Strategic Management 7 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-GAMESTOP CORPORATION

American corporation Gamestop corporation has its corporate headquarters in Grapevine, Texas. In addition to selling consumer devices like cellphones, the business also sells video games. Additionally, the business has entered the market for pop culture memorabilia following the acquisition of ThinkGeek. Thus, the corporation has a number of subsidiaries including Micromania and EB Games that strengthen its current hold on the video game and entertainment industries. The company's vision statement reads, "Together, we hold a passion for gaming, a commitment to our industry, and a disciplined business perspective to continuously drive value with shareholders, vendors, customers, and employees." The company's mission statement is a forceful "Power to the players" declaration.

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT- GAMESTOP CORPORATION
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Findings...........................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis................................................................................................................................4
P.E.S.T analysis...............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Gamestop corp is an American company headquartered in Grapevine, Texas. The
company sells video games as well as consumer electronics such as smartphones. Additionally,
after the acquisition of ThinkGeek, the company has also ventured into the market of pop culture
collectibles. The company, thus, has several subsidiaries such as Micromania and EB Games that
enhance the company’s present grip within the video game and entertainment industry. The
company’s mission statement is a robust “Power to the players” declaration while the vision
statement is “Together, we hold a passion for gaming, a commitment to our industry and a
disciplined business perspective to continuously drive value with shareholders, vendors,
customers and employees.”
In order to facilitate the aforementioned strategic action, extensive research has been
conducted in order to establish the current state of the digital gaming and entertainment market.
Primary research sources include interviews on consumers; especially recurrent customers of
GameStop Corp. products. Additionally, secondary research sources employed for this task
include the GameStop website as well as annual financial reports obtained from the internet.
Findings
Most of the consumers interviewed describe GameStop products as ‘top notch’ especially
regarding to quality. Services such as the reselling service and holiday deals have also been
termed convenient for most customers. Analysis of the company’s annual report reveals that the
company not only has enough capital to sustain and expand the company but also that the
company, through a number of subsidiaries, has significant stake in a number of markets such as
the video games market, mobile phones market as well as pop culture collectibles market among

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several others. Below is a table highlighting the income and profit margins for the company.
As such, with prudent management, the company is set to proceed to the next level of operation
through expansion (Hubner, 2016). In order to effectively accomplish this, however, it is
important to conduct analysis of the business environment of GameStop Corp. by use of a
SWOT and PEST analysis.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
GameStop corp displays a high level of dominance in the industry within which it
operates. The company has over seven thousand stores scattered between fourteen nations
globally thus impacting a greater consumer base. The company also affords the company enough
resources to produce high quality games and other products that give credence to the company in
the target market. By being located in multiple regions such as Australia, United States and
Europe, the company has access to diverse knowledge and ideas from people of different
locations, ergo, cultures and practices (Triguero-Sanchez, Pena-Vinces & Guillen, 2018). By
incorporating all this resource within their products, GameStop Corp has been able to deliver
globally acceptable product standards. The company has also been in the industry for a
substantial time period which has afforded them the chance to grow and build their brand to a
strong and recognizable brand with a respectable reputation.
Weaknesses

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The present organizational structure only works for the present business model and thus,
altering the structure would require drastic changes in the business model of GameStop corp.
additionally, the marketing strategies for the company over the last few years have left a lot to be
desired as the performance of certain products distributed by the company within the market
indicate. While the sales of the said products indicate consistent relative success, gaps exist as
regards to brand positioning and propositions of unique sales. In the gaming and entertainment
industry, these gaps provide an opportunity for competitors. Additionally, predicting the demand
of certain products has proved an elusive task for the company in previous years which has led to
inventory management hiccoughs in the past.
Opportunities
Consumer spending has been on the rise since the recession and technological advances
are galvanizing desire among customers to possess the latest trend as regards technology. By
‘riding this wave’, GameStop could benefit greatly from enhanced marketing of their products as
well as improving customer satisfaction in order to retain optimal sales every quarter.
Additionally, with reducing data costs by the day, utilizing internet resources such as periodic
updates and subscription-based consumer relations, the company stands to benefit greatly in the
coming years. Various adjustments on government-controlled rates such as taxation and transport
costs are sure to afford GameStop an opportunity to adjust various features of their commodities,
including prices, which enhances their relationship with consumers of their products.
Threats
Laws. Competitors often find loopholes that could be used to derail a company with
numerous lawsuits and this could happen to GameStop. It thus becomes important to adhere to
all relevant guidelines of the law. Additionally, the gaming and entertainment industry has
constantly proved to be profitable, thus attracting other players that add to the bulk of
competition that GameStop already has to contend with.
P.E.S.T analysis
Political factors
The political state of a region greatly influences the progression of business activities
within the region. Some of the political factors that influence GameStop Corp’s business include

