Analyzing Business And Social Research Approaches: A Case Study Of Walmart In Japan Essay.

1.Analyse the various approaches to business and social research and the difference between primary and secondary research 
2.Critically review extant knowledge in a disciplinary area for the identification of researchable problems 
3.Understand and justify the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis 
4.Investigate a range of data collection methods and tools 
5.Conceptually map the research process, developing a defensible framework for proposed research 
6. Evaluate the ways management research may be written and disseminated 

The business organization considered in this paper namely Walmart is the largest company in the retail sector.  It is operational in various countries of the world (about 28) and firmly established in the market of the USA. It is present in many corners of the world by different names (Mattera, 2017). like the best price in India and Seiyu in Japan. It was founded in 1962 by sam Wilton. It has more than 10000 stores worldwide and supplies different kinds of products to different populations of the various countries of the world. It recently entered the market of Japan but it is not able to replicate its successful achievements in Japan as it did in the USA and other developed countries.

This paper critically analyses the problems experienced by the company in Japan and the reason for its failure in a particular country (Bonanno & Goetz, 2012). There are many research projects available regarding the strategy and consequent success of Walmart in different parts of the world. But there is a wide gap when the studies regarding the policy of Walmart in Japan are concerned. The failure of Walmart is not well studied in any research conducted in the past. This paper aims to fill this gap and present different reasons for the failure of Walmart in Japan. Such a big corporate giant, having firm roots in the market of the USA gets failed in Japan. So it needs a thorough research. this paper critically analyses the situation of the company in Japan and the problems encountered by it while doing business in the market of Japan (Nassauer, 2018).

According to Fortune Global 500, Walmart is the largest company with over 2.3 million employees and a revenue of over $ 500 billion in 2018. It has a worldwide presence and entered into the market of Japan in 2002 with purchase of 6% stake in the company named as seiyu. Sam Walton owns about 50% of the shares through holding company as well as individual holding (Huang, 2012). The company is a big name in retail segments and has a brand image in the countries where it operates. The company is given strong competition by other companies working in the same segment. The toughest competition is given by the Amazon. Amazon is an online store and doing best in the market so there are possibilities to consider and imitate the policy of Amazon.

As mentioned above, there is a wide gap related to the failure of Walmart in Japan in the context of studies and researches (Tupper, 2018). This paper aims to fill that gap. There are different reasons for its failure which will be described in details in next sections (Lecavalier, 2010). The study aims to provide useful information for the scholars interested in Walmart. It sheds valuable insight on the topic of failure of Walmart in Japan. The qualitative research is used for the purpose whose exact reason is explained in latter part of the paper. This research proposal will make Walmart to consider its policy and do a conclusive research taking the valuable data from this study. The facts highlighted in the study can influence the decision making process of Walmart. There are many other applications of a well researched document so it can be used for various other purposes by the company. 

1. a)    The globalization has increased the demands of the customers so there is the wide range of expectations of the customers. At the same time, the competition is getting increased due to the wide reach technology adopted in the 21st century(Robles, 2018). There is a number of companies which have been operating as multinationals. These companies are giving tough competition to each other as different kinds of products are available to the customers within a short period of time(Kestenbaum, 2017). Walmart is not aloof from these developments; it also has repercussions due to increased competition. There are many corporate giants which are giving tough competition to Walmart (Lord, 2018).
2. b)    Walmart is facing the problems of delay in a stocking. Shelves are not stocking the products fast enough so there is no efficiency in the working of the organization. There is a number of competitors who are ready to gain the market space created by Walmart(Meyers, 2014). The delay in stocking inadvertently leads to increased operational cost and delay in delivering the products to the end consumer(staff, 2018)
3. c)    There is no digital transformation of the company(Halzack, 2018). The stores are not connected digitally which is leading to higher operational cost and loss of competitive advantage to the business organizations which have embraced the digital transformation(Wolfe & Pyrooz, 2014). There is a wide gap in terms of digital connectivity (Mejia, 2018). The company is not able to change its business as usual culture and not able to convince employees and vendor to implement and accept the change.
4. d)    ACSI (American customer satisfaction index) dropped from 72 to 71 in the year 2018. This suggests that the company is losing space to its competitors and not able to satisfy the customers of the USA itself. Though Walmart expanded its services to in-store groceries; it has not been able to satisfy the customers(Wylie, 2018).
5. e)    The company is mired in the controversy of racial and gender discrimination. The data of the previous few years revealed that the company has very less number of women employees in the organization(Moberg, 2011). Along with this, the women at higher positions of authority are not adequate in number so there are allegations of gender discrimination. There has been an issue of racial discrimination as well (Wylie, 2018). The company is not able to embrace diversity and there are many cases of racial discrimination. These controversies are denting the image of the company(Scott, 2015).
6. f)    The ethical codes of Walmart create frustration, instead of improving the work culture. There are many cases of frustration due to ethical codes which are resulting in dissatisfaction of employees(Basnet, 2018)
7. g)    Only service dogs are allowed in the store. It has dented the image and affected the work culture of the organization leadership is not working effectively to recruit talent in the organization.
8. h)    There are cultural issues as well. There are different cultures in different countries. The culture of America does not bode well to Australians(Provost, 2016). 

