Master Economics Paper

Order Description

Outline

Introduction 5%

a. Briefly discuss your company background, industry features, and business expansion opportunities

b. Outline the structure of your business plan

c. Indicate sources of information used in preparing this report

Market analysis 25% (global-country-industry analysis)

a. examine the market attractiveness of the host country

b. Evaluate country-industry specific incentives/restrictions on FDI, foreign ownership and domestic industry structure

c. Assess the feasibility of market demands, agglomeration & location bound resources and infrastructure network

d. Analyze the Push-Pull motivations for internationalization and give reasons for your business expansion

Note for students:

 Conduct market analysis using relevant IB concepts (ie. Institutional Based View, L-advantages, Transaction Costs, Comparative Advantage, Strategic Trade Theory, Theory of National Competitive Advantage).

 Apply research skills to business challenges

 Exhibit cross-cultural competence

 Demonstrate ethical values

Company’s Competencies (20%): company-specific analysis

a. analyze the scope of your firm’s specific advantages and limitations

b. Discuss how to build and leverage your firm’s competencies to gain a competitive advantage

Note for students:

 Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the discipline and the ability to provide discipline-based solutions relevant to the business and professional communities.

 Use OLI theory and OL-advantages, resource-based view and dynamic capability concept to determine your firm’s internalization process.

 Use supportive evidence, with facts & figures to substantiate your arguments

Mode of Entry (15%) country-company strategic alignment

a. select an entry mode and argue why it is the best-suited investment option.

b. Evaluate your firm’s entry mode strategy with the company business model and competencies.

Note for students: Use Dunning’s OLI eclectic paradigm and Internationalization process models & strategies to assess the viability of entry mode for internationalization of your firm.

Operational strategies (15%): company’s strategy-structure integration

a. develop an implementation plan to achieve your expansion programs and goals.

b. Identify potential implementation synergies and risks.

Note for Students: Use Integration-Responsiveness Framework to develop your firm’s internalization plan (ie. International Financial Mgmt, CSR, Marketing, IHRM Policies, Supply Chain & Logistics Network Mgmt).

Conclusion 10%:

  • Summarize your short and medium-term risk management plan
  • Evaluate the feasibility of your risk management approach
  • Include a contingency exit plan
  • Demonstrate that you have advanced knowledge to Masters’ level in International Business

Business report structure 10%

a. Professional report format with well-supported arguments

b. A good combination of academic journal articles (at least 5) and country-industry-company reports

c. Harvard referencing system and correctly structured reference list

d. Good English grammar and within the word limit

Report question (Attachment)

Report guide

Question

The unit is an international business, so plz read the report guide carefully, cause there are many tips such as IB theories you may use in this report….

Details of the task:

Essay Topic

You work as an International Business Manager in a multinational (MNC). Write an

international business plan for your Board of Directors arguing why your company should set up a business in a country of your choice. Select only one country from the list below.

1. BRICS (China, India, South Africa, Russia or Brazil)

ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines,

Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam)

2. Developing countries (Nepal, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Nigeria,

Zaire, Libya, Romania, Ukraine, and more.)

3. Details of the task:

  • Conduct a market analysis of the country in which you would like your company to expand
  • Analyze the competencies that your company can leverage from to gain competitive advantage
  • ¨Identify a mode of entry with arguments supporting your proposal
  • ¨Develop some operational strategies for internationalizing your business
  • Conclude with some exit strategies

Answer

Title: International business: Wal-Mart in Russia

Executive Summary

Wal-Mart is a multinational discount retailer based in the US. The company operates a chain of retail stores across the US and other countries in different parts of the world including Argentina, India, Mexico, China, and Japan. Wal-Mart is famous for its EDLP (Everyday Low Prices) philosophy. Despite this success, Wal-Mart is yet to venture into the expansive Russian market with a population of 143.5 million people.

ORDER ECONOMICS ESSAY

A number of successful multinational discount stores, including France’s Carrefour, Turkey’s Ramenka, and Germany’s Edeka have withdrawn from the Russian market after encountering numerous business-related challenges. Since 2002, Wal-Mart has been prospecting for business opportunities in Russia. The fact that the company is yet to get a viable opportunity is a reflection of the harshness of the Russian business environment. However, underlying these short- and medium-term challenges are long-term first-mover advantages. If Wal-Mart succeeds in capturing this market, it will continue occupying the position of the dominant multinational discount store in the long run.

