Globalization Impact: International Business Mid-Term Assignment

This assignment analyzes the impact of globalization on the international business of Walmart. It examines the significant changes brought about by globalization, the company's global objectives, and the influence on the local scene (United States) and the company of employment. The assignment delves into Walmart's company culture, including nationality, language, value system, social stratification, work motivation, and cultural adjustment practices. It identifies political risks, the legal environment, and the degree of freedom in which Walmart operates. Furthermore, the assignment assesses the economic environment, including macroeconomic factors, trade deficits, and the economic freedom index. Finally, the assignment also includes multiple-choice questions related to international business concepts.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
International Business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Course ID

1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Table of Contents
Part one............................................................................................................................................2
Part two............................................................................................................................................4
Question 1....................................................................................................................................4
Question 2....................................................................................................................................4
Question 3....................................................................................................................................4
Question 4....................................................................................................................................5
Question 5....................................................................................................................................5
Question 6....................................................................................................................................5
Question 7....................................................................................................................................5
Question 8....................................................................................................................................5
Question 9....................................................................................................................................5
Question 10..................................................................................................................................5
Question 11..................................................................................................................................5
Question 12..................................................................................................................................5
Question 13..................................................................................................................................6
Question 14..................................................................................................................................6
Question 15..................................................................................................................................6
Question 16..................................................................................................................................6
Question 17..................................................................................................................................6
Question 18..................................................................................................................................6
Question 19..................................................................................................................................6
Question 20..................................................................................................................................6

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Part one
Introduction
The integration and interaction among organizations, people, governments and businesses
on international platform, is known as globalization. Here, globalization influences the business
of Walmart, a multinational retail chain of United States (Walmart.com 2020).
Body
There are various merits and demerits of globalization. On one hand, it helps to expand
business and economy by spreading its international exposure. On the other hand, it scales up the
competition and risks of losing market share. Here, the local scene is the United States (Usa.gov
2020). The company of employment is Walmart. Thus, impact on the United States and Walmart
due to globalization influences the employees. Globalization also brought various changes in the
cultural and organizational structure of the company. As a result, Walmart was able to achieve its
global objectives. It expanded its business in several countries of the world.
The company focused its business on E-business because of growing demand in the
segment. The target customer base of the company was growing middle class worldwide due to
globalization of its business (Pieterse 2019). The strong penetration strategies adopted by the
company helped in beating the harsh competition. It possessed largest private satellite system of
the world. These features supported the organization to accomplish its global objective. The
organization also suffered due to poor public image in terms of employee relation.
Walmart is founded by Sam Walton in the United States. As it is based in United States,
American standard language is used (Gupta 2018). The strong cultural features helped in
controlling the international challenges. It also motivates the employees to achieve excellence. It

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also boosts the risk-taking behaviour of the organization. However, the employees and customers
were not satisfied with the corporate culture of the company. The reason of dissatisfaction was
statement of ethics, which restricted the relationship between the employees. It took some
cultural adjustment practices to solve the issues. The culture of the organization interacts with
the structure of the organization to maintain the social stratification. The strong value system of
the company added competitive advantages and continual growth. The hierarchical functional
organizational structure of the Walmart helps in task and information processing.
The political environment of the United States is characterised by strong democratic set
up. There exists some political risks in the country as it went through some social tension and
internal disagreements (Salomon 2016). The legal environment of the country is highly
regulated. Thus, Walmart need to follow all standards, regulations and guidelines of the US. The
internal and external environment impacts the growth of the business of Walmart. Though, there
exists high regulation in the US economy, robust economic growth and international influence
provides the freedom to the organization to expand business. The management system of the
organization need to improve in order to solve the problem of recent sluggish sales. It would help
the company to reconnect with its employees and customers.
The economic environment such as microeconomic and macroeconomic factors affects
the growth of the business. The GDP growth rate of the country was 2.1% in the fourth quarter of
2019. As of December 2019, the unemployment rate stood at 3.5% in US. Moreover, the country
registered inflation rate of 1.6% on December 2019 (Usa.gov 2020). The economy has a trade
deficit, which is also significant factors to influence the business f the Walmart. The economic
freedom index of US was 75.7 as of 2018. The country operates in free market economy in
business services and consumer goods.

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Walmart Inc. operates a chain of grocery stores, hypermarkets and discount department
stores. The products offered by the company include home and furniture, clothing, electronics,
music and movies and grocery (Stiglitz 2017). The services offered by the company include
Walmart Pay, Financial services, Pickup Today and Walmart Money card. The organization
mainly spread its business in countries such as Brazil, Japan, Mexico, China and Canada.
Globalization helped the organization as many of its generic products are imported from the
India. The amount of imports is more than its amount of exports. Trade restriction like tariffs acts
as hinder for the higher revenue generation of the company. The company enjoys competitive
advantage over its competitors such as Trader Joe, Whole Food and Kroger due to wider pricing
structure of the company. The net sales share of Walmart in grocery units was 55% as of 2019.
Conclusion
Globalization impacted the business of the organization in positive and negative ways. As
a result, there were various changes in the structure of the company that influenced the
employees of the organization.

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Part two
Question 1
B) Its main competitor successfully opened a foreign plant.
Question 2
A) Gain reciprocal advantage
Question 3
D) how global interests can conflict with a country's local interests
Question 4
B) Fiat competes mainly on a mass-market strategy, whereas Ferrari competes mainly on a focus
strategy
Question 5
D) Being a leader in one country does not guarantee market leadership in another country.
Question 6
B) Cultural diversity is most successful when domestic and foreign firms establish joint ventures.
Question 7
C) English is the official national language in most countries where FDI is encouraged.
Question 8
D) cultural hybridization is occurring
Question 9
D) good health benefits

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Question 10
A) self-determination
Question 11
D) cultural imperialism
Question 12
C) civil
Question 13
A) wealthier, westernized countries
Question 14
D) Many products are usually in short supply.
Question 15
B) normativism
Question 16
A) capital, technology and people
Question 17
A) the United States should export potatoes to Canada and import coal from Canada
Question 18
D) a strategic
Question 19
A) the United States should export potatoes to Canada and import coal from Canada

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Question 20
C) Why do specialized competitive advantages differ among countries?

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References
Gupta, A.K., 2018. Walmart: a roadmap for globalisation. The Business & Management
Collection.
Pieterse, J.N., 2019. Globalization and culture: Global mélange. Rowman & Littlefield.
Salomon, R., 2016. Globalization: A cautionary tale. In Global Vision (pp. 1-16). Palgrave
Macmillan, New York.
Stiglitz, J.E., 2017. The overselling of globalization. Business Economics, 52(3), pp.129-137.
Usa.gov 2020. Official Guide to Government Information and Services | USAGov. [online]
Available at: https://www.usa.gov/.
Walmart.com 2020. Walmart.com | Save Money. Live Better.. [online] Available at:
https://www.walmart.com/.