Primary Research Proposal

The objectives of the study are as follows:

1. a)    To provide valuable information for future researchers on the topic
2. b)    To fill the gap related to effective studies on the topic
3. c)    To identify the reasons for the failure of Walmart in Japan
4. d)    To analyze the population (demography) of Japan 

There are different questions which would be answered through this research. These questions are as follows:

1. a)    What are the factors that influence the choice of grocery shopping among the Japanese?
2. b)    What are the changes in buying pattern of America and Asia?
3. c)    What kind of cross culture grocery buying behavior is there in Japan?
4. d)    How far the Japanese customers can travel to make the purchase?
5. e)    What method the do customers prefer for purchase- online or in-store?
6. f)    What features are considered by the customers while purchasing the products?

There are various reasons for the failure of Walmart in Japan which are listed as follows:

1. a)    Demand and supply lags

 lifestyle of Japanese is different from the lifestyle followed by the citizens of America. Japanese population prefers fresh food with perfection rather than a value approach. The Japanese people buy in small quantities as compared to the culture of stocking in the USA. In addition to this, the Japanese people prefer fresh food rather than packaged one.  The Walmart is not able to meet the demands of customers of Japan (Little, 2018). The supply of products is not according to the preference of people. This demand and supply gap has cost dear to Walmart in terms of market space. The exact scenario of this demand and supply lag is ascertained by the study. This gap addresses the concerns of Walmart regarding cultural changes in Japan and other Asian countries. There are significant gap in previous studies which is fulfilled by this paper. But still, some gap exists which can be filled   by the conclusive study done on the same information.

Emotional connectivity is essential for business organizations to sustain themselves in the market. One example of emotional connectivity is dairy milk in India which campaigns in the Indian market with the advertisement of “ shubh Aarambh”. This relates to the culture of the country (Hirsch, 2018). This paper aims to find out the emotional connection of Walmart with Japanese citizens. Emotional sentiments can be harnessed for the purpose of awareness regarding the organization among the mass population. There are many useful methods available to do the same which need not be detailed here. These methods will yield the intended results as these will be related to emotional sentiments (the cultural beliefs are attached with emotions). There will be better targeting of the market, which will lead to better sales and revenue.

This paper aims to find out the differences in culture of two different countries and how the Japanese are culturally affected? Japanese have a culture to buy less but fresh. The packaged products available with Walmart have not fascinated the Japanese customers to buy products from it. The cultural implications and complex nature of society are the facts worthy to be considered by every organization.  The Walmart has shown exemplary performance but it is not able t replicate same performance in Asian markets in general and Japan in particular. The one main reason for this is the cultural difference. Take the example of the USA and china. In the USA, sole motive of running a profit based organization is to make money so they hire few persons who are highly skilled. But in China, the strategy is different, in China lot many persons are hired at the low wages. These kind of difference in culture and business values can be seen in different parts of the world.,

The issue of diversity management is explored by the study. The company faces allegations of gender and racial bias, as mentioned above (Hamstra, 2017). The study substantiates the cause and consequences of these controversies and finds out to what extent these controversies are true. The cultural differences can lead to gruesome consequences if they are not managed properly. But, they can also yield the best results if diversity is managed properly and staff satisfaction is there.

Situation Analysis

The population of Japan is very hardworking. Japan has a very limited number of natural resources, still, it is one of the most developed countries in the world due to the will of the citizens of Japan. The paper asks questions to the population regarding the demography and ascertains the exact cause related to population. The hardworking nature of the people ranks them at superior position. This paper explores the effect of nature of population related to purchase. The nature of Japanese makes them unique and different from the citizens of the USA. Their cultural values are different from the citizens of the USA so there is need to keep cultural demography in mind while planning the business there.

The Walmart has not been able to integrate technology with the daily working of the stores. It has not embraced digital transformation as yet. In fact, it has shifted from online retailing to in-store retailing. The exact nature of technology is to find out in this study along with the extent of the role of technology in the failure of Walmart in Japan (McIlvaine, 2018).  Walmart is resorting to in-store selling, instead of online selling while the its largest adversary Amazon has gained significant market space due to online sales. The Walmart needs to identify the causes of these developments and do the needful. 