The Russian business environment is notorious for the numerous legal and political barriers that it imposes on foreign investors. For this reason, any efforts by a foreign company to invest in Russia constitute a high-risk move. To reduce this risk, Wal-Mart is better off adopting the acquisition mode of entry. This entry mode gives the company a unique opportunity to strike a delicate balance between local responsiveness and global integration. On the other hand, the exit plan should take the form of a joint venture. Through a joint venture, Wal-Mart will be in a position to transplant the expertise and experience of its successful joint-venture approach in India. It will also mitigate risk in the sense that the partner-company, which will be Russian-based, will readily be politically acceptable in the Russian business environment. When the time to exit comes, Wal-Mart will simply sell its ownership stake in the joint venture to another company.

Contents

Introduction. 3

Market analysis. 4

Company’s Competencies. 9

Mode of Entry. 10

Operational strategies. 11

Conclusion and exit plan. 12

References. 14

Introduction

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart) was incorporated in 1969. The company operates retail stores in different formats around the world. The company operates under a pricing philosophy known as Everyday Low Prices (EDLP). Wal-Mart is organized into three segments: Wal-Mart International, Wal-Mart US, and Sam’s Club. The international segment comprises of the company’s operations in 26 countries. The company also operates online retail platforms.

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            Wal-Mart operates wholly-owned subsidiaries in Mexico, Japan, China, and Argentina. The same case applies to 5 Central American and 12 African countries. The company has adopted the joint-venture approach in India. In the US, Wal-Mart operates retail stores in every state. The main areas of specialization include grocery, apparel and home, entertainment, health, and wellness. Store formats vary though the main ones include discount stores, neighborhood markets, and supercenters.

            In 1962, the first Wal-Mart store was opened by Sam Walton, the company’s founder, in Arkansas. By 1967, the Walton family had established 24 stores. During the 1970s, Wal-Mart went national. During the 1980s, annuals sales for the company reached $1 billion. By the early 1990s, Wal-Mart had grown to become America’s top retailer. It also intensified efforts to venture into the international market. In 2002, the retail store, for the first time, held the top position in the Fortune 500 list. In 2009, the company reported annual sales of over $400 billion. In 2010, Wal-Mart opened its first retail in India through a joint venture that led to the establishment of Bharti Wal-Mart. Since the mid-2000s, the company has been toying with the idea of venturing into the Russian market. Currently, the retail store continues with its search for business opportunities in  Russia. The host country under analysis in this report is Russia.

            The retail industry is characterized by the sale of a wide range of merchandise for personal and household use. This means that wide market coverage targeting people from all walks of life is necessary. Moreover, retailers offering lower prices easily gain a competitive advantage. Competition is normally high since few barriers to entry both locally and internationally exist. There is also a tendency for retailers to establish retail chains across the country and around the world. Numerous business opportunities exist through mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

            This business plan is divided into four sections. The first one is the retail market analysis, which focuses on global-country-industry analysis. The second section is Wal-Mart’s competencies, whereby a company-specific analysis is presented. The business plan uses OLI theory, OL-advantages, resource-based view, and dynamic capability to expound on company-specific analysis. Thirdly, the business plan analyzes Wal-Mart’s mode of entry. In this section, the focus is on country-company strategic alignment, which is analyzed using Dunning’s OLI eclectic paradigm. The last section examines the company’s operational strategies. Specifically, aspects of the company’s strategy-structure integration are examined. The Integration-Responsiveness Framework is used to develop Wal-Mart’s internalization plan. In the conclusion part, the risk management plan is summarized, its feasibility is evaluated, and a contingent exit plan suggested. The main sources of information for this report include the Wal-Mart website, annual company reports, company newsletters, government databases, reputable online news outlets, and scholarly sources.

Market analysis

The Russian market is very attractive for Wal-Mart. In 2012, Russia had a population of 143.5 million. This high population makes the country a desired destination for a multinational retail store like Wal-Mart. It is not surprising, therefore, that Wal-Mart has continued to express interest in the Russian market since 2002. As the years went by, this interest continued to intensify. Today, all indications are that Wal-Mart’s decade-long search for business opportunities will finally come to fruition soon with the company’s eventual entry into the Russian market.