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the tax policies of the different nations within which they operate. Taxation has direct impact on
GameStop as it affects the profit margin of products. Additional political factors include policies
by various commercial authorities such as the North American Free Trade Alliance which
dictates business activities in North American countries as well as the European Union. These
authorities define trade standards on matters such as international trade relations etc.
Economic factors
The economic state of a region affects the business activities conducted within the region.
High employment rates in most of the countries where GameStop operates means that most
consumers in these countries have the capacity to continuously buy GameStop products
(Brandolini & Viviano, 2016). In nations with well-established infrastructure, business becomes
easy to conduct for GameStop as transportation is streamlined thus reducing transport costs
(Palei, 2015). Additionally, GameStop operates in countries that have low inflation rates and
high level of access by consumers to credit. All these factors help to ensure a stable market for
GameStop products.
Social factors
Key social factor that affect the business activities of GameStop Corp. include the high
level of education of most customers of GameStop corp which affords the company a substantial
customer base. Emphasis on education over the last few decades has led to more markets
opening up even in regions such as Africa (Hajli, 2015). Changes in lifestyle trends also affect
the business of the company. With increased obesity cases, people are now being advised to
spend more time outdoors which may in turn lead to a decline of sales of digital games and
gaming hardware by GameStop corp (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2017).
Technological factors
This is one of the biggest drivers of this company as technology encompasses all the
products and services of the company. Therefore, all new innovation and inventions are
opportunities for the company to further enhance their business practices in alignment with the
new innovative environment (Straub, 2009). The new technology is not only incorporated within
the products but also utilized within the company’s internal context to streamline various
communicative and technical processes (Weaver, et al., 2017).

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Conclusion
GameStop Corp is a multinational video game and entertainment company. Their primary
products include video game hardware and associated software, pop culture collectibles as well
as consumer devices such as phones. The company has had a long established market that it has
since enjoyed and seeks to grow. Analysis of the internal and external environment of the
company help determine the next course of action as identified by the analyses above.
Recommendations
As the company already has enough capital for expansion, emphasis needs to be placed
upon revising the present organizational structure in order to conform it not only to industry
standards but also the next level of operation that the company intends to venture into.
Additionally, during the transition, it is necessary to keep track of all relevant legislative
processes in order to keep the company’s practices in accordance with the law and avoid
opportunistic lawsuits by competitors.

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References
Brandolini, A. and Viviano, E. (2016) Behind and beyond the (head count) employment
rate. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society). 179(3),
pp.657-681.
Hajli, N. (2015) Social commerce constructs and consumer's intention to buy. International
Journal of Information Management. 35(2), pp.183-191.
Hubner, G. (2016) Investment Thesis for GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME). Retrieved from
http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/44580
Palei, T. (2015) Assessing the impact of infrastructure on economic growth and global
competitiveness. Procedia Economics and Finance. 23, pp.168-175.
Schaltegger, S. and Wagner, M. (2017) Managing the business case for sustainability: The
integration of social, environmental and economic performance. 1st ed. London:
Routledge.
Straub, E.T. (2009) Understanding technology adoption: Theory and future directions for
informal learning. Review of educational research. 79(2), pp.625-649.
Triguero-Sánchez, R., Peña-Vinces, J. and Guillen, J. (2018) How to improve firm performance
through employee diversity and organisational culture. Revista Brasileira de Gestão de
Negócios. 20(3), pp. 217-244.
Weaver, P., Jansen, L., Van Grootveld, G., Van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P. (2017) Sustainable
technology development. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

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Appendix
Interview transcript.
Interviewer: welcome everyone. First question; what is your opinion of EB games’ products?
Customer 1: I enjoyed every single gaming device I bought from the company.
Customer 2: yeah. And they always have these great deals around holiday season that makes it
easy to get gifts for our kids.
Customer 3: they could do better with delivering on time, but they are okay with everything else.