The research method to be used in the paper is explorative. It is qualitative in nature. The interview transcripts of the highest authorities, as well as the mass population, will be considered to evaluate the issue (Bonanno & Goetz, 2012). This method is chosen over descriptive one because it answers why there is the problem. In this paper, the issue is to find out the answers of questions asked. There is a need to know the reasons behind the failure of Walmart in Japan. The descriptive study only answers how it is done.

To find out ‘why’ there is a need to have an exploratory approach. This approach has some lacunae also like there will be small sample and interpretation of information gathered through this study can be biased. To overcome these problems, the organization can do conclusive research on the topic (Basnet, 2018). This will lead to a better analysis and sound decision-making process will be used to overcome the problems faced by the Walmart in Asian countries. The nature of the information gathered will be exploratory. This information can also be gathered from random sample surveying techniques and questionnaire method along with interview transcripts. This will yield the intended results for the company. The people to be considered here are the higher authorities and scholars of retail industry along with local mass population.

As mentioned above higher authorities will be approached for the study through their interview transcripts. The higher authorities include manager and top-level executives. The sample population will be clearly identified and the sample will be selected through a random sample surveying (Halzack, 2018). This will remove the bias nature of the exploratory study. Every selected person will be asked the same questions so as to different views. These different views will then be interpreted and the cause of the problem will be identified. This study will not be able to provide a conclusion or final solution of the problem which can be explored by the Walmart further to make better decisions.

List of Information

The estimated size of the population will be 200 including the interview transcripts of almost 40 topmost authorities. These interview transcripts will present the problem in depth and it will yield the intended result (Hirsch, 2018). The effective leadership management will be shown to conduct the study and there will be an inclusive approach so that every individual contributes to the study. There will be sound analysis methods which will interpret the findings without any bias. This qualitative study will be done to ascertain the cause of failure of Walmart in Japan. It will also lead to target other Asian markets in a better way. 

The sample will consist of 200 persons, divided into the 10 groups, each group having 20 people in it. The sampling will be non-probability as it is an exploratory study. Two groups will be formed of the top authorities like managers and executives of the organization. Rest of the groups will involve local level employees and customers which constitute a mass population. the questionnaire method will be used to get the answers to the questions asked in the research proposal (Huang, 2012).  There will be a non-biased approach so it would be made sure that the sampling population consists of the population from a wide range of background. It will include persons from a different race, gender, religion, and ethnicity. The sampling design will address the cultural issue as it will consist of different culture people. There will be effective techniques employed to analyze the result (Kestenbaum, 2017). As this is the qualitative approach, it will not take much time and does not require experts for the purpose of analysis. This will be an added advantage of the exploratory approach followed in the paper. This will lay the groundwork overbuilding can be built by future researchers for the purpose of ascertaining the causes.

First of all, the targeted population will be identified by population analysis. To approach the mass population, the random sample surveying will be done and to approach the top authorities of the organization, interview transcripts will be obtained from relevant government and private sources. After that, 200 persons will be chosen from different backgrounds (Lecavalier, 2010). These persons will be asked questions. the questions will be based on satisfaction related to services of Walmart. In addition to this, their reason for satisfaction and dissatisfaction will be asked and noted. After sample designing and questionnaire preparation, the actual Implementation of the plan will be done which will ensure the smooth conduct of all operations.

The study will be completed in 1 month or 30 days with project scheduling. Different persons will be hired to conduct the survey. There will be an inclusive approach that will lead to effective results. Finally, the data will be analyzed and the findings will be identified. The reason for Walmart’s failure in Japan will find out (Little, 2018). The most common reason will be identified so as to provide a satisfactory answer for the questions asked in the paper. The objectives will be met and study will be closed with successful completion.

There are 10 suggested questions which are as follows:

1. a)    What are the factors that influence the choice of grocery shopping among the Japanese?
2. b)    What are the changes in buying pattern of America and Asia?
3. c)    What kind of cross culture grocery buying behavior is there in Japan?
4. d)    How far the Japanese customers can travel to make the purchase?
5. e)    What method does the  customers prefer for purchase- online or in-store?
6. f)    What features are considered by the customers while purchasing the products?
7. g)   How much the customers are influenced by the brand image of the company
8. h) How often the customers check the trends or buzz over social media before making purchase?
9. i) What brand the customers trust the most for buying the most essential and health related products like food and medicine?
10. j) What are the principles considered by the customer while buying products in the context of environment-friendly goods?

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