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1.Countries Where Walmart Operate
According to Nazir, Shah, and Zaman (2014), Germany and the United States vary immensely on all cultural contexts. Germany has a high long-term orientation, low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, high preference for feminism, and collectivism. When communicating to associates from Germany, a U.S. Wal-Mart manager should avoid any communication that contradicts the German cultural aspects stated above. Any form of communication that is inclined towards masculinity, seeks to promote individualism or exploit employees as is the norm in the US should be avoided. [“Write my essay for me?” Get help here.]
2.Economic and Political Risks
Wal-Mart Operates in several countries considered being economically and politically risky. They include Mexico, Brazil, India, South Africa, and China. According to Bustillo, Stewart, and Sonne (2010), South Africa and Mexico are economically and politically volatile countries for investment.[Need an essay writing service? Find help here.]
3.Civil and Common Law Countries
Wal-Mart operates in both common and civil law countries. Common law countries where Wal-Mart operates include Canada, the United States, South Africa, and Britain while the civil law countries where it operates include Germany, Japan, and China (Onkvisit & Shaw, 2009). The major implication of a company operating in both civil and common law countries is that a country is likely to face a large number of legal suits due to the significant disparity in law in these countries (Onkvisit & Shaw, 2009). Walmart should invest heavily in research on legal matters to avoid such lawsuits.
4.Insurance from OPIC
As one of the U. S. multinational corporations that operates in risky overseas markets, Wal-Mart has purchased insurance from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Kantor, Nolan, and Sauvant (2011) affirm that Wal-Mart’s operations in these risky markets would present significant losses.
5.Intellectual Property Protections
Wal-Mart has several intellectual property protections covering the use of its client’s lists, financial records, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, and its API (Justia Company Profiles, n.d.). These protections are meant to cover different time periods and will thus expire at various times. The main way for recouping revenues lost through expiration of intellectual property protections is through civil litigation where Wal-Mart can seek compensation from the infringing agencies.[“Write my essay for me?” Get help here.]
6.CPI Score in Countries Where Walmart Operates
Japan ranked 18th while China ranked 84th out of 167 countries in the 2015 global corruption perceptions index (Transparency International, 2015). In the rank, the country ranked number one had the least prevalence of corruption while country number 167 had the highest prevalence of corruption (Transparency International, 2015). China is a country of many corporate scandals. In the period between 2012 and 2015, there were more than 30 mega Chinese stock and investment frauds that anybody investing in a Chinese company at home or abroad should be aware of (Transparency International, 2015). These scams mainly involved the creation of fictions companies, under porting transfers, indulgence in pump and dump schemes, and stealing of a company’s assets (Hung, Wong, & Zhang, 2015). Japan, on the other hand, is relatively corruption free. The Japanese government does not tolerate public corruption and investors in Japan have little to worry about. The risks of fraudulent activities such as paying bribes are almost insignificant in Japan. The 2011 transparency international bribe payers index ranked Japan among the top ten countries where a bribe is unlikely (Gaspar, Arreola-Risa, Bierman, Hise, & Kolari, 2014). Investors should, however, expect high public corruption in China, including bribes. It was ranked among the bottom ten countries in the 2011 transparency bribes payers index (Gaspar et al., 2014).
7.Mode of Entry Into Foreign Markets
Wal-Mart grew tremendously in the first two decades of its existence. It adopted a combination of the multidomestic and transnational globalization strategies to enter foreign markets (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2002). Wal-Mart’s international market entry strategy is characterized by high opportunism and ability to rapidly restructure its corporate DNA (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2002). This approach is suitable since it has enabled Wal-Mart to grow immensely since its inception.
8.Exit Strategy
Wal-Mart uses the strategic acquisition mode exit strategy whereby it sells its stocks and assets in the country it intends to exit to another company. In its exit from the South Korean and German Markets, Wal-Mart sold its assets to local retailers (Jui, 2011).