One of the most commonly used approaches in market analysis is the OLI (Ownership, Location, and Internalization)paradigm. In the OLI paradigm, companies are expected to follow a three-tiered approach in determining the benefits that they stand to derive from their pursuit of direct foreign investment (Eden, 2010). The three components include ownership advantages, location advantages, and internalization advantages. A good example of a product/company-specific advantage is a comparative advantage (Eden, 2010). Location-specific advantages are derived whenever a company gains strategic positioning through operations in a foreign country. In terms of market internalization, the emphasis is on the ability of a company to exploit the actual opportunities available in a foreign country as opposed to those opportunities that are only accessible through agreements with foreign firms.

Of the three elements of the OLI paradigm, location advantages ought to be emphasized in the context of the present report. This is because Wal-Mart is set to derive the greatest benefits from location advantages by setting up shop in Russia. Russia is one of the largest as well as populous countries in the world. By venturing into Russia, the company will have access to many resources, including labor and raw materials, which are readily accessible from different parts of the country. This means that Wal-Mart will get new opportunities for creating value.

The Russian market is highly attractive for foreign retail chains. Wal-Mart has many retail chains from which to choose in its efforts to select an ideal mode of entry. Some of these stores include Lenta, Kopeika, and Karusel. It is worth pointing out that these retail chains operate in a vibrant economy. In 2012, Russia’s GDP grew by 3.4 percent.  However, this growth marked a slight slowdown given that the country had reported GDP growth of 4.3 percent in 2011. Nevertheless, many positive changes continue to take place in the Russian economy, all of which represent positive indicators for foreign retail industry investors.

In the Russian market, many country- and industry-specific incentives exist with regard to FDI, foreign ownership, as well as domestic industry structure. Similarly, a number of restrictions exist as well. The Foreign Investment Law of 1991 continues to provide a major incentive for foreign investors. One of its stated objectives is to provide national treatment to foreign investors. Other aims include protecting the rights of investors, freedom from a commitment to using local goods, freedom to employ any person regardless of any considerations on nationality, and an efficient dispute resolution mechanism in the form of international arbitration.

In terms of FDI, it is unfortunate that limited incentives for competition exist in the country. The main barriers to FDI include barriers to trade, administrative barriers, and weak creditor rights. These barriers continue to exist because the pre-World War II era policy paradigm for FDI continues to govern the country. In this paradigm, the role of FDI is restricted to access to new inputs for production on the one hand and access to new markets for outputs on the other. This approach to FDI, although beneficial, restricts operations to the exploitation of natural resources and cheap labor as well as protection of local markets. Evidently, it leaves out the need to maintain world standards in terms of price and quality. Russia also maintains high tariffs as well as non-tariff protection strategies aimed at ensuring the continued vibrancy of the domestic market. Foreign investors are subjected to tax preferences (Bresnahan, 2001). Moreover, “national rights” are yet to be granted to foreign investors. Furthermore, foreign investors continue to be subjected to complex registration procedures.

The Russian retail industry is faced with a number of restrictions. To start with, the risk of corruption and bribery in Russian is high (Sutherland, 2002). Furthermore, the brick-and-mortar connection makes the retail industry highly restrictive to foreign investors (Sutherland, 2002). Major real-estate acquisitions are a major requirement for foreign retail chains venturing into the country (Sutherland, 2002). The construction process is also cumbersome because of strict laws, corruption, and a complex tax regime. During operations, government inspections pose a major risk because of the hefty penalties imposed because of non-compliance. Today’s complex web of the Russian legal code is difficult for foreign retail industry investors to navigate, meaning that cases of non-compliance will inevitably arise. Other restrictions arise in aspects of gifts and gratuities, selling activities, and logistics.

Gifts and gratuities are permitted in Russian culture (Sutherland, 2002). However, the line dividing gifts from bribery is very thin. During selling activities, certain government officials with a financial interest in the retail sector may have the power to drive third-party partners either to or away from the business. In terms of logistics, Russia imposed new tariffs on imported goods in 2009. From the point of view of comparative advantage, this translated into average tariff rates that are significantly higher than in the European Union. This situation is normally exacerbated by unreasonable custom delays. The move towards higher tariffs on agricultural imports may also be understood from the point of view of the strategic trade theory. In this regard, Russia seems to be promoting the notion of imperfect competition.

            In terms of the feasibility of market demand, the main hindrance is no doubt the notoriously difficult Russian business environment. Whereas the demand may be there, factors beyond the control of Wal-Mart mainly in the form of legal and political barriers may impact negatively overall business outcomes. Against the backdrop of these challenges, Wal-Mart has in the past attempted to push for negotiations with X5 Retail Group, a Russian food retailer.

Wal-Mart may need to assess the dynamics of agglomeration occasioned by Russia’s rapid urbanization. Within Russia, there is a tendency for competing retail firms to establish outlets in the most populous cities with a view to benefit from agglomeration advantages. However, if competition for inputs among domestic and foreign retail chains in Russia continues to increase, the potential benefits of agglomeration economies may diminish. The best option is for Wal-Mart to ascertain that there is an abundance of location-bound resources and a well-developed infrastructure network that can facilitate the realization of agglomeration economies in the long run.

The main push motivation for Wal-Mart is the continued reduction in market share in its US (home market) segment. This has compelled the retail chain to embark on an aggressive internationalization strategy. In contrast, the main pull motivation is the Russian expansive market of 143.5 million people. As the Russian economy continues to grow, the purchasing power of its people continues to increase. This view is supported by the theory of national competitive advantage. The bottom line is that Wal-Mart envisages a situation where the company is likely to incur low transaction costs in Russia using the entry mode of acquisition. In this undertaking, Wal-Mart’s internationalization strategists count on the company’s success in countries with cultural practices that are radically different from those of the US, for example, India, China, Argentina, and Japan.

Company’s Competencies

Wal-Mart has numerous ownership advantages to exploit particularly with regard to its mode of entry into the Russian market. Ownership advantages are simply the resources that a firm can comfortably transfer across its national borders to enable it to gain a competitive advantage in a foreign country (Peng & Meyer 2009). The main ownership advantage is that Wal-Mart is already an established multinational enterprise. It has an established, world-renowned trademark, retailing philosophy, and organizational structure. These advantages can enable the company to overcome the liabilities associated with competition in the Russian retail market.

On the other hand, internationalization advantages refer to those advantages that exist in the context of the multinational firm itself as opposed to those that take the form of market transactions (Peng & Meyer 2009). Wal-Mart has succeeded in establishing stores in different parts of the world, thus giving it unique leverage in efforts to organize a specific mode of entry internally.

Wal-Mart possesses numerous specific advantages of entering into a foreign market. First, its EDLP philosophy is unique. Secondly, it has already succeeded in penetrating foreign countries, including Argentina, Mexico, China, India, and Japan. The resource-based view creates an excellent platform for the analysis of Wal-Mart’s unique advantages. The point of view is based on the notion that performance is fundamentally driven by the specific resources of the firm. Both capabilities and primary resources are regarded as essential drivers of business success. One of Wal-Mart’s primary resources is its human resources. The company has employed some 2.2 million associates (employees) around the world. The company also takes pride in its exemplary performance since its establishment. The company started trading publicly in stock in 1970. By 1980, Wal-Mart had employed some 21,000 associates. In September 2013, the company announced that it would hire 55,000 seasonal employees during the holiday season and confirm thousands of others to full-time positions.  

During the second quarter of 2013, the net sales of Wal-Mart International grew by 2.9 percent to reach $33 billion. The company’s consolidated operating income grew by 1.4 percent during the last year to reach $6.8 billion. The company remitted some $3.4 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. This exemplary performance demonstrates the company’s dynamic capability as far as its entry into the Russian market is concerned. This potential financial capability puts the company in a position where it can successfully enter into the Russian market using the acquisition strategy.

Mode of Entry

The best mode of entry for Wal-Mart is acquisition. The company should aim at purchasing a retail chain that has been successful or has a huge potential for success in the Russian retail market. This will enable Wal-Mart to benefit from ownership, location, and internalization advantages. Indeed, this option is the best one when viewed in the context of Dunning’s OLI eclectic paradigm.  

The acquisition mode of entry is appropriate for various reasons. To start with, it fits in with the need for caution in Wal-Mart’s efforts to enter into the Russian market, especially given the country’s notoriety for posing numerous difficulties for foreign businesses. Moreover, this strategy will enable the company to adopt a more ambitious approach. During the last decade, Wal-Mart has not succeeded in maintaining a delicate balance between caution and ambition. The company has been so cautious that it has failed to break into the country’s retail market.

