (Kotler, 2008). Keeping in view of such situations, Dutch Sociologist Gerard Hofstede came up with a study named as Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions in which he laid stress upon five aspects naming Power Distance Index, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance index and Long term Orientation. The case study in this paper focuses more towards the cultural difference between employees of Disneyland that are located in different countries. Using Hofstede’s 4 culture dimension, highlighting main cultural differences between United States and France: Disneyland is an American Idea of a theme park which serves as a recreational place for children and families. This theme park originally started from Anaheim, California (United States) and later on after receiving massive response from visitors all around the globe, the directors of the company started off with opening similar type of theme parks with the same name of Disneyland in Orlando (US), Tokyo (Japan) and at Marne-la-Vallee (France). Although Disneyland did not find much...
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...Case Discussion Questions 1-)What assumptions did Disney make about the tastes and preferences of French consumers? Which of these assumptions were correct? Which were not? Assumptions which are correct or not correct: * Disney thought that Monday would be a light day for visitors and Friday a heavy one. * One Disney executive thought that Europeans don’t take breakfast. * Disney thought that the Europeans want the typical French breakfast of croissants and coffee. * Disney reduces the prices of the hotel room and day tickets. * Disney opens own restaurants with providing French-style food service. * Euro-Disney changed its name. Assumptions which are correct: * When Disney cut the prices for day tickets and hotel rooms by one-third. The result was an attendance of 11.7 million in 1996, up from a low of 8.8 million in 1994. * Euro-Disney changed its strategy and the company changed the name to Disneyland Paris in an attempt to strengthen the park’s identity. Assumptions which are not correct: * They thought that Monday would be a light day for visitors and Friday a heavy one, but reality was reverse. * One Disney executive thought that Europeans don’t take breakfast, but everybody showed up for breakfast and the lines were horrendous. * Disney thought that the Europeans want the typical French breakfast of croissants and coffee, but instead they want bacon and eggs. * They open own restaurants with providing...
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...of D isneyland : Cases Study of Disneyland’s Overseas Expansion in Shanghai Master Thesis in Business Administration Author: Li Zhu & Dan Xu Tutor: Tomas Mü llern Jö ping nkö August 2010 Master Thesis Acknowledgements First of all, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our tutor Mr. Tomas Mü llern. Thanks to his guidance and valuable suggestions, we correct our mistake on time and finish our thesis in the end. From the first meeting to the last one, you are always concern us and the process of our writing. Every time, we handed in chapters, you always provided useful opinion to let us revise the thesis better and better. We thank you for patient guiding and providing us a good opportunity in our study to learn more and more. Secondly, we would like to thank Mr. Zhang and Edward. Thank you for taking time to find interviewees of our interview. You are busy with your own job, but you still use your private time to help us. You also share your experience about contacting skills with us. Last but not the lease, we are thankful to our families and friends who were helping and supporting us during this writing period. Li Zhu & Dan Xu Jö ping University nkö 2010 i|Page Master Thesis Master’s Thesis in Business Administration Title: Marketing Strategic Change in Expansion of Disneyland Authors: Li Zhu & Dan Xu Tutor: Tomas Müllern Date: August 2010 Key Words: Theme Park, Disneyland, Marketing Strategy...
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...SHEET Financial arrangements relating to Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland 1. Background 1.1 At the special meeting held on 4 July 2009, the Panel on Economic Development discussed the financial arrangements relating to the proposed expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland. During the discussion, a member requested the Research and Library Services Division to provide information on the financial arrangements relating to Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. As such, the purpose of this fact sheet is to provide the Panel with information on these three theme parks in terms of their ownership and the financial arrangements for the construction project. 1.2 This fact sheet originally intended to study the operational statistics of the three theme parks. According to the Tourism Commission of Hong Kong1, both the Government and the Walt Disney Company (Walt Disney) are bound by the confidentiality provision under the current agreement not to disclose any commercially sensitive information of Hong Kong Disneyland, including the gain or loss from the operation of the theme park. Against this, this fact sheet only lists the key operational statistics of Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris for comparison. 1 See Tourism Commission (2009). page 1 Research and Library Services Division Legislative Council Secretariat FS30/08-09 2. Tokyo Disneyland Overview 2.1 Tokyo Disneyland opened on 15 April 1983 at a cost of US$1...
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...are many famous animations where the company succeeded with the most familiar to be “Mickey Mouse”, making Disney to develop its success worldwide by building theme parks in different countries. In 1992, the “Disney company” expanded by opening a new theme park in Paris known as “Euro Disneyland”. By the time, Disney announced the new project they were planning to make, there were many critics and arguments arising according the Disney’s approach at Euro Disneyland. However, the question remains whether there are any strengths and weaknesses of Disney’s approach at Euro Disneyland and what steps should be taken next to ensure success in the operations. The Disney’s approach at Euro Disneyland was mainly criticised for its influence on French culture and this can be analysed through theories and concepts displaying the “for” and “against” arguments of different topics affecting it. The topic that had the most effect on Disney’s approach is Globalisation. Globalisation is the process by which the world is becoming more interconnected as a result of increased trade and cultural exchange. Disney was benefited from globalisation’s impact since it is associated with some advantages. Firstly, Euro Disneyland was located in the middle of Europe close to Paris which is a very famous tourism destination and it was also expected to create 28000 jobs helping the French economy to flourish. Disney would also open a MGM studio in Europe which has a strong branding name leading to increased...
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...Euro Disney had a very hard initial experience in France. Due its lack on accurate informationabout the French and European preference and culture, further on their inability on forecastingexternal problems and inability on controlling both controllable and uncontrollable forces,Disney acquired a huge debt. Instead of analyzing and learning from its potential customersDisney chose to make assumptions, turned out that most of those assumptions were wrong.Disney made wrong assumptions in many areas as well. In the cultural area for example itassumed that customers would be ok not having wine to drink, turned out customers wereastonished but the decision of breakfast was another cultural mistake, but in the opposite way.Disney assumed that French customers would want to eat French breakfast while they wantedAmerican one. Operational errors were also committed for Disney, for example Disney assumedthat Monday would be a light day and Friday a heavy day, so they arrange the staff accordingly,turned out to be the opposite and Disney had a big problem with that. Another assumption suchas optimistic assumption about attendance was also made. If Disney had conducted a primaryresearch and learned from their potential customers, French and Europeans, they would haveforecasted those mistakes and prevented them from happening. Also if Disney had controlledbetter the controllable forces, price and promotion for example, they would have a betterinitial experience. Disney could have followed...
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...International Modes of Entry Subtitle: The Case of Disney By, Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez This thesis was written as a part of the master program at NHH. Neither the institution, the supervisor, nor the censors are -through the approval of this thesis- responsible for neither the theories and methods used, nor results and conclusions drawn in this work. International Modes of Entry: The Case of Disney 1 Abstract The case of Disney’s theme parks represents an opportunity to test major internationalisation theories in a setting of large investments with little chance for reversal of commitments. The purpose of the research is to study the benefit of different entry modes dependent on Disney’s Theme Parks value-generating resources and capabilities while conditioned to certain local industrial and institutional conditions in foreign markets. Five major theories and frameworks were used to analyze all four Disney’s ventures abroad. This resulted in 20 individual hypotheses analyzed. Results indicate that Disney followed a predictable internationalisation process in the cases of Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai, but that it went off-path in the Paris one. In successful cases Disney followed a cautious approach, involving local partners to transfer and adapt the “Disney Experience”. In the case of Paris the company decided to enter the market alone, which neglected the unique needs of the local market. Page | 2 International Modes of Entry: The Case of Disney Table of Contents 1...
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...year? Both Euro Disney and Hong Kong Disney suffered losses in its first year of operations due to several factors that stems from wrong marketing decisions and lack of research. The following are the said factors: Euro Disney * Location – While the demographics presented by the European government about the number of tourists that comes to Paris is true, Euro Disney failed to make further research on the reasons for this large number. Most tourists go to Paris to visit and wander in the streets of the city and not to visit theme parks. Moreover, the climate in Paris is unsuitable for a theme park thus the off-season attendance was way below target. The French government offered Euro Disney generous incentives that they chose to overlook cultural and weather barriers. * Pricing – Unlike the Japanese, Europeans are not willing to spend much to enjoy the attractions in the park. Euro Disney was confident that Europeans would come flocking to the park despite the premium price. * Euro Disney Marketing Strategy – Euro Disney’s advertising focused on the size of the park rather than the Disney experience. They were trying to sell an alluring bit of American which the European do not particularly like. Europeans do not care that the theme park had cost over $4 billion or that it is 4,800 acres wide. They should have emphasized the benefit one could get from visiting the park. * Over-confidence – Overwhelmed by the success of Tokyo Disney Land, Euro Disney overlooked...