9.Ethics in Global Operations
Wal-Mart’s global operations are fair in terms of ethics. Wal-Mart can be termed as just a and fair global citizen because its global operations have spots of unethical conduct (Heineman, 2014). The Mexican mega corruption scandal is one of the ethical compromises in Wal-Mart’s history record.
10.Corporate Mission Statement
Wal-Mart’s corporate mission is “Saving people money so they can live better” (Wal-Mart Corporate, n.d.). Wal-Mart adheres to this mission since it provides lowly priced products for people so that they can make a saving and live better lives. Walmart also is a major employer in the globe with more than 2 million employees (Walmart Corporate, n.d.). It is thus fair to say that Wal-Mart adheres to its corporate mission.
11.Strategy Formulation
Wal-Mart is stakeholder-oriented regarding strategy formulation. According to (Ferrell, Gonzalez-Padron, Hult, and Maignan (2010), organizations that are stakeholder-oriented possess behaviors that are aimed at developing concrete and positive solutions to stakeholder’s issues. Wal-Mart takes stakeholders issues and complaints seriously.
12.Stateless Corporation
Wal-Mart is not a stateless corporation because inasmuch as it has a global reach and influence, it still relies on its mother nation, the United States. The US provides the necessary infrastructure such as transportation, production systems, and communications that Walmart needs to run profitably (D’Amato, 2006). Additionally, Wal-Mart is still incorporated in the United States.
13. Organizational Structure
Wal-Mart is currently using a functional hierarchical organizational structure. Hierarchical organizations entail vertical command lines. In Wal-Mart, for example, apart from the CEO, all other employees have a boss who is superior to them (Lombardo, 2015). All mandates and directives move down through this channel. The function-based organization structure entails the groups of employees conducting special given functions. For example, there is a human resource department that has a special mandate at Wal-Mart (Lombardo, 2015).
14Hybrid vs. Matrix Structure
Walmart can benefit from a hybrid structure. The current functional hierarchical organization structure it is using is a hybrid structure (Lombardo, 2015). Strengthening the horizontal lines of command will make the organization structure fully hybrid.
References
Bustillo, M., Stewart, R., & Sonne, P. (2010, 28 Sept). Wal-Mart bids $4.6 billion for South Africa’s Massmart. The Wall Street Journal.
D’Amato, P. (2006). The meaning of Marxism (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
Ferrell, O., Gonzalez-Padron, T., Hult, G., & Maignan, I. (2010). From market orientation to stakeholder orientation. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 29(1), 93-96.
Gaspar, J., Arreola-Risa, A., Bierman, L., Hise, R., & Kolari, J. (2014). Introduction to global business: Understanding the international environment & global business functions. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Govindarajan, V., & Gupta, A. (2002). Taking Wal-Mart global: Lessons from retailing’s giant. Strategy+Business, (17).
Heineman, B. (2014, May 16). Who’s responsible for the Walmart Mexico scandal? Harvard Business Review.
Hung, M., Wong, T., & Zhang, F. (2015). The value of political ties versus market credibility: Evidence from corporate scandals in China. Contemporary Accounting Research, 32(4), 1641-1675.
Jui, P. (2011). Walmart’s downfall in Germany: A case study. Journal of International Management.
Justia Company Profiles. (n.d.). Walmart profile.
Kantor, M., Nolan, M., & Sauvant, K. (Eds.). (2011). Reports of overseas private investment corporation determinations, (Vol. 1). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Lombardo, J. (2015). Walmart: Organizational structure & organizational culture.
Nazir, T., Shah, S., & Zaman, K. (2014). Wal-Mart in Germany: What we know, what we should know? Journal of Project and Operations Management, 1(1), 9-16.
Onkvisit, S., & Shaw, J. (2009). International Marketing: Strategy and Theory (5th ed.). London, England: Routledge.
Transparency International. (2015). The global anti-corruption coalition.
Walmart Corporate. (n.d.).
