...Organization and Management Term paper Wal-Mart’s culturally and institutionally flawed entry into the German retail market Joakim Holsten Leren s105710 Julianne Øien s106222 Mirko Wichmann s145433 Lara-Caterina Buggert s145400 Eloise De Bont s145611 22 pages Table of Contents Introduction 2 Case presentation 2 The Wal-Mart concept 3 Institutional challenges [to be deleted] 4 Cultural challenges [to be deleted] 4 German market 5 Theoretical Background 5 The cultural perspective 6 The institutional perspective 9 Case Analysis 12 The cultural perspective 12 The institutional perspective 15 Recommendations 19 Cultural 19 Institutional 20 Limitations 22 Cultural 22 Institutional 22 Conclusion 23 References: 25 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to address and analyze the challenges Wal-Mart faced during its entrance into the German market in the late 1990s. We have analyzed this with the following problem in mind: “Which aspects, both cultural and institutional, led to Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany and what should they have done instead?” We will approach this problem by outlining theoretical frameworks for analyzing cultural and institutional aspects of a company. We will then employ said theories in order to analyze the case of Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany. Finally, we will come to a conclusion concerning what they should have done as they entered into the German market. Different forms of distance...
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...was one of the years that marked the biggest retrenchment in Wal-Mart’s history. It was the year that Wal-Mart had decided to exit the German market after trying to penetrate it for about eight years. The company undertook its international expansion in the early 1990s to rejuvenate sales and growth. However, on July 30th, 2006, Wal-Mart had announced that it was selling its operations to German retailer Metro. In May of same year, Wal-Mart had also announced that it was selling its 16 stores in South Korea, admitting another internationalization failure. What went wrong with Germany? Wal-Mart had underestimated its German competitors, the power of German shoppers, cultural differences and the power of labor unions in Europe. The company did not expect that these differences would impede its ability to apply in Germany what worked so well in the United States. German competitors offered very low prices, while German shoppers had shown how demanding they can be and that they buy products predominantly based on price; even if that meant going to a few different retail stores during their shopping trip. German shoppers were also not accustomed to workers putting their groceries in shopping bag. Moreover, German regulations limited Wal-Mart’s ability to offer extended weekend hours and sell merchandise below cost. Strong labor unions limited the ability to contain operation costs. During its time in Germany, Wal-Mart had four presidents in eight years, which marked an organization...
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...Case Study: Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the largest retailer in the world, the world’s second-largest company and the nation’s largest nongovernmental employer. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates retail stores in various retailing formats in all 50 states in the United States. The Company’s mass merchandising operations serve its customers primarily through the operation of three segments. The Wal-Mart Stores segment includes its discount stores, Supercenters, and Neighborhood Markets in the United States. The Sam’s club segment includes the warehouse membership clubs in the United States. The Company’s subsidiary, McLane Company, Inc. provides products and distribution services to retail industry and institutional foodservice customers. Wal-Mart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,416 retail units under 53 different banners in 15 countries. With fiscal year 2010 sales of $405 billion, Wal-Mart employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide. Nearly 75% of its stores are in the United States (“Wal-Mart International Operations”, 2004), but Wal-Mart is expanding internationally. The Group is engaged in the operations of retail stores located in all 50 states of the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, Central America, Chile, Mexico,India and China Wal-Mart’s entry and operation in Germany Wal-Mart’s initial entry into German market was through the acquisitions...
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...WAL-MART IN GERMANY The case features in David Needle (2010), Business in Context, 5th edition, Cengage/South-Western, pp. 159-62. The Wal-Mart Success Story The first Wal-Mart store was established by Sam Walton in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. At first expansion was steady with 24 stores by 1967. The initial focus for Wal-Mart operations was small town, rural America. The company grew to 276 stores by 1980 and the Wal-Mart empire reached 640 stores by 1984. The company currently has around 4,100 stores in the USA and by 2003 it was the world’s largest retailer, three times as large as its nearest rival, the French company, Carrefour. It was also the world’s largest employer with 1.9 million employed worldwide in 2007. In terms of revenue, it remains the world’s largest company and in 2002 it was ranked number one in the Fortune 500. Wal-Mart is noted for its large and diverse product range, which includes food, clothing, electrical goods, homeware, pharmaceuticals and so on. The USA business comprised four types of operation, ‘supercenters’, ‘discount stores’, ‘Sam’s Club’ and a small number of convenience stores. The ‘supercenters’ carry the full range of goods, including food and a large variety of other types of merchandise. The ‘discount stores’ are like the ‘supercenters’ without the food and ‘Sam’s Club’ is a membership discount warehouse for bulk purchases. According to Knorr and Arndt (2003) the success of Wal-mart is based on four factors. • Low prices. • A focus on...
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...Introduction In 1997, Wal-Mart Inc had acquired 21 units of a well known chain of stores in Germany named Wertkauf. One year later, another acquisition deal involving 74 units of the market chain Interspar was negotiated between Wal-Mart Inc and Spar Handels AG. (Arndt, Knorr, 2003) The negotiations were a success, and through the acquisitions Wal-Mart had quickly evolved into one of the biggest operators in the German hypermarket industry. Though the first acquisition was considered to be a wise investment because of Wertkauf’s previous success, Interspar was not looked at the same way. The Interspar hypermarket chain was in serious need of financial reformation as the business itself was unprofitable. Wal-Mart did manage to improve the line of former Interspar hypermarkets; however other factors played a role in the failure of our expansion. This report will disclose non-financial aspects of Wal-Mart’s failure to succeed in Germany. Problem Statement Wal-Mart needs to adjust its business plan in a way that facilitates cultural understanding and adheres to the laws and regulations of Germany. Measurable Objective and Long-term Goal With a very small market share at 1.1%, (Sundarji, 2012) turnover of 2.9 billion Euros and further losses of 1 billion Euros, (Arndt, 2003) a long-term goal would be to make the business profitable, increase employee satisfaction and. An increase of the market share, elimination of debt, reversal of employee cuts and an increase in...
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...Cross-Cultural Perspectives Wayne Hawley ETH/316 August 18th, 2014 Tana Romero Cross-Cultural Perspectives Wal-Mart is a global organization with a multinational presence. Wal-Mart started in the United States of America and after obtaining huge success in the U.S., they went global with their brand of marketing and selling products at a lower price than their competitors, in order to help lower income families. Wal-Mart is considered the world’s largest retailer, but this title has not come without issues. Wal-Mart Cultural issues Wal-Mart is a massive retail store chain in the United States, this goes without saying. I would find it hard to believe you could find a single person in the United States that has not heard of or been to a Wal-Mart. Because of their great success in the U.S., it only makes sense they would travel abroad and attempt to bring their services to other countries. Wal-Mart devised and produced a 36 page, global policy for ethics, which states the following: According to "Walmart Statement of Ethics" (n.d.), “Each business organization Walmart operates is expected to have a complete set of policies providing guidance to associates for whatever country they are working in”. “Walmart also publishes several “global policies,” which are designed to give associates a set of rules that are the same for all locations.” “This Statement of Ethics is an example of a global policy.” “If any part of this Statement of Ethics goes against local...
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...ability to reach other countries being cheaper and easier in the 21st century, many companies have chosen to internationalise and expand on the domestic market in order to generate greater profits and become household names internationally. This essay will look at how American born company Wal-Mart Stores, Inc has grown and seen successes and failures in the international environment. It also will look at reasons behind the failures in relation to culture, using the venture into the world’s third largest retail market, Germany as the main focus for the essay. Firstly, this essay will look at culture and some theories that surround it and also look at different dimensions that make up culture. The definition of culture according to the Oxford Dictionary (1992) is: “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively or a refined understanding or appreciation of culture”. The theory that has been chosen to outline culture is Geert Hofstede’s five dimensions. The reason Hofstede’s theory has been used as an example in this case is because of the extensive research that he has put into developing his theories, as well as its relevance to the Wal-Mart failure in Germany. Between the years of 1967 and 1973, while Hofstede was working at international company IBM as a psychologist, he did a survey of over 100,000 employees in 40 different countries. From these results he was able to come up with four dimensions that can help people to understand...
