As you know, the iceberg is a metaphor for culture. Provide examples from the case study that indicate how the behaviour of German customers, employees, management, etc., (the outer layer of culture) is reflective of German cultural values (a deeper layer of culture). Be sure to explain what the German values are. Cite your sources

\fToday the company has expanded is more 8,400 retail stores in 15 different countries and employs over 2.1 million stores in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica employees across the world. (Daniel, 2012). Wal-Mart opened with the intention of helping people save money on household goods and by doing so, helping to improve lives. Today the company continues to offer the lowest prices in most markets, relying on Expansion into Germany buying power with their strong supply chain. Recently, Wal-Mart focused Most U.S. companies begin their international expansion in the United domestic growth on the creation of supercenters, which has proved wildly Kingdom due to many perceived cultural similarities to the United States. successful. Additionally, the company has made significant strides toward In late 1997, Wal-Mart instead opted to begin in the German market by becoming a leader in sustainability and corporate philanthropy, despite past acquiring two German retailers, Wertkauf and Interspar. Wal-Mart purchased criticism about labor practices and exploitation of suppliers. 21 stores from Wertkauf which offered food and general merchandise to customers in the southwestern side of Germany. International Development This purchase was not enough to fully penetrate the German market, so Wal- Mart acquired 74 Interspar stores in 1998, which increased the total number of "All around the world we save people money, so they can live better. That's Wal-Mart stores in Germany to 95, making Wal-Mart the fourth largest good news-in any language."-Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Arunmaba13, 2011). hypermarket retailer in Germany. Wal-Mart was attempting to implement its In the United States, Wal-Mart customers cite low prices as the most U.S. business model, characterized by low prices, location strategy. supply- important reason for shopping there. Its lean business model, plus the ability to chain management, and a corporate culture that highly values hard work, reach historically high economies of scale, allow the company to dominate conformism, and friendly customer service (Gereffi & Christian, 2009). supplier networks. Following the quick purchases, Wal-Mart realized that the cultures of the Because of Wal-Mart's market power in the United States and its dom- newly acquired companies were extremely different from the U.S.-based ination of supplier networks, it can continuously drive down product Wal-Mart culture, and the stores they took on were not necessarily in the most prices. In addition, Wal-Mart sells a full range of household products and convenient locations for customers. groceries, allowing customers the increasingly ubiquitous one-stop shopping In addition, Germany has stringent planning and zoning regulations, and experience. thus Wal-Mart was unable to expand the stores' sizes to reach its economies of In the early 1990s Wal-Mart announced plans to take their operations scale. Difficulties with local suppliers further perpetuated their logistics issues, global due to tough competition in the U.S. markets and the opportunities so much so that suppliers delivering products to the distribution centers had to available in new markets across the world. The company realized that the wait for hours to unload their cargo. This is an operational characteristic of the United States contained only 4 percent of the world's population and that German distribution system that is quite different from the U.S. efficiency of confining sales to the United States would significantly limit their ability to lean operations. grow and dominate the market (ICMR, 2004). Germany is the most price-conscious country in Europe and while Wal- To fulfill their global expansion goals, the company created Wal-Mart Mart is known for their low prices in the United States, they were not able to International which has grown into a $63 billion business and is the fastest- generate the advantage of economies in scale necessary to be the low-price growing part of the company (Landler & Barbaro, 2006). Most of Wal-Mart's leader. Wal-Mart totaled only 95 stores, paling in comparison to their direct international growth comes from acquisitions, differing from their domestic competitors Aldi and Lidl, both of whom have over 500 retail locations strategy of building new stores. This has allowed them to penetrate new Landler, 2006). markets quickly and easily. Wal-Mart international operates in 15 markets, These factors made it impossible for Wal-Mart's U.S. business model to with a similar goal throughout-to maintain low prices by controlling cost compete in Germany and the firm was unable to turn a profit. After years of procedures. struggling, Wal-Mart eventually halted their German operations at an esti- There are wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Puerto mated cost of $1 billion. Rico, and the United Kingdom. In addition to its wholly owned international operations, Wal-Mart has joint ventures in China and several majority- Problem and Reactions owned subsidiaries. Wal-Mart's majority-owned subsidiary in Mexico is Walmex. In Japan, Wal-Mart owns about 53 percent of Seiyu. In Central After launching its international operations in Germany, it did not take America, Wal-Mart owns 51 percent of the Central American Retail Holding long for Wal-Mart to see that its company culture was not catching on, nor\f1. As you know, the iceberg is a metaphor for culture. Provide examples from the case study that indicate how the behaviour of German customers, employees, management, etc., (the outer layer of culture) is reflective of German cultural values (a deeper layer of culture). Be sure to explain what the German values are. Cite your sources. 2. What could Walmart have learned from Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions that may have provided some insight into German culture and the challenges the company might have expected? Consider all cultural dimensions and analyze the relevant ones. Explain in detail. Cite your sources. Walmart could've learned a lot from Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions, Hofstede's five demensions individualism versus collectivism, high power distance versus low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance versus low uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity, long-term orientation versus short-term orientation.| 3. (a) How should Walmart's North American business management strategies change when entering a collectivist culture such as China? Cite your sources. (b) What can Walmart learn from corporations/ventures that have been successful (or unsuccessful) in China? Cite your sources. 4. Discover three things about doing business in Germany and/or German consumer behaviour that this case did not include that you should be aware of. Cite your sources