ENTR500 Project: Jack Ma and the Alibaba Group Case Study

This project delves into the entrepreneurial journey of Jack Ma and the Alibaba Group, exploring key themes such as motivation, effectuation, and technology's impact. The project analyzes Jack Ma's vision, the role of his wife, and the company's strategies to overcome barriers and achieve global market leadership. It examines the application of effectuation principles, including Bird in Hand, Affordable Loss, Lemonade, Patchwork Quilt, and Pilot-in-the-Plane, to understand Alibaba's growth. The report includes a detailed profile of Alibaba, its market presence, and Jack Ma's background, along with an analysis of the company's current challenges, future plans, and the secrets behind its success, offering valuable insights into entrepreneurial practices and market dynamics. The report also highlights the importance of innovation, adaptability, and strategic decision-making in the context of a rapidly evolving technological landscape and competitive global market.

PROJECT 1

TABLE OF CONTENT
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
PART B............................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

PART A
An entrepreneur is a person who wants to start their own business in market and take a lot
of risks in market so that they can become successful. There are a lot of innovations and
inventions which are included in this process. The entrepreneur which is discussed in the report
is Jack Ma and his organization, Alibaba Group (Lin, 2017).
Motivation is one of the key themes that impact the work that is to be done by the
entrepreneur. For Jack Ma, in all the up's and down's of life the wife has stood by him and
believed in him because she has always believed in the ideas he had. Through, this constant
motivation, he has been capable of capturing the market and that is why the wife is believed to
be the support system of her husband throughout. With the help of this belief and the creative
ideas that Jack Ma had, he was able to effectively reduce the barriers for the company’s success
and eventually, Alibaba made a place for themselves in the market at a global level indicating
their leadership. Wife of Jack Ma helped him set up the first company which he come up with by
investing USD 20,000 and even worked as a manager but later left to be a house maker.
Technology use is increasing in the world which is giving a great advantage to Alibaba group to
expand themselves in market and that is why the company has been able to grow this much so
quickly even after the amount of competition in market. There is a huge scope for Alibaba
themselves to get a better place for themselves in market which is why they have to be all the
more careful while making their decisions for competing in the market. There was a clear vision
in the mind of Jack Ma which made the organization to take steps accordingly so that the
organization can have a better functioning and the organization made a place for themselves
faster (Glowik, 2017). The future was transparent in front of the investors of the company which
is making the company have a great advantage to themselves.
In order to further understand the concept of entrepreneurial ideas and the different
phases that the entrepreneur face can be properly categorised into the concept of effectuation and
various themes associated with it. The concept of effectuation in context of entrepreneurs was
initially developed by Dr. Saras Sarasvathy. Effectuation can be defined as a unique process
where the entrepreneurs develop a logical thinking on the basis of their expert ideas and then
ultimately develop a base for successful venture. There are five basic principles of effectuation
that can be discussed in order to identify areas of application are as follows:
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Bird in Hand: This principle forces entrepreneurs to correctly analyse themselves before they
decide to set up a venture. When an entrepreneur acknowledges themselves in a serious manner,
they will be able to ascertain the different possibilities and aspects that they can consider in order
to analyse the risk taking mechanisms as well. For Jack Ma, it can be said that despite getting
rejected by 30 companies, he was confident on himself and knew that the ideas and risk taking
capabilities that he had could help him in succeeding really well and his ideas could reward
himself in an extensive manner.
Affordable Loss: This aspect or principle basically forces the entrepreneur to ascertain the
downside of the risk that could arise while entering into any new venture and the capability of
the entrepreneur to face the risks (Steiber, 2018). This task forces the entrepreneur to develop
goals and objectives on the basis of risk taking capabilities so that possibilities of incurring and
adapting with the probable chance of losses can be taken into consideration. Jack Ma, despite
acknowledging the risk of the proposed idea due to lack of widespread acceptability of the
Internet, he was still persistent and prevalent on his ideas of the new venture i.e. Alibaba that he
was planning thus showing that the risk taking capabilities of Jack Ma were higher.
Lemonade: This aspect details the uncertainty acceptance level of the entrepreneur i.e. how does
an entrepreneur deals with the unexpected situations that might rise at any given time during the
operation of the business. It can be evidently said for Jack Ma that he always seeks the hidden
opportunity in the challenges that arise in the different scenarios that arise while conducting
business operations. The competition in the world has increased which is a great challenge for
the company which is why there are new ideas and innovations which are taking place in the
company and Jack ma has always been the key innovator or developer and implementer of such
ideas.
Patchwork Quilt: Under this stage, the entrepreneurs are motivated to select the stakeholders of
the company as quickly as possible (Xiao, 2019). The entrepreneur should try to gain as many
pre- commitments for the proposed business venture so that the risk factor can substantially
decline. When the entrepreneur acknowledges and is aware of the interested parties in the
business, they are able to develop more profound decisions for their proposed partnerships. In
case of Jack Ma, initially, the major challenge was to generate funders for the proposed business
idea and after the initial investment in development of a website for the company, Jack Ma was
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able to gain as many investors as he required because of the unique and promising concept that
he brought along with the concept of Alibaba.
Pilot- in- the Plane: This aspect states that an entrepreneur is always aware of the result of his
actions i.e. the consequences are not unpredicted or uncertain. Rather, these consequences are
made by the deliberate choices of the individuals. In case of Jack Ma, even though there was no
prevalence of the internet, he was sure that the concept and idea behind setting up Alibaba will
succeed. Due to this belief, he was able to gain investors for his company easily who were as
confident about the company as Jack Ma himself.
INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP RECORDS
Company: Alibaba Group Entrepreneur: Jack Ma Researcher:
Location: China
Website: www.alibaba.com
Profile of firm
RE
F.
DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
1.1 Company age Alibaba group is 20 years old, Started in 1999 on 4th April.
1.2 Size (no. of employees/sales turnover) There are 101,958 employees in the company (#1 Jack Ma,
2020).
1.3 Industry sector
Main offerings (try and get on-line
brochures, materials etc)
Alibaba group is a public limited company which is a
technology company in China.
1.4 Main Markets
Domestic/International
B2B B2C
There are 150 countries which are being covered by Alibaba.
It is a multinational company in China and the company has
a lot of scope in market which will make the company have
more profits in a short term.
1.5 If international, no. of markets
Percentage of sales as exports
The company has expanded itself in more than 150 countries
and has plans to complete with Amazon and make a better
place for themselves in market.
Demographic profile of Entrepreneur
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REF
.
DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
2.1 Age, gender, education, marital status, etc Jack Ma is 55 years old who is graduated from Hangzhou
Normal University. Jack Ma is married to Zhang Ying and has
3 children.
2.2 Prior work experience/s
Worked for/owned another business?
Jack Ma has to prior experience in market. He was rejected
from 30 different companies but he made a company of his
own and named that Hangzhou Haibo Translation Agency.
From there Alibaba group took off so that they could have a
better functioning in market.
2.3 Personal interests, specialist training, etc. There was no training and interest in the field Jack Ma
entered because there was no internet but he was interested
in learning new things and had to make a place for himself in
market therefore he invested in this idea he made for himself
(Steiber, 2018).
2.
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Other relevant/interesting information Learning new ideas and innovating and introducing Devices in
China so that the country could develop and know more about
the world.
Motivation to start business
RE
F.
DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
3.1 What factor/s motivated entrepreneur to
start up
Internet attracted Jack Ma in a lot which makes Jack Ma have a
better functioning on him in market. He did not feel
demotivated and he kept trying to get a place for himself in
market. Motivation for Jack Ma was to entire the market and
make a place which has a deep place for themselves.
3.2 What levels of support did he/she gets from:
Family & friends
Spouse/partner
Government agencies
Financial institutions (banks etc.)
Jack Ma did not actual need support because he was
determined to achieve what he had thought for himself. He
did all this so that he could show those who had rejected him,
he was rejected from 30 jobs
3.3 What start-up barriers did they face?
(eg lack of finance/management expertise,
etc
Financing for starting the new company was a task for Jack
Ma which is why he had to find investors for himself and had
to make his wife invest in this new idea.
3.4 How did they overcome these barriers? They had a full trust and believe on the company and
industry therefore coming out of the barriers was not a big
task for them. Within few hours of the first website Jack Ma
and his friend opened there were calls from people to know
about him and finding investors was not difficult anymore for
Jack Ma.
3.5 What challenges do they currently face? The company will have to get more ideas so that there is a
better functioning for themselves. Technology is the best thing
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RE
F.
DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
that Jack Ma has invested in because there is a huge scope for
the company because the world is shifting to digitization and
that will make the company have a great profit.
Future Plans
RE
F.
DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
4.1 How has business changed/grown Alibaba was the first online commerce in China therefore the
interest level of people in country increased and within few
years the company became big (Xiao, 2019
4.2 What future plans do they have for the
business
Expand/maintain/divest
Alibaba has an aim to serve 1 billion customers by the end of
2024. The company is increase the gross transactions on the
platform by next five years
4.3 What future ambitions do they have for
themselves
Alibaba wants to go what Amazon is not been able to do which
is making an international e-commerce market place for
themselves. There are going to be more brands which are
going to provide luxury to the customers so that there is a
satisfaction and the company will be able to get more
customers in the company.
4.4 What do they consider to be the secret/s of
their success The secrets to Jack Ma's and the companies secret is that
they did not give up on dreams which is a very important
factor for the company. Jack Ma hired more experienced and
superior people to him so that the organization can function
in market and the capture on the market would be better.
4.5 What advice would they give other potential
entrepreneurs Jack Ma is not that person who would not share his experience
with others therefore he motivates the others in the world to
start something new so that the lifestyle of the people can get
better. Everyone is equal and treating everyone right and
considering everyone's opinion so that the right decision can
be taken for organization which is very important for any
entrepreneur to grow. It is very important to act quickly in
market because if the organization would not then the
competitive company will act on it which will give the other
company a competitive advantage.
PART B
The theme which is discussed in the report is technology entrepreneur because Alibaba is
all about the technological changes which are happening in the world. The scope of technology is
huge in the world because the society is shifting to technology very quickly and are getting
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dependent on that device. It can be a great advantage for Jack Ma and his company to have a
stable platform for themselves in market and the company will be able to compete with the
strong companies in market (de Souza and Senhoras, 2018). China had to internet access and
Jack Ma introduced that in the market of China. British Tech local entrepreneur of technology
industry in United Kingdom has confirmed that Alibaba has a great potential in the market if
they come up with better ideas and innovative ideas for the better capture of market which is a
very important factor for the company. Alibaba is one of those companies in market which can
compete with amazon and they are aiming to that as well. There are a lot of ideas which are
being considered by Alibaba and the belief of Jack Ma that nothing is impossible has made him
have a better functioning for themselves. Which is a very important factor for the company and
will make the company compete with the biggest company in world of technology industry. The
experience with Alibaba is not present as much as the other companies in the world but this
company has picked up a market for themselves very quickly. Which is why the company is
capable of expanding themselves in the entire world which is going to add a strong portfolio for
the company.
Alibaba is having a great scope for themselves in the market because there are a lot of
people in China who support Alibaba the most in country and due to the population in country
Alibaba has a high scope for growing worldwide (di Paul Marinescu and Miulescu, 2019). There
are a lot of innovations and addition which are taking place in the company which will help
company to get more customers in the company. Customers are getting luxury in the future by
using Alibaba which is a great idea which the company has come up with so that the company
can have a stronger customer base for themselves. The competition in this industry is growing
slowly but those companies who have a lot of experience in this field will know how to deal with
the competition in the future which Alibaba will have to learn (Dampitakse, 2019). Jack Ma is
still a person who loves to learn new factors about his company and the other companies in
market so that they can put more ideas and create something unique which will be very
beneficial for the company. International entrepreneur for Alibaba are going to be a risk factor
for the company for which the organization will have to take strict measures for so that they can
have a better functioning for themselves.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dampitakse, K., 2019. BOOK REVIEW: JACK MA, THE ONE WHO NEVER GIVES
UP. RMUTT Global Business Accounting and Finance Review, 2(2).
de Souza, M.F.P. and Senhoras, E.M., 2018. The internationalization of e-commerce: a case
study of the Alibaba group (Vol. 31). EdUFRR.
di Paul Marinescu, S.G.T. and Miulescu, G.F., 2019. Social media. Leadership.
Glowik, M., 2017. Case study: Starbucks: You may think it is franchising only but it is not.
In Global Strategy in the Service Industries (pp. 156-164). Routledge.
Lin, G., 2017. E-COMMERCE COOPERATION BETWEEN CHINA AND TWO OF ASEAN
COUNTRIES INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA: STUDY ON ALIBABA GROUP 2011~
2016(Doctoral dissertation, President University).
Steiber, A., 2018. China’s Entrepreneurial Companies—And What We Can Learn from Them.
In Management in the Digital Age (pp. 67-92). Springer, Cham.
Xiao, K., 2019. Becoming global billionaires from mainland china: Theory and
evidence. Available at SSRN 3465011.
Online
#1 Jack Ma. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-ma/#71b409cd1ee4>.
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