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...MICKEY GOES TO FRANCE: A CASE STUDY OF THE EURO DISNEYLAND NEGOTIATIONS Lauren A. Newell* In 1984, The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”) was riding the wave of success from its newest Resort,1 Tokyo Disney Resort (“Tokyo Disney”),2 which attracted 10 million guests3 in the first year alone,4 and its thoughts turned to further international expansion—this time, in Europe. After careful consideration of potential locations and preliminary negotiations with two European governments,5 Disney decided in 1984 to launch Euro Disneyland (“Euro Disneyland” or “EDL”)6 in Marne-la-Vallee, France. The ´ realities of opening and operating EDL in France were far different than Disney’s expectations when it began negotiations—so much so that the Resort narrowly escaped bankruptcy.7 For an “entertainment empire”8 like Disney, this was an unprecedented * Assistant Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University, Pettit College of Law; B.A., Georgetown University, 2004; J.D., Harvard Law School 2007. 1 As used herein, “Resort” refers to a Disney resort property, consisting of (unless otherwise indicated), Parks, hotels, all entertainment facilities, and the transportation systems that connect them. “Park” refers to a Disney theme park, including (unless otherwise indicated) the park grounds, rides, and attractions, and surrounding resorts, hotels, and other Disney-affiliated entertainment facilities. 2 Tokyo Disney was Disney’s third Park and first international venture, located in Tokyo, Japan. See...
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...MICKEY GOES TO FRANCE: A CASE STUDY OF THE EURO DISNEYLAND NEGOTIATIONS Lauren A. Newell* In 1984, The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”) was riding the wave of success from its newest Resort,1 Tokyo Disney Resort (“Tokyo Disney”),2 which attracted 10 million guests3 in the first year alone,4 and its thoughts turned to further international expansion—this time, in Europe. After careful consideration of potential locations and preliminary negotiations with two European governments,5 Disney decided in 1984 to launch Euro Disneyland (“Euro Disneyland” or “EDL”)6 in Marne-la-Vallee, France. The ´ realities of opening and operating EDL in France were far different than Disney’s expectations when it began negotiations—so much so that the Resort narrowly escaped bankruptcy.7 For an “entertainment empire”8 like Disney, this was an unprecedented * Assistant Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University, Pettit College of Law; B.A., Georgetown University, 2004; J.D., Harvard Law School 2007. 1 As used herein, “Resort” refers to a Disney resort property, consisting of (unless otherwise indicated), Parks, hotels, all entertainment facilities, and the transportation systems that connect them. “Park” refers to a Disney theme park, including (unless otherwise indicated) the park grounds, rides, and attractions, and surrounding resorts, hotels, and other Disney-affiliated entertainment facilities. 2 Tokyo Disney was Disney’s third Park and first international venture, located in Tokyo, Japan. See...
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...“Disneyland” Case study How does Disneyland produce the “Disneyland Experience” in the United States? Firstly, the theme in Disneyland is the total contrast of the American daily life. It claims the focus on play, festive, clean, warmth, and child and safe which makes people forget the heavy work, adult’s life, the dangerous and cold living environment. Disney is built to be the happiest place in the world without nay decay, crime, confusion. Secondly, the Disneyland is designed as a complex of movie center, carnival, tourist site, shopping mall, state fair, museums and so on. People could enjoy different experiences in Disneyland. All characteristics are made by imagination and without any cultural boundaries. People from all around the world could share the same happiness and Disneyland Experience. Thirdly, all staffs are extremely professional to make sure the Disneyland is operating effectively and correctly, especially for the cast members who are at the front line to control the traffic, sell the tickets, serve the customers, show the directions, play all kinds of characters and so on. They are very crucial to the Disneyland Experience with job to create an environment of fun and delight. What made Tokyo Disneyland so successful? What lessons did Disney learn from it? Tokyo Disneyland opened in April 1983 and achieved a huge success since it has been open. Disney let the Oriental Land to take the ownership position with all the risks...
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...corporate governance problems under former CEO Michael Eisner. Many blame these kinds of changes in company values and mission to Michael Eisner. Globalization efforts made by The Walt Disney Company would prove costly when it made bad decisions based on naïve assumptions of the cultural acceptance of Mickey Mouse into Japan and France. Tokyo Disneyland emerged as the most profitable theme park, but with TWDC having no stake in the company; and Disneyland Paris, backed heavily by TWDC, had to be restructured only after two years of opening. Domestically, theme park safety had been compromised, all in the name of profit. An embittered declaration for Eisner’s resignation came in 2003 by ousted board member Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt and last remaining active family member at TWDC, and his trusted friend, Stanley Gold, who resigned the board. Ultimately, Roy Disney helped lead a Disney shareholder revolt that arguably contributed to Eisner’s departure from the company with nearly 45% of shareholders disapproval of Eisner. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Globalization 5 Tokyo Disneyland 5 Disneyland Paris (formerly knownas Euro Disney) 6 Business Power 7 Business Ethics 9 Safety vs. the Bottom Line 11 Corporate Governance 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction...
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