Another reason why the acquisition is the right entry mode is that so far, Wal-Mart has achieved tremendous success through acquisitions. The company’s international business is worth $100 billion today. This approach is not unique to Wal-Mart; it has been used by successful peers such as Tesco and Carrefour. The mode fits in with the company’s business model and core competencies. This is evident in Wal-Mart’s strong in high-population countries such as Brazil and China. These high-population markets also happen to be highly fragmented, a feature that gives Wal-Mart numerous opportunities for the acquisition of smaller, regional chains. This method has already been proven to work well in the U.K. and Chile. Furthermore, acquisitions are not prone to the legal and political barriers that exist in countries such as Russia. This internationalization process is also advantageous because the short-term barriers are outweighed by long-term opportunities for foreign retail chains like Wal-Mart. Lastly, by conquering Russia, Wal-Mart would have acquired an excellent springboard into the neighboring Ukrainian market.

Operational strategies

The integration-responsiveness framework provides Wal-Mart with four strategic choices: home replication, localization, global standardization, and the transnational approach. The objective is to maintain a balance between local responsiveness and global integration (Devinney, 2000). The implementation plan suggested in this paper requires the use of certain aspects of each of these choices for strategic reasons. For example, Wal-Mart is better off replicating its home-country management practices. Home-country practices will enable it to export home-country advantages and exploit them in the context of the Russian market. However, the company will need to localize its product offering with a view to achieving local responsiveness. In terms of global standardization, this implementation plan will focus on leveraging low-cost advantages and exporting lessons learned through experiences in other countries such as China, Argentina, and India.

Functional management will play a critical role in this plan. The company’s International Human Resource Management (IHRM) plan will involve training employees locally and hiring them. An interim management team will need to be dispatched from home-country and other international retail divisions to assist in the process of setting up an IHRM platform that reflects Wal-Mart’s stature as a multinational corporation. In terms of corporate social responsibility, priority will be on the CSR activities of the retail chain that Wal-Mart will have acquired. Wal-Mart will continue relying on the managers with local expertise in the process of identifying appropriate CSR projects. However, the underlying goal should be to integrate the CSR projects selected with the company’s overall business strategy (Rugman, 2010). Marketing policies will be coordinated from home-country headquarters only that care will be taken to create room for cultural differences in the design, content, and presentation of marketing messages. In terms of supply chain and logistics, Wal-Mart should replicate the management system used in high-population markets such as China and India where the supply chains in use have proven to be effective and highly viable. The bottom line though is for Wal-Mart to enter Russia as soon as possible and gain first-mover advantages in a market where major multinational retail chains, including France’s Carrefour, Turkey’s Ramenka, and Germany’s Edeka have failed.

Conclusion and exit plan

In the short- and medium-term consideration, Wal-Mart’s risk management plan should entail several things, one of them being risk identification. External risks include political/regulatory and legal factors as well as the business environment. Internal risks include financial, operational, strategic, and integrity issues. The next issue to address is risk mitigation. Those who will be affected most by these risks. For example, employee risks should be addressed through the formation of project teams that address issues of recruitment, training, and retention. For Wal-Mart, political-social-cultural acceptability poses the greatest risk. Therefore, mitigation should be focused on this issue. The way forward should involve action planning, performance metrics to assess the positive or negative impact of every action plan, and finally, an assessment of the feasibility and impact of the risk management approach by examining both returns on investment and shareholder value.

Given the risk involved, Wal-Mart should put in place a contingency exit plan in place. If the acquisition approach proves unsuccessful, the company should switch to a joint venture model. This entry mode is less risky because risks will be shared. Wal-Mart will need to transplant the expertise and experience of its successful joint-venture approach in India. A joint venture will also mitigate risk in the sense that the partner-company, which will be Russian-based, will already be operating in the context of a location advantage of being politically acceptable. When the time to exit comes, Wal-Mart will simply sell its ownership stake in the joint venture to another company.

References

Bresnahan, T 2001, ‘‘Old Economy’ Inputs for ‘New Economy’ Outcomes: Cluster Formation in the New Silicon Valleys’, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 835-860.

Devinney, T 2000, ‘The Optimal Performance of the Global Firm: Formalizing and Extending the Integration- Responsiveness Framework’, Organization Science, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 674-695.

Eden, L 2010, ‘Rethinking the O in Dunning’s OLI/Eclectic Paradigm’, Multinational Business Review, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 13 – 34.

Peng. M & Meyer K. 2009, International Business, Brendan George, London.

Rugman, 2010, ‘Reconciling Internalization Theory and the Eclectic Paradigm’, Multinational Business Review, vol. 18, no. 2, pp.1 – 12.

Sutherland, D 2002, ‘Structural change in the economies of Russia’s regions’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 367-392.

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