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...the U.S. Company Wal-Mart that has expanded internationally and the applied strategy for entering the German market. Additionally assessed will be the barriers that were faced and Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany. Finally there will be recommendations by the author of what they could have done differently. Wal-Mart operates nowadays over 11,500 stores in 28 countries world - wide (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, 2015). As further domestic success for Wal-Mart in the U.S. was limited because of competitors like Target and K-Mart, they decided to expand internationally (Arndt, 2003). Wal-Mart entered the German market in 1997 (Jui, 2011). The management was confident that their success in USA can be replicated elsewhere all over the world and the German market seemed to be very attractive at that time as the world’s third largest economy (Arndt, 2003). Wal-Mart designed an international expansion strategy, which was also used for the German market (Brunn, 2006, p. 261). Instead of building their own stores as it is typical for Wal-Mart in the U.S., they focused internationally on takeovers of already existing chains (Brunn, 2006, p. 263). Germany’s leading supermarkets are usually privately owned, whereas Wal-Mart got only the possibility to buy the weak chains Interspar and Wertkauf, which also generated the first problem with their entry into the German market (Brunn, 2006, p. 263). Consequently, their start in Germany was rough from the very beginning. The different Wal-Mart stores in Germany...
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...Overall, Wal-Mart’s decision to enter the German market is incorrect. Initially, Wal-Mart chose German as a right venture investment market mainly due to three motivations. Firstly, German as the world’s third-largest economy could not be ignored by Wal-Mart. In addition, Wal-Mart thought German was a good central base which could help expand to any corner of the European continent. Furthermore, Wal-Mart believed that every day low price (EDPL) strategy would be much suitable for German’s high price-sensitive market. However, the facts proved that Wal-Mart in German is unsuccessful in four aspects because of the inadequate environmental scanning. In the aspect of economy, German was in economic downturn. The retail industry was growing slowly and earning less profit. Besides, high real estate prices and wage costs increased the operational costs of Wal-Mart in German. In terms of German’s legal and governmental environment, German government refused to issue food and grocery retailing licenses. Accordingly, Wal-Mart was only permitted to entry into German market with the method of acquisition. However, Wal-Mart’s operation was against several laws of German, two of them were in particular. One of them is associated with the low selling price, which would lead to the unfair competition. Consequently, Wal-Mart was prohibited to use pricing strategy any more. This indicates that although German market is price-sensitive, legal environment in this country makes EDLP hard to carry...
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...Wal-Mart: The Challenges of Dominance There are few companies that have become household names all across the Americas and many parts of the globe. One such company is Wal-Mart. Since its’ birth in 1962, there have been over 4,700 company locations opened, employing over 1.4 million people in the continental United States alone. (WALMART STORES.COM 2011) Wal-Mart was founded by Sam and Bud Walton as a department-sized store targeting small rural towns throughout the Midwest. It has immersed itself in a rapid amount of growth and success over the first few years by offering among the best levels of customer service, as well as “Every Day Low Prices.” After several decades of extreme growth, Wal-Mart began to finally shift its focus from targeting rural areas to that of urban areas all across the United States with its adaptation of the larger supersized centers that could offer a wide array of products and services. A great example to show its rapid movement would be to compare its growth to that of several of its’ competitors. It was founded the same year as corporate moguls Target and Kmart, and in 2011 it grossed revenues of more than four times that of both of these companies combined. (WALMART 2011) Retailing is the second largest industry in the U.S. and one of the most sizable in the world, and Wal-Mart is larger than the next four global giants combined. Wal-Mart’s capabilities in the Retail link-system, as well as its innovations in developing the hub...
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...Wal-Mart, an Organizational Analysis Kenneth Russell Strayer University Dr. Mary Tranquillo Bus. 310 November 6, 2012 Wal-Mart, an Organizational Analysis Introduction I will thoroughly discuss in detail the operation of Wal-Mart, the company’s strategies, legal concerns and various challenges the company faces. In addition, I will address any current (or anticipated) human resource issues concerning the expanding into the international market and make recommendations on how the organization can leverage its human resources to come out on top in a highly competitive market. Wal-Mart, an Organizational Analysis Describe the nature of the organization, its size, and any specific human resource challenges it faces. One of the most recognized retail chains around the world, Wal-Mart is an American public multinational corporation running chains of large discount and warehouse stores. Considered the largest public corporation when ranked by revenue, Wal-Mart boasts a staggering 2 million employees worldwide with approximately 1.4 million in the United States. (Wal-Mart, 2012). Wal-Mart is known for their brand of low prices and high volume which dominates the retail market. Wal-Mart’s mission statement and slogan sums it up in one simple phrase: “We save people money, so they can live better”. Wal-Mart’s idea and strategy is targeted at offering consumers a variety of name brand goods at competitive prices. Wal-Mart has over 10, 300 retail stores in 27 countries...
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...was one of the years that marked the biggest retrenchment in Wal-Mart’s history. It was the year that Wal-Mart had decided to exit the German market after trying to penetrate it for about eight years. The company undertook its international expansion in the early 1990s to rejuvenate sales and growth. However, on July 30th, 2006, Wal-Mart had announced that it was selling its operations to German retailer Metro. In May of same year, Wal-Mart had also announced that it was selling its 16 stores in South Korea, admitting another internationalization failure. What went wrong with Germany? Wal-Mart had underestimated its German competitors, the power of German shoppers, cultural differences and the power of labor unions in Europe. The company did not expect that these differences would impede its ability to apply in Germany what worked so well in the United States. German competitors offered very low prices, while German shoppers had shown how demanding they can be and that they buy products predominantly based on price; even if that meant going to a few different retail stores during their shopping trip. German shoppers were also not accustomed to workers putting their groceries in shopping bag. Moreover, German regulations limited Wal-Mart’s ability to offer extended weekend hours and sell merchandise below cost. Strong labor unions limited the ability to contain operation costs. During its time in Germany, Wal-Mart had four presidents in eight years, which marked an organization...
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...Globalization can be defined as the inevitable integration of markets, nation-states, technologies and people in a way that is enabling individuals, organizations and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before. Culture has become a highly significant factor in determining the success in today's international business environment. In particular, organizations entering the foreign markets either by expansion or mergers and acquisitions (M&A’s) are known to suffer at a high failure rate due to not understanding and preparing for cultural differences. Studies suggest that failure is due to different and often controversial relationships between cultural differences, integration and performance. The purpose of this white paper is to examine the cultural concerns when American corporations/organizations enter foreign markets and the impact cultural understanding or the lack thereof has on their success or failure. II. Culture “Culture is not only all around us but within us as well”. Each individual within an organization comes with a unique background and culture. Culture can be defined as the blending of values, politics, beliefs, behaviors, customs and attitudes that distinguishes one society from another. Since culture is a learned behavior that encompasses life-long experiences, it is adaptive. When merging cultures, this is an important fact that organizations must understand. Forcing the parent organizational culture...
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...Trident University International Jason C. Christenson MGT 501, Management and Organizational Behavior Module #1, Case Assignment Doing Business Abroad Doctor Ken Myers April 11, 2005 INTRODUCTION: PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to answer the assigned questions within this module. By answering these questions, I will gain a better understanding of the important aspects surrounding conducting business abroad. BACKGROUND: This is the first case assignment for MGT501, Management and Organizational Behavior during the spring semester at Touro University International. COVERAGE: I will use background information, combined with outside research to strengthen this paper. I will begin by identifying at least three specific ways that cultural differences would affect doing business internationally. Next, I will discuss some specific skills that global managers need to address the cultural differences. I will then discuss my views regarding expatriate and foreign-national managers by stating the reasons why a combination of managers is the most effective way to deal with these challenges. Finally, I will conclude with a brief summary that highlights the key points made throughout the paper. DISCUSSION: Many foreign markets are considered an untapped resource. The potential for growth in these markets is very high; however the potential can not be fulfilled without strong human resource applications, effective organizational structure...
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...BENTONVILLE, ARK. - Wal-Mart may not have been successful in Germany but the lessons learned during a struggle that lasted nearly a decade in Europe's largest economy are evident today throughout the retailer's global operations and its approach to acquisitions. It was an expensive lesson. The decision to sell its 85 stores to German retoiler Metro AG will result in a $1 billion pretax loss during the second quarter, but the move is in keeping with WaIMart's renewed focus on achieving higher rates of return on its invested capital. Successful execution of that strategy, even if it means shedding pieces of its business, is viewed as a key to helping the company's long-suffering stock price break out of its six-year slump. "As we focus our efforts on where we can have the greatest impact on our growth and return-on-investment strategies, it has become increasingly clear that in Germany's business environment it would be difficult for us to obtain the scale and results we desire," said WalMart vice chairman Mike Duke in reference to the decision to exit Germany. Those comments are nearly identical to a statement in late May when Wal-Mart announced the sale of its 16 stores in South Korea. "As we continue to focus our efforts where we can have the greatest impact on our growth strategy, it became increasingly clear that in South Korea's current environment it would be difficult for us to reach the scale we desired," Duke said. Both decisions were viewed positively by...
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