Wal-Mart Going Global - While Not Acting Local

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: 1,0, Anglia Ruskin University, course: International Business, language: English, abstract: With Wal-Mart being one of the biggest retailers in the world, serving customers in more than 8,650 retail units in 15 countries, as stated by the company (Wal-Mart, 2010), it makes the perfect example to look at in terms of globalisation and the impacts and strategies that relate to it. A very brief explanation by Holm and Sørensen (1995, p. 12) defines globalisation as 'The intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations across borders'. In my opinion this phrase is too superficial to actually explain all the outcomes and interrelations of the complexity of globalisation. It is also unknown regarding how to measure the degree on relations across the world and also their intensification as well as whether relationships exist between the economic, political, social and cultural relations. I believe that a definition should also be addressed about the technological and financial transformation that is currently taking place, the geographical reallocation of production and the emerging of a 'powerless nation state'. Others see the phenomena of globalisation rather simple. Levitt (2006, p. 133) stated that 'The world's needs and desires have been irrevocably homogenised', which leads one to believe that consumer tastes around the world appear to merge. While this is also referred to as the 'simultaneous theory of internationalisation', it means that standardised products, services and strategies can be used around the globe. Keeping in mind of Levitt's thesis, this paper first gives a general overview of the impacts of globalisation on Wal-Mart as this is important to understand ongoing argumentation. Later, it will concentrate on Wal-Mart's presence in Germany, explaining the market entry into the country while concurrently focusing on strategies used and outcomes of the company's actions in Germany.