Challenges Faced by Walmart in Global Expansion and Steps for Success

Introduction to Walmart's Global Expansion

Walmart has encountered a range of difficulties in its expansion globally. Cultural differences are one of the Walmart biggest plagues in its globalization attempt. The company was met with stiff resistance in its entry into the Asian market as it was seen as a cultivator of the western culture. The customer preferences are driven by the culture and failure to invest in adequate research has costed the company expansion strategy. Also, local businesses see Walmart as an unnecessary invader coming to take up their business opportunities, and they sometimes pressurize their government to consider denying Walmart license to operate. The local businesses may also drag in the community members and lull them against Walmart.

In its entry to China, it has faced difficulties in winning customers as the native retailers have had better and free interactions with the customers to the extent of even giving goods on credit. Its attempt to change the dirty, noisy and fully packed stores to well-spaced and clean shops made the customers feel very uneasy. Its entry into china was as well coupled with restrictive communist regulations that forced the company to operate out of the thriving cities.

In India, also the laws do not allow a company to directly invest in the economy, which made Walmart consider only one option, a joint venture. The local business investors have a massive influence on government policy decisions and always fights any encroachment by international firms(IvyPanda, 2020). Walmart entry into the Korean market was also full of challenges as the consumers had a different taste and preferences than the American counterparts.

Unlike in the USA where customers may sacrifice quality with low price, Koreans takes food products freshness quite seriously making is dry goods seem very alien. It, therefore, put Walmart at an inferior competitive edge compared to local retailers who used a localization strategy consistent with locals choices and preferences. Also, Walmart failure to match the assortment, merchandise, and marketing to suit the local context and needs greatly hampered Walmart move into Korean markets.

The consumers prefer more of promotional sales and free goods than an all-day low price. Its stores were also built far from cities expecting that the consumers would drive to the stores like the American scenario which did not work. Local protectionism was also a plague to foreign companies.

The local businesses were not free to offer supply chain information hindering Walmart from establishing a reliable mix distribution channel which affected its business pricing and competitive model(Francis, 2018). From the two articles, the leaders need to evaluate the timing and mode of expansion to come up with strategic commitment for the international markets that would see it blend with the natives' choices and preferences. The strategy must be able to outline the challenges expected and also how to go past these challenges.

Challenges Faced by Walmart in Global Markets

Be sure to upload your paper to Folio once you have completed it and share a link in your submission in addition to uploading it to Waypoint to be graded. Learn more about Folio, Ashford’s ePortfolio tool, by viewing the Folio Quick Start Guide (Links to an external site.).

In the first half of the assignment, you will prepare for Walmart to operate in a foreign market. You will need to analyze at least two leadership models and/or styles to determine which one will be more suitable for leading employees and for responding to stakeholders in a country outside of North America. Determine the leadership competencies that would be beneficial to you as a leader in the selected foreign market. You will choose either Peru, New Zealand, Philippines, Egypt, Czech Republic, or the United Arab Emirates for your analysis. You will also need to compare the concepts of cultural leadership according to how they can be applied in the country that you have selected. You must also determine the leadership skills and practices that should be used in order to foster team and organizational success.

In the second half of the assignment, you will conduct an analysis of the country that you have decided to expand operations into. The analysis must include the rationale for country selection based upon demographic and economic data.

Lastly, the analysis should inform leadership about the country’s culture based upon GLOBE’s nine dimensions of culture as argued in Northouse (2018). Incorporate each of the nine dimensions of culture in an analysis that will be hypothetically presented to Walmart leadership. When utilizing the nine dimensions, current information about the culture of the selected country must be utilized.

The purpose of this preliminary analysis is to make sure that the leadership team understands the complexities of expanding into the country that you have selected. The paper should be eight to ten double-spaced pages and include five scholarly references. In your paper, Analyze the demographic and economic data of a country that Walmart is currently not operating in. Conduct an analysis for Walmart leadership about the country’s culture based upon the GLOBE’s nine dimensions of culture.

Explain how Walmart’s leadership skills and practices may lead to organizational success. Formulate a model of cultural and ethical leadership as it applies to Walmart at a global level. The Walmart Analysis for Leadership Final Paper Must be eight to ten double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)

Resource. Must include a separate title page with the following: Title of paper Student’s name Course name and number Instructor’s name Date submitted For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.). Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance. Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.

For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources. Must use at least five scholarly sources in addition to the course text. The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor.

Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment. Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide. Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications